Attachment

Question 1

Attachment definition

Answer 1

a strong, lasting emotional bond formed between a baby and their main caregiver

Question 2

3 features of attachment

Answer 2

-safe base- child uses caregiver as secure base whilst they explore their environment

-separation anxiety-distress when separated from attachment figure

-stranger anxiety-baby displays distress around unfamiliar people

Question 3

what is a longitudinal study

Answer 3

when a researcher investigates the same participant at multiple points to see how they change over time

Question 4

strengths of longitudinal study

Answer 4

-allows a researcher to gain insight on how behaviours change over time

-gives researchers insight on how early experiences change behaviours

-by studying behaviours at multiple time points, researchers can see if results are reliable over time

Question 5

limitation of longitudinal study

Answer 5

:Attrition-when, across the study, the researchers lose some of their participants from the sample

Question 6

limitations of Quasi and natural experiments

Answer 6

-cant control all the extraneous variables that could influence the dependant variable
-cant directly test cause and effect

Question 7

summary of attachment research

Answer 7

-as attachment researchers often study independent variables that are unethical to manipulate, they often conduct quasi or natural experiments

-if the researchers want to directly manipulate independent variable, they conduct animal studies

Question 8

advantages of animal studies

Answer 8

-can directly test cause and effect

-no need to rely on quasi or natural experiments where you may not be able to control all the extraneous variables that could influence the dependent variable

Question 9

limitations of animal studies

Answer 9

• the results of animal studies might not generalise to humans
  -might be considered unethical as you may be causing distress to the animals

-on the other hand, many researchers argue the benefits of the research outweigh the negatives.

-and, even if animals are different to humans, they have similar behaviours and genes for the results to still be valid

Question 10

4 stages of attachment

Answer 10

pre-attachment stage:
-between 0-3 months and is when babies don’t show preference for one person over another

indiscriminate attachment stage:
-between 3-7 months and is when babies recognise familiar people and prefer these familiar people over unfamiliar people, but they don’t yet have a strong attachment to one individual

discriminate attachment stage:
-between 7-9 months and is when babies begin to form a strong attachment to jus one caregiver

multiple attachment stage:
-from 9 months onwards and is when babies begin to form attachments with other people other than their main caregiver

Question 11

Stages of attachment: Study support

Answer 11

Schaffer and Emerson:
-conducted a longitudinal study using a naturalistic observation

-they followed 60 babies and their families from birth to 18 months

-babies were assessed with caregivers to asses stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

-Schaffer and Emerson found that 87% of babies form attachments with 2 or more caregivers and that babies main attachment figure wasn’t always their main caregiver, also 39% of babies attached to the person who did not feed them but who interacted with them

-Also found that babies who formed the strongest attachments had caregivers who displayed the most sensitive responsiveness

Question 12

Schaffer and Emerson: Evaluation

Answer 12

strength:
-high ecological validity as the study was a naturalistic observation

limitation:
-research may have been prone to observer bias

-results may have been prone to social desirability bias as families may have wanted to show themselves in the best light

Question 13

reciprocity

Answer 13

-reciprocity is when the infant and caregiver both take turns in an interaction, so that they respond to each others actions

-the more reciprocity caregivers and infants show in their interaction, the stronger their attachment bond

Question 14

interactional synchrony

Answer 14

• when infants and caregivers perform similar actions in time with each other

Question 15

caregiver-infant interactions: study support

Answer 15

Condon and sander:
-used frame by frame analysis to describe that caregivers and infants display interactional synchrony and reciprocity

Isabella:
-used the same technique to show that there is a positive correlation between interactional synchrony and the strength of the caregiver infant attachment

Question 16

caregiver infant: evaluation

Answer 16

strengths:
-used frame by frame video analysis which means they could collect highly detailed, reliable observations

weaknesses:
-however, observations might suffer from observer bias as gestures and movements may be overinterpreted by researchers

-also, it is difficult to establish a cause and effect relationship between interactions and strength of attachment

Question 17

the learning theory of attachment

Answer 17

-says that attachments are learned through the experience of being fed by caregivers
-the reason babies form attachments with their caregiver is because their caregiver feeds them
-and the way attachments are learned is through classical and operant conditioning

