L18 - Attachment I

Question 1

What is Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 1

children are biologically predisposed to develop attachment to caregivers as a means of increasing chances of their survival

attachment is crucial for children’s psychological well-being and forms the basis of personality development

Development and quality of child’s attachments are highly dependent on their experiences with caregivers

Question 2

What are the main characteristics of the attachment system?

Answer 2

1. Proximity seeking and maintenance
2. Separation distress
3. Safe haven
4. Secure base

Question 3

Describe the Strange Situation

Answer 3

paradigm designed to systematically assess children’s attachment to a specific caregiver

caregiver and child play in a room together

examines how children react to:
- separations from caregiver
- reunions with caregiver
- meeting a stranger

attachment styles in the Strange Situation
- Secure: 60%; children distressed when parent left, but able to be soothed by stranger and seeks comfort upon reunion with parent; explores the room when parent is present
- Avoidant: 15%; child does not display signs of distress upon separation from parent, plays by themselves, and disinterested in parent upon reunion
- Anxious/ambivalent: 10%; child extremely distressed upon separation, not soothed by stranger, but takes a long time to be soothed upon reunion with parent/resists parent’s attempt to soothe; stays close to parent when parent is in the room and doesn’t explore much
- Disorganized: 15%; behaviour is contradictory. seems to want to approach parent but also sees them as a source of fear. frequently appear dazed and dissociated

Question 4

How do parents of securely attached children behave?

Answer 4

Parent’s behaviour:
- generally supportive/sensitive to child’s needs
- affectionate and expressed frequent positive emotions towards child
- intitiates frequent close contact with the child

Child learns that:
- proximity seeking is a good strategy to soothe distress

Question 5

How do parents of avoidantly attached children behave?

Answer 5

Parent is consistently unavailable:
- consistently insenstive to the child’s signals
- avoids close contact or rejects child’s bids for contact
- may be angry or impatient

Child learns that:
- proximity seeking is not a good strategy to soothe distress
- Deactivation of attachment system
– attention diverted away from threat
– avoid proximity of caregiver when distressed
– cope with distress by suppressing it or avoiding situations that elicit distress

Question 6

How do parents of anxiously attached children behave?

Answer 6

Parent’s behaviour:
- inconsistent in reacting to child’s distress
- seems overwhelmed with caregiving

Child learns that:
- proximity seeking sometimes is a good strategy to soothe distress, but not always
- hyperactivation of attachment system
– hypervigilance to threat and exaggerated perceptions of threat
– excessive proximity-seeking of caregiver when distressed
– cope with distress by heightening it

Question 7

How do parents of children with disorganized attachment behave?

Answer 7

parent’s behaviour:
- frightens child
- may be harsh or abusic
- oten struggle with severe mental health issues

child learns that:
- proximity seeking often results in feeling scared
- caregiver is extremely unpredictable and cannot be trusted

Question 8

What are other factors that influence attachment?

Answer 8

infant’s temperament
- infants vary in sensitivity and how easy they are to soothe

socialization of gender roles
- males are more likely to develop avoidant (vs. anxious) attachment
- female babies more likely to develop anxious (vs. avoidant) attachment

safety vs. danger of environment
- more likely to develop anxious attachment because being hypervigilant to threats is adaptive

Question 9

How does attachment work in adulthood?

Answer 9

attachment relationships have similar functions in adulthood as they do in childhood
- proximity seeking/maintenance, separation distress, safe have, secure base

romantic partners are most common attachmnet firgures in adults
- best friends too

adult attachment style is strongly determined by childhood attachment styles due to internal working models

Question 10

What are internal working models?

Answer 10

mental representations of the self, of attachment figures, and of relationships in general that is constructed as a result of experiences with caregivers

filter through which interactions with the caregvier and other attachment figures throughout life are interpreted

guide expectations about relationships throughout life

Question 11

In the internal working models’ grid, what does the avoidance dimension measure?

Answer 11

discomfort with closeness and intimacy

to what extent are others reliable?

low avoidance = others are reliable

(vertical line: TOP (low avoidance) to BOTTOM (high avoidance))

Question 12

In the internal working models’ grid, what does the anxiety dimension measure?

