Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:32:13.714Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Treatment of anxious attachment in infancy and early childhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Patricia M. Crittenden
Patricia M. Crittenden*
Affiliation:
University of Miami
*
Address reprint requests to: Patricia M. Crittenden, Ph.D., 9481 SW 147 Street, Miami, FL 33176.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper integrates the work of Stern on affect regulation, Ainsworth on quality of attachment, Piaget on cognitive development, Tulving on memory systems, and Bowlby on internal representational models around the issue of promoting secure attachment. It is proposed that procedural models of the self and attachment figures develop in infancy, are maintained throughout the life span, and are accessed preconsciously to regulate everyday behavior. In the preoperational period, semantic models of generalizations regarding the self and others are constructed (often from parents' words), encoded, and accessed linguistically when the expectations implied by procedural models are discrepant with outcomes; that is, semantic models are used for problem solving. Episodic models, encoded by multiple means (e.g., verbally, auditorially, visually) develop last and consist of episodes of experience that can be accessed unconsciously and regulate behavior when individuals are emotionally aroused. Of interest is the relation among these emerging models, the patterns of information processing contained in them, and the means of guiding their development in children experiencing distorted relationships. Treatment approaches drawn from social learning theory, family systems theory, cognitive therapy, and psychodynamic theory are associated with the memory systems and integrated into an approach to treatment.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , October 1992 , pp. 575 - 602
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Azar, S. T. (1986). A framework for understanding child maltreatment: An integration of cognitive, behavioral, and developmental perspectives. Canadian Journal of the Behavioral Sciences, 18, 340–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, A., Grunberg, N. E., & Singer, J. E. (1992). Biochemical measurements in the study of emotion. Psychological Science, 3, 56–60.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., & Clark, D. A. (1988). Anxiety and depression: An information processing perspective. Anxiety Research, 1, 23–36.Google Scholar
Benedek, E. P., & Schetky, D. H. (1987). Problems in validating allegations of sexual abuse. Part I: Factors affecting perception and recall of events. Journal of the A merican Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 912–915.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berridge, K. C., & Zajonc, R. B. (1991). Hypothalamic cooling elicits eating: Differential effects on motivation and pleasure. Psychological Science, 2, 184–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaney, P. H. (1986). Affect and memory: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 229–246.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss. Vol. III: Loss. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brewin, C. (1988). Cognitive foundations of clinical psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Greenberg, M. (Eds.). (1991). Attachment and developmental psychopathology [Special issue]. Development and Psychopathology, 3(4).Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Lynch, M. (in press). Toward an ecological/transactional model of community violence and child maltreatment: Consequences for children's development. Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. (1987). The application of a transactional risk model to intervention with multirisk maltreating families. Zero to Three, 7, 1–8.Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. (1991). The making of a developmental psychopathologist. In Cantor, J., Spieker, C., & Lipsitt, L. (Eds.), Child behavior and development: Training for diversity (pp. 34–72). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. A., & Harnick, N. S. (1980). The susceptibility of the child witness to suggestion. Law and Human Behavior, 4, 201–210.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1981). Abusing, neglecting, problematic, and adequate dyads: Differentiating by pattern of interaction. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 27, 1–27.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1983). The effect of mandatory protective day care on mutual attachment in maltreating mother-infant dyads. International Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, 3, 279–300.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1985a). Maltreated infants: Vulnerability and resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26, 85–96.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1985b). Social networks, quality of parenting, and child development. Child Development, 56, 1299–1313.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1988a). Distorted patterns of relationship in maltreating families: The role of internal representational models. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 6, 183–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1988b). Family and dyadic patterns of functioning in maltreating families. In Browne, K., Davies, C., & Stratton, P. (Eds.), Early prediction and prevention of child abuse (pp. 161–189). London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1990). Internal representational models of attachment relationships. Infant Mental Health Journal, 11, 259–277.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (1992). Quality of attachment in the preschool years. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 209–241.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M. (in press). Treatment of child abuse and neglect. Human Systems.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M., & Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1989). Child maltreatment and attachment theory. In Cicchetti, D. & Carlson, V. (Eds.), Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (pp. 432–463). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crittenden, P. M., & DiLalla, D. (1988). Compulsive compliance: The development of an inhibitory coping strategy in infancy. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 16, 585–599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crittenden, P. M., Partridge, M. F., & Claussen, A. H. (1991). Family patterns of relationship in normative and dysfunctional families. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 491–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crittenden, P. M., & Snell, M. E. (1983). Intervention to improve mother-infant interaction. Infant Mental Health Journal, 4, 23–41.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. (1984). Expression and the nature of emotion. In Scherer, K. R. & Ekman, P. (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 319–343). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. (1992). Facial expression of emotion: New finding: New questions. Psychological Science, 3, 34–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and emotion in psychotherapy. New York: Lyle Stuart.Google Scholar
Emde, R. N. (1989). The infant's relationship experience: Developmental and affective aspects. In Sameroff, A. J. & Emde, R. N. (Eds.), Relationship disturbances in early childhood. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Erdelyi, M. H. (1990). Repression, construction and defense: History and integration of the psychoanalytic and experimental frameworks. In Singer, J. (Ed.), Repression and dissociation: Implications for personality, psychopathology, and health (pp. 1–31). Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Fischer, K. W., Knight, C. C., & Parys, M. V. (in press). Analyzing diversity in developmental pathways: Methods and concepts. In Edelstein, W. & Case, R. (Eds.), Constructivist approaches to development: Contributions to human development. Basel, Switzerland: Karger.Google Scholar
Fischer, K. W., Shaver, P. R., & Carnochan, P. (1990). How emotions develop and how they organize development. Cognition and Development, 4, 81–127.Google Scholar
Fraiberg, S. (1983). Pathological defenses in infancy. Dialogue, 6, 65–75.Google Scholar
Frijda, N. H., Kuipers, P., & ter Schure, E. (1989). Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotion action readiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 212–228.Google Scholar
Frodi, A., & Lamb, M. E. (1980). Child abusers' responses to infant smiles and cries. Child Development, 51, 238–241.Google Scholar
Greenwald, A. G. (1992). Unconscious cognition reclaimed. American Psychologist, 47, 766–779.Google Scholar
Hare, R. D. (1978). Electrodermal and cardiovascular correlates of psychopathology. In Hare, R. D. & Schalling, D. (Eds.), Psychopathic behavior: Approaches to research (pp. 107–143). Chichester, England: Wiley.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. K., & Foley, M. A. (1984). Differentiating fact from fantasy: The reliability of children's memories. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 33–50.Google Scholar
Kihlstrom, J. F., Barnhardt, T. M., & Tataryn, D. J. (1992). American Psychologist, 47, 788–791.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1992). A motivational analysis of emotion: Reflex-cortex connections. Psychological Science, 3, 44–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levenson, R. W. (1992). Autonomic nervous system differences among emotions. Psychological Science, 3, 23–27.Google Scholar
Levenson, R. W., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology, 27, 363–384.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. (1992). Shame: The exposed self. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1979). Social cognition and the acquisition of self. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Lieberman, A. F. (1991). Attachment theory and infant-parent psychotherapy: Some conceptual, clinical, and research considerations. In Cicchetti, D. & Toth, S. L. (Eds.), Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology, Vol. 3: Models and Integration (pp. 261–287). Rochester: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Lieberman, A. F., & Pawl, J. H. (1988). Infant mental health: A model for service delivery. Journal of Clinical Child Psychiatry, 14, 196–201.Google Scholar
