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Y12 - Psychology > Attachment > Flashcards

Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a bond

A

A set of feelings that tie one person to another

For example, parents often fell very strongly ‘bonded’ with their new born babies.

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2
Q

What is an attachment

A

It is different to bond as it involves both the baby and their parent, who have an emotional link between each other which ties them together.

It also takes longer to develop than a bond. We can see this when we observe behaviours.

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3
Q

What are the 4 Maccoby characteristics of attachment

A
  • seeking proximity
  • Distress on separation
  • Joy on reunion
  • Orientation of behaviour
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4
Q

What is Reciprocity

A

The behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other. Each party responds to the action of another’s signal to sustain interaction (Turn taking).

The responses are not necessarily similar as interaction synchronicity.

Smiling is an example of reciprocity - when a smile occurs in one person it elicits. Response in the other

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5
Q

Name the 4 psychologists who carried out studies supporting reciprocity

A

Feldman

  • from birth babies move in rhythm with adults.
  • at three months interaction becomes increasingly frequent

Brazelton
- basic rhythm is a precursor for later communication

Trevathan
- taking turn in infant interaction is important for the development of social and language skills

Tronick
- mothers interacted with the baby and to stopped, babies would then try to tempt mother into interaction

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6
Q

What is synchrony

A

When two people interact in a mirror pattern in terms of their emotional and facial and body

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7
Q

What are the two psychologists that have supporting studies for synchrony

A

Meltzoff and Moore

  • observed synchrony as young as two weeks
  • child’s response to facial expressions was filmed and independently observed. A correlation was observed in both two weeks and three day olds

Isabella

  • found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother infant attachment
  • Suggests that strong emotional attachments are associated with high levels of synchrony
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8
Q

Attachment

A

An emotional bond that develops early in an infants life that develops a communication between the infant and its caregiver

The infant will show distress when taken away from the caregiver

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9
Q

International synchrony

A

From a. Early as 2 weeks adults and babies respond in time to sustain communication, for example when a mother makes a soothing noise the bay moves gently in response. Emotional responses reflect each other.

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10
Q

Reciprocity/turn taking

A

Interaction is continuous and flows both ways between adult and infant. Both res[ond to each others actions and can initaiate communication

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11
Q

What are the types of interactions

A 
Interaction also synchrony
Reciprocity/ turn taking
Imitation
Sensitive responsiveness
Cargiverese
Body contact
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12
Q

Imitation

A

Infant mimics/copies the adults behaviour exactly

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13
Q

Sensitive responsiveness

A

Adult pays careful attention to infants communication and responds in an appropriate manner e.g. feeding or changing

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14
Q

Cargiver ease

A

Adult modulates their voice, slowing it down, raising the pitch and making a song like tone

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15
Q

Bodily contact

A

Physical contact, often skin to skin is seen as important in bonding especially in the first few hours of life

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16
Q

Positive Evaluative research on caregiver- infant interactions

A

Melzoff and Moore - imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates

  • the baby’s responded to gestures such as sticking tongue out, matched the experimenter that was being imitated
  • imitation happens early on in infants between 12 and 21 days

Papusek- cross cultural research on caregivereese
- showed that a tendency to produce a special high pitched baby talk is common across America, china and German mothers

Suggests some care giver interactions are not culturally bias

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17
Q

Positive Evaluation on care giver- infant interaction

A
  • modern studies use multiple observers + cameras. Therfore can slow down footage and analyse it more effectively
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18
Q

Negative Evaluation on care giver- infant interaction

A
  • infants are unable to communicate their thoughts or emotions, findings depend on inferences about internal mental states based on observation
  • very difficult to claim intentionality that the baby deliberately copied the caregiver and it was not just an accidental reaction
  • social sensitivity, mothers may feel criticised and judged. This criticises those who go back to work early and do not have as strong of an attachment. Guilt ma be felt
19
Q

Schaffers stages of attachment

A
  • identified by Schaffer and Emerson from a longitudinal observation study

4 phases of attachment

  1. Asocial
  2. Indiscriminate
  3. Specific
  4. multiple

An infant sucks mum

20
Q

Asocial stage

A

Schaffers stages of attachment

Asocial (or pre attachment stage) 0-6 weeks:
For the fist few weeks they respond t humans in the same way as they do to object

