Part 1
Part 1 begins with observations of the adaptive process over the first 3 years of life within the diversity of human infantâcaretaker systems. These cases illustrated for us the increasingly complex levels of fitting together between infant and caretaker that must be achieved over that time. It was an experience that required us to think from the level of biology to the way feeling, emotion, and meaning become organized in the development of human consciousness.
The descriptions of motherâchild interactions over the first 18 months of life are drawn from the 1954 Boston University Pavenstedt longitudinal study in early child development, entitled âThe Effect of Maternal Maturity and Immaturity on Child Development.â As a way of comparing the three samples of motherâchild pairs over the first 3 years of life that were selected for this study, we organized the comparison data in relation to the way each motherâinfant pair negotiated a sequence of seven tasks of âfitting together,â or adaptation over this span of time. The organization of these observational data led to the formulation of a number of basic principles of process governing all living systems, ranging from the cellular level to the level of human consciousness.
1
Issues in Early MotherâChild Interaction
One of the principal aims of our longitudinal study of early personality development, begun at the Boston University School of MedicineâMassachusetts Memorial Hospitalâs Medical Center in 1954, was the investigation of the motherâchild relationship. The study was of a naturalistic exploratory type, planned to provide frequent opportunities to observe mother and child together in a variety of situations over the first 6 years of life. Only primiparous mothers were selected to keep the factor of mothering experience comparable in the groups. Detailed descriptions were made at each contact of the behavior of the mother, of the child, and of the interaction between them. Thus, for each motherâchild pair a longitudinal descriptive account was obtained of the progression of outstanding characteristics their interaction demonstrated in these well-defined situations over the years of the study. Comparable observations have been gathered on 22 of the motherâchild pairs from birth through the 36th month of life. We have begun to analyze this extensive interactional material, and are presenting in this paper one of the avenues of approach to this task that we are following at present. This approach consists of dividing the interactional data gathered for each pair into a sequence of time segments and making evaluations of interactions prominent in each segment. We are using these evaluations to study the proposal that in this early period there are a series of issues that are being negotiated in the interaction between mother and child. The paper will present the theoretical considerations and the observational materials that have suggested such a possibility.
In investigating the early motherâchild relationship, we wished especially to study the way a particular maternal personality exerted its influence on the child and on the course of his development. In the original research design, primiparous mothers were chosen whose personalities showed the widest contrasts we could find along a range of emotional maturity and immaturity, in order that we might observe clear-cut contrasts in their behavior with their infants. We felt that this would make interactional behavior more readily assessed in relation to the developmental course taken. Such obvious interactional contrasts were encountered in the sample of motherâchild pairs. We were faced with the task of weighing their importance in relation to the course of development that followed and of comparing similar interactions across the sample of motherâchild pairs.
Ernst Kris (1950) discussed the difficult problem of investigating the motherâs personality âin order to establish a link between her behavior and the symptomatology of the child.â He stated: âThe situation in a specific crucial period can no longer be described only in terms of psychosexual development; equal consideration has to be given to that of the aggressive impulses, to the development of the ego, and to that of object relationsâ (p. 36). He suggested as an example that the particular balance existing in a parental relationship in respect to âthe alternatives between indulgence and deprivation (discipline)â might have a phase-specific appropriateness, requiring more of one at one point and more of the other at another to improve the infantâs chances for successful conflict solution.
In A Genetic Field Theory of Ego Formation (1959), Spitz presented in detail his concept of the part played by the adequacy or inadequacy of object relations in the epigenesis of early ego development. In this publication, he asked the question: âWill disturbances in infantile object relations result in deficient ego formation according to the critical period at which they occur?â (p. 84). After describing the relationship between âsynchronicityâ and integration, he proposed that a âdevelopmental imbalanceâ results when asynchrony exists between a maturational period of early ego development and particular features of object relations appropriate to it. The question that at once arises is this: Which features of object relations are appropriate to which periods of early ego development?
This question was extensively dealt with by Erikson (1950a, 1950b) in his presentation of stages of development and the interactions that are associated with each. He discussed the influence on later developmental outcome of cultural variations in these interactions, as well as variations stemming from individual personality characteristics of caretaking figures. In the first two stages of his schema, covering the first 3 years of life (which is the span we are studying in our interactional analysis), he described in considerable detail the interactional elements we have selected for evaluation in our motherâchild pairs. Furthermore, he described these features as alternatives with a considerable range of possible variation between the extremes. He implied that, in the individualâs object relations, some point of equilibrium will be struck in this range between alternatives that will be characteristic for that individual. For example, in regard to the alternative of supply versus frustration experienced in the establishing of the particular ratio of trust versus mistrust that will be characteristic for a given child, Erikson (1950b) wrote: âNow, while it is quite clear what must happen to keep a baby alive (the minimum supply necessary) and what must not happen, lest he be physically damaged or chronically upset (the maximum early frustration tolerable), there is a certain leeway in regard to what may happen; and different cultures make extensive use of their prerogatives to decide what they consider workable and insist upon calling necessaryâ (p. 57). Each individual mother also possesses the same prerogative. She exercises it in accord with the consistencies that characterize her particular personality makeup. This factor touches on certain considerations that underlie our approach to the evaluation of interactions in the various periods of early ego development, and that are discussed now briefly before we turn to the specific interactional elements of early object relations we have selected for study.
