Attachment

Attachment

1. Explanations of attachment

   • Bowlby's Theory
     • Attachment is innate & adaptive
       • Good for survival, safety, relationships, secure base
     • Infant is born with a set of behavioural systems ready to be activated
       • Social releasers
     • Primary care giver is who the attachment is formed with
       • Who responds most to social releasers
     • Child-parent relationships dont always positively correlated with child-peer attachments
     • Individual differences- temperament
     • Critical period, theory of evolution- assumption
   • Learning Theory
     • Stimulus & Response
       • Stimulus of food is associated with pleasure
         • Food giver becomes source of pleasure
     • Whoever is feeding infant is who it becomes attached to
       • They reduce hunger drive and become a secondary reinforcer
       • Mother can learn to become attached to infant through reinforcements like smiling
     • Can be attached to people who arent feeding them
     • Reductionist- too simple to explain complex behaviour

2. Types of attachment

   • Securely attached
     • Explores happily, PCG as secure base
     • Distress upon separation
     • Comfort at reunion
   • Insecurely attached- avoidant
     • Little attention to PCG
       • not concerned when leave
     • Little stranger anxiety
       • calmed by stranger
     • Avoid PGC on return
   • Insecurely attached- resistant
     • Very distressed upon separation
       • Difficult to comfort on reunion
     • PCG behaviour inconsistent
     • Resists stranger
   • Insecurely attached- disorganised
     • No set pattern of behaviour shown
     • Wary of PCG

3. The Strange Situation

   • Ainsworth et al.
     • Describe & assess attachment relationship
     • In strange enviro
   • 3 sources of stress
     • unfamiliar enviro
     • separation from PGC
     • stranger
   • 8 episodes lasting 21 mins in total