Transcript ATTACHMENT - Catherine Shafer

ATTACHMENT
History and discussion
Attachment:
• “A highly individualized relationship that forms
between parents and their child. It is based on
a biological bond between child and parent
that is as basic a need as is food or warmth. It
is affected by many factors, such as parental
emotional and physical health, an infant’s
temperament, and family’s social support
network.” (Shafer, 2004, p. 17)
Aspects of attachment
• INTERNAL
WORKING
MODELS
• Inner sense-making
mechanisms
• Based on parental
response
• Basis of future
behavioral and
emotional interactions
Aspects of Attachment
• SECURE BASE
• Parents are the secure
base from which an
infant or child feels the
safety necessary to
explore their world
• Coined by Mary
Ainsworth
The following slides show:
• Several studies or experiences that suggest
the importance of early socialization and
attachment for children, especially with their
parents and families.
King Frederick II of Germany
• 1200s—king
removed newborns
from mothers to
determine instinctive
language
• No touching or
caressing, only
feeding and dressing
• RESULT???
EUGENICS MOVEMENT
• First 6 decades of the
20th century – cleansing
of the human race.
• Human race should have
Scandinavian features
• Those who were
considered inferior were
sterilized
• Children who were
disabled were considered
inferior
Arnold Gesell, 1880—1961
• A proponent of the Eugenics
movement
• Let children grow to at least
age 2 before adoptable
• Match characteristics with
adoptive parents
• Until, change caregivers
every 6 months
• No attachment bonds able to
continue and grow
Dr. Rene Spitz and his film
• 1945 study involving human
infants who were separated
from mothers early in life for
one reason or another . . .
• Some raised in foster care;
others in orphanage
• Made film called “Grief: A
Peril in Infancy”
• Children shown hauntingly
depressed, forlorn wails,
sunken eyes
• “Give mother back to baby.”
Dr. Loretta Bender
• Child psychiatrist at Bellevue in the
30s and 40s.
• Wrote of Angel Guardian Home:
“They have no play pattern, cannot
enter into group play but abuse
other children, and cling to adults
and exhibit a temper tantrum when
cooperation is expected. They are
hyperkinetic and distractible, they
are completely confused about
human relationships, and lose
themselves in a destructive
fantasy life directed both against
the world and themselves.”
John Watson, 1878--1958
• Belief that affection spoils children:
• “Treat them as though they were
young adults. Dress them, bathe
them with care and circumspection.
Let your behavior always be
objective and kindly firm. Never hug
or kiss them, never let them sit on
your lap. If you must, kiss them
once on the forehead when they
say goodnight. Shake hands with
them in the morning. Give them a
pat on the head if they have made
an extraordinarily good job of a
difficult task . . . “
Sigmund Freud’s take on
Attachment ….
• A baby’s love for his
mother is based on
being fed: he loves
her because she has
breasts. After the
child is weaned, he
becomes narcissistic
and then Oedipal.
Howard Skeels, 1920s & 30s
• Took 13 orphans and
placed them with 13 girls in
a mental institution.
• The girls were all mentally
retarded.
• Skeels left 12 children in
the orphanage.
• IQ testing done at 18
months and 3 years
• Children who were adopted
increased IQ scores
Louis Pasteur, 1822--1895
•
•
•
•
The germ genius
Pasteurization
Smallpox vaccine
Also vaccines for chicken
pox, cholera, diphtheria,
anthrax, and rabies
• Boiling surgical instruments
• (Doctors didn’t buy the
boiling of surgical
instruments thing)
Antisepsis—1920s or so . . .
• Fear of germs after
Pasteur
• Hospitalized infants
• Handling
discouraged
• Parents not allowed
to visit
• Babies’ health
worsened
Harry Bakwin in 1931
• Became head of
Pediatric Ward at
Bellevue Hospital
• Hung sign: “Do not
enter this nursery
without picking up a
baby!”
• Infections
DECREASED!!
