Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment
A close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each sees the other as essential for emotional security.
What are the three behaviours demonstrated by attached individuals
Proximity - staying physically close to attached individual
Separation distress - being upset when an attachment figure leaves
Secure-base behaviour - babies leave the attachment figure regularly but return to them when playing
What are the two types of interaction between caregivers and infants
Reciprocity - taking turns to respond
Interactional synchrony - simultaneous imitation
How is reciprocity achieved
When baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses from each other, e.g caregiver responds to baby smile by saying something, and baby responds by making sounds.
What is the babies role in reciprocity
An active role, both caraegiver and baby initiate interactions and take turns doing so
How is interactional synchrony achieved
When actions are carried out simultaneously.
Baby and caregiver ‘mirror’ each other
What was Isabella et als study (1989)
Observed 30 babies and mothers together and assessed degree of synchrony.
What were the findings of Isabella et al
Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachments
What is a strength of caregiver-infant interactions study
Use of filmed observations
Filmed, often from multiple angles, allowing very fine details to be recorded and analysed later.
As babies do not know they are being observed, their behaviour does not change (no Hawthorne effect).
Means studies have good reliability and validity
What is a limitation of caregiver infant observations
Difficult observing babies
Not very co-ordinated, so can just observe small gestures and expressions
Hard to interpret meaning of babies’ movement e.g deciding if hand movement is in response to to caregiver or random twitch.
Means we can’t be certain that any particular interactions are due to caregiver interactions.
Who theorised the 4 stages of development
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
What were the stages of attachment
Stage 1: Asocial stage
First few weeks
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months
Stage 3: Specific attachment
From around 7 months
Stage 4: Multiple attachments
By one year
What is the asocial stage
Baby’s behaviour towards people and inanimate objects quite similar.
Some preference for familiar people (more easily calmed by them).
Babies happier in presence of other people.
What is indiscriminate attachment stage
Display more observable social behaviour
Prefer people to inanimate objects
Recognise and prefer familiar people
Don’t show stranger or separation anxiety
Attachment indiscriminate because its the same towards all.
What is multiple attachment stage
Secondary attachments with other adults form shortly after
In Schaffer and Emersons study, 29% of babies had secondary attachments within a month of forming primary attachment.
By age of one year majority of infants had multiple secondary attachments.
How was separation anxiety measured
Asking mothers about childrens behaviour during everyday separations (e.g adults leaving the room)
What is specific attachment stage
Stranger and separation anxiety when separated from one particular person.
Baby said to have formed attachment with one specific attachment figure.
In most cases, the person who offers most interaction becomes this figure. (Mother in 65% of places)
How was stranger anxiety measured Glasgow baby study
Measured by asking mothers questions about childrens anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.
What was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
60 babies from Glasgow, working class families.
Researchers visited babies and mothers at home every month for a year, and again at 18 months.
Measured separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
What were the findings of the Glasgow baby study
Babies developed attachments through a sequence of stages, from asocial to multiple attachments.
The specific attachment tended to be most interactive and sensitive to baby’s signals.
Not necessarily the person spending most time with the baby.
What are 2 strengths of Schaffer and Emersons research
RWA in childcare
In first 2 stages, babies can be comforted by any skilled adult.
But if child starts day care at a later stage, care from unfamiliar adult can cause distress.
Means Schaffer and Emersons research can help parents making decisions.
External validity
Most observations made by parents during everyday activities, rather than researchers.
This means it is likely all participants behaved naturally while being observed.
What are 2 limitations of Schaffer and Emersons study
Culture bias
Only studied parenting in working-class Glasgow, an individualist culture.
In collectivist cultures, multiple attachments are seen as the norm.
This means results are hard to generalise to other countries.
Self-report
Parents may have lied or over/under exaggerated baby response to put them in better light.
What is the difference between primary caregiver and attachment figure
Primary caregiver spends most time with the baby.
Primary attachment figure is person whom baby has strongest attachment.
Often the same person.
What did Schaffer and Emerson find regarding attachment to the father
In only 3% of cases were fathers the first sole object of attachment,
In 27% of cases father was joint first.
75% of babies formed secondary attachment with father by 18 months.
Who studied the role of the father and how
Grossmann et al (2002)
Longitudinal study looking at parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of child’s attachments into their teens.
