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Attachment Terms
Attachment key terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Reciprocity | Parent and infant respond to the other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other, like a sustained conversation. It is a two-way, mutual process involving turn-taking, from 3 months old |
| Interactional Synchrony | Mother and infant reflect / mirror both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way. Seen from two weeks. |
| Play | Quality of fathers’ play with infants (not their initial bond) is linked to quality of later attachments – therefore fathers have a different role to mothers, to be a stimulating play mate not meeting emotional needs (Grossman) |
| Responsiveness | Fathers can be effective primary caregivers (PCG). Research by Field shows PCG Fathers adopt behaviours typical of PCG mothers, e.g. smile more. So key to attachment is responsiveness of adult (e.g. smiling) not gender. |
| Stages of Attachment | A child's development phases with regards to attachment. Who they respond to the most and how they respond to strangers. A longitudinal study conducted by Schaffer and Emerson |
| Asocial stage of attachment | In the first few weeks of life babies respond in the same way to humans and objects |
| Indiscriminate attachment | After 2-6 months, babies have a preference for familiar people but show no stranger/separation anxiety |
| Specific attachment | Around 7 months, babies have particular preferences for individual people and develop stranger anxiety shortly after. |
| Multiple Attachments | Attachments to two or more people. This starts happening soon after specific attachment with one carer. For most babies they have multiple by 12 months. |
| Animal Studies | Experiments carried out on non-humans, usually because it would be unethical to study humans experimentally in some behaviours. Influenced theories of attachment with people. |
| Imprinting | Goslings follow whatever is the first large moving thing they see. Lorenz defined this. |
| Sexual imprinting | The first bond (imprinting) affects mating preferences in later life. Lorenz found this with geese. |
| Critical period (animal studies) | A key window of time in which the initial bond formed has long term impact on animals future. Geese - Imprint in the first few hours(Lorenz). Monkeys - 90 days. Affected socially and emotionally if their bond was disrupted within it (Harlow). |
| Contact comfort | Infant monkeys preferred cloth covered surrogate wire monkeys to wire monkeys that provided milk. Harlow said it was because they provided comfort. |
| Learning Theory of attachments | An approach to explaining why we form attachments that focuses on nurture - believes that children learn to associate parents with food, which is an unconditioned stimulus |
| Cupboard Love | The belief that children learn to love whoever gives them food (Dollard & Miller) |
| Classical conditioning (attachment) | UCS (food) produces UCR (feeling of pleasure). Caregiver (NS) is paired with food (UCS) and is associated with UCS. NS becomes CS, and produces pleasure (CR). |
| Operant conditioning (attachment) | Behaviours which bring the caregiver near (e.g. crying) are reinforced because produces caregiver response. Negative reinforcement – caregiver’s response also reinforced as crying stops. |
| Primary / secondary reinforcers | The association of the mother with the food (primary reinforcer) means the mother becomes reinforcing in her own right (secondary reinforcer) |
| Drive reduction | Infants are driven to reduce hunger (a primary drive). Attachment is secondary drive learned by association of caregiver with hunger satisfaction. |
| Monotropic theory | The belief that we have an innate need to form attachments and that we must form a special attachment to one caregiver in particular, within a key window of time. This bond is influential in later relationships. |
| Adaptive | Adaptive means when a trait gives a survival or reproductive advantage in a particular environment. In the context of monotropic theory, attachment gives a survival advantage |
| Social releasers | Innate 'cute' features and behaviours, which encourage attachment behaviour from parents |
| Monotropy | Special, intense bond with the mother (or ever present adult mother substitute) that is important for the development of internal working models. |
| Critical Periods (Bowlby) | This refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all (2 years / 30 months in humans) |
| Internal Working Models | The mental representations / schema of relationships, based of our attachment to our primary caregiver. These affect our future relationships because they become our expectations for what relationships are like |
| Continuity hypothesis | The belief that your initial attachment will correlate with your future adult relationships. Furthermore, that this will affect parenting style and so attachment types will continue over generations. |
| Strange Situation | A controlled observation to test attachment type devised by Ainsworth. Infants are assessed on their willingness to explore and reactions to being left alone, left with a stranger and reunion with a caregiver. Assigned as type A, B or C. |
| Willingness to explore | The extent to which an infant is comfortable using their caregiver as a secure base from which to look around their environment |
| Separation distress | Upset caused by a caregiver leaving the room |
| Stranger anxiety | Worry caused by an unknown person entering the room |
| Reunion behaviour | The actions of an infant once their caregiver returns to the room |
| Secure Attachment | Moderate separation distress; moderate separation anxiety; joy at reunion; explores freely; uses mother as secure base. Positive long term outcomes. |
| Insecure-Avoidant Attachment | Low separation distress; low stranger anxiety; little response to reunion ('avoidance' of the caregiver); explores freely but doesn't use mother as secure base. Negative long term outcomes. |
| Insecure-Resistant Attachment | High levels of separation distress; high levels of stranger anxiety; not easily comforted and 'resists' comfort at reunion; doesn't explore much; clingy and cries a lot. Negative long term outcomes. |
| Cultural Variations | The differences between nations (or groups within a nation) in relation to a particular thing, e.g. Van Ijzendoorn looked at differences in rates of attachment types |
| Meta-analysis | A study which compiles all of the research using the same or similar methodology, e.g. Van Ijzendoorn analysed 32 studies to identify cultural variations in attachment type |
| Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis | Bowlby's theory that loss of a primary caregiver in the critical period would have negative consequences for a child's future emotional and intellectual development |
| Maternal deprivation | Loss of emotional care from mother during the critical period |
| Critical period (Maternal deprivation) | A key window of time (2 years / 30 months). Disruption to bond within this will have inevitable negative effects. Bowlby said the first 5 years mattered too. |
| Law of accumulated separation | Many periods of separation can add up to be deprivation with the associated negative effects. |
| Affectionless psychopathy | A condition caused by maternal deprivation, according to Bowlby, which is characterised by a lack of empathy or guilt |
| Institutionalisation | The effects of living in a an orphanage or children's home (e.g. orphanage, hospital) for a long time with insufficient emotional care |
| Orphan studies | These concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them |
| Disinhibited attachment | An effect of institutionalisation identified by Rutter et al. An attachment disorder characterised by lack of inhibition around strangers. Often seen in children who have experienced neglect and abuse. |
| Disorganised attachment | An effect of institutionalisation identified by Zeanah et al. An attachment disorder where infants display behaviours of different attachment types. Often seen in children who have experienced neglect and abuse. |
| Childhood relationships | Research on influence of infant bond on childhood interactions, i.e. bullying and friendships. Securely attached infants tend to have better friendships in childhood and not be involved in bullying, unlike insecure attachment. |
| Adult relationships | Research on influence of infant bond on adult relationships, particularly romantic relationships and parenting. It seems secure attachment in infancy is correlated with better later relationships, unlike insecure attachment. |
| Temperament hypothesis | Criticises the continuity hypothesis by suggesting that infants are born with an innate personality - which explains the correlation between initial attachment and adult relationships (Kagan) |
| Socially sensitive | When research findings have implications for certain groups. E.g. attachment research implies an appropriate way to raise children and alternatives disadvantage them, which pressures parents, especially women, to make choices such as saying at home. |
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Bellamyt
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