Karteikarten
Parenting and attachment
Karten in diesem Stapel (8)
- 1Winnicott (1953) describes attachment objects that were not people (comfort blankets etc.) as "transitional objects" - the infant attaches to them because they have more control over them than they have over e.g. their mother. Hence these form an intermediate stage in the infant finding independence from their mother• Through early relationships, infants create a view of themselves in relation to others. This concept is called an Internal Working Model (IWM).
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• An IWM is similar to a schema that contains a representation of the self, another person, and the relationship between the two.
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• Like schemas, IWMs allow the infant to respond to novel situations or threats by drawing on previous experience. - 2• Bowlby proposed that: . • IWMs are formed as the result of interacting with others, and they persist into later years, acting as templates for how the infant deals with other people in childhood and adulthood; . • Attachments are formed from long-term caring relationships; . • These do not have to be exclusive - attachments to a small number of individuals are often formed (e.g. to mother and father): an infant who forms multiple attachments will develop more fully developed IWMs; . • Attachments tend to be formed to primary caregivers, who may not necessarily be the infant's biological parents; . • IWMs are not permanent and fixed, they change with experience.Donald Winnicott (1965) investigated how much support a carer should provide - the "good enough mother"
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• Striving to be the perfect carer is not ideal as it doesn't give the infant the incentive to develop;
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• Delaying support helps infants to learn to cope with the frustration of having to wait, and gives them the chance to appreciate that help will come, and that they can be confident in future that their carer will comfort them when necessary. - 3James and Joyce Robertson investigated distress due to hospitalisation of the infant or their carer ("A two-year old goes to hospital" - see YouTube) . • Pointed out that a child's reaction to separation is a good indicator of their type of attachment relationships. . • Noted that "Separation anxiety" and fear of strangers emerge at 6mo, . • Early beliefs that the level of anxiety and distress was a good measure of attachment strength were corrected through Ainsworth's work (reaction on re-union is a better measure).Mary Ainsworth (1962) investigated maternal deprivation and particularly infant behaviour on being reunited with carers:
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• Observed and recorded mother/infant interactions in Uganda and the U.S.;
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• Proposed that there are three distinct types of attachment (Main and Solomon, (1990) added a fourth);
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• Devised the "Strange Situation Test" as a way to observe infant behaviour in a standard way that allows assessment of attachment style.
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• Eight-phase scenario in which the carer, infant and a stranger interact; infant behaviour on separation and reunion with carer, and behaviour with stranger is observed, coded and analysed to establish which of Ainsworth's categories it fits into. - 4• Attachments are formed with both parents usually, and the parent's marital relationship has an effect: . • Fagot and Kavanagh (1993) found that parents find relationships with insecurely attached infants difficult and unrewarding, and have less interaction with insecurely attached boys which may explain behaviour problems. . • Gable et al (1994): quality of marital relationship affects parent/infant relationship and hence child development; . • Emotionally negative infants improved in their first year if their mothers were sensitive and happily married; infants whose fathers were unhappy in their marriages and who were insensitive and uninvolved, became negatively emotional (Belsky et al, 1991); . • Amount and sensitivity of paternal involvement positively influences child development (Easterbrooks and Goldberg, 1984). . . • Lamb et al (1985) found that the SST is only a good predictor of child behaviour when parent/child interactions are stable; Belsky and Fearon (2002) found evidence that this stability is more influential than any aspect of the child's personality."Mind-mindedness"
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• Refers to treating infants as persons with their own minds, feelings and thoughts (as opposed to helpless, mindless creatures).
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• Bretherton et al (1981) suggest that developing a theory of mind requires that infants first develop IWMs that give them a sense of self, which acts as the foundation for creating representations of others as having their own points of view, and for later social understanding.
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• Meins et al (2001) studied 71 mother/infant dyads:
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• Recordings of 20 mins of mother/infant play at 6mo were coded for maternal sensitivity (Ainsworth et al, 1971), and analysed for mothers references to their infants own mental states;
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• SSTs carried out at 12mo showed secure attachment was predicted by maternal sensitivity, but also that mothers of securely attached infants had used "substantially more" mental state references in the 6mo assessment.
