attachment Flashcards
attachment
a close, two-way emotional bond between two individuals, in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
attachment behaviours
- proximity
- separation distress/anxiety
- secure-base behaviour
proximity
staying physically close to the attachment figure
separation distress/anxiety
being upset when an attachment figure leaves
secure-base behaviour
regularly returning to the attachment figure following play/exploration
benefits of attachment in humans
- short term: survival
- long term: emotional relationships. first relationships act as a template for later relationships
reciprocity
where an infant responds to a caregivers actions i.e. each person’s interactions affect the other.
interactional sychrony
where an infant mirrors the actions of another person, for example, their facial expressions and body movements - moving their body in tune with the rhythm of their carer.
meltzoff and moore (1977)
conducted the first systematic study of interactional synchrony and found that infants as young as 2 to 3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures
the role of the father - grossman (2007) study
a longitudinal study looking at both parents behaviour and how it relates to the quality of childrens attachment in their teens
- findings: quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers suggesting that father’s attachment is less important
- research also suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment. their role is to do with play rather than nurturing
are fathers important in the role of attachment?
AGAINST - maccallum and golombok
found that children growing up in single or same-sex families do not develop any differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families
are fathers important in the role of attachment?
AGAINST - biological differences
HARDY
fathers are less important due to biological differences - they do not produce the hormones e.g oestrogen, oxytocin, to make them sufficiently nurturing to form attachment
are fathers important in the role of attachment?
SUPPORT - schafer and emerson
found that the majority of babies become attached to their mother first and then formed secondary attachment to the father
are fathers important in the role of attachment?
SUPPORT - field
found that fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure. the key to the attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness not the gender of the parents
are fathers important in the role of attachment?
SUPPORT - grossman
suggests that fathers play a greater role in play rather than the nurturing aspect of attachment.
so they are important in attachment but in a different way.
shaffer and emerson AIM
to investigate the formation of early attachment, in particular the age of this development, the emotional intensity and to whom they were directed to
shaffer and emerson METHOD
longitudinal study, observed 60, Glaswegian babies for 18 months, mostly skilled wc fams
- mothers/babies were visited once a month for 1 year and then again at 18 months.
- parents asked to observe their children and keep a diary of their observations and report back to researchers.
shaffer and emerson RESULTS
- between 25 - 32 weeks - 50% of the babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the biological mothers - specific attachment
attachment tended to be the caregiver that was most sensitive to the infants signals and facial expressions (reciprocity) - the primary attachment figure
— not necessarily to the person who spent the most time with the infant
stages of attachment;
asocial/pre-attachment phase - - - 0-6weeks
similar response to objects/people.
preference for face/eyes
indiscriminate attachment
6weeks - 6months
preference for human company .able to distinguish between people but comforted indistinguishably
specific attachment
7months+
infants show a preference for one caregiver
displaying separation and stranger anxiety
the baby looks to particular people for security comfort and protection
multiple attachment
10/11 months+
attachment behaviours are displayed towards several different things
e.g siblings, grandparents etc
evaluation - schaffer and emerson’s study
external validity
- naturalistic observation: behaviour was studied in the environment where it naturally occurs
- e.g, the parents observed and took notes to their infants responses to separation and strangers in their own homes, during normal routine
- also researchers weren’t present so it’s more likely that the infant’s behaviour would be more natural
— study has good external validity, can be generalised to real life settings
general stages of attachment evaluation
- attachment is a difficult concept to operationalise
- attachment research is hard to conduct
attachment research is susceptible to bias - attachment is a very important issue so worth researching
evolutionary theory
- the tendency to form attachments is innate
- this tendency is present in both infants and mothers
learning theories
- infants have no innate tendency to form attachments
- this tendency is present in both infants and mothers
evolutionary theory
lorenz: imprinting
the goslings who saw their mother first, followed her when young, and performed mating rituals to other geese in mating life
- goslings who saw lorenz before anything else, followed him as if he was their mother. when they were adult they performed mating displays to him and ignored other geese
- also found that goose chicks seemed to have a ‘critical period’ of just a few hour in which to imprint (form an attachment)
— if they didn’t imprint within this time, they never would
support of lorenz research: klaus and kennel (1976)
proposed that immediately after birth there is a period during which skin-to-skin contact helps the development of attachment
criticism of lorenz research: guiton
- originally was believed that once imprinting had occurred, the image of the object was tamped irreversibly on the nervous system
- now believed that imprinting is more ‘plastic’ or flexible e.g Guition was able to reverse the imprinting in chickens such that they stopped trying to mate with rubber gloves and began to engage in sexual behaviour with other chickens. did this by allowing them to spend more time with their own species.
