L6 - Attachment Theory and Research

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

• A close or enduring bond with a parents or other primary caregiver
• They seek closeness
• Enable exploration of the world
• Management of arousal and emotions e.g close bond = parent can model ways of behaving etc.

Question 2

What purpose does attachment have?

Answer 2

• Enhances infant’s chances of survival by keeping source of food/protection close
• Helps child feel emotionally secure, allowing them to explore world without fear
• Form of co-regulation = children manage their levels of arousal and their emotions
• Builds internal working model

Question 3

What was Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 3

• Preattachment: birth - 6 weeks: innate signals attract caregiver so they can be comforted, helps survival and enables development of bond between mother and child
• Attachment in the making: 6 weeks - 6-8mo: sense of trust that caregiver will respond when signalled, expectations developed, preferential treatment from infant
• Clear cut attachment: infant actively seeks contact with mother where she becomes a secure base, separation anxiety starts
• Reciprocal relationships: 18mo-24mo: increased understanding of parents feelings, goals and motives. Better able to establish proximity to parents and becomes a working partnership and Separation anxiety reduces

Question 4

Describe the Strange situation?

Answer 4

• Assess attachment style in 24mo infants
• Reactions of infant to mother and stranger are observed during a set sequence of 8 events, each set lasting 3 mins (standardised but naturalistic)
• Infant’s behaviour is coded for style of attachment to the caregiver
• Allowed attachment to be measured and for it be categorised

Question 5

How to code the strange situation?

Answer 5

• Procedure creates 3 sources of potential distress
• Unfamiliar physical env - exploration and proximity seeking
• Separation from caregiver - child’s reaction to separation and reunion
• Presence of a stranger - child’s response to stranger
• Placing every infant into categories with a lot of variation in each group

Question 6

What are the styles of attachment?

Answer 6

• Secure attachment: quick reunion joy
• Insecure attachment: Avoidant,
• Ambivalent/resistant, Disorganised

Question 7

Describe Secure attachment?

Answer 7

• 50-60% of infants
• Leave mothers side but will check back
• Distressed by separation from mother
• Happy to see mother on reunion; allow themselves to be calmed and comforted
• Mother is a secure base

Question 8

Describe Avoidant attachment:

Answer 8

• 15% of infants
• Tend to avoid mother in room
• Fail to greet mother during reunion

Question 9

Describe Ambivalent/resistant attachment:

Answer 9

• Clingy in initial play
• VERY distressed by mother’s absence
• Some seeking of contact with mother on her return is combined with resisting behaviours e.g squirming whilst hugging = not sure if they want mum/not

Question 10

Describe Disorganised attachment:

Answer 10

• No consistent way of coping
• Confused and contradictory e.g fear when approaching mother; switch from calm to anger
• May freeze
• More likely to be in care

Question 11

What is important to note about attachment style?

Answer 11

• Not a characteristic of the infant e.g being securely attached does not mean they will be extroverted
• It IS a characteristic of a relationship between two people
• Possible for infant to have diff attachment with mother and father

Question 12

What influences attachment?

Answer 12

Individual differences: What extent is it the env/genetics

Question 13

What is the maternal sensitivity hypothesis?

Answer 13

• Key to maternal sensitivity is consistently responsive caregiving
• Like reading infant’s signals accurately, responding quickly and showing warmth
• Mothers of securely attached infants show evidence of maternal sensitivity

Question 14

What are traits of mothers of children with other attachment styles?

Answer 14

• Insecure attached infant = show less evidence of maternal sensitivity
• Avoidant: indifferent and emotionally unavailable & reject infant’s attempts at closeness - protective traits, stop seeking interaction instead of emotional damage
• Ambivalent: inconsistent & highly anxious and could be overwhelmed by parenting - child does not have a pattern of behaviour to know what to expect
• Disorganised: Show abusive, frightening or disoriented behaviours

Question 15

What was cross-cultural evidence?

