Creating a Secure Base:
Understanding Attachment Theory
University of Utah Summer Institute
Summer 2003
Douglas Goldsmith, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Children’s Center
Attachment
Emotional bond
 Behaviors promote proximity
 Motivational system to seek proximity
 Enhances feelings of security
 Motivates baby to take action when
frightened

Attachment

“To say of a child (or older person) that
he is attached to , or has an attachment
to, someone means that he is strongly
disposed to seek proximity to and
contact with the that individual and to do
so especially in certain specified
conditions.”
Bowlby (1988)
Attachment in Action
Anxiety provoking situation
 Exploration decreases
 Proximity seeking increases
 Infant regains security
 Exploratory system re-engages

Attachment Behavior

“Attachment behaviour is any form of
behavior that results in a person
attaining or maintaining proximity to
some other clearly defined individual
who is conceived as better able to cope
with the world. It is most obvious
whenever the person is frightened,
fatigued, or sick, and is assuaged by
comforting and caregiving.”
Bowlby 1988
Circle of Security
Marvin, Cooper, Hoffman & Powell (2002)

Child’s Exploratory System and Needs
– The child can move off and explore, if he
believes and expects that the attachment
figure will be available if, or when, needed

Attachment System
– The child needs the attachment figure to
be available to protect, comfort, delight,
and organize his feelings when he
becomes overwhelmed
Attachment Classifications

The strange situation
– Secure
65%
– Avoidant
20%
– Ambivalent
10%
– Disorganized 5-10% (80% maltreated)
Attachment Classifications

The strange situation
– Secure
65%
– Avoidant
20%
– Ambivalent
10%
– Disorganized 5-10% (80% maltreated)
Secure (B)
Uses mother as secure base
 Signs of missing mother
 Actively greets with smile or gesture
 Signals or seeks contact if upset
 Once comforted resumes exploration

Solomon & George (1999) p.291
Avoidant (A)
Explores readily
 Little visible distress when left alone
 Upon reunion, looks away or actively
avoids
 May stiffen or lean away if picked up

Solomon & George (1999) p. 291
Ambivalent (C)
Distressed, fretful, passive
 Fails to explore
 Unsettled, distressed by separation
 Alternates bids for contact with signs of
angry rejection
 Fails to find comfort from the parent

Solomon & George (1999) p.291
Disorganized (D)
Behavior lacks an observable goal
 Look fearful
 Behavior is bizarre
 May try to leave after the reunion or
freeze

Secure Attachment Formula
Always
be bigger, wiser, and
kind
Whenever possible, follow
the child’s lead
Whenever necessary, take
charge
Marvin, et al (2002)
Attachment Problems
Bowlby
A severely hurt child fails to seek
comfort
 Signals that ordinarily activate
attachment behavior fail to do so
 System controlling attachment, and the
feelings and desires associated, is
rendered incapable of being aroused

Development of Relationships

“For a relationship between any two
individuals to proceed harmoniously
each must be aware of the other’s pointof-view, his goals, feelings, and
intentions, and each must so adjust his
own behavior that some alignment of
goals is negotiated.
Development of Relationships

This requires that each should have
reasonably accurate models of self and
other which are regularly updated by
free communication between them. It is
here that the mothers of securely
attached children excel, and those of
the insecure are markedly deficient.”
Bowlby (1988) p. 131
Impact of Empathic Failure

“Whatever she fails to recognize in him he is
likely to fail to recognize in himself. In this
way, it is postulated, major parts of a child’s
developing personality can become split off
from, that is, out of communication with, those
parts of his personality that his mother
recognizes and responds to, which in some
cases include features of personality that she
is attributing to him wrongly.” Bowlby (1988) p.132
Maternal Attributions

Fixed beliefs that the mother has about
the child – “beliefs that she perceives as
objective, accurate perceptions of the
child’s essence.”
Lieberman (2000)
Positive Maternal Attributions

“When a mother sees her child as the cutest,
most intelligent, most endearing being ever
created, she is summoning from the depths of
herself the capacity for ecstasy that allows
her to put up with the inevitably annoying,
exasperating, or simply tedious aspects of
raising a child.”
Lieberman (2000)
Maternal Attributions:
Protective Function
Child feels adored
 Allow child to cope with self-doubts and
feelings of despair
 Allow parent to better tolerate selfsacrifices that are integral to the
parenting process
Lieberman (2000)

Negative Maternal Attributions

Determine whether and how mother will
respond to, misinterpret, or ignore
certain behaviors
Lieberman (2000)
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin &Powell , 2000
Parental Empathic Understanding

“Parental empathic understanding
involves the capacity to see things from
the child’s point of view within a
balanced, accepting, and coherent
frame.”
Oppenheim (2000)
Assessment of Parent’s
Point of View

Interview questions:
– Could you give me a thumbnail sketch of your
child?
– Tell me about a time in the past two weeks when
you and your child really clicked.
– Tell me about a time when you didn’t.
– What gives you the most joy in your relationship?
– What gives you the most pain?
– Where do you turn for emotional support?
Steele (2003)
Assessment – Secure Base

Over the past two weeks can you think
of a time when your child was:
– Hurt?
– Frightened?
– Separated from you?
What did your child do?
 How did you respond?

Tips For Working With Parents
Concept of “Good Grandparenting”
 Nurture
 Avoid being sidetracked by opposition
 Understand underlying feelings
 Develop coping strategies
 Focus on the child’s sadness rather
than anger

Working with the Child

Develop a secure base for exploration
– Relationship with a therapist may be a safer
beginning
– Nurturing behavior must occur regularly and
anticipate the child’s needs

Help child explore his/her past relationships
– Play therapy
– Projective games
– Sandtray therapy
Working with the Child

Utilize therapy groups to help broaden the
child’s perception of self
– Lifespace interviews
– Empathy training

Teach the foster and biological parents about
child centered play techniques
– Filial Therapy

Utilize limit setting and natural consequences
to increase security
Working with the Child

Teach the foster and biological parents
communication techniques that deflect
the child’s anger and hostility
– How to talk so kids will listen and listen so
kids will talk. Faber & Mazlish

Gradually reduce reliance on the
therapeutic process and focus on
generalization of skills