Week 7 — Style, Bond, or Stage? Reading First Relationships

Assignment 7 of the term — work four plain counts from the attachment research and the running case, read records R3 and R4 with them, and explain drop-off crying to a worried parent.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based report. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Child Observation Workshop practice the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together. It builds on Week 3's habit of keeping what a child did apart from what it might mean, and on Week 2's first look at Erikson's stages.

The task

The running case is an illustrative, unnamed child built for this course; it describes no real child. Record R3 was written at a childcare center when the child was 14 months old: at morning drop-off the toddler cries when the parent leaves, accepts comfort from a caregiver, then plays while glancing back toward the caregiver; at pickup the toddler reaches for the parent and calms within a minute. Record R4 was written in the same center's block area at 2½ years: the child pushes away a caregiver's hand and says, "Me do it."

A parent of a toddler at another childcare center (illustrative) writes in a family newsletter, "My 14-month-old cries every morning at drop-off. I read that this means the baby is insecurely attached, and that childcare is to blame." Your job is to answer the way a child development student would, starting from a few plain numbers about the research and the records.

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978) described 3 Strange Situation classifications, and Main and Solomon later described 1 more. How many attachment classifications are there in all?
2. Harlow's "The Nature of Love" appeared in 1958, and Patterns of Attachment by Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall appeared in 1978. How many years passed between the two works?
3. Record R3 of the running case was written at 14 months, and record R4 at 2½ years, which is 2 years and 6 months. Using 12 months in a year, how many months passed between the two records?
4. Erikson's Childhood and Society (1950) describes 5 stages in childhood and adolescence, and this week covers the first 2 of them. How many of the 5 stages does the course take up in later weeks?

Beside each value, add one brief interpretation:

• Problem 1: name the four classifications with their sources (secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant from Ainsworth and colleagues; disorganized from Main and Solomon), and explain that each is a research category for a pattern of behavior in one structured procedure, never a label for a child.
• Problem 2: state what Harlow reported about the cloth and wire stand-in mothers, and explain what the finding shows about comfort and feeding, linking it to Bowlby's secure base.
• Problem 3: read record R3's drop-off and pickup in two columns, behavior apart from interpretation, and say which part may reflect temperament and which reflects attachment, and why R3 earns no attachment classification.
• Problem 4: place record R3's comfort beside trust vs. mistrust and record R4's "Me do it" beside the autonomy side of autonomy vs. shame and doubt, and explain that the stage ages are approximate, not a timetable.

Explain it to a non-expert

Write a 3–5 sentence message to the parent, counted with Problem 3. Explain, in everyday words, that crying when a familiar caregiver leaves commonly shows that a bond exists, that how hard a toddler cries may reflect temperament while whom the toddler reaches for reflects attachment, and that childcare outside the home does not by itself prevent a secure attachment. Name one limit, such as that one drop-off cannot give a child an attachment classification, or that the effects of many hours of childcare are debated among researchers. Be respectful: the parent is worried and has read something that sounded official. More than one good message is possible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a neighbor whose new kitten hid under the bed for two days after moving in. Model message: "Hiding in a brand-new place is common, and it tells you more about how this kitten meets new things than about how much it likes you. Some kittens explore the first hour; others watch from cover first. One fair caveat: two days of hiding is a small sample, so watch how the kitten acts over the next few weeks before deciding anything."

Use that pattern for the parent, with your own wording and evidence.

