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attachment
an emotional bond with a specific person that is enduring across space & time
- children's early relationships with parents influence the nature of their interactions with others
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Harry Harlow's experimental work
- - demonstrated caregiver-child attachment relationship using rhesus monkeys
- - did maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys; they demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in development (both social and cognitive types)
- Important Points:
- 1) even when the wire mother provided food, the infant monkey spent more time clinging to the cloth surrogate
- 2) monkeys raised by the dummy mothers engaged in strange behavioral patterns later in adult life
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John Bowlby's Attachment Theory
children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments
- -secure base (developed by him and Ainsworth)
- -his ideas were extended/tested by his student Mary Ainsworth
- -thought there were 4 phases of attachment
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John Bowlby's 4 Stages of Attachment
1) preattachment phase (birth to 6 weeks): innate signals to attract attention
2) attachment-in-the-making phase (6 weeks to 6-8 months): respond preferentially to familiar people
3) clear-cut attachment (between 6-8 months and 1-2 years): infants actively seek contact w/ regular caregivers
4) reciprocal relationships (from 1 or 2 years on): developing working partnerships with caregivers
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'The Strange Situation' Task
- -developed by Ainsworth to assess infants' attachment to primary caregivers
- - 3 attachment categories (types of attachment)
-secure attachment: attachment style for a majority of infants, who are readily comforted when their caregiver returns after a brief separation (65%)
avoidant attachment: style in which infants IGNORE their caregiver when he or she returns after a brief separation (20-25%)
anxious-ambivalent attachment: style in which infants become extremely upset when their caregiver leaves but reject the caregiver when he or she returns; one of Ainsworth's three types of child attachments (10-15%)
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*4) disorganized/disoriented attachment
attachment style in which infants give mixed responses when their caregiver leaves and then returns from a short absence (smiles at them, but displaying fear or avoidance)
- - created b/c a small percentage of children didn't fit
- into these categories
- - infants in this category seem to have no consistent
- way of coping with the stress of the strange situation task
- - their behavior is confused or even contradictory; they often appear dazed/disoriented
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1) secure attachment
- - infant or child has a high-quality/unambivalent relationship with attachment figure
- - in strange situation task, a securely attached infant is upset when caregiver leaves, but is happy to see them return; they recover quickly from distress
- - securely attached children can use caregivers as a secure base for exploration
- - 2/3 of American middle class children = securely attached
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2) insecure/resistant (ambivalent) attachment
- - when infants or young children are clingy and stay close to their caregiver
- - describes attachment styple of about 15% of American middle class children
- • in the strange situation, ambivalent infants become upset when the caregiver leaves room
- - they're not comforted by strangers
- • are not easily comforted when the caregiver comes back
- - both seek comfort & resist efforts by the caregiver to comfort them
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3) insecure/avoidant attachment
- - infants or young children seem indifferent toward caregiver; may even avoid them
- - in the strange situation task: these children seem indifferent to caregiver before the caregiver leaves the room & indifferent or avoidant when the caregiver returns
- - if these children get upset when left alone, they're as easily comforted by stranger as by caregiver.
- - affects about 20% of infants from middle-class U.S. families
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parents with secure adult attachments have:
- parents with secure adult attachments have securely attached children
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Factors Associated with Security of Children's Attachment
- 1) parental sensitivity: contributes to the security of an infant's attachment
- 2) intervention studies show (?) a causal relationship between parental sensitivity and security of attachment
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Netherland Attachment Study
- - 1/2 of a group of mothers of 6-month-old babies at risk
- for insecure attachment are randomly assigned to sensitivity training
- - 3 months later, experimental group infants demonstrated secure attachment
- - differences in attachment are continuous @18, 24, & even 3 y/o
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Long-Term Effects of Secure Attachment
- - securely attached infants have closer, more harmonious relationships with peers
- - secure attachment in infancy predicts positive peer and romantic relationships + emotional health in adolescence
- - also predicts higher grades in school
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The Self
- - conceptual system made up of thoughts and attitudes about oneself
- - may include thoughts about one's physical being, social
- roles, social relationships, & internal characteristics
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The Self: Infancy
- - infants have 'rudimentary' sense of self in the first months of life
- - more distinct sense of self @ 8 months shown by presence of separation anxiety
- - 18-20 months: children recognize themselves in mirror
- - 2 y/o: exhibit self-awareness by being embarrassed, shameful, or self-assertive; also their use of language is an
- indicator
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The Self: Childhood
- - 3 to 4 y/o's: understand themselves in terms of concrete, observable characteristics; related to their:
- -physical traits
- -physical activities/abilities
- -psychological traits
- - children refine conceptions of self in elementary school because they increasingly engage in social comparison
- -this reflects an increasing ability to use higher-order thinking
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The Self: Adolescence
- - abstract thinking occurs: allows adolescents to think of themselves in terms of abstract characteristics
- - early adolescence: characterized by a form of egocentrism, personal fable: uniqueness of their own feelings & immortality
- - feelings of having an imaginary audience
- IDENTITY: adolescents must develop a sense
- of personal identity that incorporates numerous aspects of
- self
