Describing secure and insecure attachment

1. Describing secure and insecure attachment Brunner & Messinger

2. Review: Attachment defined • What is the difference between being attached and being securely attached? • What is the evidence (review Harlow) that attachment is a primary motivational system? • How does the attachment system work and what is its evolutionary function? • What is the difference between attachment behaviors, the attachment system, and the attachment bond?

3. Describing secure and insecure attachment •  How is security of attachment assessed in the Strange Situation? • Describe secure attachment and avoidant, anxious, and disorganized attachment? • Use descriptions to inform paper • Watch other types of interaction to understand how attachment security relates to play interaction • Empirical project tie-in 

4. Attachment system • Stress activates the attachment system & reveals the child’s strategy • Security is an equilibrium • Avoidance is deactivation/shutting down • Resistance is over-activation/acting up

5. Measuring attachment security • A construct (secure attachment) Is different than its measurement or operationalization • Attachment security can be measured with a Q-sort (an intricate rating system) • Prototypically measured with the Strange Situation (12 – 36 months at least)

6. Cross-cultural assessment • 2,000 Ainsworth strange situation classifications obtained in 8 different countries. • Intracultural variation was nearly 1.5 times the cross-cultural variation. • Some samples from one country resembled those in other countries more than they did each other. • Cross-cultural differences • Avoidant classifications emerge relatively more prevalent in Western European countries • resistant classifications relatively more frequent in Israel and Japan.

7. Strange Situation protocol8 episodes, 3 min. each • 1: mother given instructions outside room • 2: mother & child in room • 3: stranger enters • 4: 1st separation (stranger present) • 5: 1st reunion • 6: 2nd separation (baby alone) • 7: stranger reunion • 8: 2nd reunion

8. Reunion coding scales • Proximity seeking • Contact maintenance • Avoidance • Resistance • 1(low) -7 (high) • Disorganization • 1 to 9

9. Overall strategy • A – Avoidant • Avoid caregiver • B – Secure • Seek and be comforted by caregiver • C – Resistant • Seek caregiving without surcease • D – Disorganized • Lack a coherent strategy

10. Videos

11. Proximity seeking • The intensity and persistence of the baby’s efforts to gain (or regain) contact or proximity to mother. • High score: very active effort and initiative • Low score: weak or no effort; may interact over a distance

12. Proximity seeking behaviors • Immediate (vs. Delayed) approach to mom • Purposeful and effective approach • Going all the way to mother and making contact • Reaching for pick up

13. Contact Maintenance • Degree of activity and persistence in baby’s efforts to maintain contact with mother once contact has been gained. • High score: active & persistent effort • Low score: little to no effort

14. Contact Maintenance Behaviors • Resisting release, clambering up after being put down • Protesting release by crying • Clinging on attempted release • Remaining in contact after being put down i.E. Holding on to mother’s knee

15. Avoidance • Intensity, persistence, duration and promptness of the baby’s avoidance of proximity and interaction, even across a distance. • High score: marked, persistence avoid. Behaviors • Low score: little to no behaviors observed • Avoidance coding is stopped at point of contact

16. Physiology • Higher heart rate for avoidant infants

17. Avoidance Behaviors • Delay in responding to mom’s entrance • Ignoring mom’s entrance; No greeting given • Busying self with toys at point of reunion • Gaze aversion when mom bids • Trying to go past mom out the door • Orienting body away from mom

18. Resistance Intensity and frequency or duration of resistant behavior evoked by the person who comes into contact with or proximity to the baby, or who attempts to initiate interaction or play; ambivalence about contact. High score: intense & persistent resistance Low score: little or no resistance observed resistance is tied to contact with mom

19. Resistance Behaviors • Angry mood, pouting, petulance, distress, cranky fussing, temper tantrum • Squirming when held • Rejection of toys when mom offers • Not easily calmed • Crying after being calmed • Crying in response to increased proximity

