Lecture 10: Attachment Theory Part 1 Flashcards
attachment theory
- Influential theoretical framework for understanding the emotional bonds we form with our closest others
- Experiences we have with our closest others, beginning in infancy, shape our social and emotional development, influencing future relationships
two components to attachment theory
- Normative development and functioning of the attachment system
- Individual differences in how the attachment system operates
behaviourist perspective on love
- School of behaviourism dominated psychology in the first half of the 20th century
- Argues that all human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning (associations made between two events)
- Thoughts and feelings are irrelevant
- Gordon Allport: psychology circa 1950 can be characterized as a flight from tenderness
- Infants cling to their mothers because they have come to associate the mother with food and other material rewards
Harry Harlow (1958)
- Love and affection can and should be studied scientifically
- Point of departure for the study of love: the affectionate bond of a child for its mother
Harlow’s cloth vs. wire mother study
- Infant macaque monkeys raised alone in the lab showed severe developmental issues
- Noted a strong attachment that the laboratory-raised infants develop to the soft cloth pads used to cover the floor of their cages
- Harlow built a wire and a cloth surrogate wire
- The cloth mother and wire mother were placed in different cubicles attached to the infant’s cage
- For half the monkeys, the cloth mother lactates and the wire mother doesn’t
- For the other half, the wire mother lactates and the cloth mother doesn’t
- Regardless of which mother was lactating, the monkeys strongly preferred to spend time on the cloth mother
Harlow’s mother as a source of security study
- Monkeys were faced with novel, fear-producing situations
- They consistently preferred to cling to the cloth, but not the wire, surrogate mother, regardless of which mother gave them food
- They used her as a secure base for exploration
- Monkeys display high levels of distress in unfamiliar situations when the cloth mother is absent
- Having the wire mother present does not help
childcare in the 1950s and 60s
- With an emerging understanding of germs, the utmost primary placed on sanitation and cleanliness
- Cuddling babies is unhygienic and dangerous
- Behaviourist perspective: childcare viewed in terms of training, stimuli, and conditioned responses
- Picking up a crying baby is conditioning them to be whiny
- John Watson: maternal affection is dangerous
- Despite greatly improved sanitation conditions in orphanages & hospitals, morality & morbidity rates for young children are stubbornly high, developmental & mental health issues
bowlby’s attachment theory
- Observations of homeless children: a warm, intimate, and continuing relationship with the mother or another caregiver is essential for healthy child development
- Took an evolutionary perspective:
Infants cannot survive without a caregiver to protect them from harm. Some mechanism must be in place to keep infants close to caregivers - Posits the existence of a universal, evolved, biobehavioural system (attachment system) that motivates maintenance of proximity to caregivers (attachment figures) in infancy/childhood, thus prompting survival
attachment behavioural system
- Conceptualized the attachment behavioural system as akin to a control system
- Basic example: thermostat for regulating room temperature
- Instead of regulating temperature, regulates safety
attachment figure hallmarks
- proximity-seeking
- separation distress
- safe haven
- secure base
proximity-seeeking
the person you go to, particularly when in need or distress
safe haven
provides protection, comfort, and support
separation distress
- Actual or expected separation from attachment figures evokes strong feelings of distress
- Defining feature of attachment relationship
- We are drawn to our attachment figures not only by the rewards of their company but by the pain of separation from them
Mary Ainsworth
- Much of Bowlby’s writings focused on theory building around the normative attachment process
- Colleague Mary Ainsworth made crucial psychometric and empirical contributions (put the theory to the test)
- Concerned with how children were attached and the maternal factors that predicted this
strange situation paradigm
- Ainsworth devised a laboratory paradigm for studying attachment dynamics as described by Bowlby
- Infants were brought into an unfamiliar (strange) laboratory environment
- The environment was divided into a series of episodes: separations and reunions with the mother
Bowlby’s 3 repsonses to separation
- protest
- despair
- detachment
protest
acute distress, desperate attempts to re-establish contact (crying, clinging, calling, searching), generally rejection of contact with others
despair
preoccupation with caregiver still evident, depressed mood, appears hopeless and withdrawn
detachment
may begin to show interest in other things and people, often appears listless & apathetic if reunited with the caregiver, may exhibit anger
secure pattern
- Distressed by the mother’s departure (at a young age)
- Seeks contact with the mother upon her return; readily soother and reassured by her presence
