HD3620 Human Bonding- Prelim 1

What is the difference between so-called "primary" and "secondary" drives?

Primary Drive: Innate/ intrinsic needs of the body.

i.e. sex and food

Secondary Drive: Drives associated with primary drive, but are acquired by conditioning. (love)

What is the "secondary drive theory" of infant attachment or why babies love their mothers? What are some reasons that Bowlby doubted its validity?

The "secondary drive theory" of infant love/attachment

Infants attached to mother because mother feeds child and thereby reduces infant's primary needs. Associates mother with primary needs then forms attachments based on that

Bowlby's Doubt:

WHO 1951 REPORT: WWII orphans were placed under care of caregivers, but they were dying unexpectedly.

Monkeys preferred cloth mothers over wire mothers that milked, so babies were attached to comfort not food

Goslings followed people/ objects that did not feed them.

=secondary drive theory- does not work

According to Bowlby's model, what are the dynamics of the attachment behavioral system? In other words, how does the system work? What turns it on and off?

The baby determines if the attachment figure is nearby (proximity maintenance).

No → Separation Distress(anxious, fearful) → Safe Haven (signal distress, seek contact).

Yes → Secure Base (secure content) → Explore

What are the four features that define attachment bonds and set them apart from other types of social relationships? What is the emotion regulation function of attachment bonds?

PROXIMITY MAINTENANCE

SEPARATION DISTRESS

SAFE HAVEN

SECURE BASE Anxiety, threat, and distress are the emotions regulating attachment bonds

Within Bowlby's theory, what is meant by "monotropy" and "attachment hierarchies" and "cradle to grave" (with normative restructuring)?

MONOTROPY: The ability of babies and infants to attach to a single caregiver.

Attachment Hierarchy

There is a person that we all have that is our number one person to go to for comfort, other people are arranged hierarchically after the top person

"Cradle to grave" Used from Birth to Death

Normative Restructuring:

As you get older the top spot of the hierarchy changes- pick new people to put on hierarchy

What are the approximate ages, stages, and related behaviors in the ontogeny (formation) of infant-caregiver attachment bonds?

0-2 months: "pre-attachment"

We don't really care who takes care of us

~2-6 months: "attachment in the making"

Become more aware of who is in your environment

You notice who feeds you and takes care of you

Start to form preferences--certain people that you respond to differently

Baby plants face in the crook of the neck of the people they are attached to

~6-8 months: "clear-cut" attachment

Separation distress

Stranger anxiety

Self-produced locomotion

What are three adaptive challenges that humans had to successfully negotiate in order to continue as a species, and what are the corresponding behavioral systems that evolved in response to these challenges?

Three adaptive challenges (and corresponding behavioral systems)

Survive to reproductive age

Attachment system

Successfully reproduce

Sexual mating system

Support offspring to reproductive age

Parental/caregiver system

What are the factors that promote bonding between infants and adults by activating the parental/caregiving system?

Factors that promote bonding (by activating the parental/caregiver system)

Infants' neotenous features

Infants' soft, smooth skin

Aversiveness of infant cries

Appeal of infant laughter

Infants' attraction to IDS ("babytalk")

Infants' attraction to faces, especially eyes

Mutual gazing facilitates bonding

Soothing effects of ventro-ventral contact

Most comforting contact for humans

What are the factors that influence an infant's "selection" of an attachment figure?

Attachment figure "selection" factors

If given a choice, babies...

Propinquity (who's around?)

Familiarity (especially in the context of...)

Physical maturity

Physical intimacy

What is the bi-phasic response to separation from an attachment figure? On the basis of his studies of rat mothers and pups, what did Hofer conclude about the "despair" phase and about attachment bonds more generally?

BI-PHASIC RESPONSE:

Immediate acute reaction: protest.

Slower developing reaction: despair.

Hofer determined that each symptom of despair was tied specifically to a specific feature of the mother. Bradycardia (milk), inactivity (warmth), reduced growth hormone (touch), and so on...

CO-REGULATION: Inherent feature of attachment.

DIS-REGULATION: Results from separation

In terms of parent-infant co-sleeping... What differences between co-sleepers and non-co-sleepers were observed in the lab? How might these differences relate to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)? What sleeping position (prone vs. supine) and sleeping arrangement (same vs. separate rooms/beds) is currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics?

Those that slept with their mothers: More waking, more adjustment, less time in deep phases of sleep.

These differences might lead to SIDS in the forms:

Routine apnea.

Relocation of breathing control.

Repositioning of larynx.

Recommendations

Babies should sleep on their back (supine)

Room-sharing but not bed sharing

Supervised tummy time to develop muscles

What is so-called "kangaroo care," and what are its short- and long-term effects?

