3 ~ Attachment Flashcards
What is Attachment
Attachment is an emotional tie or bond between two people, usually a primary caregiver and a child. The
relationship is reciprocal (shared).
What is Reciprocity?
- Reciprocity is when an infant responds to the actions of another person in a form or turn-taking.
- Brezelton et al. (1975) describe this interaction as a ‘dance’
What is Interactional synchrony?
- Interactional synchrony takes place when infants mirror the actions or emotions of another person, for
example, their facial expressions. - This mirroring can also be
referred to as imitation or simply copying the adult’s behaviour.
what is Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
- what age and describe them
Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)
- Similar responses to objects & people. Preference for faces/ eyes.
Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks – 6 months)
- Preference for human company. Ability to distinguish between people but comforted indiscriminately.
Specific (7 months +)
- Infants show a preference for one caregiver, displaying separation and stranger anxiety. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection.
Multiple (10/11 months +)
- Attachment behaviours are displayed towards several different people eg. siblings, grandparents etc.
Key Study: Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- aim
- method
- result
- conclusion
- evaluation (3 weakness+1 strength)
Aim: To examine the formation of early attachments.
Method: Their sample consisted of 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) from working class families in Glasgow
aged between 5–23 weeks at the start of the investigation. The researchers visited the babies in their
homes, every month for the first 12 months and then once again at 18 months. The researchers
interviewed the mothers and observed the children in relation to separation and stranger anxiety in a
range of everyday activities.
Results: The results provided some support for the different stages of developing an attachment. At
around 25–32 weeks, 50% of the children showed separation anxiety towards their mothers, expected of
the discriminate attachment stage. Furthermore, by 40 weeks, 80% of the children had a specific
(discriminate) attachment and 30% had started to form multiple attachments.
Conclusion: The results provide some support for Schaffer’s stages of attachment and suggest that
attachment develops through a series of stages across the first year of life.
Evaluation:
STRENGTHS:
p: One strength of Shaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has high external validity.
E: Shaffer and
Emerson conducted the observations in each child’s own home which means that the children and parents were more likely to act naturally.
L: Therefore, the study has good external validity as the results
are likely to apply to other children from a similar demographic in their own homes
WEAKNESS:
P: A criticism of Schaffer’s research is that it lacks population validity.
E: The sample consisted of only 60
working class mothers and babies from Glasgow, who may form very different attachments with their infants when compared with wealthier families from other countries.
L: Therefore, we are unable to
generalise the results of this study to mothers and babies from other countries and backgrounds as
their behaviour might not be comparable.
P: Shaffer and Emerson’s research is also criticised due to the possibility of social desirability bias.
E: Shaffer and Emerson interviewed the mothers about their children and some of them may not have reported accurate details about their children, to appear like ‘better’ mothers with secure
attachments.
L: This could cause a bias in the data that would reduce the internal validity of the findings since natural behaviour will not have been recorded about the stages of attachment.
Describe the role of fathers in attachment?
While traditionally the role of the father may have been limited, as fathers would go to work to provide
resources whilst the mothers stayed home and took care of the children, in recent times the role of the
father has significantly changed
Evaluation for Role of Fathers?
Research evidence suggests that fathers are not as equipped as mothers to provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment. Hrdy (1999) found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress, in comparison to mothers. These results appear to support the biological explanation that the lack of oestrogen in men means that fathers are not equipped innately to form close attachments with their children. This suggests that the role of the father is, to some extent, biologically determined and that a father’s role is restricted because of their makeup. This provides further evidence that fathers are not able to provide a sensitive and nurturing type of attachment, as they are unable to detect stress in their children.
Lorenz (1935) - Animal Studies:
- Aim
- Method
- Results
- Evaluation
Aim: To examine imprinting in non-human animals (where the offspring follows and forms an attachment bond to the first large moving object they see after birth).
Method: Lorenz conducted an experiment where he randomly divided greylag goose eggs into two batches. One batch, the control group, was hatched naturally by the mother. The second batch, the experimental group, were placed in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first large moving object that the goslings saw after hatching. Lorenz then marked the goslings so he knew in which condition they were hatched and then placed them under an upside-down box. The box was then removed and their following behaviour of the mother goose and Lorenz was recorded again.
