Human growth and development test 4: Attachment & Temperment

Difficult temperament

-Difficult babies are active, irritable, and irregular in biological rhythms. -slow to adapt to changes in routine or new situations, react vigorously to change, and have trouble adjusting to new routines -About 10% of the NYSL sample fell into this category

Easy Temperament

-Easy babies are often in a positive mood, even-tempered, open, adaptable, regular, and predictable in biological functioning. -establish regular feeding and sleeping schedules easily. -About 40% of the NYSL sample fell into this category.

Separation protest or Separation anxiety

-a reaction to separations from an attachment figure characterized by fear, distress, crying, and whining -tends to increase between 8 and 13 to15 months of age and then declines

internal working model

-a set of expectations about one's worthiness of love, the availability of attachment figures during times of distress, and how one will be treated. -influences the development of self-concept, or sense of self, in infancy and becomes a guide to later relationships throughout life

temperament

-characteristic way in which an individual approaches and reacts to people and situations. -thought to be one of the basic building blocks of emotion and personality. -genetic bases for temperament

Insecure disorganized attachment

-infants who show inconsistent, contradictory behavior. -shows a conflict between the approaching and fleeing the caregiver, suggesting fear. -Frightening parental behavior (at the extreme, child abuse) is thought to play a role in insecure disorganized attachment -attachment is a reliable predictor of social and emotional maladjustment from childhood into adulthood

Insecure Resistant Attachment

-show a mixed pattern of responses to the mother. -infant remains preoccupied with the mother throughout the procedure, seeking proximity and contact, but the infant's behavior during reunions suggest resistance as well as signs of anger and distress. -child experiences difficulty settling down and simultaneously seeks proximity and pushes away or hits -may show anger or be passive.

Insecure avoidant Attachment

-show little interest in the mother and busily explore the room during the Strange Situation. -infant is not distressed during the Strange Situation and is not enthusiastic upon reuniting with the mother. -infant ignores or avoids the mother on return or shows subtle signs of avoidance, such as failing to greet her -resist attempts to be comforted by turning away.

Slow-to-warm-up temperament

-slow-to-warm-up babies tend to be inactive, moody, and slow to adapt to new situations and people. -react to new situations with mild irritability but adjust more quickly than do infants with difficult temperaments. -About 15% of the NYSL sample fell into this category.

Infants who are securely attached tend to be more______

-sociable with peers and unfamiliar adults than are those who are insecurely attached -have more positive interactions with peers and their attempts at friendly interactions with peers are more likely to be successful

Adults displaying the anxious attachment style

-tend to fear abandonment, feel unworthy of love, and become overly dependent on their partners, showing possessiveness and jealousy, as well as feeling less trusting

Securely attached adults seek_______

-to bond with their partners, desire closeness, and are comforted by their partners. -They have a secure internal working model of self, they like themselves and tend to feel that they are lovable, and they have the ability to get close to others to establish an intimate relationship.

avoidantly attached adult tends_______

-to have a secure internal working model of self and feels worthy of love, but may not trust or depend on others, feeling that their partners want more intimacy than they do. -may avoid relationships, finding it difficult to get close to others and instead distance themselves from their partner

secure attachment

-two-thirds of infants in middle-class samples display -display stranger anxiety and separation protest -infant greets the mother enthusiastically and seeks comfort during reunion sessions. Once comforted, he or she returns to individual play. -uses the mother as a secure base as he or she plays and explores but returns regularly to check in with the mother

Temperament at age _____ remains stable, predicting temperament at age 6

3

Stage 2: Discriminating Sociability (2 through 6-7 months):

Babies begin to discriminate among adults and prefer familiar people. Attachment responses are directed toward a particular adult or adults who are best able to soothe the baby.

Stage 3: Attachments (7 to 24 months):

Infants develop attachments to specific caregivers who attend, accurately interpret, and consistently respond to their signals. Infants can gain proximity to caregivers through their own motor efforts, such as crawling.

Distractibility

Some babies can be easily distracted from objects or situations while others cannot.

Adaptability.

Some babies get used to new experiences and situations quickly; others do not.

Intensity of reaction.

Some babies have very extreme reactions, giggling exuberantly and crying with piercing wails. Other babies show more subdued reactions, such as simple smiles and soft, whimpering cries.

Threshold of responsiveness

Some babies notice many types of stimuli—sights, sounds, and touch sensations—and react to them. Other infants notice few types of stimuli and seem oblivious to changes.

Attention span.

Some babies play with one toy for a long time without becoming bored, whereas others get bored easily and change toys often.

Approach-withdrawal

Some babies tend to approach new situations, people, and objects, whereas others withdraw from novelty.

Quality of mood

Some babies tend toward near-constant happiness while others tend toward irritability.

Rhythmicity.

Some infants are predictable in their patterns of eating, sleeping, and defecating; other babies are not predictable.

Stage 1: Indiscriminate Social Responsiveness (birth to 2 months)

When caregivers are sensitive and consistent in responding to babies' signals, babies learn to associate their caregivers with the relief of distress, forming the basis for an initial bond. Infants respond to any caregiver who reacts to their signals, whether parent, grandparent, child-care provider, or sibling.

Stage 4: Reciprocal Relationships (24-30 months and onward):

With advances in cognitive and language development, children can engage in interactions with their primary caregiver as partners, taking turns and initiating interactions within the attachment relationship. They begin to understand others' emotions and goals and apply this understanding though strategies such as social referencing.

Bowlby developed an ethological theory of attachment which characterizes it as___________

an adaptive behavior that evolved because it contributed to the survival of the human species.

Young infants' temperament can change with________

experience, neural development, and sensitive caregiving

secure base

foundation to return to when frightened.

An important influence on socioemotional development is the _________________ between the child's temperament and the environment around him or her, especially the parents' temperaments and child-rearing methods

goodness of fit

Disorganized attachment is more common among infants who______

have been abused or raised in particularly poor caregiving environments and is associated with infant fear

Insecure-resistant attachment is associated with_______

inconsistent and unresponsive parenting.

Temperament during __________ is relatively stable

infancy(and first year of life)

Signaling behaviors

infant behaviors such as crying, smiling, and cooing that initiate the contact and bring the caregiver to the child

The insecure-avoidant attachment pattern is associated with_______

parental rejection

Attachment

refers to a lasting emotional tie between two people who each strive to maintain closeness to the other and act to ensure that the relationship continues. It is a strong emotional bond that endures over time.

Father-child interaction is an important contributor to children's development and is associated with______

social competence, independence, and cognitive development in children

Activity level.

some babies wriggle, kick their legs, wave their arms, and move around a great deal, whereas other babies tend to be more still and stay in one place.

Fathers tent to be more _______ while mothers are more_________

stimulating; soothing

Mothers of securely attached infants provide________

stimulation, warmth, and consistently synchronize or match their interactions with their infants' needs

strange situation

structured observational procedure that reveals the security of attachment when the infant is placed under stress.

Infants who are insecurely attached have mothers who______

tend to be more rigid, unresponsive, inconsistent, and demanding

The most important determinant of infant attachment is________

the caregiver's ability to consistently and sensitively respond to the child's signals

What factors can transform secure attachment into insecure attachment?

the loss of a parent, parental divorce, a parent's psychiatric disorder, and physical abuse, as well as changes in family stressors, adaptive processes and living conditions