Running head: ATTACHMENT AND SOCIAL INTEREST Insecure Attachments: The Effects of Early Infant Experiences on Later Development and Social Interest

Attachment theorists, based on Bowlby’s theory, believe that the dyadic relationship between infant and caregiver is how an infant begins to mentally organize information that guides behavior of self, significant persons, and the world. This thesis explores how individuals construct experiences across time in a manner that is congruent with their early relationship history. The Adlerian concepts of social embeddedness, teleology or goal-directed behavior, and subjective reality support the attachment theory and its classifications. Researchers have found some correlation between insecure attachment categories and psychopathology, especially when other high-risk factors existed. Identifying attachment types, especially insecure attachments can be an important consideration in determining how therapists approach a treatment modality. Attachment and Social Interest 5 Introduction Attachment disorders have been discussed in psychology for close to half a century. Attachment concerns were brought to the forefront when young children in orphanages were observed as being fed, kept clean, and considered in good physical condition but they were lacking long-term emotional warmth from a sole caregiver. The lack of emotional warmth from a caregiver was believed to have not only affected the children’s emotional development but their physical growth and developmental condition as well. It was concluded that providing only for an infant’s physical needs was not adequate for what is considered normal development (Shorey & Synder, 2006). Shortly after the discovery of the inadequate development of children in orphanages, John Bowlby, a psychoanalyst who was interested in explaining both normal and disturbed development, became interested in the parallels between human infants and animal babies. He was interested in formulating a meaningful model of development of psychopathology in relationships from infancy and beyond (Madigan, 2006). Bowlby’s attachment theory has become one of the most influential theories regarding children’s social development (Bowlby, 1982; Green & Goldwyn, 2002). Emotional regulation is a key component in development, socialization, and mental health. Attachment theorists believe that the infant-caregiver relationship lays the foundation for human emotional regulation. The caregiver’s sensitive interaction with the infant has been linked to the infant’s improved emotional regulation. An infant relies on a caregiver for existence and part of the infant-caregiver attachment relationship is to help the young infant regulate emotional tension when it exceeds their ability to manage it (Kochanska, 2001). Attachment and Social Interest 6 Bowlby concluded that emotions such as anxiety, anger, and fear are naturally occurring responses in life and can help guide individuals in maintaining key relationships. He viewed an individual as being disturbed when these emotions become chronic, misdirected, or inappropriately triggered and at the same time fail to be expressed when the emotion is needed (Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson & Collins, 2005b). Bowlby believed that an infant must learn to draw effectively upon external resources for emotional regulation and mastery. Effective attachment, which is thought to support the infant’s exploration, enables the infant to remain organized when encountering new experiences. That is, when an infant encounters a new situation, the infant-caregiver attachment relationship allows the infant emotional guidance for how to react (Sroufe et al., 2005b). Attachment theorists suggest that how an infant-caregiver dyad is constructed can have long lasting effects on an individual’s development, socialization, and mental health (Bowlby et al., 1982; Green et al., 2002). Bowlby discovered that it is through cues that are given and received in the infantcaregiver relationship that the infant learns to form attachment. Bowlby saw attachment as the model and the means for developing the infant’s emotional regulation. Attachment theorists postulate that it is from the dyad relationship that the infant develops emotional regulation by forming patterns of adaptation in a coherent, step-by-step process that begins in infancy and carries forward throughout an individual’s development (Carlson, Jacobvitz & Sroufe, 1995; Sroufe, 2005a). This adaptation or attachment style is thought to be amenable to change over time but is not easily modified. In developmental research there continues to be disagreement about the effects of early experiences on attachment. Some researchers believe that attachment is Attachment and Social Interest 7 almost exclusively the product of current experiences (Roisman, Collins, Sroufe & Egeland, 2005). This thesis reviews the fate early attachment experiences have on development over time. Attachment Theory Attachment research suggests that there is a basic, biologically-rooted system of behavior that is