Emotions, attachment & social relationships

Chapter 11

Emotions

Subjective feeling accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes and cognitive appraisal.

Emotion Regulation (ER)

Process involved in initiating, maintaining and altering emotional responses

Influenced by infant temperament and caregiver behaviour

Emotional Coaching

Being aware of low-intensity emotions, viewing children’s expressions of emotion as opportunities for closeness and teaching, accepting and empathising, help children understand/express emotions & deal with triggers/set limits on behaviour

Emotional Dismissing

Ignoring, denying, criticising, punishing negative emotions or to convert them into positive emotions too quickly.

Attachment Theory - Bowlby

In order to survive, infants are biologically predisposed to monitor adult caregivers and to seek proximity to them.

Freud's Perspective on Attachment

Infant becomes attached to mother because she meets basic biological needs

Learning Theory Perspective on Attachment

Infant learns attachment through repeated association with food.

Harlow's Perspective on Attachment**

Feeding not crucial to attachment; importance of early experience and maternal contact.

Lorenz's Perspective on Attachment

Limited period for early social bonding.

Erikson's Perspective on Attachment**

1st year of life crucial for the development of trust (vs mistrust, fear, world is inconsistent and unpredictable.

The Infant – Attachment Phases

Undiscriminating social responsiveness (0-2 months)

Discriminating social responsiveness (2-7 months)

Active proximity seeking (7 months – 3 years)

Goal-corrected partnership (3+ years)

The Strange Situation Test

Measures of attachment: exploratory behaviour, separation/reunion behaviours.

Insecure Avoidant Attachment - Infants

Indifferent to caregiver’s presence; ignores or actively avoids on reunion.

Carern rejecting

Less independent

Secure Attachment - Infants

Uses caregiver as a secure base for exploration; distress not easily soothed at separation; intense delight on reunion.

Carer emotionally available & responsive

Linked to positive emotional development, capacity to cope with stress & regulate emotions

Insecure Resistant/Ambivalent Attachment - Infants

Resists exploration; clings; high levels of distress; both resists & seeks contact on reunion.

Carer unreliable

Disorganized Attachment - Infants

No coherent mode; may cry then hit; may “freeze” or show fear of parent; often bizarre behaviours.

Parents have unresolved trauma

Child Abuse

Mistreating or harming a child physically, emotionally, or sexually, or neglecting the child’s basic needs.

Secure Adult Romantic Relationship

Secure attachment history - POS + POS

Healthy balance of attachment and autonomy; freedom to explore.

Preoccupied Adult Romantic Relationship

Resistant attachment history: POS + NEG

Desperate for love to feel worthy as a person; worry about abandonment; express anxiety and danger openly.

Dismissing Adult Romantic Relationship

Avoidant attachment history: NEG + POS

Shut out emotions; defend against hurt by avoiding intimacy, dismissing the importance of relationships, and being compulsively self-reliant'.

Fearful Adult Romantic Relationship

Disorganised-disoriented attachment history: NEG + NEG

Need relationships but doubt own worth and fear intimacy; lack a coherent strategy for meeting attachment needs.

Emotions - Nature

Primary emotions seem biologically programmed, timing is similar across cultures/individuals

Emotions - Nurture

Social referencing, parental modelling, emotional regulation

Avoidant (fearful/dismissive) attachment style

20% - somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust

them completely, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when

anyone gets too close, and often, others want me to be more intimate than I feel

comfortable being.

Secure attachment style

60% - I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending

on them and having them depend on me. I don't worry about being abandoned

or about someone getting too close to me

Anxious-resistant attachment style

20% - I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry

that my partner doesn't really love me or won't want to stay with me. I want to

get very close to my partner, and this sometimes scares people away

Types of attachment in infants

Insecure avoidant, secure, insecure resistant/ambivalent, disorganised

Role of partner regulation

Partner buffering - downregulate insecure reaction of partner A

Causes of the child abuser to abuse

Intergenerational transmission of parenting, abuse within family, unrealistic expectations of children

High risk child + high risk carer e.g. parent losing job

Sign of child abuse

Physical injuries, cognitive deficits/academic difficulties, social/emotional/behavioural problems, higher rates of psychological issues, social perspective taking & empathy deficits, some may show resilience

Stopping child abuse

Stop violence/abuse before it occurs

Victims having childcare programs, developmental training & psychotherapy

Abusive parents need therapeutic, social and emotional support/interventions to prevent reoccurrence

Stability of attachment

Problematic early attachments increase vulnerability but not destiny

Adolescence & Autonomy

Key developmental task of adolescence: establish identity seperate to parents

Positivity effect & Socioemotional selectivity

Older adults achieve high emotional wellbeing by focusing on positive rather than negative information & emphasis emotional fulfilment over other life goals

The social Convoy

An individuals social system of friends, family, acquaintances

Age infants form first attachment

6-7 months

Age infants participate in reciprocal complementary play & form friendships

18 months

Parenting styles

Authoritative style (best), Authoritarian permissive & Neglectful style