Evidence for Infants' Internal Working Models of Attachment

TLDR

Bowlby’s theory posits that infants form internal working models of attachment based on caregiver experience, which mediate their use of the caregiver as a buffer and influence later self‑regulation, yet no study has directly assessed these models in infancy. The study aimed to directly assess infants’ internal working models of attachment. The authors employed a novel assessment method to directly evaluate infants’ internal working models of attachment.

Abstract

Nearly half a century ago, psychiatrist John Bowlby proposed that the instinctual behavioral system that underpins an infant’s attachment to his or her mother is accompanied by ‘‘internal working models’’ of the social world—models based on the infant’s own experience with his or her caregiver (Bowlby, 1958, 1969/1982). These mental models were thought to mediate, in part, the ability of an infant to use the caregiver as a buffer against the stresses of life, as well as the later development of important self-regulatory and social skills. Hundreds of studies now testify to the impact of caregivers’ behavior on infants’ behavior and development: Infants who most easily seek and accept support from their parents are considered secure in their attachments and are more likely to have received sensitive and responsive caregiving than insecure infants; over time, they display a variety of socioemotional advantages over insecure infants (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999). Research has also shown that, at least in older children and adults, individual differences in the security of attachment are indeed related to the individual’s representations of social relations (Bretherton & Munholland, 1999). Yet no study has ever directly assessed internal working models of attachment in infancy. In the present study, we sought to do so. METHOD