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Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

What is Bowlby’s key study involving maternal deprivation?

A

44 Thieves Study (1944)

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2
Q

What was the aim of the 44 thieves study?

A

Provide evidence to support the maternal deprivation hypothesis in a sample of children attending Tavistock child-guidance clinic.

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3
Q

What type of study was the 44 thieves study?

A

A retrospective study which compared experiences of prolonged separation from the mother (under the age of 5) between a group of 44 thieves and a group of 44 emotionally disturned children who had committed no crimes.

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4
Q

What was the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

A
  • Unstructured interviews to provide detailed qualititative data about childhood.
  • Boys completed IQ tests and had psychiatric assessments with a social worker.
  • Bowlby interviewed the boys and their mothers to find out about childhood experiences etc.
  • Checklist to diagnose affectionless psychopathy.
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5
Q

How many of Bowlby’s 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths?

A

32% whereas 0% of the control group were diagnosed with this.

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6
Q

How many of Bowlby’s affectionless psychopaths had experienced early separation?

A

86%

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7
Q

What is the main conclusion of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

A

Maternal deprivation can have severe and potentially long term effects on emotional development including affectionless psychopathy.

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8
Q

Did Bowlby’s 44 thieves study have any real life application?

A

Research could be used to inform on issues concerning parents such as mothers going out to work.

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9
Q

Was the 44 thieves study generalisable?

A

No

  • The study was not representative as Bowlby’s groups were accused of gender bias (more males than females).
  • Bowlby’s research was primarily case studies and so the findings are unique to the case being studied.
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10
Q

Was Bowlby’s 44 thieves study valid?

A

No

  • The data was collected retrospectively and so data may not be accurately remembered.
  • Social desirability bias as the parents may not have wanted to share negative things about their parenting.
  • Research bias may be an issues as Bowlby made the diagnoses of affectionless psychopathy.
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11
Q

Could causality be established in Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

A

The research was correlational and so causation could not be established.

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12
Q

What did Rutter (1981) say about Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

A

Some of the children never had chance to form an attachment relationship and so the issues may have been privation not deprivation.

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13
Q

What did Goldfarb (1943) find in terms of maternal deprivation?

A

He studied two groups of 15 children (aged 6 months- 3 years), one group was raised in an instituation and the other in foster care.
The instituation group lagged behind the foster group in terms of IQ, abstract thinking, social maturity and rule following.

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14
Q

What did Spitz (1945) find in terms of maternal deprivation?

A

1/3 of institutionalised children died before the age of 1.
The rest showed signs of ‘anaclitic depression’ howevere the symptoms were reversed if the period of maternal deprivation was less than three months.

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15
Q

What is a critisizm of Spitz (1945)?

A

The studies were carried out in poor quality instituations and so the findings are not representable of all instituations, and so cannot be generalised.

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16
Q

What was the Czech Twins (1972) study?

A

JM and PM were looked after by a Czechoslovakian social agency for a year and then fostered by their aunt (who abused them).
They showed no signs of psychological abnormality and had stable relationships later on in life.

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17
Q

Mary Ainsworth (1970)

A

Strange Situation

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18
Q

Where did the strange situation take place?

A

In a room with controlled condititions with a two way mirror and/or cameras so a psychologist can observe the baby’s behaviour.

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19
Q

What behaviours were used to judge attachment in the strange situation?

A
  • Proximity-seeking
  • Exploration and secure-base behaviour
  • Stranger anxiety
  • Separation anxiety
  • Response to reunion
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20
Q

How long did each of the stages of the strange situation last?

A

Three minutes

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21
Q

What was the procedure for the strange situation and what did each of the stages test?

A
  1. Baby is encouraged to explore (Exploration and secure base)
  2. A stranger comes in, talks to the caregiver and approaches the baby (stranger anxiety)
  3. Caregiver leaves the baby and stranger together (separation and stranger anxiety)
  4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves (reunion behaviour and exploration/secure base)
  5. Caregiver leaves the baby alone (separation anxiety)
  6. Stranger returns (stranger anxiety)
  7. Caregiver returns and is reunited with the baby (reunion behaviour)
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22
Q

What is type B of attachment?