21
Q

indiscriminate stage

A

Schaffers stages of attachment

Indiscriminate (or disuse attachment stage) 6 weeks- 7 month

Can be handled by strangers and without distress, however discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar individuals, with a preference for familiar adults
No separation or stranger anxiety

22
Q

Specific attachment

A

Schaffers stages of attachment

Specific (or discriminate attachment stage) 7+ months

Separation and strangers anxiety develops. Demonstrates preference to primary care givers such as mum

23
Q

Multiple attachment stage

A

Schaffers stages of attachment

Multiple attachment stage 9+ months

Attachment is observed towards a number of individuals, such as brothers, sisters and grandparents. Fear of strangers decreases

24
Q

Evaluative research for schaffers stages of development

A

Schafer and Emerson Glaswegian babies study

Data collected over a year in monthly obersavtion

Observed 60, Glaswegian babies for 18 months, mostly fro kills working class families.

Researchers  asked parents t o observe their children in different circumstances, keep a diary of their observations and report back to researchers. For example separation anxiety ano stranger anxiety. 
Circumstances included 
left alone in a room 
Left with a stranger 
Left alone in their cot

Found separation anxiety in the majority of babies by 25 -32 weeks with stranger distress colouring in most babies approximately one month later.

In the 18 month follow up 87% had developed multiple attachments.
Strongest attachment to primary care givers

Suggests ther might be a biological stages

25
Q

Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson Glaswegian baby study of the stages of attachment

A
  • sample group was working class mothers in 1960s Glasgow
  • lacked temporal validity as parenting techniques have changed dramatically in the last 50 years
  • culture is not representative of the Uk or the rest of the world - external validity

+ high levels of mundain validity ecological validity, wa sin theor own homes and used self report
. Process called triangulation

26
Q

Role of the father according to Schaffer

A

Primary attachment figure

  • Found that most children’s primary attachment figure was mum 65%
  • 30% mum and another person (often dad)
  • 3% primary attachment figure was dad

Changing cultural roles

  • could be argues that in western society the role of the mother and father has changes
  • mothers are more likel to go pout to work
  • will have an impact of attachment patterns

Importance of Play

  • Fathers are seen to be more consistently engaged in baby’s play activities than mothers
  • mothers tend to take a more comforting style

Primary care givers
- evidence suggests that if the men take the role of primary care givers their interaction also style changes to be more like mothers with sensitive responses

27
Q

Evidential research t5hat highlights fathers roles in the development in children

A

Verissimo et al (2011)
- observed pre school children’s relationships with mothers an fathers

  • compared with follow up interactions at nursery
  • a strong attachment with the father was a strong predictor of the ability to make friends in school, suggesting an important role for fathers in the socialisation process
28
Q

Further evaluation of the role of the father

A

+ research on the importance of the father in social development, and finding that males can effectively take on a more maternal role could provide confidence to fathers taking on the role of primary care givers and single gender families becoming more common in modern societies

  • infants can’t communicate their thoughts and emotions
  • Schaffer and Emerson is based on inferences from observation
  • only used one observer at a time on home visits in Glasgow
  • social sensitivity some people may find that their life choices may be criticised in some way.
29
Q

Imprinting

A

When an animal (such a s birds) will strongly attach to the first object (usually the mother) they encounter The infant animal will then follow the object

L

30
Q

What was the Lorenz (1935) reasearch

A

Researching Imprinting in Greylag Geese

Procedure

  • half of the greylag geese were taken and hatched by Lorenz using an incubator
  • the other half were hatched normally by the mother

Findings

  • goslings hatched by Lorenz followed him wherever he went rather than the mother goose
  • the goslings that hatched natura;Lou, imprinted on the mother and followed her
  • even if they were placed together they followed the person they sa first

Suggests
Suggests that imprinting is a strong biological feature via sight rather than another cue such as smell/sound

Critical period

  • around 32 hours
  • goslings must see a large moving object to why will not imprint on anything
31
Q

