Psychology: Theory and Method 2

PS4042 Attachment

Dr. Hara Tsekou

Central issues in Developmental Psychology

Children undergo huge changes - physical mental motor social emotional cognitive - skills develop

Important to remember the inter relatedness of changes – one can affect the other i.e. cognitive thinking is closely linked to emotional change.

Central issues in Developmental Psychology A nativist account of development would argue that the

processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism's genes.

An empiricist perspective would argue that those processes are acquired in interaction with the environment.

Today developmental psychologists rarely take such extreme positions with regard to most aspects of development; rather they investigate, among many other things, the relationship between innate and environmental influences

One of the ways in which this relationship has been explored in recent years is through the emerging field of evolutionary developmental psychology.

Ethology

Examines how behavior is determined by a species' need for survival.

Has its roots in Charles Darwin's research. Describes a "critical period" or "sensitive

period,” for learning

Ethology = study of animal behaviour focusing on importance of innate

capacities.

Ethological Theory

Imprinting: Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) tendency of newborn to follow first moving objects they see.

Behaviour involves the formation of an attachment between infant and mother.

Adaptive behaviour as promotes survival as leads to proximity between infant and mother

Which statement do you agree with?

– Early social experience predestines a child’s future.

– The effects of early life experience represent no more than an initial step in an ongoing life path.

Attachment

How important is the child’s first relationship?

How do we measure the security of attachment between mothers and infants, and can we measure this in the same way for all children?

Can security of attachment influence the child’s future relationships with other people, even with their own children?

If so, can this cycle be broken?

Attachment Theory

John Bowlby applied ethological principles to his theory of attachment.

Attachment between an infant and her caregiver can insure the infant’s survival.

Theory tested and developed by Mary Ainsworth

Has recently been applied to fields such as psychosis

Attachment

– Definition– Perspectives– Measurement– Long-term benefits– Differences– Privation– Evaluation

Attachment

Bowlby defined attachment as a “lasting psychological connectedness

between human beings” (1969, p.194)

Attachment

Lasting emotional tie between people such that the individual strives to maintain closeness to the object of attachment and acts to ensure the relationship continues.

Individual experiences pleasure and security in presence of other, but anxiety and distress when they are gone.

Emphasis not only on the physical presence but the “psychological availability” (Sroufe & Waters, 1977)

Bowlby

Bowlby inspired by imprinting and was one of the first to offer an ethological and evolutionary interpretation of human development. His contribution to our undertanding of attachment formation in infancy continues to have an immense impact

• Bowlby’s (1950s) theories, humans have an innate ability to bond with another early on in life.

Bowlby

• Attachment as an innate primary drive (rather than a secondary drive as a by-product of association of mother with providing for physiological needs)

• Evolutionary perspective: attachment behaviours evolved to keep young infants safe from harm.

• Attachment provides a secure base from which the infant explores its environment.

• Bowlby (1969) identified following key phases in development of attachment:

Phase 1: Pre-attachment Indiscriminate social responsiveness (Birth – 2 months)

Infants behave in characteristic and friendly ways towards other people, limited discrimination between people.

Equally friendly to inanimate objects

Phase 2: Attachment-in-the-making Recognition of familiar people(2 – 6/7 months)

Continue to be generally social but beginning to be marked difference of behaviour towards one primary care giver.

Relatively easily comforted by anyone, do not yet show anxiety with strangers.

Phase 3: Specific AttachmentsSeparation protest and stranger anxiety(7 months – 2 years) Infants show attachment to one person by

protesting when that person puts them down and showing joy at reunion.

Stranger anxiety

Mobile – infant will follow caregiver and use this person as base for safe exploration

Phase 4: Multiple attachments(8 months)

Very soon after main attachment forms, infant develops wider circle of attachments depending on how many consistent relationships he or she has.

