secure attachment

Meaning: Attachment is the emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver. In secure attachment, the child treats the caregiver as a secure base. The child explores a new room while the caregiver is present, shows distress when the caregiver leaves, and seeks contact and settles fairly quickly when the caregiver returns. Attachment theory (Bowlby, extended by Ainsworth) proposes that this pattern develops when the caregiver responds consistently and sensitively to the child's signals.

On the MCAT: A passage describes the Strange Situation, a procedure in which a child in a playroom experiences a stranger and brief separations from and reunions with the caregiver. You classify the child mainly by reunion behavior. Secure: seeks the caregiver and is comforted. Avoidant: shows little distress and turns away or ignores the caregiver on return. Ambivalent (resistant): very distressed and hard to soothe, mixing clinging with anger. Disorganized: inconsistent, confused behavior. Questions may also tie in Harlow's monkeys, which preferred a cloth surrogate mother over a wire one that gave food, showing the role of contact comfort.

Common confusion: Secure does not mean the child stays calm when the caregiver leaves. Many secure children cry at separation. A child who stays calm and ignores the caregiver on return fits avoidant. Insecure types are still attachments. They differ in quality, not in whether a bond exists.