Attachment and Deprivation

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to attachment theory and deprivation, including definitions, key figures, studies, and cultural considerations.

Social Approach

Explores the links we have with other people and how these links have an impact on our behaviour, identity and expectations.

Attachment

A strong emotional and reciprocal tie that develops over time between an infant and its primary caregiver(s) and results in a desire to maintain proximity.

Attachment Deprivation

To experience bond disruption as a consequence of separation from an attachment figure for a period of time (may be repeated short-term separations’, or long-term separation).

John Bowlby

One of two key persons in the formulation of Attachment theory. Revolutionized our thinking about a child’s tie to the mother and its disruption through separation, deprivation, and bereavement.

Mary Ainsworth

One of two key persons in the formulation of Attachment theory. Her innovative methodology not only made it possible to test some of Bowlby’s ideas but also helped to expand the theory itself..

Sigmund Freud

Attributed the emotional bond between mother and child to the child’s attempts to stay near the familiar person due to motivation learned through feeding experiences and gratification of instinctual needs (libidinal drives).

Oral Stage

The first psycho-sexual stage (0-12/18mts) where the focal point of pleasure for the infant is the mouth (sucking, biting etc.).

Rooting Reflex

An important reflex in the Oral Stage related to attachment.

Sucking Reflex

An important reflex in the Oral Stage related to attachment.

Classical Conditioning

For the child, parents are associated with pleasant stimuli (e.g., food), by repeated associations (Pavlov’s dog).

Operant Conditioning

Positive reinforcement for parents (infant’s comfort and smiling). Negative reinforcement for parents (the closer parents are, the less the baby cries).

Contact Comfort

Infants seek closeness with their caregiver when under stress or threatened.

Konrad Lorenz

Conducted a study on geese and spoke about imprinting (the limited period in which various species of birds are able to bond with the ‘first moving object they saw’).

Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

Breaking of the maternal bond with the child early in life often has serious effects on its intellectual, social, and emotional development and these negative effects of maternal deprivation were permanent or irreversible in 25% of children.

Monotropy

For every infant one relationship is more important than others, usually that with the mother.

Critical Period

The infant should receive continuous attention from this figure for at least the first 3 years.

Internal Working Model

Refers to a cognitive framework comprising mental representations for understanding the self, others and the world.

Deprivation

An attachment forms but is then discontinued.

Privation

No opportunity is given for attachments to form.

Institutionalised

When children live in an institution such as a hospital, prison, orphanage or residential home.

Strange Situation Technique

Developed by Mary Ainsworth to determine the type of attachment a child has where infants and toddlers should use the parent as a secure base from which to explore an unfamiliar playroom.

Secure Attachment

Babies cry or protest when mother leaves, they greet her happily when she returns, and use her as a secure base.

Avoidant Attachment

Rarely cry when mother leaves, and avoid mother when she returns.

Resistant/Ambivalent Attachment

Anxious even before mother leaves – very upset when she does, and show ambivalence when she returns – hard to comfort.

Maternal Sensitivity Hypothesis

Differences in attachment styles are primarily related to the level of maternal responsiveness to the baby.

Temperament Hypothesis

The infant’s temperament and personality helps to determine its attachment to its mother.

Cross Cultural Research

A type of research used to see how people behave in different cultural settings and to investigate whether or not the behaviours identified by research are universal (apply to people all over the world) or are only applicable to particular cultural settings.