Phase 5: Formation of a goal-corrected partnership

(age 2 +)

Once attachment relationships appear they undergo further change, which takes place largely in tandem with cognitive developments;– behave intentionally– plan actions in light of goals – take account of feelings and goals of other

person.– Infant can consciously influence what the

caregiver does

Measuring the security of attachments

Mary Ainsworth

Studied attachment in Uganda and North America. Observed variation in attachment behaviour.

All infants attached to their parents but differ in the sense of security they feel in relation to the adult

Investigated individual differences in attachment, developed effective assessment

Strange Situation

Ainsworth and Wittig (1969)

– Measured the organisation of attachment behaviours

– Used a standardised laboratory situation– Identified individual differences– Potential for forecasting future

development

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Strange Situation Takes place in lab with a set arrangement of

toys and furniture. Infants are mobile, 12-18m.

– Mother and child are introduced into the room– They are left alone, child can play (up to 3 minutes)– A stranger enters and stays (3 minutes)– Mother leaves, stranger interacts with child (up to 3

minutes)– Mother returns to greet and comfort child, stranger

leaves (3 minutes)– Child left alone then the stranger returns.– The stranger tries to engage the child (up to 3 minutes)– The mother returns and stranger leaves (3 minutes)

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Strange Situation

Detailed coding scheme: – proximity/frequency to mother and

stranger,– approach/avoidance behaviours– assessment of separation/reunion.

Classification

Based on ‘Strange Situation’ behaviours child is classified according to security of attachment:– A = Insecure/avoidant– B = Secure– C = Insecure/anxious ambivalent– Later Main & Solomon (1989) added

D = Disorganised

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Do not seek proximity to mother Avoid contact during reunion Do not react differently to stranger May even prefer stranger to mother Possible parenting characteristics (emphasis on

maternal sensitivity): child used to being independent/on their own, not always responded to and therefore unlikely to seek help, implications for postnatal depression

A: Insecure (or anxious)

Avoidant

At ease with stranger and mother Prefer mother to stranger May cry in mother’s absence and seek proximity to her

on return. Settle down happily after reunion. Possible parenting characteristics (in terms of maternal

sensitivity): a synchronised attentive relationship, security to explore/be with stranger but impulse to gain comfort from mum when upset.

B: Secure

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Positive and negative reactions to mother Seek excessive contact when present Very upset during separation Contact avoided on reunion: rejection and

possibly anger. Possible parenting characteristics (as related to

maternal sensitivity): inconsistency in attention given, creates feelings of anger and resentment, want attention but reject it at the same time.

C: Insecure (or anxious) Ambivalent

Inconsistent behaviour Confusion Indecision Tend to freeze/show stereotyped

behaviour/rocking etc. Possible parenting characteristics (as related to

maternal sensitivity): sometimes result of the abuse, the person you would naturally seek comfort from may frighten you or have displayed frightened behaviour/not provided protection.

D. Disorganised

Long-term benefits

Securely attached infants– More sociable with peers (e.g. Arend et al.1979)– Better problem solvers, more persistent and

enthusiastic, more socially competent, fewer behavioural problems (e.g. Bates et al, 1985).

– Better understanding of how people’s beliefs and preferences affect their emotional reactions (Meins et al 1998)

– More likely to remember positive emotional events that they witnessed in puppet show (insecure remembered negative events) Belsky et al 1996

Harlow

Series experiments 1950s and 1960s Separated baby monkeys from real mothers Offered them two surrogate “mothers”

– Wire mother providing food– Soft cloth mother, no nutrition

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Baby monkeys fed from the wire mother but cuddled up to the soft cloth mothers and ran to her when scared

Attachment was not due to satisfaction of ‘primary ’ needs (feeding)

Contact Comfort satisfied a primary need

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What causes differences in attachment?

a. Parental behaviourb. Child characteristicsc. Family influencesd. Cultural differences

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a. Parental Behaviour

Maternal sensitivity– Mary Ainsworth

Post-natal depression– Teti et al. (1995) 80 % of infants of

depressed mothers were classified as insecure (with 40 percent insecure-disorganized), compared to only 30 percent (10 percent insecure-disorganized) in the non-depressed group.

b. Child Characteristics

The ‘temperament’ hypothesisTemperament refers to the basic disposition of a person

Schaffer (1996) would argue that it is unthinkable that temperament would have no effect on situations.

