Attachment & Temperament Lecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the lecture on temperament, attachment theories, landmark studies, attachment classifications, consequences, cultural considerations, and lifespan implications.

Temperament

Early-appearing, biologically based differences in emotional reactivity and self-regulation

; sometimes called the newborn’s personality.

Attachment

An intense, enduring socio-emotional bond between an infant and primary caregiver,

built through interaction and characterised by proximity-seeking,

security, and distress at separation.

Dependency Theory

Early view that attachment arises because caregivers satisfy an infant’s basic physiological needs, especially feeding.

Psychodynamic Approach (to attachment)

Freudian idea that feeding gratifies oral needs, leading infants to attach to those who satisfy those needs.

Emotional bond develops over time 

Strength and quality of bond depend on: 

• caregiver’s responsiveness to child + consistency of response

6-7 moths= child show separation anxiety= distress at separation from their attachment figures

 

Behavioural Approach (to attachment)

View that food is a primary reinforcer and the mother becomes a secondary reinforcer through association with feeding.

Conditioning

Imprinting

A rapid, innate form of learning in which young animals follow the first moving object seen during a sensitive period;

Occurred before feeding

demonstrated by Lorenz’s geese.

Close proximity to parent gives:

●Protection

●Nourishment

●support for exploration

●skill learning/acquisition

●social bond?

 Challenges dependency theory: food not required for first bond.

• Proximity viewed as an evolutionary adaptation increasing survival (feeding, predator protection, skill learning).

 

Lorenz’s Geese Study

Research showing goslings imprint on—and follow—the first moving stimulus they encounter, challenging the idea that feeding drives first bonds.

Sensitive Period

Limited developmental window during which imprinting or certain attachments are most readily formed.

Contact Comfort

Physical warmth and softness provided by a caregiver; Harlow showed it outweighs feeding in forming attachment.

Harlow’s Rhesus Monkey Experiment

Study where infant monkeys preferred a soft cloth surrogate over a wire surrogate that provided food, highlighting the role of comfort in attachment.

• Graphs showed dramatically higher hours/day clinging to cloth mother in both groups.

• Preference persisted and intensified over days.

 

Result: its more about the comfort  level that the level seeks with its attachment figure

●Cloth “mother” providedcontact comfort (safe haven & secure base) 

 

●Attachment is more than“dependency” and nourishment

 

➢contact comfort more important = ties that bind an infant to caregiver

 

Attachment Theory (Bowlby)

Children have an innate biological system motivating proximity to a caregiver for safety & security.

• attachment is pre-wired in humans

●Infant motivation: safety + security

 

●Attachment figure

➢“safe haven” for protection (comfort under stress).

➢“secure base” for exploration (platform for exploration).

Safe Haven

Role of the attachment figure as a source of comfort and protection when the infant is stressed or fearful.

Secure Base

Role of the attachment figure as a supportive platform from which the infant can explore the environment.

Separation Anxiety

Distress displayed by infants (typically 6-7 months onward) when their attachment figure leaves.

Caregiver Responsiveness

Prompt, consistent, and sensitive reactions to an infant’s signals; key determinant of attachment quality.

Strange Situation Test

Ainsworth’s laboratory procedure of mild separations and reunions used to assess the quality of infant–mother attachment.

●Studied quality of attachment between infants & mothers

 

Purpose: Assess quality of infant–mother attachment in controlled, mildly stressful episodes.

 

Secure Attachment (Type B)

Pattern in which infants use the caregiver as a secure base,

show distress at separation,

and are easily comforted on reunion.

●about 60% of infants in Western cultures

●infant uses mum as secure base -> active exploration

 

●explores room after warm up period

 

●distressed at separation

 

●seeks contact at reunion

Calm down quickly via mums touch

●mum > stranger

Insecure-Avoidant Attachment (Type A)

Pattern marked by minimal distress at separation and active avoidance or indifference toward the caregiver on reunion.

