Attachment key terms list Flashcards
Attachment
An emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way process that endures over time. It leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking and serves the function of protecting an infant.
Caregiver
Any person who is providing care for a child, such as a parent, grandparent, sibling or other family member and so on.
Classical conditioning
Learning through association. A neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that it eventually takes on the properties of this stimulus and is able to produce a conditioned response
Continuity hypothesis
The idea that emotionally secure infants fo on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults.
Critical period
A biologically determined period of time, during which certain characteristics can develop. Outside of this time window, such development will not be possible.
Cultural variations
The ways that different groups of people vary in terms of their social practices, and the effects these practices have on development and behaviour.
Deprivation
To be deprived of is to lose something. In the context of child development, deprivation refers to the loss of emotional care that is normally provided by a primary caregiver.
Imprinting
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen at this time it will probably not happen
Insecure-avoidant
A type of attachment which describes those children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others.
Insecure-resistant
A type of attachment which describes those infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction.
Institutionalisation
The effect of institutional care. The term can be applied widely to the effects of institution but out concern focuses specifically on how time spent in an institution such as orphanage can affect the development of children. The possible effects include social, mental and physical underdevelopment. Some of these effects may be irreversible.
Interactional synchrony
When two people interact they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial expressions and body movements. This includes imitating emotions as well as behaviours. This is described as synchrony- when two or more things move in the same pattern.
Internal working model
A mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and control their environment. In the case of attachment, the model relates to a person’s expectations about relationships.
Learning theory
The name given to a group of explanations, which explain behaviour in terms of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher-order thinking.
Monotropy
The idea that the one relationship that the infant has with his/her primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development.
Multiple attachments
Having more than one attachment figure.
Operant conditioning
Learning through reinforcement.
Primary attachment figure
The person who has formed the closest bond with a child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship. This is usually a child’s biological mother, but other people can fulfil the role- an adoptive mother, a father, a grandmother and so on. Throughout this chapter when we say ‘mother’ we are referring to the person who fulfils the role of primary attachment figure.
Reciprocity
Responding to the actions of another with a similar action, where the actions of one partner elicit a response from the other partner. The responses are not necessarily similar, as in interactional synchrony.
Secure attachment
This is a strong and contented attachment of an infant to his or her caregiver, which develops as a result of sensitive responding by the caregiver to the infant’s needs. Securely attached infants are comfortable with social interaction and intimacy. Secure attachment is related to healthy subsequent cognitive and emotional development.
Separation anxiety
The distress shown by an infant when separated. from his/her caregiver. This is not necessarily the child’s biological mother.
Social learning theory
Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded.
Social releasers
A social behaviour or characteristic that elicits caregiving and leads to attachment.
Strange situation
A controlled observation designed to test attachment securely.