- - includes: 1) values & goals about the future 2)beliefs, + 3) sexual identity
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Influences on Identity Formation
things that influence identity formation during adolescence:
- 1) parenting style
- - ex: authoritarian parenting
- 2) individual's own behavior
- - ex. drug use undermines teens' ability to develop healthy identities
- 3) magnitude of social context
- - ex: teens from poor communities have limitations that affect identity formation
- 4) historical context
- - ex: teen girls used to focus their search for identity on marriage and family instead of careers
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Self-Esteem
one's overall evaluation of the worth of the self
- - related to how satisfied people are w/ their lives and their overall outlook on things
- - develops early and is affected by a variety of factors throughout life
- SOURCES: 1) interaction btwn nature & nurture 2) sociocultural context
- - there are large individual differences in self-esteem
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How Heredity Contributes to Self-Esteem
- - physical appearance, athletic ability, and aspects of intelligence & personality affect self-esteem and are encoded in a person's heredity
- -ex: self-esteem is more similar in siblings who are more genetically similar
- - genetic contribution to self-esteem is stronger for boys than girls
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Gender Differences in Adolescents' Concerns
- - boys are more concerned with competence & conduct
- - girls are more concerned with appearance & social behavior

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How Others Contribute to Development of Self-Esteem
- - at 2 y/o: children begin to become concerned about winning their parents' love/approval
- - parents who tend to be 1) accepting 2) involved with
- their child 3) use supportive (yet firm) parenting practices have children w/ higher self-esteem
- - parents who reject their children for unacceptable behavior (rather than condemning the specific behavior) are likely to instill their children with a sense of worthlessness
-being competent in important domains and subsequently receiving APPROVAL and support for competence makes for high self-esteem
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over the course of childhood, self-esteem is increasingly affected by:
- 1) peer acceptance
- 2) internalized standards, especially as children approach adolescence
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a decline in self-esteem/lower self-esteem is associated with:
- 1) the transition from elementary to junior high school
- 2) being an adolescent living in poverty in an urban environment (in US)
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Being a Minority & Self-Esteem
- - UNTIL 10 y/o: young Euro-American children have higher self-esteem than African-American peers
- - the trend reverses slightly AFTER age 10
- - minority-group parents can help children develop high self-esteem/sense of well-being by:
- 1) instilling them with pride in their culture
- 2) being supportive
- 3) helping them deal with prejudice
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Different Cultures & Self-Esteem Trends
- - self-esteem scores: lower in China, Japan, & Korea than in Western nations
- - fundamental differences btwn Asian & Western cultures that affect the meaning of self-esteem.
- - society as a whole >> individual (?????)
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imaginary audience
adolescents' belief that everyone else is focused on the adolescent's appearance and behavior
-this belief causes adolescents to be preoccupied with what others think of them
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self
a conceptual system consisting of one's thoughts and attitudes about oneself
-an emerging understanding of this is apparent when a child succeeds at the 'rough test' and makes movements toward wiping the spot off of his or her own face rather than off of the image in the mirror
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moratorium status
the identity-status category in which an individual does not have any firm commitments but is exploring various options
-individuals with this identity status tend to be high in self-esteem and high in anxiety, and they tend to move into identity-achievement status
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identity-achievement status
the identity-status category in which an individual has explored various options and has made an autonomous commitment to personal decisions such as ideology, occupation, & sexual behavior
-in modern, Western cultures, individuals who have attained this identity status tend to be more socially mature and more highly motivated than their peers
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adult attachment models
working models of attachment relationships that guide parents' attachments with their own children and are believed to be based on their perceptions of their own childhood experiences
-this is generally assessed by asking adults to discuss their early childhood attachments and how they believe those early relationships have shaped them
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Strange Situation
method developed by Mary Ainsworth to assess infants' attachments to their primary caregivers
-during this, the infants' behaviors, including attempts to seek closeness with the caregiver, resistance to or avoidance of the caregiver, & interactions with the caregiver from a distance, are observed
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identity-diffusion status
the identity-status category in which an individual does not have any firm commitments and is not making progress toward them
-individuals with this identity status tend to be the most at risk for drug abuse
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secure base
the notion that an attachment figure's presence provides a child with a sense of safety and confidence that enables the child to explore the environment
-a child whose caregiver does not serve this function may be unable to fully explore the environment, thereby decreasing oportunities for learning
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foreclosure status
the identity-status category in which an individual has not engaged in any identity exploration and has established an identity based on the choices or values of others
-individuals with this identity status tend to believe that authority figures should make decisions for them
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personal fable
adolescents' belief that they, and especially their feelings, are unique and special
-an adolescent who says to his or her parents, 'but you don't understand how it feels to be a teenager,' is demonstrating this form of egocentrism
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attachment theory
a theory that hypothesizes that children are biologically predisposed to form attachments with their caregivers as a means of increasing their chances of survival