20. Disorganization • Inexplicable behavior • No goal/strategy • Behavior suggests infant fears caregiver • Disorganized behavior should occur with caregiver and is given more weight if it occurs early in reunion

21. Coding disorganization • “Behavior indicative of conflict, fear, and confusion in relation to their attachment figure . . . Sequential or simultaneous display of contradictory behavior patterns; undirected, misdirected, incomplete, and interrupted movements and expressions; stereotypes, asymmetrical movements, mistimed movements, and anomalous postures; freezing, stilling, and slowed movements and expressions; and direct indexes of apprehension, disorganization, or disorientation.” (Belsky et al., 1996)

22. Disorganized behavior • Sequential/simultaneous displays of contradictory behaviors • Incomplete and stereotypic movements • Freezing/stilling/slowing • Indices of apprehension • A 9-point Disorganization scale where scores of 5+ indicate disorganization.

23. Physiology • Disorganized infant have higher stress reactions (salivary cortisol) than other infants • in the Strange Situation– two studies • Reasonably stable categorization • R=.34 over x 25 months • Meta-analysis: Van Ijzendoorn, Schuengel, & Bakermans-Kranenburg (1999) • Higher heart rate for avoidant infants

24. Overall strategy • A – Avoidant • Avoid caregiver • B – Secure • Seek and be comforted by caregiver • C – Resistant • Seek caregiving without surcease • D – Disorganized • Lack a coherent strategy

25. Typical A Behaviors • moderate to high avoidance in reunions • low contact maintenance and proximity seeking in reunions • show less overt distress in separations • ignore mother at point of reunion • less positive interactions with mother • gaze aversion to mother and stranger

26. A subclassifications • A1: conspicuous avoidance throughout, no signaling to mom, appear neutral or uninterested. • A2: mixed response, some tendency to greet and approach mixed with marked tendency to move away, will signal to mom.

27. Typical B Behaviors • More positive towards mother throughout • Moderate to high levels of proximity seeking; Moderate contact maintenance • Usually distressed in separations, but able to be calmed and return to baseline levels of play

28. B subclassifications I • B1: neutral behavior; may see some avoidance, little distress in separation. B1 child “just is.” • B2: mix of some avoidance & resistance, less need for contact than a B3. Moderate distress in separations.

29. B subclassifications II • B3: mom functions as a secure base; balance between exploration & contact, easily calmed by mom, function independently by end of reunion. • B4: mix of some resistance, preoccupation with contact, “short tether,” unable to settle without mom present, quality of play returns.

30. Typical C Behaviors • less positive interactions with mother • HIGHLY distressed in separations! • preoccupied with mother throughout • seek mother at point of reunion • high contact maintenance and proximity seeking in both reunions • not easily calmed; may not return to baseline level of play

31. C subclassifications • C1: conspicuous resistance throughout; mix of seeking and resisting contact, angry quality. • C2: passive quality to behavior, limited exploration throughout, seem sad, depressed.

32. Disorganized classification • No coherent strategy • Evolved from unclassifiable (A/C) babies • Newer classification • Both avoidant and resistant qualities • or fearful behavior or unusual timing/sequence of behavior • A, B, C vs. D

33. MacArthur Preschool Attachment System(Cassidy & Marvin, 1992)per Seifer et al. in press, Child Development • ‘Secure used caregiver as base for exploration, • special quality to the relationship, minimal avoidant behavior, did not exhibit anxiety/conflict in close contact with caregiver. • ‘Anxious-Avoidant maintained affective neutrality • refrained from personal content/intimacy in speech, maintained physical distance or avoided proximity/gaze, difficulty expressing emotion freely, not smooth emotional transitions.’ • Anxious-Ambivalent - hostility, conflict, & anger, • difficult and protracted separations, unsuccessful attempts controlling behavior of caregiver • Disorganized classification - take several forms • successful control of caregiver behavior (punitive or role-reversed caregiving), atypical forms of insecure behavior, or unusual/contradictory patterns of behavior as described for 18-month-olds.

34. Review Syllabus