FINAL - 3) Attachment

Question 1

According to Freud, what does the psychoanalytic theory say about attachment?

Answer 1

Attachment occurs through satisfaction of Id impulses (ex: sucking- mom satisfies this need through breastfeeding)

Question 2

What does the learning theory say about attachment?

Answer 2

Attachment occurs through satisfaction of hunger (ex: drive to eat, mom brings food, mom becomes secondary reinforcement)

Question 3

What did Harlow do to debunk the learning theory about attachment? Explain Harlow’s experiment on monkeys

Answer 3

• Harlow thinks its about contact and comfort
• Ran series of experiments on monkeys, raised them in cage with 2 surrogate moms (one was soft-cloth without food and one was hard-wired with food)
• If the whole thing is about food then the baby monkeys should get attached to hard mom but if its about contact + comfort then they should attach to soft mom
• Results: babies spent all their time with soft mom (even though hard mom gave it the food)

Question 4

If we apply Harlow’s comfort + contact theory on attachment on humans, what happens?

Answer 4

• Unresponsive moms vs. responsive dads
• If mom isn’t cuddly and when they are married/live with dad, the dad is available to offspring more than the kid will attach to dad more (even though mom feeds it)

Question 5

Explain the 3 main points of the cognitive developmentalist approach on attachment

Answer 5

• importance of being able to recognize difference between mom and others
• importance of object permanence in attachment formation (when mom is not in room with you, you have to know that she still exists)
• importance of ability to form mental representations of mom in how attachment is expressed (above age 2, they now have a mental representation of mom and they don’t freak out as much when she leaves)

Question 6

Explain the 2 main points of the evolutionary approach on attachment:

Answer 6

• attachment is adaptive
• biological preparedness (instinctual signaling by baby elicits parental care and sensitive parental responding leads to mutual bond)

Question 7

What is an affectional bond?

Answer 7

• a love bond between parent and child
• unique and special, can’t be replaced by another one
• parent does have it for child and child has it for parent
• not an instant connection (doesn’t depend on holding your child right after birth)

Question 8

What is attachment?

Answer 8

• property of the infant, parents shouldn’t really be attached to their infants
• type of affectional bond in which a person’s sense of security is bound up in the relationship, you feel a special sense of security in the other person’s presence
• safe base, if they’re around then nothing bad will happen

Question 9

Can parent be attached to a child?

Answer 9

• We certainly hope not, that means that you see your child as your protector/safe base
• Supposed to be a one way street

Question 10

What are attachment behaviours?

Answer 10

• aimed at producing closeness and contact between child and its caregiver
• snuggling, maintain physical proximity especially in younger kids
• we see more of these behaviours when child is stressed out, needs comfort

Question 11

What predicts development of affectional bond?.

Answer 11

• Synchrony:
• > System of mutual interlocking behaviours
• > Babies sending signals like crying and parent trying to figure out why baby is crying- diaper change, hungry etc…
• > Pickup signal and respond appropriately

Question 12

Explain Mother-child vs. father-child bonds

Answer 12

• both important and both create affectional bonds with babies
• we focus on women b/c they have more contact with babies and more opportunities to develop synchrony with babies
• typical activities with dad: fun times, more time rough housing with baby, 4 or 5 more times playing with baby than doing anything else with baby, source of excitement and fun for baby (different way of establishing affectional bond)

Question 13

Bowlby came up with 4 phases of attachment. What are they? What age do they occur?

Answer 13

1) (0-2 months): “Non-focused” orienting and signaling (where babies want attention from anyone), Roots of attachment established (Affectional bond begin to develop)
2) (2-6 months): Proximity- promoting behaviours now focus on special people (family, caregivers) But every once in a while they are smiling at wrong person, No true attachment yet
3) (6-18 months): Formation of genuine attachment: Proximity-promoting and - seeking no longer indiscriminate, Attachment figure becomes safe base, Fear of strangers, Separation anxiety
4) (2yrs+): attachment behaviours become less observable
- physical proximity no longer crucial in normal situations
- use of mental representations
- decreased separation anxiety and fear of strangers
- social referencing
- by ages 4-5, attachment behaviours become even less observable
- BUT still seek physical proximity when under stress

Question 14

Dad vs. strangers. If alone in room with mom, dad and stranger. At about __ months, they’ll go to either mom or dad. Dad vs. mom normal situation, child would go to either one but in a scary situation, who would they go to more?

Answer 14

• 7

- dad vs. mom scary situation: go to mom

Question 15

Are there cultural differences in attachment? In the Efe culture, there is communal rearing and attachment but at around __ months, baby shows preference for biological mom.

Answer 15

6 months

Question 16

Consequences of Attachment Quality. Internal working models of relationships are based on experiences with parents and formed by what age?

