Attachment theory Flashcards

1
Q

Bowlby

A
  • attachment begins in infancy
  • the primary care giver is the one that will most shape the child’s personality (usually the mother)
  • bonding starts at birth
  • attachment formation needs caregivers presence in early stages
  • monotropy- innate tendency to attach to an adult female
  • multiple attachments are common
  • attachment is innate
  • attachment peaks between 12-18 months
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2
Q

Monotropy

A

-Bowlby- innate tendency to attach to one adult female

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3
Q

Preattachment

A
  • birth to 12 weeks

- babies orient to their mothers

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4
Q

Indiscriminate attachment

A

8/12 weeks to 6 months

-allows strangers to handle, infants become attached to one or more persons in the environment

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5
Q

Clear-cut attachment

A

6-24 months

  • preferential attachment, separation anxiety, object permanence, stranger anxiety
  • at later part there is weakened stranger anxiety and other attachment figures may be present
  • after 25 months the mother figure is seen as independent
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6
Q

Harlow’s experiments

A
  • Rhesus monkeys
  • babies separated from their Mum
  • ‘surrogate mother’ madde from wire or cloth given
  • infants preferred the cloth covered surrogate as it was comforting
  • they chose comfort over food
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7
Q

Ainsworth’s experiments

A
  • strange situation experiment
  • 2x separation adn 2x reunion episodes
  • infant observed in the presence and absence of its mother and a stranger in 7 different combinations
  • child is Type A, Type B or Type C (sometimes Type D)
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8
Q

Strange situation experiments

A

-Ainsworth
Situation 1: both mother and infant enter the room
Situation 2: stranger joins them
Situation 3: Mother leaves now; infant is left with stranger
Situation 4: Mother returns and the stranger leaves
Situation 5: Infant left alone; mother leaves now
Situation 6: stranger comes back and tries to comfort the child
Situation 7: Mother comes back and comforts, stranger leaves

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9
Q

Type A

A
  • Ainsworth Strange situation
  • Anxious Avoidant: 15%
  • indifferent when Mum is leaving or entering but distressed when left.
  • Stranger can comfort easily
  • highly environment directed, low attachment behaviour
  • perpetrators of bullying have this pattern
  • greater in the West
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10
Q

Type B

A
  • Ainsworth Strange situation
  • Secure: 70%
  • plays independently when mother is in the vicinity (secure base effect)
  • distressed when mother is leaving
  • seeks contact on return of the mother and easily comforted
  • not comforted by stranger
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11
Q

Type C

A

Ainsworth Strange situation

  • Anxious resistant-15%
  • fussy and cries a lot, not secure in presence of mother
  • very distressed when mother is leaving but not easily comforted when she returns
  • ambivalent when she returns
  • resists stranger’s efforts to pacify
  • common in victims of bullying
  • occurs more in Israeli and Japanese families
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12
Q

Type D

A

Ainsworth Strange situation

  • Disorganised type
  • occurs in maltreated or maternally deprived children
  • child has an insecure, dazed look and acts as if frightened by the mother
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13
Q

Attachment style

A
  • anxious-avoidant, secure, anxious resistant, disorganised

- it is a function of the quality of the caregiver not the temperament of a child

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14
Q

Main

A
  • devised a semi-structured adult attachment interview with 15 items
  • AAI
  • infantile attachment predicts adult attachment
  • secure autonomous, dismissing, entangled, unresolved disorganised
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15
Q

Secure autonomous

A
  • those who had secure attachment provide spontaneous and coherent answers with the ability to talk freely about negative experiences in childhood
  • Secure- Type B
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16
Q

Dismissing

A
  • -dismissing of experiences
  • had avoidant (insecure) pattern and minimise their experiences
  • do not use colourful metaphors during discourse
  • Type A
  • anxious avoidant
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17
Q

Entangled

A
  • those who had insecure but ambivalent (enmeshed) attachment use multiple emotionally laden responses and ramble excessively
  • Type C- resistant
18
Q

Unresolved disorganised

A
  • broken continuity and interrupted the logical thoughts

- seen in those who had insecure disorganised attachment pattern- Type D

19
Q

Spitz

A
  • anaclitic depression or hospitalism
  • when a child is hospitalised they are separated from their primary caregiver and experience anaclitic (object loss) depression
  • can be counterproductive to a child’s development
  • recovery is good if te maternal deprivation is kept minimum
  • surrogate mothering helps the infant when having the anaclitic depression to some extent
20
Q

