Attachment Theory: Bowlby & Beyond

1. Attachment Theory:Bowlby & Beyond Trey Asbury, Ph.D.

2. Part ITheoretical Foundations Animalbehavior.net

3. Crying Infants • Behaviorist View • John B. Watson & Reinforcers • Picking up a baby crying in the crib? • Crying in the crib is reinforced, resulting in an overall increase in crying behavior when infant placed in the crib.

4. Spoiled & Dependent Children

5. Bakwin @ Bellevue • Infant Mortality Rates • Malnutrition • Choosing Favorites Please pick up and hold a baby before exiting the ward.

6. Decreasing Malnutrition Infant Mortality Rates Time in Weeks following Bakwin’s Intervention

7. John Bowlby & Tavistock • 44 Thieves • Behavioral Systems • Survival Instinct Alarm Proximity to Caregiver Soothing & Comfort

9. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages Trust v. Mistrust Identity v. Role Confusion Autonomy v. Shame & Doubt Intimacy v. Isolation Initiative v. Guilt Generativity v. Stagnation Integrity v. Despair Industry v. Inferiority

10. Training Independent Behavior Being a good base-stealer In order to be Independent as an adult, we must first learn to be Dependent on the caregiver (Bowlby, 1972).

11. Rene’ Spitz “Goes Visual” • Grief: A Peril in Infancy

12. Harry Harlow & Monkey Love • Surrogate Mothers • Upping the Ante Contact Comfort

13. Mary Ainsworth • Secure vs. Insecure Attachment • Strange Situation • Secure • Avoidant • Resistant/Ambivalent What’s your attachment style? http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl

14. So What?? • Mary Main • Alan Sroufe & Colleagues • My pal Robert

15. Part IIClinical Presentation

16. Reactive Attachment Disorder • Markedly disturbed and developmentally inappropriate social relatedness in most contexts, beginning before age 5 yrs, as evidenced by either (1) or (2): • (1.) persistent failure to initiate or respond in a developmentally appropriate fashion to most social interactions, as manifest by excessively inhibited, hypervigilant, or highly ambivalent and contradictory responses (e.g. the child may respond to caregivers with a mixture of approach, avoidance, and resistance to comforting, or may exhibit frozen watchfulness). • (2. ) diffuse attachments as manifest by indiscriminate sociability with marked inability to exhibit appropriate selective attachments (e.g. excessive familiarity with relative strangers or lack of selectivity in choice of attachment figures).

17. R.A.D. cont’d • Disturbance is not accounted for solely by developmental delay (as in Mental Retardation) and does not meet criteria for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder.

18. R.A.D. cont’d • Pathogenic care as evidenced by at least one of the following: • persistent disregard of the child’s basic emotional needs for comfort, stimultion, and affection • persistent disregard of the child’s basic physical needs • repeated changes of primary caregiver that prevent formation of stable attachments (e.g., frequent changes in foster care)

19. R.A.D. cont’d • There is a presumption that the pathogenic care is responsible for the disturbed behavior (e.g., the disturbances began following the pathogenic care). • Specify: • Inhibited Type • Disinhibited Type