Influences on Infant Attachment Security

1

• Influences on Infant Attachment Security
• According to attachment theory, the major
  influence is parental behavior (especially
  sensitivity)
• Sensitivity Consistent, prompt, and appropriate
  responses to infant signals

2

• Infants develop expectations about how caregivers
  are likely to respond to their signals
• Expectations form the basis of an internal
  working model
• IWM Expectations about the nature of
  relationships and beliefs about the self

3

• Expectations result from the quality of
  mother-infant interaction
• Sensitive Care Infants expect caregiver to be
  available and responsive
• Insensitive Care Infants expect caregiver to be
  unresponsive/inconsistent or rejecting

4

• Infants behavior in the Strange Situation
  reflects their expectations (early IWM)
• Secure infants expect caregiver to be responsive
• Insecure infants expect caregiver to be
  unresponsive/inconsistent or rejecting

5

• Evidence for Parental Behavior as the Major
  Influence on Infant Attachment Security
• Parental sensitivity is correlated with infant
  attachment security, but the correlation is not
  strong
• Disagreement about the importance of parental
  sensitivity in influencing attachment security
• Other factors also affect attachment security

6

• Temperament and Attachment Security
• Some studies find that insecure infants are
  higher in distress during the first year of life
• Difficult to know if this reflects temperament or
  parental behavior
• In general, temperament is not strongly related
  to attachment security

7

• Goodness-of-fit may be a better predictor of
  attachment security than either parental behavior
  or infant temperament alone

8

• Study Mangelsdorf et al., 1990
• 9-month-old infants Measured proneness to
  distress (temperament dimension)
• Mothers Measured personality characteristics
• Constraint High scores indicate rigidity,
  inflexibility

9

• If infants were high in proneness-to-distress and
  mothers were high in constraint, infants were
  more likely to be insecurely attached
• Other combinations did NOT increase the
  probability of insecure attachment
• High constraint/low proneness-to-distress
• Low constraint/low proneness-to-distress
• Low constraint/high proneness to distress