Answer 15

• Columbian, Mexican, Peruvian and USA mother-child (3-6 years) dyads
• Maternal and child behaviours measured in natural settings (home, park)
• Maternal sensitivity significantly associated with child security in all four cultures
• As cant measure all attachment from strange situation

Question 16

What are the genetic influences?

Answer 16

• Genes affect the way the env influences attachment security
• Influence of genetic on attachment is far less than influence of env.
• Lasts into adulthood - looked at OXTR gene variants and continuity in attachment style = genetic makeup affects how env influences attachment security and adulthood

Question 17

Study on genetic influences?

Answer 17

• Preschoolers in Ukraine either raised in a family or institutionally
• Confounds in design due to quasi experiment
• Serotonin transporter gene has two different variants (5HTT sl/ss and ll)
• 5HTT ll is protective for children raised in institution

Question 18

What is the internal working model of attachment?

Answer 18

• Early-years attachment relationships lead to the development of an internal working model
• Mental representation of the self, of attachment figures and of relationships in general
• Guides expectations of relationships throughout life
• Internal working model is the foundation of the adult attachment

Question 19

How do different attachments have different working models?

Answer 19

• Secure: Model = affection & trust, Action = Open & Honest
• Avoidant: Model = no affection & rejection, Action = Avoid
• Ambivalent: Uncertain what to expect, Action = unable to communicate intent

Question 20

What is the adult attachment interview (AAI)

Answer 20

• Attachment in adulthood is assessed by exploring the adult’s internal working model of their childhood attachment relationships
• Done using the AAI
• Focus is not on the experiences themselves per se but how the adult reflects on them and evaluates them

Question 21

What were the adult attachment styles?

Answer 21

• Autonomous (Secure):
• Recalls earlier attachment-related experiences objectively and openly
• Sees them as important
• Coherent and consistent
• Balanced account
• Positive and negatives
• Dismissing (Avoidant):
• Dismisses attachment relationships as of little concern, value or influence
• Poor recall
• Account can be inconsistent/contradictory
• Preoccupied (Ambivalent):
• Intensely focused on parents
• Confused and angry accounts
• Caught up in memories - not coherent
• Unresolved (Disorganised):
• Have experienced trauma or early death of attachment figure - not comes to terms with it
• Account may not make sense and lacks reasoning

Question 22

What were the effects on childhood emotion?

Answer 22

• Found that 9-11 yo who are securely attached were more likely to report a positive mood via a mood diary
• AND can regulate their emotions using positive coping strategies e.g child is upset and talks about their feelings and how to solve the problem

Question 23

How does early attachment predict social functioning in early adulthood?

Answer 23

• Squares are direct measurements
• Circles are latent (hidden, inferred not directly measured) variable

Question 24

How does attachment change through the lifespan?

Answer 24

• Infancy attachment predicts adulthood attachment
• Adult attachment style affects how they interact with THEIR infant e.g parental sensitivity
• Influences infant’s attachment to the caregiver
• Cyclic

Question 25

Why is it not that simple?

Answer 25

• Pattern of intergenerational transmission (cyclic) of attachment is found across studies
• Not all securely attached adults will have secure infants, and vice versa

Question 26

What are the roles of intervention: reflection, counselling or clinical support?

Answer 26

• Aid adults in overcoming early adversity and insecure attachments
  Talk about negative childhood events in coherent and contained manner can become ‘earned-secure’
• Observational study - leads to more positive parenting, even under high-stress conditions

Question 27

What is Parenting training?

Answer 27

• Study of Circle of Security
• Parents reflect on mental representations of how parents and children should interact
• Change mental representations where necessary

Question 28

Describe the study of Circle of Security?

Answer 28

• 83 parent-child dyads
• Children 1-7 yo
• No comparison group
• After 20 weeks of therapy, parents had more positive representations & no. of children with disorganised attachment style decreased