Observation on Public Location Essay: Sociology

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Observation on Public Location Essay: Sociology

When Aiki enters the mall in his stroller he glances to his right with his mouth slightly open. This labels Aiki as an observer as he is immediately looking around the environment to interpret his surroundings, this is a clear example of visual perception. Aiki looking at his surroundings fits Gibson’s theory of perception (1972). The theory states that the development of perception is an active process where we focus on a specific object or person that is already available in an environment to gain understanding (E. Gibson, 1969; J. J. Gibson, 1979). The fact that Aiki immediately looks around, suggests he is actively developing his perception as well as trying to make sense of his surroundings. Aiki specifically looks to his right and is fixed in this direction for 3 seconds, this highlights the selective nature of perception. Aikis focus paired with his expression (mouth slightly open) suggests he is trying to interpret an object or person to gain information and understanding.

When Aiki is placed on the floor, he pauses and looks around. Again, this displays another example of his visual perception as he looks around the room to try and understand the environment around him however this time Aiki is smiling throughout this process. Here, Aiki can communicate his feelings through his facial expression, this underlines the beginnings of his social and emotional development. His smiling suggests that he is excited to be in an unfamiliar environment and is ready to explore using his perception. Aikis’s facial expressions portray his current feelings, which is important for his father to recognize so that he can take care of Aiki and his needs. Smiling is an innate characteristic; this is because Darwin (1872) saw that people born without eyesight could still create facial expressions which means that it is not something that is learned through visual imitation but an innate reaction. Darwin proposes that smiling is used for survival in an infant as it brings joy to the caregiver, making it more likely for the caregiver to protect the infant as well as develop a healthy attachment with them.

John Bowlby (1969) refers to innate expressions as social releasers, this includes laughing, smiling, crying, etc. which he believed was there to grab the attention of a caregiver to prevent maternal deprivation. Maternal deprivation is a hypothesis made by John Bowlby which states that infants that are deprived of their mothers (or primary caregivers) would hurt the infant’s future and lead to anxiety or depression. This makes social releasers, such as smiling, an important characteristic for infants to keep their caregivers’ attention and makes them less likely to be affected by maternal deprivation. This idea is similar to Darwin’s (1872) as they both argue that smiling is used as a survival mechanism however Bowlby’s idea is more focused on the consequences of the decline of attachment on infants rather than forming good attachments to develop properly. Both ideas suggest that Aikis smiling is innate for his development to be successful.

One of the primary features seen in this observation is the attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (1991). The attachment theory is focused on the emotional bond between an infant and their caregiver. In the observation we can see Aiki crawl within the range of his father, this is called proximity. Aikis’ attachment to his father creates this proximity because Aiki does not physically want to be away from his father as he provides safety and security to him, this desire to be around his father is called proximity maintenance. The fact that Aiki did not stray away from his father proves that he feels content and safe within his father’s reach and therefore suggests that Aiki has a good relationship with his father.

To maintain proximity, Aiki calls out to his father by saying Dadada This is called babbling as Aiki makes speech sounds that mimic words, this occurs at around 6 months of age. Here, Aiki is babbling to retain proximity between him and his father so that he continues to feel safe and secure. Babbling is an important indication of Aikis’s language development as it implies that he has actively learned the sounds of the English language which he will further develop in the future. Babbling is also used as a social releaser to strengthen the bond between infant and caregiver, this is because babbling is much easier for adults to imitate unlike cooing (Lois Bloom, 1998) which creates a stronger interactional synchrony. Interactional synchrony was developed by Feldman (2007) and its the idea that an infant and caregiver give direct speech to one another, which creates good attachment. In this case, Aiki calls out to his father however does not get a response which leads to Aiki crawling up to his father to gain his attention.

Conventionally, the mothers of an infant are labeled as primary caregivers, and fathers are labeled as secondary caregivers. This is because infants spend more time with their mothers and have more opportunities to bond such as when they are being breastfed etc. John Bowlby (1991) developed the idea that there are four stages to attachment correlating with the infant’s age: pre-attachment phase (first 3 months), indiscriminate phase (6 weeks to 7 months), discriminate phase (7-11 months) and multiple attachments (10 months +). Aiki would be at the last stage, hence being able to form multiple attachments at once which explains why he was able to form attachments with his father even though arguably his father is not the primary caregiver.

It is also important to point out that there were no strangers observed in this shopping mall, this may affect Aiki’s proximity to being physically closer to his father or even discourage Aiki from looking around. This is because Aiki is old enough to distinguish strangers from people he is close with. Schaffer and Emersons (1964) conducted a longitudinal study on 60 babies from Glasgow, whom they visited every four weeks for 1 year. They would analyze the interactions between the infant and their mothers and the interaction between the interviewers and the infant. They were able to conclude that stranger anxiety forms at 7 months as the infants showed more distressed emotions when interacting with the interviewer.

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