Chapter Six
Emotional Development
and Attachment
Explanations of emotional development: Geneticmaturational, cognitive, and learning.
 Genetic-maturational, cognitive, and
learning may each may be important for
different aspects of emotional
development.
Explanations of emotional development: Geneticmaturational, cognitive, and learning.
 Genetic-Maturational explanations:


1.) Twin studies: MZ twins are more similar than
DZ twins in when they begin to smile and how
often they smile (sociability); same for fear of
strangers and general fearfulness (behavioral
inhibition)
2.) Smiling occurs at 46 weeks conceptual age,
regardless of when baby is born. I.e., premies
smile 6 weeks after they should have been born.
Explanations of emotional development: Geneticmaturational, cognitive, and learning.
 Genetic-Maturational explanations:


3.) Stranger distress occurs at same age in all
cultures regardless of childrearing practices.
Separation Protest (infant's distress at being
separated from mother, from ~6 mos. to 39
mos.) also occurs in all cultures at about the
same time.
4.) Performance anxiety occurs around 18-24
mos. Concerned about being evaluated.
(Shame, embarrassment would be typical
emotions.)
Explanations of emotional development: Geneticmaturational, cognitive, and learning.
 Cognitive perspective:
 1.) Infants acquire mental representations (=
schemata) and become better able to assimilate
new events to schemata they already have. (This is
a Piagetian meaning of assimilation.)
 'Confronting a novel event causes buildup of
tension; the infant responds with cognitive effort to
master the meaning of the event; when the infant
is successful, tension is released and he smiles.'
(p. 216)
 = Smile of assimilation;
 reflects intrinsic motivation as central to cognitive
development.
Explanations of emotional development: Geneticmaturational, cognitive, and learning.
 Cognitive perspective:

2.) Context effects in fear of stranger (see
above) can be explained by increasing
cognitive sophistication. E.g., how close
the mother is, whether the stranger is
smiling or sober.
Explanations of emotional development: Geneticmaturational, cognitive, and learning.
 Functionalist perspective:
 1.) Combines aspects of the cognitive and learning
explanations into a unified theory.
 2.) Emotions are linked to goals. For example, how
would emotions like hope, joy, frustration, anger,
and fear be linked to goals?
 Some goals are innate: Baby wanting to be
near mother; love, sex, rock n’ roll
 Some goals are learned: Wanting a new car
 3.) Emotions are also linked to establishing and
maintaining social relationships. (Be able to give
some examples where we use emotional
information in social relationships.)
Perspectives on emotional
development

Learning perspective:
 1.)
Some parents may reinforce smiling more
than others and some may be more effective
in getting their children to control their
emotions. (This competes with the genetic
explanation for individual differences in
fearfulness.)
 2.)
Some fears can be learned by classical
conditioning, operant conditioning, or social
referencing (social learning) (e.g., seeing that
mom is afraid of a bee).
Early Emotional Development:
Carroll Izard
 Timetable of emotional facial expressions:






Birth: Startle, disgust, distress, 'rudimentary smile' -i.e., reflexive smile, not responsive to external events.
4-6 weeks: True smile in response to social situations.
2-1/2-3 mos.: anger, interest, surprise, sadness
7 mos.: fear
6-8 mos.: shyness
12-36 mos.: pride, guilt, embarrassment, contempt, etc.-the 'social emotions.' These require greater cognitive
sophistication and a sense of self.
Early Emotional Development:
Alan Sroufe
 1.) Dates emergence of emotions later
than Izard because he is unwilling to
consider baby as having real emotions
until baby is capable of cognitive
appraisals
 How does anger differ from distress?
Early Emotional Development:
Alan Sroufe
 2.) Differentiation (later emotions evolve out of earlier
emotions; emotions become more differentiated;
 babies start out with distress—a global negative
emotion;
 this differentiates into other negative emotions like
anger, defiance, and rage.
 Wariness at 4–5 mos. differentiates into:




stranger distress (9–11 mos),
anxiety and fear (12–17 mos),
shame (18–35 mos)
guilt (36–54 mos) (Some say guilt develops later).
Early emotional Development:
Alan Sroufe
 3.) Emotions become more psychologically (cognitively)
based with age. E.g., distress versus anger: Distress has
no cognitive component; newborns are distressed if they
feel pain, but they don't direct anger at a specific person
inflicting the pain until later in the first year. Fear does not
develop until 7 months of age; requires cognitive ability to
differentiate between familiar versus unfamiliar people.
 4.) Emotions are more contextually sensitive with age.
With age, infants respond emotionally to the meaning of
the situation; e.g., laughter in response to tickling versus
laughter when mom makes a funny face.
Early Emotional Development
 Two types of emotions:


