Overview
The purpose of this assignment is to draft and share a comprehensive and complete APA research paper draft for your instructor to provide feedback. The paper is written to report on that research and offer answer(s) to the original research question and substantiate the thesis statement.
Include the following in your 4–5 page (not including the required cover page or reference pages) final paper:
- Thesis Statement: Discuss the thesis statement/present the information and research/draw conclusions (body)
- APA formatted reference page with a minimum of three scholarly references correlated to appropriately used in-text citations for each
- Be sure to plan enough time for proofreading and editing.
For further instruction, click and download the requirements for the Signature Assignment_Draft Instructions
resources.
This is my topic information: Topic:
The impact of caregiver responsiveness during infancy, focusing on how soothing an infant’s emotional distress shapes attachment security and future development.
Research Question: How does consistent soothing of infants when distressed influence the development of secure attachment and long-term emotional regulation?
Thesis Statement: Regularly calming infants in moments of emotional stress creates a secure attachment and builds emotional resilience over time, while failing to do so consistently or ignoring them to the point of neglect may lead to insecure attachment and lead to challenges engaging in social and emotional development later on.
Narrative (Significance): I selected this topic because infancy is a crucial development stage of the life span and a time when the basis of emotional and social development is established. Santrock (2021) describes Erikson’s first psychosocial stage, trust versus mistrust, which merits sensitive caregiving to help the infant feel safe and supported. Similarly, Bowlby’s attachment theory, developed further by Ainsworth, suggests that infants whose caregiver(s) respond consistently to their distress are likely to develop a secure attachment to that caregiver(s). This is important because attachment patterns are associated with childhood outcomes and relationships into adulthood, as well as emotional and relational wellness across the life span. As a nursing student, I see value in understanding how caregiving behaviors that start in infancy impact development, because this helps explain and understand behavioral concerns patients may have later in life, as well as developing interventions that provide family-based care that scaffolds healthy behaviors to avoid developmental concerns. This topic allows me to combine theory with real-world implications in psychology and real-world applications in healthcare.
Reference: Santrock, J. W. (2021). Life-span development (19th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.