TOPIC 4

ATTACHMENT
ERIKSON’S STAGES OF EARLY PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
• Basic trust vs. mistrust: With a proper balance of trust and mistrust, infants
can acquire hope.
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt: A blend of autonomy, shame, and doubt
gives rise to will, the knowledge that within limits, youngsters can act on
their world intentionally.
• Initiative vs. guilt: Purpose is achieved with a balance between individual
initiative and a willingness to cooperate with others.
THE GROWTH OF ATTACHMENT
• Attachment to caregivers is a critical aspect of Erikson’s first stage (basic
trust vs. mistrust)
• Evolutionary psychology: many human behaviors are successful
adaptations to the environment:
➢Humans are social beings who also form parent-child attachments
➢These are adaptations promoting survival to the reproductive years,
thereby sustaining the species’ existence
STEPS TOWARD ATTACHMENT
• Bowlby proposed four stages of attachment:
➢Preattachment stage (birth to 6–8 weeks): infants rapidly learn to recognize their mothers by smell
and sound, which sets the stage for forging an attachment relationship.
➢Attachment in the making (6–8 weeks to 6–8 months): babies begin to behave differently in the
presence of familiar caregivers and unfamiliar adults. Babies smile and laugh more often with the
primary caregiver.
➢True attachment (6–8 months to 18 months): most infants have singled out the attachment figure—
usually the mother—as a special individual. The attachment figure is now the infant’s stable
socioemotional base.
➢Reciprocal relationships (18 months on): Infants’ growing cognitive and language skills and their
accumulated experience with their primary caregivers make infants better able to act as partners in
the attachment relationship.
FORMS OF ATTACHMENT
• Ainsworth’s Strange Situation paradigm:
➢Three phases (~3 minutes each)
▪ Child and mother first occupy an unfamiliar room filled with toys
▪ Mother leaves room momentarily
▪ Mother then returns to room
➢Observe child’s reactions during each phase
➢Classified 4 types of attachment
▪ Three insecure types; one secure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU
FOUR TYPES OF ATTACHMENT RELATIONSHIPS
• Secure attachment (60–65%): baby may or may not cry upon separation;
wants to be with mom upon her return and stops crying
• Avoidant attachment (20%): baby not upset by separation; ignores or looks
away when mom returns
• Resistant attachment (10–15%): separation upsets baby; remains upset
after mom’s return and is difficult to console
• Disorganized attachment (5–10%): separation and return confuse the baby;
reacts in contradictory ways (e.g., seeking proximity to the returned mom,
but not looking at her)
QUALITY OF ATTACHMENT
• Quality of attachment during infancy predicts parent-child relations during childhood,
adolescence, and young adulthood:
➢ Securely attached infants depend on their parents for care and support
➢ Infants with insecure attachment later report being angry with their parents
➢ Babies attach to their mothers and fathers, and the quality of the attachment is the same
• Mothers spend more time caregiving and are more skillful at parenting than fathers:
➢ Fathers typically spend more time playing with their babies than taking care of them
➢ Physical play is the norm for fathers; mothers spend more time reading and talking to
babies
➢ These gender differences have become smaller
CONSEQUENCES OF ATTACHMENT
• Consequences of Attachment
➢Infant–parent attachment lays the foundation for all the infant’s later social relationships
▪ Secure attachment: Prototype for later successful relationships
▪ Non-satisfying first relationship: More prone to problems in their social interactions as
preschoolers
▪ School-age children are less likely to have behavior problems if they have successful
attachment relationships
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR A CHILD TO BE
“SECURE” OR “INSECURE”?
• Securely attached infants and toddlers
➢Happier, more sociable, more cooperative
➢Use mother as secure base for exploration
➢Have fewer negative emotions toward unfamiliar people
➢Have longer attention spans, are less impulsive, are better at solving problems.
➢By age 5, are better liked by peers and teachers
WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF THE PARENTS
IN ATTACHMENT?
• High-quality care contributes to security
• Intergenerational transmission of attachment
• Parental support services may contribute to secure attachment
• Siblings develop similar attachment relationships with their mother
• Infant’s temperament and caregivers’ behavior both contribute to attachment
INVOLVEMENT OF FATHERS
• Even with societal changes, there are still qualitative and quantitative differs between
father-infant and mother-infant interactions
• What determines an infants’ attachment to their father?
➢Quality of the time the father spends with the baby
➢Affection in interactions between father and infant
ATTACHMENT, WORK, & ALTERNATE CAREGIVING
• Day care’s quality or length of stays:
➢ Early child care found no effects of the childcare experience on attachment
➢ One exception: Mothers who were less sensitive and responsive: When placed in low-
quality child care, children more likely to have an insecure attachment.
➢ Children who experience many hours of child care:
▪ more often overly aggressive; more conflicts with teachers; less self-control
▪ more likely to experience low-quality care
 Compare the infant’s
contributions to the
Activity formation of mother–infant
attachment with the
mother’s contributions.
QUALITY OF ATTACHMENT
• Quality of attachment during infancy predicts parent-child relations during childhood,
adolescence, and young adulthood:
• Securely attached infants depend on their parents for care and support
• Infants with insecure attachment later report being angry with their parents
• Babies attach to their mothers and fathers, and the quality of the attachment is the same
• Mothers spend more time caregiving and are more skillful at parenting than fathers
• Fathers typically spend more time playing with their babies than taking care of them
• Physical play is more norm for fathers; mothers spend more time reading and talking to babies
• These gender differences have become smaller
EMERGING EMOTIONS
EXPERIENCING AND EXPRESSING EMOTIONS
• Emotions have functional (adaptive) value (e.g., guiding behavior and facilitating
relationships)
• Theorists distinguish complex from basic emotions
➢ Basic emotions consist of: A subjective feeling, a physiological change, and an
overt behavior
➢ Joy, sadness, anger, fear, distress, disgust, interest, and surprise all occur in 8
to 9 months
• Studying infants’ facial expressions and overt behaviors reveals their probable
trajectory
DEVELOPMENT OF BASIC EMOTIONS
• Newborns: pleasure and distress
• 2 to 3 months: sadness
• 2 to 3 months: social smiles
➢ Occur upon seeing a human face
➢ Sometimes accompanied by cooing
➢ Express pleasure at seeing another
• 4 to 6 months: anger
➢ Reflects an increasing understanding of goals and their frustration
DEVELOPMENT OF BASIC EMOTIONS: STRANGER WARINESS
AND DISGUST
• 6 months: stranger wariness
➢ Infants tend to be less fearful of strangers when the environment is
familiar
➢ Baby's anxiety depends on the stranger's behavior
➢ Adaptive as a natural restraint against wandering away from familiar
others
EMERGENCE OF COMPLEX EMOTIONS
• Complex emotions include guilt, embarrassment, and pride:
➢ To be experienced, child first must understand the self and behavior in relation to
whether they have met standards or expectations
➢ This self-understanding emerges around 15–18 months
➢ Complex emotions emerge at 18–24 months
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
• With increasing cognitive development, children experience basic and complex
emotions in more and different situations:
➢ Regret and relief are expressed by around 5 and 6 years of age
➢ By 9 years, these emotions are being expressed appropriately (cognitive growth)
▪ Reasons for fear shift from the dark and imaginary creatures to school, health,
and personal harm
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION
• Many basic and complex emotions are expressed similarly around the world
• Expressing emotions differs across cultures:
➢ Asian children are encouraged to show emotional restraint
➢ European American 11-month-olds cried and smiled more than Chinese
infants of same age
RECOGNIZING & USING OTHERS’ EMOTIONS
• 4–6 months: differentiate among faces expressing happiness, sadness, and
fear:
• Engage in social referencing
• 14-month-olds remember earlier observed emotional reactions of parents
to particular objects
• 18-month-olds use the reactions of one adult to another adult’s behavior
to guide their own behavior
RECOGNIZING OTHERS’ EMOTIONS: FACTORS IN EMOTIONAL
UNDERSTANDING
• Factors contributing to children’s understanding of emotion
➢ Parents and children frequently discussing past emotions (especially negative
ones, such as fear and anger)
➢ Parents explaining how feelings differ and feelings’ situational elicitors
➢ Positive and rewarding relationship with parents and siblings
REGULATING EMOTIONS
• Emotion regulation: controlling what one feels and how to communicate
feeling:
➢ Dependent on cognitive processes: Attention and reappraisal
• Not all children regulate their emotions well:
➢ Those who don’t tend to have problems
i. More frequent conflicts with peers
ii. Less satisfying peer relationships
iii.Less adaptive adjustment to school
INTERACTING WITH OTHERS
THE JOYS OF PLAY
• Even two 6-month-olds look, smile, and point at each other
• 12 months: parallel play, in which children play alone but are keenly
interested in what others are doing
• 15–18 months: simple social play, in which children do similar activities and
talk or smile at each other
• 24 months: cooperative play, theme-based play where children take special
roles
MAKE-BELIEVE
• Promotes cognitive development
• Helps children explore frightening topics
• Promotes language, memory, reasoning, and understanding the thoughts, beliefs, and feelings
of others
• Culture influences
➢ India and Peru – parents do not routinely engage in pretend play with their children and
children do not begin pretend play until older
➢ The content of pretend play reflects cultural values
▪ European American children—adventure and fantasy
▪ Korean American children—family roles and everyday activities
SOLITARY PLAY
• Usually not an indicator of problems
• Can reflect uneasiness with others for which professional help should be sought if child
➢ Wanders aimlessly among others
➢ Hovers over others who are playing

