Abstract
The attachment-based perspective on teacher-student relationships assumes that teachers internalize experiences with specific students into mental representations of dyadic relationships. Once activated, mental representations are believed to influence teachers’ affective and cognitive social information processing. Two priming experiments with 57 elementary school teachers were conducted to test these assumptions. To activate teachers’ mental representations of dyadic relationships, teachers were primed with photographs of students with whom they have a positive and negative relationship (two experimental conditions) as well as with photographs of students with whom they have a distant relationship and unknown students (two control conditions). Teachers’ responses in two different experiments –an emotion categorization task and a vignette task –were analyzed to measure differences between conditions. Mixed evidence was found for the idea that teachers’ mental representations of dyadic relationships impact their affective and cognitive information processing.
Highlights
To develop mental representations of the relationship with the other person (Bowlby, 1969/1982; Pianta, 1999)
Attachment theory contends that past experiences in relationships with attachment figures become internalized into mental representations of the self, the other, and the self-other relationship (Bowbly, 1969/1982; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985)
Because of the physical proximity and the multiple daily interactions that teachers have with students and the affective and personal nature of these interactions, teachers are seen as professional caregivers and secondary attachment figures at school: teachers play the role of secure base and safe haven for their students at school indicating that teacher-student relationships have an attachment component (Cassidy, 2008; Verschueren & Koomen, 2012)
Summary
To develop mental representations of the relationship with the other person (Bowlby, 1969/1982; Pianta, 1999). Caregivers, parents as primary attachment figures of their child, develop mental representations of the caregiver-child relationship, which encompass internalized representations of the self as a caregiver, of the self in relation to the child, and of how they perceive the specific child as needing and receiving their care (Button, Pianta, & Marvin, 2001; Solomon & George, 1996) These internalized mental representations provide rules for the direction and structuring of attention and memory and, for the experiences and behavior in interaction with the attachment partner (cf., Dykas & Cassidy, 2011; Main et al, 1985). Negative affect in teachers’ representationrelated narratives of dyadic relationships has been found to be related to more discipline and observable displays of negative emotions of the teacher, like anger (Pianta et al, 2003; Stuhlman & Pianta, 2002)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