Results: Lorenz found that straight after birth the naturally-hatched goslings followed their mother goose,
whereas the incubator-hatched goslings followed Lorenz. When the upside-down box was taken away, the naturally-hatched goslings moved immediately towards their mother, while the incubator-hatched goslings followed Lorenz, showing no attachment to their biological mother. Lorenz noted that this imprinting only occurred within a critical period of 4–25 hours after hatching. This relationship persisted over time and proved to be irreversible.
Evaluation:
strength:
▪️P: A strength of Lorenz’s study is that its findings have been highly influential within the field of developmental psychology
▪️E: For example, the fact that imprinting is seen to be irreversible (as suggested in Lorenz’s study) suggests that attachment formation is under biological control and that attachment formation happens within a specific time frame
▪️L: This is a strength because it lead developmental psychologists (such as Bowlby) to develop well recognised theories of attachment suggesting the attachment formation takes place during a critical period and is a biological process. Such theories have been highly influential in the way child care is administered today
high internal validity:
▪️lots of control which increased reliability and therefore is easy to replicate
▪️high control and high external validity, established cause and effect
Weakness:
▪️ P: a weakness of Lorenz’s study is that it can be criticised for extrapolation
▪️E: Lorenz conducted his study on imprinting on animals - the greylag geese, differences in nature and complexity of bond
▪️L: is a weakness because humans and animals (in this case, greylag geese) are physiological different. The way a human infant develops an attachment with their primary caregiver could be very different to the way a greylag geese forms an attachment with their primary caregiver, therefore the findings cannot be generalised
Harlow (1959) - Animal Attachment?
- Aim
- Method
- Results
- Conclusions
- Evaluation
Aim: To examine the extent to which contact comfort and food influences attachment behaviour in baby
rhesus monkeys.
Method: Harlow constructed two surrogate mothers: one harsh ‘wire mother’ and a second soft ‘towelling mother’. A sample of sixteen baby rhesus monkeys were used across the four caged conditions:
- ‘wire mother’ dispensing milk and ‘towelling mother’ with no milk.
- ‘wire mother’ with no milk and ‘towelling mother’ dispensing milk.
- ‘wire mother’ dispensing milk.
- ‘towelling mother’ dispensing milk.
The amount of time the baby rhesus monkey spent with each mother was recorded, alongside how long they spent feeding at each one. To test for mother preference during periods of stress, the monkeys were startled with a loud noise and their responses recorded. A larger cage was used in some conditions in order to observe the degree of exploration by the baby rhesus monkeys.
Results: Harlow discovered that, when given a choice of surrogate mother, the baby monkeys preferred to make contact with the soft ‘towelling mother’ irrespective of whether she dispensed milk. It was observed that they would even stretch across to the ‘wire mother’ for food whilst still clinging onto the ‘towelling mother’ for contact comfort. The baby monkeys in the condition with only the ‘wire mother’ showed signs
of stress such as diarrhoea. When startled by the loud noise, the baby rhesus monkeys would cling tightly to the soft ‘towelling mother’ in the conditions where this surrogate was available to them. When given larger caged conditions, greater exploration behaviour was seen by the baby monkeys with the ‘towelling mother’ surrogate, which is indicative of emotional security.
Conclusion: Harlow concluded that baby rhesus monkeys appear to have an innate drive to seek contact comfort from their parent suggesting that attachment is formed through an emotional need for security
rather than food, which is in contrast to the learning theory explanation. This contact comfort provided by
the mother is associated by a higher willingness to explore their surroundings and lower levels of stress.
Evaluation:
STRENGTH:
▪️P: strength of Harlow’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled, laboratory setting
▪️E: Harlow was able to control potential extraneous variables such as the monkeys being taken away from their mothers straight after birth, the baby monkeys not being exposed to any love or attention from their biological mothers
▪️L: This is a strength because it means that Harlow was measuring what he intended to measure (i.e. factors that can affect the formation of attachment) and therefore, the study can be seen to have high internal validity allowing a cause and effect relationship to be established
WEAKNESS:
▪️P: weakness of Harlow’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled, artificial laboratory setting
▪️E: the highly controlled laboratory setting that Harlow used is not reflective of the real life situations and may cause the monkeys to behave in an artificial manner
▪️ L: This is a weakness because it means that Harlow wasn’t necessarily measuring the real-life attachment formation and therefore the study can be criticised for lacking ecological validity
▪️P: Another weakness of Harlow’s study is that it can be seen to be unethical
▪️E: the monkeys in Harlow’s study showed great distress when they were removed from their biological mothers. In addition, after the study, when the monkeys were placed in situation with other rhesus monkeys (who hadn’t been involved in Harlow’s original research), the rhesus monkeys from the study showed great distress in social situations and were unable to communicate with other monkeys. In addition, when the monkeys from the study had their own children many were said to neglect their offspring and (in some extreme circumstances) killed their offspring
▪️L: This is a weakness because Harlow’s study can be seen to be in breach of the BPS guidelines (it fails to protect the monkeys from harm). Furthermore, this study doesn’t tell us anything about the formation of human attachments (monkeys and humans are physiologically different). Therefore Psychologists would argue that the lack of generalizability from this research makes Harlow’s study even more unethical
What is the The learning theory explanation of attachment?
