ATTACHMENT &
EARLY SOCIAL
RELATIONSHIPS
Counseling 5670D
Dr. Cyndi Matthews
Emotional Charades
Emotions
•What are emotions?
•What is the importance of identifying
emotions for counselors?
•What is the importance of understanding
emotions for counseling?
Emotions:
Questions We will be Trying to Answer
What is the basic nature of emotions?
What is the reason that emotions were developed?
What are the basic or essential human emotions?
What are the physiological functions of
emotions?
• Fight/Flight – protect ourselves
• Disgust – helps protect ourselves from exposure to
harmful substances
• Caregiving – promotes caregiving to ensure
caregiving
• Sexual Relations – urge to engage propagates the
species
Is there a Biological Link to Emotions?
What evidence is there?
• Basic emotions are universal across cultures
• Almost all infants demonstrate expression of basic emotions.
• In reference to neurology, human brains contain “circuits” for
expression emotions that are pre-wired for and responsive to
experience.
What is the Function of Emotions (deeper level)?
What do emotions do for us in life?
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Connection to development of morality & conscience
Essential element of communication
Enhances logical decision making (See Phineas Gage Matrix)
Emotions relation to overall mental health
How are Emotions Developed?
• Range of emotional expression increases dramatically over the first
two years of life
• Izard’s Differential Emotions Theory
• Emotions are a direct product of the underlying neural processes related to
each of the emotional expressions (Genetic/Biological/Evolutionary)
• Sroufe’s Developmental Position
• Emotions develop from undifferentiated responses into more
differentiated ones, finally into an integrated emotional repertoire
(Learned/Environmental)
What is Emotional Competence?
Emotional IQ? Importance?
• Awareness of ones emotional states
• Detecting others emotions
• Using the vocabulary of emotions terms in
socially/culturally appropriate ways
• Having empathy/sympathy to others emotional
experiences
• Recognizing that inner emotional states don’t have to
correspond to outer expression.
• Adaptively coping with negative emotions by using selfregulation.
• Having awareness that expression of emotions plays a
role in relationships.
• Viewing oneself as feeling the way one wants to feel.
What are the Basic Emotions?
Evidence indicates that people across a varieties of cultures and
exposure to western ideas demonstrate basic emotions.
Some disagreement currently surrounds the universality of
contempt and disgust.
The basic facial expressions linked with emotions are the same
regardless of culture (e.g. facial expression for happiness in the
US does not constitute the facial expression for anger in Asian
cultures)
Universality of Emotions
Basic Emotions video
Why is this important to know?
• Evidence points to the existence and agreement on what
constitutes the basic emotions
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Fear
Sadness
Happiness/Joy
Anger
Surprise
Disgust
How Do You Feel Poster?
Do People always know their emotions/feelings?
Emotional Regulation
Adults help children regulate emotions
Interactions in the Still-Face Paradigm experiment
In this experiment a child (3 months old) is place in front of his/her
mother.
The mother is instructed to interact pleasantly with their child.
After a certain interval the mother is instructed to be nonresponsive to the child.
Emotional Regulation Video
(up to about 4:30 or so)
Emotional Regulation
• Frequent Responses to the Still-Face Experiment
• Others-Directed Behaviors
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Using facial expressions, movements, and verbalization to
induce others to interact with the infant in a certain way.
• Self-Directed Behaviors
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Looking away from overstimulation, or self stimulating by
rocking, sucking , etc..
• (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010)
What can some Parental Roles in
Emotional Regulation be with children?
• Emotion Coaching
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Monitor children’s emotions
View negative emotions as opportunities for teaching
Assist in the labeling of emotions
Coach them in how to deal effectively with emotions
• Emotional Dismissing
• View their role as needing to
• Deny
• ignore
• change emotions
Attachment: What is it?
Attachment Video
Early childhood interactions provide the infant with
a working model of self and others.
Bowlby understood attachment as the evolving
system between a child and caregiver that ensures
the child's physical needs are met and his/her
safety.
Attachment:
More Than Meeting Basic Needs
Harlow's experiment of wire-mothers and terrycloth mothers with Rhesus monkeys.
Attachment is more than physical needs; it helps
develop a blue-print for relationships the child will
develop.
Harlow's Monkeys
Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment
• Phase 1: Birth to 2 months
• Infants instinctively direct their attachment to human figures. Strangers,
siblings, and parents are equally likely to elicit smiling or crying from the
infant.
• Phase 2: 2 months to 7 months
• Attachment becomes focused on one figure, usually the primary
caregiver. The infant learns to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people.
• Phase 3: 7 months to 24 months
• Specific attachments develop. With the development of loco motor skills,
babies seek contact with regular caregivers like mothers or fathers.
• Phase 4: 24 months onward
• Children become aware of others’ feelings, goals, and plans and begin to
take these into account in forming their own actions.
