Psychology Chapter 14

Question 1

What are the names and backgrounds of the two individuals most closely associated with attachment theory?

Answer 1

John Bowlby (psychiatrist) and Mary Ainsworth (developmental psychologist)

Question 2

What is the primary theoretical base for attachment theory?

Answer 2

Ethology! The study of behavior of various species in their natural environments and the evolution of that behavior.

Question 3

Briefly explain how attachment is a behavioral system.

Answer 3

It is behavioral system through which humans regulate their emotional distress when under threat and achieve security by seeking proximity to another person.

Question 4

How is attachment similar yet different from imprinting?

Answer 4

• Imprinting (occurs after birth, irreversible, automatic)
• Attachment (not automatic, occurs in middle of 1st year)
• Both (based on close proximity)

Question 5

What can change an infant’s biologically preprogrammed signals?

Answer 5

Their signals may wane if caregivers are unresponsive to them.

Question 6

How can an internal working model affect later relationships?

Answer 6

They are cognitive representations of themselves and other people that guide their processing of social information and behavior in relationships. (securely attached infants later thinking they are lovable and others can be trusted to care for them)

Question 7

List Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment theory claims.

Answer 7

1) Capacity to form attachments is part of our evolutionary heritage.
2) Attachments unfold through an interaction of biological and environmental forces during a sensitive period early in life.
3) Quality of attachment between infant and caregiver shapes later development and quality of later relationships.
4) Internal working models of self and other are the mechanism through which early experience affects later development.

Question 8

Social Referencing

Answer 8

Infant’s monitoring of companions’ emotional reactions in ambiguous situations and use of this information to decide how they should feel and behave.

Question 9

Synchronized Routines

Answer 9

Dancelike interaction between infant and caregiver in which each adjusts behavior in response to that of the other.

Question 10

Bowlby’s 4 Attachment Phases

Answer 10

1) Undiscriminating Social Responsiveness (birth-8 weeks) (Infants respond to social behavior, no clear preference for one person over another.)
2) Discriminating Social Responsiveness (8 weeks-7 months) (Preference for familiar people is shown)
3) Active Proximity Seeking/True Attachment (7 months-3 years) (Infants actively seek contact with and proximity to the caregiver. Especially if scared, sick, tired, etc.)
4) Goal Corrected Partnership (3 years and up) (Children work to achieve and maintain proximity across time)

Question 11

Separation Anxiety

Answer 11

Baby becomes wary or fretful when separated from that parent

Question 12

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 12

Wary or fretful reaction to the approach of an unfamiliar person.

Question 13

Secure Base

Answer 13

Point of safety from which an infant can feel free to venture.

Question 14

Briefly describe the Ainsworth Strange Situation procedure.

Answer 14

Series of mildly stressful experiences involving the departure of parent and exposure to a stranger. Determines quality of infant attachments.

Question 15

What percentage of American 1-year-olds are coded into each of the four attachment classifications?

Answer 15

Secure Attachment = 60-65%
Resistant Attachment = 10%
Avoidant Attachment = 15%
Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment = 15%

Question 16

What theoretical questions did Harry Harlow’s studies answer?

Answer 16

If Freud’s psychosexual oral stage theory and the learning theorists’ food theory explained infant attachment? Monkey study showed they were both wrong! (Monkey clung to softer mother not wire mother with food)

Question 17

Is infant temperament the main influence on attachment security?

Answer 17

Nope!

Question 18

What is the primary influence on secure attachment?

Answer 18

The parent!

Question 19

How does institutionalization and maltreatment affect attachment?

Answer 19

It makes infant attachment disorganized and abnormal. (odds are better if adopted before age 1. After 1st bday they’re more likely to be messed up)

Question 20

Are infants who attend child care less securely attached than those who do not?

Answer 20

Nope! Day care does not affect infant attachment!

Question 21

How do children who were securely attached as infants differ from those who were insecurely attached?

Answer 21

Children who were securely attached as infants:

• Have intellectual curiosity
• Have social competence
• Have emotional regulation

Question 22

Is an infant/child’s quality of attachment destiny?

Answer 22

Nahhhh. There’s always hope. They can turn around (for better or for worse)

Question 23

What are the advantages of play for children?

Answer 23

• Exercise and developing skills
• Helps in learning to separate thought from reality.
• Development of motor/cognitive.language/social/emotional skills.

Question 24

Sociometric Techniques

Answer 24

Methods for determining who is liked and who is disliked in a group.

Question 25

What are the advantages of a reciprocated friendship?

Answer 25

Increases the odds that a child will be happy and socially competent and reduces the odds they’ll be lonely and depressed.

Question 26

In what ways do friendships change with age?

Answer 26

They are based on…

• Enjoyment of common activities in early childhood.
• Mutual loyalty and caring in late adulthood.
• Intimacy and self-disclosure in adolescence.

Question 27

How do older adults utilize socio-emotional selectivity?

Answer 27

They actively choose to shrink their social networks to better meet their emotional needs as they realize that little time is left to them.

Question 28

Adult Attachment Styles

Answer 28

1) Secure (Healthy balance of attachment and autonomy)
2) Fearful (Need relationships but doubt own worth and fear intimacy)
3) Dismissing (Shut out emotions, avoid intimacy)
4) Preoccupied (Desperate for love to feel worthy as a person, worry about abandonment.)