attachment Flashcards
What is meant by reciprocity in terms of attachment?
Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal - both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
What is meant by interactional synchrony in terms of attachment?
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and so this is a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.
Describe one way in which psychologists have investigated the caregiver-infant interactions. Refer to a specific study.
Meltzof and Moore (1977) observed interactional synchrony in infants. An adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or gestured and the child’s response was filmed. An association was found between adult and child behaviour. OR: Ainsworth’s strange situation. Baby was observed for behaviours e.g. separation and stranger anxiety, exploration behaviour, reunion behaviour. Ainsworth discovered 3 distinct attachment types.
Referring to research, describe the role of the father in development.
Grossman (2002). The quality of infant attachment in adolescence was related to the quality of play with the father. The father is important in a stimulation role, rather than a nurturing role. OR: Fathers are usually seen as the secondary caregiver (mother being primary). However, this is not to say that fathers can’t be the primary caregiver - Field (1978) found that primary caregiver fathers spent more time nurturing than secondary caregiver fathers. They can play a primary role, however it is the level of response that is important.
Outline 1 strength of research into caregiver-interaction.
Due to the controlled nature of the observations it is possible to capture fine detail of interactions. This increases validity.
Outline 1 weakness of research into caregiver-infant interactions.
Research involves observing simple gestures and expressions. It is hard to know what is happening and to assume the infant’s intention. This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in mother-infant interactions are special.
Outline 2 weaknesses of research on the role of the father.
Children who grow up in the same sex or single parent households do not develop any different - suggests that the role of the father is not important. Different research questions asked in studies produce inconsistent findings - overall picture is unclear.
Outline Schaffer and Emerson’s study into the formation of early relationship.
Aimed to investigate the age of attachment formation and who they are formed with. Mothers of 60 babies from Glasgow report monthly on separation and stranger anxiety. Most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this.
What are the 4 stages of attachment?
Asocial stage: Happier with humans, lasts the first few weeks.
Indiscriminate attachment: 2-7 months, prefer humans, some recognition.
Specific attachment: From 7 months, stanger and separation anxiety.
Multiple attachments: Shortly after specific attachment, display separation anxiety towards other caregivers, too.
Why does Schaffer and Emerson’s study have good external validity?
Because the observations took place in the participants natural environments.
What are 2 weaknesses of Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
Measuring attachment - just because a child cries when an adult leaves the room does not have to mean attachment. Conflicting evidence - Van Ijzendoorn et al. found that in different contexts multiple attachments may come first.
What is ethology?
The study of animal behaviour.
What is imprinting?
Animals attaching to the first moving object they see.
What is the critical period?
Imprinting must occur within a few hours/days/weeks after birth.
What is sexual imprinting?
Birds show courtship behaviour towards whatever species they imprint on.
Outline Lorenz’s research into attachment.
2 groups of goslings - 1 saw Lorenz when they hatched and one saw their mother. He described imprinting and sexual imprinting.
What is the importance of contact comfort?
Animals like monkeys prefer a soft toy mother to a wire one regardless of which provides milk.
What is maternal deprivation?
Animals brought up without a mother were dysfunctional as adults.
Outline Harlow’s research into attachment.
Baby monkeys were given a cloth or a wire mother with a feeding bottle attached. He discovered the importance of contact comfort. The critical period was seen as 90 days - after this attachments wouldn’t form.
What did Harlow find out about the effect of maternal deprivation?
Maternally deprived monkeys grew up socially dysfunctional.
Describe 1 weakness of Lorenz’s research.
The research lacks generalisability. Birds and mammals have different attachment systems - so Lorenz’s research may not be relevant to humans. Mammalian mothers show much more emotion towards their young.
Outline 1 strength of Harlow’s research.
Theoretical value - demonstrated that attachment depends more on creature comfort than feeding. Practical value - helps us to understand risk factors for child abuse (Howe).
what is an emotional bond and what does it lead to
An emotional bond between two people. It leads to a certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking, and serves the function of protecting an infant.
Caregiver
Any person who is providing care for a child,
n
b
h
uh
Multiple attachment
Have one or more attachment figure
Primary attachment figure
- closet 2. intensity
The person who has formed the closet bond with a child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship.
Seperation anxiety
The distress shown by an infant when separted from their caregiver.
