The term “script” – literally script – refers to a set of knowledge, organized in spatial and temporal terms, in which the characters, situations and objects likely to be present in a given situation are indicated. The script is a general representation, an abstraction drawn from the experiences of the same type that have been repeated several times in the history of the individual, starting from the earliest experiences.
Mental representations are of fundamental importance in John Bowlby’s attachment theory. In the first years of life, the child develops “mental scripts” that allow him to categorize and organize attachment experiences with significant figures and also to predict them. The scripts are the basis of the patterns of expectations on socio-affective relationships (Internal Operational Models, MOI) that will define the child’s behaviors and, in turn, will circularly influence the behavior of the other towards her and orient the future relationships.
For example, the script “If I get hurt, I go to my mom and get care and comfort …”, constitutes the script that corresponds to the “safe base script”. The help and comfort that the child imagines receiving from the mother refers to previous experiences in which a problematic and potentially stressful situation has been effectively resolved, and the negative emotions associated with the event have been mitigated and remodeled with the mediation of the caregiver ( secure base).
On the other hand, the script «if I get hurt, I cry a little bit until the pain goes away by itself. Mum would certainly get angry with me, scold me, say I’m stupid, good for nothing, maybe even hit me … »refers to previous experiences of rejection, hostility, unpredictability on the part of the caregiver (base not sure).
In 2006, Harriet Waters and Everett Waters developed a method for identifying secure base scripts (“The prompt-word outline method”). The procedure consists in the presentation of a title and three lists of words useful to create a minimal story but with a complete meaning. The stories are elaborated by the children, recorded by the researchers and subsequently evaluated on a pre-structured scale by independent judges.
In the original study “The attachment working models concept: among other things, we build script-like representations of secure base experiences”(Attachment & Human Development, September 2006), the researchers report several examples of narratives around some titles. The title “Baby’s Morning” involves a character very dear to children, Teddy the bear and his sudden disappearance. We report two stories on the same theme with different emotional climate.
Baby’s Morning 1 (secure base script, serene and loving emotional climate). Every morning her mother went to see the little girl who was in her crib. She was such a sweet and good little girl. She often happily played with a small toy suspended above her head, emitting little gurglings. One morning her mother noticed that the little girl had kicked her sheet. She then took her in her arms, wrapping her with a big hug, smiling at her and giving her lots of kisses all over her face. Then they would go downstairs and have breakfast. The little girl didn’t like oatmeal too much. So Mom would make up a story by pretending that a little teddy bear would come to visit them to eat baby food with them. And the teddy bear Teddy showed up punctually every morning for breakfast. But one day Teddy, despite having called him insistently, did not come. Teddy seemed to have disappeared. The mother and the child looked everywhere but could not find him. So the mother took the baby to her little crib, to give her a nap and, right there, under her cradle, she found her teddy bear. Now the little girl could go to sleep peacefully, hugging her beloved bear.
Baby’s Morning 2 (no sure base script, mom is nervous, teddy bear wasn’t found in time for nap). A young mother wanted to play with her little baby. She then she pulled out a pink blanket, spread it on the floor, took the baby out of the crib and put it on the blanket. The mother was very nervous because she was the first time she had played with the baby like this. She sat on the blanket and started telling him a story about three teddy bears, and to make it seem more real, she pulled out one of the baby’s teddy bears. But the ringing of the bell interrupted the story. Mom gets up to go to the front door. But when she comes back, the teddy bear is gone and the baby has fallen asleep without the comforting presence of the teddy bear. The mother is more nervous than before for the disappearance of the teddy bear, she looks for him everywhere, under the sofa, behind the door and on the sofa. She finally she finds it, it’s right under the baby.
Analyzing different scripts, it was observed that some children developed scripts with a clear secure base structure, while others created stories in which there was no resolution of the problem that occurred (the shocking disappearance of the bear); for example, the bear was permanently lost or its discovery was unable to console the child (who continued to cry or fidget).
The procedure developed by the authors is flexible enough that it can be adopted to examine the evolution of representations relating to attachment relationships during the development of children and adolescence.