Kagan (1984) proposed that the child’s temperament plays a role in the attachment relationship.– E.g., temperamental vulnerability to become anxious– Strange situation IS stressful, more so to some than

others.

Temperament

Thomas and Chess categorized infants into 3 temperament types:– Easy children are mostly happy, relaxed

and agreeable (40 %)– Difficult children are moody, easily

frustrated, over-reactive (10 %)– Slow-to-warm-up children are somewhat

shy and withdrawn, take time to adjust (15 %)

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Evaluation of Temperament

Mixed findings and therefore a causal relation is still unclear.

In relation to the Strange Situation, parental report measurements and attachment type have either proved non-significant (Thompson, 1998) or moderate in terms of a link to neonatal irritability (Goldsmith & Alansky, 1987).

It may determine how security/insecurity is expressed but not the exact type (Belsky & Rovine, 1987)

Problems with different indices of temperament.

c. Family influences

Low socio-economic status (Shaw & Vondra, 1993)

Marital discord (Belsky & Isabella, 1988)

Why? Difficult family situations:Lowers parental sensitivityAdults not reliable sources of

comfort and safety

d. Cultural Differences

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What do these cultural differences tell us?

Are certain nationalities predisposed to be more likely to form insecure attachment relationships?

Or Do cultural differences in parenting practices

mean that test is culturally biased?

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Japanese Mother-Infant Attachment

SS too stressful for Japanese Infants– Rarely separated from their mothers

(Miyake et al. 1985)– Mothers sleep with infants and have

constant bodily contact carrying babies in slings

SS not appropriate/accurate measure as procedure too far removed from infants’ everyday experiences care giving

Japanese career women: Infants show typical American distribution of attachment patterns

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German mother-infant interaction

German mothers traditional enforcement of independence towards end of first year = heightened number insecure avoidant infants (Grossman et al 1985)

German mothers who do not impose care giving traditions no more likely have insecure-avoidant attachment

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Israeli Mother-Infant Interactions

High rate of insecure-attachment (Sagi et al 1985)

Study based on infants raised in Kibbutz: communally raised.

Stresses of repeated encounters with a stranger probably too challenging.

What do these cultural differences tell us?

Are certain nationalities predisposed to be more likely to form insecure attachment relationships?

Do cultural differences in parenting practices mean that test is culturally biased?

SS as an appropriate measure of the bond between mothers and babies everywhere?

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Privation

Bowlby– Maternal deprivation: separation/loss of

mother also failure to develop attachment

Rutter: Further distinction– Privation: never been able to form any

attachments.– Deprivation: loss or damage to an

attachment.

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Short-term effects of deprivation

Robertson & Bowlby (1952) The protest-despair-detachment model.

Observations young children separated from mothers due to hospitalisation.

3 stage response– Protest (Crying).– Despair (apathetic, no longer looking for

caregiver, self-comforting).– Detachment (if situation continues weeks or

months, child unresponsive, may ignore caregiver on return).

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Long-term effects of deprivation

Bowlby (1944) Fourty-four juvenile thieves86% delinquent children had, before age of 2,

been in foster homes or hospitals, often not visited by families. Cause and effect?

Rutter et al (1976) 2,000 boys, aged 9-12. Four times more likely

to become delinquent if separation related to family discord rather than through illness or death of their mother.

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The effects of early privation

Rutter (1998) looked at 111 Romanian adoptees– Adopted in the UK before 2 years old– Follow up was at 4 years old– Compared with a UK sample adopted before 6 months old.– Romanian children adopted before 6m.old had caught up

developmentally by age 4.– Those placed after 6m.old showed improvements but had

not caught up. Gross early privation (psychological rather than

nutritional) resulted in cognitive deficits at age 4 if it went on longer than the first 6 months of the child’s life.

