Developmental Psychology - PSGY1013 PDF

Attachment PSGY1013 Developmental Psychology Dr. Shue Ling Chong Overview Learning Objectives By the end of this lecture you should be able to: Understand the importance of attachment. Describe the development of attachment (according to Bowlby). Outline the ways that attachment can...

Attachment PSGY1013 Developmental Psychology Dr. Shue Ling Chong Overview Learning Objectives By the end of this lecture you should be able to: Understand the importance of attachment. Describe the development of attachment (according to Bowlby). Outline the ways that attachment can be measured and categorized. Evaluate the evidence which supports / refutes Attachment Theory.  Key Terms Attachment is the bond that an infant forms with their primary caregiver. It is characterized by proximity and feelings of being comforted and content. This bond can take different forms – these are called attachment styles. Which attachment style a child has is examined by looking at their responses to different situations – these are called attachment behaviours. The importance of attachment An evolutionary perspective.  Human attachment & evolution Humans are born into the world in an extremely vulnerable, defenceless state. This is thanks to our species’ large brain size – human babies are born long before their brain development is complete: Need for intensive, proximal care during early childhood. A LONG childhood period. 12 years until puberty. Continuing brain development even at 25 years of age. Hrdy, S. B. (1946). Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. London: Belknap. Keller, H. (2013). Attachment and culture, J of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(2), 175- 194.  Brain / Body Proportions Time until sexual maturity: Gorilla: 7-8 years (17.5% – 20% of lifetime). Baboon: 5-8 years (16% - 27% of lifetime). Lemurs: 20 months (16% - 25% of lifetime). In brain mass (g) Humans: 13 – 17 years (32% - 43% of lifetime). As brain/body proportion increases, so does the time taken until sexual maturity. In body mass (g) Later sexual maturity = elongated childhood = more care by adults. Smaers, J. B. et al. (2021). The evolution of mammalian brain size. Science Advances. Doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe2101  Human attachment in Context It takes a village… for a human baby to grow into adulthood. In our evolutionary history, not only biological parents, but also other family members have cared for a growing human infant. Today, we institutionalised non-parental care in nurseries and schools. This creates a need for the infant to bond with adults who are in a position to care for them.  The need for attachment to primary carer.  Motivation to be ‘likeable’ to all potential carers. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory John Bowlby John Bowlby, was a British psychologist, who became known as the founder of the Attachment Theory in 1950s. Great contrast to the psychoanalytic views of the time, which based mother-child relationship on mothers fulfilling the child’s primary needs. Influenced by empirical findings that there is an evolutionarily-ancient urge in animals to bond with a caregiver – and that this is not simply because the infants need feeding! Origins of attachment theory WIRE- VS CLOTH-MOTHER ETHOLOGY STUDIES OF IMPRINTING EXPERIMENTS WITH MONKEYS AND “CRITICAL PERIOD” (LORENZ, 1952) (HARLOW, 1958)  Development of attachment Five phases of attachment development: 1. First few months: Orienting towards people indiscriminately. 2. 5 – 7 months of age: Orienting and preferentially engaging with (e.g., smiling) the caregiver. 3. 7 – 9 months of age: Going (e.g., crawling) to the caregiver, and expressing distress (e.g., crying) when separated from them. This is the onset of attachment! 4. 2 – 3 years of age: Goal-corrected partnership, whereby the child also accommodates the caregiver’s needs (e.g., waits until their return). 5. 4 years of age onwards: Switch from physical proximity to the more abstract emotional closeness. Smith, P. K. (2015). Understanding Children’s Development, Part III Chapter 4. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.  Attachment has Lifelong significance Bowlby thought that initial attachment with the mother (or other caregiver) would create an ‘internal working model of attachment’ – a cognitive prototype influencing a person’s perception of and our reactions to other relationships. “a blueprint of the world in which the self and significant others, and their interrelationships, are represented, and which encodes the particular pattern of attachment peculiar to that individual.” Bowlby’s views on the stability of attachment follow very much from Freud’s psychoanalytic ideas on how early childhood experiences determine their future. In contrast, a revisionist perspective suggests that early attachment representations can be revised in face of new life experiences (Lewis, 1997). Holmes, J. (2014). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. New York: Routledge. Lewis, M. (1997). Altering fate: Why the past does not predict the future. New York: Guilford.  Evidence for Lifelong significance A meta-analysis of 27 samples (N = 1410 participants). Ages 12 months to 21 years. Attachment style at 12 months does indeed predict attachment later in life. But this effect diminishes with age! Fraley, C. R. (2002). Attachment Stability From Infancy to Adulthood: Meta-Analysis and Dynamic Modelling of Developmental Mechanisms, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6(2), 123-151. Ainsworth’s Attachment Styles  Mary Ainsworth Mary Ainsworth was an American-Canadian psychologist, who worked with Bowlby. She did detailed, longitudinal observations of mother-infant interactions in Uganda and Baltimore, USA. Ainsworth and Bowlby defined 3 attachment types. Through her observations, Ainsworth created a catalogue of attachment behaviours. In 1985, a fourth attachment type was added. Ainsworth designed the Strange Situation Procedure still used today as the gold standard method of assessing attachment. Smith, P. K. (2015). Understanding Children’s Development, Part III Chapter 4. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.  