reactive attachment disorder

in DSM–IV–TR, a disorder of infancy and early childhood characterized by disturbed and developmentally inappropriate patterns of social relating that are not due to intellectual disability or pervasive developmental disorder. It is evidenced either by persistent failure to initiate or respond appropriately in social interactions (inhibited type) or by indiscriminate sociability without appropriate selective attachments (disinhibited type). There must also be evidence of inadequate care (e.g., neglect of the child’s basic physical or emotional needs, frequent changes of primary caregiver), which is assumed to be responsible for the disorder. In DSM–5, the term refers only to the inhibited type; the disinhibited type is now termed disinhibited social engagement disorder. Also called attachment disorder.

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Psychology term of the day

February 25th 2025

ritualization

n. the process by which a normal behavioral action becomes a communication signal representing the behavior or its physiological consequence. For example, among nonhuman animals, threat displays may be the ritualization of the conflict between attack and escape, incorporating aspects of both, or a ritualization solely of impending attack, as when dogs pull back their lips in a snarl in response to a threat. This lip-pulling began as a way for dogs to avoid biting themselves in an attack, but as other animals recognized this behavior as a precursor to biting, it became ritualized into a warning communication. Animals learn that ritualized behavior can be an effective form of avoiding a fight.