Key terms

• What is monotropy?


  A unique and close attachment to one person- the primary attachment figure
• What is affectionless psychopathy?

  A term used by Bowlby to describe people who don’t show concern or affection for other people and show no or very little remorse or guilt.
• What is the Asocial Stage?


  Stage from 0-6 weeks where infants may respond to faces or voices but an attachment has not yet been formed
• What is attachment?

  A strong two-way (reciprocal) enduring emotional tie to another person. Including proximity, separation anxiety and secure-base behaviour
• What is contact comfort?


  The physical and emotional comfort that an infant receives from being close to its mother
• What is a continuity hypothesis?


  The idea that early relationships with caregivers predict later relationships in adulthood
• What is a critical period?


  A time period where an attachment has to form or it never will
• What is disinhibited attachment?


  When a child shows equal affection to strangers as they do to people they know
• What is the evolutionary explanation of attachment?


  An explanation that views attachment as increasing the survival chances
• What is imprinting?


  Where offspring follow the first moving object they see- an innate process
• What is indiscriminate attachment?


  Infants aged 2-7 months can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people but does not show stranger anxiety
• What is innate behaviour?


  A behaviour that is instinctive and does not need to be learned
• What is insecure avoidant attachment?


  Attachment classification in the Strange Situation where a child shows low stranger and separation anxiety and little response on reunion
• What is insecure resistant attachment?


  Attachment classification where the child shows high stranger and separation anxiety and resists comfort on reunion
• What is institutionalisation?


  The effects of growing up in an institution, such as children’s homes or orphanages
• What is interactional synchrony? 


  Infant and caregiver reflect each others actions and emotions in a coordinated manner
• What is the internal working model?

  Mental representation of our relationship with our primary caregiver that becomes a template for future relationships
• What is the learning theory in attachment?


  Explanations of how we learn to love our caregivers because they feed us.
• What is the maternal deprivation hypothesis?


  Separation from the mother figure in early childhood has serious consequences
• What are multiple attachments?


  The formation of emotional bonds with more than one caregiver
• What is privation?


  Failure to form an attachment in early childhood
• What is proximity seeking?


  The way that infants try to maintain physical contact or be close to their attachment figure
• What is reciprocity?

  The infant and caregiver both respond to each others signals and it elicits a response from the other person
• What is secure attachment?


  The most desirable attachment classification from the Strange Situation where children show separation and stranger anxiety but feel joy on reunion
• What is a sensitive period?


  The best period over which attachments can form
• What is separation anxiety?


  The degree of distress shown by the child when separated from the caregiver
• What are social releasers?


  Innate behaviours shown by an infant that lead to a caregiving response
• What is a specific attachment?

  Infants aged 7 months tend to show a strong attachment to one particular person and are wary of strangers
• What is the strange situation? 


  A controlled observation used to test children’s attachment patterns
• What is stranger anxiety?


  The degree of distress shown by an infant when with unfamiliar people
• What is temperament?


  The characteristics and aspects of personality an infant is born with and that might impact on its attachment type