CHILD PSYCH-development of attachment (social) Flashcards
an attachment
an emotional bond that exists between 2 people, it is difficult to measure and problematic to study scientifically.
An individual will form many attachments in life with many others, but the first attachment formed is most important.
behaviours which indicate an attachment:
proximity seeking,
separation anxiety,
happiness and reunion.
proximity seeking
wanting to be near the other person.
separation anxiety
distress at leaving the other person.
happiness and reunion
delight at being reunited with the other person.
John Bowlby proposed explanation of attachment seeks to explain why attachments are formed
He viewed attachment behaviours as innate, arguing attachment is a mechanism that has evolved through natural selection: ensures survival of child by eliciting parental responses and is therefore an adaptive behaviour.
Babies possess instincts; crying, smiling, encouraging caregiver to look after them.
Parents (specifically mothers) possess instinct to protect their babies from harm.
John Bowlby: sensitive period
Bowlby believed the first 12 months were crucial for babies. (sensitive period).
John Bowlby: monotropy
He believed babies tend to form a primary attachment to one caregiver, normally with the mother. Known as monotropy.
He argued this special relationship provides a template for future relationships: the internal working model.
Internal working model
Strong attachment allows child to secure a safe base from which they can explore environment.
John Bowlby view of attachment
He viewed attachment as a two way process, arguing both infant and caregiver are genetically programmed to maintain proximity.
Different types of attachment formed from parenting style and caregiver’s response to the child.
Secure, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant, insecure disorganised.
Secure
Baby actively seeks and maintains maternal proximity, may show distress at absence of mother, and stranger anxiety. Also show reunion positive behaviour, this is the result of sensitive and responsive care.
Insecure avoidant
Baby ignores caregiver in times of need, is not distressed in absence of mother or by presence of stranger. Result of insensitive and unresponsive care.
Insecure resistant
Baby simultaneously seeks and resists maternal contact and exaggerates distress and anger to ensure caregiver notices. Separation protest and stranger anxiety is high, result of inconsistent care.
Insecure disorganised
Baby displays bizarre and contradictory responses to maternal separation and reunion such as freezing or pulling away. Caregiver responds to child’s distress by being frightened or frightening to the child.
Privation
Failure to form an attachment
Deprivation
Loss of an attachment
Bowlby- maternal deprivation hypothesis 1953
He suggests that with failure to form, or loss of, attachment in the first 2.5 years of life (critical period) the child will develop social, emotional, behavioural and cognitive problems, including affectionless psychopathy and developmental retardation.
Bowlby developed his idea of maternal deprivation from spending time studying children with mental health problems, or involved in criminality.
affectionless psychopathy
The lack of ability to feel remorse
From Bowlby’s research into maternal deprivation he recognised…
There was a common theme in life histories of these children, they had either lost one or both parents in early childhood through separation or death, or had very poor parenting.
Bowlby believed the ‘insecure disorganised’ type of attachment…
He believed this type was a strong predictor of vulnerability to mental health disorders later in life.
Disorganised attachment has further been linked to poor peer relationships, aggressive behaviours in classroom and lower than average math skills. (Bosmans 2015)
Rutter 1981
More current research, shows even where lack of attachments occur, children may not develop full negative consequences. Rutter studied children from Romanian orphanages adopted by families.
Rutter 1981 findings
He found most children were still able to achieve normal development outcomes; and that the children formed attachments to their adoptive parents. Likely to be result of early adoption into families that provided sensitive and responsive care.
Research by Ainsworth and Bell, naturalistic studies weakness
Naturalistic studies of attachment to caregivers are very time consuming as interaction between two sets of behaviours must be observed over wide range of situations.
naturalistic short-cut alternative
Utilise a controlled yet unfamiliar situation in which the child, with and without their mother is exposed to different stressful episodes.
Ainsworth and Bell believed
They believed interaction between attachment behaviour, exploration, separation anxiety and fear of the strange could be observed in controlled lab environment, they developed the ‘strange situation’ to test this.
The better the understanding of the attachment a child has with their caregiver…
…The more easily understood and interpreted the behaviour of a child is.