Question 18

the learning theory of attachment: classical conditioning and attachment

Answer 18

-at first the food is the unconditioned stimulus and the caregiver is the neutral stimulus
-over repeated experience of being fed by their caregiver, babies learn to associate their caregiver with food
-as a result, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus and babies develop a happy conditioned response to their caregiver

Question 19

2 ways operant conditioning contributes to forming an attachment

Answer 19

-the action of staying near the caregiver is reinforced through positive reinforcement, by babies learning they can get food when they stay near their caregiver

-the action of staying near their caregiver is reinforced through negative reinforcement, by babies learning that they can reduce hunger by staying near their caregiver

Question 20

Harlow and the monkeys

Answer 20

-Harlow’s aim was to test the learning theory of attachment by investigating whether monkeys choose comfort or food

-investigated this through a laboratory experiment where he separated baby monkeys from their real mothers and raised them in a laboratory with a fake wire mother and a fake towel mother

-for 4 monkeys the wire mother provided milk, whilst for the other 4 the towel mother provided the milk

-Harlow found that the monkeys always chose the comforting towel mother over the wire mother, even when the wire mother provided the milk

• therefore Harlow’s study doesn’t support the learning theory of attachment and instead suggests that attachments are driven by comfort.
  -also, the monkeys showed dysfunctional behaviours when introduced to other monkeys. they were aggressive and less sociable. some killed their own offspring

Question 21

Harlow’s study: evaluation

Answer 21

strength:
-as he conducted a laboratory experiment, Harlow could control all of the extraneous variables, this meant Harlow could establish a causal relationship between his independent variable and dependant variable

limitation:
-one limitation of Harlow’s study is the appearance of the wire and towel mothers which might have acted as confounding variables

-results may lack generalisability as study is conducted on animals rather than humans

-could be considered unethical as the monkeys were put in a distressing situation that might of caused psychological harm

Question 22

the learning theory of attachment: support

Answer 22

Dollard & Millar:
-found that babies get fed over 2000 times by their caregiver in the first year of their life

-Dollard and millers observations indicate that the learning theory of attachment is believable as there is plenty of opportunities for babies to form an association between their caregiver and getting fed

Question 23

learning theory of attachment: weakness

Answer 23

-it isn’t supported by Harlow’s monkey study which shows babies chose comfort over food

-isn’t supported by observations that babies raised by foster mums called metapelets don’t attach to their foster mums

Question 24

Bowlbys monotropic theory

Answer 24

-says that attachments are biologically pre-programmed into both babies and their caregivers

-and the reason we form attachments is to help protect babies from danger and keep them alive

Question 25

social releasers

Answer 25

-are behaviours that babies are biologically pre-programmed to do which attract the attention of caregivers

-these social releasers are crying, smiling, crawling and following

-caregivers are biologically pre-programmed to respond to these social releasers ensuring babies get what they need to survive

Question 26

monotropic attachments

Answer 26

Bowlby said that attachments are monotropic, meaning that babies form an attachment with just one, special caregiver which is usually the person who provides emotional support for the baby

Question 27

the critical period of attachment

Answer 27

-the time window during which babies can form an attachment to their main caregiver
-first 2.5 years of a child’s life

Question 28

the internal working model

Answer 28

-the internal working model is a schema built from a child’s relationship with its main attachment figure, that guides the child’s expectations and beliefs about future relationships

Question 29

support for Bowlby’s monotropic theory: Lorenz and the goslings

Answer 29

Lorenz and the goslings:
-conducted an experiment on unhatched baby geese to understand how they form attachments
-baby geese in the control group were hatched normally, so the first thing they they saw was their mother
-whilst baby geese in the experimental group hatched in an incubator so the first thing that they saw was Lorenz
-Lorenz found that baby geese formed attachments immediately to the first person or object that they saw after birth, suggesting that their attachment were biologically pre-programmed
-Lorenz called this type of attachment imprinting

Question 30

Lorenz and the gosling: reference to Bowlby

Answer 30

• the fact that imprinting occurred immediately from birth, supports the idea that attachments are biologically pre programmed

-secondly, the fact that imprinting was irreversible and only formed onto one animal or person, supports the idea that attachments are monotropic

-finally, the fact imprinting could happen during a narrow time window supports the idea of the critical period

Question 31

Lorenz and the gosling: evaluation

Answer 31

weaknesses:
-results were not replicated in later studies, for instance, in Guitons research into imprinting baby chicks, he found that attachments were reversible and weren’t monotropic

