Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment?
A two way emotional tie to a specific other person
What are social releasers?
Feathers of a baby/baby animal’s that make us want to care for them.
What is a critical period?
An early stage in life when the animal/child needs to attach as part of normal development and will not reoccur
What are the different types of attachment found?
Secure
Insecure resistant
Insecure avoidant
Secure attachments
Seeks proximity but happy to explore
Shows moderate separation/stranger anxiety
Accepts comfort Upon reunion
Insecure avoidant attachment
Seeks no proximity
No stranger/separation anxiety
Doesn’t require comfort upon reunion
Insecure resistant attachment
Seeks greater proximity
Considerable stranger/separation anxiety
Resists comfort upon reunion
Who came up with cultural variations in attachment?
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
Which is the most common type of attachment?
Secure
Which counties have lots of resistant babies?
Japan
Israel
China
Where has lots of avoidant babies?
Germany
What does the learning theory of attachment suggest?
All behaviour is learnt through classical or operant conditioning
Who proposed the monotropic theory?
Bowlby
What is the law of continuity?
More constant and predictable the care, the better
What is the law of accumulated separation?
Time apart from primary caregiver adds up
What is an internal working model?
Mental representation of the childs first attachment, child will try to replicate this all their relationships
Who proposed the maternal deprivation theory?
Bowlby
What is maternal deprivation?
Being denied a mother figure and care
What is the critical period in babies?
Up to 2 1/2 years and is essential for healthy development
What is institutionalisation?
The effects of spending significant time in an orphanage or children’s home
Effects of institutionalisation?
Disinhibited attachment ( over friendly) Mental retardation (low IQ)
How did institutionalisation happen in Romania?
1966, Romania banned abortions and contraceptives to keep population shrinking after WW2
How many children were raised in an institution until 1989?
Around 500 000 until 1989
Who first observed the phenomenon of imprinting?
Konrad Lorenz
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s experiment?
Divided a clutch of goose eggs, half were hatched in with mother goose and other half were hatched in an incubator with Lorenz being the first moving object they saw
What were the findings of lorenzs study?
Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere but natural group followed mother even when mixed up.
Imprinting
Where bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
What is the critical period of a bird?
24-48 hrs
Lorenz sexual imprinting study
Peacock that had imprinted on to tortoises. As an adult the bird would only first courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises
Procedure of Harlows monkey study
16 baby rhesus monkeys with two wire model mothers, on was plain but had milk and the other was cloth covered
Findings of Harlows monkey study
Baby monkeys cuddles soft object in preference to wire object and dough comfort from cloth mother. Shows that contact comfort was more important to monkeys than food.
Maternal deprivation in monkeys
Monkeys had severe consequences. More aggressive, less social or and bred less. As mother’s some neglected their young and attacked the children.
Limitation of Lorenz study - Generalisability to humans
Mammalian attachment is different from birds, mammalian mothers shoe more attachment to young and may be able to form attachments at anytime unlike birds.
This means that is it Inappropriate to try and generalise these ideas do humans. Reduces population validity of research.