attachment” concepts to attachment presentation.pdfjohn bowlby (1907- 1990) psychologist,...
TRANSCRIPT
Key Concepts for “Attachment”
Presenter : Gill Graham
Attachment/Bonding
I need you to help me be calm!
I love cuddling my baby!
I love to comfort
you!
Presentation Topics History to the understanding of
Attachment
Attachment Categories
Factors for different attachment relationships
Adult Attachment Interview
Attachment and links to later development Attachment experience becomes internalised
(Internal working model)
Contain particular expectations and beliefs aboutown and other people's behaviour
Whether or not they are loveable and worthy of love
Whether or not others are available, interested and able to help/protect/ support them
Attachment- Tenet 1
A child is born with a predisposition to become
attached to his/her caregiver
Harlow’s monkeys
Food or comfort?
Attachment
John Bowlby (1907- 1990)Psychologist, Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst
“a strong affectional or emotional tie that binds a person to an intimate companion”
Complimentary System
Attachment system -in times of distress infants will cope by going to the attachment figure for comfort and protection.
Exploratory system -interacting with the world at large.
Bowlby’s Model of Attachment
Threat / distress
Attachment system is switched on
Attachment behaviour
Infant is calmed by adult – distress/threat is resolved
Attachment system is switched off
Exploratory system is switched on
Mary Ainsworth 1913-1999
Developed the Strange Situation procedure
Uganda Study - 1954
Baltimore Lab 1963- 1967
Strange Situation Procedure
Scoring of the SSP
Proximity and Contact seeking behaviour
Contact- Maintaining Behaviour
Resistant Behaviour
Avoidant Behaviour
Classification of AttachmentMary Ainsworth 1913-1999
Secure (60%) Anxious/Avoidant (20-30%)
Ambivalent/Resistant (5-
15%)
Disorganised(10-18%)
(Main et al)
Attachment System – Tenet 2
The child will organise his/her behaviour and thinking in order to
maintain the attachment relationship
Ainsworth Patterns of Attachment
Secure Attachment
An optimal situation where there is a healthy balance in
the infants attachment and
exploratory behaviours.
Secure Attachment Pattern.
Emotional Regulation Express all emotions (positive and
negative) openly and direct Stay engaged Seeks and accepts help / comfort in
relationships
Secure Attachment Pattern
Internal working Model
Self Worthy of being helped
Others Consistently available and reliable to provide comfort and protection
Adjustment to Parenting- Liz Muir (Watch Wait and Wonder)/Daniel Stern ( Motherhood Constellation)
Can I keep this baby alive?
Can I love this baby and will he/she love me?
Where is my support?
How do I be a mother?
Infant contributions that may complicate attachment process E.g. Prematurity
Sensory difficulties
Regulatory issues
Communication disorders
Temperament
Goodness of Fit Thomas and Chess- extrapalation from temperament theory.
The compatibility of the contributions of both the infants and the caregiver in their environment
Avoidant / Anxious Pattern
Child expresses attachment needs
Response mostly rejecting / punishing / ignoring
Child finds alternative strategy
Inhibits DISPLAY of attachment behaviour
Avoidant Pattern
Internal Working Model Dominance of exploration over attachment.
Downplay expression of attachment needs
Difference between displayed and felt affect
Relationships seem distant
Links to Caregiving - Avoidant
Caregiving tended to downplay attachment needs
Not maltreating but found it difficult to tolerate attachment needs
Find it hard to give physical comfort
Anxious/Ambivalent
Express attachment needs openly
Response inconsistently responsive
Remains anxious, find more effective strategy
Heighten display of attachment behaviourwhich increases chance of a response
Ambivalent Pattern
Dominance of attachment over exploration
Demonstrative display of attachment needs(gambling effect)
Two patterns Passive behaviour – cries and waits Resistant behaviour – achieves contact but
fights
Relationships conflictual
Links to early care- Ambivalent
Inconsistently available
Involved but at a loss to how to respond
Unpredictable responses/choose the wrong strategy e.g. play rather than comfort
Put child down before soothed
“Insecure” but “Organised” Attachment Patterns
Children develop strategies to get attachment needs meet
- Regulate their emotions in a way thatcaregivers are able to tolerate.
