attachment Flashcards

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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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

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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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29
Q

research evidence against the learning theory

A
  • Animal studies disagree with the theory e.g. in Lorenz study the geese imprinted before they were fed and maintained these attachments regardless of who fed them. Harlow’s monkeys attached to a soft surrogate in preference to a wire one that dispensed milk. in theses animal studies it is clear attachment does not develop as a result of feeding. same must be for humans as learning theorist themselves believed that non-human animals and humans were equivalent.
  • Human research also disagrees e.g. Schaffer and Emerson’s study many babies developed a primary attachment to there mothers even though other carers did most of the feeding.
30
Q

How does the learning theory ignore other factors associated with forming attachments?

A
  • Research into early infant-caregiver interactions suggest that the quality of attachment is associated with factors such as reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony (Isabella et al)
  • studies show best quality of attachment are with sensitive carers that pick up the infants signals and respond appropriately
  • if attachment was a result of feeding there would be no purpose for thee complex interactions and we would not expect to find them between quality of infant- caregiver attachment.
31
Q

newer explanation of the learning theory explanation

A
  • Dale Hay and Jo Vespo (1988) suggest parents teach there children to love them by modelling attachment behaviour, e.g. hugging them or other family members and instructing and rewarding them with approval when they display attachment behaviour of there own. e.g. “that’s a lovely smile/hug”
32
Q

what is seen as important for quality attachment to form during caregiver and infant interactions

A
  • sensitive responsiveness: adults pay special attention to infants communications and responds in an appropriate manner
33
Q

what is seen as important for quality attachment to form during caregiver and infant interactions

A
  • sensitive responsiveness: adults pay special attention to infants communications and responds in an appropriate manner
  • caregiverese: adult lowers their voice and slows down “baby talk”
  • Body contact: seen as important in bonding
34
Q

attachment

A

an emotional tie or bond between two people, usually a primary caregiver and a child

35
Q

Bowlby’s monotropic theory

A

an evolutionary explanation that babies have an innate attachment drive to survive, as security = survival. babies stay close to carer (usually the mother) for safety. its based on Lorenz’s and Harlow’s animal studies.

36
Q

the 5 features of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

A
  • Adaptive- attachment gives humans an advantage, making them more likely to survive.
  • Social releasers- babies instinctively use signals that attract the caregivers attention, adults are biologically programmed to find theses behaviours cute or distressing so take care of them
  • critical period- for strong attachment to take place attachment must happen in the first 2/3 years. if this does not happen it will result in socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically damage. based on Lorenz’s
  • monotropy- infants form one very special attachment with their primary (usually the mother). more important than others. law of continuity- the more constant an predictable a child’s care the better quality of attachment
  • internal working model- the monotropic attachment to caregiver provides as a template for future relationships.

-

37
Q

Limitations of Bolwbys monotrophic theory

A
  • schaffer and Emerson (1964) found most babies did attach to one person first. However, a signifant minority was able to form multiple attachments at the same time.
  • its unclear whether the first attachment is unique it may just be stronger
  • Bowlby ignored the role of temperament which is the child genetically influenced personality in the development of social behaviour. Some children are gentically more sociable which can explain later social behaviour.

-montropy is a controvesial idea as it
puts a burden of responsibility on mothers. And pushes them into a particular lifestyle like not returning to work when a child is born because of the law of accumulated seperation.

38
Q

Strengths of Bowlbys theory

A
  • Hazen and Shaver (1987) used questionnaire called ‘the love quiz’ to assessed the internal working model and found a positive correlation between early attachment styles and later adult relationships
  • Brazelton et al (1975) observed mothers and babies during interactions, reporting the existence of interaction synchrony. They then extended this to an experiment and found when primary caregivers ignored their babies signals the babies showed some distredd and some curling up and lying motionless supporting the idea on the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving
39
Q

Ainsworths strange situation

A
  • a controller observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment between a child and caregiver.
  • infants between 9-18months were placed in a unfamiliar room whereby they are left alone,left with a stranger and reunited with their caregiver.
  • Ainsworth observed how infants behaved through a one-way mirror during a set of 8 different scenarios, each lasting approximately 3 minutee. Observations of following behaviors were recorded.
    • separation anxiety
    • stranger anxiety
    • reunion behaviour
    •exploration
  • from this, she identifyed 3 main types of attachment
40
Q

Secure attachment

A
  • explores unfamilar environments, returning to the mother as a safe- base at regular internals
  • Moderate seperation and stranger anxiety
  • infants is pleased to see the mother, seeks proximity and is easily comforted
41
Q

Insecure avoidant attachment

A
  • explores unfamiliar environments but does not return to the mother as a safe-base
  • low separation and stranger anxiety
  • infant shows little reaction upon the
    Mothers return and often ignores her. Does not seek proximity.
42
Q

