Today we publish the first part of an extensive interview we have done to the psychologist Cristina Silvente in which we will treat behaviorism and its relationship with parenting.
Cristina Silvente has a degree in Psychology, specializing in Health Psychology and Preventive Medicine, as well as Conflict Resolution and Emergency Psychology. He has been part of the Emergency Psychological Care Service team and is also a therapist. Your complete training and experience can be consulted in full on their website. She is also the author of several books, including the recently published "Forgotten Voices."
After publishing some articles in Babies and more talking about behaviorism and its dangers in the application as a parenting method, Cristina Silvente, whom I already knew virtually for years, got in touch with me and was helping me better understand the magnitude of the problem.
For that reason I proposed this interview, in which I have asked you to share with our readers your knowledge about behavioral methods and forms of attachment that children develop depending on the upbringing of their parents.
What is behaviorism?
Behaviorism is a branch of Psychology, or a theoretical orientation focused on human behavior, on the precedents and consequences of behavior. It was initially studied in animals and then moved to people.
Do you have any use in early childhood education?
Yeah right. It can help us understand that if children do something that later has positive consequences: they enjoy, laugh while they do it, people flatter them, or their parents are happy, for example, in the future they will be more likely of doing it. And, conversely, that if they do something and their friends pout, or their parents, or hurt themselves, surely in the future they will not want to do it. If one day a dog bit them, for them dog = pain, therefore, they will avoid it. The dog becomes a "conditioned stimulus." Behaviorism has been applied to many health-related behaviors, even with the immune response, we know that even unicellular organisms are conditioned.
What are the dangers of applying behavioral methods to parenting?
The danger is the use of behaviorism, not behaviorism itself. It is wanting to use it to dominate and not to understand or help. It is easy to get a boy or girl not to complain, if complaining will have negative consequences or there will be no response. But that does not mean that it has no other consequences.
Behaviorism precisely studied what was learned helplessness, for example, that whatever the boy or girl does will have a negative consequence or a punishment that he cannot avoid, causes them to do nothing and have a constant state of tension and anxiety. The issue has been who has applied or intended to apply without knowing a little more, especially without taking into account the immediate emotional aspect of applying a punishment and the long-term consequences of punishment and learned helplessness.
Can you explain to us what is insecure attachment?
It is also called insecure-avoidant attachment. It would be that attachment established between parents and children so that the emotional reactions of the baby arouse fear or rejection on the part of the parents, with overprotective, intrusive, controlling behaviors. Babies perceive that the world is insecure, and that their emotional reactions are not welcome and are inappropriate, annoying, or cause fear.
The long-term consequences would be few strategies to cope with situations of stress, insecurity, avoidance of emotional contact, or even emotional inhibition.
And the disorganized attachment?
The disorganized or ambivalent attachment would be when parents show inconsistent behaviors, a lot of attention in some moments, and aggressiveness or indifference in others, or contradictory messages, saying one thing, while doing another. This causes children to see their mother or their parents unstably available, depending on their emotional state.
This creates a lot of insecurity, so that to get the attention of your attachment figure you need to do it with all the intensity: crying, tantrums, very dependent behavior. Or they may become aggressive, or resistant to positive affect.
Is an insecure, ambivalent or disorganized attachment responsible or does it lay the foundation for what will be a mental disorder or a state of psychological distress in the future?
Of course. Immediately, an attachment that is not safe is related to low self-esteem, learning difficulties, attention deficit and hyperactivity. There may be difficulties to face stress situations and to lead emotional experiences. Ambivalent attachment is closely related to Borderline Personality Disorder, a disorder that is very present in criminals, in people who self-injure or attempt suicide, even in people with eating disorders.
What behaviors can cause disorganization?
One very typical, let him cry or not attend to the emotional need of a child with physical distance, while being told that he is loved, or hit and tell him that he is loved, or sexually abuse while being told that he is wanted .
It is not a behavior on the part of parents or caregivers of a single day, but something that is repeated over time. A child who is being hurt emotionally may not understand positive affect, or may never trust people, may feel contradictory emotions that he cannot understand or that in turn cause contradictory behaviors.
What can help build resilience in babies?
Just the opposite of what we have talked about. Continuous physical contact, assist you when you cry ALWAYS, do not underestimate your reactions, show them that they are valuable and important with the body and not just with words: with the look, with the touch, rock, talk to him.
What is secure attachment and what behaviors help to create it?
In a secure attachment, children are able to use their parents as a source of security, as a "base camp" where to return if necessary, where to find understanding and shelter. It is knowing that parents are ALWAYS available and in the same way. They are pleasant contacts.
I have explained some positive behaviors: I take them in my arms, sing them, look at them lovingly, laugh / smile, listen to them, kiss them.
The first 3-4 years of life are fundamental for the emotional development of the child.
We greatly appreciate this Interview for Babies and more to the psychologist Cristina Silvente this interview, and, in its second part, we will continue to deepen the child psyche and the way in which parents can take care of it or harm it with our upbringing.
