Attachment and Security
The ability to recognize communicative intent is only one of the intrinsic abilities (or predispositions) towards social interaction that is present in newborn babies.
Other innate behaviours such as rooting for the breast, crying and grasping all create proximity to the caretaker.
These actions ensure the physical closeness required to build a relationship.
Some research suggests that the pitch and amplitude (loudness) of a baby’s cry has been developed by evolution to prompt immediate action by adults. Babies’ cries appear to be designed to be maximally stressful to hear.
Smiling also begins early, and infants use smiles to reward social interaction from carers.
Experiments show that infants smile most during face-to-face contingent interactions with carers. These are interactions characterized by turn-taking, infant-directed speech and playful warmth (‘interpersonal contingency’).
At birth infants prefer the mother’s voice and the mother’s smell, as these are most familiar. However, the important factors in becoming a ‘preferred attachment figure’ are proximity and consistency.
Babies quickly learn to prefer the faces, voices and smells of their most consistent and warm caretakers. These specific attachments that babies form are very important for healthy psychological development.
Nevertheless, research does not suggest that separation from the mother following birth (for example, for a medical procedure) prevents ‘bonding’ with the infant. The psychological relationship or ‘bond’ that mothers and other caretakers form with infants grows over time. Consistency of contact, responsiveness and warmth are the key attributes.
The consistency of early attachment experiences are critical for the development of children’s ‘internal working models’ (psychological expectations) of their value as a person who is deserving of love and support from others.
If these interactions are characterized by consistency and warmth, the baby is described as showing ‘security of attachment’.
If an infant consistently experiences caretaking that fails to be contingent on their needs, or that is not characterized by warmth, then the attachment is said to be ‘insecure’.
Similarly, if an infant consistently experiences caretaking that is erratic and neglectful, so that sometimes caretaking is contingent on their needs and sometimes it ignores those needs, attachment is also insecure.
Infants who are insecurely attached to their caregivers still prefer those caregivers over other people. The term ‘insecure attachment’ refers to the fact that the infant cannot rely on those caregivers responding appropriately to their cries and smiles—or responding at all.
When attachment is insecure, children develop different ‘internal working models’ of the self.
Two main types of insecure attachment are identified in the literature. ‘Insecure-avoidant’ infants appear to become resigned to their fate. They develop self-protective strategies, such as not seeking contact when the carer is close, as though to protect themselves against disappointment. ‘Insecure-dependent’ infants become very clingy and fight against separation, as though trying to force appropriate caretaking behaviours from the adult.
Research shows that both forms of insecure attachment are related to less positive developmental outcomes long-term. These include social–emotional outcomes, relating to self-esteem and self-control, and also cognitive outcomes, relating to intellectual and academic achievement.
In extreme cases, usually involving parental reactions that are frightening for the infant, attachment is ‘disorganized’. Caretaking is so unpredictable that an infant cannot find a way of organizing her behaviour to get her needs met.
The internal working model developed in response to such caretaking is often that the child is flawed in some way, and does not deserve love and support from others.
Such children are at risk for mental health disorders, including depression, oppositional–defiant disorders or conduct disorders.
Healthy attachment relationships do not have to be with the genetic parents. Relationships depend on learning.
Learning that your social overtures will be met with contingent responsiveness and warmth are the key factors required for babies to develop secure attachments.
Grandparents, foster parents and older siblings can all be sources of secure attachments.
网友评论