What did Grossmann et al (2002) find about attachment with fathers effects in adolescent years
Quality of attachment to father was far less important for adolescent attachment than quality of attachment with mother.
Therefore fathers may be less important for long-term emotional development.
What did Grossmann et al find is the role of the father
Found quality of fathers play with babies was related to quality of adolescent attachments.
This suggests fathers have a different role in attachment, one that is more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with emotional care.
What is a limitation to research results about the role of the father
Conflicting evidence from different methodologies
Grossmann et al suggests fathers have a distinct role in childrens development, with play/stimulation, while McCallum and Golombok (2004) found children without a father do not develop differently.
This means question whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered.
What is a strength of the role of the father
RWA - Parenting advice
Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home while fathers do the work.
Information about the flexibility of the role of the father can reduce parental anxiety and make parenting decisions easier.
Who conducted the imprinting experiment
Lorenz (1952)
“Lorenz’s Geese”
What was Lorenz’s procedure
Divided a large clutch of goose eggs
One half hatched with mother goose in natural habitat
Other half hatched in incubator where first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
When hatched, mixed all goslings together to see whom they would follow.
What were the results of Lorenz’s geese
Incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed mother.
Found a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place, e.g a few hours after hatching
If imprinting did not happen in that time, chicks did not attach to mother figure,
Who studied Rhesus monkeys
Harlow (1958)
What was the procedure of Harlow’s monkeys experiment
Harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
Condition 1 - milk was dispensed by a plain wire mother
Condition 2 - milk was dispensed by cloth-covered mother
Observed how monkeys reacted when frightened.
Studied the monkeys into later life.
What were the results of Harlow’s monkeys
Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth covered mother over the plain-wire one regardless of which dispensed milk, showing preference for tactile comfort.
Suggests contact comfort was more important than food in attachment behaviour.
As adults, the deprived monkeys were more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in mating than other monkeys
What is 2 strengths of Lorenz’s findings (1 research support)
Research support
Regolin and Vallortigara (1995)
Exposed chicks to simple moving shape combinations.
When shown a range of moving shapes, chicks followed the original moving shapes in preference to others.
Suggests animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object.
Introduced idea of a critical period
What is 2 limitation of Lorenz’s findings
Difficult to generalise
Mammal attachment processes are different to birds.
Humans more sophisticated than birds, with more complex mental processes.
e.g, mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young.
This means it may not be appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s findings to humans.
Unethical
Lorenz ‘played God’ in a sense.
Did not know whether geese would be damaged in later life
What is a strength of Harlows monkeys
RWA
(Howe 1998)
Helps social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and intervene to prevent it.
Also understand importance for attachment in monkeys for breeding programmes.
Means Harlow’s experiments benefitted both humans and animals
What are two limitations of Harlows monkeys
Hard to generalise
While monkeys are more similar than geese, humans still very different and more emotionally complex.
Ethical issues
Caused severe long-term distress to the monkeys, emotionally scarring them for life, despite the benefits to society it brought about.
What is the behaviourist theory of attachment
Believes humans learn to attach to primary caregiver through rewards such as food and love.
Who theorised the learning theory of attachment
Dollard and Miller (1950)
How is attachment classically conditioned
UCS of food —> UCR of pleasure
NS of caregiver
UCS + NS —> UCR of pleasure
CS of caregiver —> CR of pleasure
As caregiver, neutral stimulus, provides food, becomes associated with food, even if not bringing any.
How can operant conditioning explain attachment
As baby cries, an important building block for attachment, behaviour is positively reinforced with food or comfort from caregiver. As long as caregiver provides this response, crying is.
Simultaneously, the caregiver is negatively reinforced as crying stops (something unpleasant being taken away) when food and comfort is given.
This positive/negative reinforcement strengthens attachment.
What are 2 limitations of learning theory as attachment explanation.
Reductionist
Doesn’t account for biological explanations as shown by animal studies of attachment.
Conflicting evidence from human studies
Schaffer and Emerson found children forming their primary attachment don’t necessarily attach to the one who feeds them.
Suggests other factors other than feeding are important in attachment.
What is a strength of learning theory
Elements of conditioning can be involved
Unlikely that association with food is central to attachment.
However conditioning may play a role in attachment.
For example a baby’s choice of primary attachment figure may be determined by associating caregiver with warmth and comfort.
