Attachment Theory: Understanding the Importance of Early Childhood Bonding, Slides of Philosophy of Love

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Attachment and

Parenting Styles

Infant Signals

• Crying, smiling, reaching, clinging,

bicycling with legs, looking at

caregiver

• Babies don’t know the difference

between a want and a need

• Babies could get addicted in 6

weeks to something an adult could

get addicted to in 6 months

Attachment Theory

• A psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans.
• Most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development.
• Formulated by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby.

Attachment Theories: Maternal Deprivation

• Harry Harlow (1905-1981): an American psychologist best known for his Surrogate Mother Experiment (1950’s) on maternal-separation , dependency needs , and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which manifested the importance of caregiving and companionship to social and cognitive development.
• Harlow's experiments were controversial (could NOT be done today!!) - included creating inanimate surrogate mothers for the rhesus infants from wire and wool

Harlow’s

Surrogate Mother

Experiments:

Findings

• Monkeys preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother, even while feeding from the nourishing wire mother
• Monkeys raised by artificial mothers were terror-stricken when placed in strange situations without their surrogate mothers.
• Harlow concluded that the findings he documented could be used to explain attachment in human infants

Attachment

Theories:

Imprinting

• Konrad Lorenz (1937): investigated the mechanisms of imprinting , where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.
• This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
• Involved:
• Critical Period
• Do humans have critical periods?
• Do Children Imprint?

3 Elements of

Attachment

- Body Contact- Harlow’s experiments with Monkey’s. Still true as adults - Familiarity - Imprinting (humans do not imprint, but we have a preference for people places we know - Responsiveness - Parenting Styles

Types of Attachment:

Mary Ainsworth’s

Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth (1931-1999): an American-Canadian developmental psychologist known for her work in the development of the attachment theory.

• designed the strange situation procedure to observe early emotional attachment between a child and its primary caregiver.

Video of her “Strange Situation” experiment URL: https://youtu.be/QTsewNrHUHU

Secure Resistant Avoidant

Separation Anxiety Distressed when mother leaves Intense distress when the mother leaves

No sign of distress when the the mother leaves

Stranger Anxiety Avoidant of stranger when alone, but friendly when the mother is present

The infant avoids the stranger - shows fear of the stranger

The infant is okay with the stranger and plays normally when the stranger is present

Reunion Behaviour Positive and happy when mother returns

The infant approaches the mother, but resists contact, may even push her away

The Infant shows little interest when the mother returns

Other Uses the mother as a safe base to explore their environment

The infant cries more and explores less than the other two types

The mother and stranger are able to comfort the infant equally well

% of infants 70% 15% 15%

Attachment Cycles of Secure and

Insecure Infants

Deprivation of Attachment

• Romanian Orphanages-emotional scars
• Most abusive parents report also being abused (although not all abused become abusive)
• Criminal Behavior-only 2 of the 14 waiting execution for criminal behavior did not have histories of brutal physical abuse
• Leaves physical scars on the brain

URL: https://youtu.be/VCeWr8OFuEs

Signs and Symptoms of

Attachment Disorder

• Inappropriately demanding or clinging
• Poor impulse control
• Superficially engaging, and charming child
• Has abnormal speech patterns
• Experiences developmental lags
• Poor Eye Contact
• Food Issues
• Touch Issues
• Poor peer relationships

Mild Severe

• Indiscriminately affectionate with strangers
• Destruction of self, others, things
• Infantile Rage
• Cruel to animals, siblings
• Stealing or lying
• Lacks a conscience
• Lacks cause and effect thinking
• Control battles
• Has a preoccupation with fire, blood or gore

Parenting Styles -^ Parenting Style : a psychological construct representing standard strategies that parents use in their child rearing.

• The quality of parenting can be more essential than the quantity of time spent with the child.
• Four Types:
  • Authoritarian
  • Permissive
  • Authoritative
  • Uninvolved/Neglectful

YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW ALL THE DETAILS! JUST THE GENERAL TRENDS!

Take A Parenting

Style Quiz!

Take one of the quizzes below to determine what type of parent you could become! PsychCentral

• Parenting Style Quiz
• Shorter; not as detailed
• URL (if using pdf): https://psychcentral.com/quizzes/pare nting-style-quiz/ Psychology Today
• Parenting Style Test
• Longer; more detailed
• URL (if using pdf): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/t ests/personality/parenting-style-test