Background

Original studies in rural Columbia

A shortage of incubators for preemies staff suggested

A marsupial model of preterm infant care

Short-term effects (compared to incubators)

Cried less, slept longer, lower levels of stress hormones, gained weight more quickly, went home quicker

Long-term effects (years later)

Less stress reactive and more exploratory

"At the most basic level, the biological one, we are connected and embedded in each others' biological rhythms, not only in utero, at birth, or in early infancy, but through the lifespan"

Pipp and Harmon

What are the functions and activating stimuli of the following social-behavioral systems: attachment, parental/caregiving, sexual mating? (and affiliation)

System-Function-Activating Stimuli

attachment-Self-protection and security-

Anxiety, threat, distress

affiliation- Socialization, also safety- Op's for play, also fear

caregiver/parental- Other-protection and security- Other distress/vulnerability

Sexual mating- Reproduction, pair bonding- Sexual maturation, fertility

How did Harlow's experiments test the secondary drive theory of infant-caregiver bonding? What "sleeper effects" did he discover? What might account for these interrelations among social-behavioral systems? What did he conclude regarding contact comfort?

Harlow tested the theory of infant-caregiver bonding through rhesus monkeys.

Cloth mother vs feeding mother (turns out monkeys like the cloth one a lot more).

Baby monkeys are more willing to explore when around the cloth mother.

Contact with AF is a primary drive mechanism.

Early Deprivation leads to:

Inability to mate properly.

Inability to properly care for infants.

Weird relations with peers (reactive and impulsive).

Overlapping neuroanatomy, neurochemistry

Henry Harlow concluded that there was much more to the mother-infant relationship than feeding, and that the contact comfort was essential to the psychological development and health of infant monkeys and children

What is the general design of Ainsworth's "strange situation" paradigm? Which episodes in the experiment are coded in order to assign infants to a particular pattern/style?

(S)tranger, (B)aby, (M)other

1. (S)BM: get the baby to play, stranger escorts mom & baby to room

2. BM: acclimate baby to the room with the mother, stranger leaves

3. SBM: in an attempt to acclimate the stranger to the baby, the stranger does the following

-In the first minute, she sits quietly

-In the second minute, she chats with the mother

-In the third minute, she plays with the bay

4. BS: three minute separation of the baby from the mother with the stranger

5. BM: mother calms down baby, stranger slips out

6. B: another three minute separation, baby alone

7. BS: stranger comes in for three minutes to try to calm down the baby, showing whether the baby is more upset by being left alone or being left by attachment figure

8. BM: mother calms down baby, end of experiment

Episodes 5 and 8 of the experiment were coded to assign infants to a particular attachment style.

What are the three main patterns ("styles") of infant-caregiver attachment identified by Ainsworth et al. and what characterizes the laboratory behavior of babies in each of the three categories?

Secure (67%)

When caregiver returns, baby seeks contact and is fully soothed

Ambivalent (12%)

When caregiver returns, baby seeks contact but is not fully soothed, actively resists comfort

Avoidant (21%)

When caregiver returns, baby actually avoids contact

What one variable assessed over the first 3 months of life predicted how babies would behave in the "strange situation" at 12 months of age? How was this variable defined by Ainsworth? And what are the caregiving antecedents of each of the patterns/styles?

The most reliable predictor of an infant's strange situation behavior is a caregiver's responsiveness to infant distress

A caregiver's response includes:

Noticing

Interpreting Correctly

Responding promptly and warmly

Caregiving Antecedents

Secure: Consistently Responsive

Ambivalent: Inconsistently Responsive

Avoidant: Consistently Unresponsive

What evidence indicates that infant attachment styles as observed in the strange situation at one year of age are the result of experiences with caregivers and not just inborn differences in infant temperament?

Evidence against infant temperament

Responsiveness training can change the way an infant's attachment style

Infants exhibit different attachment styles with different caregivers, suggesting the relationship matters

Observed heart rates in infants with different styles

Secure babies have their heart rate go up when the mother leaves and come back down when the mother returns

Ambivalent babies have their heart rate go up when the mother leaves and their heart rate decreases when the mother returns but doesn't come all the way back down

Avoidant babies have their heart rates still increase when the mother returns

How did infants who were classified as secure, ambivalent or avoidant in the strange situation at one year of age differ in their approach to problem-solving tasks in the laboratory at two years of age?

Secure

Try to solve the problem independently, but asks for help if stuck. Cooperates with mother.

Ambivalent

Cries when solving problems and asks for help early on.

Avoidant

Works on the problem but refuses to ask for help.

Early attachment patterns/styles emerge from a combination of an infant's innate predisposition to form bonds with adult caregivers and the consistent/inconsistent responsiveness/unresponsiveness of the adult caregivers they happen to end up with. How in theory do these early bonding experiences affect future relationships and the ways that individuals respond to stress?

Adult attachment measures tap into effect, cognition, and behavioral dynamics of the attachment system developed at an early age, which are more likely to be directed to partners and friends in adulthood

Regulators within the mother-infant interactions are important for the development of physiological and behavioral systems in the infant

Early Deprivation leads to:

Inability to mate properly.

Inability to properly care for infants.

Weird relations with peers (reactive and impulsive).

Abnormal development of brain and hormonal systems that regulate coping with stress.

Reading: Reis & Colins: The authors argue that relationship science is changing theories and perspectives in psychological science. Be familiar with the examples they provide in the section on social cognition.