●about 15-20% of infants in Western cultures

 

Independent exploration,

Minimal distress upon separation/ rarely bothered  

 

●infant tends to ignore mum

 

●explores freely

 

●no distress at separation

 

●no proximity seeking at reunion

 

Actively avoids/ignores caregiver on reunion; may treat stranger similarly or more positively.

 

●sometimes stranger > mum

Insecure-Anxious / Ambivalent Attachment (Type C)

Pattern involving clinginess,

high distress at separation,

and ambivalent or resistant behaviour when the caregiver returns.

●about 15-20% of infants in Western cultures

●infant often “can’t cope” in strange situation

●little exploration; tend to cling to mum

 ●prone to hysteria at separation(extreme stress) very upset at separation 

Devastated when mother leaves room 

●aggressive on reunion/ cannot be calmed

-angry/ rejecting

 

Seeks contact but not easily soothed; may show anger or resistance on reunion.

 

Disorganized Attachment

Pattern showing contradictory,

disoriented behaviours (e.g., approach while looking away) often linked to unpredictable or abusive caregiving.

●about 15% of infants in normal environments

●higher in ‘at risk’ populations (e.g., abusive, maltreatment)

●Behaves in contradictory ways

➢approach mother but looking away

➢not sure how to handle the situation

➢dazed facial expressions

 Comes form Disorganised, unpredictable, or abusive parenting

Internal Working Models

Mental representations of self and others in relationships, formed from early attachment experiences and guiding later social expectations.

Proximity-Seeking

Behaviour aimed at maintaining closeness to the attachment figure for safety and comfort.

Consequences of attachment styles

Predict:

•  self control

• Peer acceptance

• Behaviour in classroom

• Academic achievement

●Infants who are securely attached to primary caregiver make better developmental progress than those who are not

 

➢More popular with peers

➢More likely to “play well” with others

➢More self-confident & outgoing

➢Show superior  academic achievements

 

• Insecure & disorganized patterns correlate with:

elevated internalizing/externalizing problems, poorer peer relations,

 and (controversially) challenges in adult friendships/romantic relationships.

 

• children with avoidant tend to be insecure and detached in preschool and difficulties discussing feelings about separation

• Secure children have higher self-esteem more socially competent greatest sensitivity to the needs of their peers

• Disorganised children= impulsive, disruptive, aggressive and below average intellectually

 

• Bowlby & later researchers argue that internal working

models of relationships, formed in infancy, guide later

social expectations and behaviours.

Attachment Figure

Primary person who provides safety, comfort, and a secure base for exploration; typically the mother but can be any consistent caregiver.

Attachment Stability Across Lifespan

Attachment endures into adulthood, though intensity diminishes; early style can influence later relationships.

Externalizing / Internalizing Problems

Behavioural (aggression) or emotional (anxiety, depression) issues that correlate with insecure or disorganized attachment.

Cultural Bias in Attachment Assessment

Risk that Strange Situation norms rooted in Western values misclassify attachment in cultures valuing interdependence or independence differently.

●Aboriginal communities teach young children to be self-reliant from an early age

 

• Utilizes distinctive non-verbal cues for need-response.

 

●Aboriginal child-rearing encourages attachments that are best suited to traditional Aboriginal kinship and cultural ties

Non-Maternal Care Influence

Regular childcare experience can alter infants’ responses in the Strange Situation, sometimes mimicking avoidant patterns despite healthy bonds.

Adult Attachment Styles

Patterns (secure, anxious, avoidant) in adult relationships reflecting internal working models and influencing intimacy, stress coping, and parenting.

Evolutionary Adaptation (Attachment)

View that attachment behaviours evolved to keep infants close to caregivers, enhancing survival through protection, nourishment, and learning.

Attachment Limitations

Critiques of attachment research,

including focus on brief separations,

single caregiver,

cultural differences,

and contextual variability.