Attachement Flashcards
(31 cards)
What is attachment according to bowlby and ainsworth?
A lasting psychological connectedness between two human beings (bowlby)
A affectionate tie that one person or animal forms between himself and another specific one - a tie that binds together in space and endures over time (ainsworth)
What is the behavioural theory propose about attachment? (Dollars and miller)
Infants form an attachment with their primary caregiver by associating food with the mother.
Before: Neutral stimulus is mother
Unconditioned stimulus is food = unconditioned response is pleasure
During learning: UCS is food + CS is mother = UCR is pleasure
After learning: CS is mother = CS is pleasure
What have orphanage studies shown ?
Developmentally delayed, unable to form relationships and inappropriately friendly (Bender and Yarnell, 1941)
Skoda and Skeels (1949)
Orphanage children who were moved to a mental institution were adopted by a resident and given attention were more likely to develop normally and contribute to society.
Who was bowlby and what was his theory and explain it?
Psychiatrist working with emotionally disturbed children
Maternal deprivation hypothesis:
-It takes on an evolutionary approach, he suggested children have an innate need to form attachments for survival as they are adaptive. Warmth, food, attention etc.
- social releasers = babies have inborn physiological and behavioural tendencies to unlock an innate drive in adults to care for them (behavioural=cooing, smiling, Physiological= round face, big eyes, rolled arms)
- critical period= infant must form attachment during the ages of 3-6 months if not they will have difficulty forming future relationships
Monotropy = form only one single attachment with a primary caregiver.
Internal working model: template for future relationships which is based on monotropic attachment.
What did lorenz find?
Half of batch of geese eggs were separated into an incubator to hatch in front of Lorenz or their biological mothers.
Geese whoever they hatched in front of showed preferential behaviour towards them following them around
This is known as imprinting( forming an attachment with the first large moving object you see from birth)
What characterises phase 1 of bowlby development of attachment in infancy?
-pre attachment (birth to six weeks)
-crying orienting, cuddling, grasping and clinging directed towards any available adult
-Behaviours designed to attract attention of adult caregivers
-face like stimuli elicit more attention than abstract patterns
-Infants are best able to hear sounds in the range of the human voice
-adult humans are attractive to infants
(Social releasers)
What characterises phase 2 of the development of attachment infancy (bowlby) ?
Attachment in the making (6 weeks to 6-8 months)
- Discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar faces and sounds (more smiling at primary caregiver)
- develops expectations about the effects of their behaviours and the reactions of caregivers (crying elicits comfort reaction, smiling elicits positive reactions.)
- They do not protest when they get separated from the caregiver ( no understanding of person permanence, cognitive concepts not yet developed enough for clear cut attachment)
What characterises phase 3 of development of attachment in infancy
Clear cut attachment (6-8 months to 18 months- 2 years)
- person permanence established - the attachment to familiar caregiver becomes evident.
- infant becomes responsible for maintaining proximity- crawling, walking
- Infants show separation anxiety and get upset when an adult on whom they rely leaves them
- This anxiety increase b/w 6-15 months, depends on maternal responsiveness.
What is ainsworth strange situation?
It is a controlled observation that assesses infants attachment type with their caregiver (mother)
Used on 12-24 month old infants
What attachment styles did ainsworth identify?
1) Secure (70%) - Distress. Positive and Happy when mother returns.
2) Insecure attachment (30%): Avoidant attachment (15%) - No distress. Infant shows little interest/unconcerned when mother returns resistant attachment (15%)- intense distress. Child approaches mother, but resists contact, may even push her away. Disorganised attachment (this style was discovered later by main (1990) Mix of avoidant and ambivalent- confused behaviours
What is the strengths of strange situations?
Unique combination of experimental and clinical methods
Allows controlled opportunity for natural interactions
Highly reliable
Well validated
-repeatedly linked to maternal behaviour and developmental outcomes
What are the limitations of strange situations?