– maybe imprinting is reversible
harlow (1958) aims and procedure
aim- to explain key features of early attachment
method-
- studied 16 infant mokeys who were raised in isolation from parents
- in each cage, there were two surrogate mothers, one made of wire mesh and contained a feeding bottle, the other made of soft cloth
- harlow measured the amount of time they monkey spent clinging to each mother
- harlow would frighten the monkeys to see which ‘mother’ they clung to in times of distress
harlow findings and conclusions
- contact comfort: monkeys used the cloth mother as their base, returning to her for comfort and only visiting the wire mother to feed
– conc: suggests there is more to attachment than feeding - maternal deprivation: monkeys raised in isolation from parents became very disturbed - were unable to interact with other monekys, - attacled their own offspring when they became parents
—conc: attachment to an adult is crucial for normal social and emotional development
criticisms of harlow’s research
- confounding variables: two heads were different so it may be the reason then monkeys preferred one mother to other one bc the cloth covered head was more attractive-conclusions may lack internal validity
-lack of ecological validity: raised in isolation-weren’t in natural environment so results can’t reliably be applied to understand attachment behaviour in real life
- generalisability: monkeys are qualitatively different to humans
-ethics
learning theory
- classical conditioning in attachment - dollard and miller (1950)
- dollard and miller applied classical conditioning to attachment - an infant gains pleasure from feeding and so learns to associate the caregiver with the pleasure gained from feeding and therefore becomes attached
cupboard love - learning theory
- hungry infant. baby cries
- when infant is fed, discomfort is reduced (negative enforcement) and feelings of pleasure are created (rewarding/positive reinforcement)
- food becomes a primary reinforcer
- person who supplied the food is associated with avoiding discomfort - secondary reinforcer
- attachment occurs because the child seeks the person who can supply the reward
- settling a crying baby through feeding/cuddling acts as a negative reinforcement for parent
evaluation of learning theory - harlow
harlow showed that contact comfort is more important than food in the development of attachment
evaluation of learning theory -
reductionism
ignores the role of biology, the role of individual differences, and children’s temperament
evaluation of learning theory -
lorenz
attachment appears to be innate rather than learnt
- lorenz showed that geese attached prior to feeding, before any learning could’ve taken place
bowlby’s theory of attachment
proposed that human infants have a tendency to form attachments to their primary caregiver, often their mother - this innate process is adaptive
- evolutionary theory
ASCMI - bowlby
a - adaptive
s- social releasers
c - critical period
m- monotropy
i - internal working model
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
adaptive
- attachment behaviours evolved because they have an important survival function
- they give our species an -adaptive advantage’, making us more likely to survive - this is because if an infant has an attachment to a caregiver, they are kept safe, given food and kept warm
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
social releasers
- babies born with innate social releasers - ‘unlock’ the innate tendency of adults to care for them
- these social releasers are both
— physical: the typical baby face
— behavioural: eg cooing, smiling
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
critical period
just like the imprinting process, babies must form the attachment with their caregiver in a critical period
- between 7 months to 2/3 years old. bowlby said if this didn’t happen, an attachment is unlikely to form and would be damaged for life - socially, emotionally, phsyically etc
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
monotropy
- infants form one special attachment with their mother - primary attachment figure
- special intense attachment = monotropy
bowlby’s theory of attachment - internal working theory
special model or internal mental representation for relationships
- acts as a template or schema for future relationships because it generates expectations about what intimate loving relationships are like
continuity hypothesis
the idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
evidence for importance of critical period, Tizard
showed infants who failed to form an attachment during this period had difficulty with peers later on
- supports bowlby’s claim that early attachments are important for later happy relationships
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
evidence for importance of continuity, Bailey
assessed 99 mothers on their attachment to their infants and their attachments to their own mothers.
- mothers who reported poor attachment to their parents had less secure attachments with their babies
– supports bowlby’s suggestion of continuity between early attachment styles and social, emotional development in adulthood
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
evidence against
Schaffer and Emerson
evidence against bowlby’s monotropy
- they found that, rather than one main attachment, most children form multiple attachments
—- however, mostly agreed with bowlby’s ideas that attachment is innate rather than learned
bowlby’s theory of attachment -
evaluation
effects of women
his report in the 1950s had a profound effect on women. led to an increase in ‘stay at home’ mums and belief that maternal love specifically was crucial for a childs development
evaluation of bowlby - temperament, kagan
- longitudinal study of 500 children
- observed that they were born with different temperaments i.e ways of emotionally and behaviourally responding to external events
- 10-20% inhibited (more anxiety, less risky behaviour), 20-30% uninhibited (more risky beh. overly affectionate), 50-70% neutral
— temperament may be more important than attachment in influencing adult relationships and attachment
strange situation, ainsworth
aim
to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a way to assess the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver
examples of what ainsworth operationalised in the strange situation
- proximity seeking: wanting to be near attachment figure
- secure-base behaviour: ainsworth claims that the primary attachment figure is a secure base from which the infant can explore the world
- separation anxiety: distress shown by an infant when separated by an attachment figure
what did ainsworth find?