universal in human nature despite differences in genetics, culture, and individual experiences. Relationships in general are considered to be critical for the development of emotionality. Attachment theorists view the caregiver-infant dyad as the foundation for the development of the child. It is believed that an individual’s organization of emotional strategies is rooted in the child’s history of repeated experiences of affective encounters with the caregiver (Bowlby et al., 1982; Ainsworth, 1989; Kochanska et al., 2001). Bowlby’s attachment theory conceptualizes that infants, in their helplessness, organize their behavior in order to maintain close proximity to the caregiver to ensure their own protection from danger, alarm, or distress as well as meeting their needs for comfort and nurturance. It is believed that, regardless of age, the attachment system is most strongly activated during times of stress (Pielage, Gerlsma & Schaap, 2000). Attachment is considered a social relationship that reflects a set of behaviors and emotions that is observable in infants and is thought to be a unique and exclusive relationship that forms after the sixth month of life (Ainsworth et al., 1989; Isabella, 1993; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1997; Sroufe et al., 2005; Velderman, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Juffer & van IJzendoorn, 2006). The caregiver-child dyad is conceptualized as a communal relationship where the child is socialized through a process of reciprocity, and a mutually responsive relationship with the caregiver (Gullone, Ollendick & King, 2006; Kochanska & Murray, 2000; Madigan et al., 2006). One attachment model describes the caregiver in the socialization process as fulfilling three Attachment and Social Interest 8 roles: helping the child maintain social relationship with others by being an interactive partner with the child; educating the child regarding social, moral, and cultural norms by being a direct instructor; and, allowing the child to have socialization outside the family by being a provider of opportunities (Morrison, Rimm-Kauffman & Pianta, 2003). Attachment theorists’ claim that infants/children who experience their caregiver as responsive and available are likely to have a secure attachment. It is suggested that nonresponsive or insensitive caregiving leads to the development of an insecure attachment that results in the child’s inability to draw appropriate cognitive/affective coping strategies (Gullone et al., 2006). It is argued that from the caregiver-child experience children form basic rules that govern their interpretations and expressions of emotion and behavior (Carlson, 1998). Bowlby argued that children develop cognitive, behavioral, and emotional schemas that are uniquely tailored to maintaining close proximity to their caregiver. These schemas are distinctly identifiable patterns or roadmaps (working models) for negotiating social environments where an individual behaves in ways that elicit similar reactions from others. Similar to Alfred Adler’s concept of private logic, these responses reinforce the individual’s internal working model until it becomes deeply ingrained in the personality structure and begins to guide behavior of self, significant others, and the world (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2006; Sroufe et al., 2005b). Attachment theorists view attachment styles as fostering positive perceptions and development as well as predisposing individuals to experience various forms of psychopathology (Shorey et al., 2006). Attachment theorists and researchers recognize that not all infants who are classified as insecurely attached develop problems later in development; however, when they do it has been associated with attachment type and an unresponsive environment (NICHD et al., 2006). Attachment and Social Interest 9 Bowlby struggled with the generally accepted developmental concept that a child forms a strong bond to a caregiver because the caregiver is a source of food. Instead, Bowlby theorized that children develop cognitive, behavioral, and emotional schemas that are specifically tailored to maintaining proximity to caregivers. From his research Bowlby concluded that infants engage in attachment seeking behavior because they develop the ability to interact and are biologically disposed to do so. Bowlby theorized that infants have a biological response to fear that causes them to seek comfort and protections from their attachment figure. When an attachment figure provides safety and at the same time is a source of fear it creates a condition of stress for the infant. This stressful condition is believed to cause a breakdown in coping strategies and results in behavioral disorganization for the infant (Bowlby et al., 1982: Madigan et al., 2006). Multiple studies of infant behavior demonstrate that when there are threatening conditions the infant will direct an array of behaviors towards the caregiver until proximity between the two is achieved (Sroufe et al., 2005b). Attachment theorists, like Adlerians, see behavior as g