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.
Does Harlow’s study have practical applications?
Comfort over food lead to parenting classes to respond to children’s emotional needs
Does Harlow’s study have ecological validity?
Cloth mother and wire mother is not a situation that normally happens.
Does Harlow’s study have ethical issues?
Suffered psychological harm and they did not know how to raise their own young.
What assumptions are made by the learning theory?
Attachment behaviours are learnt through the environment and are a result of nurture rather than nature
What is learning to attach via classical conditioning?
Food automatically satisfies a baby’s need and causes pleasure. The mother usually provides this source of pleasure. Because this process is constantly repeated the caregiver becomes a source of pleasure in themselves and an attachment is formed.
What is the diagram for attachment via classical conditioning?
Before - unconditioned stimulus (food) = unconditioned response (pleasure)
Neutral stimulus (caregiver) = no response
During - neutral stimulus (caregiver) + unconditioned stimulus (caregiver) = unconditioned response (pleasure)
After - conditioned stimulus (caregiver) = conditioned response (pleasure)
What is a negative reinforcer?
A behaviour that increases behaviours by removing negative consequences or stimuli
What is a primary reinforcer?
A naturally occurring reaction to a stimulus. This response is innate and doesn’t require learning.
What is a secondary reinforcer?
A stimulus that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a primary reinforcer
What is proximity seeking behaviour?
Behaviours that seek to restore closeness when an infant is separated from the attachment figure
What is learning to attach via operant conditioning?
Food to a child is a primary reinforcer as it fulfils a biological need. The child’s caregiver becomes the secondary reinforcer as it provides the food.
This means the child will try and stay as close to the caregiver as they can (proximity seeking).
When the caregiver feeds the child, the crying stops. This acts as a negative reinforcer for the caregiver, as when the child cries, they will comfort it in the same way.
Other people feeding the child will form multiple attachments (stimulus generalisation)
Is there research evidence to support the learning theory?
Schaffer and Emerson found that at 6 - 8 months, 50% of children showed their first specific attachment, shows children form attachment with the person that feeds them.
Is there research to refute the learning theory?
Harlow’s monkey study, as they only went to the wire mother when hungry - 1 hour
Is the learning theory scientific?
Classical and operant conditioning can be objectively measured. For example, the Watson and Raynor study of Little Albert.
Are there other explanations other than the learning theory?
Monotropic theory explains that we have evolved to form attachments. Takes a nature view rather than a nurture view.
What are the key principles of Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
Attachment is monotropic
It is innate and adaptive
Babies have social releases
Attachment has a critical period
Internal working model
Bowlby’s monotropic theory - attachment is monotropic
Monotropy is the preference for one person - they have the capacity to form one primary attachment that is more important than all other secondary attachments
Bowlby’s monotropic theory - attachment is innate and adaptive
Babies are born with instincts and parents possess similar instincts to respond to these social releases. It is therefore an adaptive trait as it has evolutionary advantages as it leads to the likelihood of survival.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory - social releases
Caregivers instinctively respond to social releases. Characteristics - cute face. Behaviours - smiling, crying.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory - critical period
2.5 - 3 years of a child’s life
Bowlby’s monotropic theory forms an internal working model
Individual template for all future relationships based on their first monotropic attachment. Provides a secure base for infants to explore the world.
Is there supporting evidence for the monotropic theory?
Critical period comes from Lorenz’s study of geese. Harlow’s study shows sensitivity over food.
Research for monotropic theory cannot be generalised
Lack of biological continuity as geese are precocial
Does the monotropic theory have practical applications?
Improvement in childcare services, as nurseries now have one key worker to maintain attachment to the child
Is there an alternative theory to the monotropic theory?
Kagan suggests that there is a continuity between early attachment and later relationships due to the child’s temperament.
What was the procedure of Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Infants aged from 9 - 18 months from 100 middle class US families. Data was gathered using a two way mirror and a video recorder. Time sampling was used to record every 15 seconds.
What were the five behavioural categories of Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Proximity seeking
Reunion behaviour
Exploration behaviour
Separation anxiety
Stranger anxiety
Ainsworth’s strange situation - insecure avoidant?
15%
Proximity seeking - Infant is indifferent to caregiver and play is unaffected when caregiver is absent
Reunion behaviour - unresponsive when caregiver returns
Exploration - infant freely explores
Separation anxiety - infant is unconcerned by caregivers absence
Stranger anxiety - infant avoids stranger
Ainsworth’s strange situation - securely attached?