Bowlbly’s Internal Model
• Infants develop an internal model of attachment which
includes
• The caregiver
• The child caregiver relationship
• The self as deserving nurturing care
• This model affects not only the caregiver relationship, but
provides a foundation for future social interactions
Important Concepts in Early
Attachment from Bowlby (1988)
• Safe Haven
– The idea that when a child is
threatened/stressed s/he can return to a
primary caregiver for comfort.
• Secure Base
– The idea that a caregiver gives a child a secure
and dependable “base” from which to
explore the environment.
• Proximity Maintenance
– The tendency of children to stay near the
caregiver to remain safe.
• Separation Distress
– The emotional reaction and distress of the
child when being separated from a primary
caregiver.
How Do Parenting
Styles Affect Children?
• Authoritarian
• a parenting style that has a high level of control and a low level of warmth and
affection. Children from these families tend to have lower self esteem, be less
trusting, and more withdrawn.
• “Bigger, stronger, wiser, and kind” - Authoritative
• a parenting style with a high level of the caregiver being “in charge” matched
with a high level of caregiver warmth and affection. Children from these
families tend to be more mature, independent and academically successful.
• Permissive
• a parenting style that has a low level of control and a high level of warmth and
affection. Children from these families tend to be low in self-reliance and selfcontrol and have trouble adjusting to school.
• Uninvolved
• A parenting style that has a low level of control and a low level of warmth and
affection. Children tend to be passive, uninterested, distant, and neglectful and
have trouble in school.
Perhaps:
Where do Attachment Styles Originate?
Problem with this question????
• Secure – responsive parents
• Anxious-Ambivalent – insensitive to child’s needs
• Avoidant-Insecure – rejecting and angry
• Disorganized – unknown responses of parents
Bowlby Attachment
Patterns
and Styles
• Securely Attached
• Anxious-Ambivalent-insecurely
attached
• Avoidant-insecurely attached
• Disorganized-Disorientedinsecurely attached
• (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010)
Strange Situation Experiment
The Strange Situation
Strange situation experiment
Start at about 1:30
Measurement technique developed by Mary Ainsworth and her
colleagues
Three patterns of infant response
Securely attached
Anxious ambivalent – insecurely attached
Avoidant – insecurely attached
Fourth pattern first detected by Main and Solomon
disorganized/disoriented – insecurely attached
Securely Attached
• Initially present as anxious and
tearful when separated from
primary caregiver, and cheerfully
greets her upon return.
• Once they are reassured of
caregiver’s they often feel safe to
explore
• Develop increasing tolerance for
separation
• 65% of 1-year olds (Ainsworth,
1978) and, Thompson (1998)
found that the majority of infants
followed this pattern.
Qualities Associated with Securely
Attached Children
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Responded promptly and consistently to crying in 1st year.
Who the baby tenderly and often
Handled the baby with sensitivity
Face-to-face interaction were responsive to the baby’s signals.
Anxious Ambivalent-Insecurely
Attached
• Accounts for about 10% of most studies samples
• Respond by distress at separations from mother/caregiver, just
as other babies do.
• At reunion child acts ambivalent towards mother/caregiver;
alternating between seeking her/him out and avoiding/resisting
her angrily
• Rarely return to exploration
Qualities associated with
Anxious/Ambivalent-Insecurely
Attached Children?
• Inconsistent in responsiveness to crying
• Affectionate but awkward in holding
• Unresponsive in face-to-face interactions
Avoidant- Insecurely Attached
• Account for 20% of most samples.
• Separation-fail to cry or become upset.
• Reunion
– Actively avoid mother/caregiver by either turning away or actually
moving away.
– Studies indicate increased heart rate; indicates that children are
seeking out means other than mother/caregiver to allay anxiety.
What are the Qualities associated with
Avoidant-Insecurely attached children
• Parents avoid holding baby
• Rejecting/angry
• Less warmth & affection
Disorganized-Disoriented-Insecurely
Attached.
• Typically difficult to classify
• Exhibit behaviors of seeking mother/caregiver out; avoiding
her/him when s/he approaches the child.
What are Additional Factors in
Caregiver-Infant Relations?
• Infant Temperament
• Cultural Context (Movie: Babies)
• Socio-economic status (time spent, $
care)
What is Infant Temperament?
Where Does Temperament Come From?
• Definition
individual emotional & behavioral characteristics
• Characteristics
– Fearfulness/reactivity- response to new stimuli
– Irritability/negative emotionality- tendency to react with
fussiness to frustrating events
– Activity level - intensity & quality of movement
– Positive affect - smiling & laughing, esp. @ social stimuli
– Attention-persistence-duration of orientation/looking
– Rhythmicity- predictability of
feeding/sleeping/elimination
– (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010)
Chess & Thomas’
Infant Temperament Classifications
• Easy Child (40%)
• Generally positive in mood, quickly establishes regular routine, and adapts
easily to new experiences.
