Early Attachment and Later Development

1
Early Attachment and Later Development

• Thompson, R. A. (1999). Early attachment
  and later development. In J. Cassidy P. R.
  Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment Theory,
  research, and clinical applications (pp.
  265-286). New York Guilford Press.

2
Research on the Influence of Attachment on Later
Outcomes

• parent-child relations
• relations with peers, friends, and siblings
• behavior with unfamiliar adults
• competence in preschool and kindergarten
• exploration and play
• intelligence and language ability
• ego resilience and ego control
• frustration tolerance
• curiousity
• self-recognition
• social cognition
• behavioral problems and other indicators of
  psychopathology
• and many other variables (Thompson, 1999, p.
  265).

3
Research Methods used to Study Attachment
Preview of Findings

• Longitudinal follow-up studies have been
  conducted for periods from months to decades.
• Measurement has included
• self report
• reports from parents, teachers, and peers
• standardized testing
• and a variety of other assessments (Thompson,
  1999, p. 265).
• General Preview of Research Findings about
  Consequence of Attachment
• Relationships are multi-influential.
• Outcomes are multidetermined.
• Continuity is complex and multifaceted.

4
Internal Working Models

• Experiences with caregivers influences
  expectations about future relationships.
• Working models seem to be based on a network of
  developing representations that emerge
  successively but interactively with age (from
  Thompson, 1998). There seem to be four
  interrelated representational systems that are
  both conscious and unconscious
• Social expectations about caregivers that are
  developed during the first year that are
  subsequently elaborated.
• Event representations beginning in the third
  year general and specific memories about
  attachment experiences are stored.
• Beginning at age four, individuals begin to
  create their own narratives and
  self-understandings about self and relationships.
• Beginning in the third and fourth years, the
  individual begins to form conclusions about
  characteristics of others and relationship
  expectations.

5
Significance of Developmental Processes on
Attachment

• Earliest representations provide important
  information about caregiver responsiveness, but
  the representations are fairly simplistic and
  they probably do not provide the conceptual
  foundation for the sophisticated and complex
  representations of self and relationships in
  other years (Thompson, 1999, pp. 267-268).
• Working models are continuously revised and
  updated throughout development
• Their impact on a childs psychosocial
  functioning at any particular age may depend on
  the security of the representations that are
  developed at that particular time (Thompson,
  1999, p. 268).
• Different facets of working models (e.g.,
  social expectations, autobiographical memory)
  have not only different developmental timetables
  but perhaps also different periods of critical
  influence.

6
Significance of Developmental Processes on
Attachment (cont.)

• Caregivers not only influence attachment by the
  quality of care they provide but also by the
  interpretation of that care because their
  interpretation may be adopted by the child.
• Thompson concludes that, for these reasons, it is
  important to consider working models in a
  developmental context in order to understand them
  as a source of developmental continutiy.

7
Ontogenetic Adaptations

• Assumption attachment is adaptive.
• Hypothesis insecure forms of attachment are
  functional for the particular context that a
  child experiences (e.g., resistant attachment
  that develops because of inadequate caregiving
  may promote greater self-reliance).

8
Emergent Personality and Social Skills

• Attachment has the potential to shape aspects of
  developing personality/identity.
• Attachment is expected to influence
• sociability,
• emotional predispositions,
• curiosity,
• self-esteem,
• independence,
• cooperation,
• trust.

9
Reasons for Developmental Discontinuity or It
Depends

• Juvenile Adaptations
• Consistency and Change in Parent-Child
  Relationships
• Multidetermined and Differentiated Outcomes

10
Empirical Perspectives

• Parent-Child Relationship
• Findings are inconsistent about the influence of
  early attachment on quality of parent-child
  relationships at a later date.
• Inconsistent findings suggest considerable
  flexibility in the interactive harmony of
  parent-child relationships"(Thompson, 1999, p.
  275).
• Other Close Relationships
• Attachment relationships seem to be associated
  with sociability during the same age period.
• Influence of attachment on later sociability is
  mixed.
• Encounters with Unfamiliar Partners
• Children often behave with other adults in a
  manner similar to the way they behave with their
  own caregivers.
• Interactions with peers does not seem to be based
  on behaviors with parents.

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Empirical Perspectives (cont.)

• Personality
• Research findings are inconsistent.
• Inconsistency is probably related to problems in
  measurement as well as the multi-determined
  nature of the influence of attachment.
• Representations of Self, Others, and
  Relationships
• Research suggests that early attachment does
  influence representations of self and others.

12
The Lessons of Early Relationships

• There seems to be a modest relationship between
  early attachment and later outcomes.
• Influence of attachment seems to be more
  contingent and provisional than earlier expected
  (Thompson, 1999, p. 280).
• Intervening events seem to moderate influence of
  attachment.
• Thompson reminds us that attachment is only one
  dimension of the parent-child relationship. He
  noted that Bowlby recognized this as well.