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John Bowlby. A 20 th century English educator who was trained in both medicine and psychoanalysis Became interested in the behavioral disturbances of institutionalized children in the 1930s Turned to ethology for answers. Environment of adaptedness.
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John Bowlby • A 20th century English educator who was trained in both medicine and psychoanalysis • Became interested in the behavioral disturbances of institutionalized children in the 1930s • Turned to ethology for answers
Environment of adaptedness • Bowlby’s term for the basic environment from which human behavior evolved. • Humans have always stayed in groups because it enhances survival. • Attachment behavior has evolved because it improves chances of survival.
Phase 1 of Attachment • Birth to 2 or 3 months • Infants like to listen to human voices and focus on faces • Social smiling begins around 6 weeks old—powerful elicitor of attachment
Phase 2 of attachment • 3-6 or 7 months • Attachment becomes focused on one figure, usually the mother. • Cooing and babbling begin, which strengthen attachment. • Baby shows clear preference for familiar people. • “Imprinting” behavior develops as baby “follows” Mom.
Phase 3 of attachment • 6 to 36 months • Babies actively pursue contact with regular caregivers. • Separation anxiety develops around 6 months old. • Separation anxiety develops around 7 or 8 months. • Baby uses mom as a secure base from which to explore. • Baby develops schema for interactions with Mom.
Phase 4 • 3 years + • Children start taking others’ feelings, goals, and plans into account; isn’t as self-centered • Break away from parental dominance during adolescence but form new attachments • As adults, we seek independence but also affiliation with others. • Being alone is considered one of the greatest fears in life.
Kewpie-doll syndrome • Coined by Lorenz • Baby’s kewpie-doll appearance makes them cute, and parents respond positively to this cuteness. • Attractive babies get more positive interaction from parents than unattractive babies do.
How important is feeding to attachment? • Harlow & Zimmerman’s study with monkeys—half were fed by a soft cloth “mother” monkey; other half fed by wire monkey • Both groups had access to both cloth and wire “mothers” • All monkeys preferred the cloth mother, even those who were fed by the wire ones. • Showed that feeding is not most important determinant of an infant’s attachment to caregivers.
Effects of Institutional Care (Bowlby) • Suffer from a basic lack of emotional attention. • There may be a sensitive (or even critical) period for attachments to develop. • Therapeutic interventions can help children who are adopted before age 2, but some Romanian infants have still had emotional difficulties 2 years later.
Phases of distress during prolonged separations • 1st—children protest—cry, scream, refuse all substitute care • 2nd—despair—get very sad, quiet, withdrawn, and inactive; appear to be in mourning • 3rd—detachment; child is very lively and may accept alternate care. • When parent returns, child may appear to have lost all interest in her. May recover but may not.
Mary Ainsworth • A student of Bowlby’s who collaborated with him for 40 years • Studied attachment behavior in Ugandan infants • Developed the Strange Situations Test in Baltimore, MD.
Strange Situations Study • Ainsworth and others observed babies and mothers in their homes for first year of babies’ lives. • At 12 months old, she put them through Strange Situations Test. • Wanted to see how babies would use their moms as a secure base from which to explore and also how they’d handle 2 brief situations and reunions with mom.
Secure attachment • 65-70% of sample • Baby happily explored while using mom as secure base. • Protested separations; explorations decreased while mom was gone. • Happy to see Mom on return; resumed explorations. • Mom had previously been rated as responsive, sensitive, and “lovingly available” at home.
Insecure-Avoidant • 20% of sample • Babies appear very independent • Don’t care about Mom; not bothered by separations. • Moms had been rated as insensitive, interfering, and rejecting. • Babies had often seemed insecure at home. Knew they couldn’t count on Mom.
Insecure-resistant • 10-15% of sample • Also known as anxious-ambivalent or insecure-ambivalent • Very clingy baby, preoccupied with Mom’s whereabouts • Extremely upset with separations • When Mom returned, they acted angry and avoidant. • Moms were inconsistent at home—sometimes emotionally available and other times not.
Disorganized attachment style • Disorganized/disoriented—5%; greatest insecure attachment style. Variety of confused, contradictory behaviors. May have flat, depressed gaze, unexpected crying, odd frozen postures, or refusal to look at parent. Usually associated with abuse or neglect. • Often known as “reactive attachment disorder” today—outcomes are very poor.
