ATTACHMENT THEORY

CHAIR: MERCY JOY SEBASTIAN

PRESENTER: SREYA MARIYAM SALIM
 Theory by John Bowlby
 Animal research
 Measuring attachment
 Attachment and childcare
 Attachment beyond infancy
 Clinical implications
 References
 Attachment is the strong, affectionate tie we have with
special people in our lives that leads us to experience
pleasure and joy when we interact with them and to be
comforted by their nearness in times of stress.
 Psychoanalytic theory according to
Freud (1926), attributed
attachment to satisfaction of
child’s instinctual drives by
mother.
 Mother is a provider of food and
foundational figure.
 Learning theory (Watson & Raynor,
1920) also perceived the mother-
infant bond to develop as a result
of the pairing of the mother’s
presence with need satisfaction.
Secondary drive hypothesis
 According to Dollard & Miller (1950) attachment is a learned behaviour that is
acquired through both classical and operant conditioning.
 When the infant is being fed, the infant associates the person providing the
food with the food.
The primary caregiver is the neutral stimulus, which becomes associated with
food (the unconditioned stimulus). When the attachment has been learned,
the infant gains pleasure when the primary caregiver is present.
The primary caregiver is now the conditioned stimulus and pleasure is now
the conditioned response.
 When an infant is hungry it is in an uncomfortable state. Relieving the
uncomfortable state will make the infant more comfortable, and so anything it
does to make itself more comfortable will be learned through negative
reinforcement.
 Primary drives which are essential for survival, such as eating when hungry,
become associated with secondary drives such as emotional closeness.
 They extended the theory to explain that attachment is a two way process that
the caregiver must also learn, and this occurs through negative reinforcement
when the caregiver feels pleasure because the infant is no longer distressed.
 CRITIQUE TO LEARNING THEORY OF ATTACHMENT
 Food may not be the main reinforcement.
 Many infants bond to caregivers other than their mothers.
 Extremely reductionist.
 Infants need food only a few times a day, but need emotional closeness
throughout.
 JOHN BOWLBY
 British child psychiatrist and
psychoanalyst.
 First attachment theorist.
 Most widely accepted view.
 Influenced by psychoanalytic ideas,
evolution, ethology
 His original theory was refined several
times.
 “Attachment is the lasting
psychological connectedness
between human beings.”
 Bowlby believed that the earliest
bonds formed by children with their
caregivers have tremendous impact
that continues throughout life.
 Attachment keeps infant close to
mother, thus improving chances of
survival.
 Retained psychoanalyst idea that quality of attachment to caregiver
has profound impact on child, but also said that feeding is not the
basis for attachment.

 Caregiver satisfies not only the physiological and psychological

needs of child, forming a safe base.

 When child feels threatened during exploration of the world,

he/she returns to this safe base.
 MONOTROPISM: idea that most infants become more
attached to mother/one primary caregiver.
 Separation from the primary caregiver may have serious
consequences on the child.
 PROXIMITY SEEKING
A set of typical behaviours exhibited by children to draw
attention of primary caregiver with the goal of restoring
proximity.
Eg: cry for attention, call out, cling…
 SEPERATION PROTEST
 Set of behaviours displayed by infant as a form of protest
against caregiver’s departure.
 STRANGER ANXIETY
 Fear of the infant when encountering an unfamiliar
person.
 CRITICAL PERIOD
 Time period that was thought to be critical for the
formation and development of any attachment
relationship.
 Six months to three years of age.
 It is difficult for attachment to be formed beyond that .
STAGES OF ATTACHMENT-
MATERNAL DEPRIVATION HYPOTHESIS

 Due to prolonged bouts of detachment from mother

figure, there will be serious deleterious outcomes.
 Delinquency, reduced intelligence, depression
 Based on studies on institutionalised children.
 Attempts to salvage the child are likely to be futile
beyond two and half years.
Animal research
 Ethological studies by Konrad Lorenz
 Imprinting: a process in which new-
borns of most speices will recognise
and seek proximity with the first
object they encounter following
activation of a trigger during a critical
period after birth.
 On animate/inanimate object.
 Re-imprinting is not possible.
 An adaptive process.
 Bowlby could draw support for his theory from imprinting.
 Similar to behaviour in human infants pertaining to
proximity seeking.
 Critical period applicable varies across species.
EXPERIMENT ON RHESUS MONKEYS BY HARLOW AND
ZIMMERMAN (1959)

 Infant monkeys used cloth as a

mothering figure, though wire
mesh provided food.
 Attachment is much more than
bare essentials of nourishment.
 Lack of real attachment figure
caused the monkeys to be
withdrawn as adolescents,
suggesting serious psychological
damage.
Critique of Bowlby’s theory

 Reversibility of effects of isolation proven in monkeys, rodents.