Means conditioning could be important in choice of attachment figures, though not attachment formation.
What is the evolutionary explanation for attachment
Monotropic theory of attachment
Who theorised the monotropic theory of attachment
Bowlby (1958, 1969)
What is the monotropic theory of attachment
Believes attachment is innate, like imprinting.
Child attaches to one caregiver, which is different and more important than others.
What are the two laws for monotropic attachment
Law of continuity - more constant a childs care, the better the quality of attachment.
Law of accumulated separation - effects of every separations add up. So ‘the safest dose is zero dose’.
What are social releasers
Innate ‘cute’ behaviours like smiling and cooing that encourage attention from adults.
Purpose of these interactions is to make adult attach to child, as Bowlby recognised that attachment is a reciprocal system.
What is the critical period
The period in which an attachment needs to be formed to avoid lasting damage forming relatiosnhips.
How long is the critical period
Two and a half years
What did Bowlby believe this first attachment forms for later life
An internal working model for future relatiosnhips
What is the internal working model for future relationships (with example) and what can this affect
A template for what relationships are like, e.g if a childs first attachment is a loving relationship, then they will form an expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable.
Can affect childs later ability to be a parent themselves.
What are two strengths of Bowlby’s research of monotropic attachment (both research)
Brazelton et al (1975)
Instructed primary caregivers to ignore babies social releasers.
Babies that were normally responsive initially showed distress, but then curled up and became motionless.
Supports idea that social releasers are designed to stimulate attachment
Support for internal working model
Bailey et al (2007) studied 99 mothers. Those who had a poor attachment with their parents were more likely to have one year olds who were poorly attached.
What are two limitations of Bowlby’s theory
Negative RWA
Laws of continuity and accumulated separation were used against women and mothers to keep them out of the workforce.
Lacks validity
Child can form attachments to other family members and display the same behaviours, like using them as a base.
Means Bowlby may have been wrong about children forming on unique primary attachment.
Who conducted the strange situation
Ainsworth (1970)
What are the five categories used to judge attachment quality
Proximity seeking - well-attached babies stay close to the caregiver
Exploration and secure-base behaviour - baby has confidence to explore using caregiver as point of safety
Stranger anxiety - displayed by well-attached babies
Seperation anxiety - displayed by well attached babies
Response to reunion with caregiver - well-attached babies are enthusiastic
How long were the seven ‘episodes’ on for
Three minutes
What were the seven ‘episodes’ or stages of Strange Situation
Baby encouraged to explore by caregiver
Stranger enters and talks to caregiver, approaches baby
Caregiver leaves
Caregiver returns, stranger leaves
Caregiver leaves baby alone
Stranger returns
Caregiver returns
What were the 3 types of attachment found by Ainsworth and how common are they
Secure attachment, 60-75% of British toddlers
Insecure avoidant attachment, 20-25% of British toddlers
Insecure resistant attachment, 3% of British toddlers
What are features of secure attachment
Baby happy to explore but seeks proximity to caregiver as a secure base
Show moderate stranger and separation anxiety
Requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion
What are features of insecure avoidant attachment
Explores freely but doesn’t seek proximity
Shows little/no separation or stranger anxiety
Avoids contact at reunion stage
What are features of insecure resistant attachment
Baby explores less and seeks greater proximity
Shows considerable stranger and separation anxiety
Resists comfort when reunited with caregiver
What is a strength of the Strange Situation
High inter-rater reliability
Different observers watching the same baby generally agree on attachment type
Bick et al (2012) found 94% agreement in one team.
May be because Strange Situation took place in controlled conditions with easily observable behavioural categories.
What is a weakness of the Strange Situation
Culture bias
Strange Situation created with Western standards and parenting practises.
Cultural differences in children’s experiences can change their response, e.g Takahashi (1986) found Japanese babies show anxiety because they are not used to being left by caregiver.
What did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study (1988)
Cultural variations in attachments
How did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study cultural variations in attachments
Meta analysis of 32 studies where Strange Situation was used, across 8 countries (15 of these were in the US)
Meta analysed the data, combined and weighted for sample size.
What did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg find
Secure attachment most common classification. 50% in China to 75% in Britain.
In individualist cultures, insecure resistant attachment were similar to Ainsowrths results (all under 14%), but in collectivist cultures rates were above 25%, while insecure avoidant raes dropped.
