Attachment Flashcards
(14 cards)
Reciprocity
A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Interactional synchrony
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated (synchronised) way.
Stages of attachment
Qualitatively different infant behaviours surrounding the attachment to others that are linked to specific ages and that all babies go through in the same order.
Father
In attachment research the father is anyone who takes on the role of the main male caregiver. This can be but is not necessarily the biological father.
Animal studies
In psychology these are studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical reasons or practical reasons. Practical reasons because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals.
Attachment
A close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
Primary caregiver
The person who spends most time with the baby, caring for its needs.
Primary attachment figure
The person to whom the baby has the strongest attachment with.
Monotropic
A term sometimes used to describe Bowlby’s theory. This theory is that one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to a child’s development.
Critical period
The time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all.
Sensitive period
Bowlby proposed the sensitive period as a time after the critical period in which attachment can still form, but it will be much more difficult.
Internal working model
Our mental representations of the world. In attachment research, this would be the representation we have of our relationship to our caregiver. This model affects our future relationships because it carries our perception of what relationships are like.
Maternal deprivation
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother (or mother-substitute).
Institutionalisation
A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting (e.g. an orphanage). In attachment research, we are interested in the effects of institutional care on children’s attachment and subsequent development.
