Discussion 1
GUIDELINE
You need to make substantive responses of 150-200 words. You need to support your answers with research and it must be cited. These discussions will be graded on three criteria: integration of material from text/powerpoints, completeness in answering the question and clarity (i.e. spelling, punctuation etc).
INSTRUCTIONS
Watch the following videos and then respond to the question below:
Harry Harlowe: The Discovery of Attachment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I
The Strange Situation: WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO BELOW
Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby identified 4 distinct attachment styles in children. Reflect back to your childhood. How would you describe your attachment style? Why do you think you developed this attachment style? Do you think your attachment style has changed? (Below is a description of the attachment styles)
1. SECURE: A child (Links to an external site.) with a secure pattern of attachment will explore a room while the parent (Links to an external site.) is present. If the parent leaves the room, the child will show signs of missing the parent during the separation. Preference for the parent over a stranger is evident; the child will greet the parent, initiating physical contact, upon reunion. After the reunion, the child will settle and resume play.
2. AVOIDANT: This child often fails to cry when separated from the parent, avoids and ignores the parent when reunited (by moving away, turning away, or leaning out of arms if picked up), and shows little or no proximity or contact-seeking, no distress or anger (Links to an external site.) at separations. Responses to the parent often appear unemotional. These children tend to focus more on toys and the environment than on a caregiver in new and strange situations.
3. RESISTANT OR AMBIVALENT: Showing little exploration of their environment, these children may be wary or distressed prior to separation. They seem preoccupied with the status and location of the parent, and may appear angry or passive. After a separation, these children fail to take comfort in the parent when reunited and continue to focus on the parent and fuss. They fail to return to exploration after reunion.
4. DISORGANIZED: This is the subtype most likely to develop into the psychiatric diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder. This pattern is most often associated with maltreatment from a parent who frightens the child. The child displays disorganized or disoriented behaviors in the parent’s presence, suggesting a temporary collapse of behavioral integrity and organization. The child may freeze, for example, with a trance-like expression, hands in air, may rise at parent’s entrance, then fall prone and huddle on the floor, or the child may cling, crying, leaning away with an averted gaze.
