Source: Erick Taggert, Author
Overview
(0:02-2:51) Attachment Theory
(2:51-7:05) Ainsworth’s 3 Styles of Attachment
Terms to Know
Attachment
a close emotional bond that infants form with their parents or caregivers
Separation anxiety
distress displayed by infants when they are separated from their parents or principal caregivers, i.e. crying, flailing
Detailed Notes
(0:02-2:51) Attachment Theory
In the 1960s, psychologist Harry Harlow conducted experiments that showed the importance of forming attachments.
He took baby rhesus monkeys away from their mothers and put them in rooms with two surrogates: one made of wire that provided food and one made of terry cloth.
The baby monkey would cling to the terry cloth monkey more, and would go to it if something frightening occurred.
Contact Comfort: pleasant and reassuring feeling human and animal infants get from touching or clinging to something soft and warm, usually their mother.
Harlow’s baby monkey wanted contact comfort, even over other needs like food.
Attachment: a close emotional bond that infants form with their parents or caregivers
This parent or caregiver provides a home base from which the child can explore the world with safety and security.
The first year of life is a sensitive period to form attachments. They begin to prefer their mother to other people and gradually begin to accept others.
Sensitive period: a period of time of increased sensitivity to outside stimuli
Separation anxiety: distress displayed by infants when they are separated from their parents or principal caregivers, i.e. crying, flailing
This is a normal sign that attachment as occurred.
(2:51-7:05) Ainsworth’s 3 Styles of Attachment
Mary Ainsworth is an American psychologist that identified three different styles of attachment in a 1967 paper:
1 successful style and 2 unsuccessful styles.
Secure attachment style is a stable and positive emotional bond where the child uses the caregiver as a home base to explore the world, shows separation anxiety when the caregiver leaves and seeks comfort when he or she returns.
Requires appropriate and consistent sensitivity and responsiveness to needs.
Insecure-Avoidant attachment is an anxious emotional bond marked by a tendency to avoid reunion with a parent or caregiver. The child doesn’t show affection when playing with or being held by the caretaker, and he or she shows no distress when the caregiver leaves.
Caused by little or no response to the child’s distress, or when the parent encourages too much independence
Insecure-Ambivalent attachment is an anxious emotional bond marked by both a desire to be with a parent or caregiver and some resistance to being reunited. The child is constantly concerned with caretaker’s availability and seeks contact; however, he or she resists or can be uncaring when he or she, and the child takes time to warm up when a caretaker leaves the room and then returns.
Caused by inconsistent responses by the caretaker, both appropriate and inappropriate.
Source: Erick Taggert, Author
