Attachment

Attachment

1. Theories of Attachment

   • "Cupboard love" theories
     • Freud's psychoanalytic theory
       • The primary drive is for food. The baby associates the mother with satisfacrion of this primary drive and acquires a secondary drive for he mother - she becomes desired in her own way.
     • Learning theory
       • The baby's primary hunger dirve is satsified by the mother and through the process of classical conditioning, the baby acquires a secondary drive for the mother herself.
       • Food is a primary reinforcer. The mother is a secondary reinforcer.
     • Babies become attached to the mother who feeds them.
     • NEGATIVE EVALUATION
       • Harlow and Zimmerman: Monkeys with two surrogate mothers - a wire mother and a cloth mother
       • Schaffer and Emerson: Scottish infants
         • More important is the behaviour of the attachment figure: (i) responsiveness to the infant's behaviour, (ii) the total amount of stimulation provided (talking, playing...)
         • Schaffer sees the infant as an active seeker of stimulation and not a passive recipient of food and drink.
   • Ethological theory
     • Instinct (species-specific behaviour)
       • Fixed action patterns
         • Trigger stimuli
   • Imprinting theory
     • Lorenz
       • Geese become imprint on their mother and they follow her
         • This is necessary for survival
     • Imprintability is genetically determined and the following response is a fixed action pattern
       • The trigger stimuli include: movement, size, and general conspicuousness
       • Imprinting only occurs during a brief critical period early in the bird's life and once it has occured, it is irreversibile.
         • CRITIQUE: Birds in isolation remain imprintable beyond the end of the nrmal critical period. This cast doubt on Lorenz's claim that the critical period is under genetic control.
     • There is no direct comparison between imprinting and human attachment
       • Imprinting is not linked to attachment behaviours but can be linked to choice of habitat, food preferences, learning communications, choice of seual partner and control of aggression.
     • A very common phenomenon in many species.
       • Human babies respond to its own mother's breastpads and to her voice.
   • Parental investment theory
     • Cost of reproduction is greater for the female - one egg per cycle, can bear only a few children at once.
       • Her commitment is high and instead of wasting all the effort, she is naturally oriented to take care of the baby
         • She becomes emotionally bonded to it.
   • Bowlby's theory of attachment
     • Main concepts
       • instinctive nature of attachment and the concept of monotropy
       • The importance of the timing of attachment formation: existence of a critical period
         • Mothering is almost useless if delayed until after 2,5 - 3 years (for most children 12 months)
     • Evolutionary based
       • Infants and mothers have evolved a biological need to stay in constant contact with each other
       • Each attachment behaviour initially functions like a fixed action pattern.
       • Fear of strangers represents a rudimentary survival mechanism, built in by nautre.
     • Two changes happen when the child develops
       • There is a progressive narrowing down in the range of trigger stimuli
         • Initially, two dots are enough to trigger smiling. Later, the whole face must be presented and eventually only the face of a familiar individual will produce smiling.
         • Fixed action patterns are no longer independent of each other, but become integrated by being focused on one particular individual, usually the mother.
           • This is monotropy
       • Attachment system becomes an organised whole which increasingly functions in a "goal-oriented" way
         • Goal: proximity
           • Attachment behaviours will be activated by any condition that seems to threaten the achievement of proximity, such as separation, insecurity and fear.
     • Internal working model