Attachment: Key Vocabulary

Question 1

What is this term referring to?
A term used by Bowlby to describe people who don’t show concern or affection for other people and show no or very little remorse or guilt.

Answer 1

Affectionless psychopathy

Question 2

What does the ‘asocial stage’ refer to?

Answer 2

Stage from 0-6 weeks where infant may respond to faces or voices but an attachment has not been formed.

Question 3

Define attachment

Answer 3

Two-way enduring emotional tie to another person.

Question 4

What is contact comfort?

Answer 4

The physical and emotional comfort than an infant receives from being close to its mother.

Question 5

What is the Continuity Hypothesis?

Answer 5

The idea that early relationships with caregivers predict their relationships in adulthood.

Question 6

What is meant by the critical period?

Answer 6

A time period where an attachment has to form or else it never will.

Question 7

What type of attachment is this?
Child shows equal affection to strangers as they do people that they know well.

Answer 7

Disinhibited attachment

Question 8

What is the evolutionary explanation?

Answer 8

Explanation for behaviour such as attachment that views it as a means for increasing survival chances.

Question 9

What is imprinting?

Answer 9

Where offspring follow the first large-moving object that they see.

Question 10

What type of attachment is this?
Infants aged 2-7 months can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people but does not show stranger anxiety

Answer 10

Indiscriminate attachment

Question 11

What is this defining?
A behaviour that is instinctive and does not need to be learned.

Answer 11

Innate behaviour

Question 12

What type of attachment is this?
Attachment classification within the Strange Situation where the child shows low stranger and separation anxiety in addition to showing little response upon reunion with their caregiver.

Answer 12

Insecure avoidant attachment

Question 13

What type of attachment is this?
Attachment classification within the Strange Situation where the child shows high stranger and separation anxiety in addition to resisting comfort upon reunion with their caregiver.

Answer 13

Insecure resistant attachment

Question 14

Define institutionalisation

Answer 14

The effects of growing up in an institution, such as a children’s home or orphanage.

Question 15

Define interactional synchrony

Answer 15

Infant and caregiver reflect each other’s actions and emotions in a coordinated manner.

Question 16

What is this referring to?
Mental representation of our relationship with our primary caregiver that becomes a template for future relationships.

Answer 16

Internal working model

Question 17

What is the learning theory?

Answer 17

A behaviourist explanation that suggest that attachments develop through classical/and or operant conditioning.

Question 18

What is the maternal deprivation hypothesis?
Who was it proposed by?

Answer 18

Proposed by John Bowlby in 1951.
The theory states that separation from the mother in early childhood can harm the child’s psychological and social development.

Question 19

What is this referring to?
The concept that infants have an innate capacity and drive to attach to one primary caregiver or attachment figure.

Answer 19

Monotropy

Question 20

What is privation?

Answer 20

Occurs when a child has no opportunity to form a relationship with a parental figure or when such relationship is distorted due to their treatment.

Question 21

What is this referring to?
The way that infants try to maintain physical contact or to be close to their attachment figure.

Answer 21

Proximity seeking

Question 22

What is reciprocity?

Answer 22

Infant and caregiver match each other’s responses.

Question 23

What attachment type is this?
Most desirable classification within the Strang Situation where the child shows separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and is easily comforted upon reunion with their caregiver.

Answer 23

Secure attachment

Question 24

What is this referring to?
Refers to the notion that the effects of environmental stimuli on the development stimuli on the developing organism are stronger during certain periods of development.

Answer 24

Sensitive period

Question 25

What is separation anxiety?

Answer 25

Degree of distress shown by the child when separated from the caregiver.

Question 26

What are social releasers?

Answer 26

Innate behaviours shown by an infant that lead to a caregiver’s response.

Question 27

What is this referring to?
Infants aged 7 months tend to show a strong attachment to one particular person and tend to be wary of strangers.

Answer 27

Specific attachment

Question 28

What was the Strange Situation?

Answer 28

A standardised observational procedure involving short separations and reunions between an infant and their caregiver.

Question 29

What is stranger anxiety?

Answer 29

Degree of distress shown by an infant when with unfamiliar people/strangers.

Question 30

What is this referring to?
An aspect of personality concerned with emotional dispositions and reactions and their speed and intensity; the term is used to refer to the prevailing mood or mood pattern of a person.

Answer 30

Temperament