Attachment & The Self

Question 1

Attachment

Answer 1

Enduring affection between two individuals

Question 2

The Development of Attachment

Answer 2

• Newborns prefer social stimuli, cry to summon caregivers = preattachment
• 6 weeks: begin to show social smiles, but still no specific attachments (in the making)
• 6 months: attached to specific individuals - happier with them, smile more at them (clear-cut attachment)
• 8 months: begin to show separation anxiety from attachment figure specifically
• 1.5 years on: mutually-regulated reciprocal relationships, less separation anxiety = reciprocal relationship

Question 3

Psychosexual development

Answer 3

• Everything is about “drives” and (sexual) pleasure
• We bond to things that increase pleasure and relieve pain
• First attachment formed to mom through breastfeeding
• Mother-infant relationships forms the basis of all later relationships

Question 4

Freud: good and bad

Answer 4

Good
- There’s something right about the opposite-sex parent thing
- An explanation for differing personality types
- Importance of early experience
- Importance of parenting styles
- Cognition/interpretation of child plays a role

Bad
- Mother-infant bond no necessarily paramount, and probably not based on breast-feeding
- Never studied actual children

Question 5

Learning Theory Approach

Answer 5

Behaviorist: how does the environment provide positive and negative reinforcements for behavior
- Eating is rewarding, mom is associated with that behavior: infants attach to mom
- Child development squarely on parents’ shoulders

Criticism
- There is more to attachment than who feeds you
- No account of children’s interpretations/ thoughts of relationships
- Children become attached to bad/neglectful parents

Question 6

Bonding

Answer 6

• Biological/evolutionary perspective
• Bonding (not just eating) made our predecessors more successful

Question 7

Attachment Behaviors

Answer 7

• Smiling: smiling feedback loops
• Clinging
• Crying: extremely aversive, leads to parent-infant co-regulation of emotional states

Question 8

Bowlby’s “Internal Working Models”

Answer 8

• Not just attachment behaviors
• Early attachment relationships lead infants to develop mental representations of the self, of attachment figures, and of relationships in general
• Guides relationship throughout life

Question 9

Attachment Style: Secure Attachment

Answer 9

• Use mother as a “secure base” from which to explore
• Mostly OK with strangers when mom is in room
• Very upset when mom leaves
• Easily comforted upon return
• 60% Canadian babies

Question 10

Attachment Style: Insecure-Avoidant Attachment

Answer 10

• Explore no problem (doesn’t use mom as secure base)
• Fine with strangers
• Might not care that mom leaves
• Avoidance of mom when she returns
• 15% Canadian babies

Question 11

Attachment Style: Insecure-Ambivalent/Resistant

Answer 11

• Less prone to explore - seem clingy
• Always uncomfortable around strangers
• Extremely upset when mom leaves
• Inconsolable (even by her) when she returns
• 10% Canadian babies

Question 12

Attachment Style: Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment

Answer 12

• Babies who are very inconsistent in their reactions
• Sometimes dazed/ disoriented
• Sometimes fearful
• Linked to later aggression issues and psychopathology
• More likely to have been abused
• 15% Canadian babies

Question 13

Critiques of Stranger Situation

Answer 13

• Too categorical - dimensions of security might be better
• Less “stranger” in a world where there’s lots of daycare/working parents

Question 14

Continuity of Securely Attached Attachment style

Answer 14

• Securely attached infants are more sociable 3-year-olds
• Better at understanding others’ emotions, more prosocial, empathetic
• Better at handling stress
• Predict relationship with mother in adulthood
• Predict friend/romantic relationship styles in adulthood
• Predict academic success

Question 15

Parental Sensitivity

Answer 15

Consistently responsive caregiving - in timing and in kind

Question 16

Nurture in attachment style (twin studies)

Answer 16

Children can have different styles with different parents
- Twin studies suggest most variation due to environment, not genes

Question 17

Internal Working Models

Answer 17

Continuity result of developing a model, or theory, of how relationships go - people will treat me/each other like X

Securely attached babies expect other ‘moms’ to return, insecurely ones expect them to leave

Question 18

Day Care

Answer 18

Large studies suggest children in daycare no more likely to be insecurely attached
- Daycare can even serve a compensatory function
- Only time daycare seems to relate to attachment is in low quality daycare when parents also insensitive

Question 19

Nature for Attachment

Answer 19

Individual difference seem to be partially explained by different alleles of genes related to dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin
- Oxytocin: the neurotransmitter that is produced during bonding, cuddling etc.

Question 20

Attachment Figures

Answer 20

We attach to multiple individuals
- Insecure child-father attachment may be more linked with conduct problems
- One secure relationship may buffer from risks of insecure ones
- The removal of any attachment figure is extremely stressful for children

Question 21

The Development of Self

Answer 21

• 2-4 mos learn their contingency with the environment, and display positive/negative emotion
• Young infants prefer those who imitate/act contingently with them
• Separation anxiety at 8 months
• 11 months, joint attention, directing others’ attention
• Age 2, recognize self in photographs, begin to show self-conscious emotions

Pass Mirror Test by 18 ~ 24 months

Some hints of its presence and development throughout infancy