attachment Flashcards
1
Q
reciprocity/
A
where an infant responds to the actions of another person.
- Brezelton et al (1975) describes this interaction as a ‘dance’.
- feldman (2007) reciprocracy increases in frequency as the infant and caregiver pay increasing attention to each others verbal and facial communications. this shows that showing sensitive responsiveness will lay a strong foundations for attachments to development
2
Q
interactional synchrony’/
A
where an infant mirrors the actions of another person, for example, their facial expressions and body movements
- Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-infant attachment. they found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment’s
- Melzoff and moore (1977) observed infants between 1-2 weeks old. had an experimenter display facial gestures such as opening and closing the hand. Recording of infants responses were recorded and rated by people blind to the experiment, results showed infants imitated the experimenter suggesting that the ability to observe and imitate is active very early in infants.
3
Q
what did psychologists find out about the role of the father when forming an attachment?/’
A
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that majority of babies did become attached to there mothers first and within a few weeks or months formed a secondary attachment to other family members including the father.
- in 75% of infants an attachment to the father was by the age of 18 mothers determined by the child protesting when the father walked away.
- Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study and found the quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachment in adolescents suggesting that father attachment was less important. However, the quality of the fathers’ play with infants have a different role in attachment — one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.
- when fathers do take on the role of being the main caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers. 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 fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than the secondary caregiver fathers. It seems that fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of the responsiveness not the gender of the parent.
4
Q
evaluation of reciprocity and interaction synchrony’
/
A
- hand movements and changes in expressions may not be deliberate in a infant
- observations do not tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
- good validity as the observations are controlled and recordings film from multiple angles so capture fine detail.
5
Q
What is a reason why fathers don’t generally become primary attachments?
A
- could be a result of traditional gender roles, which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing so fathers don’t think they should act like it.
- or female hormones creates higher levels of nurturing therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure
6
Q
Limitations of the role of the father
A
- inconsistent findings. Researchers look into different questions in the role of the father e.g there role of a secondary attachment figure or the father as a primary attachment figure.
- studies found single or same-sex parent families do not develop differently suggesting the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure is not important
7
Q
Characteristics of attachment
A
- proximity. Infants seeks to be close to its caregiver
- distress when the caregiver leaves
- pleasure
- secure-base behaviour. Can be shown when a infant regularly returns to their attachment figure while playing
8
Q
Procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
A
- longitudinal study observing 60 babies(31 males) from Glasgow for 18 months.
- they were visited once a month for a year then again after 18 months
- the researcher asked the mother about levels of separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
9
Q
Findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study
A
- 50% showed their first specific attachment between 25 and 32 weeks (6-8 months)
- by 10 months (40 weeks) 80% has a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments
10
Q
Sensitive responsiveness
A
- found in the Schaffer and Emerson study.
- attachments we’re more likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they spent most time with.
11
Q
Schaffer and Emerson stages of attachment
A
- Asocial stage: the baby’s behaviour toward non-human objects and humans is quite similar.
- indiscriminate attachment: from 2-7 months babies show preference to people rather that inanimate objects, and recognises familiar adults. Accept cuddles and comfort from any adult and do not show separation or stranger anxiety.
- specific attachment: around 7 months babies start to display stranger anxiety. Forms a primary attachment
- multiple attachments: secondary attachments are formed with who the child regularly spends time with.29% of children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment.by the end of one year majority has formed multiple attachments
12
Q
strengths of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
A
- good external validity as the studies were carried out in the families homes so the babies were unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers
- longitudinal design so have better internal validity rather than cross-sectional design as confounding variables such as individual differences are not present(participant variables)
- Bowlby (1969) supports the idea of a child forming a primary attachment before then forming multiple attachments
13
Q
limitations of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
A
- results cannot be generalised as the families were all working class and from Glasgow. child-rearing practices differ in other cultures
- difficult to make judgements about the asocial stage based on observations of babies as they are pretty much immobile at that age so the evidence can not be relied on.
