Attachment - Key Words Flashcards
(22 cards)
Imitation
Copying
Reciprocity
A description of how people act. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Interactional Sycrony
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.
Stages of Attachment
- Asocial Stage: Not recognising and forming bonds with carers. Can’t distinguish between people and inanimate objects.
Multiple Attachments
Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one true attachment to a main character.
Animal Studies
Animal studies in psychology are carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons - practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals.
Learning theory
A set of theories from the behaviorist approach to psychology, that emphasize the role of learning in the acquisition of behavior. Explanations for learning of behavior include classical and operant conditioning.
Monotropic
A term sometimes used to describe Bowlbys theory. The mono means ‘one’ and indicates
Attachment
An attachment can be defined as a close two-way bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own social security.
Internal Working Model
The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like.
Critical Period
This refers to the time within an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Lorenz and Harlow noted that attachment in birds and monkeys had critical periods. Bowlby extended the ideas to humans, proposing that human infants have a sensitive period after which it will be much more difficult to form an attachment.
Strange Situation
A controlled observation designed to test attachment security. Infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver.
Secure Attachment
Generally thought of as the most desirable attachment type, associated with psychologically healthy outcomes. In the Strange Situation this is shown by moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion.
Insecure-Avoidant Attachment
An attachment type characterised by low anxiety but weak attachment. In the Strange Situation this is shown by low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion - an avoidance of the caregiver.
Insecure-Resistant Attachment
An attachment type characterised by strong attachment and high anxiety. In the Strange Situation this is shown by high levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resistance to be comforted at reunion.
Cultural Variations
‘Cultural’ refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people. Cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups. In attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of different attachment types.
Maternal Deprivation
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual damage.
Institutionalisation
A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting. The term ‘institution’ refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time. In such places there is often very little emotional care provided. In attachment research we interested in the effects of institutional care of children’s attachments and subsequent development.
Orphan Studies
These concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them. An orphan is a child whose parents have either died or have abandoned them permanently.
Childhood Relationships
Affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates, and with adults such as teachers.
Adult Relationships
Those relationships the child goes on to have later in life as an adult. These include friendships and working relationships but most critically relationships with romantic partners and the person’s own children.
Internal Working Models
The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver.
