Attachment Theory: The Bowlby-Ainsworth Tradition

1. Attachment Theory: The Bowlby-Ainsworth Tradition Everett Waters SUNY Stony Brook

2. Key Insights About Close Relationships • Infants have a complex social, cognitive, and emotional life. • Infant-mother and adult parent-child, and adult-adult love are the same kinds of relationships. • Importance of early experience. • Relationship is an emotional bond; not equivalent to behavior. Sigmund Freud 1868-1939

3. Freud : Key Insights • Importance of mental representation. • Attachments never given up voluntarily or completely. • Loss is an emergency; mourning is a prolonged process and serves an adaptive function. • Defensive processes play a role in affect regulation. Freud and Grandson 1938

4. Freud's Prototype Hypothesis (Herein) ...lies the root of a mother's importance, unique, without parallel, established unalterably for a whole lifetime as ... the prototype of all later love-relations. Outline of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud 1856-1939

5. John Bowlby

6. 1907 Born London 4th child, 2nd son Father knighted, Royal Surgeon to King Edward VII and George V. Family ‘straightforward’, fairly close, typical professional lifestyle, ‘with nurses of course” 1914-25 Preparatory school and Royal Naval College, Dartmouth 1925-28 Trinity College, Cambridge 1929-37 Medical, Psychiatry, Child Psychiatry 1938 Married Ursula Longstaff 1937-40 Psychiatrist, London Child Guidance Clinic John Bowlby 1907-1990

7. 1940 Personality and Mental Illness 1946 Forty-four Juvenile Thieves 1946-72 Child Psychiatrist - Tavistock Clinic Director, Dept. Children & Parents 1951 Maternal Care and Mental Health 1952 A Two-year-old Goes To Hospital 1958 Nature of the Child’s Tie to Its Mother 1969 Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1 1973 Attachment and Loss, Vol. 2 1980 Attachment and Loss, Vol. 3 1990 Charles Darwin, A New Biography Dies at vacation home, Isle of Skye John Bowlby 1907-1990

8. Background and Influences on Bowlby Class - privileged and secure Family - distinguished and formal Education - rigorous (medicine & psychology) Temperament - independent and systematic

9. Origins of Bowlby’s Attachment Theory Clinical Experience Paradigm Shift Controversy among analysts Behaviorist critique Philosophical critiques New tools from other fields Freud insights Separation and loss during wartime Hospitalism Studies of delinquency Cultural changes in child care

10. The Nature of the Child's Tie to it Mother and The Logic of Bowlby/Ainsworth Attachment Theory

11. Two Views of Infancy, Early Relationships,and Early Experience Freud Bowlby •Clingy, needy, dependent infant • Motivated by rise and fall of internal drives• Drive reduction • Relationships as a means of drive reduction • Experience shapes intra-psychic structures Modes of drive expression Coping / defense mechanisms Availability of mental energy •Active, curious, competent infant• Monitoring environment / Optimizing experience• Adaptation and development• Relationships as valuable in themselves• Early experience shapes mental representations Knowledge of environment General expectations about relationships Expectations about specific figures

12. The Logic of Bowlby/Ainsworth Attachment Theory (Part 1- Secure Base/Control Systems) 1. Some of Freud’s descriptive insights about early experience and close relationships are valid. 2. Such insights are at risk because Freud’s Drive Theory is not sustainable. 3. Some of Freud’s key insights about early experience and close relationships are independent of Drive Theory. Save Freud's insights by reconceptualizing bond and motivation. 4. Reconceptualize infant-mother bond as a Secure Base relationship.

13. The Secure Base Model Chair Cat 7 6 8LM TV 5LM 9LD 10 4 Mom Baby S 13LM 11 1 T 2 12 T T 3LM 14 L m = Look to mother

15. Control Systems : A Plausible Explanation for An Infant’s Apparently Purposeful Behavior COMPARATOR SET GOAL Environment SENSOR Behavior EFFECTOR

16. An Attachment Control System SET GOAL Secure Base Monitor Attachment Figure Secure Base Access Time since last check Proximity and Contact Seeking Behavioral Output Exploratory Approach Salience and Valence People & Objects Environ. Monitor Competence Motivation.

17. Secure Base Relationships What is learned from early experience? • Knowledge of environment• General expectations about relationships• Expectations about specific figures John Bowlby 1907-1990

18. Secure Base/Control System Model is Central to Bowlby’s Theory • Alternative to Freud’s “drive reduction” model. • Explains complexity of secure base behavior. • Explains importance of early experience. • Defines similarity of infant and adult relationships. • Comprehends stability and openness to experience.

