Attachment Theory

1
Attachment Theory

• Childhood Attachment
• Secure
• Distress when mother leaves
• Greets mother when she returns
• Avoidant
• Does not seek mother when she returns
• Focuses on environment
• Ambivalent/Resistant
• Very upset at departure
• Explores very little

• Adult Attachment
• Secure
• Comfortable in relationships
• Able to seek support from partner
• Dismissing
• Greater sense of autonomy
• Tend to cut themselves off emotionally from
  partner
• Preoccupied
• Fears rejection from partner
• Strong desire to maintain closeness

2

• But babies are born with different temperaments
• Some children are easier to parent than others
• Thus, the quality of care they receive might be
  based on the childs personality
• But temperament has only a moderate effect on
  parenting/care (Vaughn Bost, 1999)

3

• Experience seem to play a large role in
  determining the styles we bring to relationships
• Mothers attachment styles predict the attachment
  style of their babies with 75 accuracy before
  they are even born it is argued that babies
  come to share their style (Fonagy, Steele,
  Steele, 1991)
• The parenting adolescents receive as 7th graders
  predicts how they will behave in their own
  romances when they are young adults (Conger, Cui,
  Bryant, Elder, 2000)

4
Attachment stability

• Attachment styles tend to be stable and
  long-lasting
• May lead people to create new relationships that
  reinforce existing tendencies (Scharfe
  Bartholomew, 1997)
• E.g. Avoidant people may never learn that people
  can be trusted

5

• But attachment styles can change
• A bad breakup can make a formerly secure person
  insecure
• A good relationship can make an avoidant person
  less so (Kirkpatrick Hazan, 1994)
• As many as 1/3 of us may encounter a real change
  in our attachment styles over a two year period
  (Fuller Fincham, 1995)

6
Relationship functioning

• Secure individuals tend to be more trusting,
  committed, and satisfied than insecure
  individuals (Simpson, 1990)
• They experienced more positive emotions than
  negative
• There are also differences in the ways in which
  these couples respond to interpersonal distress

7
Attachment Activation

• Role of conflict
• Partner availability

Partner perceived as available
Primary strategy (secure attachment)
Partner perceived as unavailable
Secondary strategy (insecure attachment)
Proximity seeking as viable or non-viable
8
Secondary Strategies

• Preoccupied attachments
• Hyperactivating strategies
• Hypervigilant attention to ones partner
• Rapidly detect disapproval, rejection
• Intensify negative emotional responses
• Dismissing attachments
• Deactivating strategies
• Active inattention to threatening aspects of the
  relationship
• Increased self-reliance

9
Expression and Regulation of Negative Affect

• Communication of attachment-figure unavailability
• Consistent rejection
• Criticism and hostility
• Specific predictions about the types of behaviors
  individuals might exhibit

10

• Secure express themselves calmly and seek
  comfort and support from their partners in a
  constructive fashion
• Dismissing tend to withdraw from their
  partners may become hostile
• Preoccupied tend to become excessively anxious
  and fretful (Simpson, Rholes, Nelligan, 1992)

11
Perceptions

• Secure individuals are more likely to make
  relationship-enhancing attributions (Collins,
  1996)
• They are more likely than insecure people to
  remember positive past events (Miller Noirot,
  1999)
• More likely to remain open to new information
  when they judge their partners (Mikulincer, 1997)
• Insecure people tend to rely on existing beliefs
  and assumptions

12

• Secure people tend to understand their partners
  better than insecure people (Mikulincer, Orbach,
  Iavnieli, 1998)
• Preoccupied individuals tend to overestimate how
  much they have in common with their partners
• Preoccupied people are also good at guessing
  their partners feelings when it may be costly to
  them
• E.g. when looking at pictures of attractive
  potential partners

13
Attachment and jealousy

• Preoccupied individuals seek closeness but also
  may be chronically worried about their partners
  returning that love
• Preoccupied individuals do experience more
  jealousy than the other attachment styles (Buunk,
  1997)
• Secure people are also fearful when a valued
  relationship is imperiled
• Dismissing individuals dont tend to worry about
  being abandoned