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.
Strength of Harlow- practical value
For example, helped social workers understand the risk factors in child neglect and abuse and can intervene and prevent it. Increases reliability of research bc real world applictaiosn
Limitation of Harlow- ethical issues
Monkeys suffered as result of experiment, considered similar enough to humans and so their suffering was presumably human like. Harlow was aware, referred to wire moth as ‘iron maidens’ after a historical torture device.
What did Harlow measure with the monkeys?
Amount of time spent with each month and amount of time crying for biological mother.
What was the sample size of Rutter and Songua-Barke 2010 study?
165 Romanian children, 111 adopted before 2, 54 before 4. Compared these to 52 British adopted before 6 month
What did Rutter and Songua-Barke do?
Tested regularly for physical, social and cognitive development
What did Rutter and Songua-Barke find?
At time of adoption, children were behind in all aspects. By 4 those adopted by 6 months caught up with British. Many adopted after 6mo showed disinhibited attachment.
What is the significance of Rutter and Songua-Barkes study?
Supports institutionalisation
Influence of early attachments
Qual of first attachment is crucial bc of internal working model. Attachment type is associated with Qual of peer relationships in childhood.
How is Attachment type is associated with Qual of peer relationships in childhood?
Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best Qual friendships.
Who conducted the Love quiz?
Hazen and Shaver
What were the different parts of the love quiz?
1 assessed current/most imp relationships
2 general love experiences
3 assessed attachment type
What were the findings of the Love Quiz?
Suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships. E.g secure had good long lasting. Avoidant were jealous and had a fear of intimacy.
What did the Love quiz find about internal working models?
Affected the ability to parent their own children. People tended to base parenting style on the model so attachment type passed down generations.
Strength of early attachment - evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed
Internal worker mod predicts continuity between security if baby attachment and later relations. Hazen and Shaver appear to support continuity and provide evidence for model with lovequiz.
Limitation of early attachment- evidence on continuity of attachment is mixed
Not all studies support IWM. Zimmerman assess infant attachment types and adolescents. Very little relationship between quality of attachments. Problem bc it is not expected if model is important in development.
Limitation of early attachment -association doesn’t mean causality
In studies with Qual of relations is associated with infant attachement, implication is that the attachment type causes the attachment. But, could be 3rd environmental factor, such as parenting style. Direct effect on attachment and ability to form. Limitation bc counter to Bowlby view of later outcomes caused by model
What are the explanations of attachment?
Learning theory
Monotroic theory
Classical conditioning in learning theory
Mother is CS due to food, pleasure from food is CR
Operant conditioning in the learning theory?
Dollard&Millar - when hungry = uncomfortable so need to reduce discomfort, when fed feels pleasure so food is primary reinforcer.
What does operant conditioning in the learning theory suggest?
Implies attachment occurs bc the child seeks the person with food.
When did Bowlby propose the monotropic theory?
1958
What is monotropy?
The idea that one particular attachment is different from all others
What are the two principles put forward in the monotropic theory?
law of continuity
Law of accumulated separation
What does monotropic theory say mother and baby both have?
An innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response
Learning theory limitation- counter evidence from animal research
Range of studies showed young animals don’t necessarily attach to those who feed. E.g. harlows monkeys attached for comfort not to wire one. Lorenzs geese attached before fed. Evident attachment doesn’t develop through ‘cupboard love’. Must be true for humans
Learning theory limitation- theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachments
Research into early infant caregiver interaction suggests Qual of attachment is associated with factors such as reciprocity&interactional synchrony. Can’t reconcile these ideas with cupboard love. If attached bc of food be no purpose for complex interactions and wouldn’t find a relationship between them
Mixed evidence for monotropy
Bowlby believed babies formed one attachment which was diff from rest. Not supported by Schaffer and Emerson who found most babies did attach to one first, but minority could form multiple at same time. Mother also more imp for later behaviour. Means primary is stronger not diff in Qual
Limitation- monotropy is socially sensitive area
Major implications for lifestyle choices by mothers when kids young. Law of accumulated sep states a poor attachment which disadvantages child. Feminists= places burden of responsibility on mam setting them up to take blame for any later issues. So limit lifestyle choices. Which reduces validity in explaining attachment
What is the strange situation?
