Keywords, Child Psychology

Attachment- a close two way emotional bond between two people

Critical period- a time during development where an event must happen in order for the child or animal to develop normally

Sensitive Period- an age in which a child is sensitive to developing a pattern of behaviour if particular conditions occur

Deprivation- seperation from an attachment figure

Privation- the failure to form a normal attachment

Daycare-  non-parental care usually provided by nurseries and child minders

Evolution: the process where species change over generations

Innate- a born tendency to behave in a particular way

Seperation anxiety- anxiety at being apart from an attachment figure

Stranger anxiety- anxiety in the presence of strangers

Reunion behaviour- the way the childs acts on being reunited with it's caregiver

Secure base behaviour or Safe haven-  regularly returning to an attachment figure when exploring

Proximity seeking- staying close to an attachment figure

Sensitive responsiveness- ability of the adult carer to pick up and respond to non-verbal signals from the baby

Type A: Avoident  children do not seek proximity and display no secure base behaviour to their caregiver. Show no distress when she leaves or make contact when she returns

Type B: Secure : children play independently but seek proximity and show secure base behaviour. Moderate seperation distress and stranger anxiety. Require comfort on reunion with caregiver.

Type C: Resistant : explore less and intenesley seek proximity. Very distressed when left alone and with a stranger but resist comfort when reunited with caregiver.

Type D: Disorganised- child displays all different aspects of attachment behaviour

Monotrophy- the tendency to direct infant attachment behaviours towards a single main attachment figure

Social releasers- innate behaviours designed to gain attention from adults

Internal working model- a mental reperesentation of the first relationship. This acts as a prototype for future relationships

Interactional sychrony- the synching of adult and baby actions so that they take turns and imitate each others movements

Maternal deprivation hypothesis- the idea that if the mother-child bond is broken early in life, social, emotional and intellectual development could be affected.

Imprinting- how a newborn follows the first object it sees

Culture- the set of behaviours and beliefs that characterises a group of people

Cross-cultural study- a study that compares a psychological variable like attachment in people from two or more cultures

Culture bound- a criticism of a theory or procedure based on the idea that it only works well in certain cultures

Meta-analysis- a statistical technique which results of several studies are combined and analysed together