Mahler

A
  • described the development of a sense of identity in young children, independent of their mothers
  • Separation-individuation theory
  • normal autism
  • symbiosis
  • separation-individuation phase
21
Q

Normal autism

A
  • 0-2 months

- child spends most the time asleep

22
Q

Symbiosis

A
  • 2-5 months
  • inner and outer world studied via senses
  • perceives mother and self as one unit
23
Q

Separation-individuation phase

A
  • DPRO
  • differentiation- 5-10 months- realises mother and self are not the same
  • practicing- 10-18months- becomes more interested in the environment, explores
  • rapprochement- 18-24 months- able to explore alone but requires comfort and reassurance on return
  • object constancy- 2-5 years- understand that the mother will not be lost if temporarily away- able to function independently
24
Q

Differentiation

A
  • 5-10 months
  • sub phase of separation-individuation
  • appreciates difference between mother and self
25
Q

Practicing

A

10-18 months

  • sub-phase of separation-individuation theory
  • gradual increase in interest on the environment, practices exploration
26
Q

Rapprochement

A

18-24 months
sub-phase of separation-individuation
-alternating drives to be autonomous and dependent
-able to explore alone but requires comfort and reassurance on return

27
Q

Object permanence

A

2-5 years
sub-phase of separation-individuation
-understand that the mother will not be lost if temporariliy away; hence able to function independently

28
Q

Rutter

A

-deprivation vs privation

29
Q

Deprivation

A
  • Rutter
  • attachment is formed but lost temporarily
  • if for a short time then protest-despair-attachment phases are seen
  • more common in 8m-3 years
  • boys show more deprivation features
  • more prominant if care is aggressive
  • in prolonged deprivation, separation anxiety sets in-increased clinginess, psychosomatic complaints, vacillation and aggression are seen
30
Q

Privation

A
  • Rutter
  • refers to the non-formation of attachment
  • very rare
  • leads to affectionless psychopathy and developmental retardation
  • attention seeking, lack of guilt, antisocial behaviour and indiscriminate attachment patterns are noted
  • only slightly reversible
31
Q

Imprinting

A
  • primitive form of learning during early development (critical or sensitive phase)
  • Lorenz described in goslings
  • very resistant to change
  • highly sensitive to a certain stimulus that provokes a specific behaviour pattern
32
Q

Innate releasing mechanism

A

IRM

  • sensory mechanism selectively responsive to a specific external stimulus and responsible for triggering the stereotyped motor response- fixed action pattern
  • dog sees a cat running away
33
Q

Fixed action pattern

A
  • inherent pattern of behaviour initiated by specific stimuli
  • consists of species-specific, stereotyped movements
  • e.g following behaviour in goslings, dog chases cat
34
Q

Object relations theory

A
  • Melanie Klein main player
  • ego exists only in relation to other objects, which may be external or internal
  • also Winnicot, Fairbairn, Kernberg, Guntrip, Balint
35
Q

Kleinian theory

A
  • uses play interpretation
  • oedipal development occurs earlier than what Freud envisaged
  • infant has instinctual knowledge of the body
  • weaning is symbolically equivalent to castration
  • defence mechanisms
36
Q

Kleinian defences

A
SIPDOG
Splitting
Introjection
Projective identification
Denial
Omnipotence
Grandiosity
37
Q

Winnicott’s concepts

A
  • Transitional zone: psychological development occurs in a zone between reality and fantasy and play is important
  • Transitional object:object the serves as a buffer for loss- soft toy, replaces mother’s contact
  • Good enough mother: a mother need not be perfect but good enough to provide growth sustaining environment (holding)
  • Parental control and impositions can lead to the development of a false self-different from the real self (theory of multiple self-organizations)
38
Q

Paranoid schizoid position

A
  • Klein
  • projection of both bad and good impulses occurs followed by splitting of the external world into good and bad
  • cannot understand that good and bad parts are both part of the mother (e.g good and bad breast)
39
Q

Depressive position

A

-Klein
-fear of a loss of the love of object
child realises that both good and bad things emanate from the unified single object (mother)

40
Q

Fear of Annihilation

A
  • Klein
  • soon after birth the child develops the fear of annihilation
  • they cannot tolerate this and project this destructive impulse to external objects
  • leads to paranoid schizoid position
41
Q

Reparation phase

A
  • Klein
  • creativity is an attempt to repair damage done by destructive impulse
  • continues lifelong
  • in absence of reparation, a maladaptive defence called manic defense can emerge characterised by denial of relaity (refusal to take guilt), omnipotence and grandiosity