• Difficult Child (10%)
• Reacts negatively and cries frequently, engages in irregular routines, and is
slow to accept change.
• Slow to Warm up Child (15%)
• Low activity level, somewhat negative, and displays low intensity of mood.
• Variable Child (35%)
• Cannot Classify child into a category
• WHAT IS THE EFFECT ON THE
PARENT OF THE TEMPERAMENT
OF THE CHILD?
Kagan’s Behavioral Inhibition: INFANTS
• Inhibition to the unfamiliar
• The difference in temperament may be a result of a child’s natural reaction
to the unfamiliar. Inhibited children tend to demonstrate avoidance,
distress or flattened affect when in unfamiliar situations.
• Inhibited Children
• Shy
• Subdued
• Timid
• Uninhibited Children
• Extraverted
• Bold
• Sociable
Rothbart and Bate’s Classification
• Extraversion/surgency
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Positive anticipation
Impulsivity
Activity level
Sensation seeking
• Negative Affectivity
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Fear
Frustration
Sadness
Discomfort
• Effortful Control (self-regulation)
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Attention focusing and shifting
Inhibitory control
Perceptual sensitivity
Low intensity pleasure
FINDING CAUSES?
• WHAT CAUSES ATTACHMENT STYLE?
• WHAT CAUSES TEMPERAMENT OF THE CHILD?
• WHAT CAUSES PARENTING STYLE?
• IMPICATIONS FOR COUNSELOR? PARENTS?
What are SES Effects on Attachment?
• Vaugh et al. (1979) study indicated that 10 children moved from
securely attached to insecurely in the span of 6 months when
observing low income families
• Stressful events for caregivers can effect infant. HOW?
– Financial Stresses
– Marital Discord
– Addictions
Cultural Effects on Attachment?
• “Stressful Situation” experiment has shown varying effect
across different cultures (E.G. less insecure attachment in
Japan; More insecure attachment in Germany)
• Sensitive Caregivers effects on the quality of attachment are
shown to be universal (though the definition of sensitive is
culturally-bound)
Variations in Attachment
• Mother/Father/Multiple Caregivers tend
to develop similar attachment
– Consistent model of self & attachment
which extends to others
– Similarity in caregiver sensitivity
• Stability & Change
– Low SES are more likely to shift between
security or insecurity
– Changes generally occur in 2nd year. After
toddlerhood, changes are slightly more
permanent.
Does early Attachment Effect Later Life?
• 4 yrs
– Children rated secure at 18 mo. Were seen
as appropriate in levels of dependence,
seeking help when needed
– Children rated insecure at 18 mo. Were seen
as helpless, acting out, and passively avoid
seeking help.
• 10 yrs
– Children rated secure at 18 mo. More likely
to be self-confident and better social skills
– Children rated insecure at 18 mo. Were less
likely to be confident and have better social
skills.
Adult
Attachment Patterns (AAI)
http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/measures/content/aai_interview.pdf
http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl
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Secure-Autonomous
– Value relationships believe their
personalities were influenced by them
– Ability to talk openly & objectively about
early experiences both good and bad.
Insecure/Fearful
– Unresolved-Disorganized
• Parents who made irrational and inconsistent
comments
• Often disorganized-disoriented attachment
type
Dismissive Type
• Relationships not valued, recalled, or
considered important
• Frequently had Avoidant Attachment as infants
Preoccupied/Entangled Type
• Preoccupied with their parents, still trying to
please
• Seem confused/angry/very passive.
• Typically Ambivalent attachment type
So What Can a Counselor DO?
• Provide a voice for the baby/child – what is normal
• Provide support for the parents
• Help parents learn new skills
• Floor time
• Share experiences with the child
• CASE Study: p. 146-147 Angela & Adam
Play Development
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhF6E7zHqWI
• Solitary (0-2 years)
– Plays by him/herself
• Spectator (2- 2 ½ years)
– Observes children playing around him/her but little interaction
• Parallel (2 ½ -3 years)
– Plays alongside others, but not with them
• Associate (3-4 years)
– Interaction develops and fleeting cooperation. Develops
preferences for playmates.
• Cooperative (4-6+ years)
– Plays together with shared goals with other children
– (Santrock, 1999)
Friendship Development (R.L. Selman)
(Asher & Gottman, 1981)
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Stage 0: (3-7 years)
– Child has momentary playmates based
on proximity and convenience. No
concept of long-term friendship, just
encounter-by-encounter experiences
Stage 1: (4-9 years)
– One way assistance: a friend is someone
who helps you. A good friend is
someone you know better than others.
Stage 2: (6-12 years)
– Fair weather cooperation: Development
of interpersonal interactions.
Reciprocity develops, but sustained
focus on individual incidents.
Stage 3: (11-15 years)
– Intimacy and mutuality develop in this
stage with a focus on continuing
relationships.
Stage 4: (12-adulthood)
– Perspectives can be shared on common
interest and deeper feelings. Formation
of a network.