- other phycologists believe baby’s form multiple attachments from the offsett collectivist cultures. (van ijzendoorn et al 1993)
- Bowlby (1969) pointed out children have playmates as well as attachment figure and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room this does not signify an attachment. Therefore there may be a problem of how multiple attachments are assessed.
14
Q
Procedure of Lorenz study(1952)
A
- randomly divided a clutch of 24 goose eggs. Half were hatched with the mother in their natural environment. They others half were hatched in a incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
15
Q
Findings of Lorenz (1952) study
A
- incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and when mating performed mating displays to him and ignore others geese. whereas the control group. hatched in the presence of there mothers, followed her and performed mating rituals to other geese in adult life.
16
Q
Conclusion of Lorenz’s (1952) study
A
- animals imprint- whereby bird species attach to and follow the first mobbing object they see. Lorenz identify a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place and if imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
- sexual imprinting also exist as a animal will mate with someone similar to there first attachment.
17
Q
Procedure of Harlow study (1958)
A
-in one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas the second condition milk was dispensed by the cloth- covered mother.
18
Q
Findings of Harlows study (1958)
A
Baby’s monkeys cuddled the soft object in pretence to the wire one and sough comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk. Showing that contact comfort from was more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour
19
Q
Effects of maternal deprivation of the monkeys in Harlows (1958) study as adults
A
- monkeys who reared with the with the wire mother only were the most dysfunctional but those who reared with a soft toy as a substitute did not develop normal social behaviours
- they were more aggressive
- less sociable
- bred less often
- unskilled at mating
- as mothers some of the monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases
20
Q
How does imprinting and forming attachment link to survival of animals ?
A
- they secure safety and protection for vulnerable new borns.
- learn survival skills from attachment figure
21
Q
limitations of lorenz study
A
- findings cannot be generalised to human attachment. while they help our understanding of human development, mammalian attachment system is different to that of birds e.g. mothers show more emotional attachment and humans may be able to form attachments any time ( less easily than in infancy)
- researchers have questioned Lorenz’s results .Guiton et al (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow gloves would try and mate with them (as Lorenz predicted) but with experience were able to learn to mate with other chickens, suggesting that the impact on mating behaviour is not permanent as Lorenz believed.
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22
Q
strengths of Harlow’s study
A
- Helped our understanding of human mother-infant attachment. showed attachment does develop by being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort.
- showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development including adult relationships and successfully rear children.
- has important application in practical contexts e.g. helped social workers understand the risk of child neglect and abuse so intervene to prevent it.
- shows the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in Zoos in breeding programmes in the wild
23
Q
limitations of Harlow’s study
A
- ethical issues as the monkeys suffered greatly as a result of this study short and long term,
- monkeys are considered closely enough to humans to be able to generalise findings, meaning their suffering was presumably quite human-like,
24
Q
the learning theory
A
- proposed by Dollard and miller (1950).
- This proposes that attachments are formed when an infant receives food - they learn to ‘love’ the person who feeds them- this is the ‘cupboard love’ idea suggesting children learn to love whoever feeds them.
25
Q
what is classical conditioning?
A
learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we associate another.
26
Q
classical conditioning as an explanation of attachment
A
- the child learns to associate the carer with food.
- Food is an unconditioned stimulus which is associated with pleasure.
- At the start, the carer is a neutral stimulus that is, a stimulus that produces no response.
- Over time, when the carer regularly feeds the child he/she becomes associated with the food and comes a conditioned stimulus which evokes pleasure.
27
Q
operant conditioning as an explanation of attachment
A
- if crying results in feeding then the consequences are pleasant so crying is positively reinforced ( carer becomes a social suppressor)
- crying is negatively reinforced by the carer as they want to stop the sound encouraging the carer to behave in a way to do so.
- smiling by the child is rewarding therefore a positive reinforcer so the carer behaves in such a way to evoke smiling.
- mutual reinforces strengthens the bonds between the two.
28
Q
attachment as a secondary drive
A
- Hunger is though of a a primary drive- its an innate, biological motivator
- sears et al(1957) caregiver reduces the Hunger as they provide food, so become a secondary drive to the infant learned by association between the caregiver an the satisfaction of a primary drive.