Attachment-Tenet 3
The child will often maintain such relationships at great cost to his or her own functioning
Attachment- Tenet 4
Distortions in the child's feeling and thinking occur most often in response
to the parents inability to meet comfort, security and emotional
needs.
When should we worry? (Disorganised Attachment)
Attachment system is switched on
Cg is frightening, frightened, emotionally unavailable
Experiences “fear without relationship solution”“all alone”
Attachment Disorganisation
The child is dependent on self to regulate excessive distress - when developmentally unable to do so.
Frightening Caregivers
Frightening caregiving will activate simultaneous and competing tendencies
Fear stimulus will activate the attachment system to seek support
Fear stimulus will also activate the infants fear system to flee the attachment figure
Frightened Caregivers
Frightened parents may frighten the infant
Mothers dissociation or panic leaves the infant with little sense of a caregiver when distressed
Becomes frightening for the infant
Caregiving Situation
Caregiver can be- coercive / controlling ; absence of soothing
- Profound withdrawal / unresponsiveness
- active, but focus on own needs
- only responds if infant’s needs coincide with her own
SPECIFIC INDICATORS UP TO 2-3 years Show fear / apprehension towards parent When close to parent becomes dazed/
flustered instead of comforted Stereotyped / repetitive behaviour with no
function other than possibly reducing anxiety
Autistic type behaviour – freezing, stilling Contradictory behaviour – approach / flee
conflict
(Main & Solomon, 1986)
SPECIFIC INDICATORS OLDER THAN 2-3 YEARS Fear not apparant Patterns of relating become:◦ Hostile◦ Caretaking – role reversal
This strategy is aimed at maintaining engagement with the parent on the PARENT’S TERMS. No longer oriented towards seeking comfort / protection
Parental Unresolved Loss and Trauma
Evidence comes from the Adult Attachment Interview ( AAI)
60 min semistructured interview
Probes parental own attachment experiences.
The Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview Devised by Carol George,Nancy Kaplan,
Mary Main
Analysed by Mary Main, Ruth Goldwyn
Identified states of mind that fitted with Strange Situation Procedure.
AAI/SSP Correlations Free, Autonomous or Secure Secure Dismissing Avoidant Preoccupied Ambivalent Unresolved loss Disorganised
Free or SECURE AAI Subject admits importance of attachment
relationships and the need to depend on others. Transcript coherent. Balanced view point, with subject accepting their own part in any relationship difficulties.
“ I had a pretty rough time with mum when I was about 14 but really I was a handful and I can see she struggled to manage me on her own”
Dismissing AAI Typically brief (though not always) Not coherent Dismissing of attachment related experiences Childhood experiences normalised or even
given upbeat spin.
“Because I feel it was a very happy childhood, I cannot remember, because otherwise I would have remembered”
Preoccupied AAI Often spoke of early attachments enmeshed with infantile feelings memories expressed angrily forget the interviewer no sense of own role in relationship
difficulties.
“ I thought here I am getting married and she's not bloody prepared to give. I thought every mother would sort of want to give her best-but not her!”
Transgenerational Transmission Benoit and Parker 1994 Longitudinal study of 96 infants, mothers and
grandmothers. The Strange Situation Procedure was used to
assess the attachment style of the infants at 12 months, and the
AAI to assess the attachment of the adults. The mothers AAI classifications predicted the infant
attachment in 81% of cases, and the Grandmothers AAI classification in 75% cases.
Log linear analysis predicts a simple parent to child transmission
BIBLIOGRAPHY
:
Handbook of Infant Mental Health. (1993 & 2000). Ed. Charles Zeanah.
Cassidy & Mohr (2001) Unresolvable Fear, Trauma, and Psychopathology: Theory. Research, and Clinical Considerations Related to Disorganised Attachment across the Life Span. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice V8 N3.
Holmes, J. (1999). 6th ed. John Bowlby and attachment theory. London : Routledge
Stern, D. (1990). The motherhood constellation. NY : Basic Books
Stern. D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. NY : Basic Books
Thank you for watching!
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