Attachement Flashcards
care giver infant interactions
reciprocity (p1)
- infant and care giver respond to actions of each other and get a response
interational synchrony(p1)
- infants mirror acions/ emotions of other person
- meltzoff and moore(77)
- adults make 1 of 3 faces to infant
- clear limk beween infants faces and adult model
- important for forming attachements
evaluation(p2)
- limitation. qustionalbe reliability of testing children
- infants move mouths and hands- issue for research as cant be certain that infants are enganging in IS/R
evaluation(p3)
- critism of research- recent research only finds only secure attachement infants engage in IS
- isabella (89)- more securly attached, greater level of IS
**suggests M + M may have overlooked idividual differences **
animal studies- lorenz + harlow
lorenz
- suggests animals have innate drive to form attachement
- tested goslings half of which hatched with mohter and the other hatched in incubator when first moving object is lorenz
- found incubator group followed lorenz whereas control group followed mother
- when mixed up control still follwed mother and others lorenz
- called imprinting
- identifys crititcal period in which impriting takes place( usually few hours after birth)
evaluation
- findings influenced understandig of humandevelopement
- **problem in generalising fidingd from birds to humans **
- mamal attachement system seems very idfferent ot that of birds
- mamal mother shows more emotional attachement than young birds
evaluation
- observations questioned
- guiton found chicks imprinted on yellow wasing gloves would later try to mate with them but eventually learned to prefer others chicks
- showing not as permanannet as once thought
harlow
- 8 rhesus monkeys
- contact comfort
- monkeys kept alone in cage alone usually died but those with cloth etc didnt
- harlow(58) soft objects serve function of a mother
- 16 monkeys with two wired mothers. one a milk dispensor with mothing on and the other a milk dispensor but with a cloth covered mother
- found baby monkeys cuddled soft mother compared to wire mother
- sought comfort from cloth motherwhen scared- regardless of which dispensed milk
- shows contactomfort more important than food in attachement behaviour
- furhter monkeys with no cloth mother showed behavioural problems when grown up
evaluation
- application in lots of practical contexts
- helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect + abuse and how to prevent
- also important in care of captive monkeys in zoo and breeding programmes
evaluation
- ethical issues
- monkeys suffered greatly becuase of harlow
- species considered similarenough to humans- suffereing presumed human like
- harlow aware of this- reffered to wire mothers as iron maidens(torture device)
- counter argument is end justifes means
explanations of attachement- LT + bowlby
learning theory
- cc and oc to explain behaviours are learned from environment- not innate
- dollard and miller(50) applied to explaining attachement
- infants needs food (ucs) associates mother as feeder then learns to assocaite comfort of food with mother (ucr)
- until caregivers presence creates the conditioned response ( this is CLASSICAL CONDITIONING)
- operant conditioning
- infant learns to signal caregiver when hungry e.g. cry
- gains positive reinforcement so repeats behaviour
- other behaviours like smiling or giggling bring attention of adults and also get reinforced.
evaluation
- supporting evidence feeding is NOT the key to forming attachement
- lots of studies show animals DONT attach to those who feed them( lorenz geese and harlow monkeys)
- suggests comfort is more important than food
- however these were model mums so cant say anymore about detail of atachement
evaluation
- chalanging evidence from human research
- schaffer and emerson show infants form primary attachement to bio mother even if others idd most feeding
- 39% of infants that attached to motherhad someone else feeing them
- attachement goes beyond feeding
bowlbys monotropic theory(p1)
- innate need to form attachement
- key is not who feeds them but sensitivity toits needs
- suggests infants create innate responses (crying, smiling) to stimulate attention from care givers
- developed in fixed stages
- babies form main attachement called monotropy
- as grow older gives security to explore environment
- also acts as template for forming later relationships
- suggests a critical period after which attachement can be effectiveley formed (2 years)
evidence(p2)
- schaffer and emerson
- supports attachement based on sensitivity/ response
- infants for attachement to mothers even if someone else is feeding them
- others shw that attachement is linked with senstivity not food
evidence(p3)
- hazen nd shaver
- acts as template for later life
- love quiz
- positive relationship between early attachement and adult relationship
- those said to have insecure attachement showed jelaousy and anxiety whilst secure were more trusting
- however issues with validity in study as have to recall memeoes from infancy- so very hard to prove memeoriesare ocrrect- most likely gaps etc
evidence(p3)
- challanging
- idea of IWM is overemphasised
- yes linkto attachement in laterlife but it is small(simpson)
- other parts of life will impact relationship
evalaution
- schaffer and emersoncast doubts on bowlbys montropy as 75% of infants go on to form attachements with fathers too
- bowlby over emphasises impirtance of mothers bond above all other
SSR( potentially)
- lots of ethical implications
- mothers guilty to return to work as scared of deprived children
effectsof institutionalisation- romnian orphans
rutter(2011)
- followed group of romanian orphans adopted in britian
- tested physically, cognitive and emotinal developement
- compared to group of bristish adopted children
- found: when arrived in uk half showed mental retardation, malnourishement
- at age 11 those adopted AFTER 6 months had IQ of 102
- those adopted AFTER 6 moths showed 86
- those after 2 years showed 77
- differences remained at 16
- attahcemnt wise:
- infants adopted BEFORE 6 months were similar to control group
- those adopted AFTER 6 months 60% showed signs of disinhibited attahcement( clingy, attention seeking)- 1 in 26 showed behaviour similar to autusm
evaluation(p2)
- real lifeapplication
- led to improvements in how children are cared for in institutions
- avoid large numbers of children spread across few carers- now have a few for one
evaluation(p2)
- good ecological validity
- natural experiment has good ecological validity- aloowing for researchers to investigate for variables that cna never be manipualted
- however little control of extranius variables
evaluation(p3)
- romanian orphans are not typical
- hard to aply as these are vey particualr children of a severe case
- orphanage was very poor care- low levels of mental stimulation
-** very difficult to apply results to wider orphaneges and attachement**