A

Secure attachment

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23
Q

What are the behaviours of secure attachment?

A

They explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver (proximity-seeking and secure-base behaviour).
Show moderate stranger and separation anxiety.
Require and accept comfort from the caregiver in the reunion stage.

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24
Q

How many british babies show type B attachment?

A

60-75%

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25
Q

What is type A of attachment?

A

Insecure-avoidant

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26
Q

What are the behaviours of insecure-avoidant attachments?

A

They explore freely but do not seek proximity and do not show secure-base behaviours.
Show little to no reaction when their caregiver leaves and little stranger anxiety.
Make little effort to make contact when the caregiver returns and may even avoid such contact.

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27
Q

How many british babies have type A attachment?

A

20-25%

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28
Q

What is type C attachment?

A

Insecure-resistant attachment

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29
Q

What are the behaviours of type C attachments?

A

Seek greater proximity than others and so explore less.

High levels of stranger and separation anxiety but resist comfort when reunited with their caregiver.

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30
Q

How many british babies are classified as type C attachment?

A

3%

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31
Q

Describe the good predictive validity of the strange situation.

A
  • Babies and toddlers assessed as type B tend to have better outcomes than others in both childhood and adulthood.
  • In childhood this includes better achievement in school and less bullying (McCormick et al 2016, Kokkinos 2007).
  • Secure babies tend to have better mental health in adulthood (Ward et al 2006)
  • Type C had the worst turnout.
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32
Q

What does Kagan (1982) suggest about the strange situation?

A

Genetically-influenced anxiety levels could account for variations in attachment behaviour in the Strange Situation and later development.
Therefore the strange situation may not measure attachment.

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33
Q

Describe the good inter-rate reliability of the strange situation.

A

Bick et al (2012) tested inter-rate reliability for the Strange Situation for a team of trained observers and found agreeement on attachment type in 94% of cases.
This may be because of the highly controlled condititons of the experiment and the behaviours are easy to observe.
This shows that the judgement of attachment type does not depend on subjective judgements.

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34
Q

Describe how the strange situation may be culture bound.

A

The strange situation was developed in Britain and the USA.
Takahashi (1986) found Japanese babies displayed very high levels of separation anxiety so a disproportionate amount of babies were classified as insecure-resistant.
Takahashi (1990) suggested this was because the babies were not used to mother-baby separation as this is quite rare in Japan.

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35
Q

(Strange Situation) Who developed the fourth type of attachment and what was it and its behaviours?

A

Main and Solomon (1986)
Disorganised attachment (type d) is a mix of avoidant and resistant behaviours
Type D is very rare and babies usually have experienced severe neglect and abuse.
Most go on to develop psychological disorders by adulthood.

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36
Q

Who conducted a meta-analysis to find out about cultural variations of attachment?

A

Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

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37
Q

How many studies were in Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis?

A

32

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38
Q

How many children were involved in Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis?

A

1990

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39
Q

What were the overall results of Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis?

A

In individualist cultures, the rates on insecure-resistant attachments were similar to Ainsworth’s original study.
In collectivist cultures (e.g. China, Japan and Israel) rates of insecure-resistant attachments were above 25%.
Some countries had large variations within them for example in some areas of the USA, only 46% were secure but in other areas some were 90%.

