Bowlby + Attachment Flashcards
Attachment Definition
-relationship between caregiver + child
- child’s beh towards caregiver
- construct of close relationship
to any sig other
Bowlby 1944
-1944 study on 44 Juvenile thieves who’s mother figure was quite absent
-reported to WHO on problems Assoc with Maternal deprivation after WW2
- return Freud’s idea of infant- mother relationship importance
Maternal deprivation definition
Lack consistent support from mother
- long-term separation
Before Bowlby + attachment
- Attachment believed to form between those who provided for Childs physiological needs ( food, warmth)
-Based on psychoanalytic theory of attachment as a secondary drive
Bowlby 1958
- proposed infants had an innate, primary drive to form close relationship with a caregiver
- primary attachment beh: sucking, clinging, crying, smiling, following
Bolwby 1958- primary drive supporting evidence - Freud + Dann
- Mutual attachment of 6 3-4 year olds who lived together in a concentration camp
- formed really strong bunds
- where each others attachment figures
- Didn’t Meet physiological needs
- infants have primary drive to form attachment
Bolwby 1958- primary drive supporting evidence - Harlow + Zimmerman
-Rhesus monkeys
- Infant monkey had a choice of 2 surrogate mothers
-1 that feeds you but made of wire
-1 that comforts you
- Baby fed from wired + ran to cloth one when frightened
- After presenting fearful stimuli monkey ran to comfort Monkey not food
- Attachment > food need
criticisms of 1958 Bowlby theory
- generalisation difficult from clinical observations to normal rearing at home
- concerned with making + breaking of attachment
- monotropy: single attachment to mother - other mothering from others not good enough
Mary Ainsworth’s early observations
- interested in indiv differences affecting quality of infant- mother interaction
- observed attachment in Ganda
- mothers drop baby off at nursery whilst they work
- infants formed multiple attachment to people providing care, not just mother
- lack of uniformity in infants attachment = indiv differences
- Challenges monotropy
Schaffer + Emerson- challenging monotropy
- Multiple attachments observed in Scottish infants
- Attached to both parents, grandparents + siblings
- supported abandoning secondary drive theory
James Robertson - supporting abandonment of secondary drive
- films of children staying in hospital
-stages if children hospitalised for long duration
-separation initially caused extreme distress
-prolonged separation had potential to at break attachment
-sequence of protest, despair + detachment
Bowlby’s revision
- studies led him to believe psychologically healthy children can have more than 1 attachment figure
-Abandoned monotropy
Bowlby 1969- goal system
- goal-corrected system rather than innate responses
- mother is Most noticed + interesting cue in env
-proximity to mother became set goal - Attachment depends on env conditions
Bowlby’s strengths
- courage of own convictions to propose radically different theory
-willingness to adapt + improve h is theory
-very powerful theory that’s a widely used theoretical framework
Ainsworth’s strange situation procedure
- used to Assess security of infant -caregiver attachment
- 1- 2 year old infants
-waiting room context where infant response to separation from + reunion with caregiver is observed - Infants placed into 1 of 3 categories based on reunion beh
organised patterns of attachment -strange situation study
- Assesses beh on 4 dimensions: proximity- seeking, contact maintenance , avoidance, resistance
- securely Attached (Type B) -70% -> Try get mothers attention during reunion + feel happy + comforted
- insecure-avoidant (Type A) - 20% -> Mum returns - don’t actively seek to interact , interested with toys + stranger doesn’t affect them
- Insecure-resistant (TypeC) -10% -> No interested in toys, don’t like stranger, extremely distressed when separated but not comforted by reunion
category VS Dimension of organised pattern of attachment
Al A2 Bl B2 B3 B4 C2 C1
- each category has sub-categories
- form dimensional spectrum of attachment
Main + Solomon- 4th category of attachment
-Type D-> insecure-disorganised
- infants are anxious, disorganised, disoriented
-Have no obvious strategy for gaining contact with mother or being comforted
- show bizarre conflicting beh
- Disorganisation is orthogonal to ABC categories -> infants given forced choice ABC classification