Answer 12

vigilance and concerns about rejection and abandonment

to what extent is the self worthy of love?

low anxiety = self is worthy of love

(horizontal line: LEFT (low anxiety) to RIGHT (high anxiety))

Question 13

what is a secure internal working model?

Answer 13

comfortable with closeness and interdependence, but also seeks autonomy

low avoidance - low anxiety

Question 14

What is a anxious internal working model?

Answer 14

strong need for closeness but worries tha tothers will reject them because “not good enough”

low avoidance - high anxiety

Question 15

What is a dismissive-avoidant internal working model?

Answer 15

disinterested in closeness and intimacy and fiercely self-reliant

high avoidance - low anxiety

Question 16

What is a fearful-avoidant/disorganized internal working model?

Answer 16

strong need for closeness but distrusts other and sees self as deserving of rejection

high avoidance - high anxiety

Question 17

Describe Simpson’s study on support seeking in couples (1992).

does attachment style influence support-seeking behaviour in couples?

Answer 17

Method: 83 heterosexual couples
- woman told she will have to complete “an anxiety provoking activity”
- women’s behaviour towards her pasrtner coded for anxiety and support-seeking

Results: more anxiety related to more support seeking for secures, but less support seeking for avoidants
- consistent with children’s behaviour in the Strange Situation

Question 18

What is deactivated in avoidant attachment?

Answer 18

dismissive-avoidants deactivate both overt attachment behaviours AND covert attachment system
- reduced physiological response when imagining separation from partner

fearful avoidants only deactivate overt attachment behaviours, BUT are unable to deactivate covert attachment system
- elevated physiological response when imagining separation from partner

Question 19

What are the adult attachment style distributions?

Answer 19

56% secure (vs. 60% in kids)
25% avoidant (vs. 15% in kids)
19% anxious (vs. 10% in kids)

Question 20

attachmnet is measured using what kind of approach?

Answer 20

researchers tend to no longer categorize people into attachment styles (categorical approach)

attachment is measured using a continuous approach
- degree of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance measures separately
- anxiety
– “I often worry that my partenr doesn’t really love me”
– “My desire to be very close sometimes scares people away”
- avoidance:
– “I prefer not to show a partner how I feel deep down”
– “I fint it difficult to allow myslef to depend on romantic partners”

Question 21

What are the outcomes of a secure vs. an insecure attachment?

Answer 21

secure attachment (low anxiety and low avoidance) associated with:
- higher self-esteem
- greater tendency to seek out social support
- better conflict-resolution skills
- higher life satisfaction
- better relationship satisfaction

Question 22

how do attachment style and partner selection relate to each other?

Answer 22

adults seeking long-term relationships identify responsive caregiving qualities as most attractive in potential dating partner
- attentiveness
- warmth
- sensitivity

BUT, not everyone ends up with a securely attached partner

Question 23

Describe Kirkpatrick & Davis’ study on attachment and partner selection (1994).

how does attachmen tstyle influence partner selection and relationship stability?

Answer 23

Method: 354 heterosexual couples followed for 3 years

Time 1 Results:
- no anxious-anxious or avoidant-avoidant pairs
- relationship satisfaction lower in relationships with at least one insecurely attached partner
- lowest relationship satisfaction in anxious-avoidant couples

At follow-up 3 years later
- avoidant men more likely to still be in their relationships than anxious or secure men
- anxious women more likely to still be in their relationship than avoidant or secure women

strange, given relationship satisfaction results from Time 1
- why are avoidant men and anxious women in more stable relationships?

Question 24

Explain how anxious-avoidant pairs work.

Answer 24

chronic relationship dissatisfaction

anxious partner wants more closeness than avoidant is willing to provide
- ends up feeling not good enough and “too much”

avoidant partern wants more independence than anxious partner is willing to accept
- ends up feeling trapped and suffocated

Question 25

Describe the stability of anxious-avoidant pairs.

Answer 25

driven by anxious partner

Anxious women have stable relationships because
- strong desire for closeness leads them to persistently pursue and accomodate avoidant partner
- avoidant partner’s independence reinforces internal working model of self as not worthy of love and too much in relationships

Avoidant men have stable relationships because eventually cave into anxious partner’s pursuit
- reinforces idea that others cannot be trustsed to meet their needs and will be intrusive

suggests that sometimes people stay in unhappy relationships because they feel familiar and are consistent with internal working models