Article summary with Fathers in attachment theory and research: a review by Bretherton - 2009

Which are the four phases in father attachment research according to Bretherton?

Bretherton distinguished four phases in father attachment research (in industrialized societies). Each phase is dominated by specific questions and associated with changes in the conceptualisation of child-father attachment. The phases are:

• Phase 1 is dominated by research questioning if fathers can serve as attachment figures and if so, if their role is secondary or equal to mothers.
• Phase 2 continued to focus on fathers’ place in an attachment hierarchy, but towards the end an interest developed in intergenerational issues.
• Phase 3 looked at the comparative quality of an infants’ attachment to mother and father and whether intergenerational relationship qualities were independently transmitted from father and mother to the child.
• Phase 4 is characterized by more nuanced questions like if developmental outcomes of father and mother attachment are different even if both relationships were secure in infancy and childhood, and if the same assessments are appropriate for studying attachment to mother and father.

What is monotropy?

The theory of monotropy was developed by psychiatrist John Bowlby (1907-1990). The idea is that infants form one special, significant attachment with their primary caregiver and that if they fail to form that attachment, they will suffer later in life. He argued that in most cases the main attachment figure is the mother.

What did psychologist Michael Lamb discover in his studies during the 1970s (phase 2)?

In the 1970s researchers developed laboratory experiments to compare infant attachment behavior to mothers, fathers, and strangers. Psychologist Michael Lamb made interesting observations regarding attachment theory:

• Infants showed similar levels of approach and contact-seeking to mothers and fathers when either one or both the parents were present, but fathers were the recipients of more affiliative behaviors than mothers. When a stranger joined, infants shifted their attachment and affiliative behavior towards the mother. It appeared that stress heightened the visibility of mothers as principal attachment figures.
• Father-infant and mother-infant relationships may involve different kinds of experiences for infants, resulting in differential influences on children’s personality development.

What is Bowlby’s theory about the role of representation in attachment relationships?

Bowlby believes that a child builds representations (internal working models) of the physical and social world. These allow the child to make predictions and guide behavior. These include working models of self and parents and are derived from day-to-day interaction patterns and experiences. The working models influence the child’s ability to form close relationships with others now and later in life.

What is the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)?

The Adult Attachment Interview was developed in 1985 and is a qualitative systematic approach to interviewing used to assess how adults perceive their early attachment experiences with their primary caregivers. It consisted of 20 open-ended questions that invite parents to reflect on remembered attachment relationships in their family of origin.

Which are the four response patterns that were observed with the Adult Attachment Interview?

The AAI classifications denote an individual's overall state of mind with respect to attachment which is regulated by classification-specific ways of processing any attachment-relevant feelings, thought, speech, and behaviors. Four response patterns were identified:

• Secure-autonomous. Mother’s/father’s narratives about family of origins are reasonably coherent, reflective, emotionally open, and valuing of attachment relationships.
• Dismissing. Mother’s/father’s idealise their own parents’ behaviors in general terms, but cannot illustrate this with specific recollections.
• Preoccupied. Mother’s/father’s provide unreflective, vacillating, and hard to follow accounts of conflicted childhood relationships with their own parents.
• Unresolved/disorganized. This category was created for those who showed unusual behavior when doing the assessment, like freezing or shielding the face, and for those who showed lapses while describing traumatic experiences.

Which are the four conceptual models proposed by van IJzendoorn, Sagi, and Lambermon (1992) during phase 4 to study multiple attachments and subsequent personality development?

As longitudinal studies went on and children were followed into adolescence and young adulthood, new information emerged. Above mentioned researchers proposed several models to help make sense of the different ways in which multiple attachments to mothers, fathers, and others, may impact personality development. They recommended the following models:

• The monotropy model: only the principal attachment figure has an impact on personality development.
• The hierarchy model: attachment to the principal attachment figure (usually the mother) is the best predictor, while relationships with subsidiary attachment figures make weaker contributions.
• The integration model: the quality of all attachment relationships taken together predicts optimal outcomes.
• The independence model: all attachment relationships are equally important, but each contributes to development in distinct domains.