ATTACHMENT

Question 1

Define attachment

Answer 1

A close two way emotional bond
between two individuals in which each
individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 2

Features of attachment

Answer 2

-Selective
-Separation protest
-Stranger anxiety
-Secure based behaviour – even
when we are away from our
attachment figure, we tend to
make regular contact with them
-Proximity - desire to be near
Provide comfort and security

Question 3

Caregiver-infant interactions: Reciprocity

Answer 3

-From the start babies have meaningful interactions with carers.
-Interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other. (Sometimes called turn-taking)
-Babies have ‘alert phases’ in which they signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction.
-Mothers typically respond to infants 2/3 of the time (Feldman 2007).
Around 3 months this interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial
expressions (Feldman 2007) .
-Brazelton (1975) described this interaction as like a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couples dance in response to each other.

Question 4

Interactional synchrony

Answer 4

-‘temporary coordination of micro-level social
behaviour’ (Feldman 2007) - Infants and mothers actions mirror each others actions and emotions and do this in a co-ordinated way.
-Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed this interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old.
-Important in the development of mother-infant attachment. Russell Isabella et al (1989) found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better
quality mother-baby attachment (emotional intensity of the relationship.)

Question 5

Strengths of interactional synchrony

Answer 5

-Meltzoff and Moore (1977) completed a study into IS of babies as young as 2 weeks old
-Adult made 1/3 expressions or 1/3 gestures
-child’s response was timed and identified by independent observers
-association was found between the expressions/gesture an adult had displayed and the actions of babies

-Isabella (1989) observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed the degree of synchrony
-researchers assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment
-high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachments

Question 6

Care giver infant interactions A03

Answer 6

-Filmed observations in lab
-activity that might distract baby can be controlled and films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later
-unlikely researcher will miss seeing key behaviours and observed can record data and establish the inter-role reliability of observations
-high validity and reliability as babies don’t know they’re being observed so can’t respond to d.c.

-difficulty observing babies
-young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile
-movement being observed = small hand movement / subtle expression changes eg smiling/ust passing wind is difficult to determine
-we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning

-developmental importance isn’t told by observing
-Feldman (2012) gives names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. These are robust phenomena - can be reliably observed but they still may not be particularly useful in understanding child development as it doesn’t tell us about the purpose of these behaviours
-cannot be certain from observations research alone that reciprocity and IS are important for child’s development

-However there’s evidence from other lines of research to suggest that early interactions are important
-Isabella et al (1989) achievement of IS predicted the development of a good quality attachment
-on balance, caregiver-infant interaction is probably important in development

Question 7

Schaffer’s stages of attachment procedure

Answer 7

-60 babies (31 male 29 female) from Glasgow mainly skilled working class families. visited homes every month for first yr the again at 18 months. asked q about kind of protests shown in 7 everyday situation eg adult leaving room.
-FINDINGS: 25-32 week olds about 50% showed seperation anxiety towards particular adult usually mother (specific attachment).
By 40 weeks 80% had specific attachments + 30% displayed multiple attachments

Question 8

Stage 1 - asocial stage (0-8 weeks)

Answer 8

-behaviour between human and inanimate objects are similar
-recognise specific faces, happier in presence of humans than alone and prefers familiar individuals
-smiles at anyone

Question 9

Stage 2 -indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)

Answer 9

-recognise and prefer familiar people + smile more at familiar than unfamiliar faces
-prefers people than inanimate objects
-accepts comfort from any adult

Question 10

Stage 3 - specific attachment (7-12 months)

Answer 10

-primary attachment to 1 particular adult (person who shows most sensitivity to their signals)
-shows stranger anxiety + seperation anxiety
-use familiar adults as a secure base

Question 11

Stage 4 - multiple attachments (1 yr +)

Answer 11

-form secondary attachments with familiar adults with whom they spend time eg father , grandparents etc

