Lecture 5 - Competence Hypothesis

Question 1

What is the competence hypothesis?

Answer 1

Attachment security leads to differences in children’s emotional, social and cognitive competencies.

Question 2

Why is longitudinal research critical for addressing the competence hypothesis?

Answer 2

• The hypothesis is causal
• It involves stability and change over time
• It links between early experience and later behaviours while controlling for early behaviours

Question 3

What are two of the main longitudinal studies investigating the competence hypothesis and what age did they follow participants to?

Answer 3

• Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (Sroufe, 2005). Followed until 28, still ongoing.
• NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Followed to 15.

Question 4

Attachment experiences are linked to what domains of outcomes?

Answer 4

• Physical
• Cognitive
• Language
• Externalising and Internalising Behaviours
• Social

Question 5

How are attachment experiences linked to physical outcomes?

Answer 5

Insecure attachments are linked to child obesity after 4 and a half years.

Question 6

How are attachment experiences linked to cognitive outcomes?

Answer 6

Children who are more securely attached have better problem solving abilities, have higher IQ and memory capacity.

Thought to be due to a competent affect regulation, ability to deal with stress and focus on task at hand.

Question 7

How are attachment experiences linked to language outcomes?

Answer 7

Secure attachments lead to greater language competence in early childhood.

Question 8

How are attachment experiences liked to social outcomes?

Answer 8

Secure attachments lead to increased friendship quality in childhood and adolescence.

Question 9

What is the prototype hypothesis?

Answer 9

Attachment style influences later romantic relationships.

Question 10

What did Simpson et al., (2007) measure and find about the prototype hypothesis?

Answer 10

Measured security of attachments at:

• 12 months, using SSP
• Grades 1-3, using teacher reports
• 16 years, using an interview.

Simpson et al., (2007) found that those with more secure attachments had much better qualities of romantic relationships at 20-23 years.

Question 11

What is the critique of the competence hypothesis?

Answer 11

• Security of infants with both parents must be considered, as infants with only one secure parental attachment do not have the same outcomes as those with two (Main & Weston, 1981).
  This is an issue because the majority of attachment research is based only on maternal attachment.
• effect sizes are small to moderate
• supported by correlational, not experimental studies.

Question 12

What is the dynamic interaction process?

Answer 12

Attachment history modifies perceptions of, and reactions to, changes in the family environment.

Question 13

What did Belsky & Fearon (2002) show about the importance of attachment quality and later sensitivity?

Answer 13

In infants with inconsistent developmental histories, secure attachments early on (15 months) do matter, but later parental sensitivity (24 months) may be more influential on outcomes at 36 months.

Question 14

What did Belsky and Fearon (2002) show about the flexibility of security in development?

Answer 14

Showed that development is flexible - being insecure early in life does not commit you to maladaptive outcomes at 36 months.

Question 15

Which change in attachment security is more likely, secure - insecure, or insecure-secure?

Answer 15

Moving from insecure childhood attachments to secure attachments later in childhood is more likely.

Question 16

Describe evidence showing that insecure attachments can change to secure later in childhood.

Answer 16

Lounds et al., (2005) found that 42% of children with insecure attachments at one year became secure at 5 years.

Fish (2004) found that 57% of infants who were insecure-disorganised at 1 were secure at 4 years.

Question 17

What is the link between secure attachments and exploratory behaviour (citation)?

Answer 17

Infants with secure attachments exhibit more complex exploratory behaviour than infants with insecure attachments (Main, 1973).

Question 18

What is the link between secure attachments and problem solving (citation)?

Answer 18

When infants with secure attachments are given problems to solve, they are more interested, persistent and effective than insecurely attached children (Matas et al., 1978).

Question 19

Describe evidence supporting the notion that securely attached infants go on to have higher IQs than insecurely attached infants?

Answer 19

Dutch research by van Ijzendoorn and Sagi (2008) found that the security of attachments to mothers, fathers and other caregivers predicted IQ at 5 years old.

Higher grades at 9, 12 and 15 (Jacobsen & Hoffman, 1997)

More advanced cognitive abilities at age 7 (Stams et al., 2002).

Question 20

What are the social outcomes as a teenager for those with secure attachments?

Answer 20

At 19, adolescents with a history of secure attachments were more likely to have close family relationships, long term friendships, high self-confidence and determination regarding personal goals.

Question 21

What did the NICHD find about social outcomes of secure attachments?

Answer 21

Children with secure attachments were rated as being more socially competent and having fewer externalising and internalising problems than those with insecure attachments (NICHD Early Child Research Network, 1997).

Question 22

Which study found a link between insecure attachments and internalising problems, and what did it find?

Answer 22

Groh et al., (2012) found that children with insecure attachments were more likely to show internalising problems.

Question 23

Describe the evidence linking security of attachment and emotion regulation.

Answer 23

Colle and Del Giudice, (2011) found that, at age 7, securely attached children are more knowledgeable about emotion regulation strategies.

Kobak & Cole (1994) also found that, at older ages, securely attached children and adolescents are more able to effectively regulate their emotions in challenging situations.

Question 24

What did Cassidy (1998) find about how children with differing attachment styles viewed themselves?

Answer 24

Securely attached children viewed themselves more positively, but were able to admit their weak points

Insecure-avoidant children tended to view themselves as perfect.

Insecure-ambivalent children showed no clear pattern.

Insecure-disorganised had negative self-evaluations.

Question 25

what are the three possible explanations for why early attachments seem to continue in their influence of outcomes later into adolescence?

Answer 25

• Extreme early effects, which suggests that early attachments protect children from later traumas.
• Mediating experiences, suggests that continually positive outcomes is a result of ongoing parental behaviour and environmental conditions, rather than the effect of earlier attachment patterns.
• Dynamic interaction: children’s attachment histories modify how they perceive and react to changes in their family environment.

Question 26

Which theory explaining why early development links to positive outcomes after childhood is supported, and which study does this?

Answer 26

The mediating experiences theory is supported by NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1997). This study found that the links between attachment and later outcomes were mediated by the quality of parenting.

The dynamic interaction theory was also supported, however. The study found that children with insecure attachments had fluctuations in their outcomes as parenting changed. Children with secure attachments, in contrast, did not differ in their social outcomes as parenting changed throughout adulthood.