Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test.

LITTI 2 PM

ATTATCHMENT THEORY

Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to
another across time and space (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969).
Attachment theory in psychology originates from the seminal work of John Bowlby
(1958). In the 1930’s John Bowlby worked as a psychiatrist in a Child Guidance Clinic in
London, where he treated many emotionally disturbed children.
This experience led Bowlby to consider the importance of the child’s relationship with
their mother in terms of their social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Specifically, it shaped his belief about the link between early infant separations with
the mother and later maladjustment and led Bowlby to formulate his attachment
theory.

CHILDREN’S NEED FOR PROXIMITY:

“Infants have a universal need to seek close proximity with their caregiver when under
stress or threatened” (Prior & Glaser, 2006)
An attachment is a special emotional bond that babies make with their particular
caregivers.

HOW ATTACHMENTS EVOLVE:

For the attachment to happen, people and the infant must spend some quality time
together and interact with one another.
Young babies are willing to be sociable with just about anyone who pays attention to
them. And over the next months, the infant will grow to trust, and to enjoy the
company of these people. (SAFE BASE)
We come with a natural instinct to bond with humans.

HOW DO WE KNOW IF ATTACHMENT HAS OCCURED?

By 8 months old, babies should have become firmly attached to their primary
caregivers. There are two ways of telling if a baby is attached to someone.
1. Stranger fear (6 months).
2. Separation Distress (12 months).

SCHAFFER AND EMERSON:

From 6 weeks old to 6 months babies become increasingly sociable with anyone.
By seven months they want to be near their main caregiver and started to be wary of
strangers. (This makes the beginning of the first attachment)
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ATTACHMENT AND OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS

Bowly claimed that a baby makes one central attachment to one main caregiver.
Although the caregiver does not need to be the baby’s natural mother.
Daniel Stern has shown that babies can signal their needs to their parents and help to
regulate the type of amount of contact that they receive.
Michael Lamb went further and said that babies prefer different caregivers for
different activities.

STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
1. ASOCIAL (0 to 6 weeks) Babies generally don't mind who is with them.
2. INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENTS (6 weeks to 7 months) They start to decide
who they feel safe with.
3. SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT (7 to 9 months) Preferences are expressed clearly.
4. MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT (10 months and onwards) Multiple attachments
forming.

FOUR PHASES
1. Pre attachment:
Birth to 6/12 weeks
Use social signals to elicit adult care – smiling, crying.
No difference to who gave attention, later individualized attachments.
Recognize familiar faces, voices, smells, characteristic behaviors.
2. Attachment-in-the-making:
6/12 weeks to 6/8 months.
Attend people selectively.
Learn rhythms of interactions, anticipating them.
3. Clear-cut-attachment:
6/8 months to 1 ½ years.
Children show who they are attached to, one or a group of people.
Reaching out to be picked up, protest when separated, looks of recognition.
Tend to calm down when received sensitive care.
Start showing intense fears, to the unknown – the beginning of exploration.
Exploration – secure base.
Unknown adult – stranger anxiety.
Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test. LITTI 2 PM

4. Reciprocal Relationship:
1 ½ /2 years.
Exchanging ideas and feelings, back and forth “conversation”.
QUALITY IN RELATIONSHIPS: Love, games, cuddles, attention, conversations, comfort
& security.

ATTACHMENT’S SUCCESS:
The success and intensity of the attachment does not depend on the amount of
stimulation the baby receives, but on the quality of it.
Infants may form attachments with those people who are deeply involved in playing
and sharing moments with them, and not form attachments to those who care for
them physically.

ATTACHMENT IN OLDER CHILDREN:

“By this time children have developed enough language and thinking to enable them
to experiment with their world to see what happens.”
Less well-attached children tend to be less adventurous and less independent and will
want to stay nearer to their parents.
During pre-school period, children should start to attach to their peers, and start in a
non-stopping journey to develop bonding with their peers.