Stranger anixety
The distress shown by an infant when approached or picked up by someone who is unfamilar
Classical conditoning
Learning through association. A neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an uncondtioal stimlus so it eventually takes om the properties of this stimulus and is able to produce a conditioned response
Learning theory
The name given to a group of explanations (classical & operant) which explain behaviour in terms of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher order thinking.
Social learning theory
Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded.
Continuity hypothesis
The idea that emotionally secure go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults.
Internal working model
A mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and control their enviroment. In the case attachment the model relates to a person’s expecations about relationship.
Monotropy (monotropic)
The idea that the one relationship that the infant has with their primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development.
Social releaser
A social behaviour or characteristic that elicits caregibing and leads to attachment.
Insecure-avoidant
A type of attachment which describes those children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others
Insecure-resistant
A type of attachment which describes those infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction
Secure attachment
This is a strong contented attach of an infant to his or her caregiver which develops as a rsult of sensetive responding by the caregiver to the infants needs
Strange situation
A controlled observation desinged to test attachment security
Cultural variations
The ways that different groups of people vary in terms of their social practices, and the effects these practices have on development and behaviour.
Deprivation
To be deprived to lose something. Loss of emotional care
Lorenz (1935) - Animal studies (Procedure)
Took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups. One group was left with their natural mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator. When the incubator eggs hatched the first living thing they saw was Lorenzo and they soon started following him.
Lorenz (1935) - Animal studies (Findings)
The goslings quickly divided themeselves up, one following their natural mother and the other following Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s brood shows no recongition of their natural mother.
Lorenz (1952) - Animal studies (Long-lasting effects)
Noted several features of imprinting, ege that the process is irreversibe and long lasting. He describe how one of these geese who imprinted on him, called martina used to sleep on his bed every night..
Lorenz (1952) - Animal studies (Long-lasting effects) Sexual imprinting
He also noted that this early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences, calledd sexual imprinting. Animals (Especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon whic they were imprinted.
Harlow (1959)
Conducted landmark research on attachment. Named his report ‘The origins of love and sought’ to demonstartate that mother love was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as predicted by learning theory.
Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Procedure)
Harlow creared two wire mothers each with a different ‘head’. One wire mother additonally was wrapped in soft cloth. 8 infant rehsus monkey were studied for a period of 165 days. For 4 monkeys the milk bottle was on the cloth-covered mother and on the plain wire’mother’ for the other 4 monkeys.
Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Findings)
Cloth-covered mother
- All 8 monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered mother whether or not this mother had a feeding bottle. Those monkeys who fed from the wire mother ony spent a short amount of time getting milk then returned to the cloth-covered mother. When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth-covered mother, and when playing with new objects the monkeys often kept one foot on the cloth covered mother for reassurance. Findings suggest that infants fo not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering the comfort.
Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Long-lasting effects)
Later on the rhesus monkeys noted many consequences of their early attachment experiences and the motherless monkeys were sociallt abnormally even when they had contact comfort.
Harlow (1959) Animal studies (Findings) Wired mother
Those monkeys who fed from the wire mother ony spent a short amount of time getting milk then returned to the cloth-covered mother.
What happened when monkeys were frightened
When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth-covered mother, and when playing with new objects the monkeys often kept one foot on the cloth covered mother for reassurance.
During interaction, the mother’s infants’s signals? Caregiver-infant interactions
Synchronise
Which of the following activitates is more common in fathers than mother?
Playing
Which of these is a strength of research into early interaction? Caregiver-infant interactions
Controlled observation capture fine detail
In the 1964 study which of the following best descibe the participant?
Schaffer’s stage of attachment
60 Working-class children and their families from glasglow
Shaffer and Emerson assessed what in the infant?
Schaffer’s stage of attachment
Seperation and stranger anixety
In which of these stages does a child first display social behaviour towards all adults?
Schaffer’s stage of attachment
The indiscriminate attachment stage
At what age do children start to form a specific attachment? Schaffer’s stage of attachment
7 months
What is the phenomenon, in which early contact influence mate preference called?
Animal studies of attachment
Sexual imprinting
Which of these behaviours describes Harlow’s monkeys that were maternally deprived?
Animal studies of attachment
Agressive
In which conditon were Harlow’s monkeys most damaged by early experience?
Wire mother from birth
In learning theory, which of the following is the focus of a primary drive?
Explanations of attachment:Learning theory
FOOD