- The learning theory explanation of attachment explains how infants learn to become attached to their primary caregiver through the process of either classical conditioning or operant conditioning.
- It is sometimes referred to as the ‘cupboard love’ theory because the main principles of this explanation for
attachment focuses on food. - In a nutshell, it is thought that infants will form an attachment to whoever
feeds them.
- What is Classical conditioning?
- How is this an explanation for attachment?
- Classical conditioning is a
process of learning by
associating two stimuli together
to condition (learn) a response. - Before conditioning, food is an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response (reflex) in the child – relief from hunger/pleasure.
- Before conditioning, the caregiver is a neutral stimulus, who produces no conditioned response at all from the child.
- During conditioning, the child associates the caregiver who feeds them (the neutral stimulus) with the food (the unconditioned stimulus).
- Through many repeated pairing, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus who is associated with the pleasure from feeding. This results in the caregiver eliciting a conditioned response (relief from hunger) from the child and the formation of an attachment.
Explain Operant Conditioning as an explanation for Attachment?
- When an infant feels hunger, it has a drive to reduce these unpleasant feelings and discomfort so is likely
to cry in order to receive comfort. - When the caregiver provides food, a feeling of pleasure is produced for the infant which is rewarding and this is called positive reinforcement. Therefore, the behaviour which elicited the reward, i.e. crying, will be repeated.
- This reinforcement is a reciprocal process since the caregiver also experiences a reward in the form of negative reinforcement when the infant stops crying, so they too will repeat the caregiving behaviour again in the future.
Hunger is called the primary drive and the food is termed the primary reinforcer. The caregiver who
provided it is called the secondary reinforcer. Attachment, called the secondary drive, will occur because
the infant will seek the person who can supply the reward, i.e. the caregiver.
Evaluation for Learning Theory as an explanation for Attachment
- 3 WEAKNESS
STRENGTHS:
(1) POINT: Learning theory can provide an adequate explanation of how attachments form. EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: For example, we do seem to learn in a number of ways through association in real-life (e.g. we associate certain situations with danger when we develop phobias even if that association is irrational). The case of Little Albert shows that classical conditioning is the process by which we learn a variety of behaviours. Little Albert’s case shows that when you combine a loud noise (an unconditioned stimulus) with a neutral stimulus (a rat) after much repetition, this creates a conditioned response (fear of the rat).EVALUATION: This is positive because it suggests learning theory may at least play a part in attachment formation.
WEAKNESS;
1) POINT: There is strong evidence from Psychological studies that suggests that attachments that form between and infant and their primary caregiver are not based on feeding. EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: For example, in Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study, the first attachments formed by 39% of babies was not to the person who carried out physical care, such as feeding and changing the babies nappy. Attachments were more likely to be formed to those individuals who are sensitive and rewarding to the baby and who play with the infant. This means that food may not be the main reinforcer of attachments (as argued by learning theory) but rather it could be the responsiveness from the caregiver that might also be rewarding. EVALUATION: This is a weakness as it goes against the Learning Theories assumption that infants are more likely to form attachments with adults who meet their physical needs.
(2) POINT: Evidence against learning theory comes from Harlow’s research (1959) EXAMPLE/EVIDENCE: He found that when newborn Rhesus monkeys were separated from their mother after birth and placed in a cage with 2 wire ‘mothers’ where one ‘mother’ consisted of exposed wire and a feeding bottle and the other ‘mother’ was wrapped in a soft cloth but offered no food, the monkey’s spent most of their time with the soft cloth ‘mother’ rather than the mother offering food. EVALUATION: This is a weakness because it suggests ‘cupboard love’ is unlikely to explain attachment as the monkeys should have attached to the mother with food but often will become attached to the caregiver offering comfort.
