Attachment

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Attachment

• A strong affectional tie that binds a person to
  an intimate companion.
• Characterized by
• Affection
• A desire to maintain proximity in order to
  regulate distress

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Attachment

• Attachments are usually formed with the mother,
  but may be with any responsive and caring person.

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Attachment

• The Ethological Theory of Attachment
• babies are biologically predisposed to seek and
  to form attachments 
• the infants relationship with the parent begins
  as a set of innate signals that call the adult to
  the babies side
• parents innately respond

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Phases of Attachment

• Phase 1 (birth 2 months)
• Child initiates contact with innate signals
• Phase 2 (2 8 months)
• Infant begins to respond differently to strangers

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Phases of Attachment

• Phase 3 (7 24 months)
• Attachment to a familiar caregiver is clearly
  evident
• Separation anxiety
• Stranger anxiety
• Child uses caregiver as a secure base
• Social referencing is also apparent

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Phases of Attachment

• Phase 4 (2 years and up)
• Protest declines when parent leaves as child
  gains understanding that parents will return
• object permanence

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Types of Attachment

• Secure Attachment
• Outgoing with stranger when mother is present
• Actively explores
• Upset when mother leaves
• Greets mother warmly when she returns
• Child is easily comforted
• Returns to exploration
• 60 - 65

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Types of Attachment

• Avoidant Attachment
• Unresponsive to parent when present
• Uninterested in exploring
• Treats strangers much like mother
• Shows little distress with mothers absence
• On mothers return, child avoids contact by
  ignoring or turning away
• 15

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Types of Attachment

• Resistant Attachment
• Clingy, anxious, and does not explore
• Leary of strangers
• Upset when mother leaves
• Remains upset when mother returns but ambivalent
• Difficult to console, pushing parent away, hits,
  or kicks
• 10

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Types of Attachment

• Disorganized Attachment
• Child seems confused, dazed, fearful and unsure
  how to react in all situations
• Seems frightened of the parent at times
• When mother returns, unsure whether to approach
  or avoid
• Most often seen in high risk families
• Associated with later emotional problems
• Up to 15

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Consequences of Healthy Attachment

• Bowlby found that children with healthy
  attachments are more likely to survive
• Failure to thrive
• Greater ability to cope with stress and regulate
  emotions later in life

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Consequences of Healthy Attachment

• Healthy emotional development
• Emotions demonstrated early
• Self-conscious emotions
• Emerge around 18 months when awareness of self is
  starting to be in place (embarrassment).
• Beginning around age 2, able to judge their
  behavior against socially accepted norms and
  standards of performance (guilt, shame, pride)
• These last emotions are sometimes called
  self-evaluative emotions

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Consequences of Healthy Attachment

• Healthy emotional development
• Emotional Regulation
• The process of recognizing, initiating,
  maintaining, altering emotional responses
• External at first
• Social referencing
• Blankets, teddy bears, etc.
• Becomes internal
• Cognitive strategies to self nurture

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Consequences of Healthy Attachment

• Acceptance by peer group and have close
  friendships
• More confident and successful with peers
• Have fewer conflicts with peers
• Can change positively or negatively depending on
  environment and experience

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Consequences of Healthy Attachment
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Influences on Attachment

• Child Temperament
• Evocative Gene Environment
• Parents Emotional State

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Influences on Attachment

• Home Environment
• Support
• Stress
• Parenting styles

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Social Relationships

• Tend to stay in same sex groups of same age and
  same interests until early adolescence

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Social Relationships

• Play
• Unoccupied Play
• Idle and aimless
• Solitary Play
• Play alone
• Onlooker Play
• Watch others play

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Social Relationships

• Play
• Parallel Play
• Play next to each other with little interaction
• Associative Play
• Interact but not united in play
• Cooperative Play
• Play together toward a common goal

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Five Categories of Social Status in Elementary
School

• Popular
• Well liked and rarely disliked
• Described as friendly, cooperative, helpful, and
  willing to share
• Rejected
• Rarely liked and often disliked
• Described as aggressive and disruptive
• At risk for long term adjustment problems
• 10 - 15 remain in this group

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Five Categories of Social Status in Elementary
School

• Controversial
• Both liked and disliked
• Have qualities of both popular and rejected
  children
• Neglected
• Not really liked or disliked
• Socially isolated and ignored
• Invisible
• Average
• Somewhere between the liked and disliked scales

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Peer Acceptance and Popularity

• Status in a peer group is a determinant of later
  adjustment in life
• Peer acceptance often involves likeability, or
  the extent to which a child is viewed by a group
  of age mates as a worthy social partner.

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Social Relationships

• Cliques
• Small friendship groups that interact frequently
• Usually same sex in late childhood
• Heterosexual in early adolescence

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Social Relationships

• Crowds
• Collection of heterosexual cliques that share
  characteristics or participate in similar
  activities
• Appear to include or exclude based on certain,
  often unstated, rules
• Often named

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Browns Phases of Romantic Relationships in
Adolescence

• Initiation Phase (early adolescence)
• Focus on seeing self relating to members of the
  opposite sex in a romantic way
• Status Phase (mid adolescence)
• Having romantic relationship with the right
  person for status purposes within ones group

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Browns Phases of Romantic Relationships in
Adolescence

• Affection Phase (late adolescence)
• Focus is on relationship rather than self or
  group
• Bonding Phase (young adulthood)
• Emotional intimacy of last phase is coupled with
  commitment