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Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Center for Child and
Family Studies, Leiden University, PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands.
Work on this paper was facilitated by a Fellowship from the Netherlands Institute for
Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (1996-1997) and by a PIONEER grant
from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientiflc Research (NWO, grant No. PCS 59-256). The
support of the inter-university project on Moral Education is also acknowledged (NWO,
project No. 575-28-001).
his life, after becoming deeply attached to a woman, does he seem to return
to an emotional life, and to reconnect with his childhood and war
experiences.
It is interesting to read what Feyerabend (1995, pp. 174-175) writes about
morality s his life is fading away:
upset and engaged with this sorrow (see Sagi & Hoffman, 1976, for an
example in newborns). Some children readily comply with parental requests
and commands, whereas other children are inclined to disobey and to show
conflict behaviour. Alihough the association between compliance and moral
internalisation can readily be seen, the link between morality and empathy is
somewhat more complicated. Empathy may develop into an important
motive for altruistic or prosocial behaviour (Eisenberg, Fabes, Carlo, &
Speer, 1993; Spiecker, 1991) if it is based on feelings of sympathy and not just
on mirroring the affect displayed (Eisenberg, Fabes, Miller, & Shell, 1990;
Fabes, Eisenberg, & Miller, 1990; Hoffman, 1984; Zahn-Waxler, Robinson,
& Emde, 1992). Empathic or personal distress may lead to avoidance of
altruistic behaviour because it evokes negative feelings.
Three hypotheses may explain early individual differences in emerging
internalisation and morality, differences that tend to become stable in the
first few years of life. First, genetic differences may play a role. Zahn-Waxler
et al. (1992) found some evidence for a genetic basis of empathy. They
studied monozygotic and dizygotic twins who were raised in the same family.
Monozygotic twins should behave in a more similar way than dizygotic twins
when the child-rearing context is about the same. The researchers estimated
that genetics explains about 0.30-0.40 (h2) of the individual differences in
empathy. Therefore, room remains for explanations that take the
environment into account.
The second hypothesis concerns parental child-rearing strategies, in
particular discipline. Hoffman (1984) suggested that if parents create a warm
atmosphere and, at the same time, strictly and consistently forbid behaviour
that is damaging to others, they pave the way for feelings of empathy in their
children. When disciplining a child, it is crucial to make the reasons for the
prohibition explicit. This type of discipline is known s induction. Induction
is the opposite of what Patterson (1976) described s coercive parenting, the
negative reinforcement of aversive child behaviour leading to an escalation
of conflict. Several researchers documented the effectiveness of inductive
discipline for school-age children (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994a, b; Janssens,
Gerris, & Janssen, 1990). In the case of fearful and anxiety-prone toddlers,
Kochanska (1995) has shown that parental discipline strategies that diminish
fear are the most effective. In this respect, induction and temperament may
interact in the development of moral internalisation.
A third explanation for individual differences in early moral
internalisation concerns the attachment relationship with parents.
Attachment is evident when a child is strongly inclined to seek proximity or
contact with a specific person, usually the parent, in situations of anxiety,
stress, illness, or fatigue (Bowlby, 1969, 1973, 1975). In his study of 44
juvenile thieves, Bowlby (1944) anticipated the role of attachment in the
development of antisocial behaviour, identifying childhood Separation
ATTACHMENT AND AGGRESSION 707
their current perspective. Verbatim AAI transcripts are coded for the
coherence with which the adult discusses these experiences and their effects
(Main & Goldwyn, 1985-1993). Adolescents or adults classified s secure/
autonomous describe attachment-related experiences consistently and
collaboratively, whether experiences were difficult or positive. Dismissing
adults tend to provide positive descriptors of childhood relationships to
parents, but their transcripts are incoherent (inconsistent) in that they fail to
provide supportive evidence with memories of specific incidents.
Preoccupied adults tend to describe early relationships and experiences at
length, but in a confusing and noncollaborative manner. Individuais cannot
be classified when none of the above categories can be assigned, and
indicators of unresolved Status are absent. Unresolved Status is identified
from lapses in the monitoring of discourse that appears during the discussion
of loss of important figures through death, sexual or physical abuse (Van
Uzendoorn, 1995).
The level of moral reasoning in this group of College students varied from
Stage 3 (seven students) to Stage 4 (one Student), with most students
reasoning at a transitional stage (for comparable data, see Mason & Gibbs,
1993). Thirty-two students (68%) showed moral type B reasoning; that is,
they clearly balanced the interests of all parties involved. Although the
overall score for sociomoral reflection was not associated with attachment
representation, moral type B reasoning was prevalent in subjects with an
autonomous attachment representation (Van Uzendoorn & Zwart-
Woudstra, 1995). The absence of an association between moral stage and
attachment representation may be due to the restricted rnge in the scores of
these College students. In a diverse sample with a broader rnge of moral
reasoning levels represented, the hypothesised association between overall
moral stage and attachment representations may be found. The measures
for moral ideality, type A and type B reasoning, did differ for autonomous
and insecure subjects. The distinction between type A and type B concerns
the presence or absence of prescriptive ideals. In type B thinking, ethical
ideals are expressed, whereas in type A reasoning, social conventions or
social arrangements are emphasised (Gibbs et al., 1992; Kohlberg, 1984).
