Attachment Flashcards
What is the name for the two theories for explanations of attachment?
Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory and Learning Theory - (Cupbord Love Theory)
Outline Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory.
What is the acronym?
Human Infants have an innate tendency to form attachments to their primary caregiver - passed down through evolution because it is ADAPTIVE to form attachments.
So M A G I C
- Babies have SOCIAL RELEASERS (e.g. behavioural -
smiling, crying and physical - big eyes etc) which unlock the tenancy of an adult to care for them.
- MONOTROPY - Bowlby believed that infants form one special attachment to the person who responds most sensitively to their needs - primary attachment figure.
- ADAPTIVE
- Good quality care
- Infant forms an INTERNAL WORKING MODEL - the relationship with the ‘mother’ forms a model for future relationships - CONTINUITY.
- CRITICAL PERIOD - babies have to form an attachment with their caregiver between 0-2.5 years old otherwise the child is damaged for life Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally and Socially (PIES)
Evaluate Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory
+ Supporting Research
e.g. Harlow showed that monkeys separated from their mothers from birth could not develop healthy relationships and were bad parents.
STRENGTH BECAUSE it supports the Internal Working Model - continuity
+ Practical App -Social services support parents rather then remove child, mothers in prisons etc
- Monotropy is a socially sensitive subject.
e.g. Bowlby’s Law of accumulated separation suggests that infants are suffering from harm whenever they are separated from their mothers.
WEAKNESS because it places terrible burdens on mothers
LINK and may affect their life choices (e.g. whether to work or not). - Contradictory evidence - Czech twins - discovered age 7 with no attachment figure - integrated into loving family - normal social and intellectual functioning at 14 years.
Outline the Learning Theory for attachment
Attachments are learned through environments and experiences. Attachment develops to the person that feeds the infant (‘Cupboard love theory’).
Attachments occur through two ways of learning:
Classical Conditioning - occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated to an unconditioned stimulus and
produces a conditioned response. The infant learns to associate pleasure with the person giving the food.
Operant Conditioning - Positive reinforcement (e.g. when a baby cries it is given attention). Negative reinforcement (e.g. a hungry infant is given food - removing feelings of hunger).
ATTACHMENT OCCURS BECAUSE THE INFANT SEEKS OUT THE PERSON SUPPLYING THE PRIMARY REINFORCER (food)
Evaluate the learning Theory for attachment
+ Supporting arguments
e.g. Dollard and Miller - in first year babies are fed 2000 times, generally by their main carer, which creates ample opportunity for the carer to become associated with food/removal of hunger.
H: ignores other important factors associated with forming attachments such as international synchrony and reciprocity.
- There is Contradictory research
e.g. Schaffer and Emerson found in 39% cases the main feeder/carer was not the baby’s main attachment figure.
ISSUE BECAUSE according to CC baby should associate mother with food and form a strong attachment.
LINK infants develop attachments to people who don’t feed them (e.g. grandparents and siblings) - Harlow - comfort and emotional security over food
Outline Harlow’s Animal Study of Attachment
What was the aim, procedure, findings and conclusions?
Aim: To test the learning theory of attachment by examining if monkeys preferred mothers providing comfort over food.
Procedure:
Harlow constructed 2 surrogate mothers - one wire mesh with food and one with soft cloth. Harlow used 4 different conditions. The baby monkey was left in a cage with the surrogate mothers. The time spent clinging to each mother was measured along with observations of the baby monkey when frightened.
Findings:
Baby monkeys preferred the cloth mother, regardless if she provided food. If frightened, the baby monkey would cling to the cloth mother.
Conclusions:
Rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for comfort suggesting attachment is more about emotional security than food.
Evaluate Harlow’s Animal study for attachment.
+ Practical Applications
e.g. Helps social workers understand the affect of neglect on children.
STRENGTH BECAUSE It has lead to many successful treatments and parenting advice.
- There are confounding variables in the experiment.
e.g. The surrogate mothers had different heads.
LIMITATION BECAUSE it may effect the validity of the experiment as monkeys could have a preference for the head. - Unethical - failture to protect from harm - H: benefits outweight risk? L: low pop validity
Outline Lorenz’s Animal Study for Attachment
What was the aim, procedure, findings and conclusions?
Aim: To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting.
