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Psychology AS > Attachment > Flashcards

Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

Definition of ‘reciprocity’

A

A description of how two people interact. A type of interaction between caregiver and child in which both individuals respond to each others actions with mutual responsiveness, and elicit responses from each other

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2
Q

Definition of ‘Interactional synchrony’

A

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way

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3
Q

Definition of ‘attachment’

A

A deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space

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4
Q

Explain ‘reciprocity’

A
  • Babies and mothers spend lot of time in intense and pleasurable interaction
  • Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ and signal they are ready for interaction, mothers pick up on this and respond to infant alertness around 2/3 times (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
  • From 3 months, this interaction becomes more frequency and involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman 2007) - element of these interactions is reciprocity
  • Baby may take active (not passive) role as mother and child can initiate interactions and take turns doing so. Brazleton et al. (1975) describe this as a dance and they respond to each others moves
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5
Q

Explain ‘reciprocity’

A
  • Takes place when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
  • Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks:
  • An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. Childs response was filmed and identified by independent observers
  • An association was found between expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies
  • Interactional synchrony is important for development of mother-infant attachment
  • Isabella et al. (1989) observes 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony and quality of mother-infant attachment. Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment
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6
Q

Evaluation of observing infants:

A
  • Many interactions between mother and infants have shown the same patterns of interactions (Gratier 2003)
  • What is being observed is only hand movements or changes in expression. Difficult to be certain what is the infants perspective - whether the movements are deliberate
  • Cannot know for certain that behaviours seen in mother-infant interaction have a special meaning

On the other hand…

  • Normally well controlled procedures and being filmed from multiple angles, can later be analysed
  • Good validity as babies wouldn’t show demand characteristics due to being filmed
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7
Q

Parent-infant attachment
(When attachment to mother
When attachment to others/father)

A
  • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mother (around 7 months)
  • Then few weeks/months after formed secondary attachments (including father)
  • 75% infants studied, an attachment was formed with father by 18 months (determined by the infants protested when father walked away)
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8
Q

The role of the father

A
  • Grossman (2002) carried out longitudinal study looking at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens
  • Quality of infant attachment with mothers was related to children’s attachments in adolescence but not fathers. Suggesting the father attachments are less important
  • However, quality of fathers play with infants WAS related to adolescent attachments and therefore fathers have a different role in attachment - play and stimulation, less nurturing
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9
Q

Fathers as primary carers

A
  • When take on main caregiver, they may adopt behaviours in past associated to mothers
  • Tiffany Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers and secondary caregiver fathers, and primary caregiver fathers.

Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers.

These behaviours appears more important in building an attachment with the infant , therefore fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure.

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10
Q

Role of fathers evaluation: children without fathers

A

MacCallum and Golombok (2004) have found that children growing up in a single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families.

Suggests fathers role as a secondary attachment figure is not important

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11
Q

Evaluation of role of fathers: Why don’t father generally become primary attachments?

A
  • Could be result of traditional gender roles (woman more caring)
  • Therefore fathers don’t feel they have to act at all
  • Female hormones (oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore woman biologically pre-disposed to be primary attachment figure (Taylor et al 2000)
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12
Q

Evaluation: Mother-infant interaction socially sensitive

A
  • Socially sensitive as suggests that children may be disadvantaged by child-rearing practices
  • (e.g. mothers who return to work shortly after a child is born, restrict the opportunities for achieving interactional synchrony, Isabella et al.)
  • Suggests that mothers should not return to work so soon
  • Fox (1977) research shows working mothers have plenty of time for such interactions after working hours
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13
Q

What did Schaffer and Emerson research?

A

Stages of Attachment

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14
Q

When did Schaffer and Emerson conduct study?

A

1964

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15
Q

Schaffer and Emerson Research: Participants

A

60 babies
31 male
29 female

From Glasgow

From skilled working-class families

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16
Q

Schaffer and Emerson Research: Procedure

A
  • Babies and mothers visited at home very month for first year and again at 18 months
  • Researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separation (e.g. adult leaving the room, a measure of separation anxiety)
  • This was designed to measure the infants attachment. The research also assessed stranger anxiety
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17
Q

Schaffer and Emerson Research: Findings

A
  • Between 25 - 32 weeks of age about 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult (usually mother)
  • Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (reciprocity). Not necessarily the person who infant spent most time with
  • By age of 40 weeks, 80% of babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
18
Q

What are Schaffer and Emerson’s 4 stages of attachment?

