Lecture Outline: Attachment

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• Lecture Outline Attachment
• Definitions and Importance
• Normative Development of Attachment
• Ethological Attachment Theory (J. Bowlby)
• Individual Differences in Attachment Security
• Infancy Strange Situation

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• Attachment An enduring emotional tie that
  unites one person to another, over time and
  across space

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• Attachment Behaviors
• Behaviors that function to bring the infant/child
  physically closer to the caregiver
• Exs crying, following, clinging

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• Why is parent-child attachment important?
• First relationship that infants experience
• May serve as a model for other relationships
• May affect the development of self-concept

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• Normative Development of Attachment
• Ethological Attachment Theory (J. Bowlby)
• Attachment behavior evolved because it is
  adaptive for survival
• Keeps infants physically close to caregivers and
  away from danger
• Increases the chances of infant survival and
  reproductive success

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• Evidence (Ethological Attachment Theory)
• Animals that stray from a group are much more
  vulnerable to attack
• Attachment behavior in animals (including
  humans)
• Occurs more frequently in those most vulnerable
  to predators (e.g., the young)
• Increases in frightening situations

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• Individual Differences in Attachment Security
• Infancy Strange Situation
• Mother and infant in laboratory playroom
• Stranger enters, talks to mothers, engages infant
• Mother leaves (stranger stays)
• Mother returns (stranger leaves)
• Mother leaves (baby alone)
• Stranger returns
• Mother returns

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• Secure (B)
• About 60-65 of American middle-class samples
• May or may not be distressed by separation
• Respond positively to parents return
• If distressed by separation, easily comforted by
  parent and able to return to play (parent
  secure base)

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• Insecure-Avoidant (A)
• 15-20 of American middle-class samples
• Usually not distressed by separation from parent
• Avoid the parent during reunion (to different
  degrees)

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• Insecure-Resistant or Ambivalent (C)
• 10-15 of American middle-class samples
• Usually distressed by separation
• Show a combination of angry, resistant behavior
  and proximity-seeking behavior during reunion
  with parent
• Have difficulty being comforted by parent and
  returning to play

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• Insecure-Disorganized (D)
• 10-15 of American middle-class samples
• More common in infants who have been maltreated
• Infants behavior does not reflect an organized
  strategy for dealing with the stress of
  separation
• Contradictory behaviors
• Expressions of fear or disorientation when
  caregiver returns

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Goodness-of-fit Degree to which a childs
  temperament is compatible with the expectations
  of the social environment (e.g., the family
  environment)
• Goodness-of-fit may be a better predictor of
  attachment security than either parental behavior
  or infant temperament alone

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• 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

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• 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

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• Attachment and Later Development
• A secure attachment in infancy is related to
• More positive interactions with parents in the
  second year of life
• More positive relationships with others (e.g.,
  day care teachers, peers) when children are
  toddlers and preschoolers

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• Is not strongly related to the quality of older
  childrens relationships

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• Why does infant attachment security predict later
  behavior (at least short-term)?

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• Attachment Theory Perspective
• Attachment security reflects infants internal
  working models

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• IWM generalizes to new relationships
• Children with secure attachments
• Expect others to respond positively to them
• Children with insecure attachments
• Expect others to respond negatively to them
  (e.g., by ignoring or rejecting them)

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• IWMs tend to be self-perpetuating
• Children behave in ways that elicit certain
  responses from others
• Others responses confirm childrens internal
  working models

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• Continuity of Care Perspective
• Parents who are sensitive in infancy are likely
  to remain sensitive as children grow older
• Sensitivity is related to secure attachment in
  infancy and to more positive adjustment as
  children get older

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• Secure attachment in infancy does not CAUSE more
  positive later adjustment (no IWM)