The organized categories of infant, child, and adult attachment: Flexible vs. inflexible attention under attachment-related stress

From an evolutionary perspective, a central mechanism promoting infant surv ival is the maintenance of proximity to attachment figures. Consequently at tachment figure(s) represent the infant's primary solution to experiences o f fear. Aspects of the development of the field of attachment are outlined within this context, beginning with Bowlby's ethological/evolutionary theor y, and proceeding to Ainsworth's early descriptions of infant-mother intera ction in Uganda and Baltimore. Using a laboratory procedure called the stra nge situation, Ainsworth identified three organized patterns of infant resp onse to separation from and reunion with the parent. Narratives derived fro m videotaped strange situation behavior of infants in each category (secure , avoidant, and resistant/ambivalent) are provided, together with a discuss ion of the prototypical sequelae of each category (e.g., school behavior, a nd separation-related narratives and drawings at age six). The Adult Attach ment Interview (AAI) and the move to the level of representation are also d escribed. AAI transcripts are presently analyzed according to the speaker's capacity to adhere to Grice's maxims of rational cooperative discourse, an d three organized AAI categories, or states of mind with respect to attachm ent, have been identified (secure-autonomous, dismissing, and preoccupied). When the interview is administered to parents who have been seen with thei r infants in the strange situation, each AAI category has repeatedly been f ound to predict that infant's strange situation response to that parent. Il lustrations of the discourse characteristic of each category are provided, and it is noted that individuals with apparently unfavorable life histories are found to have secure offspring, providing that their history is recoun ted coherently. Like infant strange situation behavior, differences in adul t security as identified through discourse patterning are interpreted in te rms of attentional flexibility or inflexibility under attachment-related st ress.