Attachment

Question 1

What are animal studies in attachment?

Answer 1

carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans for ethical or practical reasons
- practical since animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals

Question 2

Outline Lorenz’s research

Answer 2

• Lorenz was a prominent ethologist that conducted animal studies between infant animals and their mothers
• Observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and he had newly hatched ducklings that followed him around

Procedure: set up classic experiment, divided a clutch of goose eggs and half were hatched with mother goose in natural environment and the other in an incubator where Lorenz was the first moving object they saw

Findings: Inubator group followed Lorenz everywhere while control group hatched in presence of their mother followd her. When mixed up, the control group followed their mother and the incubator group followed Lorenz

Question 3

How did Lorenz investigate sexual imprinting?

Answer 3

• observed that birds imprinted on humans display courtship behaviours towards humans
• in a case study: described a peacock saw its first moving objects were tortoises, and as an adult the bird would display courtship behaviours towards the tortoises.

Question 4

Outline Harlow’s Research

Answer 4

• worked with rhesus monkeys
• tested the idea a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. Reared 16 baby monkeys with the two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother while in second condition milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother

Findings: baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when scared regardless of which dispensed milk
- shows importance of contact comfort rather than food when it came to attachment behaviour

Question 5

How did Harlow investigate maternally deprived monkeys as adults?

Answer 5

• he followed monkeys that were maternally deprived into adulthood to see if it had an effect
• severe consequences found: the monkeys reared with wire mothers only were most dysfunctional, even those with the soft toy substitute.
• more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and bred less often than is typical.
• as mothers, some neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases

Question 6

What is the critical period for normal development?

Answer 6

• Harlow also concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour. Mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form
• After this time attachment was impossible and damage done by early deprivation became irreversible

Question 7

Evaluation of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 7

• Generalisability issues: Imprinting on birds is a problem since mammalian attachment system differs from birds. For instance mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than do birds, and mammals are able to form attachment at any time. Hence, it is not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans
• Imprinting is not as permanent: It was concluded imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour but Guiton et al found chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves and would try to mate with them but eventually preferred mating with other chickens. Suggests impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent.

Question 8

Evaluation of Harlow’s study?

Answer 8

• Theoretical value: helped develop a greater understanding of human mother-infant attachment and that it does not result from being fed but contact comfort. Also showed importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development such as adult relationships and successfuly rearing children
• Practical value: important applications in a range of practical contexts such as social workers understanding risk factors in child neglect and abuse (Howe 1998). Now understand importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and also breeding programmes
• Ethical issues: monkeys suffered from psychological harm and was ruled that the suffering was similar to humans for generalisation. Harlow was aware of this and the counter-argument was that the research was too important to justify its effects

Question 9

Outline learning theory and attachment briefly

Answer 9

• John Dollard and Neal Miller proposed caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory. Approach sometimes named cupboard love since it emphasises caregiver as a provider of food

Question 10

What is classical conditioning in terms of attachment?

Answer 10

• associating two stimuli together so that we can respond to one in the same way we respond to the other.
• food is unconditioned stimulus, and being fed gives pleasure which is the unconditioned response.
• caregiver starts as neutral stimulus that produces a neutral response but as they continually provide food they become associated with it, so the baby receives pleasure whenever the caregiver provides food. The cargiver is now a conditioned stimulus and produces a conditioned response of pleasure

Question 11

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 11

• learning to repeat behaviour or not depending on the consequences.
• if the behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, the behaviour is likely to be repeated again and so it is reinforced.
• if it produces an unpleasant response it is less likely to be repeated.
• explains why babies cry for comfort - an important behaviour in building attachment. Crying leads to a response from a caregiver such as feeding. As long as they provide the correct response, crying is reinforced and the baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting social suppressor behaviour. This reinforcement is a 2-way process. As the baby is reinforced, the caregiver receives negative reinforcements since the crying stops, escaping from something pleasant.

Question 12

Describe attachment as a secondary drive

Answer 12

• drive reduction.
• hunger as a primary drive since it is an innate biological behaviour
• Sears et al suggested caregivers provide food, the primary hunger becomes generalised to them. Attachment is therefore is a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive

Question 13

Evaluation for Lorenz and Harlow

Answer 13

• Counter evidence from animal research: attachments were formed without food
• Counter evidence from human research: In Schaffer and Emerson study many babies developed a primary attachment to biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding
• Ignores other factors associated with learning attachments

Question 14

What is meant by monotropic?

Answer 14

used to describe Bowlby’s theory. Mono means one and indicates one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to the child’s development

Question 15

What are internal working models?

Answer 15

mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. they are important in affecting our future relationships since they carry the perception of what relationships are like

Question 16

What is the critical period?