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40
Q

Cross-cultural difference- Grossman and Grossman (1991)- Germany

A

High levels of avoidant and low levels of resistant
Interpersonal distance between mother and child
No proximity seeking behaviour so appeared insecurely attached
58% secure
35% insecure avoidant
8% insecure resistant

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41
Q

Cross-cultural difference- Takahashi (1990)- Japan

A

60 middle-class mother and children
68% secure
32% insecure resistant
0% insecure avoidant
Distressed on being alone- sometimes had to stop
Infants rarely separated from their mother

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42
Q

Cross-cultural similarity- Fox (1977)- Israel

A

Studied infants raised in an Israeli Kibbutz
Strange situation with either mother or nurse
Equally attached to both however closer to mother upon reunion
Mothers are still primary caregiver
Not used to strangers so distressed when alone with stranger
68% secure
7% insecure avoidant
29% insecure resistant

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43
Q

Cross-cultural similarity- Tronick et al (1992)- Zaire

A

Live in extended family groups
Infants looked after and breast fed by other women
Slept with own mother mother at night
After six months show one primary attachment

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44
Q

Cross-cultural similarity- Ainsworth (1967)- Uganda

A

Mothers used as a secure base
Mothers of securely attached infants show more sensitivity
Factors are same as findings for UK and US

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45
Q

Indigenous researchers and van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis.

A

Most of the research was done by indigenous researchers for example Grossman et al are from Germany.
This reduces the chance of researchers’ misunderstandings of the language and avoids bias because of nation’s stereotypes.
This will increase the validity.
Morelli and Tronick (1991) were outsiders from America when they studied child-rearing and attachment patterns in Zaire. This data may have been affected by difficulties in gathering data from participants outside their own culture.
Some countries may have been affected by bias.

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46
Q

Confounding variables and cultural variations in attachment.

A 
Studies in different countries usually have different methodology when they are compared. 
Confounding variables can include social class and poverty.
Non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross cultural variation.
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47
Q

Imposed etic and cross cultural variations in attachment

A

Imposed etic occurs when we impose an idea or technique that works in one cultural context to another.
For example in Germany a lack of response on reunion would be interpreted as independence instead of insecure avoidance.
So the strange situation may not work in other countries and so comparing the results across cultures is meaningless.

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48
Q

What is deprivation?

A

Losing something in which a person once had

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49
Q

What is privation?

A

Never having something in the first place

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50
Q

What did Robertson and Bowlby (1952) propose?

A

The PDD model which shows the short term effects of deprivation

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51
Q

What does PDD stand for?

A

Protest
Despair
Detached

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52
Q

Robertson and Robertson (1971)-

A

Conducted a study to see effects of deprivation and to minimise the consequences of the separation the children made visits to the Robertson’s home beforehand and the mother spoke to the child regularly in the separation.
The results were compared to John who spent nine days in conventional residential care.
John’s behaviour followed the PDD model.

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53
Q

Evaluation of Robertson and Robertson (1971)-

A

+ John is real life evidence of the PDD model.

  • Case study and so will be hard to generalise.
  • Barrett (1997) suggested the behaviour of John was him tying to cope with separation instead of protesting.
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54
Q

What is institutionalisation?

A

The effects of growing up in an orphanage or children’s home.

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55
Q

What are four impacts of institutionalisation.

A
  1. Lack of attachment
  2. Lower IQ
  3. ‘Affectionless psychopathy’
  4. Poor emotional maturity
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56
Q

Who conducted the English Romanian Adoptee study?

A

Rutter et al (1998)

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57
Q

What was the procedure of the ERA?

A

165 Romanian orphans and 52 British children (control group)

Assessed at 4,6,11,15 and 22-25

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58
Q

What type of study was the ERA?

A

Longitudinal

Independent groups design

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59
Q

What were the findings of the ERA in terms of IQ?

A

IQ before 6 months= 102
IQ after 6 months= 86
IQ after 2 years= 77

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60
Q

What were the findings of the ERA in terms of attachment type?

A

If they were adopted after 6 months they were likely to show a disinhibited attachment.

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61
Q

What is disinhibited attachment?

A

Child shows equal affection to strangers as they do people they know well.