Outcomes of secure attachment • Many studies correlate secure attachment with all sorts of good outcomes—higher self-esteem, score higher on measures of persistence and self-reliance; friendlier; better leadership ability • Definitely the most healthy pattern of development • Most prevalent pattern throughout world.
Stroufe et al. (2005) • Extensive longitudinal study of attachment • Found that early secure attachment is linked to positive emotional health, high self-esteem, self-confidence, and socially competent interactions with peers, teachers, romantic partners, etc. through adolescence
Insecure avoidant outcomes • Bowlby said they become avoidant, defensive adults—overly self-reliant, detached, can’t trust others ot have relationship. • Evidence that avoidant children become avoidant parents. • Avoidant adults dismiss their own need for love; dismiss own attachment experiences as important.
Insecure-ambivalent outcomes • Ambivalent adults are still struggling with the need to win parents’ love and approval. • Their own neediness may interfere with their ability to care for their babies. • Easily fall in and out of love in quest to find soul mate
How to get secure attachment • Mothers must be emotionally available to children. • Must follow children’s cues and maintain interactional synchrony—not be overly intrusive but respond when needed. • Following babies’ cues is very important.
Should mothers always meet baby’s needs, or will this spoil him? • Bowlby and Ainsworth believe moms should always meet the baby’s needs. • Babies cry for a reason; it’s an evolved survival mechanism. Ignoring it doesn’t make sense. • You can spoil a baby by responding when h/she doesn’t need you. Parents who spoil their children don’t respond to their needs but rather intrude when they’re not needed.
New way to be overly intrusive with children • Overstimulation with things like flash cards and computer programs • Ainsworth says this takes control away from the child. • What you should do instead—Give the child the opportunity to explore his own interests, not your own.
Traditional vs. Attachment Parenting • Debate still rages today • Should parenting be “child-centered” or “parent-centered” • Affects all sorts of decisions, ranging from breastfeeding to day care to whether to let your child “cry it out” at night • Jury is still out as to which is best.
Stability of Attachments • Children can be securely attached to one parent and insecurely attached to the other (occurs about 30% of the time) • Attachment style can change over time, becoming either more or less stable. • Before 2004, it was thought that by the time a child is 4-5 years old, attachment style was permanent and resistant to change. Longitudinal studies show otherwise now. Correlation between childhood & adult attachment style is just .17 in one study.
Attachment and Adult Relationships • Correlation between attachment to parent and attachment to romantic partner is .20 and .50…a moderate range. • Hazan & Shaver (1987) classified adults as secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant. • Two securely attached adults have the best probability for staying married. • See handout/Vista (supplemental reading) for more detail.
Criticisms of Attachment Research • Not all research shows a link between infant attachment and later development. • In one study, the best predictor of insecure attachment at 18 was parental divorce, not childhood attachment. • Consistent positive caregiving over many years is likely to predict later development, especially when combined with early secure attachment.
Kagan’s criticism • Kagan believes attachment research is overinflated. • Says that children are evolutionarily programmed to stay on a positive development course, even in the face of poor parenting. • Believes that genetic and temperamental differences play more of a role in a child’s social competencies than attachment does.
Final criticism of attachment research • It ignores the diversity of cultural influences. • In some cultures, children are raised by multiple people and form attachments to all of them, not just to the parents.
Bonding • There’s a sensitive period for bonding in the first hour after birth; baby is alert and responsive then • Early research (Klaus & Kennell, 1976; 1982) suggested that first 6-12 hours after birth was a critical time for bonding. • Later research said that bonding can occur at any time; bonding in the first few hours only increases maternal responsiveness toward baby for the first 3 days.
Studies with monkeys (Maestripieri, 2001) • When mother and infant are separated during the sensitive period, mom will probably accept her own infant or one with similar characteristics if reunion occurs before end of sensitive period. • When mother and infant are separated during the sensitive period, mom is likely to reject own infant and any other one if reunion occurs after sensitive period.
Maestripieri, 2001, cont. • When mom and infant are separated after sensitive period and then reunited, mom will probably accept her own infant but no one else’s. • With monkeys, the sensitive period of caregiving motivation seems to be a hormonal thing associated with childbirth and lactation. • Doesn’t seem to apply as well to humans.
Gender differences in caregiving • In non-human mammals, females are clearly much more involved in caregiving than males are. • Why do male animals show a lack of caregiving? Probably because of prenatal hormones and also socialization. • If female animals are exposed to prenatal androgens, they behave like males do regarding caregiving. Not interested.
