Attachment

Attachment

"A long-enduring, emotionally meaningful tie to a particular individual"
1. Characterises the first relationship a child makes - the object of the child's attachment usually reciprocates the emotions
  1. Results in a strong, emotionally-charged, two-way bond
Bowlby's Theory of Attachment (1960s-80s)
1. The infant is genetically predisposed to develop attachment to the caregiver
2. The mother in particular is genetically predisposed to respond appropriately to the child's behaviour
3. Attachment behaviour has 2 functions:
  1. Biological - being near the parents increases care and chances of survival
  2. Psychological - being near the parent provides a feeling of security
4. Stages of Developmet
  1. 1) Pre-attachment: predisposed behaviours bring adult into contact with the child (infants show "indiscriminate social responsiveness"
  2. 2) Attachment-in-the-making: infant shows preference for caregiver (e.g. more easily comforted) - typically around 5-7 months
  3. 3) Clear-cut attachment: shows overt attachment behaviours and no longer accepts care from anyone - this depends on the child achieving person permanence which requires the ability to recall the person from memory - also show separation protests (usually around 7-9 months)
  4. 4) Goal-corrected partnership: improvements in representational abilities allow child to understand why the caregiver is absent, and predict their return - child can also negotiate, accommodate the needs of the caregiver but also manipulate them (e.g. deliberate crying)
    1. There is evidence that 2 year old children can partially accommodate verbal requests (Weinraub & Lewis, 1977) - this is more consistent from the age of 3
    2. Lessening attachment is shown by school-aged children where relationships are based on more abstract concepts such as affection, trust and approval - this is exemplified by the Internal Working Model (IWM) of the relationship
5. Maternal Deprivation
  1. The infant should experience a warm, intimate relationship with the mother - or a permanent mother-substitute (Bowlby, 1953) - love in infancy is as important as vitamins are to physical health
  2. Inspired by work in the animal kingdom (e.g. Lorenz) and the needs of orphans after WWII - institutions focused more on physical rather than emotional needs
  3. Support includes Goldfarb, 1947: institutionalised children (not fostered before 15 months old) separated from their mother showed deficits at 10-14 years - also, Harlow, 1958: showed deficits in primates (those under 3 months old could 'recover')
  4. However, there can be confounding factors with social and sensory deprivation (high staff turnover meaning it is not possible to form relationships with anyone) - Suomi & Harlow, 1982: found that effects could be reversed e.g. if placed with a younger 'therapist' monkey showing also the importance of peer relationships - also, deficits do not always occur
6. Monotropism
  1. Theory advocated initially only forming one close relationship - believed that infants were initially incapable of forming attachments to more than one person (later attachments are minor in comparison to the initial attachment)
  2. Shaffer & Emerson, 1964: a third of attachment relationships to more than one person and a third where the mother was not the main attachment figure (i.e. responsive persons who interacted and played with them - not just changed their nappy)
  3. Fox, 1977: infants in Israel were attached to both the mother and the nursery nurse
  4. Mead, 1962: multiple attachments are beneficial in the case of parental loss
7. Critical Periods
  1. "Even good mothering is useless if delayed until around 2 and a half years" - if attachment relationships are not formed at this point, the child will develop and "affectionless character"
  2. However, Tizzard, 1977 found no evidence for a critical period with children fostered after 2.5 years
  3. The theory appeared to be comprehensive and biologically motivated and therefore prompted research and highlighted importance of children's emotional needs which led to improvements in institutional care - however it was criticised for not being fully supported by evidence and potentially having adverse effects on mothers
Measuring Attachment
1. Strange Situation Test (Ainsworth, 1978)
  1. A standardised test as a method for assessing how well the infant uses the mother as: a secure base for exploration and as comfort when distressed
    1. Used extensively with 12-24 month old children in many countries as a measure of attachment security
  2. (1) Child and mother -- (2) child, mother and stranger -- (3) child and stranger -- (4) child and mother -- (5) child -- (6) child and stranger -- (7) child and mother
    1. There is a particular focus on the extent to which the child is comforted by the return of the mother in stages 4 and 7
  3. From this, 4 major types of attachment behaviour have been identified (1 secure, 3 insecure)