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• Suggests that how mothers talk about their infants may be a crucial influence on the attachment that forms.
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• Later studies by Meins (2002) showed that infants whose mothers made more mental state references at 6mo performed better on ToM tasks at 4yo - 5Baumrind's model of parenting styles (1975) . . Style View of parent role Atitude towards children Values desired for children Outcome . Authoritarian Parent's will is enforced, child obeys Fathers more likely to identify with this style or with Permissive; Parents of sons more likely to adopt this style. Obedience . Authoritative Encourage independence; attempt to shape child behaviour using rational explanation Warm, sensitive to children's sense of self, encourage equal give-and-take in relationships to teach social skills; are open to learning from their children; Use reward and punishment to direct conformance to social norms; Mothers more likely to identify with this style. Value independence, assertion, wilfulness; take active parental roles to foster these. Give intellectual stimulation while creating moderate tension. Children become socially responsible. . Permissive Parents should be available but not intrusive Fathers more likely to identify with this style or with Authoritarian. . Non-conformist Exert more control than Permissive parents, but opposed to authority• Parents socialise their children by teaching them how to behave, but may also teach them negative behaviours (Patterson, 1976, 1982);
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• Children also shape their parents, e.g. parents may be caused to respond to delinquent teenagers in unnaturally forceful, authoritarian ways (Anderson et al, 1976).
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• Both parents' and childrens' expectations about each other shape their behaviour towards each other, and their interactions also influence their attributions and behaviour towards each other (MacKinnon-Lewis et al, 2001)
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• These and similar studies provide evidence that the relationships between parents and children are transactional, not just cause-and-effect, therefore affect the child's environment (Sameroff and Fiese, 2000). - 6Influence of early parent-child relationships on adult relationships . . • IWMs continue to develop as children mature, but are very different between individuals (Bowlby, 1973) . • Explanations of the effects of early attachment on adult relationships uses IWMs, e.g. . • Example 1: Main et al (1985) asked 6yo children to describe imagined parent-child separation and conversations: . • Those who had been securely attached at 12mo gave more emotionally open, coherent and elaborate descriptions; . • Children who had been insecurely attached at 12mo gave sad, irrational or bizarre descriptions. . • Example 2: Cassidy (1988) found that children assessed as securely attached at 12-18mo using SST gave more positive accounts of themselves in story completion tasks, and could more easily acknowledge their own faults. . . • These findings are explained in terms of the children's IWMs reflecting aspects of their own relationships with their parents.Influence of early attachment on adult attachment
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• If IWMs do continue to develop, then SST assessments should correspond with particular adult attachment styles.
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• Main and Goldwyn (1985) developed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) to assess how adults integrate their early memories of parental relationships into their attitudes to forming new adult relationships.
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• Adults are asked to talk about relationships in the past and their narrative is analysed to identify the AAI category:
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• Dismissing: past relationships not valued, described in a bland and unemotional way, not seen as influencing the self;
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• Autonomous: past relationships described openly and honestly (good and bad), seen as important influencers on self;
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• Pre-occupied: past relationships are valued, but talked about emotionally and the person seems enmeshed in unresolved issues from them.
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• Links to SST shown on the previous page (Insecure avoidant -> Dismissing; secure -> Autonomous; Insecure ambivalent -> Pre-occupied).
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• Criticism: OK as childhood attachment style was assessed independently, but can't infer childhood attachment style from AAI - how a person reflects on past relationships (as assessed in the AAI) is likely to suggest a type of childhood attachment that can't be verified retrospectively. The two variables (childhood attachment style and consequent adult account) are confounded.
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• Longitudinal studies attempt to enable SST and AAI to be measured independently:
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• The Bielefield Longitudinal Study (Zimmerman, 2000):
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• Studied 44 children in 49 German families; assessed SST at 12 and 18mo and AAI at 16yo;
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• Found that life events (parental divorce, sickness etc.) were more important influences on adult attachment than SST, which was not a good predictor of attachment style in these cases.