WHEN ATTACHMENT FAILS:

When it fails completely children suffer terribly. (The weakest attachment occurs when
being abused)
The circumstances under which attachment are least likely to be made include those
where the problem lies with the baby, and those where the parents are responsible.
1. Disabled babies.
2. Difficult babies.
3. Not good parents (abuse, unloved).
4. Unplanned babies.
5. Difficult environments.
The more of these factors there are, the less likely it becomes to make firm
attachments.
Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test. LITTI 2 PM

LONG TERM DEPRIVATION

It is important to say that Children can overcome the lack of an early attachment
without suffering affectionless psychopathy. However, Deprivation of parenting will
almost certainly have unfortunate consequences if nothing is done to help make up for
the deprivation.
Children can recover if there is adequate, high-quality, continuous care available.

TYPES OF ATTACHMENT:
Mary Ainsworth developed the idea of types of attachment.
Secure: children use attachment figures as a source of comfort when distressed, as a
secure base from which to explore.
Insecure-resistant: children are preoccupied with their attachment figures but gain
little comfort when distressed.
Insecure-avoidant: children appear indifferent to attachment figures.
Disorganized and disoriented: children lack a single coherent way of responding to
attachment figures.

TYPES OF ATTACHMENT AND LATER PATTERNS:

Secure attachment
A toddler who is securely attached to its parent (or other familiar caregiver) will
explore freely while the caregiver is present, typically engages with strangers, is often
visibly upset when the caregiver departs, and is generally happy to see the caregiver
return.
Parents who consistently (or almost always) respond to their child's needs will create
securely attached children. Such children are certain that their parents will be
responsive to their needs and communications.

SECURELY ATTACHED CHILDREN:

Securely attached children are best able to explore when they have the knowledge of a
secure base to return to in times of need. When assistance is given, this bolsters the
sense of security and also, assuming the parent's assistance is helpful, educates the
child in how to cope with the same problem in the future. Therefore, secure
attachment can be seen as the most adaptive attachment style.
According to some psychological researchers, a child becomes securely attached when
the parent is available and able to meet the needs of the child in a responsive and
appropriate manner. At infancy and early childhood, if parents are caring and attentive
towards their children, those children will be more prone to secure attachment.
Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test. LITTI 2 PM

ANXIOUS-RESISTANT INSECURE ATTACHMENT:

Also called ambivalent attachment.
In general, a child with an anxious-resistant attachment style will typically explore little
and is often wary of strangers, even when the caregiver is present.
When the caregiver departs, the child is often highly distressed. The child is generally
ambivalent when they return.
The Anxious-Ambivalent/Resistant strategy is a response to unpredictably responsive
caregiving.
The mixture of seeking and yet resisting contact and interaction has an unmistakably
angry quality and indeed an angry tone may characterize behavior in the pre-
separation episode.

ANXIOUS-AVOIDANT INSECURE ATTACHMENT:

A child with the anxious-avoidant insecure attachment style will avoid or ignore the
caregiver – showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns.
The child will not explore very much regardless of who is there.
They do not exhibit distress on separation, and either ignored the caregiver on their
return or showed some tendency to approach together with some tendency to ignore
or turn away from the caregiver.
The child's needs are frequently not met, and the child comes to believe that
communication of needs has no influence on the caregiver.

DISORGANIZED/DISORIENTED ATTACHMENT
Ainsworth was the first to find difficulties in fitting all infant behavior into the three
classifications.
These children present an univalent behavior that fluctuates between anger and
sadness.
Very unpredictable children.
Most of the mothers of these children had suffered major losses or other trauma
shortly before or after the birth of the infant and had reacted by becoming severely
depressed.

The more the child feels attached to the mother, the more secure he is in
his acceptance of himself and the rest of the world. The more love he gets,
Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test. LITTI 2 PM

the more he is capable of giving. Attachment is as central to the

developing child as eating and breathing.

