Attachment key terms

Affectionless psychopathy

A disorder whereby the person feels no shame or guilt in their actions. They lack a concious that should prevent them from harming others

Attachment

An attachment bond is characterised by an infans desire to keep close proximity to an individual and the expression of distress if the infant is separated from that person

Caregiver

An individual who provides day to day support and help

Classical conditioning

Learning by association. An unconditional stimulus and a neutral stimulus are paired together to create a conditioned response

Continuity hypothesis

This predicts that a child's attachment type will be reflected in their later relationships. This idea is based upon the internal working model where an infants primary attachment for a a model for future relationships

Critical period

The time within which an attachment bond must be formed

Cross cultural research

A kind of natural experiment in which the IV is different cultural practices and the DV is behaviour eg attachment

Cultural relativism

The view that beliefs

Cultural variation

This is the beliefs that values and practices are specific to the culture in which the individual lives

Deprivation

A long term disruption of an attachment bond

Disinhibited

An attachment type whereby the child does not form close attachments and approves strangers and familiar people in the same way

Ethology

Using natural observations to study animal behaviour

Evolution

The process by which individuals change to adapt to their environments. These characteristics are then passed through generations

Imposed ethic

A technique or theory devised in one culture and then used to explain the behaviour of people in another who my have different norms and values

Imprinting

An inmate readiness to aquire certain traits during a sensitive or critical period

Innate

Existing at the time of birth

Insecure avoidant

An attachment type characterised by failure to acknowledge the presence of the mother or strange but intense distress when left alone

Insecure avoidant

An attachment type characterised by distress when left by mother but mixed emotions upon her return

Institution

An organization founded for social or educational purposes. In the context of attachment this is likely to refer to orphanages

Institutionalised

To keep someone in a residential establishment

Intersectional synchrony

Iintersectional synchrony takes place when mother and infant interact in a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other

Internal working model

A framework used to understand the world

Maternal deprivation

The lack of a mother in a child's life

Monotropic theory

A theory devised by Bowlby which suggests that infants have an inbuilt tendency to make an attachment with one attachment figure

Monotropy

An inmate tendency to become attached to one particular adult

Multiple attachments

The formation of emotional bonds with many carers

Operant conditioning

Learning which occurs via reinforcement

Primary caeregiver

The main person who tends to an infants needs eg feeding/changing

Reciprocity

These interactions involve both parties producing responses from each other- turn taking

Retrospective

Looking back on past events or situations

Secure

An attachment type whereby the child used the mother as a safe base

Sensitive period

The best time period within which attachments can form

Sensitive responsiveness

Recognising and responding appropriately to an infants needs

Separation anxiety

The degree of distress shown by the infant when parted from their caregiver

Social releasers

Inate infant behaviours that stimulate adult caregiving reactors

Strange situation

An observational procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth to identify a child's type of attachment

Stranger anxiety

The degree of distress shown when a child is in the presence of an unfamiliar other

Temperament hypothesis

The idea that the nature of an infants attachment is due to their personality factors