Designed to only be used by 12-18 month old infants
Labour intensive and costly
Yields categorical data rather than developmental linear methods
Distribution across classifications is uneven
-limitations in data analysis techniques.
What is the Attachment Q-sort?
It is an assessment for attachment types
-set of 100 items representing 7 constructs of attachment behaviour based on the attachment behaviour system
- mother observes infant at home fo a set period of time
- sorted into categories ranging from most characteristic to least characteristic of an infant
- compared to the ideal sorting for a typically “secure infant”
- infant can be scored from -1 to +1 for security
What is the strength of attachment Q-Sort test?
Home observation method
-naturalistic
Linear scoring
-allows for more detailed quantitative analysis
What is the limitations of attachment Q-sort?
- Labour intensive
- Training in observation and sorting
- Does not account for attachment styles
- -1 =insecure
- +1 = secure
Intended to complement rather than replace the strange situation.
What predictors for maternal care/ sensitivity for attachment types is there?
Secure infants: sensitive and responsive to infant signals
-emotionally expressive, flexible, psychologically accessible, accepting and co operating
Avoidant infants: described as rejecting
-slow to respond, uncomfortable with contact, display anger and irritation rigid, interfering
Resistant infants: inconsistently responsive
-relatively insensitive, less rejecting, displayed little spontaneous affection.
What is infant temperament and how does it affect attachment?
Temperament refers to a set of innate or inborn traits that organise a child’s approach to the world.
These temperament types can then affect how a caregiver approaches them which can then affect there attachment types.
What are Thomas and Chess’s Temperament types?
Easy babies:
-40% of infants; adjust easily to a new situation, quickly establish routines, are generally cheerful and easy to calm.
Difficult/hard work babies:
-10% of infants; slow to adjust to new experiences , likely to react negatively and intensely to stimuli and events.
Slow to warm up babies:
-15% of infants; somewhat difficult at first but become easier over time.
Not all infants fell into these groups, thought to have nine dimensions.
What evidence is there that behavioural dimensions of temperament contribute to attachment type formed?
Becky and Rovine found that irritability and anger of a child would influence the type of Subgroup of attachment type they formed.
What did Sroufe (1985) suggest about how maternal care and temperament to influence attachment?
Maternal care determines major attachment type formed but infant temperament determines which subgroup of attachment they go into.
Attachment security is determined by maternal care but attachment security is determined by maternal care but temperament determines the particular from in which insecurity is expressed.
Temperament determines the behaviours with which the caregiver is confronted, but temperament can be transformed by the type of care provided.
Temperament determines the nature of appropriate care - what is responsive care for one infant would not necessarily be responsive for another
What did Schaffer and Emerson find out about fathers?
First attachment is not always father.
By 18 months 80% of infants formed attachment with father alongside mothers
Attachments can form a lot more slowly
-Weakens bowlby‘s theory of monotropic attachment
-most fathers have limited opportunities to form an attachment compared to mothers
What has happened to infant attachments as a result of increased maternal employment?
- Increasing number of families rely on two incomes for economic survival or comfort
Less opportunity for mothers to form attachment as there are fewer attachment relevant situations occurring in her care and they will occur in the care of someone else.
this can result in low availability and repeated situations=slower development of attachment, increase in insecure attachments and/ or choice of someone else as primary attachment
Or Repeated separations and reunions help infant to learn separation is temporary which increases confidence and promotes attachment security.
How do infants with certain attachment types express their emotions and attachment needs? According to Ainsworth
Secure infants: express their emotions for comfort and protection freely and directly
Avoidant infants: Restrict their emotional expression of attachment needs
Resistant infants: exaggerate their emotional expression of attachment needs.
What did Crittenden suggest about infants emotional regulation?
attachment strategies are best described in terms of the extent to which they rely on affective and cognitive information
Security: Marked by an appropriately balanced approach that intergrates booth affective and cognitive information
Avoidance: Characterised by reliance on cognitive information with the exclusion of affective information
Resistance: Characterised by reliance on affective information at the expense of excluding salient cognitive information