Primary emotions (i.e., startle, distress,
happiness, fear, )
Secondary emotions (i.e., shame, pride, guilt)
require more cognitive sophistication.
 There are gender differences in emotional
expressiveness: Girls > Boys
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions
Smiling and Laughter
 Smiling and laughter are the first expressions of
pleasure
 Smiling:
Reflex smiling: Birth to 3-4 weeks. Spontaneous, not
in response to any stimulus.
 Weeks 3-8: Smile in response to external elicitors-bouncing, faces, especially faces. (Could it be an
evolved bias?)
 Special smile toward mother at 10 mos., the
Duchenne Smile; face 'lights up with pleasure,
including wrinkles around the eyes.
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Smiling and Laughter
 Girls smile more than boys' could be evolved
bias to greater social interest; this results in
more social interaction for girls.
 Smiling is central to infant social interaction,
playing, pleasurable socializing
 Figure 6.2: laughter in infancy is increasingly
caused by social (making faces) and visual
stimuli (jack-in-the-box); less by tactile (e.g.,
tickling); 3-5-year-olds: 'acting silly'
Laughter at stimuli (percent)
What Makes Children Laugh?
35
Social
30
Visual
25
20
Tactile
15
10
Auditory
5
0
4-6
7-9
Age (in months)
Fig. 6-2
10-12
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Fear
 Wariness (3 mos.): distress in response to events they can't
assimilate; strangers are objects of interest and wariness, but
not immediate negative reaction.
 Fear (9 mos.): negative reaction to event with specific
meaning, such as a stranger; implies greater cognitive
sophistication than with wariness. what to express under
what circumstances.
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Fear
 Individual differences in fearfulness: Kagan: behaviorally
inhibited children are shy, introverted; respond with fear and
increased heart rates to mildly stressful situations. 'Fearful
Temperament'
 Contextual Features: Less fear at home or in mother's lap
than in lab or away from mom. Less fear if mom is not afraid
and reacts positively. This is social referencing: getting
emotional cues from others. If mom is happy, baby sees this
expression and is less afraid.
 Stranger characteristics: Strange child less fearsome than
adults or a midget; probably child-like facial features are the
cue; also if stranger is smiley and positive, baby is less
afraid.
The Onset of Stranger Distress
Number of Children
14
Compares
faces
12
10
Shows
distress
Looks
sober
8
6
4
2
0
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Age (in months)
Fig. 6-3
10
11
12
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions: Fear
 Separation protest – a fear that is universal
and peaks in Western infants at about 15
months
 Separation anxiety sometimes reappears in
other forms at later ages: e.g., day care, baby
sitters,
Separation Protest
Percentage of Children
who cried when mother left
100
African Bushman
80
60
40
Antiguan
(Guatemala)
20
0
Guatemalan
Indian
5
10
15
Israeli
(kibbutzim)
20
25
Age (in months)
Fig. 6-5
30
35
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions: Fear
 Infants use social referencing to know how to
act in uncertain situations:

Visual Cliff Study: Babies attend to mothers’
emotional expressions to get information on what
to do.
 An expression of fear means “Stop.”
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Pride, Guilt, Jealousy, and Shame
 Pride, Guilt, Jealousy, and Shame: The
Self-Conscious Emotions
 Emerge toward middle of second year
(~18 mos.) Require a sense of self;
 Rouge test: Before this age, children
show no embarrassment when seeing
themselves in a mirror with rouge on
their face
What’s That On My Nose?
80
70
60
Lewis &
BrooksGunn’s study
50
40
Amsterdam’s
study
30
20
10
0
9-12
15-18
Age (in months)
Fig. 6-10
21-24
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Pride, Guilt, Jealousy, and Shame

True guilt emerges only in middle childhood,
around age 9 when children have a clear sense of
personal responsibility:
 'I felt guilty because I didn't turn in my homework
out of laziness.'

Younger children will say they are guilty but
seem not to understand that their own
responsibility is critical:
 “I felt guilty when my brother and I had
boxing gloves on and I hit him too hard. . . .
sometimes I don’t know by own strength.”

Younger children may say they feel guilty even if
they had no control over what happened.
The Beginnings of Specific Emotions:
Pride, Guilt, Jealousy, and Shame
 Differentiating between pride and shame is
linked to task performance and responses
from others

3-year olds: “easy” and “difficult”: More pride if
task is difficult; more shame if task is easy.

