Attachment Flashcards
What is the basis of caregiver- infant interactions
Psychologists believe these interactions have important functions for the Childs social development.
-Good quality interactions are associated with successful development of attachments between babies and their caregivers
What are the two main parts of caregiver- infant interactions?
Reciprocity
Interactional synchrony
What is Reciprocity in caregiver- infant interactions
When both caregiver and baby respond to each others signals and elects a response (turn taking)
e.g. a baby smiles and a mother says something in return
What is the research for reciprocity?
Alert phases - Babies have periodic alert phases in which they signal that they are ready for interaction
Feldman = From around three months this interaction becomes increasingly frequent
and includes both baby and mother paying close attention to each others signals
What is Interactional Synchrony?
Caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions ad emotions mirror one another in a synchronised way
What is the research for interactional Synchrony?
Meltzoff & Moore
- Observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies
- An adult displayed one of three distinctive gestures
- The baby’s response was filmed and labelled by observers
- Babies expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict
What are 2 strengths of interactional synchrony?
The research explains how children begin to understand what others think and feel, and therefore are able to conduct relationships.
The research is usually conducted in a Lab, therefore extraneous variables can be controlled
What is a limitation of Interactional Synchrony
Hard to interpret Baby’s behaviour - Infants are in constant motion that is uncontrollable so it is hard to tell whether they are imitating a behaviour or just moving due to lack of co ordination
Who proposed stages of attachment and what was the theory
Schaffer & Emerson
-Studied attachment of babies using observations
-Used babies from working class families in Glasgow
-The mothers would report to them every month for the first year
What are the stages of attachment?
Schaffer & Emerson-
1. Asocial stage - first few weeks (behaviour towards intimate objects and humans is similar, preferences for some familiar people)
- Indiscriminate - 2 to 7 months (can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people but does not show stranger or separation anxiety)
- Specific - From 7 months (Specific attachment to primary attachment figure, stranger and separation anxiety)
- Multiple - Shortly after (stranger and separation anxiety for primary attachment and secondary attachments)
Give 1 strength of stages of attachment
High external validity - real life conditions at which they were likely to behave naturally due to being observed by family
Give 2 limitations of stages of attachment
Observations were made by the mothers creating bias of what they report
Generalisability - Only looked at western individualistic cultures not collectivist cultures
Briefly describe the general attachment of fathers to babies
-Fathers are less likely to be come a baby’s first attachment figure compared to mothers
However when fathers do take on the role of primary attachment figure they are able to adopt emotional characteristics
What is the research for the distinctive role of fathers?
Grossmann et al
-Longitudinal study where babies attachments were studied until they were teens
-Looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the baby’s later attachments
- The quality of a baby’s attachments with the mother related to attachments in adolescence
-But not the fathers
What research suggests the fathers role is more playful?
Grossmann et al
-Found that the quality of fathers play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments
What is the research of fathers as primary attachment figures
Field:
- Filmed babies face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
PCF- similar to primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than SCF
-These categories are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony
What is a strength of the role of the father
- Real world application,
- Can help give advice to heterosexual parents as some may feel stressed not having a mother and a father
-Fathers are able to be primary attachment figures and adopt the emotional role - Lesbians - not having a father doesn’t effect a child’s a development
What are 3 limitations of the role of the father
- Grossmans study implies fathers have a distinct role in a babies development (consisting of play) , If this was the case children with lesbian parents would turn out differently which is not the case
-Researcher bias, Grossmans study may have had stereotypical views of how a man should behave
Field - contradicts as from father as primary caregiver
What was Lorenz study?
- Studied the theory of imprinting on geese ( first moving object a few hours after birth )
- He divided goose eggs in half
- Half hatched with my mother, half with Lorenz in an incubator
- The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and the control group followed there mother
- Even with the 2 groups mixed they followed each of them
What was Lorenz study on sexual imprinting?
Relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
- A peacock imprinted on a tortoise and therefore as an adult would only mate with tortoises
What is strength of Lorenz’s study?
Research support - A study conducted by Regolin
-Chicks were presented a moving shape for imprinting
-A combination of shapes were then moved in front of them
-They followed the original more closely
What is a limitation of Lorenz’s study
Generalisability to humans - human attachment is a two way process , so its not just the young that become attached to their parent, but also the emotional attachment a parent shows to their child.
What is Harlow’s research?
- Tested the idea that a soft object serves the function of a mother
- He reared monkeys with 2 wire mothers
One condition - the wire mother had milk ,cloth mother didn’t
Second condition - the cloth mother had the food, wire mother didn’t - The monkeys spent more time with the Cloth mother in both conditions and sought comfort from the cloth mother when frightened
- Regardless of which one dispensed food , this shows contact comfort is more important
What was Harlows research on Maternally deprived monkeys
- Followed monkeys deprived from a real mother into adulthood
- They were aggressive, less sociable and bred less
- Some who became mothers neglected their young and even killing in some cases
What is a strength of Harlow’s research
Real world value - Can help social workers intervene or prevent poor outcomes of child development
We now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes
What is a limitation of Harlow’s research
Ethical issues, animals have a right not to be researched/ harmed. The pursuit of academic conclusions for human benefits could be seen as detrimental to non-human species.