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62
Q

Evaluation of ERA

A

+ Has real life application and has helped institutions introduce assigning children key workers.
+ There are fewer confounding variables such as trauma from WW2 however other factors such as illness effected the romanian orphans.
+ Rutter used a range of measurements to assess the children’s development (intelligence and attachment) and so the data will be accurate.
- Correlation does not equal causation
- The sample is relatively small so hard to generalise
- Lack of adult data from study and so hard to tell if institutionalisation has an affect of parenthood and relationships.

63
Q

Who conducted the Bucharest Early Intervention?

A

Zeanah et al (2005)

64
Q

What was the procedure of the BEI?

A

95 Institutionalised children between 12-31 months who spent an average of 90% of their lives in an institution were compared to 50 children in a control group who spent their life in a ‘normal family’.
Attachment type was measured by the strange situation.

65
Q

Results of the BEI.

A

74% control group= securely attached
19% institutionalised group= securely attached
44% institutionalised group= disinhibited attached
less than 20% control group= disinhibited attached

66
Q

Evaluation of the BEI.

A
  • BEI randomly decided whether infants were adopted of if they were kept in institutions which has ethical issues.
    + As it was random the results will be more generalisable.
67
Q

Hodges and Tizard (1989)

A

Followed development of 65 children who spent time in residential nurseries from only a few months old.
By age 4, 24 were adopted, 15 returned to their natural home and the rest stayed in institutions.
At 4,8 and 16 the children were studied for social and emotional competence.
At age 4 none of the institutionalised children had formed attachments but by 8 the adopted children had formed good attachments.
Those restored had weaker attachments and behavioural issues.

68
Q

Hodges and Tizard (1989) evaluation

A

+ Shows that privation can be reversed if loving relationships and high quality care are used.

  • Used interviews and questionnaires which can produce answers affected by social desirability.
  • Results if the sample may be biased as some families dropped out which may be because they were having difficulties.
69
Q

What is the internal working model?

A

Proposed by John Bowlby in 1969, the internal working model suggests that a baby’s first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship.
This internal working model acts as a template for future childhood and future relationships.

70
Q

Relationships in childhood and attachment type.

A

Kerns (1994) secure children are more likely to have better quality friendships.

Wilson and Smith (1998) assesed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London.
Secure children- least likely to be involved in bullying.
Insecure avoidant- most likely to be bullied.
Insecure resistant- most likely to be bullies.

71
Q

Hazan and Shaver (1987) procedure.

A
  • Analysed 620 replied to a ‘love quiz’ printed in a local American newspaper.
    Quiz had three sections-
    1. Current or most important relationship
    2. General love experiences such as number of partners
    3. Assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings.
72
Q

Hazan and Shaver (1987) findings.

A

56% securely attached- more likely to have good and long-lasting romantic experiences.
25% insecure avoidant- fear intimacy and are jealous.
19% insecure resistant.

73
Q

McCarthy (1999)

A

Studied 40 adult women who had been asssessed when they were babies to establish their early attachment type.
Securely attached had the best adult friendships.
Insecure resistant had issues maintaining relationships.
Insecure avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.

74
Q

Attachment type and parenting styles.

A

Bailey et al (2007)
Considered attachment of 99 mothers to their mothers assessed through an adult attachment interview.
Mother-baby attachment assessed using the strange situation.
Mother and baby usually had the same attachment type.

75
Q

Research support for early attachment on later relationships.

A

Secure attachment usually leads to good relationships.
Insecure avoidant has mild disadvantages.
Disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental illness.
HOWEVER
The Regensburg longitudinal study (Becker-Stoll et al) followed 43 individuals from 1 year to 16 years.
At 16 years attachment type was assessed using the adult attachment interview and there was no evidence of continuity.

76
Q

Validity issues with retrospective studies about early attachment on later relationships.

A

Most studies are not longitudinal which poses two problems-

  1. Asking questions relies on the honesty and accurate perception of the participants.
  2. Hard to know if what is being assessed is early attachment or in fact adult attachment.
77
Q

Confounding variables on early attachment to later relationship studies.

