John Bowlby
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A 20th century English educator who
was trained in both medicine and
psychoanalysis
Became interested in the behavioral
disturbances of institutionalized children
in the 1930s
Turned to ethology for answers
Environment of adaptedness
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Bowlby’s term for the basic environment
from which human behavior evolved.
Humans have always stayed in groups
because it enhances survival.
Attachment behavior has evolved
because it improves chances of survival.
Phase 1 of Attachment
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Birth to 2 or 3 months
Infants like to listen to human voices
and focus on faces
Social smiling begins around 6 weeks
old—powerful elicitor of attachment
Phase 2 of attachment
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3-6 or 7 months
Attachment becomes focused on one figure,
usually the mother.
Cooing and babbling begin, which strengthen
attachment.
Baby shows clear preference for familiar
people.
“Imprinting” behavior develops as baby
“follows” Mom.
Phase 3 of attachment
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6 to 36 months
Babies actively pursue contact with regular
caregivers.
Separation anxiety develops around 6 months
old.
Separation anxiety develops around 7 or 8
months.
Baby uses mom as a secure base from which
to explore.
Baby develops schema for interactions with
Mom.
Phase 4
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3 years +
Children start taking others’ feelings, goals,
and plans into account; isn’t as self-centered
Break away from parental dominance during
adolescence but form new attachments
As adults, we seek independence but also
affiliation with others.
Being alone is considered one of the greatest
fears in life.
Kewpie-doll syndrome
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Coined by Lorenz
Baby’s kewpie-doll appearance makes
them cute, and parents respond
positively to this cuteness.
Attractive babies get more positive
interaction from parents than
unattractive babies do.
Picture of a kewpie doll
How important is feeding to
attachment?
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Harlow & Zimmerman’s study with monkeys—
half were fed by a soft cloth “mother”
monkey; other half fed by wire monkey
Both groups had access to both cloth and
wire “mothers”
All monkeys preferred the cloth mother, even
those who were fed by the wire ones.
Showed that feeding is not most important
determinant of an infant’s attachment to
caregivers.
Harlow & Zimmerman (1959)
Effects of Institutional Care
(Bowlby)
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Suffer from a basic lack of emotional
attention.
There may be a sensitive (or even critical)
period for attachments to develop.
Therapeutic interventions can help children
who are adopted before age 2, but some
Romanian infants have still had emotional
difficulties 2 years later.
Phases of distress during
prolonged separations
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1st—children protest—cry, scream, refuse all
substitute care
2nd—despair—get very sad, quiet, withdrawn,
and inactive; appear to be in mourning
3rd—detachment; child is very lively and may
accept alternate care.
When parent returns, child may appear to
have lost all interest in her. May recover but
may not.
Mary Ainsworth
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A student of Bowlby’s who collaborated
with him for 40 years
Studied attachment behavior in
Ugandan infants
Developed the Strange Situations Test
in Baltimore, MD.
Strange Situations Study
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Ainsworth and others observed babies and
mothers in their homes for first year of
babies’ lives.
At 12 months old, she put them through
Strange Situations Test.
Wanted to see how babies would use their
moms as a secure base from which to explore
and also how they’d handle 2 brief situations
and reunions with mom.
Secure attachment
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65-70% of sample
Baby happily explored while using mom as
secure base.
Protested separations; explorations decreased
while mom was gone.
Happy to see Mom on return; resumed
explorations.
Mom had previously been rated as
responsive, sensitive, and “lovingly available”
at home.
Insecure-Avoidant
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20% of sample
Babies appear very independent
Don’t care about Mom; not bothered by
separations.
Moms had been rated as insensitive,
interfering, and rejecting.
Babies had often seemed insecure at home.
Knew they couldn’t count on Mom.
Insecure-resistant
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10-15% of sample
Also known as anxious-ambivalent or
insecure-ambivalent
Very clingy baby, preoccupied with Mom’s
whereabouts
Extremely upset with separations
When Mom returned, they acted angry and
avoidant.
Moms were inconsistent at home—sometimes
emotionally available and other times not.
Disorganized attachment style
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Disorganized/disoriented—5%; greatest
insecure attachment style. Variety of
confused, contradictory behaviors. May have
flat, depressed gaze, unexpected crying, odd
frozen postures, or refusal to look at parent.
Usually associated with abuse or neglect.
Often known as “reactive attachment
disorder” today—outcomes are very poor.
Outcomes of secure
attachment
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Many studies correlate secure attachment
with all sorts of good outcomes—higher selfesteem, score higher on measures of
persistence and self-reliance; friendlier; better
leadership ability
Definitely the most healthy pattern of
development
Most prevalent pattern throughout world.
