Comparing apples and oranges:

Understanding the difference between temperament and

attachment

Douglas Goldsmith, Ph.D.

Executive Director

The Children’s Center

Temperament

• The style in which behaviors are exhibited• Does not address motivational underpinnings• No necessary connection between

personality and temperament

Nine dimensions of temperament• Activity level• Adaptability• Approach vs. withdrawal• Distractibility• Intensity of affect expression• Quality of mood• Rhythmicity of biological functions• Persistence/attention span• Sensory threshold

Activity level

• High activity – wiggling, thrashing about, active during sleep, active during play

• Low activity – quiet, observant

Rhythmicity

• Set feeding schedule• Regular bowel movements• Predictable sleep schedule• Caregivers can set their clock by the child’s

rhythmicity

Approach/ Withdrawal

• Eager to try new foods• Reach for new toys• Excited by the site of a new face

Adaptability

• Initially fearful and hesitant but warm up to novel stimuli

• Some never get used to sudden noises or new people

Threshold of responsiveness• Acutely aware of sights, sounds, textures

• Oblivious to loud noise, wet diapers, or new foods

Intensity of Reaction

• Slight distress to getting dressed or waiting to be fed

• Others scream and kick and turn every activity in to a battle ground

Quality of mood

• Wake up happy

• Others show distress and moodiness throughout the day

Distractibility

• Able to distract when upset

• Others show high levels of persistence

Attention span and persistence

• Stay with an activity for lengthy periods

• Others are quick to shift their attention and focus

Temperament Styles

• Easy child

• Difficult child

• Slow-to-warm up child

Attachment

• Explains how and why infant-parent bonds develop over the first years of life

• Promotes contact with the caregiver in the service of survival

• The pattern of interactions becomes organized as a recognizable and unique relationship characterizing the child-caregiver dyad

Vaughn & Bost (1999)

Secure Attachment

• The caregiver is perceived as a reliable source of protection and comfort

Secure Attachment

• When I am close to my loved one I feel good, when I am far away I am anxious, sad or lonely

• Attachment is mediated by looking, hearing, and holding

• When I’m held I feel warm, safe, and comforted• Results in a relaxed state so that one can, again,

begin to explore

Holmes (1993)

Secure Attachment

• Promote exploration of the environment• Expand mastery of the environment• “I can explore with confidence because I

know my caregiver will be available if I become anxious.”

• The infant gains confidence in his or her own interactions with the world

Weinfield et al (1999)

Secure Attachment

• Attachment is a reciprocal relationship

• The parent offers caregiving behavior that matches the attachment behavior of the child

• The child, using social referencing, checks in with the mother “looking for cues that sanction exploration or withdrawal” Holmes (1993)

Anxious Attachment

• Lack experience with consistent availability and comfort

• Attachment behaviors are responded to with:• Indifference• Rebuffs• Inconsistency

Anxious Attachment

• Anxious about caregiver’s availability• Afraid that the caregiver will be unresponsive

or ineffective in providing comfort• Experience anger about caregivers

unresponsiveness

Anxious Attachment

• Shows overt aggression toward the inconsistent mother

• “Don’t you dare do that again!” but has to cling because he knows from experience that she will.

Holmes (1993)

Assessment of Parent’s Point of View• Interview questions:

• Could you give me a thumbnail sketch of your child?• Tell me about a time in the past two weeks when you

and your child really clicked.• Tell me about a time when you didn’t.• What gives you the most joy in your relationship?• What gives you the most pain?• Where do you turn for emotional support?

Steele (2003)

Assessment – Secure Base

• Over the past two weeks can you think of a time when your child was:• Hurt?• Frightened?• Separated from you?

• What did your child do?• How did you respond?

Treatment - Bowlby

• A therapist applying attachment theory sees his role as:• Providing the conditions in which the patient

can explore his representational models of himself and his attachment figures

• Helping the patient reappraise and restructure the models in the light of new understanding

Treatment - Bowlby

• Five therapeutic roles• Provide a secure base• Help the patient consider ways in which he

engages with significant relationships• Encourage exploration of the therapist-

patient relationship• Consider how perceptions are a product of

childhood relationships• Recognize that past images may no longer

be appropriate

Secure Base Interventions

• Nurturing • Concept of good grandparenting

• Anticipating needs• Helping child regulate emotions• Parental emotional availability• Structure and consistency• Experience of being in one’s mind