Attachment Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
Describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception to death.
What parts are included in human growth?
Physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual and personality development.
What is the difference between learning theory and evolutionary theory?
Learning theory - learn to be attached
Evolutionary theory - attachment is an innate behaviour has evolved.
What is the difference between bond and attachment?
Bond - set of feelings that tie one person to another (CANT SEE THIS)
Attachment - involves baby and parent (CAN SEE THIS)
What are the 4 characteristics of attachment?
- Seeking proximity
- Distress on separation
- Joy on reunion
- Orientation of behaviour
Why do attachments form?
Survival - infants are physically helpless
Short term - need for food, comfort, protection
Long term - emotional relationship
What is the difference between a child and an infant?
Infant - < 2years
Child - 2 years - Adolescence
What is reciprocity?
Caregiver-infant interaction is a TWO-WAY, mutual process. The behaviour of one elicits a response and involves (turn-taking).
- These responses do not have to be mirroring each other
What will turn taking (involved in reciprocity) lead to long term?
Development social and language skills
What happens when behaviour is not reciprocated?
Baby becomes stressed
What is interactional synchrony?
When two people interact in a mirror pattern in terms of their emotional, facial and body movements.
What research was found on interactional synchrony?
Takes place from as little as 3 days old.
- High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment.
What is negative evaluation of observing infants?
- Difficult to see infant’s perspective
- Observations of reciprocity and interactional synchrony don’t tell us purpose, only describe behaviour.
What is said about the role of a rather in attachment?
- Quality of fathers’ play was related to quality of adolescent attachment, suggesting stimulation and play were an important role for fathers not nurturing.
- Babies more likely to attach to person with high level of responsiveness, not gender.
(Primary Care Givers more likely to smile, hold and imitate baby behaviours than Secondary Care Givers).
Negative evaluations for role of the father in attachment
- Inconsistent findings
- Children without fathers can develop normally
- Woman more inclined to have a nurturing nature, due to their higher oestrogen levels.
What did Schaffer and Emerson’s longitudinal study conclude?
Attachment tended to be the caregiver most sensitive to baby’s signals and facial expression (reciprocity).
What is a positive of a longitudinal study?
Captures data over a period of time
What is a negative of a longitudinal study?
Lots of extraneous variables.
Positive evaluation for Schaffer and Emerson’s longitudinal study?
- Good external validity (conducted in participants’ homes)
- Longitudinal design
Positive evaluation for Schaffer and Emerson’s longitudinal study?
- Limited sample characteristics - same town and same class
What are the stages of attachment?
- Asocial phase
- Indiscriminate attachment phase
- Specific attachment phase
- Multiple attachment phase
What is the age range for the asocial stage?
0-6 weeks
What is the age range for the indiscriminate phase?
6 weeks - 6 months
What is the age range for specific attachments?
7-10 months
What is the age range for multiple attachments?
10 months +
What happens in the asocial stage?
Recognises caregivers (familiar humans)
What happens in the indiscriminate stage?
Preference for people than inanimate objects
- no stranger anxiety
What happens in the specific attachment stage?
Stranger anxiety
- Comfort from person who has most interaction
What happens in the multiple attachment stage?
Secondary attachments can form
Negative evaluation of asocial stage
- Difficult to gather meaningful data at this stage.
- Meltzoff & Moore suggested imitation occurs at 2 weeks - suggesting babies ARE social.
Negative evaluation for multiple attachments
- Culture dependant - Japan raised by many adults, meaning primary caregiver attachment not always formed first.
- Difficult to measure attachment
What scientists carried out animal study research?
Lorenz and Harlow
What research did Lorenz carry out? (What conditions?)
- attachment with geese.
1st condition: he was first thing goose chicks saw.
2nd condition: goose mother was the first thing the goose chicks saw when they hatched.
What were Lorenz’s findings?
- Chicks who saw Lorenz first followed him
- Chicks who saw mother first followed the mother
Describe imprinting (suggested by Lorenz)
Imprint an attachment with an animal - strongest tendencies occur 13 and 16 hours.
What is sexual imprinting?
Animals that has imprinted on humans, later displayed courtship behaviours towards humans.
- Case Study - peacocks eggs hatched with tortoise - tried to sexually imprint on tortoises.
What was Harlow’s research
- Aimed to find out whether baby monkeys preferred a source of food or protection as an attachment figure.
What was the findings of Harlow’s research?
The monkey spent most of the time with surrogate mother providing protection, suggesting more if an attachment is formed with a figure provides comfort and protection.
Evaluation Harlow’s research
Positive:
Lab - strict control of variables
Negative:
Ethical issues - psychological harm
Lab - lacks ecological validity
What further research supported Harlow’s research?