70%
Proximity seeking - Infant will show toys to caregiver and go to them during play
Reunion behaviour - Quickly calms when caregiver returns
Exploration - Infant play happily when caregiver is present
Separation anxiety - Infant is distressed when caregiver leaves
Stranger anxiety - Infant is avoidant of stranger but friendly when caregiver returns.
Ainsworth’s strange situation - insecure resistant?
15%
Proximity seeking - Infant is upset and tearful when the caregiver is present
Reunion behaviour - Shows a mixed reaction of clinginess and resistance
Exploration - Limited exploration with caregiver and stranger
Separation anxiety - Very distressed when caregiver leaves
Stranger anxiety - Resists stranger’s attempts to comfort them
Ainsworth’s strange situation extra type?
Main and Soloman identified the insecure disorganised type where infant lacks consistent patterns for dealing with separation
Is Ainsworth’s strange situation reliable?
Standardised procedures. Same set of episodes for exactly 3 minutes.
Does Ainsworth’s strange situation have high predictive validity?
Hazen and Shaver love quiz questionnaire. Found connection between childhood attachment and type of romantic love.
Does Ainsworth’s strange situation have ecological validity?
Episodes conducted in an unfamiliar environment and hadn’t been left with stranger before so cannot tell us how infant would really behave.
Does Ainsworth’s strange situation have ethical concerns?
Caused distress to the infants. In Japan, the study had to be stopped for 90% of the infants.
Is Ainsworth’s strange situation culturally biased?
Individualistic cultures, type C may be resistant but collectivist cultures may be securely attached.
Who conducted the study of cultural variations in attachment?
Van Ijzendoorn
What was the aim of cultural variations in attachment?
To investigate the reported rates of different infant attachment types in a range of cultures.
What was the procedure of the study into cultural variations of attachment?
Meta-analysis. 8 countries were studied and 32 studies were analysed. Nearly 2000 ss classifications were analysed.
Results of secure attachment from the cultural variations study?
All were quite high - highest was GB (75%) and Sweden (74%). Lowest was China (50%).
What were the results of the avoidant attachment from the cultural variations study?
Highest was West Germany - 35%
Lowest was japan - 5% - and Israel - 7%
What were the results of the resistant attachment from the cultural variations study?
Highest was Israel - 29% - and Japan - 27%
Lowest was GB - 3% - and Sweden - 4%
What was the conclusion of the research into cultural variations of attachment?
Consistency in secure attachment types shows there may be more innate characteristics that underpin infant - caregiver interactions.
Secure attachment is universal.
Variations in insecure attachment could be due to environmental factors.
Does the research into cultural variations of attachment support universal law?
Ijzendoorn found secure attachment type to be the most common which suggests that Bowlby’s monotropic theory is correct.
Is the research into cultural variations of attachment reliable?
Standardised procedures - strange situation episodes. Comparisons can be made across cultures.
Does the research into cultural variations of attachment lack validity?
Culturally biased. 18/32 studies were Western but only 1/32 in China.
Is the research into cultural variations of attachment generalisable?
China only had 25 infants in one study.
Also differences within cultures - urban city sample of Israel more western that Kibbutzim sample.
What does the continuity hypothesis propose?
The type of attachment we have in infancy will remain constant throughout our lives and will characterise all later childhood and adult relationships.
What does our internal working model consist of?
The self - are we loveable
Others - are they trustworthy
relationships - what are our expectations
What does Bowlby propose about attachment and childhood relationships?
Children’s attachment in infancy will shape childhood relationships
Secure attached infants will seek out adaptive and functional childhood relationships.
Infants with disconnected attachments will struggle to form childhood friends.
What did the research from Myron Wilson and Smith show?
Insecurely attached infants have later friendship difficulties. Securely attached infants will have closer friendships with peers, greater emotional and social competence in adolescents and more reciprocal friendships.
What are securely attached infants like in adulthood?
Empathetic, able to create meaningful relationships, high self-esteem
What are insecure avoidant infants like in adulthood?
Problems with intimacy, invests little in emotional relationships, unwilling to share feelings.
What are insecure resistant infants like in adulthood?
Avoids closeness, worries that partner doesn’t love them, distraught when relationships end.
Is there research to support the influence of attachment types on childhood relationships?
Kerns found that securely attached infants go on to form quality childhood relationships whereas insecurely attached have relationship difficulties
Is there research to support the influence of early attachment on adult relationships?