-results may not generalise to humans as when born, baby geese and baby humans are at very different stages of development so it is likely that they have different attachment mechanisms

Question 32

evaluation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory: human studies

Answer 32

-observations of metapelets in isreal support the idea that attachments are formed to the main caregiver who provides emotional support and comfort, and that attachments are monotropic

-but, we have seen that Schaffer and Emerson’s study of stages of attachment doesn’t support Bowlby’s theory because they found that in the multiple attachment stage, 87% of babies formed an attachment to two or more caregivers

Question 33

evaluation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory: application to every day life

Answer 33

-a strength of Bowlby’s theory is that lead to positive changes in the real world, such as longer visiting hours for children and longer parental leave

-however, a negative of Bowlby’s theory was women feeling guilted into staying at home to raise their children

Question 34

deprivation of attachment figure

Answer 34

-children are deprived of an attachment figure when they don’t have a loving attachment figure or separated from this attachment figure during the critical period

Question 35

Bowlby maternal deprivation theory

Answer 35

-says that when children are deprived of an attachment figure during the critical period , they suffer psychological damage
-this damage is long lasting and irreversible

Question 36

consequences of deprivation

Answer 36

1) impaired cognitive development- such as low IQ and poor language, attention and memory skills

2)improved emotional development- such as difficulty controlling emotions and forming relationships with other people

3)impaired behavioural development- including delinquency

Question 37

PDD model

Answer 37

protest- children become angry about being abandoned by their main caregiver

despair- children become sad and withdrawn and refuse to be comforted

detachment- children reject the main caregiver when reunited with them

Question 38

little john case study

Answer 38

Robertson and Bowlby
-Robertson and Bowlby conducted a case study of a young boy called john who was separated from his mother for 9 days whilst she was in hospital

-they found that john experienced the 3 stages of the PDD model and months later, john still wouldn’t display affection to his mother

-therefore they concluded that the separation had lasting long term negative effects on john

Question 39

little john evaluation: limitations

Answer 39

-as it was a case study, we cant be sure the results generalise to other children

-secondly, they were confounding variables that might have influenced Johns behaviour such as the fact that other children in the nursery bullied him, this means we cant establish a causal relationship between john being separated from his mum and his distress

Question 40

Bowlby’s 44 thieves study

Answer 40

-Bowlby conducted a set of interviews with children in his clinic, comparing 44 thieves to a control group of 44 children who weren’t criminals

-Bowlby found that almost 50% of the children in the group of thieves had experienced maternal separation in childhood, compared to just 5% of the 44 children in the control group

-in the group of thieves, 32% were classified as affectionless psychopaths and 86% of these affectionless psychopaths had experienced maternal separation

-so Bowlby’s results suggest that separation from attachment figures in childhood leads to criminal behaviour and psychopathy

Question 41

44 thieves study: evaluation

Answer 41

first, the interviews my have been unreliable and lacked objectivity because they relied on teenagers having an accurate memory of their early childhood

-second, the participants may have been influenced by investigator effects which might have caused them to respond to demand characteristics

-third, the study lacked control over important extraneous variables that could also have lead some of the teenagers into a life of crime, like family conflict at home

Question 42

limitations of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory: Koluchovas case study

Answer 42

Koluchovas case study:
-conducted a case study on a pair of twins who experienced severe deprivation and abuse until the age of 7
-although the twins experienced severe psychological damage, the twins did eventually recover with the help of their adopted parents
-this indicated that the effects of deprivation can be reversed

Question 43

limitations of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory:

Answer 43

-ignores confounding variables that could also cause psychological damage such as poverty and abuse, this makes it harder to establish a causal relationship between deprivation and psychological damage

-confuses privation with deprivation- privation is when a child has never experienced an attachment to a caregiver, whereas deprivation is when a child forms and attachment to a caregiver which is then removed
-and privation has more serious long term effects than deprivation

Question 44

institutionalism definition

Answer 44

-is when children grow up in institutions like orphanages and foster homes, we say they have institutionalised

