Adult Attachment, Temperament Models, and Parenting Styles

Practice vocabulary flashcards covering adult attachment dimensions, Thomas and Chess versus Mary Rothbart's temperament models, and Diana Baumrind's parenting styles framework.

Infant-to-Adult Attachment Prediction

The predictable developmental relationship where being securely attached to a caregiver in infancy predicts a higher likelihood of being a securely attached romantic partner in adulthood.

Adult Attachment Dimensions

A dimensional framework assessing romantic attachment along two axes—anxiety on the x-axis and avoidance on the y-axis—in which adults, unlike infants, can simultaneously be both high in anxiety and high in avoidance.

Thomas and Chess's Model of Temperament

A 1950s and 1960s model that categorized infant temperament into easy, difficult, and slow to warm up, limited by the fact that many infants did not neatly fit into one category.

Mary Rothbart's Model of Temperament

A 1980s Big Five-like model that assesses temperament on five continuous dimensions evaluated as high or low, rather than sorting infants into categorical types.

Fearful Distress

A dimension of Rothbart's temperament model, measurable as early as three months, that assesses an infant's or child's distress in response to loud sounds, sudden surprises, or novel stimuli.

Irritable Distress (Distress to Limitations)

A temperament dimension assessing how intensely an infant cries or gets angry when waiting for food, being criticized, or experiencing obstacles to getting what they want.

Attention Span (Rothbart Dimension)

A temperament dimension measuring how long an infant or child maintains focus on an activity, such as playing with a single toy for ten minutes or longer or sustaining work on a coloring book.

Activity Level (Rothbart Dimension)

A temperament dimension assessing gross motor movement, reflected in behaviors such as lying still versus kicking and squirming during feeding or diaper changing.

Diana Baumrind

A developmental researcher recognized as the pioneer of parenting styles research who originally identified three parenting categories in the 1960s based on observational and interview methods.

Demandingness

A core parenting dimension reflecting the extent of parental control, structure, high standards, rules, and behavioral expectations placed upon a child.

Responsiveness

A core parenting dimension reflecting warmth, emotional supportiveness, and overt expressions of love and affirmation toward a child.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style defined by both high demandingness and high responsiveness, characterized by high standards coupled with warmth, which typically yields the most adaptive developmental outcomes.

Authoritarian Parenting

A parenting style high in demandingness but low in responsiveness, characterized by strict top-down control and phrases like 'because I said so,' which is associated with anxiety and depression particularly in boys.

Rejecting-Neglecting Parenting

A parenting style low in both demandingness and responsiveness where parents are disengaged and uninvolved, resulting in the worst outcomes for academic achievement and social adjustment.