Stroufe et al. (2005)
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Extensive longitudinal study of
attachment
Found that early secure attachment is
linked to positive emotional health, high
self-esteem, self-confidence, and
socially competent interactions with
peers, teachers, romantic partners, etc.
through adolescence
Insecure avoidant outcomes
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Bowlby said they become avoidant, defensive
adults—overly self-reliant, detached, can’t
trust others ot have relationship.
Evidence that avoidant children become
avoidant parents.
Avoidant adults dismiss their own need for
love; dismiss own attachment experiences as
important.
Insecure-ambivalent outcomes
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Ambivalent adults are still struggling
with the need to win parents’ love and
approval.
Their own neediness may interfere with
their ability to care for their babies.
Easily fall in and out of love in quest to
find soul mate
How to get secure attachment
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Mothers must be emotionally available
to children.
Must follow children’s cues and maintain
interactional synchrony—not be overly
intrusive but respond when needed.
Following babies’ cues is very
important.
Should mothers always meet
baby’s needs, or will this spoil
him?
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Bowlby and Ainsworth believe moms should
always meet the baby’s needs.
Babies cry for a reason; it’s an evolved
survival mechanism. Ignoring it doesn’t make
sense.
You can spoil a baby by responding when
h/she doesn’t need you. Parents who spoil
their children don’t respond to their needs but
rather intrude when they’re not needed.
New way to be overly intrusive
with children
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Overstimulation with things like flash
cards and computer programs
Ainsworth says this takes control away
from the child.
What you should do instead—Give the
child the opportunity to explore his own
interests, not your own.
Traditional vs. Attachment
Parenting
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Debate still rages today
Should parenting be “child-centered” or
“parent-centered”
Affects all sorts of decisions, ranging
from breastfeeding to day care to
whether to let your child “cry it out” at
night
Jury is still out as to which is best.
Stability of Attachments
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Children can be securely attached to one
parent and insecurely attached to the other
(occurs about 30% of the time)
Attachment style can change over time,
becoming either more or less stable.
Before 2004, it was thought that by the time
a child is 4-5 years old, attachment style was
permanent and resistant to change.
Longitudinal studies show otherwise now.
Correlation between childhood & adult
attachment style is just .17 in one study.
Attachment and Adult
Relationships
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Correlation between attachment to parent
and attachment to romantic partner is .20
and .50…a moderate range.
Hazan & Shaver (1987) classified adults as
secure, anxious-ambivalent, and avoidant.
Two securely attached adults have the best
probability for staying married.
See handout/Vista (supplemental reading) for
more detail.
Criticisms of Attachment
Research
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Not all research shows a link between infant
attachment and later development.
In one study, the best predictor of insecure
attachment at 18 was parental divorce, not
childhood attachment.
Consistent positive caregiving over many
years is likely to predict later development,
especially when combined with early secure
attachment.
Kagan’s criticism
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Kagan believes attachment research is
overinflated.
Says that children are evolutionarily
programmed to stay on a positive
development course, even in the face of poor
parenting.
Believes that genetic and temperamental
differences play more of a role in a child’s
social competencies than attachment does.
Final criticism of attachment
research
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It ignores the diversity of cultural
influences.
In some cultures, children are raised by
multiple people and form attachments
to all of them, not just to the parents.
Bonding
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There’s a sensitive period for bonding in the
first hour after birth; baby is alert and
responsive then
Early research (Klaus & Kennell, 1976; 1982)
suggested that first 6-12 hours after birth
was a critical time for bonding.
Later research said that bonding can occur at
any time; bonding in the first few hours only
increases maternal responsiveness toward
baby for the first 3 days.
Studies with monkeys
(Maestripieri, 2001)
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When mother and infant are separated during
the sensitive period, mom will probably
accept her own infant or one with similar
characteristics if reunion occurs before end of
sensitive period.
When mother and infant are separated during
the sensitive period, mom is likely to reject
own infant and any other one if reunion
occurs after sensitive period.
Maestripieri, 2001, cont.
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When mom and infant are separated after
sensitive period and then reunited, mom will
probably accept her own infant but no one
else’s.
With monkeys, the sensitive period of
caregiving motivation seems to be a
hormonal thing associated with childbirth and
lactation.
Doesn’t seem to apply as well to humans.
Gender differences in
caregiving
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In non-human mammals, females are clearly
much more involved in caregiving than males
are.
Why do male animals show a lack of
caregiving? Probably because of prenatal
hormones and also socialization.
If female animals are exposed to prenatal
androgens, they behave like males do
regarding caregiving. Not interested.