Self-Serving Attributional Bias: people give themselves more credit for success and less responsibility for failure than they give strangers. They do not apply the same bias to close relationship partners

Self-Referential Effect: enhancement of memory is encoded with reference to self (you are more attentive when items sound similar to your name, for example). same thing relating to partners: in fact, many couples have similar-sounding names for this reason (people are attracted (subconsciously) to things that are related to their name/themselves

Fairhurst, Loken & Grossmann: This paper reports the effects of medium velocity touch on infants' heart rate and attention. The findings will be incorporated into later lecture material on the effects of touch in adult relationships.

experiment examined babies' arousal (heart rate), attentional engagement (gaze shifts and duration of looks) to varying velocity of brushing (slow, medium, fast)

findings show that babies have a significant physiological sensitivity to touch, which could be "essential for promoting healthy social and cognitive development"

Medium velocity brush strokes decelerate infant heart rates and increase infant engagement with the brush

Glocker et al.: This paper was briefly discussed in lecture. Be familiar with the effects of infantile features on perceptions of cuteness and motivation for caretaking.

experiment examined results of varying baby schema on real infants' faces (by manipulating photographs)

babies with higher perceived cuteness also received higher ratings for people wanting to take care of them; baby schema induced stronger caretaking motivation in women, but no sex differences in cuteness ratings

interesting comment was that human ancestors evolved as cooperative breeders (unlike today's nuclear family model), so baby schema could motivate caretaking behaviors towards any infant, from any potential caregiver in a group, regardless of kinship

Hofer: In this paper Hofer uses findings from animal models to address three questions relevant to human attachment. Be familiar with his answers to all three.

What creates an attachment bond?

What creates an attachment bond?

Rapid early-learning ability by infants that relate to brain and hormone-system development

Studies show that neonates have powerful learning capacity to discriminate, prefer, approach, and maintain proximity to their own mother

Study with rat pups who where brushed in presence of odor show that they would later prefer that odor

Prenatal fetus responds preferentially to maternal scents and sounds

Why is early maternal separation stressful?

Regulatory processes hidden in the mother-infant interaction is a causative explanation for the response of infants to maternal separation

Studies show that each behavioral/physiological system of infant rat responds to the loss of one component of the infant's interaction with the mother

ex/ when separated rat pups were fed their behavioral responses (slowed behavior) were not as extreme as un-fed separated rat pups

How can early relationships have lasting effects?

Regulators within the mother-infant interactions are important for the development of physiological and behavioural systems in the infant

A high percentage of rat pups separated early had ulcers later on whereas no rat pup that was weaned normally developed ulcers

Different strains of rats with different weaning behaviors had different blood pressures

Wright: Ferber's method was discussed in lecture. Be familiar with the author's arguments against it.

Ferber claims that letting your child sleep alone, the child will become more independent, but the author claims Ferber has no proof.

It is impossible to accurately pin down differences between a Ferberized and non-Ferberized child.

By Darwinism and natural selection, the child was designed to sleep alongside the parents.

Evidence suggests that nighttime breastfeeding is natural despite Ferber's opposite claims

Suomi: Be familiar with the methods and findings regarding "effects of maternal deprivation..." (pp. 175-177), "effects of disruptions of maternal care..." (pp. 178-179) and "effects of unusually secure early attachments..." (pp. 179-181).

Effects of Maternal Deprivation

Monkeys hand-reared in a nursery for a month and then reared with peers until 6 months

More anxious in nature

Reluctance to explore novel objects

Shy in initial encounter with unfamiliar peers

Drop to the bottom of dominance hierarchy

Highly reactive and impulsive when socially separated

More likely to be neglectful or abusive to offspring

Effects of Disruptions of Maternal Care

Subject monkey mothers to different food foraging conditions to control the amount of time they can spend with their infants

LFD (low foraging demand) and VFD (variable foraging demand)

VFD infants left their mothers to explore less frequently and engaged in less social play

Increased reactivity and some impulsivity

Effects of Unusually Secure Early Attachments

Unusually nurturant and normally nurturant mothers nurtured normal to high-reactive infant monkeys

High-reactive infants nurtured by unusually nurturant mothers needed less ventral contact earlier, explored their environment more, and displayed less behavioral disturbances during weaning than all other groups

Some high-reactive infants event adopted their unusually nurturant foster mother's parenting style

Zayas et al.: focus your review on the introduction, present research, and discussion of the findings sections. If you have background in statistics, you will appreciate the results section, but it will not be covered on the exam, nor will the "two traditions" sections or the elaboration of each.

Study attempts to probe whether early maternal caregiving can predict adult attachment dynamics

Observe baby and mothers at 18 months and send questionnaire to adult at age 22

Findings:

Greater maternal sensitivity at 18 months predicted less avoidance of friends and romantic partners in adulthood

Greater maternal control at 18 months predicted less avoidance of friends but more avoidance and anxiety to romantic partners

Shows influence of maternal caregiving in early life operates in attachment to peers and partners ("cradle to the grave")

Early maternal caregiving does not significantly predict adult attachment to parents