Hence, Bowlby replaced critical period with sensitive period.
SENSITIVE PERIOD: the timeframe that is most conducive to forming strong
attachment compared to other times in child’s life.
 Later studies on institutionalised children- many children settled well into
family life.
 Monotropism and stranger anxiety- questionable
 Many children have more than one primary caregiver.
 In one-third children, strongest tie is with someone other than mother.
 1 to 2 year old children can form new relationships with others.
Contributions of Rutter

 Michael Rutter (1981) disagreed with Bowlby.

 He studied a group of adolescent boys to see if there was a relationship
between delinquent and anti-social behaviour and early separation due to
hospitalisation and also due to family problems.
 He found that when such children returned to a stable environment, they
would settle down and become less inclined to anti-social behaviour. While
Rutter concluded that family arguments and unsettled family circumstances
were the causes of anti-social behaviour, he argued that Bowlby was wrong
to relate his work to Harlow’s studies with monkeys because firstly, Harlow
had conducted privation studies, (lack of mother) while Bowlby had
conducted deprivation studies (losing of mother), and also that Harlow used
an experimental method, while Bowlby used an observational method.
MEASURING ATTACHMENT- Mary
Ainsworth
 New research focuses on how strong
relation is, rather than if relation was
formed.
 Work by Mary Ainsworth.
STRANGE SITUATION EXPERIMENT
 ATTACHMENT SECURITY: readiness of the infant to use caregiver to derive a
sense of security

 STRANGE SITUATION: A seven part staged procedure to observe the

behaviours and interactions between the caregiver and child in a lab setting.

 ATTACHMENT TYPES: Patterns of behaviour observed in strange situation

denoting differing security of attachment to caregiver as a safe base.
Attachment types during strange
situation experiment
Critique of strange situation experiment

 Child could exhibit different attachment behaviours with

different people.
 Child may have been exposed to adults other than the
primary caregiver. Hence, ‘strange’ episodes are not as
stressful as thought.
 Variations with cultural norms
 Independence or insecurity?
 Only overt behaviour can be taken into account, since
study is conducted on pre-linguistic children.
ATTACHMENT AND CHILDCARE

 MOTHER
 FATHER
 DAYCARE
The mother

 Most often the primary caregiver.

 MATERNAL SENSITIVITY: Emotional sensitivity on part of
the mother to recognise infant’s cues and respond to them
promptly.
 Secure attachment is associated with maternal sensitivity.
 Mothers who at times act in rejecting manner and at
other times overstimulate children cause insecure-
avoidant attachment.
 Sometimes unresponsive and sometimes overbearing
mothers- insecure-resistant.
 Inadequate care- disorganised attachment.
 Depression in mother may lead to negative emotions in
child, externalised as somatic symptoms.
 Relation between maternal sensitivity and attachment
security is not direct and causal.
 Cross-cultural variations.
Work by Elizabeth Meins

 MIND-MINDEDNESS: Ability of the parent

to see and treat child as an individual
with his/her own thoughts and feelings,
using talk to refer to mental states.
 More secure attachment and cognitive
behavioural traits.
 Work by Elizabeth Meins
 Predicts attachment security better than
maternal sensitivity.
The father

 Role of father in childcare emphasised since 1990s.

 Similar to role of mother in attachment security, but
differences in the quality of attachment.
 Different factors predict maternal and paternal
attachment.
 Play sensitivity predicts paternal
attachment.
 PLAY SENSITIVITY: responsiveness to
infant during play through
cooperation and motivation, by
accepting child’s initiatives,
responding to emotional expressions
and adapting the play to cognitive
capability.
Impact of day care

 Much debated and discussed.

 Concerns about institutionalisation
raised by Bowlby.
 Later studies showed association
between high-quality day care and
attachment security.
 Closer carer-child relationships can
buffer against insecure attachment with
mothers.
ATTACHMENT BEYOND INFANCY

 Cross-generational factors: mother’s attachment during

childhood can have a bearing on her parental capacity,
and in turn the child’s future parental capacity.
Internal working model

 Through the relationships that

child has with caregivers, he/she
builds up expectations about self,
others and relationships.
 Child is able to internally
represent relationships.
 Signifies a cognitive side to
attachment, beyond its emotional
and behavioural side.
 Warm, attentive caregivers- secure attachment in child
 Cold, rejecting caregivers- avoidant attachment
 Inconsistent, unpredictable caregivers- resistant
attachment.
 Disturbed or distorted caregiving- unable to organise a
coherent set of actions or expectations towards caregiver-
disorganised attachment.
Attachment in later childhood and
adolescence
 Studies by Mary Main and colleagues on pre school and
early school children based on strange situation
experiment and other scales.
 Secure attachment promotes emotional coherence and
openness, better social play, good relationships.
 Insecure attachment –
 Irrational, negative answers
 Less engagement in social activities
 Less expectations in relationships
 Attachment security in infancy can predict development
well into future.
 But, there are exceptions.
Adulthood and intergenerational cycle

 Adult Attachment interview-by Mary

Main semistructured interview to
measure how an adult is able to
integrate memories of her earliest
relationships with her caregivers into
her present state of mind concerning
relationships.

