Attachment

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Attachment

• Sondra Parmer
• Jessica Stroud
• Mary Ann Taylor Sims
• FOUN 7410
• Fall 2004

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What is Ethology?

• Crain states that it is the study of animal and
  human behavior within an evolutionary context.

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Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

• Born into a very distinguished English family
• No great aspects for his future as a child
• Studied medicine
• Changed to study for the Anglican clergy at
  Cambridge
• Recommended for the H.M.S. Beagle voyage
• Studied fossils to lead to his theory of
  evolution
• Published theory 20 years after it was formulated
• 1858 he and Wallace presented their theory
  together

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Darwins Theory of Natural Selection

• Among the members of a species, there is
  endless variation and among the various members,
  only a fraction of those who are born survive to
  reproduce. Over time nature selects those who
  can best adapt to their surroundings - hence the
  term natural selection.

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Class Discussion

• How does ones social behavior aid in Darwins
  theory of natural selection or evolution?
• What part does Reasoning play in evolution?
• How does the embryological findings fit in with
  the theory of evolution?

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Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)Niko Tinbergen
(1907-1988)
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Methodological Approach

• Understanding behavior only through a natural
  setting.
• Step one get to know the species - naturalistic
  observation
• Only after step one is completed can experiments
  begin to test their ideas to formulate laws

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Instinctive Behavior

• Instinct is something that is released by a
  specific external stimulus
• Examples
• Species-specific
• Fixed action patterns
• Different from other unlearned behaviors

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Imprinting

• What is imprinting?
• When and how does it occur?
• Fly Away Home clip

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Imprinting

• Determines the following response in the young
• And social behavior in young
• Can affect later sexual preferences
• Begins with inner maturational prompting
• Ends with the onset of fear response

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Adaptive Value of Imprinting

• Has evolved as a strong attachment mechanism for
  groups of animals to escape the pressure of
  predators
• Examples?
• Why is it necessary?

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John Bowlby (1907-1990)

• Evolutionary perspective
• children must have attachment behaviors in
  order to stay close to adults for protection and
  survival

Attachment Behaviors - Babys Cry - Grasping -
Babys Smile - Sucking - Babbling - Following
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Bowlbys Phases of Attachment
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Phase 1 (birth to 3 months) Indiscriminate
Responsiveness to Humans

• Respond equally to all people
• Preference for faces
• Social smiles (approx. 6 weeks old)
• Smile acts as a releaser for caregiver to promote
  love and care
• Crying
• Promotes proximately between baby and caregiver
• Babys holding on
• Grasp reflex
• Moro reflex
• Rooting and sucking reflexes

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Phase 2 (3 to 6 months)Focusing on Familiar
People

• Social responses become focused on familiar
  people
• Restrict smiles
• Selective babbling
• Comfort provided by preferred individual(s)
• Baby is beginning to form attachments to one to
  three key figures
• One person tends to emerge as primary attachment
  figure

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Phase 3 (6 months to 3 years) Intense Attachment
and Active Proximity-Seeking

• Attachment becomes exclusive to one person
• Fear of strangers
• Actively follow desire to maintain contact with
  parent
• Use parent as a secure base from which to explore
• Mother-child interaction defines relationship

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Phase 4 (3 years to the end of childhood)
Partnership Behavior

• Child more likely to consider parents plans and
  goals more of a partner in relationship
• Little is understood about this phase
• Adolescents break free from attachments adults
  are independent seniors become increasingly
  dependent
• Fear of being alone biological reasons

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Is attachment the same as imprinting?

• Attachment in Humans
• Infancy social responses directed at many
• Attempt to stay physically close to others
• 6 months begin to narrow social responses
• Become afraid of strangers
• Will follow principal attachment figure

• Imprinting in Animals
• Young animals follow moving objects
• Begin following many moving objects
• Narrow to following one moving object
• Fear response limits ability to form new
  attachments

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Effects of Institutional Care

• Institutional Deprivation
• Children lacking sufficient care in the first
  year of life
• Does failure to imprint occur?
• Stories from Romania
• Separation Stages
• Protest
• Despair
• Detachment

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Mary D. S. Ainsworth (1903-1999)

• 40-year collaboration with Bowlby
• Infancy in Uganda
• Naturalistic observation
• Observed different patterns of attachment
• Baltimore study 23 mother-child dyads
• 1st year home observations
• 2nd year lab observations

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The Strange Situation

• Research methodology
• Includes 2 brief separations (3 minutes each)
  between mother and child
• First separation friendly stranger
• Second separation left alone
• Three patterns observed

