PSYC1003 Study Guide - Final Guide: Social Change, Attachment In Adults, John Bowlby
Social Development
• Social development - changes in interpersonal thought, feeling and behaviour throughout the
life span.
Attachment
• Attachment - the enduring ties to affection that children form with their primary caregivers
(Bowlby, 1969). It includes:
o A desire for proximity to an attachment figure.
o A sense of security derived from the person's presence.
o Feelings of distress when the person is absent.
• Attachment is dynamic: it involves reciprocal interaction between child and caregiver.
• Bowlby's Evolutionary Theory of Attachment – young animals imprint on figures during
sensitive periods early in life. This confers an evolutionary advantage: stays safe and
nourished, and Bowlby argued same mechanism drives attachment in humans.
• Imprinting - the tendency of young animals of certain species to follow an animal to which
they were exposed during a sensitive period in their lives.
• Contact comfort - the ties that bind an infant to its caregivers.
Development of Attachment
• Attachment develops over the first 2 years of life - the first precursor by newborns is a general
preference for social stimuli (such as faces) over other objects.
• At 6-7 months, infants begin to show separation anxiety - distress at separation from their
attachment figures.
• Separation anxiety emerges about the same time in children of different cultures – could have
a genetic/biological basis.
Individual Differences in Attachment Patterns
• Strange Situation exp. (Ainsworth, 1973) - the mother leaves young child (12-18mo) alone in a
room of toys → child joined briefly by stranger → mother returns and greets the child.
• Attachment Styles:
o Secure (65%) – may or may not be distressed by separation; on reunion they actively
approach the parent for comfort and support.
o Avoidant (21%) – usually not distressed by comfort; on reunion are slow to seek
comfort.
o Ambivalent (14%) – usually distressed by separation; on reunion they approach parent
for support but display anger and resistance to comforting.
o Disorganised - children behave in contradictory ways, indicating helpless efforts to
draw out smoothing responses from the attachment figure.
• The frequency of different styles of attachment differs substantially across cultures.
• Infants develop internal working models - mental representations of attachment relationships
that form the basis for expectations in close relationships.
Implications of Attachment for Later Development
• Attachment behaviours do not cease once children become more independent → attachment
figures change throughout lifespan.
• Security of attachment in infancy predicts a range of behaviours as children grow older, from
self-control and peer acceptance to competent behaviour in the classroom.
• The theory of internal working models helps make sense of why attachment security with
parents predicts the quality of peer relationships years later, particularly close peers, as well as
with later attachment figures, notably partners.
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Document Summary
Social development: social development - changes in interpersonal thought, feeling and behaviour throughout the life span. Attachment: attachment - the enduring ties to affection that children form with their primary caregivers (bowlby, 1969). This confers an evolutionary advantage: stays safe and nourished, and bowlby argued same mechanism drives attachment in humans. Imprinting - the tendency of young animals of certain species to follow an animal to which they were exposed during a sensitive period in their lives: contact comfort - the ties that bind an infant to its caregivers. Separation anxiety emerges about the same time in children of different cultures could have a genetic/biological basis. Infants develop internal working models - mental representations of attachment relationships that form the basis for expectations in close relationships. Cultural variations in temperament: different cultures have different perceptions of what is and is not a desirable temperament for their children, which result in different approaches to child-rearing, discipline and socialisation.
