DP1 Psychology: Attachment (Reading)

Saikrish De Balaji

Attachment

The development of a mutual and intense emotional relationship between an infant and its caregivers.

Cupboard theory

The bond between a mother and child is formed because the baby needs nourishment, which it receives from the mother.

Classical conditioning

Happens when a response produced naturally by a stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus not normally associated with that particular response.

Operant conditioning

States that any action with a pleasurable outcome will be repeated.

Contact comfort

The comfort provided by physical closeness and softness, which the cloth mother provided.

Internal working model

A psychological framework that explains how early attachment experiences shape an individual’s perception of themselves, others, and the world around them.

Object permanence

The child knows the mother exists, even when the child cannot see her.

Stranger anxiety

When unfamiliar people try to make contact with the child.

Strange Situation Paradigm

A procedure that measures the child’s attachment behavior based on how the child reacts when the mother leaves and subsequently returns.

Insecurely attached-avoidant (Type A)

The child shows apparent indifference when the mother leaves the room and avoids contact with her when she returns.

Securely attached (Type B)

The child is upset when the mother leaves and is happy to see her again. The mother easily comforts the child.

Insecurely attached–ambivalent (Type C)

The child is very upset when the mother leaves the room and has difficulty soothing it when she returns. The child seeks comfort but rejects it at the same time.

Insecure-disorganized attachment (Type D)

A child with this attachment type shows no particular reaction when the mother leaves or comes back.

Highly standardized procedure

A method that allows for replications across time and culture.

Compromised ecological validity

The test takes place in a controlled laboratory environment, which is very different from the child’s natural home setting, leading to responses that would not occur naturally.

Secure lovers

Love relationships were discussed in terms of trust, happiness, and friendship.

Avoidant lovers

Characterized relationships with fear of intimacy, emotional highs and lows, and jealousy.

Ambivalent lovers

Characterized by obsession, emotional highs and lows, extreme s**ual attraction, and jealousy.

Freud (1940)

believed that the bond between a mother and child is formed because the baby needs nourishment, which it receives from the mother.

Harlow (1958)

isolated a group of rhesus monkeys from their mothers after birth. The infants were then provided with a 'wire mother' and a 'cloth mother! Four of them were fed by the wire mother, while four of them received milk from the cloth mother. He found that the monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother in both situations, even though they received milk from the wire mother. Harlow argued that the cloth mother provided contact comfort, which the wire mother did not.

Bowlby's (1973)

Internal working model is a psychological framework that explains how early attachment experiences shape an individual's perception of themselves, others, and the world around them.

The internal working model includes three important elements:

• ideas about attachment figures and what can be expected from them

• ideas about the self

• ideas about how the self and others relate.

Shaffer (1996)

attachment develops until around the age of seven months. At this age, the baby clearly shows separation anxiety when the primary attachment figure - often the mother - leaves the child.

Mary Ainsworth (1970)

devised a procedure called the Strange Situation Paradigm, which resulted in a classification of attachment patterns.

Keller and Goldberg (2004)

studied 83 mothers of preschool-aged children from Southern California. 54% of the children were female. Some children were co-sleepers, and others were solitary sleepers. The data was collected through questionnaires filled out by the mothers. Solitary sleepers fell asleep alone, slept through the night, and were weaned earlier than co-sleepers. However, co-sleeping children were more self-reliant

Fonagy et al. (1991)

carried out a prospective longitudinal study in the UK to determine if a mother's stated attachment styles (autonomous vs dismissing or preoccupied) would have an influence on her child's attachment style (secure or insecure). Researchers interviewed 96 pregnant women from London to determine their attachment style.

Hazan and Shaver (1987)

assumed that adult attachment behavior reflects the expectations and beliefs that people have formed about themselves and their close relationships as a result of their experiences with earl attachment figures-that is, their internal working models.

Simpson et al. (1996)

tested the role of attachment style in adult relationships by observing how a dating couple discussed a sensitive topic.