What was Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
Believes continuous emotional care from a mother figure is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development.
What is separation
Child is not physically in the presence of the attachment figure
What is maternal deprivation
A consequence of separation, means losing emotional care.
What are some consequences of maternal deprivation
Psychological damage
Mental retardation
Affectionless psychopathy
Who found mental retardation can be due to maternal deprivation
Goldfarb et al (1947) found lower IQ in institutionalised children compared to fostered children.
What is affectionless psychopathy
The inability to feel guilt or strong emotion towards others.
What are some impacts of affectionless psychopathy
Difficulty developing normal relationships
Associated with criminality
Who conducted the 44 thieves study
Bowlby (1944)
What was procedure of 44 thieves study
44 delinquent teens accused of stealing
Interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (lack of affection guilt or empathy)
Families also interviewed to establish if they had any prolonged separation from mothers
What were the results of 44 thieves study
14 of 44 thieves were classed as affectionless psychopaths.
12 of these 14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mother in first two years of their life.
In contrast, only five of the remaining thieves had experienced separations.
What does the 44 thieves study suggest
That prolonged early seperation/deprivation can lead to affectionless psychopathy.
What is a limitation of the maternal deprivation theory
Differences between privation and deprivation
Rutter (1981) found privation had more serious effects than deprivation, which suggests both Bowlby and Golfarbs subjects may have been prived rather than deprived.
This suggests that Bowlby may have exaggerated the effects of deprivation on development.
What is a limitation of the 44 thieves study
Replicated studies failed
Replications of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study have generally failed to reproduce his findings on psychopathy.
This means that links between maternal deprivation and psychopathy are unclear.
Who conducted the Romanian orphan study
Rutter (2011)
What was the procedure of the Romanian orphan study
Longitudinal study following a group of 165 Romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in the UK.
Also followed a control group of 52 adopted children from UK.
What is disinhibited attachment
Children tend to be equally friendly and affectionate towards total strangers and people they know well.
Why may children have disinhibited attachment
An adaptation to multiple caregivers
What did the Romanian orphan study show regarding intellectual development, and how was this found
All tested at 11.
Half of the orphans showed delayed intellectual development.
Those adopted before 6 months had mean IQ of 102.
Those adopted after two years had a mean IQ of 77.
What did Romanian orphan study show about when disinhibited attachment forms
Apparent in children adopted after six months.
Rare in children adopted before 6 months.
What do the Romanian orphan study findings support
Bowlby’s idea that there is a sensitive period of 6 months to 2 years, and failing to form an attachment in this time can have long lasting effects.
What is a strength of the Romanian orphan study
RWA
Applied to current children’s care in institutions, avoiding large numbers of caregivers per child, limiting it to one or two key workers to give children a chance to develop normal attachments.
What is a limitation of the Romanian orphan study
Lack of further data
Too soon to say whether the children suffer permanent effects as we only have data up to their early twenties.
This means it will be some time before we can see if institutionalisation affects romantic relationships and parenting.
This means that the most important findings are not yet studied.
How does early attachment influence later relationships
Internal working model developed from experiences as a child.
What does a good attachment in childhood lead to
An assumption that all relationships will be good and reliable.
Leads them to seek out functional relationships in later life.
What does bad attachment in childhood lead to
An assumption that all relationships will be bad.
This may mean they struggle to form relationships, or do not behave appropriately within these relationship
What are the three attachment types likely to be in their later childhood
Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998)
Insecure avoidant - more likely to be a victim of bullying
Insecure resistant - more likely to be a bully
Secure attachment - tend to go on and form good quality friendships
What is the link between parenting and childhood attachment type
People base parenting style on internal working model.
Bailey et al (2007) found majority of mothers had same attachment type to their babies as they had to their own mothers.
What is a strength of influences of early attachment on later relationships
Strong research support
Many studies show a link between attachment type and later development, bullying and parenting (Bailey et al 2007, Myron-Wilson and Smith 1998, Kerns 1994).
This suggests that insecure attachment does lead to an increased chance of stunted social development.
What is a limitation of influences of early attachments on later relationships (research flaw)
Validity issues
Used retrospective self report methods in almost all studies surrounding the theory.
This means it relies on honesty and memories of the participants, which suggests that we can not be sure that it is infant attachment influencing development.