- Harlow and Zimmerman (when oversized toy added to cage) monkey would cling to cloth surrogate.
Positive evaluations for animal studies
- Theoretical value - profound effect on understanding mother infant attachment.
- Practical use - helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect
Negative evaluation for animal studies
- Not generalisable to humans (Lorenz) bird attachment different to mammal attachment
- Questionable findings - chickens and washing up gloves (sexual imprinting) NOT PERMANENT.
- Ethical issues (Harlow’s monkeys)
What are different ways we learn by consequence?
- Reinforcement:
•Positive reinforcement
•Negative reinforcement - Punishment
What is positive reinforcement?
Rewarding when behaviour occurs
What is negative reinforcement?
Stopping behaviour by the removal of negative action
What is punishment
Something that decreases the likelihood of negative behaviour by unpleasant consequences
How does operant conditioning take place in attachment?
- Babies cry for comfort, building an attachment, leading to a response.
- If correct response is given, crying is reinforced
What is the drive reduction theory?
The theory that hunger (drive) makes the infant feel uncomfortable and prompts behaviour (crying) to reduce the discomfort.
What are negative evaluation for the learning theory?
- counter evidence:
• animal research - Lorenz geese formed an attachment due to being fed - humans care about comfort. - ignores factors:
Doesn’t consider reciprocity or synchrony
What is another name for the learning theory?
Cupboard love
What are positive evaluation for the learning theory?
- Some elements of conditioning could be involved in attachment
- new learning theory - suggested parents teach their children to love the, through modelling and imitation of behaviour.
What is evolution
The process of useful features, which are well adapted to the environment, being introduced into a species to increase its likelihood of survival and reproduction.
What does the evolutionary theory suggest about behaviour?
You are born with an innate drive to form an attachment to a caregiver.
What parts are in Bowlby’s monotropic attachment theory?
AMSSI
- adaptive
- monotropy
- sensitive period
- social releasers
- internal working model
What is “adaptive” in BOWLBY’S monotropic attachment theory?
Attachments are adaptive:
- Increase our chances of survival (our caregiver provides, food, comfort, protection)
What is “monotropic” in BOWLBY’S theory of attachment?
Special attachment is formed with mother/primary caregiver.
What are the principles of primary attachment figure - explain?
- law of continuity - more constant care = better attachment
- law of accumulated separation - separation = worse attachment
What is “sensitive period” in Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
Sensitive period - 3-6 months (if no attachment formed then more difficult)
Critical period - 6 moths - 2 years (no attachment formed - massive impact for the future)
What is “social releasers” in Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
Actions which provides protection
2 types:
- Physical - e.g. baby face
- Behavioural - e.g. crying
What are the two features of the “internal working model”
- Child can influence caregiver’s behaviour
- Attachment will act as a template for future relationships
Evaluation for Bowlby’s monotropic theory
- Mixed evidence for monotropy:
Positive - mother is important in predicting later behaviour
Negative - multiple attachments can occurs, mother not always most important. - Support for social releasers - when social releasers ignores, baby is distressed.
- Support for IWM - poor attachments with mother were likely to lead to children classified as poor
What are the three types of attachment?
- Insecure-Avoidant
- Secure
- Insecure resistant
What is type A attachment?
- Insecure avoidant
What is type B attachment
Secure
What is type C attachment
Insecure resistant
What is insecure avoidant attachment?
Unconcerned by separation of PCG and comfortable with stranger
What is secure attachment?
Some discomfort during separation and comfortable around a stranger, when mum is present
What is insecure-resistant attachment
- Intense distress upon separation and uncomfortable with stranger
Who created the “strange situation”?
Ainsworth
What are the stages of the strange theory?
- Proximity seeking
- Exploration
- Stranger anxiety
- Separation anxiety
- Response to reunion
What is positive evaluation for Ainsworth
- Support for validity - attachment type is strongly predictive of later development
- Good reliability - good inter-rates reliability
What is negative evaluation of Ainsworth?
- Ethnocentrism - all cultural are different - all participants were white.
- Cultural bound - Japan mothers are rarely separated from babies
- Said to measure anxiety, not attachment (lower validity)
What is cultural variations in attachment?
- An individualistic culture - emphasises personal independence (e.g. UK, USA)
- An collectivist culture - emphasises family and work goals (e.g. China, Japan)
Positive evaluation of cultural variation
Large sample - increased validty
Negative evaluation for cultural variation studes
- Samples between countries not cultures (unrepresentative)
- Strange situation lacked validity - didn’t measure attachment, measured anxiety