- secure
- insecure-avoidant
- insecure-resistant
secure attachment
- these children explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver (proximity seeking and secure base behaviour)
- usually show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety
- about 60-75% of british toddlers
insecure-avoidant attachment
these children explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour
- show little to no reaction when their caregiver leaves
- shows little stranger anxiety
- 20-25% of toddlers
insecure-resistant attachment
- these children seek greater proximity than others and explore less
- show huge stranger and separation distress but they resist comfort when reunited with their caregiver
- about 3% of toddlers
positive evaluations of the strange situation
- real world application: SS findings have influenced arrangements and procedures in child care settings
- attachment styles predictive of later development: e.g adolescent social behaviour, adult attachments. suggest findings are valid and meaningful
- SS is reliable: high inter-rater reliability, controlled variables; easily replicable (but observing infants is difficult)
negative evaluations of the strange situation
- artifical situation: lacks ecological validity (although high mundane realism)
- ethical issues: distress caused to infant and care-giver- and researchers
- not necessarily measuring attachment - infant responses could be due to other factors e.g temperament- kagan
what did van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) study ?
- completed a meta analysis on 32 studies using Ainsworth’s strange situation
- attachment types both between and within cultures was studied
- over 2000 babies were studied
what did van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) find ?
- secure attachements were the most common form in all of the cultures surveyed.
- highest proportion was found in great britain
- avoidant attachments - most common in west germany
- resistant attachments - most common in israel
more findings of cultural variations between van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
- variations between the results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than between countries
- for instance, one of their japanese studies showed no avoidant attachment babies, whereas the second found around 20%, which is similar to ainsworth’s original findings
- in the US, one study, 46% securely attached compared to another sample as high as 90% securely attached
- this demonstrates that it’s an oversimplification to assume that all children are brought up in exactly the same way within a country or culture
positive evaluations of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
- it has a large sample size (over 2000 infant/caregiver pairs)
- the SS uses a robust methodological procedure e.g controlled, replicable, inter-rater-reliability etc
negative evaluations of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
- 18/32 studies were carried out in america. 27/32 studies were carried out in individualistic cultures. this suggests the research is ethnocentric
- ainsworth’s strange situation was developed in america and may not be suitable for use in other cultures with different childcare practices
- intra culture differences may be greater than inter cultural differences i.e bigger differences within a culture than between different cultures. e.g in the USA, one study 46% securely attached compared to another sample as high as 90% securely attached
bowlby maternal deprivation theory
continuous care from a mother/primary caregiver is essential for normal psychological development. any prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development
effects of maternal deprivation: affectionless psychopathy
an inability to experience guilt for one’s actions and an inability to form close relationships with others
bowlby’s critical period
- first 30 months as critical period for psychological development. if a child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended period in the critical period then psychological damage was inevitable
short term effects of maternal deprivation
- robertson and robertson: protest, despair, detachment
procedure of 44 juvenile thieves study - bowlby
- 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. all thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy.
- families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers.
- a control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal deprivation occurred in the children who weren’t thieves
findings of 44 juvenile thieves study - bowlby
- 14 of the 44 thieves could be classified as affectionless psychopaths.
- of this 14, 12 has experienced prolonged separation from their mothers inn the first 2 years of their lives.
- in contrast, 5/30 of the remaining thieves has experienced separation. of the control group, only 2/44 had experienced long separations —- was concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
support from research:
- bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory
- goldfarb: found lower IQ levels of children who had remained in institutions compared to children who has been fostered from institutions at an early age (counter-were infants with higher IQs more likely to be fostered)
- harlow’s research with monkeys showed clear effects of maternal deprivation
- levy (2003) showed that separating rats from mothers for just one day had permanent effects on their social development
evidence may be poor:
bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
- bowlby’s results show a correlation, not necessarily a causation
- his evidence was based of children growing up after WW2 who may have been traumatised and in poor quality institutions - an issue of temporal validity and of confounding variables
- bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study was based of retrospective interviews, bowlby conducting research himself when he might’ve established this theory already
– may have led to many of the concepts used being imprecise and hard to measure e.g affectionless psychopathy, emotional development, IQ etc - this makes conclusions less reliable
impact of socially sensitive research
- bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory
- had a profound effect on women
his ideas led to an increase in ‘stay at home’ mothering and the belief that maternal love specifically was crucial for a child’s development
institutionalisation
the effects of living in an institutional setting. an institution is a place such as a hospital, prison or an orphanage where people live for long, continuous periods of time
privation
where a child has never has a chance to form an attachment with its mother or caregiver
procedure of rutters ERA study: romanian orphans
- rutter et al followed group of 165 romanian orphans adopted in britain to test what extent good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
- physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years
- a group of 52 british children adopted around the same time served as a control group
findings of rutters ERA study: romanian orphans
- upon arriving in the UK, half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and majority were severely malnourished
- the mean IQ of those children adopted before the age of 6 months was 102, compared with 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years and 77 for those adopted after two years - these differences remained at 16 (Beckett)
findings of rutters ERA study: romanian orphans PT2
- there appeared to be differences in outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after 6months.
