HPS121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Puberty, Imaginary Audience, Egocentrism
HPS121 WEEK 3 NOTES
The attachment process in infants and children:
Contact comfort – body contact with a comforting object; more important in
fostering attachment than is the provision of nourishment.
Psychoanalyst John Bowlby proposed that attachment in infancy develops in 3
phases:
1. Indiscriminate attachment behaviour – newborns express their emotions
towards anyone and these behaviours evoke caregiving from adults.
2. Discriminate attachment behaviour – around 3 months, infants direct their
attachment to familiar caregivers only.
3. Specific attachment behaviour – by 7 to 8 months, infants develop a
meaningful attachment to specific caregivers only.
Stranger anxiety – distress over contact with unfamiliar people.
Separation anxiety – distress over being separated from primary caregiver.
Types of attachment:
1. Securely attached – infant is happy when mother is present, distressed when
mother leaves, however happily greet her when she returns.
2. Anxious-resistant (insecurely attached) – constantly demands the mother’s
attention even when she is present, distressed when she leaves, and aren’t soothed
even when she returns and may react angrily.
3. Anxious-avoidant (insecurely attached) – shows few signs of attachment, low or
no distress when she leaves and doesn’t seek contact when she returns.
Attachment deprivation – being raised without a secure attachment to a real,
interactive caregiver produces long-term social impairment. This is especially so if
raised alone or entering rehabilitation at an older age, when the brain’s neural
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Document Summary
Contact comfort body contact with a comforting object; more important in fostering attachment than is the provision of nourishment. Stranger anxiety distress over contact with unfamiliar people. Separation anxiety distress over being separated from primary caregiver. Attachment deprivation being raised without a secure attachment to a real, interactive caregiver produces long-term social impairment. This is especially so if raised alone or entering rehabilitation at an older age, when the brain"s neural plasticity is weaker. Prolonged attachment deprivation creates developmental risks, but when deprived children are placed into a nurturing environment at a young enough age, many become attached to their caretakers and grow into well-adjusted adults. Strange situation a procedure used to assess infant attachment. Warm parents communicate love and caring and hostile parents express rejection and behave as if they don"t care about the child: authoritative are controlling but warm.
