Week 8: Attachment and Parenting Flashcards
What is attachment?
The strong, affectionate tie we develop with special people (eg. caregivers) that enables us to experience pleasure and joy when interacting with them or being comforted by their presence in times of distress.
How was Harlow’s Surrogate Mothers Experiment conducted?
Rhesus monkeys were reared with wire-mesh or terry-cloth surrogate mothers.
What was the time spent on wired vs cloth mothers?
They preferred to cling to a soft terry-cloth mother over a wire-mesh mother holding a milk bottle.
What does the result of Harlow’s Surrogate Mothers Experiment suggest?
Suggests that parent-infant attachment is based on emotional bond and security more than mere satisfaction of hunger.
What does Bowlby’s Ethological Theory of Attachment suggest?
Attachment in infants is primarily a process of proximity seeking to an identified attachment figure (eg. mother) in situations of distress and alarm. Feeding is not the basis for attachment. Rather, attachment can be best understood in evolutionary context, where survival of species through ensuring safety and competence.
What are the phases of Bowlby’s Attachment Development?
Pre-attachment Phase (birth to 6 weeks) -> Attachment-in-the-making Phase (6 weeks to 6 - 8 months) -> Clear-cut Attachment Phase (6-8 months to 18 months - 2 years) -> Formation of a Reciprocal Relationship (18 months - 2 years and onwards)
What happens in the pre-attachment phase?
Recognises mother’s small, voice and face. But they are not yet attached to the mother - do not mind being left with an unfamiliar adult.
What happens in the attachment-in-the-making phase?
Differentiate a familiar caregiver from a stranger - more smiles and babbles to mother. A sense of trust. But they still do not protest when separated from the mother.
What happens in the clear-cut attachment phase?
Separation anxiety emerges - getting upset when trusted caregiver leaves. Try hard to maintain the caregiver’s presence - with clinging, approaching and climbing.
What happens during the formation of reciprocal relationship phase?
With rapid growth in mental representation and language, they understand factors that influence caregivers’ coming and leaving. Separation protest declines. Uses negotiation and strategy to keep the proximity.
In the strange situation experiment, what happens in the separation phase?
The mother leaves, and the baby is left alone with the stranger.
In the strange situation experiment, what happens in the reunion phase?
Mother comes back into the room, and distinctive types of secure and insecure attachments emerge.
What happens in secure attachment?
The parent is a secure base. When separated, the baby may or may not cry. Securely-attached babies prefer the parent over the stranger. When parent returns, they actively seek contact and crying is quickly soothed.
What happens in insecure-avoidant attachment?
The infants seem unresponsive to the parent when present. When the parent leaves, they are not distressed. During reunion, they avoid or are slow to greet the parent; and when picked up, fail to cling onto the parent.
What happens in insecure-resistant attachment?
Even before separation, these infants seek closeness and fail to explore the playground. When the parent leaves, they are distressed. When the parent returns, clinginess with angry, resistive behaviour, struggling with hitting or pushing. Continue to cry after picked up; difficult to soothe.
What happens in insecure-disoriented attachment?
Represents the greatest insecurity. At reunion, these infants show confused, contradictory behaviour. Looking away from parent. Flat, depressed emotions toward the parent. Cry or odd, frozen postures.
German baby reactions to strange situation
German parents value independence and encourage the infants to be non-clingy, resulting in a higher % of avoidant attachment.
Japanese baby reactions to strange situation
Japanese mothers spend much time in close physical contact with their babies, so the strange situation could elicit greater separation stress. Japanese parents view the child’s resistant behaviour as a normal gesture to satisfy their secure dependency.
Factors that affect attachment security
- Early availability of a consistent caregiver
- Quality of caregiving
- Infant characteristics
- Family contexts
- Parents’ internal working models
Key components of parenting styles
- Acceptance of the child and involvement in child’s life to establish emotional connection
- Behavioural control through expectations, rules and supervision
- Autonomy granting, encouraging self reliance
3 Types of Parenting Styles
- Authoritative
- Authoritarian
- Permissive
Describe the authoritative parenting style
- Most adaptive, functional parenting approach
- Involves high acceptance and involvement, adaptive parental control techniques, and appropriate gradual autonomy granting
- Warm, attentive and sensitive to their child’s needs
- Encourages child’s expressions of thoughts and feelings; and joint decision making and perspective taking
- Associated with childhood and adolescent competence
Describe the authoritative parenting style
- Low in acceptance and involvement and high in coercive behavioural control, and low in autonomy granting
- To exert control, often yell, command, criticise and threaten
- Discourage child’s expression of thoughts, feelings and questions
- Children of authoritarian parents are more likely to be anxious, unhappy, low in self-esteem and self-reliance. When frustrated, react with hostility, being forceful and acting out