    1. 1) Secure (Type B) - actively maintain proximity to the mother at reunions (most common and believed to be the healthiest form of attachment) - can predict furture personality traits such as curiosity and problem solving at aged 2 (Oppenheim et al., 1998)
      1. 2) Insecure-Avoidant (Type A) - avoids proximity to mother at reunions (no specific distress during separation)
        3) Insecure-Resistant (Type C) - attaches to mother rather than exploring (separation produces distress) - around 10% of children
        4) Insecure-Disorganised (Type D) - disorganised and disoriented behaviour with no clear pattern (e.g. no clear system for coping with separation or reunion (around 5% of children - often those who have been abused or who have parents with mental illness)
    2. Given that insecure attachment is quite common, different attachment types may actually be adaptive for different situations and environments (advanced by Belsky et al., 1991...)
      1. Secure attachments and trusting models of relationships are adaptive for supporting environments (adequate resources and reliable caregivers)
        Insecure attachment and less trusting behaviour may be more useful when resources (e.g. caregvers) are scarce, unpredictable or inconsistent - therefore opportunistic strategies may be adventageous
  4. Criticisms:
    1. Artificial situation (unfamiliar and caregiver is aware of being observed)
    2. Confounding psychological factors other than attachment type such as susceptibility to stress
    3. There may be cross-cultural differences
      1. Percentages of attachment types vary between the UK and Japan (Shaffer, 1996)
        In Japan, infants are overly distressed when alone because that is rare in their culture at 12 months therefore fewer were categorised as Type B (despite no obvious later adverse consequences) (Takashi,1990)
      2. May need to redefine categories according to culture (Cole, 1998)
Attachment Beyond Infancy and Early Childhood
1. Bowlby's Internal Working Models (IWMs)
  1. People form IWMs of attachment relationships - a cognitive construct will form when the child is capable of symbolic thought
    1. The cognitive construct (IWM) represents memories and feelings about the attachment figure and will provide expectations about the relationship and guide behaviour towards the attachment figure
2. Adult Attahment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1982)
  1. In those that achieved formal operational thinking, it is possible to alter IWMs without having a direct interaction (as is needed with children)
  2. Developed to measure attachment in older adolescents and adults - designed to probe internal representations of attachment
  3. Identified 4 attachment types:
    1. 1) Autonomous (well-balanced and objective recall of early attachments)
      1. 2) Dissmissive (claims attachment relationships are unimportant and can't recall them)
        3) Enmeshed (still dependent on and preoccupied with pleasing parents)
        4) Unresolved (may have experiences trauma relating to the attachment figure and therefore are unable to determine feelings about the relationship
  4. Ijzendoorn, 1995: argued that the AAI has satisfactory coding reliability and different groups of people don't differ with their distribution across the 3 main categories
    1. People from a lower socioeconomic group are more likely to be dissmissive
      1. People receiving clinical treatment are less likely to be classed as autonomous
3. Stability of Attachment Types over time
  1. Lewis et al., 2000: secure - autonomous, avoidant - dismissive, resistant - enmeshed
  2. Oppenheim et al., 1998: secure attachment in infancy predicted curiosity and problem solving at aged 2 and social confidence at aged 3
  3. Lewis et al., 1984: secure attachment predicted lack of behaviour problems in boys at age 6
  4. Kochanska, 2001: secure attached showed less fear, anger and distress from 9 to 33 months
  5. Vaughan et al., 1979: infants who changed from secure to insecure usually had mothers who reported negative changes in their own lives (e.g. financial worries)
4. Stability of Attachment Types across Generations
  1. Fonagy et al., 1991: autonomous mothers (AAI) usually have secure children (SST) - suggests that how mothers interpret childhood attachment affects child's attachment towards her
  2. Ijzendoorn argued that intergenerational transmission of attachment may be via parental responsiveness - sensitivity is only a partial explanation
  3. Sagi-Schwartz et al., 2003: effects of the Holocaust were evident at the grandparent generation (scoring high on unresolved AAI) but intergenerational transmission of attachment type appeared to be low and the survivors children showed little difference compared to controls and their grandchildren were even more similar to a comparable 3 generations of controls
5. Subsequent developments introduced the concept of attachment extending from infancy throughout the lifespan - was suggested that as children mature, attachment becomes more sophisticated and depends more on abstract concepts such as trust and approval

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