08 - This classification below correlates highly w

This classification below correlates highly with 1. Responsiveness and sensitivity of the mothers to the needs of their children and 2. Total amount and quality of stimulation (holding) provided by the mothers.

© SPMM Course from their mothers during their first weeks of life. Harlow substituted a surrogate mother made from wire or cloth for the real mother. The infants preferred the cloth-covered surrogate mother, which provided contact comfort, to the wire covered surrogate, which provided no contact comfort. This preference was observed irrespective of feeding, i.e. the terry-cloth soft-surrogate mother was preferred even if it did not have a feeding nipple attached to it. Ainsworth’s experiments: Ainsworth constructed a strange situation experiment with separation and 2 reunion episodes. An infant is observed in the presence and absence of its mother and a stranger in the vicinity in seven different combinations. According to the infant’s behaviour it is classified as type A, B or C. This classification below correlates highly with 1. Responsiveness and sensitivity of the mothers to the needs of their children and 2. Total amount and quality of stimulation (holding) provided by the mothers.  Type A: Anxious avoidant: 15%. Indifferent attitude to the mother is leaving the room or entering the room; keeps playing indifferent to mother’s presence. Distress when alone, not when the mother is leaving. Stranger can comfort the child easily. Highly environment directed, low attachment behaviour. Greater in the West. Perpetrators of bullying mostly have this pattern.  Type B: Secure: 70%. Plays independently when the mother is in the vicinity (secure base effect). Distress when the mother is leaving; seeks contact on the return of the mother and gets quickly comforted by the mother, not a stranger.  Type C: Anxious resistant: 15%. Fussy and cries a lot and cannot use the mother as a secure base to explore around. Very high levels of distress are seen when the mother is leaving. But not comforted easily even on her return; appears ambivalent about her return. Active resistance to stranger’s efforts to pacify. Highly caregiver directed low play behaviour. Greater in Japanese and Israeli families. Furthermore, this pattern is also common among victims of bullying. Strange Situation Experiment Situation 1 Both mother and infant enter the room Situation 2 A stranger joins them Situation 3 Mother leaves now; infant left with stranger Situation 4 Mother returns; stranger leaves Situation 5 Infant left alone; mother leaves now Situation 6 Stranger comes back and tries to comfort the child Situation 7 Mother comes back and comforts, stranger leaves.

© SPMM Course  In some cases a fourth type D - disorganised type - is also seen. This is seen in maltreated or maternally deprived children. The child has an insecure, dazed look and acts as if it is frightened of the mother. This pattern may be a precursor to later personality difficulties or dissociative experiences. Mother may have an experience of being abused as a child. Attachment style may differ with different caregivers; it is a function of the quality of caregiving and NOT the temperament of a child. Main devised a semi-structured adult attachment interview with 15 items (AAI). This is based on the fact that infantile attachment pattern can be predicted reasonably accurately using discourse analysis of adults when recollecting their childhood. Accordingly 4 patterns are noted.  Secure autonomous: Those who had secure attachment provide spontaneous and coherent answers with the ability to talk freely about negative experiences in childhood type B Ainsworth.  Dismissing of experiences: Those who had an avoidant (insecure) pattern often minimise their experiences, do not elaborate on them and do not use colourful metaphors during the discourse– type A (avoidant)  Entangled: Those who had insecure but ambivalent (enmeshed) attachment use multiple emotionally laden responses and ramble excessively, – type C resistant.  Unresolved disorganised: Broken continuity and interrupted the logical flow of thoughts is seen in those who had insecure disorganised attachment pattern– type D.

The secure attachment appears to be a protective factor for the development of childhood disorders, and insecure attachment is best conceptualized as a risk factor for a number of childhood disorders. It has been demonstrated in various studies that insecure attachment during early childhood is associated with the development of behavioural problems especially oppositional defiant disorder at school age. Insecure attachment in combination with other vulnerability factors such as family dysfunction, difficult child temperament, and poor parental management can give rise to later childhood disorders Spitz – anaclitic depression or hospitalism: When children are hospitalised for physical problems, a short period of separation from primary caregiver ensues; this loss of loved one is called anaclitic (object loss) depression. It is counterproductive to child’s development. But recovery is good if the maternal deprivation is kept minimum i.e. less than 3 months. Rare if prolonged. Surrogate mothering helps the infant when having the anaclitic depression to some extent.

© SPMM Course Margaret Mahler described the development of a sense of identity in young children, independent of their mothers. This is called separationindividuation theory, and the proposed stages are supposed to be universal in all children. Rutter distinguished deprivation from privation.  Deprivation: Attachment is formed but lost temporarily. If it is for a short time then protest – despair – detachment phases (similar to grief) are seen. This is more common in 8m to 3 yr. old. Boys show more deprivation features than girls. It is more noticeable if aggressive caregiving e.g. physical abuse was present before separation. In prolonged deprivation, separation anxiety sets in. Increased clingy behaviour, psychosomatic complaints, vacillation and aggression are seen in the child.  Privation refers to the non-formation of attachment; this is very rare and can lead to what Rutter termed as ‘affectionless psychopathy’ and developmental retardation. Attention seeking, lack of guilt, antisocial behaviour and indiscriminate attachment patterns are noted. This is reversible but only to some extent. Ethology is the systematic biological study of animal behaviour. Greek ethos - custom or habit. It was coined by Heinroth. Imprinting is a special primitive form of learning wherein during the early period of development (called critical or sensitive phase) a young animal is highly sensitive to a certain stimulus that provokes a specific behaviour pattern. Lorenz described the imprinting in goslings where a moving object in the early period of development provokes the following behaviour of that moving object. This is useful as almost always mother is the first moving object for goslings and hence they learn to follow the mother; but when Lorenz disrupted MAHLER’S STAGES

1. Normal autism (0 to 2 m): Child spends most time in sleep as if the intrauterine aloofness continues.
2. Symbiosis (2 to 5m): Inner and outer world studied via senses but perceives mother and self as one unit.
3. Separation – individuation phase: (DPRO) a) Differentiation sub-phase: (5 to 10m) slowly appreciates the difference between mother and self b) Practicing sub-phase: (10 to18m) A gradual increase in interest on the environment; practices exploration. c) Rapprochement sub-phase: (18 to 24m) Alternating drives to be autonomous and dependent; Able to explore alone but requires comfort and reassurance on return. d) Object constancy sub-phase: (2 to 5yrs) Understand that the mother will not be lost if temporarily away; hence able to function independently.