What did Harlow’s (1958) study sate

A

Contact comfort
- geese evolutionarily very different to humans compared to monkeys, Harlow tested ‘cupboard love’ - babies love mothers because they feed them

Procedure

  • attachment behaviour studied in 16 new born monkeys
  • removed from bio0logical mothers and place in cages with surrogate mothers.
  • range of different conditions used included wire or cloth mothers and mothers that provided milk or did not

Findings

  • monkeys that had access to a cloth mother, proffered to stay. With them Evan if the wire mother provided the milk
  • showed more confidence in new situations
  • only the ones with a wire mother showed later stress

Suggesting

  • that we will attach to comfort and not just the providing of food
  • bodily contact is needed for attachment

Maternal deprivation

  • monkeys that had deprivation had long term emotional and social problems
  • when mating had issues raining offspring occasionally spilling them
32
Q

Evaluation of Harlow’s study of attachment

A
  • conditions of the experiment when the monkey was stressed, this caused the primate to suffer and bec caused stress
  • not ethical
  • helped to change ethical research
  • although monkeys are similar they are still to different, both biologically, socially and societally

+ has been applied to areas of early childhood
+ contact time in birth in hospitals has been given higher priority
{+ shown in long term neglect, influenced other research of Bowlby and Ainsworth
+ long term benefits may be in part by Harlow’s research

33
Q

Cupboard live theory

A

Diolland and Miller (1950)

The reason children become attached to their care giver they learn the caregivers provide food and meets their physical needs

Through classical conditioning and operant conditioning

34
Q

Primary and secondary drives

A

Primary drives are instinctive, such a as eating for hunger, sleep for tiredness are based on a biological need.

Secondary drives such as attachment develop due to a learnt process, in which they are associated with the satisfaction of a primary drive (food)
E.g. money, does not satisfy any biological need but can help to satisfy needs such as hunger

35
Q

Evaluation points for cupboard love theory

A

Dolland and Miller (1950)

+ learning theory is a clear and believable explanation for attachment, backed up by research. Makes sense that babies would cry more if they learnt it gained them attention

  • too simplistic - learning theory that is applied to human feelings of attachment is seen as environmentally reductionist. Too simplistic to describe a whole relationship in terms of S-R links and patterns of reinforcement
  • a lot of other theories provide evidence against cupboard love - Harlows experiments on moneys shows that the babies attached to the cloth mother rather than the mother that provides milk

-

36
Q

Bowlines monotropic theory

A
  • an evolutionary explanation - babies have an innate attachment drive because they want to survive, if the attachment is secure they are more likely to stay close to one care giver
37
Q

Monotrophy

A

Unique strong attachment to a single care giver, the mothe r

38
Q

Bowlby’s monotropic theory - critical/ sensitive period

A
  • attachment must happen within 2/3 years of birth for it to be strong
  • if this does not happen then it will result in long lasting neagative social consequences

Bowlby based this on Lorenz’s work

39
Q

Bowlby’s monotropic theory - internal working model

A
  • first strong attachment the child has with its mother provides a blueprint fo future relationships
  • based on both Freud and Harlows work
40
Q

Bowlby’s monotropic theory - safe bias behaviour

A
  • infants with good attachments will use mum as a base to explore their environment.
  • but will show distress is mum disappears to is a stranger approaches
41
Q

What are the 6 points of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

A

1 evolutionary explanation

2 critical / sensitive period

3 Internal working model

4 strength of attachment

5 safe base behaviour

6 social releasers

42
Q

Bowlby’s monotropic theory - strength of attachment

A

Bowlby suggests stronger attachment s will form if care is consistent and weaker attachments will form with frequent/ long periods of separation

43
Q

Social releases

A
  • babies instinctively use signals to attract caregivers attention

-

44
Q

Evaluation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment

A

+ based on work by Lorenz’s imprinting studies
- may not be able to be generalised to humans

  • beta bias, gender bias, suggest that the role of the father is not important and therfore lacks temporal (time) validity
  • socially sensitive as this may offend working mothers in the m0dern day
  • ther are alternate explanations for attachment, vocal argue that it is based on patterns of reinforcements

+ very deterministic

-+ continuity hypothesis + the internal working model

Y12 - Psychology (18 decks)

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