Lecture 10: Attachment Theory Part 1 Flashcards
1
Q
attachment theory
A
- 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
2
Q
two components to attachment theory
A
- Normative development and functioning of the attachment system
- Individual differences in how the attachment system operates
3
Q
behaviourist perspective on love
A
- 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
4
Q
Harry Harlow (1958)
A
- 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
5
Q
Harlow’s cloth vs. wire mother study
A
- 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
6
Q
Harlow’s mother as a source of security study
A
- 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
7
Q
childcare in the 1950s and 60s
A
- 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
8
Q
bowlby’s attachment theory
A
- 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
9
Q
attachment behavioural system
A
- Conceptualized the attachment behavioural system as akin to a control system
- Basic example: thermostat for regulating room temperature
- Instead of regulating temperature, regulates safety
10
Q
attachment figure hallmarks
A
- proximity-seeking
- separation distress
- safe haven
- secure base
11
Q
proximity-seeeking
A
the person you go to, particularly when in need or distress
12
Q
safe haven
A
provides protection, comfort, and support
13
Q
separation distress
A
- 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
14
Q
Mary Ainsworth
A
- 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
15
Q
strange situation paradigm
A
- 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
16
Q
Bowlby’s 3 repsonses to separation
A
- protest
- despair
- detachment
17
Q
protest
A
acute distress, desperate attempts to re-establish contact (crying, clinging, calling, searching), generally rejection of contact with others
18
Q
despair
A
preoccupation with caregiver still evident, depressed mood, appears hopeless and withdrawn
