Susan Goldberg博士系列
依恋理论从孩子的角度看亲子联系：孩子如何感觉安全的和可靠的？他对外界的信任程度？对这些问题的答案可以影响他的一生对世界的观点。在相应的领域的研究表明，依恋领域的研究建议孩子的安全意识和安全感对于情感和社会福祉和对于实际的人身安全福祉是一样重要的。
由6个部分组成的系列探索依恋模式，贯穿孩子一生依恋的含意，以及依恋的各种影响。
Susan Goldberg博士是依恋领域国际公认的研究专家。在儿童医院的漫长的职业生涯中，她在医院的病童的过程中，她在这一领域发表了大量文章和书籍。 2005年，她获得了著名的鲍比-安斯沃思奖，该奖由纽约联合会授予，奖励对鲍比-安斯沃思传统依恋理论的精神健康推广中心创办人和杰出的贡献者。她在推进依恋研究和儿童的健康领域誉满天下，是深受同事和学生爱戴的慷慨的导师。
英文版链接
Goldberg博士于2005年6月14日去世。
这是这是依恋概念多-部分系列的第一个特点，由已故的Susan Goldberg撰写。虽然发表是在2004年至2005年期间，这6个部分组成的系列已经被Diane Benoit和她的同事Sheri Madigan更新和重新审阅，Diane Benoit也是国际公认的依恋领域的研究员。
作者：Susan Goldberg 博士
作为父母，我们要保护我们的孩子免受伤害。在我们的作为保护者的作用里，我们很容易想到的往往是提供食物，保暖，和保护我们的孩子免受疾病和危险。
但是，如果我们从孩子的角度来考虑安全会怎么样呢？对于一个孩子，一个真正的危险意识是那些对成年人无害的情况。在对感知的威胁的反应中，不安的婴儿或孩子将会自然地表达他或她对于舒适和安全的需要。照顾者对此信号的响应方式教育孩子关于他或她的世界的可预见性和安全性。随着时间的推移，孩子学会是否可以依靠一个照顾者来提供舒适和安全。这反过来，又影响了他们的期待，这个世界到底将是安全的还是危险的地方。
在依恋领域的研究表明，一个孩子的安全感对情感和社会意义来说的重要程度，与对身体健康来说的重要程度是一样的。保护意识的发展与婴儿-照顾者的关系直接相关。在过去的4个年代里的试验性研究已经证实，我们对早期的关系的至关重要性的直觉，以及照顾者的作为依恋对象的作用，可能成为儿童未来的社会福利和情感健康中的一个或多个因素。
依恋与结合
人们往往对结合的概念更熟悉，但对依恋的概念就没有那么熟悉。事实上，两者是完全不同的。结合一词主要是指在照顾者和他或她的孩子之间形成的情感纽带，最初是在出生和分娩的时候。相比之下，依恋理论则侧重于孩子对照顾者的感情。
何为依恋？
婴儿需要一个称作“依恋对象”的特殊的人，使他们感觉安全有保障。这对于形成他们将来与人相处的方式至关重要。
依恋包括婴儿-照顾者关系中的两个组成部分：婴儿对于保护和舒适的需要，以及照顾者及时提供适当的照顾，作为对这些需要的反应。
婴儿情绪受到困扰，身体受到伤害，或患病时，依恋行为发生。作为对于安全受到威胁的反应，一个婴儿会停止其活动，并寻求与照顾者的密切接触。依恋行为还包括与身边的照顾者保持接触的努力，例如，依隈在照顾者的身边，或坐在他们的腿上，以及任何其他需要安慰的信号，如啼哭。
把依恋的过程想象成一种婴儿和照顾者之间的舞蹈。换句话说，依恋并不是完全取决于一个照顾者对于婴儿的行为。婴儿如何发出信号和如何对照顾者做出响应，也是这个过程里面的关键的组成部分。照顾者以其特定的方式对婴儿的信号做出响应，这种响应继而又由婴儿解释。根据该照顾者反应的性质，婴儿修改他或她的行为。这样，婴儿很早就学会了如何管理忧伤，或根据照顾者的反应，调节他或她的情绪。
因此，在这个复杂的舞蹈过程中发展出不同的依恋模式。基于在很长的一段的时间里其照顾者的反应，婴儿学习期待从他们的照顾者那里得到某些答复。到了满一岁的时候，婴儿的期望或与照顾者关系的内部工作模式就建立起来了，并可能难以改变。
依恋理论的起源
依恋理论有几个来源的起源。在20世纪40年代，发现孤儿院养大的儿童表现出不寻常的社会和情感行为。其他的研究人员观察大自然中的和实验室里的动物的行为。许多动物对在其出生后不久的关键时期所接触的人或物表现出优惠的行为。由代理母亲抚养的婴儿猴子，用瓶子提供牛奶，盖上毛圈织物使自己舒适，与毛圈织物的代用品一起的时间很多，显示出愉快的触觉-喜爱-超过了对食物的喜爱。尽管所有的猴子在以后的发展过程中都显示了不正常的社会行为，那些使用铁丝网代用品的猴子的情况每况愈下。
这些研究和观察形成了后来的依恋理论的基础。John Bowlby，一名英国儿童精神病学家，是第一个提出正式的依恋理论的人。Mary Ainsworth 扩展和证实了Bowlby在这一领域对现场的和实验室环境中的婴儿-照顾者之间互动的观察的想法。
依恋模式
Ainsworth开发的'陌生情景范例'，是一个实验室采用的方法，用来衡量照顾者和儿童之间依恋的质量。这个程序程涉及婴儿或幼儿与其照顾者或友好的陌生人之间的几个分离和团聚。婴儿在与照顾者团聚时的行为方式是依恋质量的主要指标。
从这个简单但功能强大的自然实验中，Ainsworth确定了三种一般的依恋模式：
安全型包括在与照顾者团聚时，婴儿方面的积极的响应。大多数的婴儿属于这一类。
在此相反，有不安全-回避型依恋关系的婴儿，似乎对照顾者的缺席没有感到不安，在与照顾者团聚时，往往冷落他们。
反抗型依恋模式的特点是，婴儿在与照顾者分开时感到不安，婴儿不愿探索他或她的环境，即使父母在场。有不安全-反抗型依恋模式的婴儿，对照顾者的尝试安慰他们的行为没有响应
