Developmental Psychology Emotional Development & Attachment PDF

**Developmental Psychology Lecture Four - Emotional Development and attachment \ - Psychoanalytical approach - feeding - Behaviourist approach - feeding - Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) - comfort \- Study with monkeys - comfort preferred over food **Bowlby's ethological theory** - Evo...

**Developmental Psychology Lecture Four - Emotional Development and attachment \ - Psychoanalytical approach - feeding - Behaviourist approach - feeding - Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) - comfort \- Study with monkeys - comfort preferred over food **Bowlby's ethological theory** - Evolved response that promotes survival - Built-in behaviours to keep parent nearby - Implications for feelings of security and ability to establish trusting relationships - Inner representation of attachment figure forms an internal working model for future relationships **Four stages** \- Pre-attachment (birth to 6 weeks) \- Built in signals promote closeness \- 'Attachment in the making' (6 weeks to 6-8 months) \- Respond differently to stranger \- 'Clear cut' attachment (6-8 months to 18-24 months) \- Separation anxiety \- Reciprocal relationship (18-24 months onwards) \- Anxiety reduces \- Understand factors influencing parents' presence and can influence this (e.g. language) **Measuring attachment** **Ainsworth's strange situation** - Looking at reaction to reunion with caregiver - Attachment patterns \- Secure (∼ 65%) - parent as base, upset when separated, seek contact on reunion \- Avoidant (∼ 20%) - unresponsive to parent, not upset when separated, avoid parent on reunion \- Resistant (∼ 10/15%) - clingy, upset on separation, difficult to comfort on reunion \- Disorganised (∼ 5/10%) - confused contradictory behaviours on reunion **Factors affecting attachment** - Culture - Attachment opportunity - Infant characteristics - Parent's internal working model \- Adult attachment interview **Cultural variation** - German infants have higher percentage of infants with avoidant attachment than American infants \- Possible cultural differences in how much babies are encouraged to be non-clingy and independent - Infants of certain cultures show almost no avoidant attachment **Attachment opportunity** **Observations of institutionalised infants** - Spitz (1945, 1946) \- 1 nurse looking after 7 babies \- Babies became depressed - emotional difficulties \- Attachment prevented - no bond formed - Tizard and Rees (1975) \- More caregivers per child \- But high staff turnover so attachment prevented \- Children adopted after 4 years of age \- Secure attachment possible even at 4-6 years \- But emotional/social problems more likely **Infant characteristics** - Do 'difficult' babies develop insecure attachments? - Some evidence suggests a link, but appropriate and sensitive caregiving can override impact - Parental difficulties more likely to cause problems than temperament of infant - Maternal problems = ∼49% secure attachment and ∼51% insecure attachment - Child problems = ∼65% secure attachment and ∼35% insecure attachment - Normal samples = ∼68% secure attachment and ∼32% insecure attachment **Parents' internal working model** - Adult attachment interview (George, Kaplan, and Maine, 1985) - Parent's memories of own childhood - Not experience per se, but how one perceives it and reasons about it **Autonomous** - Objective, balanced, coherent - Infant attachment - secure **Dismissing** - Devalue importance of own attachment, little emotion - Infant attachment - avoidant **Overinvolved** - Overly emotional, confused, overwhelmed - Infant attachment - resistant **Unresolved** - Mixture of other 3, plus disorganised reasoning re - parental loss or abuse - Infant attachment- disorganised **Long term consequences** - Secure attachment \- Tends to be associated with better social skills, closer friendships - Avoidant attachment \- Tends to be associated with higher risk of isolation and disconnected behaviour - Resistant attachment \- Tends to be associated with higher risk of disruptive and difficult behaviour - Disorganised attachment \- Associated with higher risk of several adverse long-term outcomes - But these are imposed categories, and these issues are complex and multidimensional