- Uses the mother as a secure base to explore
resistant/ ambivalent pattern
- The clingy baby
- Highly distressed by the mother’s departure
- Continues to cry and exhibit distress even when contact is restored
- Contradictory behaviour toward the mother (trying to get close, but sometimes also anger and resistance)
- No interest in exploration; not able to use mother as a secure base
avoidant pattern
- The sullen baby
- Appears indifferent to the mother upon her return
- May play with toys but does not actively involve the mother as securely attached babies do
- Further research identified signs of physiological stress (ex. Elevated heart rate)
prevalence of attachment patterns
- 51.6% secure
- 14.7% avoidant
- 10.2% resistant/ambivalent
- 23.5% disorganized (lack of coherent attachment strategy)
antecedents of secure pattern
- The secure pattern of attachment is thought to derive from a history of positive interactions with a responsive caregiver
- Bids for proximity and reassurance are sensitively and consistently attended to
- Learns that the primary attachment strategy (proximity-seeking) is safe and effective
- Can bravely explore the world because mom will be there if you get in trouble
antecedents of insecure patterns
Insecure attachment is thought to stem from deficits in caregiving
antecedents of anxious/ambivalent pattern
- Caregiver is inconsistent
- Leads to hyperactivation of the attachment system
antecedents of avoidant pattern
- Caregiver is rejecting, discourages closeness
- Leads to deactivation of the attachment system
internal working models
- Through attachment interactions, we develop schemas or internal working models of ourselves, their attachment figures, and attachment relationships
- Organize attachment knowledge and guide subsequent interactions with attachment figures as well as others
- Bias the way we interpret information and encode it into memory
“working” meaning in internal working models
- Allows us to simulate/predict likely outcomes of attachment behaviours
- Provisional/subject to updating
internal working models include:
- Specific autobiographical memories
- Generalized beliefs about oneself, attachment figures, and close relationships
- Procedural knowledge: how to regulate emotions and behave in close relationships
model of others
- Representations of attachment figures’ responses
- Can I rely on others?
models of self
- Representations of one’s own efficacy and value
- Am I loveable?
attachment beyond childhood
Bowlby: the attachment system remains active from the cradle to the grave
similarities in proximity-seeking in adults and children
- Couples separating in the airport are more likely to maintain physical contact (mutual gaze, talking intently, touching)
- Diary study: people seek more support from a romantic partner when experiencing more distress
similarities in separation distress in adults and children
- Experience intense anger, anxiety, and sadness in response to actual or perceived threats to close relationships
- Bereavement is a universally painful experience
similarities in safe haven in adults and children
The mere presence of a close relationship can alleviate distress in the lab
similarities in secure base in adults and children
When participants perceive romantic partners as more supportive, they report a greater sense of independence, self-efficacy, and more autonomous goal exploration, and are more likely to achieve their goals
differences in childhood and adult attachment
- Individuals other than parents often take the role of attachment figures
- Psychological (not just physical) proximity
- Threshold for attachment system activation is higher
- Become more compatible of self-soothing (internalized positive self-representations)
- Mutuality (care-seeking and caregiving)
- Sexuality
individual differences in adult attachment styles
- Can identify similar patterns of attachment in adults
- Initially, 3 category typological measure
- Similar breakdown: 56% secure, 19% anxious, 25% avoidant
- Later distinguished between dismissing and fearful-avoidant types
secure attachment in adults
It is easy for me to become emotionally close to others. I am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t worry about being alone or having others not accept me.
preoccupied attachment in adults
I want to be completely emotionally intimate with others, but I often find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I am uncomfortable being without close relationships, but I sometimes worry that others don’t value me as much as I value them.
fearful attachment in adults
I am uncomfortable getting close to others. I want emotionally close relationships, but I find it difficult to trust others completely or to depend on them. I worry that I will be hurt if I allow myself to become too close to others.
dismissing attachment in adults
I am uncomfortable getting close to others. I want emotionally close relationships, but I find it difficult to trust others completely or to depend on them. I worry that I will be hurt if I allow myself to become too close to others.
high avoidance and high anxiety
fearful avoidant
low anxiety and low avoidance
secure
high anxiety low avoidance
preoccupied
high avoidance low anxiety
dismissing avoidant