Question 45

institutionalism: Hodges and Tizard

Answer 45

-conducted a natural experiment investigating 65 children who has been placed in an institution
-they compared 4 groups of children, who were adopted early, children who remained in the institution, children who were returned to their biological parents and a control group who had not been institionalised
-Hodges and Tizard found that children who experienced privation and remained in the institution or returned to their biological parents, experienced impaired emotional development
-but the children who were adopted early didn’t develop psychological damage, suggesting the effects of privation can be reversed if the children are placed in a loving environment while they are still young

Question 46

The Romanian orphan studies:Rutter

Answer 46

-Rutter conducted a longitudinal natural experiment comparing 165 romanian orphans adopted into British homes with 52 British children adopted from British orphanages

-rutter found that British children showed good emotional and cognitive development even if they were adopted after 6 months old

-the romanian orphans who were adopted before they were 6 months old also showed good emotional development, but the ones who were adopted after 6 months old had long term emotional and cognitive impairment

-so rutter concluded that the effects of privation can be reversed even if the privation is severe, as long as the children are introduced in loving homes from a young age

Question 47

weakness of studies on institutionalisation:

Answer 47

-there is often attrition in longitudinal studies, this means that the researchers couldn’t tell what happened to all of the children who they originally recruited and dropped out, and since the families who refused to keep taking part were likely to be children who were struggling, its possible that the negative effects of privation were underestimated

-families might have displayed social desirability bias in their interviews and said the adopted children were performing better than they really were, this again means the negative effects of privation may have been underestimated

Question 48

secure attachment attachment style:

Answer 48

-children with a secure attachment style form close, trusting relationships with their caregivers and have sensitive caregivers
-these children display 4 characteristics: safe bas, high stranger anxiety, high separation anxiety, happy reunion behaviour

Question 49

insecure avoidant attachment style:

Answer 49

-children with insecure avoidant attachment styles have indifferent caregivers who aren’t very responsive to their needs

-these children learn they cant depend on their caregivers and become indifferent to their caregivers

-these children display 4 characteristics: happy to explore whether or not their caregiver is around, low separation anxiety, low stranger anxiety, indifferent reunion behaviours

Question 50

insecure resistant attachment style:

Answer 50

-children with an insecure attachment have caregivers who provide inconsistent care
-these children learn that care and love are conditional and become needy and attention seeking
-so these children are: unwilling to explore new places, display high stranger anxiety, high separation anxiety, angry reunion behaviour

Question 51

Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 51

-a controlled, overt, non participant observation, studying 9-18 month old babies and their mothers
-the observation is divided into 8 scripted episodes used to observe the child’s safe base, degree of stranger anxiety, degree of separation anxiety and reunion behaviour
-Ainsworth found that children could be categorised into 3 attachment styles, 70% of children had a secure attachment, 15% of children had an insecure avoidant attachment, and 15% of children had an insecure resistant attachment
-she also found that the attachment styles of children we related to the sensitive responsiveness of their mothers, children with responsive mothers had secure attachments, children with indifferent mothers had insecure avoidant attachments and children with inconsistent mothers had insecure resistant attachments

Question 52

Ijzendorn and kroonbergs study

Answer 52

-conducted a meta analysis of 32 studies using the strange situation method in 8 different countries
-they found that Ainsworth’s original categories of attachment did replicate across cultures, but the percentage of children displaying each attachment style varied both across and within cultures
-individualistic cultures had a higher percentage of children with insecure avoidant attachment styles whereas collectivist cultures had a higher percentage of children with insecure resistant attachment styles
-the percentage of children displaying each attachment style also varied across samples within each country, suggesting that other factors such as poverty also affect attachment styles

Question 53

strengths of strange situation:

Answer 53

-the researchers method is well controlled and standardised meaning that the researchers can control extraneous variables that could influence the child’s behaviour

-as the method is so well standardised, the research is replicable and the results have been replicated across studies

-the results obtained using the strange situation method are stable and reliable across time, for instance, when Mary main looked at the same children aged 1 and 6, she found that they still had the same attachment style as a 6 year old that they had as a 1 year old

-these 4 strengths indicate the strange situation is reliable and valid

Question 54

weaknesses of strange situation:

Answer 54

-method may be culturally bias towards the norms expected in western cultures since the behavioural categories were devised by western researchers

-results may lack population validity as even in ijzendorn and kroonbergs met analysis most of the samples came from western countries

-may lack ecological validity since the research was conducted in an unusual laboratory setting