第四类是后来增加的，是指婴儿似乎对分开或团聚均没有应对策略。这些婴儿被认为与其照顾者有紊乱型的依恋关系。
一个总在孩子身边，对他们的婴儿的信号敏感，有反应，并接受婴儿的不安的照顾者，通常有安全依恋的孩子。有不安全依恋的照顾者，对孩子的痛苦以及需要安慰和保护的迹象往往不够响应。这些照顾者不能在身体方面，心理方面或在情绪上给孩子以支持，或往往有不够敏感的、或不可预测的养育风格。
响应婴儿的小窍门
当婴儿受伤、生病或不安时，您可以对他作出多种响应。如果您现在以使婴儿感觉安全保险的方式对他作出响应，将会使他相信有人在支持他。
当一名照顾者未能对需要安慰的婴儿做出适当的回应时，这并不一定是照顾者的过错。在有些情况下，因为照顾者有他们自己的悲伤或需要，而没有能力对他或她的婴儿的需要显示出敏感性，其他的照顾者则根本无法懂得他们的婴儿的信号，从而出现应对不当。
这四个主要的婴儿-照顾者依恋模式，已经被证明是独立于一个婴儿的气质而存在的。换句话说，依恋模式关注的是婴儿和照顾者之间的关系，而不是任何一方的性格。
步骤朝着健康的依恋
研究已经表明，许多照顾者似乎本能地知道 – 经常在孩子的身边，对婴儿的信号敏感和接受，有助于促进健康的依恋。以下是照顾者要考虑的一般性的战略，当对他们的婴儿的不安或需要安慰和保护的信号作出回应时：
要注意。了解和识别你的婴儿不安的迹象。
作出响应。让你的孩子知道你知晓他或她的痛苦，并作出妥善的反应。
保持一致。对你的孩子被安慰的需要作出一致的和可预见的回应，能使一个儿童建立安全感。
接受。接受，而不是判断，或给孩子的情感不安和不适打折扣。
提供安慰。宽抚和安慰你的孩子，作为对其不安的回应。
依恋模式在婴儿-照顾者关系中发展，以满足婴儿的非常强大的和基本的舒适和安全的需要。照顾者如何对他们的婴儿的不安做出回应，将对他或她的情感和社会发展，未来的关系，甚至未来的养育方式产生持久的影响。作为婴儿的父母和照顾者，非常重要的是我们必须意识到我们在这个复杂的舞蹈中所起的重要作用，因为我们帮助我们的孩子建立起健康的对于社会和情感的安全感。
Diane Benoit, MD, FRCPC
Sheri Madigan, PhD, C.Psych (监督实践)
5/7/2010
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Karen R. Becoming Attached. New York: Warner Books; 1994.
The Infant Mental Health Promotion Project and the Department of Psychiatry, The Hospital for Sick Children. A Simple Gift: Comforting Your Baby [video]. Toronto: The Hospital for Sick Children; 1998. Used by permission.
Research in the field of attachment suggests that a child’s sense of safety and security is as important to emotional and social well-being as actual safety is to physical well-being. The development of a sense of protection is directly related to the quality of the infant-caregiver relationship. Empirical research over the past four decades has confirmed our intuition about the critical importance of early relationships, and how a caregiver's role as an attachment figure might be one of the more important factors for a child’s future social and emotional well-being.
Attachment versus bonding
People tend to be familiar with the notion of bonding but less so with the idea of attachment. In fact, the two are quite different. The term bonding refers primarily to the emotional bonds that form between a caregiver and their child, initially as a result of the events surrounding birth and delivery. By contrast, attachment theory focuses on the child's feelings towards the caregiver.