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Privation• Clarke & Clarke (1998):

• If children can leave a negative family environment different socialization experiences may override earlier social learning.

• Importance of person factors: resilience etc.“The evidence is clear: while there is a range

of outcomes, early social experience by itself does not predestine the future.”

Risk factors and interventions

Prematurity Greater risk of insecure attachment for high risk

(<1500 grams, < 30 weeks) premature infants (Plunkett et al. 1996)

Plunkett believes that the separation can lead to anxiety/depression in mothers and combined with a difficult to soothe child may influence attachment type.

Cochrane review (2007). Trend early skin-to-skin contact improves attachment outcomes in premature babies.

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Summary

The Strange Situation and to a lesser extent AAI’s have provided an objective methodology for classifying and studying infant/caregiver relationships.

Support has been found for both the sensitivity and temperament hypotheses although debate still rages.

However type of attachment as an infant need not determine a whole life as good subsequent care after early deprivation can improve prospects considerably (see Clarke, 1998)

Psychobiological Theory

Psychological and biological processes merge within the mother-infant interaction. Both infants’ behaviour and physiology are regulated by the caregiver (Hofer, 1978).

Certain components of the mother-infant interaction regulate the infants’ behaviour and physiological systems. Loss of these regulators in maternal separation can produce behavioural and physiological changes in infants leading to patterns of change known as protest and despair.

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Psychobiological Theory

Evidence Hertsgaard et al (1995) longitudinal study 2m – 18

years children exposed to severe caretaking problems during infancy frequently exhibited:– unusually low base cortisol levels with high

spikes - associated with later antisocial behaviour

– or chronically high cortisol levels that were associated with later anxiety

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The ‘sensitivity’ hypothesis: Emphasis on caregiver

Insecure attachments related to sensitivity of mother (Belsky et al., 1984).

Sensitivity is the ability to perceive and interpret children’s attachment signals and to respond to them quickly and appropriately (Ainsworth 1978)

– Ainsworth suggested a causal link between parental sensitivity and attachment security.

– Shaped by parents’ own childhood attachment experiences

– Adult Attachment Interview (George et al., 1985) led to many confirmatory studies.

Adult Attachment Interviews

Semi-structured interviews, adults asked to describe childhood relationships with parents and recall times when separated from them

Classification based not on nature of their actual childhood experiences but on the way they represent these experiences

Autonomous - coherent, well-balanced account, clear value of close relationships

Dismissing - deny importance of attachment experiences, insist cannot recall childhood events and emotions

Preoccupied - over involved issues relating to early attachment experiences

Unresolved - not been able to resolve feelings relating to death of loved one or to abuse may have suffered

Adult Attachment Interviews Intergenerational Transfer The way in which a parent

represents his/her childhood attachment experiences is related to types relationship formed with his\her own child.

Autonomous parents (mothers and fathers) more likely to have infants who are securely attached (e.g. Steele, Steele & Fonagy, 1996).

Dismissing = insecure-avoidant Pre-occupied = insecure resistant Unresolved = insecure-disorganised

Caregivers enable their children to develop good emotional coping strategies by virtue of their willingness to acknowledge and respond to their infants’ emotional expressions (Cassidy, 1994).

Evaluation of Sensitivity Meta-analysis of 66 studies found it to be an important

predictor of attachment security (De Wolff & Van Ijzendoorn, 1997).

Maternal sensitivity not a stable trait. If changes from one age to another is hardly likely to provide a satisfactory explanation for attachment security (Isabelle, 1993)

Several studies support and fail to support sensitivity and secure attachment link depending on time of assessment (Belsky et al 1984).

Sensitivity is statement about interaction, hence meaningless without reference to both partners. Study of infant antecedents equally important.