L6 - Attachment Theory and Research Flashcards
1
Q
What is attachment?
A
- 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.
2
Q
What purpose does attachment have?
A
- 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
3
Q
What was Bowlby’s attachment theory?
A
- 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
4
Q
Describe the Strange situation?
A
- 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
5
Q
How to code the strange situation?
A
- 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
6
Q
What are the styles of attachment?
A
- Secure attachment: quick reunion joy
- Insecure attachment: Avoidant,
- Ambivalent/resistant, Disorganised
7
Q
Describe Secure attachment?
A
- 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
8
Q
Describe Avoidant attachment:
A
- 15% of infants
- Tend to avoid mother in room
- Fail to greet mother during reunion
9
Q
Describe Ambivalent/resistant attachment:
A
- 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
10
Q
Describe Disorganised attachment:
A
- 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
11
Q
What is important to note about attachment style?
A
- 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
12
Q
What influences attachment?
A
Individual differences: What extent is it the env/genetics
13
Q
What is the maternal sensitivity hypothesis?
A
- 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
14
Q
What are traits of mothers of children with other attachment styles?
A
- 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
15
Q
What was cross-cultural evidence?
A
- 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
16
Q
What are the genetic influences?
A
- 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
17
Q
Study on genetic influences?
A
- 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
18
Q
What is the internal working model of attachment?
A
- 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
19
Q
How do different attachments have different working models?
A
- Secure: Model = affection & trust, Action = Open & Honest
- Avoidant: Model = no affection & rejection, Action = Avoid
- Ambivalent: Uncertain what to expect, Action = unable to communicate intent
20
Q
What is the adult attachment interview (AAI)
A
- 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
21
Q
What were the adult attachment styles?
A
- 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
22
Q
What were the effects on childhood emotion?
A
- 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
23
Q
How does early attachment predict social functioning in early adulthood?
A
- Squares are direct measurements
- Circles are latent (hidden, inferred not directly measured) variable
24
Q
How does attachment change through the lifespan?
A
- 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
25
Why is it not that simple?
- Pattern of intergenerational transmission (cyclic) of attachment is found across studies
- Not all securely attached adults will have secure infants, and vice versa
26
What are the roles of intervention: reflection, counselling or clinical support?
- 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
27
What is Parenting training?
- Study of Circle of Security
- Parents reflect on mental representations of how parents and children should interact
- Change mental representations where necessary
28
Describe the study of Circle of Security?
- 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
