Attachment Styles

  • Attachment: the close and enduring bond between children and their parents or other primary caregivers 

  • Early research on attachment regarded feeding as the central context in which caregivers and babies build attachment 

    • Freud 

  • Harry harlow conducted experimental work with monkeys 

    • Harlow found that monkeys raised without their mothers or other monkey were maladjusted socially throughout their lives

  •  Four phases of attachment: 

    • Pre-attachment (birth to 2-3 months): largely undiscriminating social responsiveness; infants' innate signals (for example, crying) bring people to them 

    • Attachment-in-the-making (2-3 months to 6-8 months): discriminating social responsiveness; preference for familiar people is shown  

    • clear-cut/true attachment (6-8 months to 3 years ) infants actively seek contact with the caregiver; the caregivers serve as a secure base, facilitating the children's exploration and mastery of the environment 

    • goal-corrected reciprocal relationships (3 years on): children make organized efforts to be near their parents 

  • The outcome of the attachment 

    • Children construct expectations about relationships via internal working models 

      • Cognitive representations of themselves and other people 

      • Guide processing of social information and behavior in relationships 

        • Securely attached infants will develop secure internal working models that are lovable 

        • Insecurely attached develop models that are difficult to love 

  • Mia Ainsworth's strange situation 

    • Strange situation: a sequence of 8 staged episodes that illustrate the strengths of attachment between a child and the caregiver; measures the quality of the attachment 

    • Research is conducted in an unfamiliar context (a laboratory playroom) likely to heighten the child's need for a parent 

    • Observers rated children on a behavioral scale 

  • Attachment-related fears 

    • Stranger anxiety 

      • Wary of fretful reaction to the approach of an unfamiliar person 

      • Peaks around one year of age 

    • Separation anxiety 

      • Children become wary or fretful when separated from ptheir arent 

      • Peaks between 14 and 18 months 

    • The strange situation is widely used in techniques for measuring the quality of attachment between 1 and 2 years of age 

  • Attachment categories 

    • Securely attached: 60-65% of infants 

      • Use the mother as a secure base, but leave her side to explore the room 

      • Happy to see the parents return 

    • Insecurely attachment 

      • insecure/resistant to ambivalent (10% of infants): clingy, upset when the mother leaves, resist the parents comforting when she returns 

      • insecure/avoidant (15% of infants): avoid the parent in the strange situation, ignore her when she is in the room 

      • disorganized/disoriented (15%): fit into no pattern, had no consistent way of coping with the strange situation 

  • Cultural variations in the attachment 

    • Japanese infants: there is the same percentage of securely attached infants but no insecure/avoidant behavior is observed, perhaps because Japanese culture fosters greater closeness and physical intimacy between mothers and infants 

  • Caregivers contributions 

    • Parental sensitivity in child rearing and contact comfort promotes human attachments 

    • Parents of securely attached infants are sensitive to their baby's needs and respond readily to their signals 

    • Parents of anxious/resistant infants are inconsistent in caregiving 

    • Parents of avoidant infants tend to be indifferent and emotionally unavailable 

    • disorganized/distressed infants tend to be frightened by or confused by their parents 

  • Positive effects of secure attachment

    • Positive effects on parental relationships 

    • Protective value against future adverse situations 

    • Better ability to deal with stress

    • Positive effects on cognitive development 

    • Positive effects on emotional development

    • Positive social development 

    • Positive effects during adolescence 

    • Positive effects on the development of intimacy and later relationships 

  • Long-term effects of attachment patterns 

    • Securely attached children 

      • Are more likely to have positive internal working models of attachment 

      • Learn to express emotions in an appropriate way 

    • Insecurely attached children

      • Learn to inhibit emotional expressiveness and not to seek comfort from other people because their parents are nonresponsive 

  • Long term effects 

    • Securely attached infants have closer, more harmonious relationships with peers than do insecurely attached infants

    • Children’s security of attachment can change as the environment changes (for example, with the appearance of stress or conflict in the home) 

  • Peer acceptance 

    • Starting at age three children grow more independent of their parent 

      • Continue to seek attention and approval from their parents 

      • Look more to peers for social and emotional support 

    • Having at least one friend increases the odds that a child will be happy and socially competent 

      • Study of seven to eight year olds 

        • 39% of children rejected by peers had at least one mutual or reciprocated friendship 

        • 31% of popular children lacked such a friendship