Answer 16

refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Lorenz and Harlow noted attachment in birds and monkeys had critical periods. Bowlby extended the idea to humans
- he said human infants have a sensitive period after which it will be more difficult to form an attachment

Question 17

What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

Answer 17

• rejected learning theory of attachment
• proposed evolutionary explanation after looking at L and H studies: attachment is innate that gives a survival advantage
• imprinting and attachment evolved since they ensure young animals stay close to caregivers and this protects them from hazards
• the attachment to one caregiver he named mother but it was clear it doesn’t need to be biological mother. the more time a baby spent with the mother figure or primary attachment figure -> the better.
• proposed two principles to clarify this: the law of continuity - the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of attachment. the law of accumulated separation - effects of every separation from mother add up and the safest dose is zero

Question 18

What are social releasers and how are they associated with the critical period?

Answer 18

• Bowlby suggested babies are born with a set of innate behaviours such as smiling, cooing etc that encourage attention from adults. These are social releasers - purpose is to activate adult attachment system
• Attachment was a reciprocal process and both the mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers
• interplay gradually builds relationship in beginning of the early weeks in life.
• proposed a critical period of 2 years when the infant attachment system is active
• Bowlby however proposes this as a sensitive period instead since a child is maximally sensitive at 2, but if an attachment is not formed in this time it will be harder later non

Question 19

Explain internal working models

Answer 19

• serves as a model for what relationships are like, a child whose first experience is a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will expect all relationships to be loving, however if it consisted of poor treatment it will form poorer relationships
• affects child’s later ability to be a parent themselves.

Question 20

Evaluation for Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Answer 20

• Mixed evidence: Schaffer and Emerson does not support that after an attachment is formed with a primary caregiver, the child forms multiple attachments. They found that most babies did attach to one person but a significant minority were able to form multiple attachments at the same time. It is also unclear whether there is something unique about the first attachment. Studies showed mother is more important in predicting later behaviour. But this could just mean that attachment to primary caregiver is more stronger not different in quality
• Support for Social Releasers: observation of mothers and babies during their interactions reporting existence of interactional synchrony. Primary caregivers eventually told to ignore babies’ social releasers. Babies showed distress but when attachment figures continued to ignore the baby, some responded by curling up and lying motionless.
• Support for Internal Working Models: testable since it predicts attachment patterns will be passed on. Bailey et al tested by assessing 99 mothers with 1 yr old babies on quality of attachment to their own mothers using standard interview procedure. Mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents more likely to have children classified as poor according to observations. Supports innate and being passed through families

`

Question 21

What is Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 21

7-stage controlled observation assessing proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety, response to reunion.

infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour

Question 22

What are the types of attachment?

Answer 22

secure: greeting is enthusiastic, generally content
avoidant: avoids reunion, generally reduced responses
resistant: resists union, generally more distressed

Question 23

Evaluation for the Strange Situation

Answer 23

• Support for validity
• Good reliability
• Culture-bound

Question 24

What is the key study in cultural variations?

Answer 24

van Ijzendoorn who compared rates of attachment type in 8 countries and found more variation within than between countries

• Simonella et al: Italian attachment rates have changed, may be due to changing practices.
• Jin et al: Korean attachment rates similar to Japan, similar child-rearing styles
• conclusion: attachment is innate and universal, secure attachment is the norm but cultural practices affect rate of attachment types

Question 25

Evaluation of Cultural Variations in Attachment

Answer 25

• Large samples improve internal validity and reduce impact of anomalous results
• Unrepresentative samples of culture since countries do not equate to cultures nor to culturally specific methods of child rearing therefore cannot generalise
• biased method imposing USA test on other cultures
• alternative explanation for similarity. Strange Situation lacks validity

Question 26

What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 26

• physcial separation only leads to deprivation when the child loses emotional care
• first 30 months are critical and deprivation in that time causes damage
• deprivation can cause low IQ and affectionless psychopathy if emotional development is severed
• 44 thieves study showed many more affectionless psychopaths than controls had a prolonged separation

Question 27

Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation?

Answer 27

• poor evidence due to orphans having experienced other traumas and he may have been biased
• counter-evidence: 500 sample no link of early separation and later criminality
• sensitive period: Bowlby exaggerated importance of the critical period
• animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation on social development. failure to distinguish deprivation from privation

Question 28

Describe and Explain the influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 28

• the internal working model provies a template for later relationships
• Kerns: securely attached children have better friendships
• Myron-Wilson and Smith: securely attached children less likely to be involved in bullying
• McCarthy: securely attached adults have better friendships and partner relationships
• Hazan and Shaver: secure responders had better and longer lasting relationships while avoidant had a fear of intimacy
• Bailey et al: mothers’ attachment type matched that of their mothers and their babies.

Question 29

Evaluation of Influence of Early Attachments in later relationships

Answer 29

• Mixed evidence since there is little relationship between quality of attachment and later attachment
• Low validity: most studies assess infant attachment by retrospective self-report which lacks validity
• Association does not mean causality - temperament or another third factor could affect attachment
• influence of attachment is probablilistic and self-report is conscious but working models are not