Attachment & Lifespan Development
- Describe attachment research by Harlow and Ainsworth and the attachment styles
- Summarize Erikson’s psychosocial stages across the lifespan
- Compare parenting styles and their associated outcomes
Attachment: Harlow and Ainsworth
Attachment is the strong emotional bond between infant and caregiver. Harry Harlow’s monkeys, given a wire "mother" that provided milk and a soft cloth "mother" that did not, clung to the cloth mother — showing attachment rests on contact comfort, not just nourishment. Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation identified attachment styles by watching how infants reacted to a caregiver leaving and returning: secure (upset at departure, comforted at return, using the caregiver as a base to explore) and insecure — either anxious/resistant or avoidant. Sensitive, responsive parenting fosters secure attachment.
Erikson’s psychosocial stages
Erik Erikson proposed that development continues across the whole lifespan through eight psychosocial stages, each a crisis to resolve. In infancy: trust vs. mistrust. Toddlerhood: autonomy vs. shame and doubt. Preschool: initiative vs. guilt. Elementary: industry vs. inferiority. Adolescence: identity vs. role confusion (forming a sense of self — his most emphasized stage). Young adulthood: intimacy vs. isolation. Middle adulthood: generativity vs. stagnation. Late adulthood: integrity vs. despair. Each crisis, well resolved, builds a strength carried forward.
Parenting styles
Diana Baumrind identified parenting styles by combining demandingness and responsiveness. Authoritative parents are both demanding and warm — they set clear rules but explain them and listen — and their children tend to have the best outcomes: high self-esteem and social competence. Authoritarian parents are demanding but cold, imposing strict rules with little warmth ("because I said so"). Permissive parents are warm but undemanding, setting few limits. (A fourth, neglectful, is low on both.) These correlations do not prove causation, since temperament and culture also shape outcomes.
In Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, an infant explores a room while the mother is present, cries when she leaves, but quickly calms and resumes playing when she returns. Classify the attachment style and explain what caregiver behavior tends to produce it.
- 1.Note the exploration: the infant uses the mother’s presence as a secure base to explore, a sign of security.
- 2.Note the reaction to departure: distress when she leaves shows a genuine bond.
- 3.Note the reunion: being quickly comforted and returning to play is the defining marker of secure attachment.
- 4.Link to caregiving: secure attachment tends to develop when caregivers are sensitive and consistently responsive to the infant’s needs.
A high-school senior tries out different friend groups, values, and possible careers while asking "who am I really?" According to Erikson, this student is working through the crisis of:
Do not confuse authoritative with authoritarian. Authoritative parents are demanding and responsive (firm but warm), linked to the best outcomes. Authoritarian parents are demanding but unresponsive (strict and cold). The extra "-arian" marks the harsher, warmth-lacking style.
Harlow’s infant monkeys, offered a wire mother that dispensed milk and a soft cloth mother that did not, spent most of their time clinging to the cloth mother. What did this finding most directly demonstrate?
For attachment items, pair each researcher with a takeaway: Harlow = contact comfort over food (cloth vs. wire mother), Ainsworth = Strange Situation reveals secure vs. insecure styles. For lifespan crises, know Erikson’s adolescence stage — identity vs. role confusion — cold.
Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.
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