The profile of adolescents with secure attachment representations reveals
aspects of the personality of moral type B subjects. Secure or autonomous
adolescents, for example, show (Main & Goldwyn, 1985-1993, p.103): "a
balance with respect to the view taken of relationships, accepting their own
part in relationship difficulties when appropriate, setting parents in relevant
contexts when criticising them ... The reader has the impression of the
development of a strong personal identity". The current data support the
hypothesis that moral type B reasoning may require an autonomous
personality. Only individuals with a strong personal identity and a balanced
perspective on their personal (attachment) history may have the ability to
ATTACHMENT AND AGGRESSION 715
internalise the ideals of mature morality and act accordingly. If they fail to
live up to the ethical ideals, their self-definition may be at stake. In this
respect, a secure attachment representation may help to bridge the gap
between moral reasoning and moral action (Van IJzendoorn & Zwart-
Woudstra, 1995).
In a similar vein, associations between attachment representations and an
authoritarian view on moral and political dilemmas may be expected. The
"authoritarian personality" (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, &
Sanford, 1950) is purportedly the outcome of a history of harsh and rejecting
child-rearing experiences, and a specific family constellation of a weak
father and a dominating, idealised mother. Authoritarianism involves a
weak personal identity that is easily influenced by opinion leaders and peer
groups. Authoritarianism also entails Submission to powerful persons or
groups, aggression toward weaker persons or groups, and a rigid adherence
to conventions. Heteronomous morality is an important concomitant of
authoritarianism (Hopf, Rieker, Sanden-Marcus, & Schmidt, 1995; Van
IJzendoorn, 1990).
Hopf (1993) studied a group of 25 adolescents (mean age: 19 years old),
selected from low SES and low educational backgrounds to enhance the
incidence of extreme right-wing adherents. In this group, there were s many
right-wingers s liberals. Only 20% of the participants were classified s
secure-autonomous. The majority of the insecure adolescents were
dismissing of their past attachment experiences and idealised their parents.
The Undings showed a strong association between attachment security and
authoritarianism. The secure-autonomous participants were all classified s
moderately authoritarian or not authoritarian at all, whereas the
authoritarian individuals were all insecure. The dismissing, idealising
adolescents articulated the most extreme authoritarian views. A series of
case studies illustrated the mechanisms linking right-wing and authoritarian
attitudes, and attachment experiences (Hopf et al., 1995). The small sample
precludes generalisations but the evidence seems to disconfirm Altemeyer's
(1988) contention that authoritarian attitudes develop independent of
child-rearing experiences.
Independently from Hopf et al.'s (1995) study, a larger sample of College
students confirmed the predicted association between attachment security
and authoritarianism. The sample consisted of 140 University of California,
Berkeley, undergraduate students (mean age 19.7 years) enrolled in an
introductory psychology course in which students receive course credit for
research participation. The sample is part of a larger study on concomitants
of the AAI (Hesse & Van IJzendoorn, 1997). A total of 116 undergraduates
completed the AAI and the Altemeyer (1988; Meloen, 1983) inventory for
authoritarian attitudes. Dismissing participants scored highest on the
authoritarianism scale (M = 121; SD = 32.6; n = 30), whereas the
716 VAN IJZENDOORN
... what we grow up to feel about power and authority ... must be deeply
affected by the attachment relationships which at least for the first fifteen or
sixteen years of our lives, form the basis of all our experience of social control.
Between a fifth and a quarter of a fll human lifetime is spent in the care of
parents, or their substitutes, on whom food, shelter, safety, love, all the chances
of a future depend.
serious
antisocial
behaviour
(Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978), because the child will learn to
avoid provoking parental rejection by showing negative emotions. Parental
rejection is often focused on children's negative emotional expressions.
Parents who model aggression hamper the regulation of negative emotions
such s feelings of anger and frustration. Insecure children have only
partially fulfilled their basic need for trust and confidence. They are inclined
to monitor the attachment figure carefully, and to be absorbed by the
unfulfilling attachment relationship. As a consequence, they are not able to
develop genuine trust and empathic concern for others. Less confidence in
seif and others, combined with less optimal regulation of negative emotions,
may lead to lower levels of moral reasoning and to mild forms of aggressive
and antisocial behaviours (see Fig. 2).
The two models of antisocial behaviour assume that mild and serious
antisocial behaviours are different classes of behaviour, with qualitatively
different developmental dynamics. In this respect, the models incorporate
the assumption of attachment theory that important aspects of human
behaviour may be discontinuous and categorical. The differentiation of
serious and mild antisocial behaviour parallels Moffitt's (1993) proposition
of two different types of delinquency: life-course persistent and adolescent-
limited antisocial behaviour. Even so, the models are hypothetical and
heuristic. The most important function of the socioemotional model of
antisocial behaviour is to remind us of Hirschi's (1969) speculation that
insecure attachments are at the root of criminality. Kohlberg (1984) stresses
the cognitive component of moral reasoning and moral behaviour. Using the
concept of induction, Hoffman (1994) emphasises the cognitive instead of
relational dimension of discipline. Grusec and Goodnow (1994a, b) point
out that parental discipline should be accurately perceived by the child; they
722 VAN IJZENDOORN
less trust
(seif + others)
\
absence Iower mild
attachment moral antisocial
network reason
behaviour
/
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