Week 2 - attachment

• refugee case studies give evidence of the impact of separation from caregiver. Includes psychological and health effects for children, families and communities
• Bowlbys (1947) 44 thieves was retrospective research examining their lives. Found 61% suffered prolonged separation in childhood
• Bowlby undertook extensive research for the world health org (WHO) in 1951 findings that quality of parental care in early childhood is vital for mental health. He focused on maternal deprivation ranging from mild to complete
• before 1950 attachment bonds were seen as secondary with primary drives such as sex and nutrition causing relationships to arise
• Bowlby challenged this early belief through lorenz (1935) and Harlow (1959)
• attachment is a strong affectional bond to a particular other
• Attachment is a strong disposition to seek proximity and contact with another individual
• Bowlby, 1988 said "A secure base from which a child… can make sorties into the outside world"
• attachment behaviours are any form of behaviour that results in a person attaining or maintaining proximity to some other clearly identified individual
• proximity seeking behaviours - crying, smiling and reaching
• Proximity maintaining - clinging, following and calling
• individual differences in attachment are measured through methodological and theoretical contributions
• methodological contributions include lab methods for studying attachment in 12-20m infants
• theoretical contributions include articulating the concept of responsive, sensitive caregiving. Identifying ID in the quality of attachments between infants and their caregivers
• Ainsworth studied attachment and individual differences through the strange situation (1970). He said "Attachment relationships are qualitatively different from one attached pair to another"
• Bowlby, 1969 formed 4 stages of early attachment development
• phase 1 (before 3m) - infant signals, responding to others with little discrimination
• phase 2 (3-6m) - signals, responds mainly to one or more discriminated figures; begins "greeting" on return and crying on departure
• phase 3 (9m-2y) maintains proximity to discriminated figure including crying and following
• phase 4- (2.5y+) goal corrected partnership; develops some insight into attachment figures behaviour. Child makes their IWM of a relationship
• a goal corrected partnership describes the evolving relationship between infant and caregiver and the infants understanding of the caregiver grows as they do. Includes concepts such as exploration, secure base, reciprocity and cooperation
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that specific attachments increase over time in terms of proximity seeking intensity through time whereas indiscriminate decrease
• universality hypothesis is that all infants will become attached to 1+ caregiver and secure attachment is common
• continuity - patterns of attachment are stable over the lifespan
• sensitivity - early attachment security is dependent on caregivers responsiveness to childrens signals
• competence - secure attachment leads to positive outcomes in a variety of domains
• strange situation measures attachment from 12-20 months
• attachment Q-sort measures attachment from 12m-6y
• measuring child attachment representations through child attachment interviews at 7+
• measuring adult attachment representations through adult attachment interviews at 16+
• attachment can be measured through: presence/ absence, individual differences, form, function, behaviour and representations
• strange situation (Ainsworth, 1970) - a standardised lab method used to observe exploration and attachment behaviours in 1/2 year olds
• the categories of childrens behaviour and examples are left out
• Van Ijzendoorn categorised the infants behaviours in the SS into Secure and insecure
• 60% secure - might or might not cry on separation, quick positive reaction on reunion and contact with caregiver reduces distress
• avoidant (15%) - no distress when separated and doesnt approach on reunion. Caregiver and stranger treated similarly
• Resistant (10%) - marked distress when separated, resistant from contact on reunion and contact w caregiver doesnt reduce distress
• disorganised (15%) - no consistent pattern of behaviour during separation or reunion. May react to caregiver with fear/ disorientation
• inter-observer reliability for strange situation was strong (85-100%)
• reliability across time was poor with low test-retest reliability over a 2 week period