(3) POINT: Further evidence against learning theory comes from Lorenz’s theory of ‘imprinting’, EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE: Evidence to support this theory comes from Lorenz’s (1952) research using newly hatched Greylag geese who, after seeing Lorenz shortly after hatching (their first image), they followed him everywhere as he became their ‘imprinted’ parent. This means that newborns ‘imprint’ an image of the first moving object they see (usually their parents) within hours of being born which allows them to stick closely to this important source of protection and food. EVALUATE: This criticises learning theory as it suggests that attachment is innate as the infants were far too young to have learned anything at this stage.
What is Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment?
Bowlby’s monotropic theory takes an
evolutionary perspective- he argued that children are born with an innate tendency to form attachments with their parents in order to increase chances of survival.
Key Terms of Bowlby’s Theory:
(A Snapchat Makes Images)
A: ADAPTIVE
S: SOCIAL RELEASERS
C: CRITICAL PERIOD
M: MONOTROPY
I: INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
Adaptive:
Attachments are adaptive which means they give humans an advantage, making
them more likely to survive. If an infant has an attachment, they are kept safe,
given food and kept warm by their caregiver.
Social Releasers:
Infants possess inborn social releasers, which unlock an innate tendency in adults (in particular, mothers) to care for them.
Social releasers are:
- physical – the typical ‘baby face’ features that make babies appear cute such as big eyes and a button nose.
- behavioural – crying, cooing and smiling to get attention.
Critical Period:
- Infants must form an attachment with their caregiver during the critical period
which is between three and six months of age.
- However, Bowlby later acknowledged that infants could form an attachment after this period (up to three years of age); however, he maintained that the successful formation of an attachment would be increasingly difficult after this initial period.
- Bowlby said that if an attachment did not form during this time frame, the child would be damaged for life – socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.
Monotropy:
- Bowlby believed that infants form one very special attachment with their primary caregiver, most frequently the mother.
- This special, intense attachment is called monotropy. If the mother is not available, the infant can bond with another ever- present adult, known as a mother substitute.
Internal Working Model:
- Through the monotropic attachment, the infant would form an internal working model.
- This is an internal template for future relationship expectations.
- If a child has a strong and healthy attachment with their primary attachment figure, then they will develop strong and healthy relationships, later in life.
- However, if the child has a negative relationship with their primary attachment figure, they will have negative social and romantic relationships in their later life.
Evaluation for Bowlby
STRENGTH:
▪️P Lorenz’s imprinting study can be used as evidence to support Bowlby’s theory
▪️E Lorenz suggested that new-borns ‘imprint’ an image of the first moving object they see (usually their parents) within hours of being born which allows them to stick closely to this important source of protection and food. After carrying out his experiment on newly hatched Greylag geese, Lorenz found that when shortly after hatching he was the first image the geese saw they followed him everywhere as he became their ‘imprinted’ parent
▪️L This is positive as Lorenz’s study supports Bowlby’s theory providing evidence that attachment is innate
▪️P Hazen and Shaver’s research supports Bowlby’s theory
▪️E They found that, after participants were asked to answer a series of questions as part of the ‘love quiz’ which assessed their adult romantic relationships as well as their childhood relationship with their parents, there was a strong correlation between childhood attachment type and adult relationships
▪️L This is positive as it supports Bowlby’s theory that the ‘internal working model’ allows an infant to form an attachment template which then continues into adulthood
WEAKNESS:
▪️P The Evolutionary Explanation, in particular the monotropy can be considered to be a socially sensitive idea
▪️E Feminists like Erica Burman (1994) have pointed out that this places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in the rest of their child’s life. It also pushes mothers into certain lifestyle choices like making the decision not to return to work when a child is born
▪️L This is a weakness because the theory can be seen to be unethical if it’ s key assumptions are seen to negatively discriminate against women/mothers
Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation”
Aim:
Method:
Results:
Evaluation:
(1 STRENGTH + 2 WEAKNESS)
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (1970) used structured observational research to assess & measure the quality of attachment.
It has 8 pre-determined stages, including the mother leaving the child, for a short while, to play with available toys in the presence of a stranger & alone and the mother returning to the child.
