• 7岁以下的儿童通过观察程序进行评估。当儿童与其依恋对象分离后，研究人员观察，并评估婴儿在团聚时的表现——包括，情感表达、会话交流，以及微妙的肢体语言。

 
• 成人依恋访谈（Adult Attachment Interview, AAI）相当于针对成年人和青少年的陌生情境范例。 成人依恋采访最近已做调整，适合年仅7岁的儿童使用。参与者需要回答他们与其依恋对象的早期经验。依恋的安全性反应在受访者在讨论童年依恋经验的连贯程度上。研究人员需要评估这两个问题的答案，以及他们在表达过程中的举止。

• 控制-照顾型儿童（ controlling-caregiving child），他们或是取悦照顾者，或是安慰照顾者，而照顾者通常对孩子经常出现的夸大的积极情绪表现出有限的回应。

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• 控制-惩罚型儿童（controlling-punitive-child）对满足其要求的照顾者，通常表现出有敌意的行为。

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For Bowlby, the founder of attachment theory, attachment involved much more than an infant’s response to separation. Infant separation and reunion behaviours were just a preview of things to come; one indication of an underlying pattern of expectations about the self, others and the world which would continue to evolve and persist throughout adulthood.

cJ:Ja4o&[pR o0Bowlby’s ideas were revolutionary and controversial, generating a flurry of questions; what were the long-term implications of early attachment security? What, if anything, do our earliest attachment relationships tell us about the kind of parents we will become? And can our attachment history with our parents affect the security and well-being of our own children?

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f}1N}0G|;e0Continuing attachment research is providing answers to these fundamental questions. There is mounting evidence that security of attachment can affect many aspects of a person’s well-being in profound and enduring ways, and that these outcomes can in turn be conveyed to future generations.心理学空间9~R;N?)g(_

Beyond infancy

In 1974, researchers at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota began a longitudinal study that would span three decades and prove to be a landmark in attachment research. From an original sample of 267 expectant mothers came a multitude of findings pointing to the critical importance of early relationships. What was once speculation now had empirical support.

Infant-caregiver pairs were assessed at one year using the Strange Situation Paradigm. A group of children were re-assessed between the ages of four and five. Months of intensive observation revealed that the majority of children classified as secure at one year of age scored higher on measures of self-esteem, responded more positively to other children and had better social skills than children in insecure attachment relationships.

New measures of attachment

[ p6Nou&Wt'{0In order to assess the stability of attachment over time, researchers developed new measures that could evaluate and classify attachment patterns in older children and adults: 心理学空间(h&\L/~Z8x0fkZ

• Children up to seven years of age are assessed using observational procedures. Following separations between children and attachment figures, affective expressions, conversational exchanges and subtle body language are observed and evaluated during reunions.
• The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is the adult and adolescent equivalent of the Strange Situation Paradigm. The AAI has recently been adapted for use with children as young as seven years old. Participants are asked about early experiences with attachment figures. Attachment security is reflected by the degree to which respondents coherently discuss childhood attachment experiences. Both the answers and the manner in which they are expressed are evaluated.

n4}5_1P&R0With the AAI and various observational measures, classifications schemes that correspond to the four infant-caregiver attachment patterns have been developed. 心理学空间eb#j7XGz{

Preschool and school aged attachment

/yCW0wFR+a`0The Minnesota studies and many that followed showed promising outcomes for most children who were in secure attachment relationships with their primary caregiver during infancy. Children who were in secure attachment relationships at one year of age tend to be popular with peers, resilient, resourceful and cooperative in preschool. By age six, they are more compliant, responsive, cooperative, self-reliant and empathic than those who were in insecure attachment relationships in infancy. In general, secure attachment appears to act as a protective factor against emotional and behavioural problems in childhood and adolescence. 心理学空间5{8Wm7Zc

Infants who display avoidant attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm at one year are at greater risk for a defended or avoidant attachment patterns during preschool; especially in the presence of other risk factors. Children who were in avoidant attachment relationships during infancy are vulnerable to becoming emotionally insulated, hostile or anti-social; engaging in activities such as stealing, lying or cheating. They are more likely to provoke adults and peers into rejecting them and are more likely to victimize others than those who were in secure relationships during infancy. 心理学空间^0XbD N8}

Children who display resistant attachment at one year of age tend to be dependent during the preschool years. Dependent children spend a disproportionate amount of time seeking attention from adults. They may be easily frustrated or passive and helpless. Like infants in resistant attachment relationships, dependent children are preoccupied with the caregiver at the expense of other activities.

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g6P9OE5Cm0Children who show disorganized patterns of attachment in the Strange Situation Paradigm at one year of age have the greatest risk of aggressive behaviour, conduct disorder and dissociative behaviours later in life. Dissociative behaviours involve a breakdown in a person’s perception of their surroundings, memory, identity or consciousness. 心理学空间1vnE^r1H

By age six, disorganized attachment has become organized but into a pattern where the child, rather than the caregiver takes responsibility for control. These children control, coerce or dominate their caregiver either by humiliating and rejecting them or by being attentive and protective. The controlling-caregiving child entertains or comforts the caregiver who usually shows limited emotion in response to the child’s often exaggerated positive emotions. The controlling-punitive-child behaves in a hostile manner toward the caregiver who usually complies with the child’s requests. 心理学空间~W:i7a9`n^x

A final childhood attachment classification, insecure-other, includes children who show insecurity but do not fit into the other categories. These children tend to show a mixture of avoidant and dependent strategies. 心理学空间fw#y,`;V+u i-c4_