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• Hamilton (1994):
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• SST was a good predictor of adult attachment style, but only when the child's circumstances were stable over the 16-year period;
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• Some children's attachment classifications changed, these were found to have had disruption in their family circumstances. - 7Influence of mother's attachment type on infant attachment . . • Mother's attachment type has consistently been found to predict infant attachment type: . • It is a good predictor for secure attachment, less so for insecure; . • Mothers with autonomous (secure) adult attachment are more likely to behave sensitively towards their babies, who in turn are likely to be securely attached (van Ijzendoorn, 1995); . • Fonagy et al (1991) tested Brithsh mothers and fathers using the AAI, found their narratives of attachments to their own parents predicted the attachment types of their children; . • Intergenerational transmission of attachment like this is not fully understood (van Ijzendoorn, 1995)Adolescence
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• If attachment is transmitted between generations, the effects of parenting should be evident as adolescents transition to adulthood.
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• Kobak and Sceery (1998) used the AAI to rate adolescents:
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• "Autonomous" participants were described by peers as being less anxious and hostile, and more resilient; these participants reported high levels of social support and low levels of distress;
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• "Dismissive" adolescents were peer-rated as having high hostility and low resilience levels;
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• "Pre-occupied" adolescents were rated as less resilient and more anxious; they reported higher levels of distress and lower family support than the dismissive participants.
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• Steinberg (1990): securely attached/autonomous adolescents are more likely to keep up a good relationship with their parents.
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• This suggests that children with IWMs in which attachment figures are seen as mainly good, though not without faults, are likely to form secure attachments, to communicate easily and confidently to others, to show empathy, and to be able to discuss relationships openly and honestly (so the AAI would rate them as Autonomous adults).
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• Parent/child relationships change during adolescence:
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• Close parental relationships can be hard for adolescents to handle, and may affect their outward behaviour;
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• As they mature and create their own identities they tend to shift dependence to the same-sex parent then to opposite-sex peers (Grotevant, 1998);
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• Biological changes contribute to increasing distance in the relationship between children and their parents (Hill and Holmbeck, 1987);
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• Children become more self-assertive, and distance and conflict emerge in the relationship - early maturing children conflict with their mothers more than later maturing ones (Steinberg, 1987), this may be different in paternal relationships;
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• Social expectations also affect the relationship - children are expected to become more independent of their parents as they mature, both emotionally and economically. Also changes of peer group due to changes in school/further study/work affect how they develop and the relationships they form.
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• Baumrind suggests that authoritative parents make their children's transition through adolescence more successful by helping them develop social skills rather than forcing them (unsuccessfully) to behave in particular ways.
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• Example: Authoritatian parents who forbid their adolescent children to take drugs can generate internal problems in the child, who may go on to take drugs perhaps as a reaction to their parent's heavy-handedness; Authoritative parents will successfully explain the rationale behind avoiding taking drugs so that the child develops the knowledge and skill to do this independently. - 8Diversity in family patterns and relationships . . • Research on socio-emotional development in children has focussed on Western society, hence can't be generalised. . • Assumptions about the similarities between different cultural groups may not be valid - not all households are two parents and 2.5 children. . . • Socio-economic and socio-cultural factors are critical influences on children's socialisation, so they must be included along with parental socialisation as factors when investigating human development (Parke and Buriel, 1998) . • Steinberg and Darling (1994) studied parenting in different cultures (European American/Hispanic American/Asian American): . • Authoritative parenting was better (or not more harmful) and disengaged parenting harmful or less beneficial for all cultural groups studied; . • Authoritarian parenting was more beneficial for Asian American and more disadvantageous for European Americans, than for Hispanic Americans. . • Kroger (1985) found that adolescent attitudes towards parental authority were similar in the U.S., Britain and New Zealand. . • Feldman et al (1991) found that adolescents in Hong Kong reported more misbehaviour and expected to be independent later than those in Australia and the U.S. However these factors were related in similar ways to their family environments and their values in all three cultures.b
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- Ed209 Book Two Karteikarten am Parenting and attachment, erstellt von carlabunyan am 29/09/2013.
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