Attachment Style and Exploration

The current model examined the association between attachment style and exploration using the strange situation as a framework. Attachment style is a trait-like individual difference reflecting people’s attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors in close relationships (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Gillath et al., 2016). Attachment style develops in early childhood based on experiences with primary caregivers—termed attachment figures (Bowlby, 1982). Children who experience supportive, sensitive, and responsive caregiving are likely to develop a secure attachment style. Children who experience unsupportive and rejecting caregiving are likely to develop an avoidant attachment style, and those experiencing insensitive, intrusive, and inconsistent caring are likely to develop an anxious attachment style. When a child experiences stress or danger in their environment, their attachment system is activated, and they seek out the comfort and safe haven of their primary caregiver. This in turn deactivates the attachment system, allowing other behavioral systems to resume (such as exploration). Attachment styles influence how a child reacts to their primary caregivers when the attachment system is activated. For this model, I used observations from the strange situation to code the interactions between the child and their primary caregiver. Mary Ainsworth developed the strange situation based off her and colleagues’ observations of how a child interacts with their primary caregivers (e.g., Ainsworth et al., 1978). The researchers wanted to understand how a child would interact with their primary caregiver in a situation where the caregiver left the child in an unfamiliar place with a stranger and later returned. They also wanted to watch the child’s behavior after the caregiver returned to the room. In this model, we want to know how a child might explore once the care giver returns. For a secure child, contact with the primary caregiver provides reassurance and deactivation of the attachment system. The primary caregiver acts a safe haven or secure base and the child is calmed by the primary caregivers presences. For an anxious child, they fear abandonment and may cling to the primary caregiver but have trouble feeling as though their primary caregiver provides a secure base or safe haven. This will effect the range and depth of exploration but the child is focused on keeping the caregiver near. For avoidant children, they will concentrate their energy in material possessions or avoid contact with their primary caregiver.

Agent properties: The agents in this model represent people: a child, a primary caregiver, and a person who is a stranger to the caregiver and the child. The number of agents remains the same throughout the course, and only the child moves. The agents are represented as people by size and color. The child is magenta and slightly smaller in size compared to the caregiver and stranger. The caregiver is green and the stranger is yellow.

Interaction rules: The child must check in with the primary caregiver before exploration. The interaction with the caregiver will deactivate the attachment system so the child can explore, providing the child a safe-haven. If the child has two or more safe haven points they can explore the grid at random. Exploration depletes safe haven points, and eventually causes the child to need to seek out their caregiver again (anxious children will see more depletion of their safe haven as a result of exploration). The avoidant child will have difficulty exploring because their main concern will be avoiding the caregiver and the stranger, the avoidant child explores but will not seek out interaction from either caregiver or stranger.

NetLogo initial setup: When the observer clicks the setup button in Netlogo, the agents are randomly located on the grid. The child needs to locate their primary caregiver before exploration can begin (while initially avoiding the stranger). After checking in with the caregiver, the child will begin to explore. The observer can change the attachment style of the child with three options: a) Secure attachment style, b) anxious attachment style, or c) avoidant attachment style. The default parameter is secure attachment, and the child has a value of zero in their agent own setting called safe haven. Interaction with the mother increases their safe haven so that they can go explore. The patches will change orange as they explore the grid.

Simulation procedure: I will sweep how many times the child interacts with the mother and how many patches they explore. It will also be of interest to examine the visual exploration patterns of the grid. As can be seen in figure 1, the anxious child has a circular exploration pattern around the mother. The secure child has a vast exploration pattern (see figure 2). The avoidant child, stays clear of the mother and the stranger (see figure 3).