Differentiating “joy” vs. pride; “sadness vs.
shame”;
 solving a not particularly difficult problem
resulted in joy;
 solving a difficult problem produced pride.
 failing a difficult task resulted in sadness;
 failing an easy task resulted in shame.
2.5
Pride (=orange), Shame (=green),
and Task Difficulty
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Easy
Difficult
Task difficulty
Fig. 6-7
Regulating Emotions
 Starts with sucking thumb (pre-natally), then
more active methods like turning away, selfdistraction by 18 mos.
 Emotions more controlled and modulated as
children move from infancy to toddlers

This involves greater inhibitory control = effortful
control with development of prefrontal cortex;
textbook emphasizes learning, but much of this is
maturational.
Regulating Emotions
 As children get older: Less frequent
emotions, less intense, more
conventionalized.
 Children learn emotional display rules
(what to express under what
circumstances) beginning at age 2 when
they exaggerate or minimize emotion in
response to others;

9-10 years old, children can smile when
unhappy.
The Development of Attachment
 Attachment is closely related to
emotional development

Forms in second half of first year

Evidenced by separation protests

Enhances parents’ effectiveness in later
socialization of their children

Evolves over first 2 years of life
The Development of Attachment
 Theories of attachment

Psychoanalytic theory: attachment is linked to
gratification of innate drives—basically the same as
learning theory

Learning theory:
 Traditionally,
primary drive of hunger is reduced
by primary reinforcer (food) and secondary
reinforcer is one who feeds
The Development of Attachment
 Harlow’s experiment

Harlow: monkeys are comforted by soft “contact
comfort”, not feeding






Harlow and Zimmerman's (1959) experiment on
monkeys:
Cloth surrogate preferred over wire-mesh surrogate;
this implies that babies innately like the contact
comfort provided by the soft terrycloth surrogate.
Babies also form attachments to fathers even though
the fathers don't feed them.
Therefore, babies don't learn to like contact by being
fed. It's there to start with.
This destroyed both the psychoanalytic and learning
views.
The Development of Attachment
 Theories of attachment

Cognitive developmental theory:

Attachment depends on infants differentiating
between mom and others and understanding that
people continue to exist even when baby can't see
them



Piaget called this object permanence.
These are cognitive achievements.
Objection: But can this account for the intense
emotional reaction of separated infants?

Increasing cognitive sophistication means physical
proximity to attachment figures lessens in
importance as children grow

Increasing cognitive sophistication means that
psychological contact maintained through words,
smiles, and looks
The Development of Attachment
 Theories of attachment

Bowlby’s ethological theory:
 Infant
attachment has roots in instinctual infant
responses important for survival and protection:
Crying, sucking, clinging.
 Attachment is an adaptation designed to protect
the baby by keeping it close to mom.

Adaptation = a mechanism designed by natural
selection to perform a particular function.
The Development of Attachment
 Theories of attachment

Bowlby’s ethological theory:

Based partly on animal’s imprinting process: A
sensitive period for attaching to mom.

Infants have innate ability to engage in social
signaling (i.e., smiling and crying)

These abilities play active role in formation of
attachment.
Parents also have innate abilities to respond to their
baby’s eliciting behaviors.
 Attachment is a quality of a relationship, not a trait of
the baby. Babies may have different attachments with
different people (e.g., mom vs. dad).

The Development of Attachment
 Attachment

Evolves in stages or steps

Develops for those regularly interacted with such as
fathers, siblings, and peers

Father-child interaction affected by culture and type
of society one lives in

Mothers and fathers differences in play modes or
styles continue as children grow
The Development of Attachment
 Phases in Development of Attachment




1.) Preattachment (0-2 mos.): Indiscriminate social
responsiveness
2.) Attachment in the making (2-7 mos.): Recognition
of familiar people
3.) Clear-cut attachment (7-24 mos.): Separation
protest; wariness of strangers, intentional
communication
4.) Goal-corrected partnership (24 mos. on):
Relationships more two-sided: Children understand
parent's intentions, plans, goals, and needs.
Fathers and Attachment
 1. Fathers can become attached to babies and
engage in many of the same behaviors with
babies.
 2. Fathers also care for child at higher levels than
in the old days, but they are less involved than
mothers in routine care.
Fathers and Attachment
 3. Mother predominance in childcare is generally
true, but there are examples of cultures where
fathers play a larger role in care: the Aka in
Africa; but this is not generally true of
hunter-gatherer societies.
 4. Father tend to play more physically with
children: rough and tumble play, etc. But it is not
universal; children like it more than relatively
sedentary play with mothers--more arousing.
Assessing Attachment:
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Test:
Table 6.4








