Film Analysis: Babies

Developmental psychology studies the biological, cognitive, social, and personality development that occurs throughout an entire life span (Griggs, 2014, p. 271). Babies narrows the scope of developmental psychology and places the focus on the infancy stage. The documentary introduces four newborns—as well as the different childrearing norms of each culture—from birth to around 18 months. Two infants are from rural areas: Ponijao is from Opuwo, Nambia, and Bayar is from Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. In contrast, the other two represent a more urban lifestyle: Mari is from Tokyo, Japan, and Hattie is from San Francisco, United States. Regardless of the differing worlds each baby is born into, all seem to be content and developing at a healthy rate.
Factors of this type of development influence how a baby uses his or her senses and what his or her brain does with this information. One of these factors, called habituation, is the decrease in response psychology once a stimulus becomes familiar (Griggs, 2014, p. 275). This was seen when Bayar slowly lost interest in the keys his father was rattling to keep him entertained while he was on the phone. At first, he was very interested and intrigued by the sound and movement of the keys when jingled. An interesting observation was that the longer Bayar’s father’s phone conversation went on, the less Bayar would look at the jingling keys. His eyes started to drift away to a different part of the room; Bayar would only look back at the keys when his father shook them more aggressively. Bayar’s ability to tune out familiar aspects of his environment will greatly assist him in exploring the new and unknown in the world around
Attachment represents the lifelong emotional bond between infants and their mother or other caregivers (Griggs, 2014, p. 298). During the first six months of life, babies begins to trust that their caregiver will provide for their needs; whether that caregiver follows through or not will influence the infant’s attachment towards that caregiver. In an experiment conducted by Harry Harlow, it is found that an infant has a greater attachment to a caregiver that can give contact comfort rather than one who can give a source of nourishment (Griggs, 2014, p. 299). This is exemplified in Babies when Mari visits the zoo and sees a gorilla. She gets scared; she first reaches out to mom for comfort, then starts crying. The fact that she seeked contact comfort over anything else means that she has already formed an attachment to her