19. The Logic of Bowlby/Ainsworth Attachment Theory (Part 2 - Evolution) 5. Motivation: Control Systems theory can explain “apparent purposefulness” and “environment awareness” of secure base behavior without drives or other "magical" constructs. 6. Need to account for the origins of a secure base control system in species and in individuals. Otherwise control- system concept is just replacing Freud’s magic with a different kind of magic. Solution: Evolution can produce biases in learning abilities. 7. Development depends on learning biases plus organization provided by caregiver

20. Evolutionary Theory And Attachment Theory • In evolutionary theory Bowlby found a “non-magical” explanation for the attachment behavior control system. • In our “environment of evolutionary adaptedness”, secure base behavior, fear of the dark, etc. reduced vulnerability to predators. • As a result, humans evolved an array of biases in their early learning abilities. • Secure base behavior emerges when these biases interact with an “average expectable caretaking environment”.

21. Biases In Infant Learning Abilities: A Thought Experiment Secure Base Behavior Arbitrary Behavior Look at M Tongue out Crawl to M Roll onto back Show toy Smell carpet Note M’s expression Note wall color Room familiar ? Room over 72 F? Stranger present ? Curtains present? Tired ? M’s hair mussed ? Theodore 10-Months

22. The Logic of Bowlby/Ainsworth Attachment Theory (Part 3 - Representation) 8. Transition from sensori-motor to formal representation of secure base experience allows mental representations of secure base experience. 9. Mental representations influence perception, expectations, availability, and selection of behavior. 10. Mental representations tend to be stable but can be revised in light of experience. 11. Representations of early attachment experience serve as a model for later secure base relationships (e.g., marriage, parenting, care for elderly parents).

23. Attachment Development

24. The Development Of Attachment : Bowlby’s Four Stage Model • 0 - 3 months Undiscriminating social responsiveness • 3 - 9 months Discriminating social responsiveness • 9 - 30 months Secure base behavior • 30 months + Goal-corrected partnership John Bowlby 1907-1990

25. The Prototype Hypothesis Personalsecurity SB behaviorinmarriage Secure Base Experience Attachment Representations SB parenting Care for parents

26. The Secure Base / Control System Analysis Is A Good Description Of The Infant-Mother Relationship Mary Ainsworth 1913-1999 Infancy in Uganda Home and Strange Situation Behavior in Baltimore

27. Potentially Relevant Components of Care • Quantity or Quality Of • Feeding • Emotional Attunement • Close Bodily Contact • Response to Crying • Emotional Investment • Etc.

28. Expectations About Maternal Availability and Responsiveness Arise From Experience Qualities of Maternal Care • • Sensitivity to signals • • Cooperation vs. interference • Physical/psychological availability • • Acceptance vs. rejection Mary Ainsworth 1913-1999

29. The Strange Situation One-way window Mother T T T T TOYS T T T Mary Ainsworth Stranger Ep 1 M, B 2 min Ep 5 M, B 3 min Ep 2 M, B 3 min Ep 6 B 3 min Ep 3 M, B, S 3 min Ep 7 B, S 3 min Ep 4, B, S 3 min Ep 8 M, B 3 min © 1995 EWATERS

30. Patterns Of Attachment Secure May or may not cry in response to separation. Greeting or full approach when M returns. Clings / sinks in if held. Easily comforted by M’s return and / or being held. Returns to pre-separation level of play. Insecure - Avoidant May or may not cry in response to separation. Little or no eye-to-eye contact when M returns. No greeting; only partial approach. Does not sink in if held; only brief contact. Returns to play, little interaction with mother Mary Ainsworth Johns Hopkins University Insecure - Resistant/Ambivalent Extremely distressed by separation. Passive or angry during reunion. Difficult to comfort but little active clinging. Play does not fully recover during reunion episodes. © 1996 EWATERS

31. Secure Base Behavior At Home And In The Strange Situation Attachment - Exploration Strange Situation Balance At Home Classification Groups B3 B1/B2 A2 A1 C1 C2 Total I 8 8 II 1 3 4 III 1 2 3 IV 3 1 4 V 1 1 2 4 Total 9 4 2 4 2 2 23 Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978, p. 242 Mary Ainsworth © 1995 EWATERS

