temperament and attachment

Temperament

 An individual style and frequency of expressing needs and emotions

-          Biologically and genetically based

-          Influenced by parental expectations and interactions

-          Cultural differences and influences

-          Reasonable stability over childhood and into adulthood- early signs of personality

Classifying infant temperament:

“easy” – regular routines for eating, sleeping… mild emotional reactions, easily soothes, readily adaptable to new people and situations

“difficult” – does not easily settle into biological routines, intense emotional reactions, not easily soothes, less adaptable

“Slow to warm up” – wary in new situations, requires time and support to settle and adapt

Attachment

Enduring and selective emotional bond between two individuals, characterised by mutual affection and desire to maintain proximity

Attachment theory:

-          Three theorist propers very influential views of infant attachment

-          emphasized that infants become attached to the person or object which provides oral satisfaction

-          First year of life represents the stage of trust versus mistrust – sensitive care and comfort are key to establishing basic trust in infants

-          Infants and parents are biologically predisposed to form attachments, attachment is based on parent responsiveness and interaction between the infant and parent

Lorenz

imprinting

Children who have been raised in orphanages show less capacity to attach to caregivers the later they are adopted

Bowlby’s attachment theory

John Bowlby – drawing on work on imprinting and on the separation of children from parents during the blitz of London in wwii

-          Bowlby (1950) proposed an in built readiness to use soft, warm caregivers a secure base

The basis of attachment

Harlow’s surrogate mother experiments

-          Monkeys preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother even while feeding from the nourishing wire mother

Importance of a secure base – lack of a secure relationship with a caregiver in the early months of life can impact brain development and result in long term emotional and cognitive problems

Mary Ainsworth: types of attachment

Ainsworth stages situation used with 12–18-month-old babies to assess the security of attachment

1.      Mother and baby playing in room

2.      Stranger enters

3.      Mother leaves

4.      Stranger attempts to engage with baby

5.      Mother returns

Classification of attachment styles

-          Secure – approx. 60% of babies

-          Avoidants – approx. 25% of babies

-          Anxious/ambivalent – approx. 10% of babies

-          Disorganised – approx. <10% of babies

Factors affecting caregiver responsiveness

Likely to be more responsive if

-          Good support from partner and others

-          Good knowledge and confidence in parenting role

-          Low/manageable stress levels

Likely to be less responsive if

-          Parental mental illness/substance abuse problem

-          Chronically high levels of personal and family stress and/or confidence in parenting

-          Early intervention programs invent resources in developing positive attachment relationships to promote infant, child and adult mental health

Serve and return

Serve and return interactions start in infancy and shape the brains architecture

-          When a baby or young child gestures, points, babbles, or cries and an adult responds efficiently and appropriately with eye contact, touch, words or warmth, neural connections are developed and strengthened

-          These neural connections inform later communication patterns and social skills

-          Caregivers’ responsibility to child’s needs and early communication will provide a rich and nurturing environment for child development

Authoritarian

-          Parents impose rules and expect obedience

-          ‘don’t interrupt”

-          “why?, because I said so “

Authoritative

-          Parents are both demanding and responsive

-          Set rules but explain reasons

-          Encourage discussion

Permissive

-          Submit to children’s desires

-          Make few demands

-          Use little punishment

Disengages

-          Expect little

-          Invest little

Why caregiver behaviour is so important

-          Infants develop internal working models of the social world through the ways in which their caregivers interact with them

-          These models form the basis of their self-concept and all later social relationships

-          Children lean important emotional regulation skills through interactions with their parents

-          These skills are important for later social and emotional competence

Possible implications of attachment

-          Willingness to engage in help seeking

-          Trust in the professional

-          Openness and assertiveness in communicating needs and wants