Insecure- resistant attachment

A
  • infant does not explore the environment around them, choosing to stay with the mother
  • high seperation and stranger anxiety
  • infant is not easily comforted by the motehr- seeks but rejects comfort.
43
Q

Strengths of the strange situation

A
  • good inter-rater reliability. Observers watching the same child agree on what attachment type to classify them with. In a recent study agreement was 94%.
  • high reliability.Observations was under a controlled methods and included video recordings and predetermined categories.
44
Q

Limitations of the strange situation

A
  • may not be a culture-bound test because the methodology used and having the same conclusions from the results may not appropiate for all cultures as children are raised differently. Takahashi (1990) noted the test wouldn’t really work in japan due to the mothers rarely leaving there child.
  • temperament may be a confounding variable for way the child behaved
  • physcologist pointed our thats a minority showed atypical attachments. Showing there may be more that 3 types
45
Q

Van ijzendoorn (1988) aim

A
  • to look at the proportions of secure,insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of cultures
46
Q

Van ijzendoorn procedure

A
  • conducted a meta- anaysis of 32 studied from 8 different countries that had used ainsworth’s strange situation. In total, the results of over 1990 infants were included in analysis
47
Q

Results of van izendoorn (1988) study

A
  • secure attachment was the most common type of attachment, in all the cultures examined. Ranged from 75% in Great Britain to 50% in China
  • japan and israel (collectivist cultures) showed higher levels of insecure- resistant attachments.
  • Germany (individualistic culture) showed higher levels of insecure-avoidant attachment.

Variations between results of studies within the same country were 150% greater than those between countries. E.g in the USA one study showed 46% were securely but in another showed 90%

48
Q

Takahashi (1990) method

A
  • 60 one year olds from middle class japaneses families were observed in the strange situation
49
Q

Findings of Takahashi (1990)

A
  • no infants were classed as insecure avoidant
  • 32% insecure resistant, 68% securely attached
  • all the children were very distresed being left alone
  • conc: there are cross cultural differences in raising children producing different reactions to the strange situation
50
Q

Conclusions of cross cultural variation studies

A
  • secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporing Bowlbys idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm. Ijzendoorn (1990) counter this suggesting similarities could be due to mass exposure to similar media forums such as television rather than inborn tendencies.

However, cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

51
Q

Strength of van ijzendoorn (1988) study

A
  • in total results of nearly 2000 babies were meta anyalysed. Meaning there is higher internal validity by reducing impact of anomalous results.
52
Q

Limitation of van ijzendoorn (1988) study

A
  • they may have been comparing countries and not cultures. E.g compared great britian with israel but within each country there may be many different subcultures. Researchers noted that variance within countries was greater.
  • sample was biased. 27/32 of the studies in their meta-analysis were carried out in individualistic cultures therefore cannot accurately generalise results to collectivist cultures, lowering the population validity.
  • strange situation methodology was developed in america therefore the results may be culturally biased. Using a methodology of assessment beyond the smaple it was designed for is known as imposed etic. Attachment behaviours may mean differnt things for different cultures so results may not be valid when used from non-western cultures
53
Q

Maternal deprivation

A
  • the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from the mother is essential for normal physcological development, and that prolonged separation causes serious damage.
54
Q

Affectionless psychopathy

A
  • identified by Bowlby. The inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others.
55
Q

Bowlby 44 thieves study aim

A

To examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprevation

56
Q

Procedure of Bowlbys 44 thieves study

A
  • sample of 44 criminal teenagers ( thieves) were interviewed for signs of affectionless physcopathy. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish wheter the ‘theives’ had prolonged separations from their mother. A control group of 44 non-crimals but emotionally distrbed young people was set up.
57
Q

Findings of Bowlbys 44 thieves study

A
  • 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this 12 experienced prolonged separation from their mother in the first 2 years of there lives. Only 5 of the remaining 30 thieves experienced long separations. Of the control only 2/44 had
58
Q

Conclusions of Bowlbys 44 thieves study

A
  • prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
59
Q

Evaluation of Bowlbys 44 theives study

A
  • researcher bias as Bowlby himself carried out the assessments knowing what he hoped to find
  • counter-evidence e.g. Hilda lewis (1954) replicated the study on a larger scale. In her sample a history of prolonged seperation from the mothers did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships suggesting other factors may affect the outcome of maternal deprevation.
  • critical period is more of a sensitive period. Koluchova reported the case of twin boys from czechoslovakia who were isolated from the age of 18 months until were 7years old. But where able to recover fully after being looked after by two loving adults. Showing that…
  • animal studies supports the effects of maternal deprevation
  • micheal rutter (1981) claimed Bowlby failed to distinguish between deprivation and privation
    Deprivation- loss of primary attachment figure
    Privation- failure to form any attachment.
    The serve long- term damage Bowlby associated deprivation is likely to be privation.
60
Q

