Abstract
THE MENTAL IMAGES OF MOTHERS ON AREAS OF BABY'S DEVELOPMENT
Mothers, with whom the child spends most of their time and the environment, where he/she lives, play a significant role in his/her development. Especially in the infancy period, which covers the first two years of the life, the knowledge of the mothers concerning the infant development assists in the healthy development of the infant, and therefore helps the being of an individual adapting the society. The fact that mothers realize effectively their parenthood roles for meeting the infant’ needs is related with their infant development knowledge. The purpose of this study is to determine the mental images (metaphors) of the mothers concerning the development fields of the infants by using the metaphor technique. The sample group of the study consisted of 60 mothers with middle socioeconomic level, who had infants aged between 12 and 18 months and were living in the city center of Malatya. In the study conducted in a qualitative manner, pattern of phenomenology was used. Content analysis method was used to analyze the data. The responses given by the parents were converted into different categories through content analysis and were interpreted in the form of tables. The results of the study revealed that cognitive development was the field of development where the most metaphors related to the development fields of the infants were determined.
Keywords
Infancy, areas of development, mental image, metaphor.