Hazen and Shaver love quiz published in the Rocky Mountain news got 620 replies.
Secure attachments (56%) were more likely to have happy, lasting, trusting relationships
Insecure resistant (19%) worried they were not loved
Insecure avoidant (25%) typically feared intimacy
Is there methodological problems with the love quiz supporting the influence of early attachments?
Questionnaires are easy to lie on
Is the research into the influence of early attachments reductionist?
Reduces complexity of relationships into just parental and ignores social influence on relationships + puberty
Are there practical applications of the research into the early relationships?
Encourages the formation of secure attachments and shows the need for foster and adoptive parents
Who came up with the theory of maternal deprivation?
Bowlby
What did Bowlby say about mother love?
Just as important as minerals and vitamins for a child’s health
What are the effects of maternal deprivation?
Affectionless psychopathology
Developmental retardation
Delinquency
Increased aggression
Depression
Are the effects of maternal deprivation irreversible?
Affects the internal working model and they won’t become good parents due to the continuity hypothesis
Is there research evidence for Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
44 thieves study - 87% of the children from the child guidance clinics who were diagnosed with affectionless psychopathology had experienced periods of prolonged separation from their mother. Less than 4% of the control group had experienced such separations.
Are there methodological problems with Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
Could be that affectionless psychopathology causes children to be left by caregiver rather than the other way round. Bowlby also carried out study himself.
Is there contradictory evidence to Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
The Czech twins lost their mother and lived with father and stepmother. They were banished to the cellar for the next 5.5 years and rescued when they were seven. By the age of 14, their IQ had normalised and they were emotionally stable by 21. By their 30’s they were married with kids.
Are there practical applications of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
Contributed to the prison system, introduction of mother and baby units. 80 places across the country where baby can stay with their mother for up to 18 months.
Are there theoretical flaws with Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
Rutter claimed that Bowlby was mixing up deprivation with privation as they never formed any attachment in the first place.
Who completed the Romanian orphan study?
To investigate the long term effects of institutional care and to see the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in life.
What was the procedure of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
Early 1990’s - followed a group of Romanian orphans adopted to the UK from institutions in Romania. A randomly selected sample of 165 children who were adopted before the age of 4, and studied at 4, 6 and 11.
Comparisons were made with a sample of 52 non-institutionalised UK children adopted before the age of six months.
What were the results of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
Over half the children showed severe signs of malnutrition, but by the age of 4 many had caught up with the peers in terms of physical development.
If they were adopted before 6 months, they had a mean IQ of 102. Adopted between 6 months and 2 years - mean IQ 86. Adopted after 2 years, mean IQ was 77.
70.4% of those adopted after 6 months shows signs of disinhibited attachment.
What was the conclusion of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
Institutionalisation can have relatively long term negative effects on social, emotional and cognitive development, but these effects can be minimalised if children are taken out of the institutional environment before 6 months.
What are the likely effects of institutionalisation according to Rutter?
Disinhibited attachment
Developmental retardation
Deprivation dwarfism
How was disinhibited attachment shown in the Romanian orphan research?
Some children randomly came and sat on the researcher’s knee
How was developmental retardation shown in the Romanian orphan study?
Kids who spent over two years within an orphanage had an average IQ of 77
How was deprivation dwarfism shown in the Romanian orphan research?
Over half of the institutionalised children were in the bottom third for weight and head circumference.
Does the Romanian orphan study have useful practical applications?
Showed the negative effects of being raised in an institution and has led to the establishment of a key worker system to allow children to create meaningful attachments.
Is there positive evidence from the Romanian orphan study?
Suggests those adopted before six months showed normal behaviour and those adopted after showed signs of disinhibited attachment
Is the results from the Romanian orphan study generalisable?
Standards in Romania were particularly poor. Could not control all extraneous variables such as temperament of child.
Are the effects of institutionalisation clear?
More research needs to be done into the child’s internal working model and the continuity hypothesis.
How many attachments did infants have at 18 months?
31% of infants had 5 or more attachments to grandparents, siblings and other significant people.
What was the most common secondary attachment?
This was with the father. This was the case with 27% of Shaffer and Emerson’s initial sample, and at 18 months, 75% had formed an attachment with their father
What was the role of the father traditionally like?
Previously they played a minor role in parenting their children, as women had a biological disposition towards the primary role
What is the modern role of the father?
71.2% of mothers were working in 2020
10% of stay at home parents are men
9% of single parents are men
