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Cognitive and social development are key areas of development since how infants undergo these two areas of development play an important role in determining their cognitive and social capabilities as adults. This essay examines what is currently known about cognitive and social development, how these developmental processes may differ in cultural contexts where breastfeeding is more prevalent, and how studies can be conducted to determine if these developmental processes occur at an earlier age or in a different manner in such a cultural context.

Cognitive development focuses on how the processes involved in acquiring, processing, and organizing information develop in humans (Oakley, 2004). The two most important theories of cognitive development are the theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.

Jean Piaget stated that cognitive structures are modified through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process through which new information is incorporated into an individual’s existing cognitive structures, whereas accommodation is the process through which new cognitive structures are formed in order to fit new information that is encountered (Altman et al., 2017).

Piaget also theorized that there are four stages of cognitive development. The first stage is the sensorimotor period which starts at birth and lasts until the age of 2 where infants are learning about the world through their sensory and motor abilities. The next stage, the preoperational period, occurs from ages 2 to 7 and it is characterized by increased abilities in symbolic thinking and language use. The third stage is the concrete operational period which occurs between the ages of 7 to 12 where a child’s ability to reason about concrete ideas significantly increases. The final stage is the formal operational period which occurs after the age of 12, characterized by the ability to reason about hypothetical problems and the ability to think abstractly (Altman et al., 2017).

In contrast to Piaget, Lev Vygotsky’s theory focused on the influence that social interactions have on cognitive development. Vygotsky stated that there are three factors that shape a child’s cognitive development: culture, language, and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Oakley, 2004). Vygotsky believed that culture is important in shaping cognitive development since what knowledge a child acquires and how that knowledge is acquired is determined by the culture that the child is a part of. Vygotsky stated that language has an important role in cognitive development since the world is understood and represented using language (Oakley, 2004). The third factor, ZPD, is the distance between a child’s abilities on their own and a child’s potential abilities that can be developed with some guidance and support (Oakley, 2004).

Social development refers to the development of social understanding and the acquiring of social skills. Two key areas of social development are the development of attachment styles and the development of morality.

An attachment style is a pattern of behaviour that infants form with their primary caregivers (Altman et al., 2017). According to Altman et al. (2017), there are four attachment styles that have been identified: securely attached, insecure-resistant, insecure-avoidant, and disorganized attachment. Securely attached infants display a healthy level of independence. The insecure-resistant attachment style is characterized by clinginess to a primary caregiver, whereas the insecure-avoidant attachment style is characterized by avoidance of a primary caregiver. Finally, a disorganized attachment style refers to an attachment style where infants show a tendency to both avoid and approach a primary caregiver.

One of the most popular theories of the development of morality was formulated by Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg theorized that there are three major stages of moral development. In the first stage, pre-conventional morality, children base their morality on rewards and punishments. The second stage, conventional morality, is where an individual bases their morality on the societal norms of what is considered “good” and “bad”. The final stage is post-conventional morality, where an individual bases their morality on abstract principles that are not dictated by others or society (Altman et al., 2017).

Children’s cognitive and social development rely heavily on environmental factors. One such factor is breastfeeding. According to Krol and Grossmann (2018), breastfeeding is known to have an impact on a child’s cognitive and social development. In terms of cognitive development, the duration of exclusive breastfeeding in infancy has been linked to an increase in memory, problem-solving abilities, and verbal intelligence later in childhood. In terms of social development, children between the ages of 4 and 11 who were breastfed for longer durations were less likely to show antisocial and aggressive behaviour.

Most of the psychological research that has been conducted has been done in Western societies. Therefore, examining the processes of cognitive and social development in a different cultural context where breastfeeding is more prevalent may provide findings that are different from what is currently known and expected. One such cultural context where breastfeeding is more prevalent is in India. Compared to Western countries such as Canada, United States, and United Kingdom where the percentage of children who were ever breastfed are 89.0, 74.4, and 81.0, respectively; India has a breastfeeding rate of 95.5% (Arts et al., 2018). In addition, in 2016, the percentage of children between the ages of 12 – 15 months who were fed breast milk was 86.2% for India and 14.9% for the United States (United Nations Children’s Fund, Division of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring, 2020). Although it has been found that breastfeeding has a positive impact on cognitive and social development, the differences in the ways that these developmental processes occur and the ages at which they occur between children who had more breastfeeding experience and those who had less are still unclear. It is

possible that in cultures where breastfeeding is more prevalent, such as in India, some of the major steps in cognitive development occur earlier and that the percentage of children who fall under each attachment style differ.

Whether certain steps in cognitive development occur earlier or not can be tested by modifying existing ways to measure the stages of a child’s cognitive development. The development of memory performance can be gauged using the A-not-B task. In this task, a researcher hides a toy in location A and has the infant find the toy. Once the infant finds the toy, it is hidden again at location A. Once the infant finds the toy again, it is hidden at location B. However, most infants would try to find the toy again at location A despite seeing the toy being hidden at location B (Altman et al., 2017). Since breastfeeding has been found to increase memory performance, the A-not-B task can be used to determine if breastfeeding also results in an earlier development of memory abilities needed to successfully complete this task. Similarly, conservation tasks can also be used to determine whether the cognitive abilities needed to successfully complete this task develop sooner in children who were breastfed compared to children who were not.

The extent to which breastfeeding can affect attachment styles can be tested using the Strange Situation paradigm. In this experiment, a child is placed into different situations where they are accompanied either by nobody, a parent, a stranger, or the parent and the stranger. Based on how the child reacts to being placed in these situations, researchers can determine the attachment style that exists between the child and the parent (Altman et al., 2017). This experiment can be used to determine differences in attachment styles between children who are usually breastfed and children who are never or rarely breastfed.

References Altman, M., Jacobi, L., Avilla, R., Beston, B., Brown, K., Burton, E.T., Carducci, B.,

Hummel, J., Lukowski, A., Martinez, R.L., O'Donovan, A., Poplock, S., Slonecker, E., Swisher, M., VanArsdall, J., Vervaeke, J., & Wehe, H. (2017). Introduction to psychology: A Top Hat interactive text. Top Hat Monocle. https://tophat.com/marketplace/beta/oer-introduction-to-psychology -meaghan-altman/737/

Arts, M., Mehra, V., Taylor, G., Krasevec, J., Hayashi, C., Bégin, F., Aguayo, V.M., Ge, X., Hage, Y., Reuter, N., Cooper, K., Mebrahtu, S., Sidhu, S., & Taqi, I. (2018). Breastfeeding: A Mother's Gift, for Every Child. United Nations Children's Fund. https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/180509_Breastfee ding.pdf

Krol, K.M., & Grossmann, T. (2018). Psychological effects of breastfeeding on children and mothers. Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung – Gesundheitsschutz, 61, 977–985. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-018-2769-0

Oakley, L. (2004). Cognitive development. Routledge. https://books-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/en/ read?id=/ebooks/ebooks2/taylorandfrancis/2013-03-14/3/9780203482834

United Nations Children’s Fund, Division of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring. (2020). UNICEF Global Databases: Infant and Young Child Feeding: Continued Breastfeeding. United Nations Children’s Fund. https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/UNICEF_Expande d_Global_Databases_Continued-Breastfeeding2020.xlsx