Attachment Flashcards
Attachment
Close 2 way emotional bond between 2 indiv where indiv sees other as essential for emotional security
Signs of attachment
Proximity - stay physically close to those attached
Seperation distress - disrress when attachment figure leaves
Secure base behav - regular contact with attachment figure despite being independent of them
Reciprocity
2 way process where Caregiver and infant responds of each other + elicits response from each other. How 2 people interact
Interactional syrony
Infant + mother reflect actions + emotions of other and do this in a co ordinated way. temporal coordination of micro level social behav.
Reciprocity + interactional synchorny evaluation (difficult observation)
P - hard to know whats happening when observing infants
E - studies involving mother + infant interactions have same patterns
C - observe hand movement + facial expressions = diffcult to be certain infants perspective from observation
E - not sure behav in mother infant interactions have special meaning
Reciprocity + interactional synchorny evaluation (controlled observations)
P - controlled observation capture finer details
E - mother infant observations well controlled procedure filmed various angles
E- ensure fine details recorded + analysed. Babies don’t care being ibserved so behav doesnt change due to controlled observation (observational research)
I - research has good validity
Reciprocity + interactional synchorny evaluation (no purpose)
P- observ don’t tell purpose
E - feldman (2012) = synchrony describes behav at same time- robust phenomena due to reliable observing but not useful, no purpose. synchrony and reciprocity describes behav occur in CA interactions.
E - psychologist want to know why behav r occurring to explain them rather than describe
I - may not be possible CA interactions, reduce validity
Schaffer and Emerson 1964 study
aim - investigate formation of early attachments, specifically age they develop emotional intensity + whom emotions directed to
method - 60 babies (31 male and 29 female) - involved. from Glasgow + majority from skilled working-class families.babies + mothers were visited at home every month for 1st year + again at 18 mnths
researchers asked mother questions about kind of protest babies showed in 7 everyday separations. designed to measure infant’s attachment. assessed stranger anxiety and separation when adults left room ( stress+protests)
findings - Between 25 + 32 wks of age bout 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards specific adult, usually mother - specific attachment.
Attachment tended to be caregiver who was most interactive + sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions; reciprocity. not necessarily whom infant spent most time. By age of 40 weeks, 80% babies had specific attachment + almost 30% displayed multiple attachments (attachment behav is extended to adults other than specific attachment figure).
stages of attachment
some characteristics of infants behav towards others change as infant gets older. sequence if qualitatively diff behav linked to specific ages
Attachement Stage - Stage 1
Asocial (0-8wks)
- happier in presence of humans than alone
- behav to human and non objects r similar
- preferences for familiar indiv, easier to calm them
- recognise and forms bonds
Attachment Stage - stage 2
Indiscriminate attachment (2-7mnths)
- indiscriminate (not diff to one person)
- accept comfort from any adult
- preference for people than inanimate objects
- don’t show separation/stranger anxiety
Attachment stage - stage 3
Specific attachments (7-12 mnths)
- shows separation anxiety
- primary attachments to one specific indiv (shows more sensitivity to signals)
- use familiar adults as secure base
Attachment stage - stage 4
Multiple Attachment - 1 yr+
- form secondary attachment w familiar adults whom they spend time w
Schaffer and Emerson Study Evalution - limited behavioural measures
P- behav used to measure attachment are crude
E - Schaffer and Emerson used stranger anxiety + separation anxiety to distinguish the stage of attachment an infant was in.
E - Attachment involve more complex emotions + behaviours than the two typically used
C - However, use of such simple behavioural measures allows researchers to scientifically study attachment development.
Schaffer and Emerson Study Evalution - sample characteristic
P - sample of study was 60 babies + their carers.
E - large sample, considering large amount of data gathered on each parti
C - despite large sample, all babies studied from same district + social class in same city
E - child rearing practices vary from q culture to another. results collected may not be generalisable to other social contexts as behav may not be representative of diff types of indiv from other social classes + locations
Schaffer and Emerson Study Evalution - mixed evidence
P- mixed evidence on when infants develop multiple attachments
E - Bowlby suggested infants form attachments to a single main carer before they are capable of developing multiple attachments.
E - However, researchers have studied attachment in differend cultural contexts where it is normal to have multiple caregivers argue multiple attachments occur from outset.
I - The conflicting research suggests that we do not fully understand how attachments develop.
