15 and 16 - Attachment Flashcards
1- What are the characteristics of attachment in childhood?
Attachment
* An emotional bond with a specific person that is enduring across
space and time
* More than connection between 2 individuals:
- Desire for regular contact
- Distress upon separation
Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
* 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
Main Characteristics of Attachment System
1. Proximity seeking and maintenance (Is caregiver near, attentive, responsive?)
2. Separation distress
3. Safe haven (Effective coregulation, Child feels
secure and loved)
4. Secure base
2- What are the characteristics of attachment in childhood?
Strange Situation proceedure
Mary Ainsworth
* Provided empirical evidence of attachment theory by developing the Strange Situation procedure
- Paradigm designed to systematically assess children’s attachment to a specific caregiver
4 types:
The “Strange Situation”
1. Secure: 60%;
Infant distressed when mom left, but plays on their
own, and seeks comfort upon reunion with mom
2. Avoidant: 15%;
Infant does not display signs of distress upon
separation, played by themselves, and disinterested in mom upon
reunion
3. Anxious/ambivalent: 10%; Infant extremely distressed upon separation, difficulties playing on their own, but not reassured upon reunion with mom and resist parent’s attempt to soothe
4. Disorganized: 15%; Behaviour is contradictory. Seems to want to
approach caregiver but also sees them as a source of fear. Frequently appear dazed and dissociated
3- What are the characteristics of attachment in childhood?
Parenting and differences in attachment
Parents of Securely Attached Children
* Parents’ behaviour:
* Generally supportive/sensitive to child’s needs * Affectionate and expresses frequent positive emotions towards child * Initiates frequent close contact with the child
* Child learns that:
* Proximity seeking is a good strategy to soothe distress
Parents of Avoidantly Attached Children* Parent is consistently unavailable: * Consistently insensitive 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
Parents of Anxiously Attached Children* Parents’ behaviour: * Inconsistent or awkward in reacting to child’s distress * Seems overwhelmed with caregiving
* Child learns that: * Proximity is sometimes 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
Parents of Children with Disorganized Attachment* Parents’ behaviour: * Confuses or frightens child * May be harsh or abusive * Often struggle with severe mental health issues
* Child learns that: * Proximity seeking often results in feeling scared * Caregiver is extremely unpredictable and cannot be trusted
4- What are the characteristics of attachment in childhood?
Other Factors Influencing Attachment
- Infant’s temperament
- Infant’s 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
- Influences parent availability and sensitivity
5- What does attachment look like in adults?
- Adult attachment style is strongly determined by childhood attachment style due to internal working models
- Romantic partners are most common attachment figures in adults
- Best friends too
Internal Working Models
* 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 caregiver and other
attachment figures throughout life are interpreted
* Guide expectations about relationships throughout life
Anxiety and avoidance:
Anxiety Dimension (low to high)
- Vigilance and concerns about rejection
and abandonment
- To what extent is the self worthy of love?
- Low anxiety = self is worthy of love
Avoidance Dimension (low to high) :
- Discomfort with closeness and intimacy
- To what extent are others reliable?
- Low avoidance = others are reliable
Secure (low anxiety, low avoidance)
Comfortable with closeness and interdependence,
but also seeks autonomy
Anxious (high anxiety, low avoidance)
Strong need for closeness but worries that others will reject them because “not
good enough”
Dismissive- avoidant (avoidant) (low anxiety, high avoidance)
Disinterested in closeness and intimacy and fiercely
self-reliant
Fearful-avoidant/ Disorganized (high anxiety, high avoidance)
Strong need for closeness but distrusts others and
sees self as deserving of rejection
- Distribution:
- 56% secure (vs. 60% in kids) * 25% avoidant (vs. 15% in kids)
- 19% anxious (vs. 10% in kids)
Continuous Measurement of Attachment
* 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 partner 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 find it difficult to allow myself to depend on romantic partners.”