A

Some studies such as McCarthy assess attachment in infancy and so has some validity.
However attachment type between childhood and adulthood may be affected by confounding variables.
Genetically influenced personality may be an influence on both attachment quality and later development.
Therefore we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not other factors influencing later development.

78
Q

What is reciprocity?

A

A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from each other.

79
Q

What is interactional synchrony?

A

Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.

80
Q

What is attachment?

A

A close two-way emotional bond between two indiviudals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.

81
Q

Name three behaviours which are displayed to recognise attachment.

A

Proximity
Separation distress
Secure-base behaviour

82
Q

Name two main parts of caregiver-infant interactions.

A

Reciprocity and interactional synchrony.

83
Q

What are alert phases in terms on reciprocity?

A

Babies have periodic alert phases where they signal that they are ready for some interaction.
Research shows that mother pick up on and respond to their babies alertness 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007) but this varies depending on the skill of the mother and external factors (Finegood et al. 2016)
From around three month this interaction becoming increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signal and facial expressions (Feldman 2007).

84
Q

What is active involvement in terms of reciprocity?

A

Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems that babies as well as caregivers actually take an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing do.
Brazelton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it’s just like a couples dance where each partner responds to the other person’s moves.

85
Q

What did Feldman (2007) define interactional synchrony as?

A

‘The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’.

86
Q

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

A

Meltzoff and Moore observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old. An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures.
The baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.
Babies’ expression and gestures were more likely to mirrror those of adults more than chance would predict, therefore there was significant associated.

87
Q

Importance of interactional synchrony for attachment.

A

Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony.
The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment.
They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.

88
Q

A strength of research on caregiver-infant interactions.

A

The research is usually filmed in a laboratory, this means that other activity that may distract a baby can be controlled.
Also using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later meaning that it is unlikely researchers will miss seeing key behaviours.
Filmed observations mean that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability.
Babies won’t know they’re being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation.
Therefore the data collected should have good reliability and validity.

89
Q

The difficulty of observing babies and caregiver-infant interactions.

A

A limitation is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour.
Young babies lack co-ordination and the movements being observed are small hand movements or subtle changes in expression.
It is also hard to know what is taking place from the baby’s perspective.
This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning.

90
Q

A limitation of caregiver-infant interactions.

A

Feldman (2012) points out that ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. These are robust phenomena in the sense they can be reliably observed but may not be useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours.

However Isabella et al. (1989) found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicted the development of good quality attachment.

91
Q

Practical value vs ethics in caregiver-infant interactions.

A

Research into these interactions has practical applications in parenting skills training.
Crotwell et al. (2013) found that a 10 minute Parent-Child Interaction Therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income mothers and their pre-school children.

However research into caregiver-infant interactions is socially sensitive as it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to work soon after having a baby it could damage their baby’s development.

92
Q

What was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) research?

A

60 babies- 29 female and 31 male.
All were from working-class families in Glasgow.
Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes each month for the first year and again at 18 months.
The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday situations.
This was designed to measure the babies’ attachment.
The researchers also assessed stranger anxiety.

93
Q

What four stages of attachment did Schaffer and Emerson identify?

A

Asocial stage
Indiscriminate attachment
Specific attachment
Multiple attachments.

94
Q

What happens in the asocial stage?

A

0-3 months.
Infants produce similar responses to animate or inanimate objects and people they do or do not know.
Toward the end of this period reciprocity and interactional synchrony play an increasingly important role.

95
Q

What happens in the indiscriminate stage?

A

3-6 months.
Infants now prefer the company of humans to inanimate objects and can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people.
They do not yet show separation anxiety.

96
Q

What happens in the specific attachment stage?

A

6-9 months.
Infants begin to show separation anxiety and happiness on reunion with carer.
Therefore, they have formed a specific attachent to the primary attachment figure.
They also exhibit stranger anxiety: fear and moving away from people they do not know.

97
Q

What happens in the multiple attachment phase?

