Exam 2 Flashcards
Three types of attachment
Secure- deal and feel
Anxious- feel but not deal
Avoiding- deal but not feel
Attachment behavioral system
An evolved proximity regulator
Exploratory BS (gives us info about the workings of our environment)
Fear BS (alerts individual to stimuli that are not inherently dangerous but increase the likelihood of danger)
Attachment figures for children
Ones who are most responsive to crying and to interact socially
Attachment figures for Adults
Those who are most responsive to anxiety/fear and to social interaction
Secure Attachment style
As kids:
Seems confident that parent is accessible and responsive
Is competent, exploration oriented, and affectingly positive.
Soothes easily. , shows empathy early, communicates clearly about feelings, solves problems effectively,
As Adults:
Easily share, is easy to smooth, receives and gives easily and transparently
Anxious attachment style
Kids: more crying, seperation anxiety, and anger. Lacks confidence parent will be accessible and responsive. Vigilance and preoccupation interfere with exploration. Attatchment behavior has now threshold for activation. Fussy, angry, immature.
Adults: clingy, anxious, amplify emotions, need lots of reassurance, more visibly transparent. Feel fear at any sign of threat, complain about partner being too insensitive and distant
Avoidant type
Kid: Cries relatively little during seperation and avoids parent upon return, engages in displacement exploratory activities
Adult: value independence, zipped up, keep things to the self. Tend not to pick up queues around them. Facial expressions are inhibited. Move to activities and things over people, complain about partner being too needy.
Parental style for anxious attachment
Fearful patent who amplifies situations
Parent is easily overwhelmed and over protective of the child
World is not safe, keep close to me
Parent is anxious and uncertain making them insensitive to child’s signals
“World is not safe”
Controlling and want to keep kids close
Parenting style for Avoidant Attachment
Parent was emotionally and physically distant, especially when it came to need and big emotions
Parent punished children for needing through criticism and withdrawal
Parent neglects child, doesn’t monitor and doesn’t evaluate danger well
Parental rejection, coolness, discomfort with own or others motion and physical contact
Degrees of proximity seeking in an attachment relationship
- Condition of the person such as illness, fatigue, hunger, pain
- Condition of the environment such as presence of threatning stimuli
Attachment patterns in adulthood
Secure (low avoidance low anxiety)
Dismissing avoidant (high avoidance low anxiety)
Fearful avoidant (high avoidance, high anxiety)
Preoccupied (low avoidance high anxiety)
Attachment style diagram
Signs of threat? If its a no it activates other behavioral systems, if YES attachment system is activated, leading to checking if the attachment figure is available
If they ARE available, the attachment is secure and distress is alleviated,
If the are NOT available, there’s insecurity, compounding distress leading to proximity seeking
If proximity seeking IS viable there’s hyperactivating strategies
If proximity seeking is NOT viable, there’s deactivating strategies
Three primary attachment needs
Protection
Comfort
Pleasure
Preoccupied attachment style characteristics
Internal working model with negative few of self and positive view of others
High anxiety and high dependence on others
Invest in relationships they shouldn’t
Fearful Avoident Attachment characteristics
Negative views of both self and others, fear vulnerability in intimacy. Anticipate others as hurtful and that they dont deserve to be treated well due to their perceived short comings
Dismissive Avoidant attachment characteristics
Positive view of self and negative view of others. Little if any value in intimacy, counter dependent in their relationships, choose independence over interdependence.
Secure attachment characterstics
Positive view of self and of others, are comfortable with intimacy or autonomy
Projective identification
Re-enactment sequence in which unresolved themes are played out between partners.
When one person attributes an unwanted aspect of self to another person
This is usually done when attempts to differentiate self and object become complicated and its a differentiating process
In couples, the aspect of self is projected from one person to the other person, then the subject tries to control the projected aspect of the self in the object.
By attempting to control the subjects betray that at some level they are aware that it is a part of themselves they are projecting
Splitting
A defense mechanism that influences cognition and mood.
