Attachment Flashcards
What can attachment be defined as?
Schaffer - a close emotional relationship between two people, characterised my mutual affection and a desire to remain in proximity.
What are the two caregiver infant interactions?
Reciprocity
Interactional synchrony
What is reciprocity?
Interactions between a caregiver and infant involving a two way mutual responsiveness. The behaviour of each party communicate signals which elicit responses in the other like turn taking.
What is interactional synchrony?
Interactions between a caregiver and infant that are synchronised so that their responses reflect each other. They respond in time to sustain communication, such as mirroring the action.
Who identified the four key behaviours to show attachment?
Maccoby in 1980
What are the four key behaviours to show attachment?
Seeking proximity by child and primary attachment figure
Separation anxiety
Pleasure when reunited
General orientation of behaviour towards primary attachment figure
Is there research to support reciprocity?
Tronick still face experiment. After three minutes of attempted interaction with expressionless mother, infants grow rapidly wary and distressed.
Is there research to support interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore
Babies were shown facial gestures in order to investigate their abilities to imitate.
Babies aged 12 - 21 days old could imitate gestures.
Are there practical applications of reciprocity?
Still face experiment can show atypical development in children as they may not be showing distress. Picking up problems in early attachment can prevent later problematic behaviour.
Could reciprocity and interactional synchrony be seen as socially sensitive?
Many mothers have to work full time so cannot maintain proximity. Creates an unnecessary pressure.
Is reciprocity and interactional synchrony incomplete in fully understanding infant caregiver interactions?
Only focusses on primary caregiver. Secondary attachments play a role in development.
Who did the stages of attachment study?
Schaffer and Emerson 1964
What was the stages of attachment research study?
Longitudinal study in Scotland that followed the development of 60 infants. Used naturalistic observations - infants observed every for weeks for one year then observed once more at eighteen months.
What was measured in the stages of attachment study?
Levels of separation protest
Levels of stranger anxiety
How were levels of separation protest measured in the stages of attachment experiment?
Asked mothers to describe the intensity of any protest when the infant was left in seven everyday situations which was then rated on a four point scale.
How were levels of stranger anxiety measured in the stages of attachment experiment?
This was measured by assessing infant’s response to the interviewer at each visit
What were the results of the stages of attachment study?
6 - 8 months - 50% of children showed their first specific attachment
10 months - 50% had more than one attachment, by 18 months, this was up to 87%.
39% of infants had a primary attachment with someone other than the person who usually changed, fed and bathed them.
What conclusions could you draw from the results of the stages of attachment research?
Attachment bonds were biologically determined due to common patterns. Bonds likely to be formed with those who show sensitivity and responsiveness. Multiple attachments are the norm.
What was the first stage of attachment?
Pre-attachment - 0 - 3 months
What is the pre-attachment stage?
Infant produces similar responses to objects and people. They show no preference for specific people, but towards the end of this stage, they show a preference for social stimuli.
What is the second stage of attachment?
Indiscriminate attachment stage - 3 - 7 months
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage?
Babies become more sociable and can tell people apart. Can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people but are still relatively comforted by anyone. Infants at this stage do not show stranger anxiety.
What is the third stage of attachment?
Specific attachment stage - 7/8 months +
What is the specific attachment stage?
Infants begin to show separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. They show a strong preference towards one individual. Good subsequent attachments often made from 9 months.
What is the fourth stage of attachment?
Multiple attachments - 11 months plus
What is the multiple attachment stage?
The baby now makes several attachments to important people in their life. Infants also display separation anxiety in these secondary attachments
Is there research to support the stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson found that most of the 60 infants in the study formed specific attachments between 6 - 8 months. 87% showed multiple attachments
Are there methodological issues with the research supporting the stages of attachment?
Working class families in Glasgow in the 1960’s, making it hard to generalise. Less mothers staying at home. Number of fathers at home has quadrupled over the last 25 years.
Are there practical applications of the stages of attachment?
Could help identify abnormal or unusual attachments. Interventions such as parent/child support services + NHS child support services such as parenting classes.
Are the stages of attachment considered culturally specific?