Your reflection. After you revise, write two or three sentences on one of these, your choice: (a) which problem changed how you would talk about a toddler's crying at drop-off, and why; or (b) which word or phrase in your first draft you replaced, and what the new wording gets right.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft all four values, the four brief interpretations, and your message to the parent before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met, and write your reflection.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the work for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach for an introductory child development course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about infant and toddler social-emotional development: the attachment research, the running case's records R3 and R4, temperament versus attachment, and Erikson's first two stages. Do not write my assignment for me, do not invent work I did not show, never invent an age norm, a study, a statistic, a percentage, or a quotation, write every age as a range rather than a deadline, and never label any real child, family, or caregiver with an attachment classification or a temperament type.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these four problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The data: the running case, an illustrative child built for this course, whose record R3 (14 months, childcare center) cries when the parent leaves, accepts comfort from a caregiver, plays while glancing back toward the caregiver, and at pickup reaches for the parent and calms within a minute, and whose record R4 (2½ years, the same center's block area) pushes away a caregiver's hand and says "Me do it"; Harlow (1958), "The Nature of Love", whose infant monkeys spent more time clinging to a soft cloth stand-in mother than to a wire one that gave milk; Bowlby's secure base; the Strange Situation of Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978), a structured laboratory procedure of brief separations and reunions; and Erikson's trust vs. mistrust (about birth to 1) and autonomy vs. shame and doubt (about 1 to 3).
PROBLEM P1: Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall (1978) described 3 Strange Situation classifications, and Main and Solomon later described 1 more. How many attachment classifications are there in all?
PROBLEM P2: Harlow's "The Nature of Love" appeared in 1958, and Patterns of Attachment by Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, and Wall appeared in 1978. How many years passed between the two works?
PROBLEM P3: Record R3 of the running case was written at 14 months, and record R4 at 2½ years, which is 2 years and 6 months. Using 12 months in a year, how many months passed between the two records?
PROBLEM P4: Erikson's Childhood and Society (1950) describes 5 stages in childhood and adolescence, and this week covers the first 2 of them. How many of the 5 stages does the course take up in later weeks?
After the four values, I must briefly interpret each one: for P1, the four classifications with their sources and the rule that each is a research category for a pattern, never a label for a child; for P2, Harlow's finding and what it shows about comfort and feeding, linked to Bowlby's secure base; for P3, record R3 read in two columns, with temperament split from attachment and the reason R3 earns no classification; for P4, R3's comfort placed beside trust vs. mistrust and R4's "Me do it" beside the autonomy side of the second stage, with the ages approximate. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a parent who read that a crying toddler is insecurely attached and that childcare is to blame, with one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words, and then write a short reflection on my revision.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: working the counts and years from the sources (40 points), reading the records and the research (32 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (16 points), and showing work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1-P4, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 working points, 4 reading points, 2 clarity points, or 1.5 showing-work points. Sum all four problems within each criterion. Count my message to the parent only with P3, not again with P1, P2, or P4.
WORKING UNITS: A correct count, year gap, or month gap = 2; the right counts, years, or ages and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing value or the wrong counts, years, ages, or operation = 0. Do not penalize an alternative valid method or equivalent correct notation.
READING UNITS: For each problem separately, an interpretation that meets both parts named for that problem = 2; exactly one part = 1; neither = 0. For P3, my message to the parent counts toward the second part. Naming a term alone does not earn a unit, and a classification used as a label for a real child, attachment credited to feeding, a temperament type treated as destiny or blamed on parenting, or a stage age treated as a deadline is not accurate. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reading error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to child development, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the message to the parent with P3 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-WORK UNITS: For each problem, checkable counts, years, or ages and steps = 2; a relevant but incomplete count, year, age, or step = 1; a bare final number or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my reply. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word reply is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied all four values and their brief interpretations AND written my message to the parent AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score; it may end in .5 and must not be rounded to a whole number. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my values and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work with all four values, their brief interpretations, your message to the parent, and your reflection — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled two-column sketch of record R3 with a short explanation; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 7 skills — working plain counts from the attachment research and the running case, reading record R3 with temperament kept apart from attachment, treating every classification as a research category rather than a label, attributing each finding to its researchers, and placing records R3 and R4 beside Erikson's first two stages — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same four problems, the four brief interpretations, the message to the parent, and the reflection. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one value or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have about attachment or temperament. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The values, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce, and do not let it label the R3 toddler with an attachment classification, credit the disorganized pattern to Ainsworth, or say that childcare prevents a secure attachment. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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