Measuring attachment styles: Strange Situation Procedure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRejV6f-Y3c&feature=emb_logo  Attachment styles Type Baby when separated Baby at reunion Type A Not distressed due to Ignores, turns away, averts (Dismissive/Avoidant): being alone gaze Type B May be distressed, but Actively seeks proximity, What happens?? (Secure): recovers fairly quickly interacts Type C May be distressed or Seeks proximity but then (Anxious/Ambivalent): oblivious to being alone resists interaction Type D No obvious pattern to the baby’s behaviour. (Disorganised): Inconsistent or bizarre responses that vary over time. Smith, P. K. (2015). Understanding Children’s Development, Part III Chapter 4. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Excerpt from Smith, Cowie and Blades (2015) The primary ones are type A (Avoidant), type B (Secure), type C (Ambivalent), type D (Disorganized): Smith, P.K., Cowie, H., Blades, M. (2015). Understanding Children's Development (6th ed.). John Willey & Sons Ltd.  The universality hypothesis: When given an Testing Key principles opportunity, most infants will become attached to at of attachment Theory least one specific caregiver. The normativity hypothesis: Most infants are securely attached in contexts that are not inherently threatening to human health and survival. The sensitivity hypothesis: Attachment security depends on sensitive and prompt responses to the infant’s signals. The competence hypothesis: Secure attachment leads to positive child outcomes.  Universality and Normativity of Attachment Reasons for cultural differences: Western middle-class assumption that sign of healthy maturity is individual autonomy. Differences in socialisation goals, e.g., society’s approach to strangers and consequent stranger anxiety. Wide variety in caregiving arrangements. Keller, H. (2013). Attachment and culture, J of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(2), 175-194.  Cultural Stability Supported Hypotheses of Attachment Theory U - Universality N - Normativity ◼ Yes  No S - Sensitivity Indirect / Partial C - Competence Universality hypothesis (i.e., that infants have an attachment figure) holds true in all examined cultures! Normativity hypothesis (i.e., that most infants are securely attached) holds true in most cultures. Mesman, J., van Ijzerdoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwartz, A.. (2016). Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment: Universal and Contextual Dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (3rd ed., pp. 852–877). New York, NY: Guilford. Testing Key The universality hypothesis: When given an Hypotheses of opportunity, most infants will become attached to at Attachment Theory least one specific caregiver. The normativity hypothesis: Most infants are securely attached in contexts that are not inherently threatening to human health and survival. The sensitivity hypothesis: Attachment security depends on sensitive and prompt responses to the infant’s signals. The competence hypothesis: Secure attachment leads to positive child outcomes.  Thinking critically… What is maternal responsivity? How can we deem a behaviour “responsive” vs “unresponsive” or assign a “responsivity rating” to it? “The optimally sensitive mother is able to see things from her baby’s point of view. She is alert to perceive her baby’s signals, interprets them accurately, and responds appropriately and promptly... temporally contingent upon the baby’s signals” (Ainsworth et al., 1978, p. 142) George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1996). Adult Attachment Interview. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley (3rd edition).  Sensitivity Supported Hypotheses of Attachment Theory U - Universality N - Normativity ◼ Yes  No S - Sensitivity Indirect / Partial C - Competence Varied support for sensitivity (i.e., that parental responsiveness determines attachment) and competence (i.e., that attachment has long-term impact on development) hypotheses. Definition of sensitivity is critical – culture-specific behaviours and engagement styles must be considered. Mesman, J., van Ijzerdoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwartz, A.. (2016). Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment: Universal and Contextual Dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (3rd ed., pp. 852–877). New York, NY: Guilford. Testing Key The universality hypothesis: When given an Hypotheses of opportunity, most infants will become attached to Attachment Theory at least one specific caregiver. The normativity hypothesis: Most infants are securely attached in contexts that are not inherently threatening to human health and survival. The sensitivity hypothesis: Attachment security depends on sensitive and prompt responses to the infant’s signals. The competence hypothesis: Secure attachment leads to positive child outcomes.  Positive outcomes of Attachment Longitudinal studies following up participants from infancy into childhood have found that secure attachment at infancy is associated with: More curiosity and problem solving at age 2 (Oppenheim et al., 1988) Social confidence at age 3 and empathy at age 5 (Oppenheim et al., 1988) Fewer internalising and externalising behaviours at age 3 (McCartney et al., 2004) Social competence, internalising and externalising behaviours similarly in males vs females and high/middle SES vs low-SES children (Groh et al., 2017). Smith, P. K. (2015). Understanding Children’s Development, Part III Chapter 4. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.  Limits of our knowledge Despite the global scope of this research, cross-cultural evidence is scarce. … the current cross-cultural database is almost absurdly small compared to the domain that should be covered. Data on attachment in a populous country such as India and most Islamic countries are still lacking, and large parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are uncharted territories with respect to the development of attachment. Mesman, J., van Ijzerdoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwartz, A.. (2016). Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment: Universal and Contextual Dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (3rd ed., pp. 852–877). New York, NY: Guilford. Summary There are strong evolutionary reasons for humans’ inborn urge to form attachment with carers. Bowlby and Ainsworth are key figures in attachment theory. Their attachment theory posits: 4 key hypotheses: universality, normativity, sensitivity, competence 4 attachment types: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganised Attachment theory is largely supported by empirical data, though more cross-cultural research is needed. Secure attachment positively predicts various developmental outcomes, but this effect wanes towards adulthood. Sign up for Seminar Starting Nov 25 Psychology students sign up via Moodle page