Method of Rutter (2010) ERA study

A
  • 165 children who had spent their early years in a romanian orphange formed the experimental group.
  • 111 of these children were adopted before the age of 2. The remaining 54 were adopted before they were 6 months old
  • The social, cognitive and physical development of all infants was examined at regular intervals (age 4,6,11 and 15) and interviews were conducted with adoptive praents and teachers.
61
Q

Findings of the ERA experiment (2010)

A
  • at the point of adoption, the romanian orphans showed delayed development on all elements of social,cognitive and physical progress. Physically smaller,weighed less and many were classified as mentally retarded
  • almost all the Romanian orphans who were adopted before the age of 6 months caught up to the British control group.
  • The romanian children who were adopted after 6 months continued to show significant deflicts. They were more likely to experience difficulties with making or maintaining peer relationships were often categorised as having disinhibited attachment disorder
62
Q

Disinhibited attachment

A
  • the child doesn’t seem to prefer his or hers parents over other people, even strangers. The child seeks comfort and attention from virtually anyone, without distinction
63
Q

The Bucharest early intervention project procedure

A
  • zenah et al (2005) asssessed attachment in 95 children who had spent most their lives in institutional care. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution. Their attachment type was measured using the strange situation. Careers were also asked about unusal social behavious including clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults (disinhibited attachment)
64
Q

Findings of the Bucharest early intervention project zeanah et al

A

-74% of the control group came out as securely attached. Only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached, with 65% appeared to have disinhibited attachement.

65
Q

Effects of institutionalisation

A
  • physical underdevelopment
  • inectellectual underfunctioning
  • disinhibited attachment
  • poor parenting
  • mental retardation
66
Q

Strengths of the roman orphange study

A
  • real- life application enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation. Have led to improvements in institutions e.g orpanges now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and ensure only a small number play a central role for the child.(key worker)
  • increased internal validity as confounding participants variables seen in previous orphanage studies such as trauma and neglect were less.
    Longitudinal study allowing them to assess both short and long term effects of institutionalisation and benefits of adoption so results have more validity
67
Q

Limitations of the roman orphanages studies

A
  • romanian orphanages we’re not typical as the conditions were so bad so results cannot be applied to understanding the inpact of better quality institutional care or deprivation.
  • Methodological issues in Rutters ERA project is that children were not randomly assigned to conditions. Researchers did not interfere with the adoption processes meaning children adopted may have been more sociable ones, a confounding variable. Could have used random allocation
  • Also some child may be more affected by institutionalisation= personality differences= not universal
    -One criticism of the Romanian orphan studies is that deprivation is only one factor.
    Romanian orphan was faced with more than emotional deprivation. Their physical condition was appalling, which has impacted their health. The lack of cognitive stimulation may have also affected their cognitive development. This concludes, researchers should be cautious when interpreting the effects of Romanian orphan studies, as there are many factors that could have affected the orphan’s development. = correlation. Low iq could be a have been because of lack of mental stimulation not because lack of attachment
68
Q

How is bullying behaviour associated with attachment type ?

A
  • wilson and smith (1998) assessed attachment type and bullying using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from london. Found secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to bullies
69
Q

Procedure of Hazen and shaver 1987)

A
  • ‘the love quiz’ comprising of 3 sections, was piblished in a local American newspaper and received 620 volunteer responses. Section 1 was designed to assess the individuals most important relationship. The second general love experience. The third participant were asked to self select their feelings relationg to some statements
70
Q

Findings of Hazen and shaver (1987)

A
  • 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached with 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure- resistant. Those reporting as secure attachment were the most likely to have good and longer lasting relationships. The avoidant respondents trnded to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy. Suggesting patterns of attachmebt are reflected in romantic relationships
71
Q

Evaluation of influence of attachments on later relationships

A
  • zimmermen (2000) suggests that infant attachment type classification and the quality of relationships with parents during adolescence are not related. This does not support the role of internal working model being important in the development of childhood and adult relationships
  • The role of the internal working model may be a correlation not a causation. A third factor may be parenting style and temperant which effect attachment and the child ability to form relationships with others
  • methodological issues. Self- reporting techniques were used so lacks validity. Participants may not have been honest or have a realistic view of there own relationships. Also retrospectively. Recollection from years gone by are likely to be impaired any answers may lack accuracy due to deterioration lowering the internal validity.
  • influence of early attachment is probablistic as it suggests that people are doomed to have bad relationships of they had attachment problems. This is always the case. They just have a greater risk of problems.
  • theoretical problem as internal working modeks are unconscious. We are aware of their influence on us. We would not expect to get direct evidence from them as people can only report what they are aware of.