Attachment Flashcards
Explain Interactional Synchrony in the context of attachment
Where a parent’s speech/behaviour and infant’s behaviour become finely synchronised so that they happen together.
Give a finding of a study into interactional synchrony (attachment)
Isabella - Assessed degree of synchrony in 30 mothers and found that there was a higher degree of synchrony in more stable/secure attachments
Explain reciprocity in the context of attachment.
When behaviour from parent or baby is ‘reciprocated’ eg responded to by the other. e.g. mother smiles, baby smiles back. e.g. baby cries, mother cuddles.
Grossman (2002) found that the quality of the infant/father was not related to a child’s adolescent attachments, suggesting attachment to the father is less important than the mother. But what did they find the father IS important for?
The quality of the father’s play with infant was related to their adolescent attachment – suggesting play and stimulation is an important role of the father.
Grossman (2002) did a longitudinal sudy on attachment. What is a longitudinal study and why is it useful?
A study which lasts many years, and can therefore study the development of a child. (As opposed to a cross sectional study which is a short time. Useful because you can see in one child, how early influences impact their later life.
Who studied attachment in animals?
Lorenz and Harlow
Outline Lorenz’s research into attachment (method)
Lorenz divided up a clutch of goose eggs, where half were hatched with the mother goose(control) and the other half in an incubator where Lorenz was the first living thing they saw (experimental). He observed their attachment behaviours
Outline Lorenz’s research into attachment (findings)
He found that the incubator group followed him around everywhere whereas the control group stayed with the mother and ignored him. When there two groups were mixed they would separate to be with their original attachment figure. Lorenz called this imprinting and he suggested that there was a critical period of a few hours depending on the species and if imprinting does not occur then the chicks do not attach to the mother figure.
Outline Harlow’s research into attachment (method)
16 baby rhesus monkeys were reared with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the second it was dispensed by the cloth covered mother. Behaviour of monkeys was observed when frightened. Social behaviour of moneys observed (including how they treated own offspring)
Outline Harlow’s research into attachment (findings)
Babies always chose to spend their time with the cloth covered monkey over the wire frame one. This shows that contact comfort was more important to the monkey then drive reduction when it came to attachment. Monkeys reared without real mothers were less sociable, more aggressive and bred less than normal monkeys. Some killed their own offspring. Harlow also suggested that there was a critical period of 90 days, and if an attachment had not been formed by then, then it never could and the damage is irreversible.
How many days is the critical period for monkeys to attach, according to Harlow?
90 days
Give the stages of attachment according to Schaffer and Emerson
Asocial, indiscriminate, specific, multiple
Where did Schaffer and Emerson conduct their research into attachment?
Glasgow
Describe Shaffer and Emerson’s procedure used to study stages of attachment
60 babies from Glasgow, 31 male, 29 female, working class, psychologists visited homes once a month for first year and again at 18 months, interviewed mums, asked about separation and stranger anxiety, considered reaction to them in relation to stranger anxiety
Describe Shaffer and Emerson’s findings from their study into attachment
25-32 weeks old 50% babies showed separation anxiety (usually mum - specific attachment), attachments formed to those most sensitive to baby signals (not who spent most time with), by 40 weeks 80% had specific att., 30% showed multiple
Name the two learning theories of attachment
Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning
What does ‘Cupboard Love’ mean in the context of attachment?
The idea that babies learn to attach to their primary caregiver because they provide them with food (learning theory).
Explain how classical conditioning leads to attachment
Milk provided by the mother is an unconditioned stimulus which provides an unconditioned response in the baby of pleasure/relief from hunger. This response is automatic and does not need to be learnt. The neutral stimulus is the feeder (mother), and through repetition of feeding the feeder becomes associated with the milk and the feeling of pleasure. The mother becomes the conditioned stimulus. Therefore the baby has made an association and will feel pleasure when seeing the mother alone (conditioned response).
Explain how operant conditioning leads to attachment
When the baby feels uncomfortable because it is hungry they experience a drive state. This drive state motivates the baby to find a way to lessen the discomfort. In the early years the baby can do nothing but cry, and being fed leads to drive reduction as the child is satisfied. The food is the primary reinforcer and the child learns that the food is a reward. The person that feeds the baby becomes the secondary reinforcer and the infant thus seeks to be near to this feeder as they are the source of reward and the attachment is formed. Negative reinforcement also works from the caregiver’s side. Their feeding stops the crying of the baby which was unpleasant. This strengthens the attachment and makes it mutual.
Is attachment a primary or secondary drive? Explain why.
Secondary. The primary drive is hunger as its an innate, biological motivator for survival. We are motivated to eat for ‘drive reduction’ – to reduce hunger. As caregiver provides the food to reduce hunger, the attachment to them becomes a secondary drive. It’s an association is made between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.
Define Monotropy
The relationship an infant forms with one special attachment figure (usually the primary caregiver).
Define the Continuity Hypothesis within attachment
This holds that the monotropy relationship provides an infant with an internal working model of relationships.