Gender Differences in Play

• 24–36 months: children spontaneously prefer playing with same-sex peers
• Gender-typed play styles, such as
➢ Boys prefer rough and tumble, competition, and dominance
➢ Girls are more cooperative, prosocial, and conversation-oriented
➢ Girls are more enabling; boys are more constricting
PARENTAL INFLUENCE
• Parental involvement in child’s play can lead to later improved peer relations when
parents serve as:
i. Playmate
ii. Social director
iii. Coach
iv. Mediator
HELPING OTHERS
• Prosocial behavior: one that benefits another
• Altruism: prosocial behaviors not directly benefiting the self, but driven by
feelings of responsibility toward others
• 18 months: recognize others’ distress signals and will try to comfort them
• By 3 years: are gradually starting to understand others’ needs and learning
appropriate altruistic responses
SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES
• Feelings of responsibility
• Feelings of competence
• Mood
• Costs of altruism

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF HEREDITY

• Prosocial behavior is more similar in identical twins than fraternal ones
• Genes influence aspects of temperament related to prosocial behavior
➢ Some are aware of another’s need, but
▪ Feel so distressed that they cannot figure out how to help due to poor emotion regulation
skills
▪ Their inhibition (shyness) prevents them from helping, despite knowing how
SOCIALIZATION OF ALTRUISM
• Children are more prosocial and/or empathic when parents:
➢ Model warmth and concern for others, and are cooperative, helpful, and responsive
➢ Use reason while disciplining, stating how children’s actions affect others
➢ Provide children opportunities to behave pro-socially in and outside the home
Thank you