Konrad Lorenz, 1903--1989
• Greylag goslings
• Imprinting
• Inspired John
Bowlby in the
development of
his attachment
theory
Harry Harlow, 1906--1981
• Rhesus monkeys
• Surrogate wire
mothers
• Surrogate terry cloth
mothers
• Inspired John
Bowlby’s attachment
research
John Bowlby, 1907--1990
• Presented his attachment theory to
the British Psycho-Analytic Society,
1939
• Tossed out: “Bowlby? Give me
Barrabas.”
• Society embroiled in battle between
Anna Freud and Melanie Klein
• His theory was based on ethology,
developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, cybernetics, and
information processing
• Influenced by Freud, Harlow, Lorenz
“John Bowlby . . .
. . . revolutionized our thinking about a child’s tie
to the mother and its disruption through
separation, deprivation, and bereavement.”
(Inge Bretherton, 1994)
Mary Ainsworth, 1913-1999
• Student and
colleague of Bowlby
• Observed mothers
and children in
Uganda
• Strange Situation
assessment tool
STRANGE SITUATION
• Children aged 12 - 18
months and their mothers
• 1. Caregiver and infant enter
the room.
• 2. Child plays with the toys
while the mother is present.
• 3. A stranger enters the
room and the caregiver
leaves.
• 4. The stranger tries to
comfort the child.
• 5. The caregiver returns
and the stranger leaves.
• 6. The caregiver comforts
the child and then leaves for
a second time.
• 7. The child is left alone for
3 minutes.
• 8. The stranger enters and
interacts with the child.
• 9. The caregiver enters,
picks up the child and the
stranger leaves.
SECURE ATTACHMENT
• Infant explores the
room with interest;
shows signs of
missing parent during
separation, crying.
Greets parent
actively, settles, and
returns to play.
INSECURE AVOIDANT
ATTACHMENT
• Doesn’t cry at
separation; actively
avoids and ignores
parent on reunion. No
distress, no anger.
Unemotional response
to parent; avid interest
in toys or environment.
INSECURE RESISTANT or
AMBIVALENT ATTACHMENT
• Wary or distressed
even prior to
separation; little
exploration; angry
or passive; focuses
on parent and cries;
fails to settle
DISORGANIZED/
DISORIENTED ATTACHMENT
• Infant’s behavior is
disorganized or disoriented,
i.e., may freeze with a
trance-like expression, may
lay in fetal position, may
cling and cry hard, or lean
away with gaze averted.
Infants in this category have
generally had trauma.
Carry-over to adulthood
• Research suggests that
negative attachment
issues in childhood have
effects in adulthood:
anxiety, anger, hysterical,
affectionless,
psychopathology,
depression, agoraphobia,
hypochondria, substance
abuse . . .
Mary Main and Adult
Attachment Interview
• Adults are interviewed by a trained professional
• Their affect while being interviewed is rated, not the
story that they tell
• Categories match the Ainsworth categories: SecureAutonomous (Secure); Dismissing (Avoidant);
Preoccupied (Resistant); Unresolved/Disorganized
(Disorganized/Disoriented)/
SECURE/AUTONOMOUS
• Adults have detailed and
thoughtful memories of a
loving childhood and good
relationships with their
parents. Autonomous adults
speak about their parents’
positive influence on their
development. Their interview
is coherent, collaborative.
DISMISSING ATTACHMENT
• Dismissing adults minimize
negative childhood
experiences and dismiss the
impact of early attachments
on development. Dismissing
adults may insist that they
cannot remember childhood
events, or their memories
may contradict. The
conversation is not coherent.
PREOCCUPIED
• Preoccupied adults are still
entangled with past family
relationships. They remember
childhood events, but their
stories are not coherent nor
succinct. Preoccupied adults
may still be dependent on
their parents or angry about
past events. The interview is
not coherent; angry, passive,
fearful.
UNRESOLVED/DISORGANIZED
• Unresolved/disorganized adults
are confused or disoriented
when speaking about the loss
of a loved one or about past
traumas, such as sexual or
physical abuse. During
discourses of loss or abuse, the
adult shows a striking lapse in
the monitoring of reasoning or
discourse. This adult may lapse
into prolonged silence or
eulogistic speech as the
interview progresses.
BUT DON’T FEAR!!!!
• Positive attachment
has positive effects
for the future! And
besides,
REMEMBER, there
are no FACTS when
dealing with human
behavior, right?