Week 10: Attachment and the Development of the Self
Identify the various attachment categories and discuss how attachment is measured
Appraise the effect of the internal working model of relationships with partners and one's own children
Describe the developmental timeline of the development of the self-concept
Analyze the impact of culture and other aspects of the environment on the development of self-concept
Describe the developmental course of self-esteem development and identify how it is measured
Evaluate the recent cultural phenomenon of protection of self-esteem at all costs
Secure: easily comforted by mom, secure base (60%)
Insecure/Resistant: clingy then resists comfort; very upset when mom leaves, then when she comes back and tries to comfort them they kind of squirm and resist it (10%)
Insecure/Avoidant: spends most time ignoring mom; tend to not get as upset when mom leaves the room and when she returns they often ignore her (15%)
Disorganized (newer classification): confused, fearful approach, freezing behaviour; sometimes the kids will look very confused, they may freeze when approaching their mom, they may seem fearful of her; sometimes they are more comforted by strangers and sometimes not; no clear pattern; tend to have the worse prognosis (15%)
Attachment:
- first proposed by Bowlby (who was trained in psychoanalysis; saw importance of mother, infant relationship; influenced by findings after World War 2 about orphans and their behaviours; said it was an environmental factor that helps with survival)
- secure base behaviour increases survival
- innate basis but influenced by environment
- allows safety and exploration
- infants depend on parents to satisfy and comfort (internal working model: if child has a secure attachment it says that the child can depend on them and they think they are worthy of love and that people are reliable; opposite to if the child is insecure)
- influences development of self and expectations of others-all relationships throughout life
- Ainsworth's Strange Situation is used to test a child's attachment; the child's reaction to the mother's return is key
Insecure Attachment: the child will not think people are not reliable and that they are not worthy of love and they cannot depend on people
Secure Attachment: the child will think people are reliable and that they can depend on them and that they are worthy of love
Factors Affecting Secure Attachment
- sensitivity most important (maternal)
- sensitivity = prompt attention to infants needs, consistent, appropriate and tender
- definitely seems to be more mom than child (most of the studies were done with the moms)
- difficult temperament makes it difficult but can be done
- intervention studies for difficult children or depressed moms
- genes may have interactive effect
Parental Attachment:
- measured with Adult Attachment Interview
- measures adult's perceptions of their own childhood
- asks questions about degree of comfort felt, if ever separated, if ever felt rejected
- divides individuals into autonomous, dismissing, preoccupied and unresolved
- weakness with these studies have been attrition so the degree of correlation may be wrong
- Autonomous: consistent; parents who are classified as having an autonomous early attachment relationship tend to be more consistent with answering questions; talk about good and bad things about their parents; realistic
- matches on to having a secure attachment relationship as a child
- Dismissing: don't recall or dismiss as unimportant; don't want to talk about their relationships with their parents, they say they don’t recall certain events or dismiss them as unimportant; really in kind of denial about any effects that their parents caused them
- seem to have an insecure-avoidant attachment as a child
- Preoccupied: still caught up in childhood experiences; still very upset from some experiences, dwell on them, still react to certain events
- matched with insecure-resistant
- Unresolved: answers don't make sense; extreme bad and good; there are lot of answer that sound bad but then they try to put a spin on it to make it good
- matched with disorganized
- very first step is differentiating self from others and the environment
- there is not an exact time (depends on the type of study)
- Rouge test --> put some makeup on face and put kid in front of mirror and by about 18 months instead of pointing to the child or looking at the child in the mirror they will wipe their own nose
- 20 months - know photos of themselves (but hard to pick from a picture of a bunch of kids); by 30 months they are good at this
- terrible 2's is really important in development as the child is picking their believes and desires from another child
- a narrative helps (child who discusses things that happen to them and parents who ask them questions)
- Preschool years --> physical attributes, abilities, social relationships
- we can ask a child to tell us about themselves
- they usually just stick to concrete things (features, what they like to eat, what they like to do)
- they don't compare themselves to other kids and they tend to over estimate their abilities with other kids
- Elementary --> begin social comparison
- begin to compare against other kids (ex. they are able to see what they are good at and what they are not good at)
- top focusing on physical tangible things; focus on higher concepts (sports, if they are smart)
Adolescence:
- Early adolescence: may feel conflict at opposing attributes; they start to see that they act differently depending on the surroundings and time; start to think differently
- Grade 7: kids don't really think about having that many opposite attributes; things like being nice to friends and not to parents; low % of opposites that were in conflict; found relatively few reported being in conflict and found reporting of feeling mixed up or confused by conflicts --> all increased in grade 9 and then levelled off in grade 11
- Kids feel max conflict at these opposing attributes or opposing personality traits in grade 9 and as you get older they realize that everyone is different in different situations
- Piaget talked about adolescence egocentrism and the personal fable --> 2 attributes are particularly true in early adolescence (think everyone is thinking about them); but in some studies adolescence take a dip in their theory of mind abilities
- Adolescent Egocentrism: personal fable (idea that teens feel like no one has gone through what they have gone through; very dramatic)
Identity Formation:
- Forclosure: told by their parents what they should be when the grow up; and they just agree with their parents
- Diffusion: not questioning it, just hanging out
- Moratorium: actively exploring roles; may be completely undecided; may change mind all the time; they are really thinking about it; tend to have quite high self-esteem
- Achievement: have explored all options; come to own choice; tend to be more mature then other groups and more determined
- difficult to form ethnic identity with prejudice but also may protect against effects of prejudice
- having ethnic identity is very important for many groups of different ethnicities
- Ethnicity vs. race is a cultural vs. biological approach
- Ethnicity --> more of a cultural thing
- Race --> not a lot of biological differences between races
- may not want to form ethnicity if they don't like the prejudice against them
- having strong ethnic identity is important (knowing pros and cons is important but good to identify strongly)
- forming sense of ethnicity and belonging to a larger group is important
- little kids don't really know about the ethnic practices meaning but may take part in them; they just do what their family does and do not question it
- when get into school the kid learns more about culture and has a better understanding
Development of Self-Esteem:
- having a healthy self esteem in adulthood is related to positive measures in life (need to support healthy self-esteem in kids)
- develops early (preschoolers tend to have a high self esteem but have unrealistic views of what they are capable of)
- gets better overtime as they learn what they are better at and what they are not good at
- not having a realistic self-esteem is not good (maybe someone has a super high self esteem and don't take into account what they can't do)
- unhealthy self-esteem and narcissism is a bad combo and can lead to psychopathy
Components of Self-Esteem:
- academic, social, athletic, behavioural, and physical appearance separable
- self report measures, but given what you're studying
- varies of aspects/components of self-esteem
- tend to be related to global of self esteem
- Susan Harter developed main measure of self-esteem in children (she has a preschool version and child versions)
- they are self-report measures
- but hard to judge as child gets older (since kids keep things to themselves)
- Kids know from very early that self-esteem is a good thing and that they will have more positive outcome
- Scale --> breaks questions down into social, academic, athletic, global self-esteem
Factors Affecting Self-Esteem:
- Appearance is a big factor (if you are more attractive you tend to report higher self-esteem)
- relationships with others are important
- building secure attachment with caregivers when a child; peers become important; having a sense of competence
- SES: socioeconomic status
- mixed schools (mixed SES, ethnicity); kids who have lower SES and more prejudice ethnicity they will have lower self-esteem
- personality and social interacts are important
- prone to emotions (if prone to anger may have lower self-esteem)
- parents should give support and approval but they need to be realistic so that you are not getting the child to think that they can do anything they want)
- Self-approval --> internalize approval of other people and learn to approve of themselves so they are not relying on external reinforcement from others