Week 10 - Attachment Development (Adulthood, Adolescence and Early Adulthood) Flashcards
What is coregulation? Why is it critical?
Coregulation = a key feature of secure attachment (emotional self-regulation). Kids learn to regulate their emotions through coregulation, with someone first, and then they learn the skill and can do this on their own.
Attachment figure regulates infants unregulated feelings. But they need to be shown how first.
Coregulation = working through feeling TOGETHER. School aged children need to learn to regulate emotions on their own - thus it is critical to show children how to do this before they enter school.
Repetition = overtime, child learns that my feelings can be brought to someone else; my feelings are safe, validated and can be comforted. I can cue, I can be clear, and I see that my feelings don’t have to overwhelm me.
What results from repeated experience of unregulated emotions?
Feelings of being left alone, then we struggle with self-regulation because it is on us to figure it out.
What results from repetition of patterns?
We learn a way of behaving around particular needs. E.g. needs for comfort, nurture and connection. E.g. when my parent is not responsive to my emotional needs (coregulation), then I retreat into myself.
How do we develop our Internal Working Model? (IWM)
through procedural learning:
~ Self = my own value, worth, safety of feelings,
~ Other = what we expect from others (pos/neg)
~ Self-other = how the self is experienced in relation to others. What we can expect from relationships.
What do our IWMs do?
~ They act as a filter through which information is processed and interpreted.
~ They will impact how we see the world. E.g. how will I respond if my partner says they are going to watch the footy with mates?
What are the adult versions of exploration and responsiveness?
Intimacy and autonomy = closeness/ connection, and autonomy (exploration
Coordinating balance.
Secure attachments are a good balance of intimacy and autonomy.
Define State of Mind.
State of mind = IWMs work together and integrates thoughts and feelings about relationships. This guides processing. It includes conscious and non-conscious features.
Influences state regulation (emotional state), and motivation (to seek new relationships)
Tells us what we should do about a need, based on how people have responded in the past to our needs.
Define Mentalisation.
Mentalisation is understanding your mind is different from others. Skill where we have developed a strong understanding of our own mind, and how this might differ from others. We learn this from attachment relationships - learn we have a mind, our caregiver, and we might not always experience the same thing, but there are ways to calibrate and work with 2x minds.
Key: attunement, synchrony and responsiveness between mother and baby. (E.g. example with Zoe and her mum asking what she sees). When we use this understanding of two different minds, we are engaging in mentalisation.
What is Reflective Functioning?
Reflective functioning is when we are in the thick of it, we reflect on mentalisation to guide behaviour (the doing part, which shapes our behavioural response).
Capacity to mentalise emerges as a function of caregiver’s attunement - responding and modulating to child’s internal state. Builds capacity for them to understand they are distinct from their caregiver.
Nurturing regulation of emotional responses. Allows child to regulate, instead of become overwhelmed (co-regulation).
Less likely to be overwhelmed as an adult.
More likely to express emotions with partner in a healthy way in adulthood.
What are the 4 adult attachment styles (equivalent of the childhood ones)? Describe them in depth.
- Autonomous = secure attachment. Capacity for reflective function & psychological flexibility. Able to adapt to changing situations. Balance of relying on ourselves as well as others.
- Dismissing = avoidant attachment. Uncomfortable with care-seeking. Minimise attachment significance, dismissive, “fine by myself”. Doesn’t need close relationships ~ Over reliance on self. Struggles to turn to others for comfort or help in times of stress .More likely to retreat and withdraw, than to reach out to someone.
- Preoccupied = ambivalent (equivalent in childhood). Parent not comfortable with exploration. Overwhelmed and absorbed by negative emotion (feels it big). Over involved in attachment experiences. Overly relies on other person to take care of them. Not as confident in trusting own skill set. Comes from sense of mistrust of their own worth to source from someone else - doesn’t feel capable.
- Unresolved/ fearful = disorganised attachment. Associated with trauma or grief
Describe some features of attachment in adolescence.
Secure attachment:
~ better co-ordination with relationships
~ broader social base
~ strong and enduring peer bonds
~ expansion of attachment hierarchy - friends, teachers, coaches, romantic partners.
Shifts in parent attachment:
- security assist in co-ordination of parent-adolescent relating
- secure base function moderates over time
- safe haven may become more selective and diffused.
Describe dating as an attachment process.
- Pre-attachment = getting to know
- Attachment in the making = feeling comfortable with
- Clear cut attachment = having attachment bond
- Goal corrected partnership = co-ordinating relationship
