Psychology 2410A/B Lecture 4: Attachment Theory and Research

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2410A/B
• Professor: Lynne Zarbatany

Document Summary

Attachment is an enduring emotional bond that unites 2 or more people across time. Helps infant regulate negative emotions (fear, distress); reduce stress. Influenced by: later love relations: freud infant-mother relationship is first &strongest love-object &prototype of all, ethologists bonding studies involving ducklings, learning theories could not explain (orphanage, primate students) Made it seem like bonding process really was wired: spitz: infants socially deprived in orphanages; failure to thrive. Infants had problems w/cognition, locomotion, extreme fear of novelty, self-stimulation, high mortality rate. In the absence of social relationships, infants were not surviving: harlow: monkeys raised w/o mothers behave similarly to deprived human infants. Gravitate towards cloth mothers because they provide security. Attachment result of mutual regulatory processes between af and infant from birth: mediated by hormones, eg. oxytocin. Infant behavior: cries, seeks contact when distressed, fearful. Af behavior: soothes, holds, reduces infant stress. Distress-relief sequences key context for developing attachment.