1. Mother, baby, and observer
2. Mother and baby
3. Stranger, mother and baby
4. Stranger and baby
5. Mother and baby
6. Baby alone
7. Stranger and baby
8. Mother and baby
 Episodes #5 and #8 are Reunion Episodes
The Nature and Quality of Attachment
 Early attachment formation is not uniform

Many seem to form highly secure attachments

Assessment is based on the Strange Situation and
Ainsworth’s classifications

Styles of caregiving are linked to attachment; sensitive
care linked to secure attachments, and unavailable or
rejecting linked to insecurity

Deficient forms of parenting often result in
approach/avoidance behavior in children
The Nature and Quality of Attachment

Tested at ~1 year of age (6 mos. to 2 yrs.), at a
time when child uses mother as a SECURE
BASE:
 Secure
Base: the attachment object is seen by the
child as a base from which to explore new things
and a haven in times of distress.

Four Classifications: A, B, C, and D
The Nature and Quality of Attachment
 1.) Secure (B Babies) (60% OF U.S. SAMPLE):



ACTIVELY SEEK PROXIMITY AND CONTACT AT
REUNION;
EXPLORE WHILE MOM IS AROUND, SEE HER AS A
SECURE BASE;
OFTEN DISTRESSED DURING SEPARATION, BUT
CALM DOWN QUICKLY AT REUNION
 2.) Insecure-avoidant (A Babies); 20% :




OFTEN DO NOT CRY MUCH AT SEPARATION; DO NOT
SEEK
PROXIMITY AND ACTIVELY AVOID THE MOTHER AT
REUNION;
DO NOT RESIST CONTACT IF MOTHER INITIATES IT;
DO NOT CRY MUCH AT REUNION
The Nature and Quality of Attachment
 3.) Insecure-resistant (C Babies); 10-15%:



VERY UPSET AND DISTRESSED DURING SEPARATION;
ACTIVELY SEEK PROXIMITY AND CONTACT AT
REUNION RESIST CONTACT AT REUNION, OFTEN
SHOWING ANGER;
CONTINUE CRYING AT REUNION; THEY DO NOT CALM
DOWN EASILY AT REUNION
 4.) Insecure-disorganized (D Babies):

DISORIENTED, DAZED, REPETITIVE BEHAVIORS;
Extreme Approach/Avoidance
Caregiving and attachment status
 1.) Secure attachment (B babies):
 associated with SENSITIVE CARE:
 Responsive and consistently available when
baby is in genuine need.
 Mothers continually adjust behavior to infant so
that there is INTERACTIVE SYNCHRONY, A
SMOOTH-FLOWING DANCE;
 Mothers use exaggerated speech and facial
expressions.
 Baby gets excited and averts gaze; mother doesn't
intrude. Like a sine wave.
Dyadic Interaction during motherinfant playful interaction
 Dyadic Interaction is like a sine wave:
Baby becomes excited when looking at
mom but turns away when too aroused.
Caregiving and attachment status
 2.) Insecure Avoidant attachment (A babies):
 UNAVAILABLE, REJECTING, UNRESPONSIVE TO
BABY'S SIGNALS;
 mothers are intrusive rather than sensitive in dyadic
interaction.
 3.) Insecure Resistant (C babies):
 INCONSISTENTLY AVAILABLE;
 mothers unresponsive or uninvolved in dyadic interaction
Caregiving and attachment status
 4.) Insecure Disorganized (D babies)
 associated with neglect or abuse.
 Approach/avoidant behavior is
common;
 82% of abused infants had disorganized
attachment vs. 19% of non-abused infants.
 Mothers often depressed;
 little mutual eye contact and mutual
responsiveness;
 lots of gaze aversion.
The Internal Working Model
 Internal Working Model: A person's mental
representation of himself as a child, his parents,
and the nature of the interactions with the
parents as he reconstructs and interprets their
interaction.
 Hypothesis: The IWM tends to result in people
recreating their relationships with their own
children.
Recollections of relationship with
parents tends to predict
attachment with children.
 One study found this effect when based
on recollections of women before their
babies were born,

This controls for the possibility that current
relationship with the child would color
perceptions of relationship with parents.
Temperament and attachment
classification
 Temperament: Some studies find association
between difficult temperament and insecure
attachment.