Stage 1 – Mother and child enter the playroom
Stage 2 – The child is encouraged to explore
Stage 3 – Stranger enters and attempts to interact
Stage 4 – Mothers leaves while the stranger is present
Stage 5 – Mother enters and the stranger leaves
Stage 6 – Mothers leaves
Stage 7 – Stranger returns
Stage 8 – Mother returns and interacts with child
Children were observed through a one-way mirror and were classed as one of the 3 attachment types below based on their responses to the 8 stages:
Findings:
70% Secure
15% Avoidant insecure
15% Resistant insecure
Therefore most US children appeared to be securely attached. The results highlight the role of the mother’s behaviour in determining the quality of attachment.
EVALUATION:
STRENGTHS:
Replicable/ high inter-observer reliability:
As the research is highly operationalised, observers have a clear view of how a securely attached infant should behave, due to the 4 specific criteria that Ainsworth used. For this reason, the research should have high inter-observer reliability & it is also replicable so its reliability can be checked.
WEAKNESS:
Low Population Validity:
A major methodological criticism of Ainsworth’s research is that the sample was restricted to 100 middle class Americans & their infants, so it is unlikely that findings would be representative of the wider population
Procedure is culturally biased:
The SS was designed by an American according to observations of US children. Consequently, the criteria used to classify infants are based on US values, relating to child-parent behaviour. It could be argued that this is Eurocentric, so observations of non-Americans will judged according to American standards. E.g. Japanese infants were judged as being resistant due to high levels of distress that were observed but this reflects their lack of experience during the “infant alone” part of the research, rather than an resistant attachment type.
Cultural Variations in Attachment:
van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
Aim:
Method:
Results:
Evaluation:
Aim: To investigate cross-cultural variations in attachment.
Method: van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies from eight different countries that has used Ainsworth’s strange situation.
In total, the results of over 1,990 infants
were included in the analysis.
Results:
There were three key findings:
1) Secure attachment was the most common type of attachment, in all the cultures examined.
2) Japan and Israel (collectivist cultures) showed higher levels of insecure–resistant attachment in
comparison to other cultures.
3) Germany (an individualistic culture) showed higher levels of insecure–avoidant attachment, in comparison to other cultures.
Conclusion:
Since the global trend seems to reflect the US norm of secure attachment being the most common, it adds weight to the argument that secure attachment is the optimal attachment type for healthy development.
EVALUATION:
Strengths:
One strength of the study is the findings are generalisable. Van conducted a meta analysis of 32 studies from 8 different countries which means the sample was large. Van ensured to use western and non western countries and that all the studies used SSP. As the sample was so large and varied we can be sure that any conclusions drawn from this will be meaningful; a conclusion was that secure attachments were the most common meaning there are some universal child rearing practices.
One strength of this study is that it has RWA and can be applied to day-care. Secure attachments were the most common in all but Germany. Insecure avoidant was more common in western cultures but in non western cultures insecure resistant was more common. This study teaches us that day care providers should adapt the way they look after a child based on the child’s culture, otherwise the child may get confused as they’re being treated differently at home.
One weakness of the study is that it is ethnocentric. In the meta analysis, all of them used Strange situation procedure. This procedure was created by Mary Ainsworth and was based on an American sample meaning its an American tool designed to measure attachments in a western culture. It would be unfair to use it in a non western society as it’ll make them look deficient
What is Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation?
- Deprivation occurs when an attachment bond is formed between an infant and caregiver but is broken
later in life. - Bowlby believed that ongoing maternal deprivation would have lasting negative effects on a child in terms of their emotional development leading to possible mental health problems or maladjustment.
44 Juvenile Thieves (Bowlby, 1944):
Aim:
Method:
Result:
Evaluation:
(1 strength + 1 weakness)
Aim: To see if early separation from the primary caregiver (deprivation) was associated with behavioural disorders. Bowlby defined a particular behaviour disorder as affectionless psychopathy to describe individuals who have no sense of shame of guilt.
Method:
Children, from 5–16 years old who had been referred to a guidance clinic in London where Bowlby worked were examined.
- 44 of the children were criminals (guilty of theft) and 44 non-criminal participants were used a control group. - Bowlby interviewed the children and their families to create a record of early life experiences.
Results:
- Bowlby identified 14 of the 44 thieves as affectionless psychopaths. 86% (12 out of 14) of these affectionless psychopaths had experienced early and prolonged deprivation.
- Only 17% of the ‘other thieves’ had experienced such separations and 4% of the control group had experienced frequent early separations.
Conclusion:
- These findings suggest a link between early separations and later social maladjustment.