 More about ‘how’ the recall is, rather

than ‘what’
 Supported by longitudinal studies based on strange
situation experiment.
 Changes according to differences in family circumstances,
life events etc.
 Attachment organisation and stable home life - predictors
of later health, well being and personality.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF ATTACHMENT
THEORY
 ATTACHMENT DISORDERS
 FOSTER CARE AND ADOPTION
 INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE
 ATTACHMENT BASED INTERVENTIONS.
 DIVORCE AND CHILD CUSTODY
 ATTACHMENT BASED INTERVENTIONS
 RELATIONSHIP WITH PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Attachment disorders

 REACTIVE ATTACHMENT  DISINHIBITED SOCIAL

DISORDER ENGAGEMENT DISORDER
 Minimal response/seeking  Approaches and interacts
comfort when distressed. with strangers. Overly
 Minimal social and familiar.
emotional responsiveness.  h/o unstable attachment
 Irritable, sad, fearful with with primary caregiver.
caregivers.
 Attachment disorders have been seen to remit when caregiving conditions
improve.
 No straightforward relation with attachment type.
Foster care and adoption
 Limited or no attachment seen in one
third children.
 Improved attachment with good care
from foster parents.
 Children placed prior to 10 months age-
more likely to be attached to foster
parents.
 Adoptive parents who are secure
according to AAI- more lilkely to form
secure relation with adopted children.
 Interventions needed to improve parents’
reflective capacities.
Divorce and child custody
 Principles of attachment
theory can help make child
custody decisions.
 Separations like overnight
visits one parent in children
younger than 3 years to may
harm primary attachment.
 Best if both parents are
present at the time of visit.
 Transitional object, following
routine- can make the child
more comfortable.
Intimate partner violence

 Risk for disorganised attachment.

 Role- reversed relationship disturbance.
(child worried about caregiver)
 Clinician should ensure safety of child.
 Attachment based interventions.
Attachment based interventions

 Child parent psychotherapy

 For traumatized families with children
younger than 5.
 Unstructured sessions with theme
decided largely by parent.
 To improve emotional communication
between parent and child.
 Video based interventions to
promote positive parenting(VIPP)
 Home based.
 To promote maternal sensitivity using
video of child and parent, written
material etc.
 Circle of security
 group
psychotherapy
 Using video reviews.
 Educate caregivers
about subtle
behaviours,
attachment needs.
 Attachment and Biobehavioural Catch-up (ABC)
 Carefully selected videotaped examples from interactions used to
address challenges.
 Used in foster care
Relation with psychopathology
 Attachment insecurity is the main cause of separation
anxiety and pathological grief.
 Attachment insecurities are associated with
 Depression
 Anxiety
 OCD
 PTSD
 Suicidal tendencies
 Eating disorders
 Personality disorders
 Bio psychosocial factors converge with or amplify the
effects of attachment experiences, leading to
psychopathology.
 Psychological problems can increase attachment
insecurity.
 Interactions with attachment figures trigger positive
emotions and provide psychological resources for
dealing with adversities.
 Secure individuals cope better.
 SECURITY PRIMING: subliminal pictures, names, guided
imagery suggesting attachment figure availability.
 Improves mood even in threatening contexts.
 Mitigated cognitive symptoms of PTSD.
Attachment- nature or nurture?
 Bowlby- innate tendency
 Supported by neuroimaging.
 Oxytocin- social and spatial memories, affiliative
behaviour, emotional regulation, physical proximity,
nurturance
Dopamine- motivated behaviour
 Also influenced by environment- stress during pregnancy,
early experinces, cultural variations…
 Hence, not every characteristic of attachment is innate,
even if we say that the tendency to bond to caregiver
per se is innate.
REFERENCES

 Developmental psychology(Rachel Gillibrand, Virginia Lam, Victoria L’O

Donnel)- 2nd edition; Chapter 9
 Child Development (Laura. E. Berk)- 9th edition; chapter 10
 Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry- 10th edition; Chapter 6
 Zeanah CH, Berlin LJ, Boris NW. Practitioner review: clinical applications of
attachment theory and research for infants and young children. J Child Psychol
Psychiatry. 2011 Aug;52(8):819-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02399.x.
Epub 2011 May 9. PMID: 21554304; PMCID: PMC3670111.
 Mikulincer M, Shaver PR. An attachment perspective on psychopathology.
World Psychiatry. 2012 Feb;11(1):11-5. doi: 10.1016/j.wpsyc.2012.01.003.
PMID: 22294997; PMCID: PMC3266769.