those children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment style. symptoms include attention seeking, clinginess, and social behaviour directed towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar - in contrast, those adopted before 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment
procedure of the bucharest early intervention project
- zeanah assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average)
- they were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution
- the attachment group was measured by the strange situation. in addition carers were asked about unusual social behaviour, including clingy attention seeking behaviour directed towards all adults (disinhibited)
findings of the bucharest early intervention project
they found that 74% of the control group came out as securely attached. however, only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached, with 65% being classified with disorganised attachment
- the description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to 20% of the controls
effects of institutionalisation : mental retardation/delay
lower iq, reasoning levels, and other cognitive skills. like emotional development, damage to intellectual development is more likely to be recovered the earlier adoption occurs
effects of institutionalisation : reactive attachment disorder
- condition found in children who have experiences grossly negligent care and don’t form healthy emotional attachments with their primary caregivers before age5
—- inhibited RAD; detachment, unresponsiveness or resistance to comforting, excessive inhibition (holding back emotions)
—- disinhibited RAD; indiscriminate sociability, no preference for their primary caregivers over other people
romanian orphan studies
- support from other research: Hodges and Tizard
- longitudinal study: 65 children placed in residential care before 4 months old - by 4 years old, some children had returned home to birth parents, some were adopted and some stayed in care
- results: by 16 years old
– adopted group had strong family relationships
– those who stayed in nursery or returned to mothers showed poorer r’ships with family and peers than those who were adopted - conc: children can recover from early maternal privation if they receive good quality loving environment and care
strengths of romanian orphan studies
- fewer extraneous variables: children were not orphanised due to prior trauma (often the case in other orphan studies) so effects more likely related to institutionalisation itself
- longitudinal study: this improves reliability as development of children is checked several times over a long period. development may happen at different stages so this is more likely to catch all changes regardless of individual differences
limitation of romanian orphan studies
- romanian orphanages were not typical: conditions were so poor this might suggest developmental problems were a result of these specific conditions, but might not apply to all, less damaging institutional care
- rutters ERAstudy has confounding variables; children were not randomly assigned and so those adopted may have been those with fewer developmental problems. therefore, differences may be due to a priori factors
internal working model
-good experience of attachment=good relationship expectations: a child whose first experience of a loving r’ship with a reliable caregiver assumes that this is how all r’ships are meant to be. they’ll then seek out functional r’ships and behave functionally within them
-bad experience of attachment=bad relationship expectations
attachment style and later childhood: myron-wilson and smith (1998)
conducted interviews of 7-11 year olds in London to assess attachment type and compare to experience of bullying
- securely attached infants are less likely to be involved in bullying
- insecure avoidant children are the most likely to be victims of bullying
- insecure resistant are most likely to be bullies
patterns of attachment and later relationships:
procedure of hazan and shaver
- assessed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ in a local american paper
the quiz looked at 3 different aspects of relationships: - current and most important relationship
- general love experience
- attachment type
hazan and shaver findings
- 56% secure relationships
- 25% avoidant
- 19% resistant
hazan and shaver conclusions
attachment type was predictive of later romantic rships
- secure respondents: most likely to have satisfying and longer lasting romantic rships
- insecure resistant: likely to express jealousy and to question their partners feelings for them. often experiencing extreme highs and lows
- insecure avoidant: tended to be distant and to fear intimacy
evaluation on influence of early attachments on later rships: correlation is not the same as causation
P: correlation is not the same as causation
E: there are alternative explanations for the correlation that exists between infant and later rships. e.g childs temperament and personality may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later rships
C: limitation bc it challenges bowlby’s view that it’s the internal working model causing these outcomes
evaluation on influence of early attachments on later rships: self report methods
P: limitation bc of reliance on self report methods
E: most of the studies don’t use the strange situation but instead assess attachment type using interviews or questionnaires carried out in later years
C: a retrospective approach lacks validity as it relies on accurate memory. as well as this, the validity on the questionnaires and interviews used is limited because it’s dependent on respondents being honest and realistic about their own rships. such sensitive issues are susceptible to social desirability bias
evaluation on influence of early attachments on later rships: deterministic theory
P: very deterministic theory
E: e.g people are not doomed to have bad rships because they had attachment rship problems. they are just at greater risk of problems. some people do break the cycle showing that we do have free will
C: so by over emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic about people’s futures. - could also lead to a self fulfilling prophecy
