Chapter 4 attachment Flashcards
attachment
A pattern of mutual engagement between care- giver and infant by which the caregiver maintains attention and responds warmly to the infant’s signals
theories of attachment
-psychoanalytic
-learning
-cognitive developmental
-ethological
-
ethological
- instincts; species-specific drives
- evolved and adaptive characteristics
- shaped by experience and learning
- critical and sensitive periods
- sensitive period: kids looking for some sort of in out to facilitate growth
- conrad lorenz and imprinting
- ducklings imprint on him
molecular genetics
- identifying genes that might attribute to behavior
- most social emotional characteristics determined by interaction among many genes
- at the same time, a single pair of alleles may influence more than one trait
(modifier genes can moderate how another gene is expressed) - gene environment interactional model
(environment affected differently depending only genotypes)
Harlow
- interested in low, mother and infant love
- studied animals
- separated infant Rhesus monkeys from their mothers
- wired mother with food
- clothed mother
(babies stuck to cloth mother most the time, go to wired mother to feed)
(Changed milk bottle around to test but the monkeys stuck to cloth mother)
(if both mothers had milk, they never went to wired)
(infants need tactile comfort: soothing and help regulate arousal, feel safe and secure)
Behaviorist view
- infants love mother because she is their source of food
- study proved that wrong and showed that comfort and security is a factor
imprinting
- brief, critical period after birth
- attachment
secure base
- starting point from which the infant can venture forth the explore the world and haven of safety to which he or she can return in times or danger or stress
phases of early attachment
- preattachment
- attachment in the making
- clear cut attachment
- goal corrected partnership
secure attachment
- sensitivity: prompt and appropriate responses to cues
- synchrony: smooth, reciprocal interaction
- positive affections
- mutuality: joint attention to same activity
- support: facilitating infant’s activities
- stimulation: frequent interactions
- consistent: rely positive involvement
insightful: recognize motives, causes of emotions
insecure avoidant
rejecting/ distant, or over stimulating
insecure- ambivalent attachment
- inconsistent, alternate attentive vs disengage
- if I need to get a reaction from mom, i need to do something she can’t ignore
insecure-disorganized
Child shows signs of disorganization (e.g., crying for parent at door and then running quickly away when door opens; approaching parent with head down) or disorientation (e.g., seeming to freeze for a few seconds).
Preattachment
0-2 months
- indiscriminate social responsiveness
Attachment in the making
2-7 months
- recognition of familiar people
Clear cut attachment
7-24 months
- separation protest; wariness of strangers; intentional communication
Goal corrected partnership
24 months on
24 months on
- relationships are more two sided; children understand parents’ needs
Ainsworth
Strange Situation
Secure (B):
- Use parent as secure base
- 60% upset by separation; greets and soothed by return
- mother able to calm baby down, stranger cannot
Resistant/ Ambivalent (C):
- Proximity without exploration
- 10% upset by separation but not comforted by return; angry, resists contact
- wary of strangers
Avoidant (A):
- little contact with parents, not wary of stranger
- 20%
- turn away from parent at reunion
Disorganized. Disoriented (D):
- resistant and avoidant
- 10%
- confused, fearful of parent
- unsure of what to expect from parents
link between caregiving and attachment
- Babies need close contact with their parents (or other primary caregivers)
- Babies need sensitive and responsive caregiving from their parents.
- Babies need parents with insight.
- Good caregiving continues to be important as children get older.
- Babies suffer from intrusive and irritable caregiving = insecure avoidant
- Babies suffer from unaffectionate and inconsistent caregiving. = insecure -ambivalent
- Babies suffer from neglectful and abusive caregiving = insecure–disorganized
psychoanalytic perspectiive
the basis for the infant’s attachment to the mother is oral gratification
learning view
the mother becomes a valued attachment object because she is associated with hunger reduction
cognitive view
before they develop an attachment, infants must be able to differentiate between mother and a stranger and must be aware that the mother continues to exist even when they cannot see her.
bowlby
stresses the role of instinctual infant responses that elicit the parent’s care and protection and focuses on the way the parent acts as a secure base.
maternal bonding theory
suggests that the attachment the mother feels to her infant is affected by early contact between mother and newborn.