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Developmental psychology

Social development: An introduction to attachment

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Starter activity

A. I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others. I find it difficult to trust them completely, or to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close and often others want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable being.

B. I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me.

C. I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like. I often worry that my boyfriend/girlfriend doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I sometimes scare people away.

Which of the 3 statements below reflects your view of relationships?

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Command words: The language of the learning outcomes

• Examine attachment in childhood and its role in the subsequent formation of relationships.

• Discuss potential effects of deprivation or trauma in childhood on later development.

• Define resilience and discuss strategies to build resilience.

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What are attachments?

Attachments are close emotional bonds between two people characterized by (Maccoby 1980):• Distress on separation• Joy at reunion • Seeking proximity• Orientation of behaviour towards the other.Bowlby’s attachment theory emphasizes the importance of attachments in later development/relationships. It also provides much of the basis for interventions to build resilience.

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Bowlby’s attachment theory

• Attachment is based on instincts which aid survival. Babies possess instincts (crying and smiling) which provoke caregiving and parents have instincts to respond.

• Babies form an attachment to one person which is more important than the rest (monotropy).

• This attachment should be formed before the age of 3 years or emotional damage will result (sensitive period).

• This attachment provides the baby with an internal working model of how relationships work which shapes later relationships.

• Disruption to the attachment may have serious emotional consequences.

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Hazan and Shaver

Readers of a local newspaper were asked to :

• Choose one of 3 descriptions that characterized their experience of romantic relationships.

• Tick items from a checklist of adjectives to describe the relationship with their parents.

• Answer questions about how long their adult relationships had lasted.

Hazan and Shaver analysed 630 responses and repeated the exercise with 108 first year university students.

They found clear links between childhood attachments with parents and later adult relationships.

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Centrality of Bowlby’s theory

• Ainsworth's Strange Situation

• Research into deprivation and privation

• Research on continuity

• Building resilience

Support and interventions

Importance of attachment in

later relationships

Individual and cultural

differences in attachment

Disruption to attachment