>Attachment involves two components in the infant-caregiver relationship: the infant's need for protection and comfort, and the caregiver's provision of timely and appropriate care in response to these needs.
Attachment behaviours occur when an infant is emotionally distressed, physically hurt or ill. In response to a threat to safety an infant will stop their activity and seek close contact with caregivers. Attachment behaviours also include efforts to maintain contact with the caregiver by, for example, clinging to caregivers or sitting on their lap, and any other behaviours that signal needs for comfort, such as crying.
Think of the process of attachment as a kind of dance between infant and caregiver. In other words, attachment is not solely concerned with a caregiver’s behaviour toward an infant. How the infant signals and responds to the caregiver is a critical part of the process. The infant’s signal is responded to in a particular way by the caregiver, which in turn is interpreted by the infant. Depending on the nature of the caregiver's response, the infant modifies their behaviour. Very early on an infant learns how to manage distress or regulate their emotions depending on the caregiver’s responses.
Thus, in this complex dance, different patterns of attachment develop. Infants learn to expect certain responses from their caregivers based on the reactions of their caregivers over time. By the end of the first year of life, an infant's expectations or internal working models of relationships with caregivers are established and may prove difficult to change.
Origins of attachment theory
Attachment theory has its origins in a number of sources. In the 1940s, children raised in orphanages were found to exhibit unusual social and emotional behaviour. Other researchers observed the behaviour of animals in natural and laboratory settings. Many animals demonstrate preferential behaviour toward a figure they are exposed to during a critical period soon after birth. Infant monkeys raised with surrogate mothers, wire frames with bottles to provide milk or covered with terrycloth to provide comfort, spent more time with the terrycloth surrogate, showing that pleasant, tactile sensation – affection — was more important than food. Although all monkeys showed abnormal social behaviour in later development, those with wire frame surrogates only were worse off.
These studies and observations formed the basis of later theories of attachment. John Bowlby, a British child psychiatrist, was the first to put forth a formal theory of attachment. Mary Ainsworth expanded and confirmed many of Bowlby’s ideas by observing infant-caregiver interactions in the field, and in a laboratory setting.
Attachment patterns
Ainsworth developed the 'Strange Situation Paradigm', a laboratory method used to measure the quality of attachment between caregiver and child. This procedure involves several separations and reunions between an infant or young child from a caregiver or a friendly stranger. The way the infant behaves at reunion with the caregiver is the main indicator of the quality of attachment.
From this simple but very powerful naturalistic experiment, Ainsworth identified three general attachment patterns:
- A secure pattern involves a positive response on the part of the infant during reunion with the caregiver. The majority of infants fall into this category.
- In contrast, an infant in an insecure-avoidant attachment relationship does not seem to be bothered by a caregiver's absence and will often snub the caregiver on reunion.
- A resistant attachment pattern is characterized by infant distress upon separation and the infant's reluctance to explore their environment even in the presence of the parent. The infant with an insecure-resistant attachment pattern does not respond to the caregiver's attempts at soothing.
- A fourth category was later added for infants who seem to have no strategy for coping with separation or reunion. These infants are considered to have a disorganized attachment relationship with their caregiver.
A caregiver who is consistently available, sensitive to their infant's signals and receptive and accepting of the infant's distress tend to have securely attached children. A caregiver of an insecurely attached child tends to be less responsive to the child’s signs of distress and need for comfort and protection. These caregivers are unavailable either physically, psychologically or emotionally or tend to be insensitive or unpredictable in their parenting style.
When a caregiver does not respond appropriately to an infant's need for comfort, it is not necessarily the fault of the caregiver. There are instances when a caregiver, because of their own grief or needs, simply is not capable of being sensitive to their infant’s needs in a particular situation. Other caregivers simply are not able to read their infant's signals and thus respond inappropriately.
These four major infant-caregiver attachment patterns have been shown to be independent of an infant's temperament. In other words, attachment patterns concern the relationship between the infant and caregiver rather than the personality of either.
Steps toward healthy attachment
Research has shown what many caregivers seem to know intuitively — being consistently available, sensitive and receptive to an infant's signals helps promote healthy attachment. The following are general strategies for caregivers to consider when responding to their infant's signals of distress or need for comfort and protection:
- Pay attention. Learn to recognize your infant’s signs of distress.
- Be responsive. Let your child know that you are aware of their distress and respond to it appropriately.
- Be consistent. Consistent and predictable responding to your child’s need for comfort creates a sense of security in the child.
- Be accepting. Accept rather than judge or discount your child’s emotional distress and discomfort.
- Provide comfort. Soothe and comfort your child in response to distress.
Attachment patterns develop in the infant-caregiver relationship to meet the infant's very powerful and basic need for comfort and security. How caregivers respond to their infant's distress has lasting implications for their emotional and social development, future relationships, even future parenting styles. As parents and caregivers, it is essential to be aware of the important role we play in this complex dance, as we help our children develop a healthy sense of social and emotional well-being.
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