Adolescent and adult attachment

Autonomous attachment in adolescence and adulthood corresponds to the infant-caregiver secure attachment pattern in infancy. These individuals can recognize both the limitations and positive qualities of childhood attachment figures. Individuals classified as autonomous value relationships, are often forgiving of less than optimal caregiving, are at peace with imperfections in themselves and others and are coherent and objective in describing their childhood experiences. 心理学空间0O1sI iK`Ihp

P cK~Yh0The classification of preoccupied attachment corresponds to insecure resistant attachment in infancy. Individuals classified as preoccupied get very entangled in the details of childhood but find it difficult to provide a clear overview of their past. They tend to be preoccupied with early experiences, often appearing overly concerned with trying to please their parents. Adults and adolescents classified as preoccupied are not at peace with imperfections in themselves or others.

Dismissing patterns of attachment corresponds most closely with insecure-avoidant attachment in infancy. In responding to the AAI, these individuals tend to say little about childhood attachment experiences often providing only short, minimally informative answers and insisting upon an inability to recall while often presenting an overly positive account of early childhood experiences. They also minimize the impact of key relationships from their past. 心理学空间1d-I&`V ~R

~[Nzo^&rl0Unresolved attachment, which corresponds most closely to disorganized attachment in infancy, is characterized by a lack of resolution of mourning of a significant loss or trauma. Individuals who are classified as unresolved in their attachment style may show confusion surrounding a death or trauma, confusion about the permanency of a death, or a sense of being possessed by the deceased person or abuser. 心理学空间%FhT?-R*|Y

Stability and change in attachment patterns

S*UN,ZL;OEM0Attachment theory assumes that attachment patterns can endure across the lifespan. The adoption of a particular attachment strategy in infancy generally predicts a specific developmental trajectory that carries on throughout a person’s life. Definitive evidence confirming the stability of attachment would require intensive life-time follow-up procedures. At present, there are less comprehensive, often mixed, but nevertheless valuable findings.

The Family Lifestyles Project is an ongoing longitudinal study based at the University of California. Following children from infancy to 19 years of age, attachment during infancy was found to be a significant predictor of attachment security during adolescence.

EH3@D#Y1y0In contrast to these findings, a sample of 57 high risk young adults showed no significant continuity of attachment style between infancy and adulthood. The sample consisted of a subset of participants from the Minnesota Mother-Child Project, an ongoing longitudinal study of children at risk for poor developmental outcomes. Continuity of attachment depended on specific conditions of adversity. Infants who suffered from maltreatment and had insecure attachment relationships with their primary caregiver were more likely to remain insecure. Infants in insecure attachment relationships who became secure as young adults, known as earned secure, were more likely to have better family functioning at age 13. And finally, infants who received secure attachment classifications in the Strange Situation Paradime and received insecure classifications in later years, were more likely to have depressed mothers.

Z @9V6g;C+W1Vdt0Another 20-year longitudinal study, based in Minneapolis, looked specifically at the impact of negative life events on the stability of attachment. Of the participants who had experienced significant loss or stress, 44% changed attachment classifications from infancy to early adulthood, in contrast to the only 22% of individuals who did not experience negative life events.

Intimate relationships

pi;d r [;i3t8`Ff-D?Y0We have seen how attachment security can continue to influence core aspects of a person’s life well into adulthood. How do these effects in turn affect the quality of significant relationships in people’s lives? Although there is little longitudinal research linking infant-caregiver attachment and adult intimate relationships, there is some evidence to suggest that marital satisfaction can be related to a person’s attachment classification on the AAI. Couples with one insecure partner experience more conflict than couples with both autonomous partners; two insecure partners result in the greatest degree of conflict. Among engaged and married couples, insecure women report more verbal and physical aggression and threats of abandonment from partners compared to couples in which the women are autonomous. 心理学空间,K\3sw3V6OOW

The transmission of attachment to our children

The quality of our intimate relationships can play a role in our ability to be effective parents for our children. As well, there is evidence to suggest that a person’s parenting style can mimic the style to which they were exposed as infants. Thus, adults with autonomous attachment tend to consistently respond in comforting ways to their infants’ distress. Adults who had dismissing and preoccupied attachment relationships with their parents are more likely to be rejecting or inconsistent respectively as caregivers, thus perpetuating the likelihood of insecure attachment in their infants.

w8O-N0q$m2~(zQ t0Diane Benoit from the Hospital for Sick Children and Kevin Parker from Kingston General Hospital were interested in the degree to which attachment classification extended across generations. They found that mothers’ attachment classifications, collected during pregnancy successfully predicted their infants’ classification at twelve months in 82% of cases. Looking across three generations, 65% of the grandmother-mother-infant triads had corresponding attachment classifications in all three generations. This finding extends the already far-reaching implications of early attachment security.

In line with Bowlby’s vision of attachment as a lifespan construct, there is mounting evidence that the long-term effects of early attachment relationships can be far-reaching. Our attachment history can affect our emotional well-being which in turn can influence our friendships, our choice of significant others and the quality of our romantic relationships. The strength of core relationships affects the kind of caregivers we become and ultimately our own children’s sense of security and emotional well-being.

}N.{ u?)[cV_^0Continuing research on stability and change in attachment patterns will shed more light on this critical area of human development.心理学空间[j_5m b/_r8u|3T
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In Attachment part four: Caregiver and child influences on attachment we will explore the particular child and caregiver characteristics that contribute to attachment security during development.