Mary Ainsworth SS Study
- child encourages to explore in presence of of caregiver
- stranger comes in and interacts w child
- caregiver leaves child + stranger together
- caregiver returns + stranger leaves
- caregiver leaves child alone
- stranger return
- caregivers returns + reunited w child
Secure attachment
60-75% babies displayed (type b)
- kids explore regularly but returns to caregiver ( proximity + secure bases behav)
- moderate separation + stranger anxiety
- accept comfort from caregiver at reunion
insecure avoidant attachemnr
20-25% displayed (type a)
- kids explore freely but don’t seek proximity or show secure base behav
- little stranger anxiety
- little/no reaction when caregiver leaves + little effort to make more contact when caregiver returns
insecure resistant attachment
3% displayed (type c)
kids seek greater proximity + explore less
- huge stranger + separation distress
- resist comfort when reunited w caregiver
Strange Situation Evaluation - later life
P - correlation found between attachment types + later behav
E - IR attachment associated with worst outcome, including bullying in later life (Kokkinos 2007) + adult mental health problems
E - secure babies typically have power comes in many areas like success in school + romantic relationships
C - made + Weston found children behave differently depending on which parent they are put in a situation with
Strange Situation Evaluation - inter reliability
P - very good into reliability
E - takes place under control situations and because behavioural categories are easy to observe Bick (2012) found agreement on attachment type for 94% babies in team of train SS observers
E - confident that attachment type of infant identified in SS doesn’t depend on who is observing
I - great temporal validity
Strange Situation Evaluation - Kagen
P - a child’s temperament could influence that attachment type
E - Kagen 1984 develop temperament hypothesis suggesting infants are born with temperamental differences. E.g, infants more commonly calm + not anxious are more likely to be securely attached
E - suggest temperament, genetically influenced personality of a child, more important in influencing behaviour on SS than attachment
I - Temperament is confounding variable
Role of Father - Grossman
carried out longitudinal study looking at parents’ behav + its relationship to quality of children’s attachments in teens. Quality of infant attachment with only mothers related to attachments in adolescents, suggesting father attachment less important than mothers. However, quality of fathers play with infants related to quality of adolescence attachments. suggests fathers have diff role in attachment - more to do with play + stimulation and less to do with nurturing + emotional development.
Role of Father - Schaffer and Emerson
found most babies attached to mother first, around 7 mnths. only 3% of cases, father first sole object of attachment. In 27% of cases, father joint first object of attachment with mother.Within a few weeks or
months Following this primary attachment,
attachments with other family members including father. In 75% of infants studied an attachment was formed with father by 18 mths. determined by fact infants
protested when father walked away - this is a sign of attachment. most fathers go on to become important figure.
Role of Father - parenting advice
Research into role the father can be used to offer advice to parents. Parents + prospective parents may agonise over decisions over who should take on primary caregiver role - mothers may feel pressured to at home due to stereotypical view of mother/ father’s roles. Fathers pressured to work rather than parenting. Research into role of father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents fathers are able to take on primary caregiver role + have important role in development of children.
Role of Father - pro/con
result of traditional gender roles,
which women are expected to be more nurturing and caring than men and fathers do not act like this. could be Female hormones such as oestrogen create higher levels of nurturing + therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be primary attachment figure. question of nature vs. nurture, both sides argued. Research in area have benefits for fathers aiming for being granted full/joint custody of children. Research suggests fathers have unique role to play /they can be just as nurturing if take on role as primary caregiver. importance of paternal relationship if court grant custody of child. shows research as important implications
Lorenz’s Work
Aim- investigating imprinting in geese
Procedure - randomly divided clutch of goose eggs. 1/2 hatched with mother Goose in natural environ + 1/2 hatched in incubator where first moving object was Lorenz
Finding - incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere + a control group followed mother everywhere. 2 groups mixed, followed same indiv
Conclusions - identified critical period about imprinting needs to occur. if don’t chicks don’t attach to mother figure
Lorenz Evalution (2)
Generalisability to humans - investigate and printing in birds, mammalian attachment type is diff to birds. Emotional attachment from mother to offsprings. not appropriate.
Observations been questioned - later research queried Lorenz research. Guiton 1996 found sexual imprinting didn’t have permanent effect on mating behav. Chickens imprinted on yellow rubber gloves + attempted to mate. Learnt eventually preferred meeting with other chickens.
Harlows Research
Aim - investigating attachment in newborn mesus monkeys
Procedure - follow deprived monkeys into adulthood. 16 monkeys reared with two wire model mothers. 1 condition - milk dispensed by wire mother. 2 condition - milk dispensed by cloth mother
Findings - baby monkey cuddles soft object in preference to wire object, regardless, who dispensed milk
Conclusion - critical period identified. Contact comfort More importantly tomonkeys than food
Harlows Research Evalution (3)
- theoretical value - findings had profound effect on the understanding of human attachment. Should contact comfort has higher priority than food in attach the development. should importance of quality of any relationships for later social development.
- practical value - findings had important implications. Help social workers understand risk factors in child neglect. Helps with intervention. Important in care of captive monkeys (comfort, socialise, breed)
- ethical issues - monkey suffered as a result of procedures. Species are similar enough, take a human to generalise results, suffering is likely to be human like. Harlow aware of suffering imposed on monkeys + named wire mother after torture device (iron maiden). Research important enough to justify suffering + no other research gave significant findings.