DVP - Social Development in Childhood: Parenting Lesson

Learning Target:

  • Explain how parenting styles influence development. 

AP psychology course and exam description, effective fall 2020. (n.d.). https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-psychology-course-and-exam-description.pdf

Parenting

Word cloud with words associated with comfort, appreciation, and connection.

Mary Ainsworth: The Strange Situation

In 1979, psychologist Mary Ainsworth conducted a study called The Strange Situation in which she labeled the several types of attachments infants form with their caregivers. She was interested in why children around the age of one developed stranger or separation anxiety (Stanger anxiety is the distress young children feel when they are separated from their parents or are around unfamiliar faces.).  In the study, she placed young children (1-2 years old) in an unfamiliar room with a mom and a stranger. After twenty minutes mom leaves and the child is left alone with the stranger. Mom then returns and Ainsworth measured the child's reactions when mom left, with the stranger while mom was gone, and how they reacted upon her return. From this study, she concluded that there were three main types of attachment.

Read more about each below.

INSECURE/AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT (Type A) Separation Anxiety: Not distressed or upset when mom leaves. Stranger Anxiety: Will interact and play with stranger whether or not mom is present. Behavior when reunited with the mother: Indifferent to mom's return. SECURE ATTACHMENT (Type B) Separation Anxiety: Upset and shows signs of distress when mother leaves the room. Stranger Anxiety: Avoidant of the stranger while mom is gone, but will interact with them while she is there. Behavior when reunited with the mother: Happy and elated upon mom's return. AMBIVALENT RESISTANT ATTACHMENT (Type C) Separation Anxiety: Upset and greatly distressed when mom leaves. Stranger Anxiety: Will not interact with and seems afraid of the stranger. Behavior when reunited with the mother: Upset with mom for leaving and may even push her away when she returns and tries to interact.

 

Diana Baumrind: Parenting Styles

Yet another developmental psychologist named Diana Baumrind conducted a longitudinal study with children during toddlerhood, around ages 8-9, and then again in their teens, and produced three different parenting styles. How we seek independence and the ease with which we resolve conflict depends on the parenting style in which we were raised.

Pay close attention to each parenting style as you will be completing a journal assignment based on this information.

Before moving on to the next section take a moment to review what you have learned so far by matching developmental theories to the characteristics of their theories.

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