hey hey Social Work tribe welcome back uh in today's video we're going to be looking at Margaret mahler's Theory so stay tuned okay so um with Margaret Miller uh her Theory object relations Theory for this Theory object is referring to people parts of people or things that symbolically represent a person uh or part of a person so just to be clear with that um believes that the Early Childhood attachments with our parents with a primary focus on the mother um impacts our relationship skills throughout our life healthy upbringings are determined by how well a child can psychologically separate from their caregiver or mother um and form their own sense of identity as a separate individual throughout these 0 to 38 months it's a bit of a mental uh tug of war for the child of truly realizing that they are separate from their caregiver or mother um and that they are their own person or individuation and for individuation uh it's the process of forming a stable personality throughout this process they gain a clear sense of self that is separate from their parents and others around them so right off the bat we're saying like Okay what's the what's the real idea of this Theory right where it's about forming healthy relationships uh being able to form healthy relationships later into adulthood and they're saying it all starts uh with that time span of 0 to 38 months and admittedly I saw some different information where uh some of them once kind of varied a bit but for the most part it's still within that same time frame of three-ish years and focusing on the relationship dynamic between the child and the the mother so looking at the first phase uh it's called the normal autism with the sub phase there is no sub phase so I just put a n a on that zero to one month the infant sleeps a lot the infant is only really aware of themselves and Myler later discontinued this phase based on new findings from our infant research so when I saw this I'm like why is it even here but you know I'm still giving you guys this information and on the exam disclaimer I don't know what's going to be on the exam or anything like that going on to the next phase this is the normal symbiotic phase and just like with the first one subface there is no subface this is one to five months um the child is aware of their mother however there is not a sense of individuality the infant believes they are one uh with the mother and focuses on that the infant isn't really focused on the rest of the world so just kind of really focused on the mother so let's jump into the third phase uh separate individuation uh the subface is differentiation and hatching so kind of like I think of like a chick like hatching from an egg um this is five to nine months the infant is now alert and interested in the differences of their caregiver or mother uh the infant may pull on her hair and clothing due to the Curiosity and interest so this is becoming more um like Curious like oh like different different right pulling just seeing like oh what's this texture and everything right and then when we go into the the the practicing phase um or the sub phase the regular phase is n a it's not there the sub phase is practicing and this is from 9 to 15 months the infant begins to explore the world away from their mother by crawling and walking but make sure the caregiver or the mother is still within the area so they go and explore out but they're not going too too far however the child still thinks their caregiver mother is connected with them so when we scroll back up just for a second right and the main focus is object relations Theory it's like what is all of this about believes that the Early Childhood attachments with our parents with a primary focus on the mother impacts our relationship skills throughout our life healthy upbringings are determined by how well a child can psychologically separate uh from their caregiver or mother and form their own sense of identity as a separate individual throughout the 0 to 38 months it's a bit of a mental tug of war for the child of truly realizing that they are separate from their caregiver or mother and that they are their own person uh individuation and again individuation is the process of forming a stable personality throughout this process they gain a clear sense of self that is separate from their parents and others around them so when we hear this really keep in mind as we as you know they go through this process they want to become their own person that consciously knows like hey this is a whole nother person over here we're our own person and that comes with everything that comes with it right we have our own likes our own dislikes right what we want to focus on mother person caregiver they're over here we are our own entity and there's other entities in this world so I just want to highlight highlight that again so we're going to go now to the phase n a but the sub phase is a reproachment uh this is 15 to 24 months the child realizes that their caregiver or mother is a separate person and won't always be around and wants to become closer with a caregiver mother again so again that tug of war because this is taking place within three-ish months so think about an infant where an infant what does an infant do within that those early early stages right eat sleep cry right and as they continue to develop more and more you know they're starting to look around or become curious like pull it on their hair like you know just kind of that's why their hands be kind of like oh like reaching out and everything um and in this one again uh within the 15 to 24 month window uh the child realizes that their caregiver or mother is separate person and won't always be around and wants to become closer with the caregiver um again a child may become tentative which means uh done without confidence hesitant so they want their caregiver or mother to be uh in sight uh to be around not be too far right because they just like you know it's like hey I just you know I want you there right don't go too far I want you there I want to do my thing over here I want to play over here but I need to you know check make sure you're good you're over here you watching me okay cool still want them to right because they're not they're not ready to kind of just be completely out on their own own type of thing and I put a side note here that caregiver or again mother because and I put it like this because there's a lot of emphasis on saying the mother the mother of the mother yes the caregiver you know growing up in different you know family households it can look different right the caregiver could be you know the Father the caregiver could be you know grandparents aunts and everything but they're focusing on the mother um could respond to their child's Behavior with impatience or unavailability basically the caregiver or the mother might think their child is being too needy um as a result the child could develop a fear of Abandonment in the child and remember this is only cover in the first three years three-ish years it's not going from birth all the way to the to the the end of life right so within that time that that small time frame right so if the mother is perceiving the child's Behavior as you know needy because um she's responding in a way where it's uh impatience or just unavailability now that child's needs aren't getting met because now the child's viewing that that lack of um that lack of attention that lack of assurance which could result in developing a fear of Abandonment in the child now going on to this phase of object constancy uh sub phase there is no sub phase this is ranging 24 to 38 months uh the child understands that they and the mother are completely separate as individuals and their identity throughout this process of individuation the process of for which again is a process of forming a stable personality they gain a clear sense of self that is separate from their parents and others around them a child gains an unconscious level of support and comfort from having a good and healthy caregiver of the mother Dynamic a child that has not internalized enough guidance support Comfort Etc throughout this process could lead to insecurity and low self-esteem issues in adulthood and I wrote this uh right here for you guys of uh Ray cool video uh but how do I use and apply this information if it pops up on my exam great question um in short uh when you see Slash here mailer uh think of object relations Theory uh mailer is focused on our relationship skills that are impacted by the dynamic between the caregiver so again the focus is on the mother and the child within the first three years of their upbringing as the child continues to grow they become more aware that they are their own individual person separate from their mother if the caregiver or the mother responds to their child's Behavior with impatience or unavailability the child could develop a fear of Abandonment in childhood and insecurity and low self-esteem issues in adulthood now I wrote this because this is something that we can write on an index card just kind of get the gist of it right where you know on the exam they may not specifically act like every single thing about every single question of like hey what um what stage doesn't have a a sub phase or what stage does it have a phase right it's not necessarily going to ask that but for when it comes to these theories we definitely want to have just like a general understanding of it so if they're speaking to this like the age age range and we're like okay if they're talking about something and someone later in their senior age life and and and near death and things like that they're not necessarily talking about a mailer right they're they're not talking about her her Theory um but if there's more so speaking to um certain things when it comes to object relations Theory where it's like wait a second this deals with relationships this deals with you know uh impact of you know or upbringing the dynamic between the mother this is what we kind of want to Zone in on and have again that General understanding of these theories as a whole okay Social Work tribe that's it for today's video thank you for tuning in and don't forget to like comment and subscribe uh as I plan to come out with more content and tell a social work friend so you know we don't want to be licensed by ourselves and we want to continue to grow to try and like I always say you got this breathe foreign make sure we're doing at least our two practice questions a day because it helps keep the anxiety at Bay and you know making our own index cards our information guides and uh connecting with the social work buddy that's also studying for an exam to help keep us accountable and give each other that support so you got this all right guys I'll see you next video