Week 10 Part 1

Flashcards covering key concepts of attachment theory, including stages, patterns, and cultural variations.

Attachment

The strong and enduring emotional connection that forms between an infant and caregiver, marked by mutual affection and a commitment to proximity.

Signaling and Approach Behaviors

Behaviours such as crying, cooing, babbling, smiling, clinging, and gazing that infants use to establish and maintain closeness with their caregiver.

Internal Working Models

Internalised perceptions, emotions, and expectations concerning social and emotional bonds with significant caregivers.

Indiscriminate Sociability

First stage of attachment (birth to 2 months) where infants respond actively to promote contact and affection from others using limited attachment behaviors.

Attachments in the Making

Second stage of attachment (2 to 7 months) where infants show increasing preference for familiar individuals and tolerate temporary separation from parents.

Specific Clear-Cut Attachment

Third stage of attachment (7 to 24 months) where preferences for specific people strengthen; separation and stranger anxiety appear.

Separation Anxiety

Infant's distress at being separated from a caregiver.

Stranger Anxiety

Wariness and avoidance of strangers.

Goal-Oriented Partnerships

Final stage of attachment (24 months and beyond) involving increasing representational and memory skills and the ability to understand parental feelings.

Strange Situation

A method developed by Mary Ainsworth for evaluating the quality of attachment between infant and caregiver through a series of social experiences or scenarios.

Secure Attachment

Attachment pattern where infants play happily when with their caregiver, may be wary of strangers, and are easily comforted upon the caregiver's return after separation.

Ambivalent Attachment

Attachment pattern where infants show anxiety even before separation, are distressed by separation, and show a mixed reaction upon reunion, seeking contact but also resisting comfort.

Anxious Avoidant

Attachment pattern where infants show little involvement with their caregivers, treating them and strangers similarly, rarely crying when separated and avoiding caregivers upon reunion.

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment

Attachment pattern where infants exhibit confused and contradictory behaviors, showing a mixture of approach and avoidance, unresponsiveness, and jerky movements.

Autonomous Attachment

Adult attachment category characterized by thoughtfulness, prioritizing attachment experiences, and providing balanced accounts of affectionate parental figures.

Dismissing Attachment

Adult attachment category where individuals reject the significance of attachment experiences, often unable to recall childhood experiences or remembering them in conflicting ways.

Preoccupied Attachment

Adult attachment category where individuals remain emotionally enmeshed in early experiences and family relationships, finding it challenging to articulate them coherently.

Unresolved/Disorganised Attachment

Adult attachment category similar to disorganised/disoriented attachment in infants, indicating unresolved trauma or loss.

Kanyini

In Central Australian Aboriginal communities, the act of holding, caring for, and nurturing others, including spiritual and cultural aspects.

Kanyini-nga-Pungkura

Denotes a child being breastfed in Central Australian Aboriginal communities, correlating with security, protection, and nourishment.

Whānau, Hapū, and Iwi

Maori term referring to extended family and tribal community, with whom a newborn infant establishes strong connections, along with spiritual links to ancestors and the land.