Answer 16

-formed by age 5

Question 17

Explain the strange situation experiment

Answer 17

• 8 short episodes during which baby is separated from and reunited with mom
• Rate infant’s behaviour on several scales, from 1 (no effort), to 7 (very active effort)
• proximity and contact seeking: degree of active initiative the baby shows in seeking physical contact with another person
• contact maintaining: degree of active initiative the baby shows in order to maintain physical contact with person once said contact is achieved
• resistance: squirming to get down from an adult who has offered contact, rejecting toys
• avoidance: babies actively avoiding proximity and interaction with their mothers in their reunion episodes
• search: crawling very quickly and chasing mom to the door
• attachment style -> secure vs. insecure

Question 18

There is one secure attachment and 3 insecure attachment styles. What are they?

Answer 18

• Secure Attachment (65% of children): mom is a safe base, cope well with separation, happy reunion
• Insecure attachments (35% of children)
  1) avoidant/ detached: baby wasn’t born this way, for some reason mom has been quite rejecting, baby learns that they don’t get to be comforted ever so when comfort is offered, then they don’t know what to do with it
  2) ambivalent/resistant: seem to want to be with mom but also angry at mom for leaving
  3) disorganized/disoriented: caregivers/parents provide terrifying experiences to children, mom comes back into room and baby runs back to mom without looking at her (want her but don’t want her)

Question 19

What are some predictors of attachment style?

Answer 19

• emotional availability
• sensitivity/responsiveness
• temperament (if child’s difficulty is taken personally it can have a negative impact on how the parent interacts with them)

Question 20

In terms of predictors of attachment style, explain the van den Boom (1994) experiment on training sensitivity

Answer 20

• a study on 100 high risk moms and difficult babies born in Dutch hospital in the Netherlands
• moms were unlikely in creating bond with baby (not feeding them properly, not holding them, making eye contact)
• moms were either trained to be warm and caring or part of control group
• results: even high risk moms can be trained to be able to form an affectional bond

Question 21

Explain Maccoby & Martin’s 2x2 Parenting Style Model

Answer 21

• high control and high acceptance family = authoritative parent (rules enforced, not wishy washy at all but children know that parents love them, do well in school, social)
• high control and low acceptance family = authoritarian (very demanding but very low on warmth and responsiveness (no synchrony going on there), expecting rules to be followed without further explanation, children don’t do well with school or socially)
• low control and high acceptance families = permissive (no rules, super warm, bad for children, just as bad as authoritarian (not doing well in school, can be aggressive, immature))
• low control and low acceptance families = neglecting (worst style!! No control, no synchrony, just not there, Children have lots of problems (school, socially)

Question 22

According to the textbook, Infants develop an internal working model, what is it?

Answer 22

a set of expectations about caregivers’ availability and responsiveness generally, and in times of stress.

Question 23

According to the textbook, when questioned about attachment relationships with the Adult Attachment Interview, adults can be classified into one of three groups:

Answer 23

• Secure adults: describe childhood experiences objectively and value the impact of their CG-child relationship on their development.
• Dismissive adults : sometimes deny the value of childhood experiences and sometimes are unable to recall those experiences precisely, yet often idealize their CGs
• Preoccupied adults : describe childhood experiences emotionally and often express anger or confusion regarding relationships with their CGs.

Question 24

According to attachment theory, only adults with _____ attachment representations are likely to provide the sensitive caregiving that promotes secure attachment relationships.

Answer 24

autonomous

Question 25

Effects of parenting styles on adjustment (Steinberg, Dornbush, Brown). Explain the study and its results

Answer 25

• 11,000 teens at time 1, and 7000 teens at time 2
• families classified on parental style from a questionnaire based on Maccoby & Martins model
• most of teens’ parents were classified as 1 of 4 parenting styles (a few didn’t fit in any style)
• outcome measures on resilience (if you get right back up when knocked down), social competence, school performance, Mental health, Delinquency
• Found that teens from authoritarian families had the lowest scores for self-reliance
• Found that kids from neglecting families had the worst performance overall
• Authoritative families kids did the best (most consistent and improved over time)

Question 26

What roles do grandparents play in children’s lives? One analysis suggested five specific styles of grandparenting:

Answer 26

1) Influential grandparents – are very close to their grandchildren, are very involved in their grandchildren’s lives and frequently perform parental roles, including discipline.
2) Supportive grandparents – are similar to influential grandparents – close and involved with grandchildren – but don’t take on parental roles.
3) Authority-oriented grandparents – provide discipline for their grandchildren but otherwise are not particularly active in their grandchildren’s lives’
4) Passive grandparents – are caught in their grandchildren’s development but not with the intensity of influential or supportive grandparents; they do not assume parental roles
5) Detached grandparents – are not involved with their grandchildren

Question 27

For some children, the impact of abuse is much reduced. Why? One factor that protects children is their ego-resilience, which is what?

Answer 27

children’s ability to respond adaptively and resourcefully to new situations.