-this theory was proposed by JOHN BOWLBY
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insecure attachment
a pattern of attachmentin which a child has a relatively poor-quality relationship with the attachment figure
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social comparison
the process of judging oneself against the psychological, behavioral, or physical functioning of others in order to evaluate oneself
-elementary-school children's engagement in social comparison causes them to refine their conceptions of self to include attention to discrepancies between their own and others' behavior and characteristics
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identity v. identity confusion
Erikson's psychosocial stage of development that occurs during adolescence in which the crisis involves the construction of a coherent identity
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secure attachment
a pattern of attachment in which a child has a high-quality relationship with the attachment figure
-children who exhibited this pattern of attachment as infants tend to have closer, more harmonious relationships with their peers than do other children
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negative identity
an identity that represents the opposite of what is valued by people around the adolescent
-Erikson believed the adoption of this is some adolescents' means of getting noticed by their parents when other attempts have failed
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parental sensitivity
a crucial factor contributing to the security of an infant's attachment that includes responsive caregiving when children are distressed
-parents who do not read their infants' signals correctly & do not respond appropriately to a baby who is crying vs. smiling would be considered to have LOW parental sensitivity
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identity confusion
an incomplete and sometimes incoherent sense of self that results from an unsuccessful resolution of Erikson's identity versus identity-confusion stage
-adolescents in this state often feel lost, isolated, or depressed
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self-esteem
one's overall evaluation of the worth of the self and the feelings associated with that evaluation
- -although it is often assumed that minority children have poorer self-esteem than than majority children, this is generally not the case
- -perhaps b/c of minority cultures' strong and positive ethnic identity
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insecure/avoidant attachment
a pattern of attachment in which a child appears to be indifferent towards the caregiver and may stay away from the caregiver
-in the Strange Situation task, infants with this pattern of attachment often ignore their caregivers when they enter the room following a separation episode and ignore or turn away from them when they are in the room
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insecure/resistant attachment
a pattern of attachment in which a child is clingy and stays close to the caregiver rather than exploring the environment
-the mothers of infants who display this pattern of attachment have been found to be inconsistent in their caregiving and are often anxious or overwhelmed
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disorganized/disoriented attachment
a pattern of attachment in which a child appears to have no consistent way of coping with the Strange Situation and thus behaves in a confused or contradictory manner
-this attachment category is often associated with a history of parental abuse
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internal working model of attachment
a mental representation of the self, of attachment figures, & of relationships in general that is a result of experiences with caregivers
-as a result of this, if children's caregivers are unresponsive and unavailable, children may hold negative perceptions of themselves and may believe that all relationships will be negative and unfulfilling
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sexual orientation
an individual's preference in regard to males or females as the object of erotic feelings
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attachment
close, enduring emotional bond with a specific person
-the security of this appears to have many short and long-term consequences for children's adjustment
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psychosocial moratorium
a time-out period in which an adolescent can explore activities that lead to self-discovery without having to take on any adult roles
-Erikson argued for the importance of psychosocial moratorium in modern society because of the complexity of achieving an identity
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ethnic identity
an individual's sense of belonging to an ethnic group
-this includes the degree to which individuals associate their thinking, perception, feelings and behavior with membership in their ethnic group
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identity foreclosure
premature commitment to an identity without adequately considering other choices
-an example of this is an individual who becomes a minister simply because his parent is one
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sexual-minority youth
young individuals who experience same-sex attractions
-for these individuals, the question of personal sexual identity is often confusing & painful
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identity achievement
an integration of various aspects of self into a coherent whole
-accoring to Erikson, this is a successful resolution of identity issues
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Bowlby proposed that individuals' internal working models of attachment include mental representations of:
attachment figures, the self, and relationships IN GENERAL
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the following is NOT a characteristic of securely attached infants in Strange Situation task
fails to greet mother when she returns to the room
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mothers who tend to be inconsistent in their early caregiving, often seem anxious and overwhelmed, are likely to have infants who are:
INSECURE/RESISTANT
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which of the following is more likely to be a characteristic of a 10 y/o child's sense of self than a 5 y/o child's sense of self:
INVOLVES OTHERS' EVALUATIONS OF THEM
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at what age do the inconsistencies people percieve in their personalities start to bother them:
ADOLESCENCE
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research has indicated that adolescents in the __________ state are MOST at risk for drug abuse:
research has indicated that adolescents in the IDENTITY DIFFUSION state are MOST at risk for drug abuse
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