Paul Lütkenhaus

Infant–mother attachment at twelve months and style of interaction with a stranger at the age of three years.

LOTKENHAUS, PAUL; GROSSMANN, KLAUS E.; and GROSSMANN, KARIN. Infant-Mother Attachment at Twelve Months and Style of Interaction with a Stranger at the Age of Three Years. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1538-1542. This study explores the relation between the quality of infant-mother attachment at 12 months and the childs style of interaction with an unfamiliar visitor at age 3 years. Quality of infant-mother attachment was assessed in Ainsworths Strange Situation. At age 3 years, the children were visited in their homes and a competitive game interaction between child and visitor was videotaped. Children classified as securely attached at 12 months interacted faster and more smoothly with the visitor than children who had been avoidantly attached. Microanalyses of the competitive game also revealed different styles of interaction. Failure feedback led to increased effort in the secure-attachment group and to decreased effort in the insecure-attachment group. After failing, securely attached children tended to display sadness more openly than insecurely attached children.

Pleasure derived from mastery in three-year olds: Its function for persistence and the influence of maternal behavior

The study, conducted in two independent replications, run approximately one year apart, explored the possibility that (a) the actions of three year old children are guided and accompanied by self-evaluations and withdrawal, (b) that self-evaluations and withdrawal have a motivational function for persistence, indicating the beginnings of a self-reward system, and (c) are influenced by the mothers behavior when interacting with her child. Natural observations of mother and child, playing a matching-to-pattern game, revealed that most of the children showed self-evaluations and withdrawal. Both predicted persistence in the task, even when their successes and failures were partialed out. They were mediated by the mothers assistance and interference of her childs striving for mastery, mainly by her physical interruptions of the childs activity.The study, conducted in two independent replications, run approximately one year apart, explored the possibility that (a) the actions of three year old children are guided and accompanied by self-evaluations and withdrawal, (b) that self-evaluations and withdrawal have a motivational function for persistence, indicating the beginnings of a self-reward system, and (c) are influenced by the mothers behavior when interacting with her child. Natural observations of mother and child, playing a matching-to-pattern game, revealed that most of the children showed self-evaluations and withdrawal. Both predicted persistence in the task, even when their successes and failures were partialed out. They were mediated by the mothers assistance and interference of her childs striving for mastery, mainly by her physical interruptions of the childs activity.

Transactional Influences of Infants' Orienting Ability and Maternal Cooperation on Competition in Three-Year-Old Children:

The aims of this study were (1) to describe how three-year-olds regulate their effort during competition, (2) to compare their facial expressions after failure and success, and to demonstrate the operation of a display rule in competition, (3) to explore the cross-situational stability of individual patterns in the regulation of behavior, (4) to explore the relationship between factors influencing the mother-child interaction and individual patterns in the regulation of behavior. The Brazelton Neonatal Assessment scale was administered to 44 newborns. At three years, maternal cooperation was assessed from videotapes of mothers and children playing a pattern-matching game. Individual patterns in childrens regulation of behavior were assessed by frequency counts of self-evaluations and withdrawal during the game. Competitiveness was assessed during a tower building task. The greatest number of glances at the testers tower occurred when either of the competitors finished his/her tower first. Building speed was reduced when the tester finished his tower first. In the absence of eye contact with the opponent, success was followed by smiling and failure by a sad face; during eye contact, children mostly smiled. Patterns of building speed during a failure trial and a success trial were related to positive self-evaluations during mother-child play, to orienting scores at newborn age, and to maternal cooperation at the age of three.

Toddlers' actions: Knowledge, control, and the self

A generally shared assumption is that children are active, goal-directed participants in what they experience. However, there appear to be large age differences in the content of and processes mediating goal-directed activity. Adults, in contrast to infants, for example, can explicitly plan, modify, and correct behavior, are not tied to a temporally immediate, physically accessible world, and can achieve desired outcomes in a flexible manner. In addition, adults are more likely to take responsibility for their actions and to relate those actions to personal goals and beliefs.