The origins of attachment theory and recent studies

John Bowlby(1907-1990)

CambridgeUniversity:

Medical training

Third grade:Developmental

psychology

After graduation:Experiences with

24 maladjusted children(two of them)

John Bowlby(1907-1990)

After voluntary service:British Psychoanalytic

training& London ChildGuidance Clinic:

Systematic study of 44Juvenile thieves

Maternal separation and loss

Theory building

After World War II:Tavistock Clinic

(1945-1972):Maternal separation & loss and children’s personality

Theory building

Research team(1948):Robertson:

(observations of young childrenShortly separated from mother:

detachment )Ainsworth et al.

Mary Ainsworth(1913- )

Theory building John Bowlby

AttachmentTheory:

Attachment:characteristicsDevelopment:development

Internal working model(AAI)

Question 1:

1.PsychoanalyticTheory:

inner libido Feeding

early experiences

2.Learning theory:feeding

drive reduction

(Introduced by Huxley)3.Ethological Perspectives:

Lorenz et al. (imprinting)Harlow (contact comfort)

Evolution,Survival

Survival function

4.General system Theory:

Goal directed systemattachment behavioral

System system

5.Cognitive developmental theory:

RepresentationsInternal working model

6.Own observations And studies

Mary Ainsworth(1913- ) Theory building

PhD. Training(1936-1939) with Blatz in Canada:

security theorySecure base

Moves to London(1950):Tavistock clinic

Uganda research(1953/1954):Observations of interactions

& interviews of 28 pairs of mother-Child (9 months)

Attachment patterns:Secure, insecure,

UnattachedFactors influencing attachment patterns

Baltimore research(1962):Home observations1963/1964:15 Pairs

1966/67: 11 pairs moreStrange situationStrange situation

Attachment patternsThe quality of attachment

MainMary MainQuestion 2

early experiences

affectional bond With parents attachment theory departs from theories

of object relations is that maintenance of relations not because of ego instincts rather than survival.

Theory building

Survival function Attachment represents the infant’s

chief mechanism for ensuring survival and continually active.

This continual monitoring cannot always be conscious.

The formation of an attachment to a specified individual signals a qualitative change in infant behavioral organization.

Theory building

attachment behavioral system

1. Maintenance of proximity2. Behavioral patterns having the

predictable outcome of increasing proximity between infant and caregiver are instinctively guided but environmentally influenced control system

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3. Attachment behaviors is to be activated , modulated, and terminated by changes originating in the internal or external environment (threaten separation,

actual separation, and reunion), and these changes are held responsible for the strongest emotions.

Theory building

The development of attachment

Phase of undiscriminating social response (1-2 months)

Phase of discriminating sociability (2-7 months)

Attachment: proximity-seeking phase (7-24 months)

Phase of goal-corrected partnership (24 months--)

Theory building

Internal working model

individual differences in attachment organization move to the level of representation

Representations of self, others, and the relationship

Theory building

Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) Structured, hour long, semiclinical interview Ss are asked for five adjectives to describe their

relationship to each parent during childhood and are then asked for memories that support each adjective.

Ss are asked whether they felt closer to one parent and why;

whether they had ever felt rejected; whether parents had been threatening or

abusive; why parents may have behaved as they

did; and how these experiences may have

affected the development of their personality.

Ss are also asked about any major loss experiences.

Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

Quality Be truthful and have evidence for what you say

quantity Be succinct, yet complete

relation Be relevant, or perspicacious

manner Be clear and orderly

Theory building

Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

Quality quantity relation manner

Autonomous (F) Dismissing (D) highly

positive description

Excessively

succinct Internal contradiction

Preoccupied (E) Excessively

long Providing discussions of recent interactions

Use of psychological jargon, nonsense word, childlike speech,

Unresolved (U) memories triggered by the discussion of traumatic

Theory building

Question 1:

Attachment and relationship? Attachment : behavior and internal

working model?

attachment and relationships

Strange situation

1.mother, baby and observer2.mother, baby3.stranger, mother, baby4.stranger, baby5.mother, baby6.baby7.stranger, baby8.mother, baby Mary Ainsworth

Question 2

Strange situation 測量什麼？ Attachment patterns and strange situatio

n 之間的關係

The quality of attachment

Ainsworth:The quality of attachment Questions and discussions

Secure(B) Avoidant (A) Ambivalent/preoccupied (C)

A1:highlyA2:moderate

(C1):Angry

(C2): Passive

Exploration while mother aside(secure base)

Actively explore

Explore without affect

Seek mother then proximity with angry expressionFretful return to mother frequently

Sit by mother, incompetent to approach

separation distress No distress Great distress

Respond to stranger

Can’t console by the stranger

No distress Angry toward the stranger

Fearful

reunion happy No response ambivalent

Mother-child interaction

Sensitive and responsive

rejection Unpredictable, discourage of autonomy, insensitive, highly invested in mothering

Ainsworth

Mary Main: disorganized/disoriented attachment (D)

Sequential display of contradictory behavior patterns (strong attachment behavior and then avoidant)

Simultaneous display of contradictory behavior patterns Undirected (strike parent’s face), misdirected(greeting str

anger while reunion with parent), incomplete, and interrupted movements and expressions (crying loudly while stranger leave-taking)

Stereotypies, asymmetrical movements, mistimed movements, and anomalous postures (rocking, ear- pulling)

Freezing stilling, and slowed movements and expressions

Direct indicators of apprehension regarding the parent (fear of the parent)

Direct indicators of disorganization or disorientation

Interaction: infant has been alarmed by the parent (frightening or frightened parental behavior: parental dissociated experience of loss)

Mary Ainsworth

characteristics of attachment 1.proximity seeking 2.secure base effect 3.separation protest 4. elicitation by threat 5.specificity of attachment figure 6.inaccessibility to conscious control 7.persistence 8.insensitivity to experience with the

attachment figure

attachment

attachment and relationships

(1) affectional bonds are not synonymous with relationships

relationships Affectional bonds

dyadic dyadic IndividualInternal representation

Time for maintenance

Long-lived or fleeting Long-lasting

interactions Total history of their interactions

Some components are relevant, some are not, for example, caregiving not playing with the child is relevant to attachment

provisions

(2) provisions for various relationships Mary Ainsworth

relationship provisions

attachment security

Social network Shared interpretation of experience

caregiving Being needed and giving nurturance

Colleagues, families for some people A sense of worth

kin alliance

Other guidance

attachment

Bowlby: separation and deprivation

Ainsworth: secure base

maintain proximity, distress upon inexplicable separation, pleasure or joy upon reunion, and grief at loss

Security

Exploration, separation and reunion

Theory building

Questions and discussions

Are there attachments during adult life?

What are the similarities and differences between childhood attachment and adulthood attachment?

Terms Attachment Attachment behavior Attachment patterns for : Infant and children Adult Strange situation Adult attachment interview Internal working model Representation

What is the relationships among the above terms?

See you next week