Attachment theory is based on the concept of a deep and lasting emotional bond
between individuals. It was initially developed by John Bowlby, who observed the
distress experienced by children when separated from their mothers. This
contradicted the prevailing behavioral theory of attachment, which emphasized the
role of feeding in forming attachments. Bowlby proposed that attachment is a
psychological connection that enhances an infant's chances of survival, and it is
characterized by behaviors such as seeking proximity to the attachment figure when
upset or threatened. Attachment behavior in adults involves responding sensitively
and appropriately to a child's needs. This theory explains how the parent-child
relationship develops and influences subsequent development. Attachment is
considered to be universal across cultures, and it is believed to develop through
stages.
Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson conducted a longitudinal study in 1964,
observing 60 babies over the first 18 months of their lives to understand the stages of
attachment. The study took place in the babies' homes and involved monthly visits,
observations of interactions with caregivers, interviews with caregivers, and diary
entries by the mothers. Three measures were recorded to assess attachment
development: stranger anxiety, which measured the response to the arrival of a
stranger; separation anxiety, which gauged the distress level when separated from a
caregiver and the comfort needed upon reunion; and social referencing, which
assessed the extent to which a child looks at their caregiver for guidance in responding
to new situations (secure base). This research aimed to identify a regular pattern in the
development of attachment during the early stages of life.

Schaffer and Emerson's study revealed a sequence of stages in the development of

attachment in infants:

1. Asocial Stage (0-6 weeks): During this stage, infants are relatively indifferent to
social stimuli but may respond positively to various stimuli, including social
interactions.
2. Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 7 months): Infants in this stage enjoy
human company in general and are responsive to multiple caregivers. However,
they may become upset when an individual stops interacting with them. By
around 3 months, they start showing more smiles towards familiar faces and
can be easily comforted by a regular caregiver.
3. Specific Attachment (7-9 months): In this stage, infants form a special
preference for a single attachment figure, typically the primary caregiver. They
seek security, comfort, and protection from this specific person. Fear of
strangers (stranger fear) and distress upon separation from the attachment
Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test. LITTI 2 PM

figure (separation anxiety) are common during this stage. Specific attachments
are typically well-formed by the age of one year.
4. Multiple Attachments (10 months onwards): As infants become more
independent, they form attachments with several individuals. By 18 months,
most infants have developed multiple attachments, including those with
mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, and neighbors.

The study found that the quality of attachment was determined by the caregiver's
sensitive responsiveness to the infant's signals rather than the amount of time spent
with them. Infants who had intense attachments had mothers who promptly
responded and interacted with them, while weakly attached infants had mothers who
were less responsive.

The study also highlighted that forming attachments is not solely dependent on
feeding and changing the child, but rather on the caregiver's engagement and
communication with the infant. Responsiveness played a crucial role in the attachment
process.

There are two main theories of attachment proposed by psychologists:

1. Learning/Behaviorist Theory: This theory, exemplified by Dollard and Miller

(1950), suggests that attachment is a learned behavior. According to this
theory, the provision of food is the basis for the formation of attachments.
Initially, an infant forms an attachment to the caregiver who provides food.
Through classical conditioning, the infant associates the caregiver, usually the
mother, with the comfort of being fed. The infant also learns that certain
behaviors, such as crying or smiling, elicit desirable responses from others, and
through operant conditioning, they learn to repeat these behaviors to fulfill
their needs.
2. Evolutionary Theory: This theory, supported by Bowlby, Harlow, and Lorenz,
proposes that children are biologically predisposed to form attachments
because it enhances their chances of survival. Infants exhibit innate behaviors
known as "social releasers," such as crying and smiling, which elicit caregiving
responses from adults. In this theory, the determinant of attachment is not
primarily food but rather care and responsiveness from the caregiver.

Bowlby further suggested that children typically form a single primary attachment
(monotropy) and that the attachment figure serves as a secure base from which the
child can explore the world. The attachment relationship acts as a prototype for future
social relationships, and disruptions to this attachment can have significant
consequences.

The evolutionary theory also emphasizes the existence of a critical period (typically
between 0-5 years) for developing attachment. If an attachment does not form during
this period, it is believed to result in irreversible developmental consequences, such as
reduced intelligence and increased aggression.
Child development and learning theories MID-TERM test. LITTI 2 PM