A

Stage 1: Asocial stage
0-8 weeks
- Happier when in presence of humans
- Show some preference for familiar adults, find it easier to calm
- Behaviour towards inanimate objects and humans are similar

Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment 
2-7 months 
- Prefer humans than inanimate objects 
- Recognise and prefer familiar adults
- Do not show separation or stranger anxiety, not different towards any one person

Stage 3: Specific attachment
7-9 months
- Show separation (from one person, normally mother) and stranger anxiety
- Formed a specific attachment, termed primary attachment figure, with person who offers most interaction

Stage 4: Multiple attachment
10+ months
- Form multiple attachment to other adults who spend time with (secondary attachments)

19
Q

Schaffer and Emerson Research Evaluation: Validity

A

Carried out in family homes and observation done by parents. Behaviour of babies will therefore be unaffected.

Good external validity

20
Q

Schaffer and Emerson Research Evaluation: Longitudinal Design

A

Strength

Good internal validity, no confounding variables of individual differences between participants (unlike cross-sectional design)

21
Q

Schaffer and Emerson Research Evaluation: Sample

A

Good sample size (60)

All from same class and area and 50 years ago is a limitation

Cannot generalise

22
Q

Schaffer and Emerson 4 Stages of Attachment Evaluation: Studying asocial stage

A

Difficult to make judgements about babies based on observations of behaviour as they are immobile and have poor coordination.

23
Q

Schaffer and Emerson 4 Stages of Attachment Evaluation: Conflicting evidence

A

Collectivist cultures (multiple caregivers, families work together) babies form multiple attachments from the outset

(Ijzendoorn et al. 1993)

24
Q

Schaffer and Emerson 4 Stages of Attachment Evaluation: Measuring multiple attachment

A

Because they get distressed, doesn’t mean they have an attachment to that person

Bowlby (1969) pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room, but this does not signify attachment

Limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages as their observation does not leave us a way to distinguish behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and shown towards playmates

25
Q

Lorenz’s Research: Procedure

A

First observed imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour have him a newly hatched duckling that then followed him around

Research:

  • Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs
  • Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in the natural environment
  • Other half in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
26
Q

When did Lorenz conduct study?

A

Early 20th century

27
Q

Why did Lorenz conduct his study?

A

Understand mother-infant attachment

28
Q

Lorenz’s Research: Findings

A
  • Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere
  • Control group hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her
  • When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz
  • Imprinting = bird species which are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see
  • Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. Can be within a few hours of birth/hatching
  • If imprinting does not occur within that time, Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
29
Q

What did Lorenz describe as ‘sexual imprinting’?

Case study

A

Birds that had imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans

In a case study Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises. As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded he had undergone sexual imprinting

30
Q

What did Harlow research?

A

Attachment of monkeys

31
Q

When did Harlow conduct his study?

A

(1958)

32
Q

Harlow’s Research: Prodedure

A

Harlow observed that newborn rhesus monkeys kept alone in a bare cage usually dies but that they usually survived if given something soft like a cloth to cuddle.

Research:

  • Reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mother’
  • In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother
  • In a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother
33
Q

Harlow’s Research: Findings

A
  • Baby monkeys cuddles the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk
  • This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour
34
Q

What did Harlow find in regards to maternal deprivation?

A

Harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. The researchers found severe consequences.

  • The monkeys reared with wire mothers were the most dysfunctional
  • However, even those reared with a soft toy as a substitute did not develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys
  • Bred less often, typically of monkeys being unskilled at mating
  • As mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, sometimes killing them
35
Q

What did Harlow find in regards to the critical period for normal development?

A

Like Lorenz, Harlow concluded that there was a critical period.

A 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 the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.

36
Q

Lorenz’s Research Evaluation: Generalisability to humans

A

Mammalian attachment system is quite different to that from birds.

Mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than birds do, and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time, albeit less easily than in infancy.

Cannot generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans.

37
Q

Lorenz’s Research Evaluation: Courtship behaviour permanent

A

His belief that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults (as Lorenz predicted) but that with experience they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens.

This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent as Lorenz believed.

38
Q

Harlow’s Research Evaluation: Theoretical Value

A

Profound effect on Psychologists understanding on mother-infant attachment.

  • Shown attachment does not develop as result of being fed by mother but as a result on contact comfort
  • Importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development including ability to hold down adult relationships and successfully rear children
39
Q

Harlow’s Research Evaluation: Practical Value

A
  • Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it
  • Important in care of captive monkeys - understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and also in breeding program in the wild
40
Q

Harlow’s Research Evaluation: Ethical issues

A
  • Monkeys suffered greatly as a result of Harlow’s procedures
  • This species is considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise the findings, which also means that their suffering was presumably quite human-like
  • Harlow himself was aware of suffering caused. He referred to the wire mothers as ‘iron maidens’ after a medieval torture device

Psychology AS (5 decks)

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