Question 55

the continuity hypothesis

Answer 55

-says that we imitate relationships with our parents in our future relationships, with friends, romantic partners and our own children
-this happens as we build an internal working model from our relationships with our caregivers which shapes our expectations and beliefs about future relationships
-people with insecure avoidant attachments go onto expect people not to show them love, or be dependable
-people with insecure resistant attachments go onto expect people to be inconsistent with their love so act for attention
-people with secure attachments styles go onto have secure, trusting relationships

Question 56

Hazan and Shaver:

Answer 56

-conducted a questionnaire based on a correlational study to investigate whether peoples romantic relationships are shaped by their attachment style to their parents
-they tested 205 men and 415 women in one sample. as well as a smaller student sample of 38 men and 70 women
-the results show that the participants attachment style to their parents did influence their romantic relationships
-people with secure attachments to their parents, had secure romantic relationships and believed in true love
-on the other hand, people with insecure avoidant or insecure resistant attachments had less successful relationships, felt more lonely and didn’t believe in true love

Question 57

Hazan and Shavers study: Evaluation

Answer 57

-results may not be representative of the wider populations they used a volunteer sample

-the participants answers may have not been accurate and objective, for instance, the participants may have not been able to remember their childhood attachments styles very well or may have displayed social desirability bias

-also, we cant establish a cause and effect relationship between their childhood attachment style and their late relationships as it was a correlational study

Question 58

the adult attachment interview

Answer 58

-Mary Main conducted a interview in which participants were asked about their relationships with their own children
-main found that the percentage of adults displaying each of the 3 attachment styles was very similar to the percentages first described by Mary Ainsworth
-and, the pps attachment styles with their parents correlated with the attachment patterns they had with their own children

Question 59

limitations of Mary Mains research:

Answer 59

-the pps response may have been inaccurate because they had to recall events that happened a long time ago

-pps may have displayed social desirability bias

-pps may have been influenced by investigator effects

Question 60

why did research into attachment only focus on the mother and how has this changed

Answer 60

-because mothers took on the main caregiver responsibilities, but nowadays it is more usual for both mother and father to be involved in parenting

Question 61

3 main theories about role of the father:

Answer 61

-dads lack the sensitivity and nurturing personality to form any attachment with their children

-dads play the role of playmate with their children whereas mums play the role of the carer

-dads are just as sensitive as mothers and formed similar attachments to their children compared to mothers

Question 62

evidence for the role of the father

Answer 62

-according to Bowlby, attachments are monotropic and are usually formed between a baby and their mother
-so like other researchers at the time, Bowlby didn’t see fathers playing an important role in a child’s development
-supporting the theory that dads lack sensitivity and a nurturing personality to form attachments with their child

however, shaffrin and emerson:
-showed that babies form multiple attachments and do form attachments with their father

Question 63

evaluation of the role of the father

Answer 63

-Grossman et all conducted a longitudinal study looking at the relationship between children and their parents
-Grossman et al measure of ur guilts internal working model as well as the strength of attachment between the parents and the child and the parents play sensitivity
-they found that the child’s internal working model was associated with the strength of their attachment with their mum but not their dad
-but the child’s internal working model was associated with the play sensitivity of their dad
-this supports the idea that dads function as a playmate whereas mothers provide care

Question 64

evaluation of the role of the father: field et al

Answer 64

-field et al conducted a observational study using frame by frame analysis to look at the interactions between parents and their children
-they measured the sensitive responsiveness of the parents and the amount of time they spent playing with their child
-they found that usually dads played more with their children, whereas mums displayed more sensitive responsiveness
-but dads who were the primary caregiver for their child displayed as much sensitive responsiveness as the mothers

Question 65

evaluation of the role of the father:brown et al

Answer 65

-brown et al conducted a longitudinal study looking at the father child relationship at 13 months and at 3 years of age

-brown et al found that the more involved fathers he dads were in looking after their children and the more sensitive they get were when the child was 13 months old, the stronger their attachment was to their children when the children were 3 years old

Question 66

evaluation of the role of the father: cultural influences

Answer 66

-there are 2 cultural influences in that can influence the role of the father:

-society places strong expectations on father to act as bread winners rather than caregivers, and to not display sensitivity and emotions
-this can cause dads to adopt more of a playmate role
-until recently, fathers couldn’t get paid paternity leave making it harder for them to take on primary caregiver responsibilities