32. Secure Base Relationships Arise From Experience: Maternal Care and Infant Attachment Strange Situation Classification Mary Ainsworth 1913-1999 Maternal Behavior Secure Avoidant Resistant N = 13 N = 6 N = 4 Sensitivity to Signals 6.48 2.42 * 2.38 * Cooperate vs Interfere 7.30 3.58 * 4.25 * Accept vs Reject 7.62 3.75 * 5.38 * Accessible vs Ignoring 6.62 3.83 * 3.50 * Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall (1978, p. 145) * p < .01 vs Secure

33. The Stability Of Attachment Classifications From 12 -18 Months Strange Situation Classification 18 - Months 12- Months Secure Avoidant Resistant Everett Waters 1951- Secure 30 1 1 Avoidant 0 9 0 Resistant 0 0 9 Waters (1976) Kappa = . 92 , p < .001 © 1995 EWATERS

34. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Interview Questions 1. Family and extended family background 2. Describe relationship to parents during childhood 3. Give five adjectives describing early relationship to mother (then father) 4. Parents’ responses when as a child you were upset

35. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Interview Questions 5. Early separation experiences 6. Feelings of rejection 7. Experience of abuse 8. How did parents’ behavior affected the way you are today

36. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Interview Questions 9. Why did parents behave as they did 10. Other close adults in your life 11. Early loss experiences

37. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Experience Scales • Loving behavior by each parent • Rejecting behavior by each parent • Role-reversing behavior by each parent • Neglect by each parent • Pressure to achieve by each parent

38. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) State of Mind Scales • Lack of recall • Passivity of speech • Derogation of attachment and attachment figures • Idealization of parents • Active anger toward parents • Unresolved loss

39. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Narrative Coherence: • Lack of recall • Passivity of speech • Derogation of attachment and attachment figures • Idealization of parents • Active anger toward parents • Unresolved loss

40. AAI from Erin • Erin: I told my mom one day that I was going to chew tobacco, and she said really, and she said well I'll do it with you. She went and she got a tin of tobacco, and she took this huge thing and she stuck it in her lip and she said, oh, you know this is really good. And I said really, and I said you're not fooling me and it's really disgusting and she said no, this is really good, I think I might start this up. So I picked up a bigger handful and I stuck it in my mouth and the minute it hit my mouth, her whole expression changed from a big smile to this look of just horror, and she took off for the bathroom and it hit my mouth and I just sort of went Ugh, and I took off after her and there we both were sitting on the toilet, spit all this tobacco out of our mouth.

41. AAI from Erin • Erin: I was home alone with mom, I was around seven years old, and dad was on the night shift. So mom had a seizure in the middle of the night, as a seven year old I was petrified. I thought mom was dying, she'd had them before, but I'd never been alone for one. I called dad at his precinct, I knew the number. Apparently he was in the middle of a call and he left and he came right home. He took care of her and calmed me down, I mean I had my little picture of Jesus out, cause I was so scared for my mom. Just knowing you know that he'd always come, he was always responsible like that. He's always, he's always there if you need him.

42. AAI from Erin • Interviewer: What would your parents do when you were upset? • Erin: They would figure out what was wrong and they'd just talk to me about it, they never really did the thing that would in a sense rile me up more, and get me more upset, they would always calm me down and try to get what was really going on out, so they could you know help me look forward.

43. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Primary classification based on Coherence (clarity, believability) of Interview Transcript Dismissing Preoccupied Unresolved for loss or abuse Secure Earned Secure Secure Insecure

44. The Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1985, 1994) Discriminant Validity IQ Verbal AbilityGeneral Adjustment Social Desirability Relationship Style Traits

45. Stability from Infancy to Early Adulthood AAI Classification at 21 Years Strange Situation 12 - Months Secure Dismissing Preoccupied ( F ) ( D ) ( E ) 20 6 3 Secure ( B ) Avoidant ( A ) 282 3 24 Resistant ( C ) 72% (secure vs insecure) kappa = .404, p < .006 64% (3 x 3 groups) kappa = .401, p < .005 Waters, Merrick, Treboux, Crowell, Albersheim (2000) © 2006 EWATERS

46. Other Key Correlates • Maternal Sensitivity to infant signals • Infant’s Strange Situation classification • Wide range of relationship competence outcomes • in childhood and adolescence • Providing and using secure base support in marriage • Links to psychopathology