CHAPTER 14 ATTACHMENT AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

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CHAPTER 14ATTACHMENT AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
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Attachment

• A deep and enduring connection established
  between a child and caregiver in the first
  several years of life.

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Attachment

• Basic trust and reciprocity
• Exploration
• Self-regulation
• Identity
• Prosocial moral framework
• Core belief system
• Defense against stress/trauma

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Attachment

• Established in the context of a relationship that
  includes
• touch
• eye contact
• smile and positive affect
• need fulfillment

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Secure Attachment

• Self-esteem
• Independence/autonomy
• Resilience
• Impulse control
• Long-term friendships
• Relationships with authority figures (including
  parents)
• Prosocial coping skills
• Trust, intimacy and affection
• Positive belief systems
• Empathy, compassion, and conscience
• Behavioral performance and academic success
• Promote secure attachment with own children

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Disrupted Attachment

• Low self-esteem
• Needy, clingy or pseudo-independent
• Decompensate under stress
• Lack self-control
• Unable to develop/maintain friendships
• Alienated from/oppositional with parents other
  authority figures
• Antisocial attitudes/behaviors
• Aggression/violence
• Incapable of genuine trust, intimacy, affection
• Negative, hopeless, pessimistic view
• Lack empathy, compassion, remorse
• Behavior/academic problems
• Perpetuate cycle

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History of Attachment Theory

• John Bowlby
• Affectionless/homeless children
• Ethology
• Bowlby conclusions
• instinctual behaviors keep mother close
• smile is a social releaser
• certain conditions increase attachment
• maternal deprivation/separation traumatic
• loss causes pathological mourning

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Attachment History

• David Levy
• Loretta Bender
• Harry Bakwin
• Rene Spitz
• James Robertson- stages of emotional reaction to
  loss/separation
• Harry Harlow

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• The wire and cloth surrogate mothers used in
  Harlows research. This infant monkey has formed
  an attachment to the cloth mother that provides
  contact comfort, even though it must stretch to
  the wire mother in order to feed.

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History of Attachment

• Mary Ainsworth
• Uganda Study
• Secure Base
• Phases of Attachment
• undiscriminating
• differential responsiveness
• separation anxiety
• active initiation
• stranger anxiety

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Mary Ainsworth

• Strange Situation
• Attachment Patterns
• Secure
• Insecure
• Resistant/Ambivalent
• Avoidant
• Parenting Dimensions acceptance, cooperation,
  sensitivity, and availability

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Developmental Studies

• Mary Main longitudinal study
• disorganized attachment
• internal working model
• Allan Sroufe
• High risk population

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Cultural Variations

• In U.S., one-third (middle class families)
  insecurely attached
• Percentage higher in high-risk families
• Results consistent in all cultures
• Universal and culture-specific aspects of
  attachment
• German replication avoidant attachment
• Israeli kibbutzim ambivalent attachment

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Effects of Social Deprivation

• Infants grieve when separated from caregiver
• Recover when reunited or upon forming new
  attachments
• A series of separations more harmful
• Romanian orphans
• Insecure, anxious
• Difficulty coping with stress
• Need sustained interaction with responsive
  caregivers one or a few

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Romantic Attachment

• Adult Attachment Interview (Mary Main)
• Secure- balance attachment/autonomy
  
• Preoccupied- abandonment, anxiety/anger
• Dismissing- compulsively self-reliant
• Fearful- self-doubt, lack of strategies

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Childhood Peers

• Important for social development
• Piaget equal power among peers
• Requires cooperation, negotiation skills
• Sullivan Peers important after age 6
• Changing interpersonal needs
• Harris Parental influence is overrated
• Peers more important for development

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Peer Relations

• 18 mo first peers
• Turn taking
• Reciprocal play
• Age 2-12 increasing time spent
• Same sex peers
• Similar age and play preferences

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Peer Acceptance

• Sociometric techniques
• Most popular kids
• Attractive, intelligent
• Socially competent
• Rejected kids
• Highly aggressive
• Socially isolated, overly sensitive, submissive

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Peers or Parents?

• Harris The Nurture Assumption
• Peers more important than parents
• Parental influence overrated
• Socialization by neighborhood peers
• Individuality comes from genes

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Adolescents

• Parents still important
• Boy-girl friendships and dates
• Dating Dunphys phases
• Initiation, status, affection, bonding
• Friendships More intimacy
• Friends similar psychologically
• Cliques and crowds
• Increased conformity

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The Adult

• Social networks shrink
• Closer to family
• Romantic attachments remain
• Adult friendships valued
• Important to have at least one confidant

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Emotions in Infancy

• Timing of emotions biologically programmed
• Tied to cognitive maturation
• Evolved to ensure that caregivers respond
• Social referencing by 10-12 months
• Monitor reactions in others to help define
  situation, regulate behavior and emotions
• Modeling, imitation, reinforcement
• Emotion Regulation Learned throughout infancy
  and childhood

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• The emergence of different emotions. Primary
  emotions emerge in the first six months of life,
  secondary or self-conscious emotions emerge
  starting about 18 months to 2 years of age.

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Play

• Age 1-2 Pretend play
• Age 2-5 Social play
• Age 5-6 Rule-based games
• By age 11-2 Rule flexibility
• Play is beneficial
• Cognitive development
• Social skills

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• In the study by Simpson er al, (2007)
  relationship quality at each step in development
  affected relationship quality at the next step.