- The maternal deprivation hypothesis appears to lead to affectionless psychopathy and antisocial behaviour.
EVALUATION:
STRENGTHS:
Before Bowlby’s research, children were separated from parents when they spent time in hospital, because medical professionals believed that hospitals only needed to care for the physical needs of the child, and discouraged parents from visiting because children seemed to get distressed by the visits. Robertson filmed a 2 year old girl called Laura during the 8 day period she was in hospital, she was frequently distressed and begged to go home. They concluded that substitute emotional care can prevent bond disruption and prevent the harmful effect of deprivation. Bowlby and Robertson’s research led to major changes in the way children were cared for in hospital. This illustrates the positive impact that research into attachment has had on childcare practices.
WEAKNESS:
The results of this research emphasise the importance of establishing a strong bond between the primary caregiver and child. Parents are entitled to time off work following the birth of their child. More recently, in 2015, parents are now entitled to share this parental leave and can share the 52 weeks. This means that the mother can return to work and the father/partner can use the time off work to care for the child. This change in the maternity leave is a huge societal shift from the traditional view that the mother should be a ‘stay at home housewife
A weakness of the sample is that it lacks population validity. Both the 44 in thieves’ group and the 44 in the control group were emotionally disturbed. Therefore, the results cannot be generalised to all children as not all juvenile delinquents are emotionally disturbed. This threatens the external validity of the research as the results cannot be generalised beyond the sample.
Define deprivation:
The loss of an attachment because of separation.
What is institutionalisation?
A term for the effects of living outside the family/ family home in an institutional setting e.g a hospital or an orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time. This can result in the child adopting rules and norms of the institution that can impair functioning. In places like this, very little emotional care is provided, as children can’t see enough of one carer to develop an attachment to them.
Rutter (2010)
Aim:
Method:
Results:
Conclusion:
Evaluation:
Aim:
To investigate to what extent loving and nurturing care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
Method:
- 165 children who had spent their early years in a Romanian orphanage formed the experimental group.
- 111 of these children were adopted before the age of two, while the remaining 54 were adopted by the age of four.
- They were compared to a control group of 52 British children, who were adopted before they were six months old.
- The social, cognitive and physical development of all infants was examined at regular intervals (age 4, 6, 11 and 15) and interviews were conducted with adoptive parents and teachers.
Results:
- At the point of adoption, the Romanian orphans showed delayed development on all elements of social, cognitive and physical progress.
- They were physically smaller, weighed less on average and many were classified as mentally retarded.
- However, almost all the Romanian orphans who were adopted before
the age of six months caught up on these measures of development when compared to the British control
group.
- The Romanian children who were adopted after six months continued to show significant deficits in terms of social, cognitive and physical development.
- They were more likely to experience difficulties with making or maintaining peer relationships and were often categorised as having disinhibited attachment disorder.
Conclusion: Institutionalisation can have severe long-term effects on development, especially if children
are not provided with adequate emotional caregiving, i.e. adopted by two years old.
EVALUATION:
STRENGTHS:
Results of the studies have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions. e.g. orphanages and children’s home now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people, perhaps 1 or 2, play a central role for the child, they’re called a key worker. Having a key worker means that children have a chance to develop normal attachments and help avoid disinhibited attachment. This shows that such research has been immensely valuable in practical terms.
WEAKNESS:
Although a vast amount of useful data about institutionalisation has come out of the Romanian orphan studies, it is possible that the conditions were so bad that the results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of better quality institutional care or indeed any situations where children experience deprivation. For example, Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, especially when it came to forming any relationship with the children, and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation. Therefore the extreme experiences of privation experienced by the Romanian orphans means that the studies lack generalisation due to the unusual situational variables. This questions the population validity of the Romanian orphan studies.
another weakness is that THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF EARLY EXPERIENCE ARE NOT YET CLEAR:
It is too soon to say for certain whether children suffered short or long term effects because the adopted orphans have only been followed into their mid-teens.
The children who spent longer in institutions and currently lag behind in intellectual development or display attachment difficulties may still ‘catch up’ as adults.
Equally, early-adopted/fostered children who appear to have no issues now may experience emotional problems as adults.
What is disinhibited attachment and who in Rutter’s study showed it?
Children adopted after the age of 6 months - symptoms include attention seeking, clinginess and friendliness to any adult that is available, treating all adults the dame and a tendency to go off with strangers. Children adopted before 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