Keeping apart contradictory experiences of self and of significant others
All good or all bad, heroes and villains
Basic components of object relations theory
People relate to others and situations in their adult lives in a way that is shaped by family experiences during infancy
This includes mirroring, idealizing, twinning that happens with a self object who fills a vital function for the self in the form of an external person
An object is a person, place, thing, idea etc with emotional energy invested in it
Using countertransference in couples therapy
Therapists personal response to a couple
Suggests that the nature of the work provokes in the the therapist a response that has more to do with the patients than the therapists unfinished business
Allows therapists to see their responses as a form of communication that emanates from the couple
“A kind of projective identification where a therapist is stimulated to “know” a theme that the couple cannot articulate but need to have understood.
Defenses in couples therapy
Splitting and projective identification
Parts of the brain
Limbic brain ( feel, remember, interact with others)
Reptilian brain (survive, react, repeat)
Neocortex (talk, think, move, create, learn)
Brain stem
Autonomic, fully formed in the womb
Has all the automatic functions like heart rate, swallowing consciousness
Hippocampus
Memory and learning
Vital for conscious, logical, and cooperative social functioning
Has direct connection to Cortex so you use it to learn
Matures MUCH later than their amygdala making it very vulnerable to developmental disruption
Partly responsible for EXPLICIT memory and how we make a cohesive narrative
HAS THE POWER OF DISCRIMINATION. Can review memories to make inferences of new situations
Amygdala
Flight or fight, primitive executive brain
Fully developed in eighth month of gestation
EMOTIONAL center, as well as soocial pressings
Evolved to store negative associations on a permanent basis
Appraises danger, safety and familiarity
FAST BRAIN, .5 seconds faster than cortex
Veto power over cortex when activated
Temporarily activates in stress, chronically activated during complex trauma
Effects of amygdala activation in relationship
Increased sensitivity to threat and perceptual errors (partners errors feel threatening and intentional)
Sub-cortical defenses fight, flight, flee, feign
Increased rigidity and unpredictability
Lowers glucose and oxygen we need to function in high cortical areas
5 primary functions of of limbic system
So this is hippocampus and Amygdala
Memory Motivation (inclination to explore) Emotion Meaning Relationships
Amygdala is generalizer, hippocampus is the descriminator. When amygdala is activated the hippocampus is deactivated
Cortex
Outer bark of the brain, its executive hub
VERY under developed at birth
Not fully developed until mid 20’s
Allows us to think, imagine and create and helps regulate the other systems
Plans complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behavior
Developed optimally through secure attachment
9 functions of pre-frontal cortex
Balance (sympathetic and parasympathetic responses)
Attuned communication (cue from others)
Emotion- regulates amygdala emotions
Response flexibility- waiting before acting
Insight (me map)
Empathy (you map)
Fear (manages amaydala fear response)
Intuition (wisdom into awareness)
Morality (what is good for larger good)
DEVELOPED THRU SECURE ATTACHMENT
Right himsphere
Developes quickly in firs 18 mos of life and encodes implicitly memory based on primary attachment relationships
Throughout life looks to attachment relationships for emotional regulation and for development of self
Controls very high (terror) and very low (shame) levels fo emotion
LANGUAGE is fearful and negative in tone.
“Houses” unresolved traumatic experiences and implicit attachment negative experiences
Left Hemisphere
Later evolving, starts to shift when kids become verbal and learn large motor skills
Focus on verbal language, self awareness
Thinking that is linear, logical, linguestic
More positive in tone
When its in charge we are calm and and approach
HOUSES resolved experiences that are intergrated into cohesive life narrative
How do past experiences influence brain activities in relationships
Can work out of right hemisphere if new experiences are similar to unresolved trauma, so the traumas need to be resolved and moved into left brain to do with current relational problems
Neural integration
Brain top to bottom (integrating the functions of the brain stem, the limbic system, and the cortex) and right to left (integrating the functions of the right and left brain)
Matryoshka effect
A couple’s relationship is immersed in a surge of “old” responses wired in from childhood relationship
Amygdalas get fired up and they are playing out “old” problems of their younger selves, often they dont know and both respond defensively hurting each other
Misappraisal
Insecure attachment formation creatinmg biases in memory leading to more errors in perception and appraisal when under threat.
Many of these fears are not encoded linguistically and by the time they come to therapy both people have automated responses to threats firmly entrenched
ANXIOUS ATTACK< COLD WITHDRAWL> FREEZING
Withrawl, pursue pattern