Procedure:
Consisted on 2 conditions - when Lorenz was the first thing the goose chicks saw and when the goose mother was the first thing the chicks saw.
Findings:
The chicks followed the goose mother of Lorenz depending on who they saw first. incubator chicks performed mating displays with Lorenz rather than other geese. Lorenz recognised a critical period of a few hours to attach.
Conclusions:
Animals have an innate ability to attach and recognise their caregiver (evolutionary).
Evaluate Lorenz’s Animal Study for Attachment
+ Practical Applications
e.g. imprinting research has been used to help introduce migratory birds to areas where they have become extinct.
STRENGTH BECAUSE it suggests that Lorenz’s theory is valid as it has successfully prevented extinction of species.
HOWEVER there is also contradictory findings so this theory doesn’t always work.
- Issues of generalising animals to humans.
e.g. There are differences as mammals can form attachments at any time.
THIS IS A LIMITATION BECAUSE it means that the results may not be able to explain human attachment behaviour.
LINK Humans are much more complex than animals so there is Low Population Validity in Lorenz’s experiment.
What is attachment?
A two way enduring emotional tie to another specific person where they see the other person as essential for their emotional security.
What are the characteristics of attachment?
Proximity, separation distress and stranger distress
What does altricial and precocial mean?
Altricial = born at a relatively early stage of development and so need to form attachments with adults who will protect and nurture them.
Precocial = born at a fairly advanced stage of development - e.g. horses
What are 5 ways attachments form?
Bodily contact, mimicking, cargiverse (‘baby talk’), interactional synchrony, reciprocity
What is reciprocity?
When caregiver and baby responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
What is the research to support reciprocity?
Tronick - asked mothers to stop moving and maintain an unsmiling expression. Babies tried to tempt their mothers into interaction by smiling and became distressed when there was no response.
This supports the importance of reciprocity in maintaining attachment bonds because when the child feels their mother isn’t being reciprocal they become distressed.
What is interactional synchrony?
When caregiver and infant mirror one another’s actions and emotions in time with one another.
What is the research to support interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore - had adults show facial expressions and gestures to 2 week olds. They found an association between infant response and adult gestures.
What was Evans and Porter’s study? (how we form attachments)
Studied reciprocity, interactional synchrony and attachment quality in 101 infants and their mothers for the first year after birth. Mothers and babies invited to the lab at 6,9 and 12 months and videoed while playing. The extent of reciprocity and interactional synchrony were assessed. At 12 months the quality of attachment was assessed using Strange Situation. Babies judged securely attached tended to be those that had the most reciprocal interactions and the most interational synchrony.
Suggests reciprocity and interactional synchrony are used to form secure attachments.
Evaluate Caregiver-Infant interactions
+ Supporting Research
+ Research has Practical applications. e.g. better parenting advice leading to more emotionally secure infants…
- Research into mother-infant interactions is socially sensitive
- It is difficult to draw conclusions when studying infants. e.g. it’s hard to know whether behaviour is deliberate or not
Evaluate Schaffer and Emmerson’s study
+ Own homes - high ecological validity H: low pop - same socio-economic background and area
+ Multiple methods - Using observation + interview - greater insight
- Social desirability bias - ‘good parents’
- Poor temporal validity - 3% main attachment for father might be higher now - more women work
What was Schaffer and Emmerson’s research?
Longitudinal study on 60 new born babies and their mothers, studied at intervals (3, 4, 7, 9 and 18 months) in their own homes. Interactions were observed and carers interviewed about infant’s responses.
Results:
Up to 3 months - Asocial / Indiscriminate attachment - equal response to everyone.
After 4 months - preference for certain people, but accept care from anyone.
After 7 months - Special preference for single attachment figure. Stranger and separation anxiety.
After 9 months - multiple attachments. Infant increasingly independent.
At 18 months - 87% had at least two attachments, 31% had 5 or more. 39% infants’ primary attachment was not main carer. Mother was main attachment figure for 65% of children.
3% developed a primary attachment to their father.
Strongly attached infants had mothers who responded most sensitively to their needs and gave more opportunity for interaction (sensitive responsiveness).
Conclusion:
- The most important fact in forming attachments is not feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with them.
- There is a common pattern to infant attachment formation - suggests biologically controlled.
- Contradict’s Bowlby’s monotropic theory as having multiple attachments of similar quality seems normal.