Text suggests that if there is an effect it is the result
of interactions with the context:
Babies with difficult temperament whose mothers
are isolated or have no social support are more
likely to have insecure attachment;
but temperament by itself is a poor predictor of
insecurity of attachment.
Moral: Good mothering beats difficult temperament.
Stability of Attachment
Classification
 Stability: Attachment is highly stable;



One study: 100% of children secure at 12
mos. were secure at 6 yrs; 66% for
disorganized; but there are notable
exceptions.
Lowered stress (e.g., less marital tension)
leads to increase in attachment security,
More negative life events (job loss,
divorce, illness, abuse) leads to decrease
in attachment security.
The Nature and Quality of Attachment:
Cross-cultural variation
 Attachment studies show interesting
comparisons between cultures:


Box 6.3: Israeli and Japanese babies more likely to be
Resistant (C) babies
 Israeli cared for by metapelet rather than parent; may
not be so sensitive
 Japanese mothers are very close to baby, share bed,
etc.
German babies more likely be Avoidant (A) babies
Consequences of Attachment
Quality: Cognitive Development
 Cognitive Development:
 Age 2: Secure babies more enthusiastic, persistent,
curious, exploratory; higher level symbolic play with
mother
 Age 7: In task where mother encouraged them to
read,
 securely attached children less distractible, paid
more attention to mother, required less
discipline.
 This is a Vygotsky-type study: Cognitive
development occurs in a social context with
adults.
Consequences of Attachment
Quality: Social Development
 Social Development: Age 1-3½: More
positive emotions, more empathy, less
aggressive, socially skilled, more friends.
 Follow-up at Age 11: children securely
attached as babies were more confident,
more socially competent, higher selfesteem;
Consequences of Attachment
Quality: Social Development
 Peer relations: Securely attached
children spent more time with peers.
Form friends with other secure children.
Consequences of Attachment
Quality: Social Development
 Peer relations: Securely attached
children spent more time with peers.
Form friends with other secure children.
 IWM is proposed as mechanism: 5-yearold Children who are insecurely attached
are more likely to interpret an ambiguous
event (bumping into another child) as
done with hostile intent
Consequences of Attachment
Quality: Social Development
 Peer relations: Securely attached children spent
more time with peers. Form friends with other
secure children.
 IWM is proposed as mechanism: 5-year-old
Children who are insecurely attached are more
likely to interpret an ambiguous event (bumping
into another child) as done with hostile intent
 Securely attached children also better at
understanding emotions and regulating their
emotions.

They recall more positive emotional experiences,
while insecurely attached children recall more
negative experiences.
Consequences of Attachment
Quality: Social Development
 Children may have different attachment
categories with different parents;

Having a secure relationship with both
parents shows the strongest relationships
with positive outcomes.
Day Care and Attachment
 1999 census: 10 million children under
the age of six spend substantial time
being cared for by non-parents.


50% of children under 5 spend many hours
a week in some form of day care
i.e., daycare provided by non-family
member either in the child’s home or a day
care facility.
Who Is Caring For Our Preschoolers?
5.1%
24%
Parents
15.4%
Other relatives
Other
Child care
centers
Family-child
care homes
In-home care
25%
29.6%
0.9%
Fig. 6-11
Day Care and Attachment
 1.) Children in daycare still are attached to their
parents.
 2.) Amount of time in daycare affects nature of
parent-child relationship


negative correlation between time in day care and
sensitivity of mother at 3, 6, and 15 mos.
Children found to be somewhat less affectionate
toward mothers.
 3.) Children who begin day care before age 1
more likely to be insecurely attached.
High Quality Day Care may
Compensate for Negative Effects
on Attachment
 High quality daycare can compensate:
Better outcomes if there is a secure
attachment with daycare provider.
 Daycare quality affected by:


1.) staff turnover: High turnover is a risk
factor.
2.) teacher training: Better trained teachers
more likely to have secure attachment with
children.
High Quality Day Care may
Compensate for Negative Effects
on Attachment
 Poor quality daycare associated with
aggression and delinquency.
 High quality daycare associated with
higher language and cognitive skills.
 Effects of quality of daycare may be
found in kindergarten:

Poor quality daycare associated with
more destructiveness and less
consideration of others.
The Nature and Quality of Attachment
 Quality of child care appears linked to
social class of families using the services
Low-income
Affluent
Are Child Care and Enrichment
Programs Only for the Affluent?
Percent of 3- to 5-year-olds
enrolled in preschool
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Families
Fig. 6-12
Percent of schools offering extendedday and enrichment programs
(b)
(a)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Neighborhoods
ETHOLOGICAL THEORY OF
ATTACHMENT: JOHN BOWLBY
 A HYBRID THEORY:



(1) BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
(2) LEARNING
(3) COGNITIVE SCHEMES
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Biological Systems
 1.) ATTACHMENT AS AN ADAPTATION



ADAPTATION = A BEHAVIOR OR
MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURE DESIGNED BY
NATURAL
SELECTION IN ORDER TO PERFORM A
PARTICULAR FUNCTION
FUNCTION OF ATTACHMENT IS TO PROVIDE
PROTECTION FOR HELPLESS
INFANTS.
ATTACHMENT IS AN ADAPTATION DESIGNED BY
NATURAL SELECTION TO KEEP THE BABY CLOSE
TO THE MOTHER AS A SOURCE OF
PROTECTION; IT IS A PROXIMITY MAINTAINING
SYSTEM
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Biological Systems
 2.) ETHOLOGICAL IDEA OF 'NATURAL CLUE'
= AN INNATE CONNECTION BETWEEN A
STIMULUS AND AN AFFECTIVE
(EVALUATIVE) RESPONSE



STIMULUS
AFFECTIVE,
EVALUATIVE RESPONSE
S
R+
(CONTACT COMFORT,
AFFECTIONATE TOUCHING, MUTUAL GAZING
AND SMILING) SWEET TASTES
S
R -(MOTHER ABSENT; STRANGER
PRESENT; BITTER TASTES)
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Biological Systems
 Natural Clues:


THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE
STIMULUS AND THE AFFECTIVE
RESPONSE IS INNATE, UNLEARNED;
Bottom line: BABIES COME INTO THE
WORLD WITH LIKES AND DISLIKES
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Biological Systems
 3.) MOTHER AND BABY ARE BIOLOGICALLY
PROGRAMMED FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION


a.) BABIES' BEHAVIORS FOR MAINTAINING
CONTACT: CRYING, LOCOMOTION, "MOLDING
TO MOTHER'S BODY";
b.) FOR FACILITATING INTERACTION:
APPEARANCE OF BABY, SMILING,
VOCALIZING, MAKING EYE CONTACT
 SOCIAL INTERACTION IS INNATELY
PLEASURABLE FOR MOTHER AND BABY
(INVOLVES NATURAL CLUES)
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Cognition and Learning
 1.) MOTHER AS SECURE BASE FOR
EXPLORATION:
THE SET POINT: Changes with Development and with
the Situation
B
M
 MOTHER WITHIN SET POINT: BABY EXPLORES
M
B
 MOTHER EXCEEDS SET POINT: ATTACHMENT
BEHAVIORS TRIGGERED, EXPLORATION CEASES
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Cognition and Learning
 DISCRETE SYSTEMS IDEA:
 ATTACHMENT SYSTEM INTERACTS WITH
THE EXPLORATION SYSTEM, THE PLAY
SYSTEM, AND OTHER SYSTEMS.



IF SAFE, THEN PLAY, EXPLORE
IF STRANGER IS PRESENT, THEN STOP
PLAY, LOOK FOR MOTHER
IF HUNGRY, STOP PLAY AND
EXPLORATION, SEEK FOOD
DISCRETE SYSTEMS IDEA:
Evolutionary Psychology
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Cognition and Learning
 2.) INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
(IWM) OF MOTHER = A MODEL
(SCHEMA) OF WHAT MOTHER IS LIKE




a.) BUILT UP FROM EXPERIENCE
(LEARNING)
b.) EMPHASIS ON SENSITIVITY AND
RESPONSIVITY
c.) RESULTS IN A MODEL OF FUTURE
RELATIONSHIPS;
RESISTANT TO CHANGE
Ethological Theory of Attachment:
Cognition and Learning
 IWM FOR A (AVOIDANT) CHILD: PEOPLE
ARE NOT AVAILABLE WHEN I NEED HELP
 IWM FOR B (SECURE) CHILD: PEOPLE WILL
BE SENSITIVE AND RESPONSIVE
WHEN I NEED HELP
 IWM FOR C (AMBIVALENT, RESISTANT)
CHILD: PEOPLE ARE UNRELIABLE WHEN I
NEED HELP;

SOMETIMES THEY ARE RESPONSIVE,
SOMETIMES NOT.
The End