A

9+ months.
Soon after stage 3, infants form multiple attachments to other carers ad will show separation anxiety from these figures.
Schaffer found that 29% of infants formed secondary attachments within 1 months of attachment to the primary attachment figure and 78% within 6 months.

98
Q

In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, how many had formed a first specifc attachment between 25 and 32 weeks?

A

50%

99
Q

In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, how many babies had formed a specific attachment by 40 weeks?

A

80%

100
Q

In Schaffer and Emerson’s study by 18 months, how many had formed 5 or more attachments?

A

31%

101
Q

Generalisability of Schaffer and Emerson’s research.

A 
They based their stage account on a large-scale study with good design features.
On the other hand, they only looked at one sample which had unique features in terms of the cultural and historical context- 1960s working-class Glasgow.
In other cultures, for example collectivist cultures, multiple attachments from a very early age are the norm (van Ijzendoorn 1993).
102
Q

What is the real-world application of Schaffer and Emerson?

A

There is practical application in day cares.
In the asocial and indiscriminate stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.
However, their research tells us that day care, especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.
This means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages.

103
Q

What is a limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages?

A

The validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage may be low.
Babies have poor co-ordination and if babies less than two months felt anxiety in everyday situations, they might have displayed this in subtle hard to explain ways.
This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
This means babies could be quite social but because of flawed methods, appear to be asocial.

104
Q

What is a strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research?

A

Good external validity.
Most obsrvations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers.
The alternative would have been researchers present to record observations, which may have distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious.
So it is likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed.

However, the mothers being the ‘observers’ could mean they were biased in what they noticed and what they reported.
Meaning that babies may have behaved naturally but their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.

105
Q

What does father mean in terms of role of the father?

A

A child’s closest male caregiver, which isn’t necessarily their biological father.

106
Q

What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find in terms of attachment to fathers?

A

Most babies first became attached to their mother around 7 months.
In only 3% of the cases the father was the primary attachment figure.
In 27% of cases the father was joint first object of attachment with the mother.
75% of babies formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months.

107
Q

What did Grossmann et al. (2002) find in terms of the role of the father?

A

Carried out a longitudinal study where babies were studied into their teens.
Researchers looked at both parent’s behaviour and its relationship to the quality of baby’s later attachments.
The found quality of a mother’s attachment (not a father’s) was related to attachments in adolescence- suggesting an attachment to a father is much less important.
What was found is that the quality of the father’s play was related to the quality of later attachments- suggesting father’s have a different role to mother’s.

108
Q

What evidence is there that father’s can take on the role of primary caregiver and adopt the emotional role typically associated with the mother?

A

Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
Primary caregiver father and primary caregiver mothers both spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers.
Father’s therefore have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary attachment figure.

109
Q

What is some real-world application of research into the role of the father?

A

Mother’s often feel pressured to stay at home because of stereotypical views of mothers’ and fathers’ roles.
Research into the role of the father may be reassuring- for example heterosexual parents can be informed that fathers are capable of becoming primary attachment figures.
Also lesbian-parent families and single-mother families can be informed not having a father around does not affect a child’s development.

110
Q

What is a limitation into research into the role of the father relating to the lack of clarity of the question?

A

‘What is the role of the father?’ in context of attachment is a much more complicated question than it sounds.
Some researchers want to understand the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure but others are more concerned with the father as a primary attachment figure.
This makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as to ‘the role of the father’.

111
Q

Could research into the role of the father be biased?

A

Yes.
Preconceptions about how fathers do or should behave can be created by stereotypical accounts and images of parenting roles and behaviour.
These stereotypes may cause unintentional observer bias whereby observers ‘see’ what they expect to see rather than recording objective reality.

112
Q

What is a limitation of research into the role of the father?

A

Findings vary according to the methodology used.
Longitudinal studies have suggested fathers as a secondary attachment have an important role in their children’s development, involving play and stimulation.
However, if fathers have a distinctive and important role we would expect children growing up in single-mother or lesbian-parent families would turn out differently than two-parent heterosexual families.
However, McCallum and Golombok (2004) found that these children do not develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families.

