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