Carried out in individualistic cultures where you are cared for by immediate family. Group care is common in collectivist cultures.
What was Hrdy’s research into the role of the father?
Fathers less able than mothers to detect low levels of infant distress, suggesting that males are less suitable as primary caregivers.
What was Lamb’s research into the role of the father?
Lamb found that fathers who became primary caregivers quickly develop more sensitivity to children’s needs.
What was Frodi’s research into the role of the father?
Videotapes of infants crying found no differences in physiological responses of men and women, suggesting that biological factors may not explain the gender differences.
What was Geiger’s research into the role of the father?
Father play interactions are more exciting and pleasurable, supporting the idea of fathers being playmates rather than caregivers.
Is there research to support the role of the father?
Fathers play a complementary role to mothers - Geiger’s research as fathers being playmates.
Is research into the role of the father socially sensitive?
Geiger’s research suggests you must have a mother and a father; Must not offend alternative family set ups. Working parents cannot be with their children all the time.
Does research into the role of the father have practical applications?
Parental leave has been available to both parents since 2015 - they share 50 weeks leave between them. Paternity leave has been available to fathers since 2002.
Is the research into the role of the fathers ethnocentric?
Takes place in individualistic cultures with stereotypical gender roles. Geiger’s research may not be applicable to other cultures.
What is imprinting?
Young animals follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they see.
What is the aim of Lorenz’s study?
Lorenz wanted to investigate the mechanism of imprinting.
What was the procedure of Lorenz’s study?
12 eggs were kept until they were about to hatch. Half were placed next to Lorenz, and when they hatched he imitated quacking noises. He marked the goslings so he could determine whether they were naturally hatched or not. He put them all in an upturned box then measured how many went to the mother goose and how many went to him. He varied the time between birth and seeing the moving object so he could measure the critical period for imprinting.
What is the results of Lorenz’s experiment?
Incubated followed Lorenz and went straight to him when box was lifted. The critical period for imprinting was between four and twenty five hours and the bonds proved to be irreversible. Goslings who imprinted on humans would attempt to mate with humans as adult birds.
What are the conclusions of Lorenz’s experiment?
Irreversible which suggests that imprinting is an innate process that is biologically triggered. Imprinting is important for later relationships as well as short term survival.
Is Lorenz’s experiment generalisable?
Geese are precocial whereas humans are altricial. Cannot reflect emotional connections.
Limited biological continuity.
Is Lorenz’s experiment reliable?
Standardised procedures so can be replicated.
Does Lorenz’s study have practical applications?
Shows it is important for primary attachment straight after birth. Workplaces have allowed creches for infants.
Does Lorenz’s study have ecological validity?
Artificial as goslings don’t imprint on humans and their development was impacted.
Does Lorenz’s study have ethical issues?
Goslings did not develop normal mating behaviour. Harm outweighs benefits.
What was the aim of Harlow’s study?
To investigate whether attachments were primarily formed through food as explained by the learning theory or through comfort.
What was the procedure of Harlow’s study?
16 monkeys separated from mothers at birth and put in a cage with access to a mother made of wire and a mother made from cloth. They were studied for 165 days.
Monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test mother preference during stress and put in large cage to test degree of exploration.
What were the 4 conditions in Harlow’s study?
Wire mother that produced milk and cloth mother that produced no milk
Cloth mother produced milk and wire mother produced no milk
Placed only with wire mother producing milk
Placed only with cloth mother producing milk
What were the results of Harlow’s study?
Infants would only go to wire mother when hungry, then they would go back to cloth.
Monkeys with only cloth mother would have diarrhoea
The infant would take refuge with the wire mother when scared
Infant would explore more when the cloth mother was present
17-18 hours with cloth mother, 1 hour with wire mother.
What is the conclusion of Harlow’s study?
Showed sensitivity is more important than food. Monkeys must have something to cling to in their first months of life. In adulthood, monkeys did not treat their infants right.
Is Harlow’s study generalisable?
Mammals have same brain structure as human, only difference is number of connections. Both altricial species.
Is Harlow’s study reliable?
Highly controlled standardised procedures. 4 conditions plus loud noise and scary toys.