Lozzoff, B., Brittenham, G., Trause, M., Kennell, J., & Klaus, M. (1977). The mother-newborn relationship: Limits of adaptability. The Journal of Pediatrics. 91, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, M., & Cicchetti, D. (1991). Patterns of relatedness in maltreated and non-maltreated children: Connections among multiple representational models. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 207–226.Google Scholar
Main, M. (1981). Avoidance in the service of attachment: A working paper. In Immelmann, K., Barlow, G., Petrinovich, L., & Main, M. (Eds.), Behavioral development: The Bielfeld interdisciplinary project (pp. 651–693). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Main, M., & Goldwyn, R. (in press). Adult attachment classification system. In Main, M. (Ed.), A typology of human attachment organization: Assessed in discourse, drawing, and interviews. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marvin, R. S., & Stewart, R. B. (1990). A family systems framework for the study of attachment. In Greenberg, M. T., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, E. M. (Eds.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research, and intervention (pp. 51–86). Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Mineka, S., & Sutton, S. K. (1992). Cognitive biases and emotional disorders. Psychological Sciences, 3, 65–69.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1984). The control of information pickup in selective looking. In Pick, A. D. (Ed.), Perception and its development: A tribute to Eleanor Gibson (pp. 201–219). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Noam, G. (1988). A constructivist approach to developmental psychopathology. In Nannis, E. D. & Cowan, P. A. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology and its treatment. New Directions for Child Development, 39, 91–122.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1954). Play, dreams, and imitation in childhood. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Plutchik, R. (1980). Emotion: A psychoevolutionary synthesis. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Pynoos, R. S., & Nader, K. (1989). Children's memory and proximity to violence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 236–241.Google Scholar
Rieder, C., & Cicchetti, D. (1989). Organizational perspective on cognitive control functioning and cognitive-affective balance in maltreated children. Developmental Psychology, 25, 482–493.Google Scholar
Solomon, J. (1992, 05). Discussion. Symposium on Attachment in High Risk Populations, International Conference on Infant Studies,Miami, FL.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A., & Rutter, M. (1984). The domain of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 17–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stern, D. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Stern, D. (1989). The representation of relational patterns: Developmental perspectives. In Sameroff, A. S. & Emde, R. (Eds.), Relationship disturbances in early childhood (pp. 52–69). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Stern-Bruschweiler, N., & Stern, D. (1989). A model for conceptualizing the role of other's representational world in various mother-infant therapies. Infant Mental Health Journal, 10, 142–156.Google Scholar
Stevenson-Hinde, J. (1990). Attachment within family systems: An overview. Infant Mental Health, 11, 218–227.Google Scholar
Terr, L. (1988). What happens to early memories of trauma? A study of twenty children under age five at the time of documented traumatic events. Journal of the A merican A cademy of Child and A dolescent Psychiatry, 27, 96–104.Google ScholarPubMed
Terr, L. (1991). Childhood traumas: An outline and overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 10–20.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. Z. (1989). Emotions and emotional communication in infants. American Psychologist, 44, 112–119.Google Scholar
Troy, M., & Sroufe, L. A. (1987). Victimization among preschoolers: Role of attachment relationship history. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 166–172.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In Tulving, E. & Donaldson, W. (Eds.), Organization of memory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1985). How many memory systems are there? American Psychologist, 40, 385–398.Google Scholar
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124–1131.Google Scholar
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. In Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (Eds.), Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases (pp. 3–20). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vygotskii, L. S. (1987). The collected works of L. S. Vygotskii. In Rieber, R. W. & Carlton, A. S. (Eds.) and Minick, N. (Trans.). New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (1988). Cognitive psychology and emotional disorders. Chichester, England: Wiley.Google Scholar
Zahn-Waxler, C., & Kochanska, G. (1990). The origins of guilt. In Thompson, R. A. (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Socio-emotional development (pp. 183–258). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Zajonc, R. B., & McIntosh, D. N. (1992). Emotions research: Some promising questions and some questionable promises. Psychological Science, 3, 70–74.Google Scholar