Attachment & the Family Environment Flashcards
Romanian Adoption Study
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Behaviourism & Parent-Child Bond
Parent-child bond simply result of classical conditioning
Food is basis of parent to child bond
Eliminates complexities of caregiver relationship
Rules out other caregivers (e.g. parents who don’t breast feed)
Harry harlow Study
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Attachment Theory
Children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments
Caregiver provides a secure base from which children can explore the world
Innate evolutionary basis combined with experiences with caregiver
Competence Motivated Infant
Caregiver as a secure base
Presence of caregiver provides sense of security that provides with sense of security that allows to explore environment and become knowledgeable
Caregiver serves as haven of safety during threat or insecurity
Derive comfort and pleasure from being near caregiver
Infants develop attachment to caregiver
Internal Working Model of Attachment
Mental representation of the self, of attachment figures, and of relationships in general
Based on perception of extent to which caregivers can be depended on to satisfy needs/provide security
Guides expectations of relationships throughout life
Strange Situation
See notes
Secure Attachment
50-60%
Use mother as a secure base during initial part of session
Leave side to explore toys available
Occasionally look back to check on mother or show a toy
Usually distressed to some degree when mother leaves, especially when totally alone
Glad to see mother when she returns
Insecure/Resistant
9%
Clingy in beginning, don’t explore toys
Get very upset when mother leaves
When mom returns reestablish contact with mother but rebuff her efforts at comforting
Insecure/Avoidant
15%
Avoid mother, pay little attention
Fail to greet her during reunions and ignore her while she is in room
Don’t care when caregiver leaves or returns
Disorganized/Disoriented
15%
No consistent pattern of emotion/behaviour
Confused/mixed emotions (e.g. fearful smile)
Dazed or disoriented, may freeze behaviour
Want to approach caregiver but also regard her as source of fear to withdraw from
Higher among maltreated infants, parents with their own difficulties in modes of attachment, preschoolers from low socioeconomic backgrounds
Strange Situation Criticism
Requires substantial resources
Attachment should be measured along multiple continuous dimensions
Situation is no longer so strange
Attachment is only one factor
Parental Sensitivity
Caregiving behavior involving expression of warmth and contingent and consistent responsiveness to child needs
Strong predictor of secure attachment
Parents of Insecure/Resistant
Inconsistent, anxious, overwhelmed by caregiving in early caregiving
Sometimes respond promptly to distress, sometimes don’t
Parents of Insecure/Avoidant
Unresponsive, indifferent, emotionally unavailable
May reject attempts at closeness
Parents of Disorganized/Disoriented
Sometimes exhibit abusive, frightening, or disoriented behaviour
Unpredictable behaviour for the infant
Caregiver may struggle with trauma, abuse, high stress, or mental health issues
Circle of Security
Parents reflect on representations of how parents and children should interact
Therapists to change maladaptive representations
20 weeks = developed more positive representations and number of disorganized children decreased
Attachment and Biobehavioural Catch Up (ABC)
Change parent behaviours
Teach parents to produce nurturance, follow child lead, avoid frightening behaviours
Give feedback during child parent interactions
Effective at changing parenting behaviours and child security
Family
Group that involves at least one adult related to the child by birth, marriage, adoption, or foster status and who is responsible for providing basic necessities as well as love, support, safety, stability, and opportunities for learning
Family Structure
Number of and relationships amongst the people living in a household
Simple Stepfamily
New stepparent joins another parent and their children
Complex/Blended Stepfamily
Both new stepparent and stepsiblings
Family Dynamics
How family members interact through various relationships (e.g. child to mom, child to dad, mom to dad, siblings together)
Socialization
Process where children acquire values, standards, skills, knowledge, and behaviours regarded as appropriate for present/future roles in their culture
Discipline
Set of strategies and behaviours parents use to teach children how to behave properly
Internalization
Child learns and accepts reasons for a desired behaviour and permanently changes behaviour
Other Oriented Induction
Reasoning focused on effects of behaviour on others
Effective at promoting internalization
Also teaches empathy for others
Most common form of discipline
Punishment
Negative stimulus that follows a behaviour to reduce likelihood that behaviour will occur again
E.g. time out, taking away privileges
Do not teach child how to behave in the future
Parenting Style
Constellation of parenting behaviours and attitudes that set emotional climate of parent-child interactions (2 main dimensions)
Degree of parental warmth and responsiveness
Degree of parenting control and demandingness
Authoritative Parenting
Demanding but also warm and responsive (high warmth, high control)
See notes for more info
Authoritarian Parenting
Cold, unresponsive to needs (low warmth, high control)
See notes for more info
Permissive Parenting
Responsible to needs/wishes but overly lenient (high warmth, low control)
See notes for more info
Uninvolved Parenting
Low in demandingness and responsiveness (disengaged) (low warmth, low control)
See notes for more info
Coercive Cycles
Noncompliance evokes harsher parenting which leads to more externalizing of child problems
Child Maltreatment
Action or failure to act by an adult that either results in physical or emotional harm to a child or puts child at risk of serious harm
5 Types of Maltreatment
Neglect: failure of a caregiver to provide physical and psychological necessities of life to a child
Physical abuse: application of unreasonable force to a child
Emotional harm: patterns of behaviour in which caregiver demeans, rejects, repeatedly criticizes, or withholds love from child or otherwise communicates to a child that they are worthless, unloved, unwanted
Sexual abuse: sexual acts or sexual exploitation involving children (touching and exposure to sexual content)
Exposure to family violence: child being exposed to violence occurring between parent/caregiver and other family members
Polyvictimization
Many abused children experience more than one form of maltreatment