Outcomes of Secure vs. Insecure Attachment
* Secure attachment (low anxiety and low avoidance) associated with:
* Better relationship satisfaction
* Higher self-esteem
* Greater tendency to seek out social support
* Better conflict-resolution skills
* Higher life satisfaction
6- Does the adult attachment system function similarly to infants’ attachment system?
1. Proximity seeking and maintenance
Main Characteristics of Attachment
1. Proximity seeking and maintenance
2. Safe haven
3. Secure base
4. Separation distress
- Proximity seeking and maintenance
* 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
Partner Selection Study
(Kirkpatrick & Davis, 1994)* How does attachment style influence partner selection and relationship stability?
* Method: 354 heterosexual couples followed for 3 years
* Time 1 Results:
* No anxious-anxious or avoidant-avoidant pairs
* Relationship satisfaction lower in relationships with insecure attachment
Anxious-Avoidant Pair
* Chronic relationship dissatisfaction
* Anxious partner wants more closeness than avoidant is willing to
provide
* Ends up feeling not good enough and “too much”
* Avoidant partner wants more independence than anxious partner is
willing to accept
* Ends up feeling trapped and suffocated
Partner Selection Study
* 7-14 months later:
* Avoidant and secure men more likely to still be in relationship than anxious men* 30-36 months later:
* Anxious women more likely to still be in relationship than other women
* Strange given relationship satisfaction results from Time 1
* Why are avoidant men and anxious women in more stable relationships?
Stability of Anxious-Avoidant Pair
* Driven by anxious partner
* Anxious women have stable relationships because:
- Strong desire for closeness leads them to persistently pursue avoidant partner
- Avoidant partner’s independence reinforces internal 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
* Explains why people stay in unhappy relationships
* Feel familiar, but not necessarily satisfied
7- Does the adult attachment system function similarly to infants’ attachment system?
2. Safe haven
- Safe haven
Support Seeking in Couples
(Simpson, 1992)
* Does attachment style moderate support seeking in couples when one of the partners is distressed?
* Method: 83 heterosexual couples
* Woman told she will have to complete “an anxiety provoking activity”
* Couple’s interaction in waiting room video-taped while waiting for
activity to begin
* Observers coded behaviors for anxiety and support-seeking
Results:
* More anxiety = related to more support seeking for secures, but less support seeking for avoidants
8- Does the adult attachment system function similarly to infants’ attachment system?
3. Secure base
4. Separation distress
Secure Base Behaviour
(Feeney & Kirkpatrick, 1996)
* What happens when separated from partner when distressed?
* Method: Heterosexual couples participated in stress study
* Women perform stress inducing arithmetic task with partner in the room or while partner is in the next room
* Measured physiological stress response
- heart rate
- blood pressure
Results:
* When separated from partner (vs. partner in the room), both anxious and
avoidant participants (vs. secures) showed elevated heart rate and blood
pressure during stressful task
* Suggests that insecurely attached do not use partner as a secure base
Avoidant Attachment?
* Appear to not care about closeness and separation, BUT show strong physiological response
* So what exactly is being deactivated in avoidants?
* 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
9- Correlates/Consequences of Attachment
(not to know by heart, but know that attachment is studied soo much in many fields)
Correlates/Consequences of Attachment
* Parenting
* Sexual behavior
* Emotion regulation
* Social support
* Caregiving, including later
life
* Health
* Psychopathology
* Friendship networks
* Prosocial behavior
* Empathy
* Conflict
* Intergroup processes
* Political orientation
* Leadership
* Power
* Prejudice & stigma
10- Is attachment style in adulthood ACTUALLY related to early caregiving experiences?
Attachment from Infancy to Adulthood
* Do caregiving experiences in childhood predict adult attachment style?
* Method: Longitudinal study of 707 participants from childhood to
age 18
* Assessed caregiving environment at various points in childhood:
- Maternal sensitivity
- Maternal depression
- Father absence
* Assessed attachment style at age 18
Results:
Less supportive parenting and family instability predicted attachment insecurity in adulthood
* Avoidance at age 18 predicted by:
- Lower maternal sensitivity
- Not consistently living with father
* Anxiety at age 18 predicted by:
- Higher maternal depression
* Evidence that there’s an association between childhood caregiving
experiences and attachment in adulthood!
