Lecture 5- Childhood Attachment

Question 1

What did Bowlby sate about infants?

Answer 1

Infants should experience war, intimate, and continuous relationship with their mother

Question 2

What are the three stages of Mourning- maternal deprivation?

Answer 2

1) Protest (strong expectations of return)
2) Despair (withdrawn and inactive)
3) Detachment (Loss of all interest)

Question 3

Describe Harlow’s study?

Answer 3

1) 2 surrogate mothers (Rhesus monkey)
2) moved the bottle from one mother to the other
3)more likely to gravitate to the cloth mother than wired mother

Question 4

What is Attachment?

Answer 4

1) Infant enduring affective tie to caregiver that develops over time
2) Infants born with a biological push to form attachments
3) for survival and protection

Question 5

What is not attachment?

Answer 5

1) Not parents bond to infant
2) Imprinting

Question 6

What are the functions of attachment?

Answer 6

1) Survival
2) Protection from predators
3) Physical and emotional safety

Question 7

What is the attachment system for survival?

Answer 7

1) Monitor threat
2) Check safety setting
3) Use attachment behaviours (crying, crawling, and calling)
4) Repeat 3 and 4 if needed

Question 8

What are the survival threat types?

Answer 8

1) External
- Dangerous situations
2) Internal
- Illness, fatigue, hunger, cold
3) Threats to Proximity
- Separation

Question 9

What is the safety setting?

Answer 9

1) Proximity of caregiver (physically close)
2) Felt security (Scroufe, 1976), emotionally close

Question 10

How does monitoring benefit infants?

Answer 10

1) tells infants to get close or to explore

Question 11

Define Attachment bx?

Answer 11

• behaviour that decreases proximity to a caregiver
• behaviour that increases ‘felt security’

Question 12

State the types of attachment bx

Answer 12

1) Signalling (Smiling, crying, babbling)
2) Approaching (following, holding, seeking)

Question 13

What is an attachment figure?

Answer 13

1) A person an infant directs their attachment bx too
2) A person who spends the most time, quality care, and emotional investment in infant

Question 14

What was Bowlby’s hypothesis?

Answer 14

• caregivers responsiveness is related to individual differences in attachment security
• these individual differences have consequences for later personality development an interpersonal relating

Question 15

What was Ainsworth study?

Answer 15

Strange situation
1) Series of episodes in which infant and parent are separated and reunited twice
2) Three basic organizations of infant-mother attachment
3) Related to mothers caregiving behaviours

Question 16

State the three attachment styles

Answer 16

Secure
Avoidant
Ambivalent

Question 17

Describe the Secure attachment style in the strange situation study?

Answer 17

1) mother= secure base
2) Separation= signs of missing parent
3) reunion= Actively greets mum signals for contact
$) soothed by contact and returns to exploring

Question 18

How does the mother behave so the infant can develop a secure attachment style?

Answer 18

• accepting, emotionally and physically accessible, responsive
• warm & pleasant contact
• secure base and safe haven

Question 19

Describe the avoidant attachment style in a strange situation study?

Answer 19

1) Explore little but little or no secure base bx
2) separation= little or no signs of missing the parent
3) reunion= unresponsive
4) fails to find comfort in mother

Question 20

How does the mother behave so the infant can develop an avoidant attachment style?

Answer 20

• Mother is least sensitive, more rejecting
• unpleasant or infrequent physical contact
• no safe haven

Question 21

Describe the Ambivalent Attachment style in the strange situation study?

Answer 21

1) Fails to explore, visibly distressed
2) Separation= distressed
3) reunion= alternates between wanting contact & angry rejection
4) Fails to find comfort in mother

Question 22

How does the mother behave so the infant can develop an avoidant attachment style?

Answer 22

• Generally accepting but less sensitive, inconsistent
• less cooperative
• no secure base

Question 23

When is secure attachment most likely?

Answer 23

1) parents are sociable, affectionate, and agreeable
2) Infant perceived as positive
3) low marital conflict and social support

Question 24

How does a secure attachment style affect pre school?

Answer 24

1) more independent
2) believe they can succeed
3) more positive self-image
4) seen as empathetic

Question 25

How does an avoidant attachment style affect pre- school?

Answer 25

1) more dependent on teachers
2) lack confidence
3) Lower persistence in problem-solving
4) seen negatively
5) more likely to show aggression

Question 26

What is an internal working model of attachment?

Answer 26

Mental representation is formed through a child’s early experiences with their primary caregiver

Question 27

What does a secure internal working model look like?

Answer 27

1) Self- confident
2) others are there when i need them
3) strong emotions are manageable

Question 28

What does an avoidant internal working model look like?

Answer 28

1) act independent even when uncertain
2) can’t rely on others for comfort
3) strong emotions won’t get them where they need, so should hide them

Question 29

What does an ambivalent internal working model look like?

Answer 29

1) not confident unable to work on their own
2) others ae inconsistent in their care
3) strong emotions are hard to mange on their own

Question 30

What is disorganised attachment?

Answer 30

1) not organized by clear style
2) associated with prior trauma and attachment trauma
3) both avoidant and fearful characteristics
4) signs of dissociations and inappropriate humour

Question 31

what is the importance of Internal working model?

Answer 31

contributes to emotional regulation and psychic organization