If the behavioral consistencies that characterize a motherâs particular personality makeup could be viewed from the position of the infantâs experiences with them, they could be conceived as coming to be represented by certain expectancies or anticipations that the infant would develop in respect to these features of his relationship with the mother. It might take a certain period of time before a trend was established and the expectancy became an accurate estimate. The simple repetitive situations that are a part of the daily life of mother and child in this early time of life should lend themselves admirably to a solid set of reliable anticipations about many dimensions of the motherâs behavior. A longer span of time for the same degree of certainty to be established would be required in the face of maternal inconsistency or marked expressions of ambivalence in her activities. The estimate should finally approach the point on the range between alternative possibilities for each element of early motherâchild interaction that would be characteristic for the pair.
We have tried to capture these relationships in our evaluation of interactions by representing the reaching of such a point as the negotiation of an issue of interaction. The New Century Dictionary gives several definitions for the word issue. It can mean âa point in question,â or it can mean âan outcome.â A third definition puts these two together as âa point, the decision of which determines the matter.â The issue would be negotiated when the childâs expectancy for the element of maternal behavior became crystallized. In this respect, âan average expectable environmentâ (Hartmann, 1939) would be one in which such expectancies would be reached in an average chronology and for average points on the range. This concept of developmental relationships was delineated by Erikson (1950a, 1950b) in his formulation of a series of epigenetic stages determined by the points at which certain precursors of personality function come to their ascendancy, meet their crises, and find their lasting solution through decisive encounters with the environment. Deviations in timing and range of behavior in these encounters lead to the âasynchronyâ referred to by Spitz (1959). In our evaluation of interactional material, for each time period of early ego development, we have worded an issue that concerns one especially prominent feature of interaction during that span of months. Rather than define the issues in terms of whether or not a given feature of interaction will appear, we have framed them with respect to the degree or extent to which the feature will appear.
Our observational material of the first 18 months of life seemed to fall into five large time segments, each with a prominent feature that was encountered extensively in our data for that period.1 The first period corresponds to the âundifferentiated phaseâ of early ego development (Hartmann, Kris, & Loewenstein, 1946), namely, the first 2½ months of life. Characteristics of the motherâchild relationship at this time have been discussed by many students of early development (e.g., Escalona, 1952; A. Freud, 1936; Hartmann et al., 1946; Spitz, 1954, 1956). A central issue in these months concerns the degree of specific appropriateness the mother can maintain in her response to the cues the baby gives of his state and needs. The second period, from 2½ to 5 months, is the segment most thoroughly described by Spitz and Wolf (1946), in which smiling behavior is developing and coming to play a central role in the relationship. The degree to which truly reciprocal interchanges are established between infant and mother has been selected for evaluation. The third period, between 5 and 9 months, has interested us especially in regard to the way in which the mother responds to the babyâs expression of initiative for social exchange and for various preferences. This formulation was suggested by Bowlbyâs (1958) conceptualization of the nature of the childâs tie to his mother. The fourth period, between 9 and 12 or 13 months, has been delimited somewhat more arbitrarily. The feature of interaction that impressed us most forcibly during this phase concerned the intensity and insistence with which the child made demands on the mother and the manner in which she dealt with them. Descriptions of this focalization of demands on the mother have been made by Kris (1950) and A. Freud and Burlingham (1944). The fifth period, extending from the 12th to the 18th month, was described in detail by Erikson (1950a) in relation to the establishing of early autonomy. We have been especially interested in evaluating for each motherâchild pair precisely how the self-assertion of the child is dealt with, particularly when it is in opposition to the motherâs wishes.
By arranging the data according to these time segments, descriptive features of the observations can be compared in different subjects at roughly the same point in the life of the child. Individual variations in the chronology of significant interactions then become apparent.
Descriptive Clinical Material
The remainder of this paper is devoted to describing in further detail the characteristics of motherâchild interaction in each of the first five periods, illustrating the range of behaviors we have observed in our sample, and indicating the issues that have been extracted relating to these elements of the emerging relationship.
Period of Initial Adaptation (0â2½ Months)2
There seems general agreement that in the initial period of adaptation of the first 2½ months the primary adaptive task consists of a suitable meshing of mothering activities with the cues the baby gives of his state, necessary for him to live and thrive. This primary adaptation is usually achieved by the end of this period and is reflected in the childâs adoption of some reasonably predictable rhythms of feeding, elimination, sleep, and wakefulness. If the environment is an âaverage expectableâ one, there also emerges a capacity for discrimination, shown by the child in his responsivity to handling by the mother. He usually becomes more responsive, and quiets more readily for her than for others. A measure of the successful negotiation of the adaptive requirement may be seen as early as the third or fourth week in the motherâs spontaneous comment that she now feels she âknowsâ her baby, which may be accompanied by a perceptible moderation of her anxieties about the babyâs care.
This period is one that reveals a great many of the motherâs insecurities and anxieties, and puts to test many of her attributes. The dimensions of the childâs organization can remain unknown to her for a considerable time if she is not perceptive of the cues supplied in his behavioral feedback to her. Although variations of interaction in this earliest time have been extensively described, we found it a noteworthy experience to observe the striking contrasts revealed in our sample of a ânormalâ population: The range of adaptation achieved lies truly on a broad spectrum. The extent of adaptation ranged from the barest semblance of a behavioral synchrony between mother and child that was consistent with life3 to a varied and harmonious interaction, specific in its accuracy of matching stimulus and response, infant need and maternal care. Such synchrony might occur in only one or in many sensorimotor channels. There is quite clearly a quantitative and a qualitative dimension to the specific appropriateness of maternal ministrations in respect to the babyâs state. A measure of appropriate social stimulus initiated by the mother is included here as one of the inf...