Week 3 preview

In this part of the course we have examined the role of attachment in both enabling the infant to regulate their emotional states and in terms of internal working models that are the building blocks for the infant’s developing mind and sense of self.

We have also examined the way in which the parent’s mind plays a key role in shaping attachment. We specifically focused on the parent’s emotional mind in terms of the way in which the parent’s capacity to regulate themselves influences their interactions with their infant’s and what the research tells us about the impact of emotional problems such as anxiety and depression.

We then examined the impact of the parent’s cognitive mind in terms of the concept of ‘reflective functioning’ and what the research shows in terms of the impact of such cognitive functioning on parenting behaviours and interaction with the infant, and the implications of this for infant attachment security.

In the next part of the course we will go back in time to explore what recent research has begun to show in terms of the impact of the parent’s mind during pregnancy on the mind of the unborn and newborn baby.