Baby Veronica's Case Study Essay

When considering Baby Veronica’s case we must understand that there are arguments supporting both temperament and adjustment and how they affect development. According to Papalia, Feldman, and Martorell (2012), temperament is a “characteristic disposition or styles of approaching and reacting to situations” (p. 181). It is said to be the how behind behavior and not what people do. Attachment on the other hand is the “reciprocal, enduring tie between two people—especially between infant and caregiver—each of whom contributes to the quality of the relationship” (Papalia et al., 2012, pp. 188). We as humans are biologically built to form attachments to others. When it comes to the case of Baby Veronica I believe that both temperament and attachment are important to understand. To illustrate my …show more content…
Caspi said temperament is considered to be an innate ability that we have and by age three it can predict characteristics of our personality at age 18 and 21 (as cited in Papalia et al., 2012). This doesn’t mean that temperament is fully developed in infancy. In fact, according to Kagan and Snidman it is actually a process that can change due to parental treatment and other life events (as cited in Papalia et al., 2012). This suggest that depending on what Veronica’s temperament could affect how she will react to the situation of being transferred from adoptive parents to her biological father an then back to the adoptive parents. If she is a high reactive, difficult child this would make it a harder transition for her then if she was a low reactive, easy going child. According to Thomas & Chess (1986), caregivers that have strong expectations for an infant that is quiet and happy may have a hard time with a difficult infant. From this information we can see that a child’s temperament can affect the caregiver’s sensitivity