A controlled observation procedure designed to measure security if attachment a child displays towards caregiver.
Who developed the strange situation?
Mary ainswoth 1969
Procedure of Strange Situation
Room with a two waxed mirror, had 7 episodes which each lasted 3 mins, tested each behaviour individually.
What were the behaviours used to judge attachment?
Proximity seeking
Exploration
Stranger&separation anxiety
Response to reunion
SS Limitation - may be culture bound
Doesn’t have same meaning in countered outside Western Europe and USA. Cultural diff in childhood experiences likely to mean kids respond diff to SS. E.g test doesn’t work in Japan bc mothers rarely separated, so very high sep anxiety. Reduces population validity bc hard to generalise results
SS Strength - good inter-rater reliability
Diff observers watching same kids in situation agree on how to classify them. May be bc of controlled conditions and the behavioural a categories are easy to observe. Bick et al look at IRR &found agreement on attachment for 94% tested. Confident attachment type doesn’t depend on who observing.
What did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg do?
Cross cultural study which used the SS. Meta analysis examined 32 studies and summarised findings from 8 countries.
Findings
Only 50% babies in China = secure
Israel 30% insec resis
Insec avoid =Germany
What did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg conclude?
Secure seems to be norm in many cultures which supports bowlbys idea attachment is innate and universal
Cultural Strength- large samples
Came from combining results. E.g. in meta analysis total of nearly 2000 babies and primary attachment figures. Overall sample size is strength bc large samples increase internal validity by reducing impact of anomalies
Cultural Limitation- samples unrepresentative of culture
Comparisons are between countries instead. In any there are many diff cultures, with diff child rearing practices. E.g. one sample might over represent people living in pov, stress of which may affect caregiving and patterns of attach. So these comparisons have very little meaning. Reduces validity of this to generalise to other cultures.
What did Bowlby see the first 30 months as?
Critical period, if child deprived of mothers emotional care for long time the psychological damage is inevitable
What can maternal deprivation affect?
Intellectual development - low IQ
Emotional development - affection less psychopath
What is an affection less psychopath?
Lack of affection, guilt and empathy
What did Bowlbys 44 thieves study do?
Examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation
44 Thieves study sample
44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
Control group of 44 emotionally disturbed
44 thieves procedure
Interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy,
What were the findings of 44 thieves?
Found 14 = affectionless psychopath, 12/14 had experienced prolonged separation from mothers in first 2 year. 2/44 of control group has experienced long separations
Maternal Limitation- evidence poor
As Bowlbys sources came from orphaned war kids or 44 thieves. War orphans traumatised and have poor after care which can cause later development issues. Also 44 thieves had major design flaw, bias bc Bowlby carried out assessments himself knowing what hoped to find.
Maternal Limitation- critical period more like sensitive
Later research showed damage is not inevitable. Some cases of very severe deprivation had food outcomes provided good aftercare. Koluchova reported case of twin boys isolated for 5 1/2 yrs, cared for after and fully recovered. Shows period isn’t critical but sensitive
Orphan studies Strength- real life application
Understanding of effects led to improvements in way children cared for in institutions. E.g. orphanages avoid large no of caregivers for each child. Child has one key worker so have better chance to develop normal attachment. Immensely valuable in practical terms
Orphan studies strength - fewer extraneous variables than other studies.
Many studies available before Romania, which involves kids with experienced loss or trauma before institutionalisation. (Abuse, neglect) so difficult to observe effects of institutionalisation bc children already dealing with factors that functioned as confounding participant variables. Study has increased internal validity bc Romania didn’t have these variables.