But…
* Across longitudinal studies, average correlation of 0.15 between childhood caregiving experiences and adult attachment style
* Suggests that some people exhibit incongruent patterns - Positive early caregiving but insecure attachment in adulthood
- Negative early caregiving but secure attachment in adulthood
Foundations Are Important, But Not Fate
* We are shaped by early caregiving experiences, but these foundations are not fate
* What other experiences matter?
* Friendships in childhood are just as important as experiences with caregivers
- Provide opportunities for internal working models to be tested and to have expectations either reinforced or disconfirmed
Same study:
* Assessed friendship quality at various points in childhood
Results: Less supportive parenting, family instability, and lower quality friendships in childhood/adolescence predicted attachment
insecurity
* Avoidance at age 18 predicted by:
- Lower maternal sensitivity
- Not consistently living with father
- Lower social competence in childhood
* Anxiety at age 18 predicted by:
- Higher maternal depression - Lower social competence in childhood
* Effect of friendship experiences is similar to effect of caregiving
experiences
11- How stable are attachment models in adulthood?
Internal Working Models Contribute to Stability
* Internal working models lead to self-fulfilling prophecies
- Confirmation bias : Insecurely attached are more likely to interpret ambiguous relationship info as
threatening
* We select ourselves into situations
- Partner selection study from last class
- Method: Assess people’s attachment style at 2 time points a few weeks apart
- Results at Time 2:
- 70% classified with same attachment model as Time 1 * BUT 30 % different
Who is changing?
Avoidant (33%) and anxious (55%)
12- What contributes to changes in adult attachment styles?
Life Events and Changes to Attachment
* Method: Longitudinal study of about 4000 people (between 6-40
months)
* At multiple time points, reported on:
- Life events experienced since last time point
- Attachment avoidance and anxiety
* Results:
* Many life events lead to temporary changes in attachment avoidance or anxiety * Dating someone new (+) * Partner did something special for me (+) * Getting into an argument with partner (-) * Being physically apart from partner (-) * Work promotion (+) * Being sick (-) * Going on vacation (+)
How enduring are these changes?
* In general, people revert back to their typical level of attachment security
* BUT, about 25% of events led to enduring change in attachment
Increasing Attachment Security
* Age
- People become less anxiously attached as they get older
- Less clear results for avoidance
* Wanting to become more secure
* Fostering more secure mental models
- Anxiously attached: Foster a secure model of self by learning to rely on others less for validation and learning to feel capable and valued in personal domains
- Avoidantly attached: Foster a secure model of others by challenging self to depend on
others and self-disclose more
* Psychotherapy
13- Do we have different attachment styles with different people?
- Method:
- Listed 10 most impactful relationships
- Rated attachment style in each specific relationship
- Assessed general attachment style
- How you are in relationships generally?
Results: - Regardless of general attachment style, the majority of a person’s relationships are
secure - General attachment style is related to the prevalence of your relationships fitting a
specific attachment style relative to other people - Avoidantly attached have more avoidant relationships than other people do
- Anxiously attached have more anxious relationships than other people do
Implications of Multiple Attachment Styles
* Rather than being like a fixed personality trait, attachment is more
like an associative network
- Multiple attachment models but not all are available at the same time
* Helps explain within person fluctuations in attachment
- Suggests that observed fluctuations in attachment style may be a function of
recency of activation
- General attachment style may be a function of frequency of activation
Stability of Attachment in Specific Relationships
* Attachment style is more stable in longer relationships * More entrenched patterns
* Implies that people will have more stable attachment styles with parents than with romantic partners or best friends
14- Putting it all together.
- Attachment at any given moment is determined by:
1. Chronic attachment style (trait) - Influenced by caregiver experiences
- Past important relationships, like friendships * Some major life events
- Age
2. State level of attachment - Current and recent life events
- Most recent interaction with an attachment figure
- Relationship length