113
Q

What is a counterpoint to research into the role of the father being conflicting?

A

It could be that fathers typically take on distinctive roles in two-parent heterosexual families, but that parents in single-mother and lesbian-parent families simply adapt to accomodate the role played by fathers.
This means that when present, fathers adopt a distinctive role but families can adapt to not having a father.

114
Q

What did Lorenz research?

A

Imprinting

115
Q

What is imprinting?

A

Where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet.

116
Q

What was Lorenz’s (1952) procedure?

A

Lorenz divided a large clutch of goose eggs.
Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment.
The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.

117
Q

What did Lorenz find in his research?

A

The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed their mother. Even when the two group were mixed up, the experimental group still followed Lorenz.
Lorenz identified a critical period (32 hours) where imprinting needs to take place- if imprinting did not occur during this time then the chicks did not attach themself to a mother figure.

118
Q

Guiton (1960)

A

Guiton, using chicks showed yellow rubber gloves to feed them during the critical period and the chicks imprinted on the glove. Suggesting that young animal imprint on any moving thing present during the critical period of development.
The chicks were then later found trying to mate with the yellow rubber glove.

119
Q

What is sexual imprinting?

A

The relationship between imprinting and adult male preferences.
The animal will have a preference for the type of species they imprinted on.

120
Q

What is a case study involving sexual imprinting?

A

Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in a reptile house and the first moving object it saw were giant tortoises.
As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises.
Lorenz concluded that the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.

121
Q

What is some research support of Lorenz’s research?

A

A study by Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) supports Lorenz’s idea of imprinting.
Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved.
A range of shape combinations were shown in front of them and the followed the original most closely.
This supports the view that young animals are born with the innate mechanism to imprint, as predicted by Lorenz.

122
Q

What is a limitation of Lorenz’s research?

A

It is hard to generalise findings from birds to humans.
Human’s attachments systems are very different and more complex than the one in birds.
For mammals (humans) attachment is a two-way process, so it not just the young who become attached to their mothers but the mothers show attachment to the young.

123
Q

What did Harlow investigate?

A

The importance of contact comfort.

124
Q

What was Harlow’s (1958) procedure?

A

He tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother.
He reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire ‘mothers’.
In one condition (with 8 monkeys) milk was dispensed by the plain-wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother.

125
Q

What were Harlow’s findings?

A

The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk.
This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

126
Q

What did Harlow find in terms of critical periods?

A

A mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey withtin 90 days for an attachment to form.
After this period attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.

127
Q

What did Harlow find as consequences of maternal deprivation?

A

There were severe consequences however the monkeys reared with plain-wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional.
However, those reared with a cloth-covered mother did not develop normal social behaviour.
The deprived monkeys were more agressive and less sociable and were unskilled at mating.
When they became mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their childre.

128
Q

Does Harlow’s research have ethical issues?

A

Yes.

129
Q

What is a strength of Harlow’s research?

A

It has important real world application.
It has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998).
This means his research is not just theoretical but also practical.

130
Q

What is a limitation of Harlow’s research?

A

The ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans.
Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, and all mammals share common attachment behaviours.
However, the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys.

131
Q

Who proposed the learning theory of attachment?

A

Dollard and Miller (1950).

132
Q

Why is the learning theory sometimes called a ‘cupboard love’ approach?

A

It emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food.

133
Q

What is the classical conditioning of attachment?

A

Food (UCS) -> Pleasure (UCR)
Caregiver (NS) -> No response
Food (UCS) + Caregiver (NS) -> Pleasure (UCR)
Caregiver (CS) -> Pleasure (CR)

134
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

Positive reinforcement- adding something to increase behaviour.
Negative reinforcement- removing something to increase behaviour.
Positive punishment- adding something to decrease behaviour.
Negative punishment- removing something to decrease behaviour.

135
Q

Is reinforcement a two-way process and an example?

