Core Self And Reflective Self

According to Winnicott, there are three stages in infant development. In stage one, undifferentiated unity, the child must feel connected to the mother. The mother fulfils this need through feeding, bathing and holding the child. In doing so, the child feels all powerful, and incomplete control of the mother. Their every need is met, and they want for nothing. However, Winnicott warns that if a mother fails to respond adequately to the child’s needs, this will hinder the development of healthy future relationships, including the relationship with one self.

A child’s mother who provides consistent responsive care and nurturing is most often the first adult whom a child becomes attached to. This adult may also include the child’s father, grandparents, siblings or others who have regular contact with the child (Kostelnik et al. 2015, p.30). The relationship established between the child and their primary caregiver is one of the child's very first child-adult relationships. This relationship provides the child with a safe and secure context for their learning and development. Children need consistent, secure emotional relationships with their primary caregivers and other adults to feel safe, protected, and nurtured, as they grow and develop. When establishing a positive adult-child relationship caregivers must keep five essential elements in mind: warmth, acceptance, genuineness, empathy and respect (Kostelnik et al. 2015, p.28). It is through these and other practices, that adults are able to aid children in developing positive social relationships. By forming such early relationships and strong connections with others, children build a sense of self-competence in knowing where they fit into the

An infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver.

 Based on an article written by the “Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent” Care draws your attention to the fact that during the first

The formation of secure attachments with the primary caregiver is thought to be of great significance by John Bowlby, who believed that the infant was completely reliant on the caregiver to care and provide for them (as cited in Psychology, Martin, Carlson & Buskist). Those children with sensitive caregivers would grow up to be more confident and developed in all aspects of life, for example forming relationships in later life. Those with unresponsive caregivers would see the world as unpredictable and unreliable. Nelson (1996) claimed that the bond between the primary caregiver and child is extremely important in how an infant sees the world around them (as cited in Attachment from infancy to childhood). Yet, attachments, in this case insecure ones, are not the only reason as to why we develop into the individuals we are. There are other causes that are unrelated to attachment that explain our later development.

Much emphasis has been placed in the field of child development and the role that early providers possess when it comes to the needs of children at the early stages of life. Whether conceptualizing socialization and priming with Locke’s “tabula rosa/blank slate” or Rousseau’s “preassembled moral schema” approach to child development, this “window of opportunity” is both fleeting and permanent. Every interaction molds the individual into the person they are to become, and the bond that the dependent child forms with the caregiver is a precedent to the numerous relationships and attachments they will create as an adult. Granted that the provider/nurturer fulfills the needs of attachment and attentiveness for the offspring, this will determine the success of progressing through child developmental stages, and leads to a higher propensity of social adaptiveness. Inversely, if the aforementioned things are absent in a child’s early years, detrimental effects could occur, including stints in physical, social, and mental development. This is dependent upon the severity and duration of neglect, and has been seen in clinical cases that appears as psychological phenomena to both the general public, and researchers alike.

Young Infants attach themselves to a primary caregiver who is sensitive and attentive within the bond that occurs early on and allows the child to experience the nature of love, security, nourishment, stimulation and comfort. However if this attachment

Bowlby states that affectionate bonding between caregivers and infants is crucial for a health development (1973). Based on the attachment patterns they had at early childhood with primary caregivers, children develop internal working models about self and about others. These internal working models which they form help them interpret and predict experiences in adult relationships.

As human beings, we are fundamentally alone. We come into this world alone and eventually we must die alone, yet, paradoxically, throughout our lives we are inextricably linked to others (O’Donohue & Cucciare, 2010). From birth human infants have a significant period of immaturity and remain dependant on caregivers for a number of years (Dozier & Rutter, 2008). The nature of the early caregiver-infant relationship and the impact this has on later development has been studied over the past century (Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). More specifically, the emotional bond between adult caregiver and child is thought to be vital in laying the foundation on which the child understands themself and the world around them (Speiker, Oxford, Kelly,

Research suggests that infant’s brain continues to develop long after birth and infant’s first relationships have long-lasting effects on their later learning and development. John Bowlby’s attachment theory focuses on the idea that the bond between a child and mother, is an important part of children’s healthy emotional development in their childhood and later in life. A key point of Bowlby’s theory shows that infants go through stages when forming relationships with caregivers. Bowlby suggests that infants that are six weeks to six- eight months old, start to respond differently to caregivers they know, then to strangers. They then start to show signs of attachment to a familiar caregiver from this age (Berk, 2013, p. 429).

According to Groh, the central necessity for an infant is an emotional bonding process called attachment. The Attachment Theory suggests that “infants develop expectations regarding the availability and responsiveness of their primary caregiver,” (Groh, 2014) based on the past experiences the child has had with said caregiver. This is crucial because it becomes the core model of relationships in the child’s life (Groh, 2014). This means that as the child grows, they will base other relationships off this primary one which can lead to two different types of attachment depending on how well the mother or caregiver responds. The ability of the caregiver to respond well is dependent on a few factors including their own mental health.

Reflective function has been defined more simply to refer to an individual’s capacity to understand both their own and other’s behaviour in terms of underlying mental states and intentions and engage and make meaning with these without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. It is seen as a crucial human skill that is a fundamental part of affect regulation and successful social relationships (Fonagy et al., 2002; Slade, 2005). Parental Reflective Functioning refers to the capacity of a mother or caregiver to “hold” complex mental states. It opens her to being able to keep her child’s internal affective experience in mind (separating it from her own). This in turn allows her to make sense of her child’s behaviour in terms of mental states such as feelings and intentions. Her child then experiences its mother being able to hold or reflect its affective experience and then represent it in an organised or regulated (or to use Bowlby’s terms contained) manner, giving meaning to the affective experience. Grienenberger, Kelly, and Slade (2002) assert that ‘A core element of maternal reflective functioning involves the mother’s capacity to step back from her own affective experience in order to reflect upon her child’s uniquely subjective intentions during moments of stress or conflict (p. 301). Fonagy et al. (2002) go on to suggest that it is this experience that sets the stage

It has been shown that the relationships infants develop early on in life have lasting effects on their identity and behavior. Extensive research has indicated that the relationship between an infant and its caregivers is particularly important.

Caregivers play a primary role in how a child may develop. The daily interaction between the caregiver and child continually changes the pathway in which the child may take. How the child is raised and the parenting style used is a significant influence on that development by affecting the relationship between parent and child. This supports the Attachment theory in which emphasizes relationship between the child and caregiver as a key factor in development.