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Securely Attached Infants

• Use mother as base from which to explore
• Mother leaves and child becomes upset
• Mother returns and child actively greets and
  remains close for a few minutes
• Once reassured, child begins to explore again
• Findings correlate to sensitive behavior from
  mother at home visits during babys first year
• 65 - 70 of 1-year-olds in US who have
  participated in the strange situation

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Insecure-Avoidant Infants

• Appear independent during the Strange Situation
• Explore, but do not use mother as secure base
  ignore her
• Do not become upset when mother leaves the room
• Do not seek physical closeness to mother when she
  returns
• Attempt to avoid mother if picked up upon
  mothers return
• Findings correlate to insensitive behavior from
  mother at home visits during babys first year
• 20 of 1-year-olds in US who have participated in
  the strange situation

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Insecure-Ambivalent Infants

• Clingy infants who explore very little
• Extremely upset when mother leaves the room
• Noticeably ambivalent toward mother upon her
  return
• Findings correlate to inconsistent behavior from
  mother at home visits during babys first year
• 10 - 15 of 1-year-olds in US who have
  participated in the strange situation

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Attachment Video
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Attachment

• Follow-up studies have supported the existence of
  these 3 behavior patterns
• Children classified as securely attached exhibit
  the healthiest pattern of development (e.g.,
  persistence, self-reliance, friendliness,
  leadership)
• Correlation of maternal sensitivity to child
  outcome supports ethologist perspective

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Attachment Evaluation of Adults

• Main developed Adult Attachment Interview to
  measure attachment and parenting behaviors
• Secure/autonomous speakers speak openly and
  freely about childhood relationships, tend to
  have securely attached children
• Dismissing of attachment speakers own
  attachment experiences are unimportant, tend to
  have insecure-avoidant children
• Preoccupied speakers continue to struggle to
  win parents love, tend to have
  insecure-ambivalent children
• Correlations found between inventories with
  adults prenatally and when baby is 1 year old

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Can you spoil the child by giving him too much
attention?

• Bowlby and Ainsworth say NO!
• Babies have built-in biological signals used to
  evoke responses that meet their needs for
  survival.
• Ainsworths research shows that children are most
  well adapted when parents respond promptly and
  sensitively to the childs needs
• Cues must be taken from the child not
  parent-directed

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Would Bowlby and Ainsworth like Baby Einstein?
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What practical applications and changes have we
seen as a result of research in attachment?

• Change in care in institutions where children are
  raised
• Rooming-in in hospitals following birth of child
• Day care
• Quality time in families

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Infant-Mother AttachmentDiessner and Tiegs

• Comparison of infant strange situation behavior
  with maternal home behavior
• The findings to this study raise the concerning
  issues of the direction of effects of attachment
• To what extent is is attributable to the mothers
  behavior throughout the first year of life and to
  what extent is it attributable to built-in
  differences in potential and temperament?

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How are these issues associated or affected by
infant-mother attachment?

• Contexts of Mother-Infant Interaction
• Practical Implications for Intervention
• Using the Mother as a Secure Base from which to
  Explore
• Response to Separation from Attachment Figure
• Other Attachment Figure
• Consequences of Attachment

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Margaret S. Mahler (1897-1985)
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Autism vs. Symbiotic Psychosis

• Characteristics of Autism (Pervasive
  Developmental Disorder, DSM-IV)
• Onset prior to age 3
• Marked impairment in social interaction
• Marked impairment in communication
• Repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and
  activities
• Characteristics of Symbiotic Psychosis
• Occurs around age 3 or 4
• Progress through symbiotic phase
• Ruptured sense oneness with mother
• Lack of comfort and support
• May regress to autistic state

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Phases of Normal Development Birth 3 Years

• Normal Autistic Phase Birth 1 month
• Normal Symbiotic Phase 1 5 months

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Separation and Individuation Subphases

• Differentiation 5 9 months
• Practicing 9 15 months
• Early Practicing 9 12 months
• Practicing 12 15 months
• Rapprochement 15 24 months
• Consolidation and Object Constancy 24 36 months

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Practical Applications

• Therapy
• Did not experience normal symbiotic phase
• Do not need encouragement to separate but to
  building secure foundation of mutuality and trust

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Criticisms of Mahlers Work

• Perceptual and cognitive capacities do exist in
  newborns
• Stern
• View of early development as pathological
• Bowlby (video clip)
• Development does not occur in a lock-step fashion
• Early fixation does not lead to adult
  psychopathology
• Empirical research

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Happy Babies are the Desired Result!