From: Monique Cortez
Email:
Course: CD 169: Motivation
College: San Jose State University
Instructor: Eugene Ematusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/cd169
ChildrenObservations: Yes
Date: 24 May 1997
Time: 13:44:24
Remote Name: ws-207-212-230-6.sjpl.lib.ca.us
The purpose of this research is to see what makes infants motivated. I am interested to see what types of play, objects amd interactions make infants motivated and interested. I believe that the interactions between infants their mothers and the environment have a big impact on the infants motivation. I am interested to find what mothers can do to help influence infans motivation and to also find out what types of objects motivate infants and how the environment has an influence on infants motivation. I am also interested to find what types of cues infants give to show that they are motivated.
During the first two years of life there are several transition points where infants show increases in competence and changes in behavior. The earliest transitional point is at about five months. At this time the infants interest broadens and they start to get more interested in their environment such as objects and events. The interactions that has the infants interest in social actions with another person enhanses mastery behavior. How adults handle social interactions that promotes infants attention to objects during the first five moths of life has an impact on the childs life in later development. The second transition is about nine months. during the transition, infants have changes in cognition and communication. After this age infants become more aware of adult reactions and use people to obtain their objecyts. At nine months infants will engage themselves in goal directed activities with familiar tasks and after this time they are able to engage themselves in goal directed activites with unfamiliar tasks. The third transition takes place at around eighteen months. At this time, infants begin to show symbolic play and sort objects into groups, there vocabulary is expanding and are beginning to use two words while communicating (Master).
The infants caregivers has an influence at differents phases of masery motivation. There are three phases, the first phase is zero to nine months, phase two is nine to seventeen through twenty-two months and phase three is between seventeen through twenty-two through thirty-six months. In each phasse the relationship between the interactions of caregivers and infants and the development of mastery motivation is prevalent. There are three premisis of mastery motivation. At least two aspects can be observed, expressive and instumental. The expressive aspect of mastery motivation is connected with getting pleasure from play. The instumental aspect of mastery motivation is linked with the child's persistence on doing a challenging task. Secondly, there are changes in mastery motivation and they are influenced by the activities of others in the social environment. Lastly, there is a link between the development of mastery motivation and socializtion, and the development of individual differences (Busch-Rossnagel).
The environment plays a big part in mastery motivation of infants. The caregivers in the environment are called "sosializing agents". These socializing agents include fathers, siblings, grandparents and day care providers. They are all a part of the socializing environment. Three aspects of the socializing environment include the infants being provided with toys and other objects, there is emotional communication between the child and the caretaker, and the interactions between the caretaker and the child. The child's exposure to the physical environemtn is done by the modeling of the caregiver who has included objects and toys in the environment which make it a part of the socializing environment.
In relation to infants being presented with a toy or an object, if it is unfamiliar to them they will turn to their mother to see what type of response should be given with the toy. With the mother giving a response, the child then knows how he or she should respond appropriatly. The communication between the mother and infant interaction is very important for stimulation. The social environment is very important. The caregiver is the one who establishes the play behavior and with all these the child is developing his early mastery motivation. As early as six months caregivers initiate most of the interactions with sensory stimultion. This is because of the develmental level the infant is at. By twelve months infants should be initiating some activities.
When infants are exposed to toys or objects of some sort they very in the amount of time it takes for them to become involved with the material. If the child is slow at becoming interested in a toy, it may be because he is being cautious and waiting for an appropriate response from the caregiver. A child who is persistant and shows interest and is highly motivated at six months will be persistant in exploring by twelve months. It is important to note that competence is necessary for mastery and mastery motivation is necessary for the development of skills that the child has (Yarrow).
The importance in the communication and the interactions with the caregivera and the infants is the affects it has on the child and the signs of motivation. Infants may experience more positive reinforcement from adults which keeps the positive responses for a longer period of time after the task they are involved in is mastered. The affective cues from the child is important for the caregivers. The cues the infant gives while mastering motivation provides positive reinforcement for the child from his environment as well as from is own pleasure (Mayes).
From five to twelve month, infants manpulate objects. When that are given an object they can grasp, they may reach for it, grasp it and look at it. They may put it in their mouth, bang it or push it around. This type of play is important for the infants learning about their environment. This type of activity is how the child is showing us that he is exploring with the activity. If the infant is not ecploring the object, in may ssoothe the infant and raise the infants arousal rate. If this is the case it is best for the caregiver to maintain contact with the object while the infant may turn to explore something else of interst. The activities that the infants are exploring with, by touching it, putting it in his mouth or just looking at, shows that the infatnt engaged and is focused. With non-exploratory activities the child is not engaged of focused on it. When the child is focused on an object he is exploring and he is learning.
Infants provide themslves with stimulation and information when they are exploring objects. Their focused attention is motivation. Focused attention is motivation. Facused attention in play with objects is initiated by motivation tolearn about the environment. With the help of the caregivers by providing stimulating toys for their children will help their infants with exploring and learning. By exploring and learning the child is motivated and interested to learn about his environment. In all, these are signs of motivation of infants.
References
Busch-Rossnagel, N., (1995). Mothers and others: The role of the socializing environment in the development of mastery motivation. R. H. Macturk & G. A. Morgan (Eds.).
Mayes, L & Zigler (1991). An Observational Study of the Affective Concomitants of Mastery in Infants. Journal Of Child Psychology, 33 (4).
Messer. D. (1995. Mastery Motivation: Past Present and Future. R. H. Macturk & G. A. Morhan Eds.
Ruff, H. & Saltarelli, L. (1993). Exploratory Play with objects: Child Development, 59.
Yarrow, L., et al. (1982). Assessment of Mastery Motivation During the first year of life. Develpmental Psychology.