A

Yes.
Crying leads to a response from the caregiver, for example feeding. As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced. The baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social suppressor’ behaviouir.
While the baby is being reinforced for crying, the caregiver recieves negative reinforcement when the crying stops- escaping from something unpleasant is reinforcing.

136
Q

What is the concept of drive reduction?

A

Hunger can be thought of as a primary drive- it’s an innate, biological motivator. We are motivated to eat in order to reduce the hunger drive.
Sears et al. (1957) suggested that, as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them. Attachment thus is a secondary drive learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.

137
Q

What is a limitation of the learning theory of attachment?

A

There is a lack of support from studies conducted on animals.
For example, Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw regardless of whether this object was associated with food. Harlow’s reserach shows no support for the importance of food- as the monkeys prefered the cloth mother over the wire one with milk.
This shows that other factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments.

138
Q

Is there a lack of support from studies on human babies in terms of learning theory?

A

Yes.
For example, Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found babies tended to form their main attachment with their mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them.
In another study Isabella et al. (1989) found that high levels of interaction synchrony predicted the quality of attachment- these factors are not related to food.
This again suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments.

139
Q

What is a strength of learning theory for developing attachments?

A

Elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of attachment.
For example, a baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with the presence of a particular adult, and this may influence the baby’s choice of their main attachment figure.
This means that learning theory may still be usegful in understanding the development of attachments.

140
Q

What is a counterpoint to the idea the conditoning may be involved in the formation of attachments?- Learning theory

A

Both classical and operant conditioning see the baby playing a passive role in attachment development.
Research shows that babies can take a very active role in the interactions that produce attachments.
This means that conditioning may not be an adequate explanation of any aspect of attachment.

141
Q

What is Bowlby’s (1988) explanation of attachment?

A

Monotropic theory

142
Q

Is Bowlby’s explanation of attachment nature or nurture?

A

Nature

143
Q

What is the law of continuity in terms of Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

A

The baby needs to continually have interaction with the primary caregiver uninterrupted.

144
Q

What is the law of accumulated separation in terms of Bowlby?

A

Anytime separated adds up over time.

145
Q

What are the five parts of the Monotropic theory?

A 
Adaptive
Social releasers
Critical period
Monotropy
Internal working model
146
Q

What does adaptive mean in terms of the Monotropic theory?

A

The behaviours have changed over time for a survival advantage.

147
Q

What do social releasers mean in terms of the Monotropic theory?

A

Behaviours that activate adult social interaction and make the adult attach to the baby.

148
Q

What does critical period mean in terms of the Monotropic theory?

A

Importance of attaching in early life
2 1/2 years
Damaged development if it doesn’t happen
6 months is the most sensitive time.

149
Q

What does monotropy mean in terms of the Monotropic theory?

A

Primary caregiver is the most important attachment and is different to other attachments.

150
Q

What does internal working model mean in terms of the Monotropic theory?

A

First attachment is a model for later attachments.

151
Q

What is some evidence to support social releasers?

A

Evidence shows that infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction and this is very important for a baby.
Brazleton et al. (1975) found when parents ignored social releasers the baby became increasily distressed.

152
Q

What is evidence to support internal working models?

A

Bailey et al. (2007) assessed 99 attachments.
Measured primary caregivers attachments to their mothers and assessed the babies quality of attachment to their mother.
Mother having poor attachment causes the baby to have a poor attachment.

153
Q

What is some evidence against the idea of monotropy?

A

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that some people formed multiple attachments at the same time.
The first attachment may be stronger than others but may not be unique.

Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea as only one parent matters and may stop the primary caregiver from leaving the child such as going to work.

154
Q

What is a limitation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

A

Temperament may be as important as attachment.
Kagan argues that the innate personality characteristics of an infant which are responsible for attachment behaviour are more important than the quality of the primary caregiver.
For example an anxious temperament may lead to insecure attachments.

A Level Psychology (10 decks)

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