There are three patterns of infant’s response to the Strange Situation, including secure-attachment, insecure avoidance, and insecure anxious. In secure attachment, infant use their caregiver as a secure base. Infant explores the room freely when mother is present. Infant showed distress when separated from her mother, and she explores less when mother is absent. She cried for a while but could stop later. She accepted some contact with stranger. She is happy when mother returns. Infant has positive and negative emotions during the Srange Situation Test. If she cries, she approaches her carer and holds her tightly. She is comforted by being held, she is ready to resume her independent exploration of the world. Her carer is responsive to her needs. As a result, she knows that she can depend on mother when she is under stress. She is worthy of being loved. (Ainsworth et al 1978).
Insecure-avoidance infant has little exploration and little emotional response to the caregiver. infant shows strong distress when separated from her mother, and keep crying for a while but stop later. This type of infant shows no preference for her carer over a complete stranger. She resisted comfort from stranger. Even though her mother returns, she tends to avoid or ignore her. She is not easily comforted when mother returned. She shows anger, distance but combined with seeking of proximity. Insecure-avoidance infant has little emotions, neither positive nor negative. They do not feel self worthy of being love from carer. They are not sure whether her mother will return or not, as they are pessimistic about relationships with carer and others. (Ainsworth et al 1978).
Insecure-anxious infant has little exploration, great separation anxiety, and ambivalent response to the caregiver when she return. This type of infant is like the insecure-avoidance infant, the insecure-anxious infant does not explore much on her own. However, this kind of infants unlike the insecure-avoidance infant. The insecure-anxious infant is wary of strangers and is very distressed when her mother walks away. When the mother returns, the resistant child is ambivalent. Although she wants to re-establish close proximity to her mother, but she is angry with mother as she leave her alone in the first place. As a result, the insecure-anxious infant may reject her mother’s advances. She is unsure that whether self is worthy of being loved or not, and uncertain to whether caregiver would return or not. She expect relationship with caregiver and others to be difficult (Ainsworth et al 1978).
Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned through conditioning. Classical conditioning claims that infants become attached to the person who feeds them or gives them pleasure, food is the unconditioned stimulus, which produces a sense of pleasure (unconditioned response). The food then becomes associated with the feeder. The feeder becomes a conditioned stimulus, and also producing a sense of pleasure. Thus, attachment between infant and caregiver is built on feeding by conditioning. Operant conditioning is used to integrate the perception of mental states. When infant is hungry, this is uncomfortable and this creates a drive to reduce the discomfort. Thus, infant cries for food. When caregiver comes to feed the infant, it can reduce the drive and the discomfort. This is reinforcement, therefore the infant acknowledges that food is a reward or primary reinforce. The feeder is then associated with the food, then becomes the secondary reinforce, and a basis of reward in their own right. However, behavioral appoach can not be best for account for attachment. It is because newborn babies have visual, auditory preferences toward their mother. Infant is capable of face discrimination and face recognition after birth (Field et al., 1984) and 2 day-old infants sucked to hear mother’s voice over a stranger’s voice. This ability is nature, is not learned through conditioning.
In cognitive approach, Piaget believed that infants are born with schemas which organize perceptual input and connect it to the appropriate responses during the sensorimotor stage. Piaget calls this the sensorimotor stage because the early manifestations of intelligence appear from sensory perceptions and motor activities. Infants keep discovering the relationship between their bodies and the environment. They rely on seeing, touching, sucking, feeling, and using their senses to learn things about themselves and the environment. Through countless informal experiments, infants develop the concept of separate selves, and the infant realizes that the external world is not an extension of themselves. In this stage, infant has clear intentional means-end behavior. The baby cries in order to get her mother’s attention. The end is mother’s attention she wants, and the means is crying. Thus two schemas are combined. Mother correspond with infant’s need that influence whether she perceive herself as worthy of care and whether mother can be trusted to provide care. These cognitive schemas or "internal working models" influence the interactions with others and interpretations of interaction in her whole life. However, cognitive approach can not be best account for attachment, as it can not explain that infant believed her carer would return in Strange Situation Test. According to Piaget, infants in substage 2, she show no signs of searching for toy which has disappeared. Thay have no object permanence at this stage. Object permanance refers to the understanding which objects continue to exist when they can not been seen. In young infants, when a toy is covered by a piece of paper, the infant immediately stops and appears to lose interest in the toy. According to cognitive approach, infant should fail to response to her mother as she has no object permanence. She does not understand that mother continue to exist even when mother is no longer visble. It means there are no attachment between the caregiver and the infant until by 12 months, most infants appear to understand that object continue to exist when they cannot be seen.
Freudian approach seems the best account for attachment. Erik Erikson was a neo-Freudian. He divided the human life span into eight stages. He believed that people have specific tasks to master at each stage of life. If people get fail to master the task of a particular stage, it could carry unfortunate consequences to later stages. In stage one, basic trust versus mistrust, occurs between 12 - 18 months when infants acquire a sense of trust about the environment. The tasks at this stage need to be mastered are bonding with the caregiver and learning how to trust. Bonding refers to the emotional attachment and the physical safety the infant feels with her caregiver, and the infant learns how to develop a sense of trust. If infant has positive bonding with the caregiver, she feels safe and nurtured. Infant learns to trust others because the emotional and physical needs have been met by the caregiver. She believe that the social world is predictable and supportive. However, if caregiver is unavailable or unreliable, a sense of mistrust will develop. These infants will become fearful and mistrusting. In Erickson’ theory, it seems to attachment and a feeling of security are difficult to establish if the infant feel that she is unattended. For example, the infant cry for hunger are ignored. The infant will have difficulty forming attachment relationships with the other. Eventually, the infant tend to be dependent on others or avoid to seek close relationship with other individual.
Among the behavioral, cognitive and Freudian approaches, Freudian approach can be the best account for attachment. Behavioral and cognitive approach can not explain the relationship between newborn and mother. It only can explain the later development of attachment of the infant. Cognitive approach believed that infant has no object permanance before 12 months, they fail to understand that objects continue to exist even they do not seen. Cognitive approach cannot explain the attachment before 12 months. Freudian approach can explain the attachment from early to later stage. Thus, within three approach, Freudian approach can be best account for attachment.
References
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health. World Health Organization Monograph.
Field TM, Cohen D, Garcia R, Greenberg R. 1984. Mother-stranger face discrimination by the newborn. Infant Behavior and Development 7(1): 19–25.
Weinfield, N. S., Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., & Carlson, E. (1999). The nature of individual differences in infant caregiver attachment. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, Research, and clinical applications (pp.68-88). New York: Guilford.