-usually had organised strategy that’s become disorganised
4 way attachment study
- Van ljzendoorn et al
-meta analysis - used ABCD system for non-clinical middle class us families
- 62 % secure (B)
-15. avoidant ( A) - 9% resistant ( c)
-15% disorganised (D)
recent study of ABCD attachment
- 20,000 strange situations Meta analysis
- 51.6% secure - B
-14.7% avoidant - A - 10.2 % resistant (c)
-23.51% disorganised ( D ) - shift from secure to disorganised category over the years
Factors affecting disorganised attachment
-low socioeconomic status 31%
- parent psychopathology: 31%
- child maltreatment: 65%
-origins of disorganisation are very complex
- mothers responding to infants in 1st year sensitively = secure
- insecure-avoidant = Mother ignores cues
- insecure-resistant= inconsistent Mothering
-maternal insensitivity =mother attempts to socialise when baby is hungry, play when tried
Attachment beyond infancy intro
- measures in older children can be beh or representation of their attachment
Attachment beyond infancy - Preschoolers
-Behavioural :
-> strange situation- longer separation + no stranger
-> 7 Attachment Q-SOrt - observe beh in natural env have cards about beh then organise in Q -sort
- Representational:
-> separation anxiety test
-> story-stem tasKs
-> difficult to indicate their representations are of their own experiences
Attachment beyond infancy - school Age
- problems
-separation anxiety + story-stem suitable for lover age - child attachment interview used 8 + - now child tales about it
-self-report measures for older school age
-none are beh
Attachment beyond infancy - Adolescents
- child attachment interview
-self-report Measures: parental barding instruments, attachment history questionnaire , inventory of parent peer attachment
Attachment beyond infancy- adults
-early experiences reflect indivs later close relationships
- Internal working model:
-> representation of you in attached relationship
-> Are they sensitive, responsive, available, rejecting
-> 2 Models: self + others
-> models can be pOS or neg
-> initial plasticity (changes) becomes fixed at 4 or 5
The Adult Attachment Interview
-Main et al
-Assesses internal working model
- semi-structured interview for classifying adults state of mind
- Dismissing -> lack of recall, devalue/ idOlise attachment
- Preoccupied > don’t more on from early experience, overwhelmed
- Autonomous -> attachment is open, value it, may not have been present early
- unresolved- > become incoherent when discussing loss/abuse
Longitudinal stability in attachment
- Do infant strange situation map onto later childhood/adulthood
- Not good for strange situation classification even over 6 months (Belsky et) -> only 1/2 stay same category
- only 46 % stable from 15-36 months
Long -Term stability classification
- secure -> Autonomous AAI
- Avoidant -> Dismissing
- Resistant -> preoccupied
-Disorganised -> unresolved
long-term studies
2 found longitudinal stability (Hamilton, waters et al)
- 2 found no longitudinal stability (weinfeld, Lewis eta)
-All studies identified life events (divorce) as predicting adult attachment
-co-hort study in US (Booth-Laforce + Roisman) - No stability from infant to adult attachment
Attachment + delinquency
- Attachment assessed between 6+38 years old
-Delinquency between 7+38 - 82% found them concurrently so they tell us nothing about Whether early attachment predicts delinquency
Indiv development definition -Bowlby
- Turns at each stage of the journey on an interaction between organism as it has der up to the Moment + its env
secondary drive definition
- an object can acquire reinforcing properties by being Assoc with satisfaction of an indIVs primary drives
Phases of attachment
- pre -> 0-2 Months: little differentiation in response to familiar + unfamiliar people
- 2nd -> 2-7 months: attachment foundations, recognise caregiver, no attachment upon separation
-3rd -> 7 + months : clear-cut attachment, protests separation + has stranger anxiety - final- 2 years: attachment becomes goal-corrected partnership, independent
- onwards = internal working models
Mind-mindedness - factor Affecting attachment
- caregivers accuracy in interpreting infants thoughts
-Better predictor of attachment security - secure mothers obtain high scores + low for non-attuned comments
-identify maternal be h associated with types of insecure attachment