Question 12

Schaffer’s stages of attachment A03

Answer 12

-Good external validity >S+E study has been used in everyday life > study taking place in their own homes with real life mothers and babies provides it with high validity as it can be transferred to real life >behaved naturally so increases validity
-BUT mothers were unlikely to be ‘objective’ observers > may be biased in terms of what they noticed + reported eg not notice baby showing signs of anxiety / even misremembered or misinterpreted > even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not be recorded accurately

-real world application in day care > in stage 1+2 day care is likely to be straight forward as babies comforted by any skilled adult but s+e’s research tells us that day care (esp starting it with unfamiliar adult) may be problematic during stage 3 > parents’ use of fay care can be planned using S+E’s stages

-poor generalisability > 1960’s working class at Glasgow but in other cultures eg collectivist cultures , multiple attachments (stage 4) from a very early age are more the norm (Van Ijzendoorn 1993)

Question 13

Role of the father

Answer 13

-S+E (1964) majority of babies did become attached to their mothers first around 7 months
-but within a few weeks/months they formed secondary attachments to other family members
-75% attached to father around 18 months olds - showed protest when father left

Question 14

Who can be a father

Answer 14

-main male caregiver
-can also be primary attachment figure
-primary caregiver

Question 15

Distinctive role for fathers

Answer 15

-Grossmann (2002) longitudinal study looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments in teens
-findings: quality of baby’s attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence
-attachment to fathers is less important compared to mothers. Father’s play was related to quality of adolescent attachments so father and mother have different roles - father = play + stimulation mother= emotional development

Question 16

Fathers as primary attachment figures

Answer 16

-evidence suggests that when fathers become the main caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers
-Field (1978) - filmed 4 month old babies face to face interaction with 1st c mothers and 2nd cg fathers + 1st cg fathers.
1st cg fathers spent more time smiling just like 1st cg mothers (reciprocity and IS)
-findings: fathers have potential to be the emotion focused attachment figure

Question 17

Role of father A03

Answer 17

-lack of clarity over question being asked> ‘what is the role of the father’ in context of attachment is much more complicated than it sounds> some researcher want to understand the role of fathers as secondary af but others are more concerned with fathers as primary af> fathers seen differently from mothers and having distinct roles> makes it difficult to offer a simple answer to the q as i depends what specific role is being discussed

-Findings vary according to methodology used. longitudinal studies (Grossmann) suggested fathers as secondary af have important role in child’s development in play and stimulation but if fathers have a distinctive and important role we would expect that children growing up in single-mother and lesbian-parent families would turn out in some way different to those in two-parent heterosexual families> McCallum and Golombok (2004) study shows they dont develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families> q as to weather fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered
-HOWEVER it could be that fathers typically take on distinctive roles in two-parent heterosexual families but that parents in single-mother and lesbian-parent families simply adapt to accommodate the role played by fathers> q of distinctive role for fathers is clear after all> when present, fathers tend to adopt a distinctive role, but families can adapt to not having a father

-real world application> used to offer advice to parents >parents may agonise over who takes on the role of primary cg eg mothers may feel pressured to stay at home due to stereotypical view of mothers’ and fathers may be pressured to focus on work rather than parenting> in some families this may not be economically the best solution > research into tole of father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents

Question 18

Animal studies of attachment - Lorenz

Answer 18

-Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. half hatched with mother goose in natural environment and other half hatched in incubator with first moving thing they would see being Lorenz. Incubator group followed Lorenz and control group followed mother

-Lorenz identified a critical period for imprinting to take place. depending on species it can be up to a few hours after birth. If imprinting DOESN’T occur then chick don’t attach themselves to a mother figure

-investigated sexual imprinting - peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo imprinted on a tortoise. As an adult the peacock only showed direct courtship behaviour, concluding he had undergone ‘sexual imprinting’

Question 19

Animal studies of attachment - Lorenz A03

Answer 19

-research support > Regolin + Vallartigara found evidence that chicks imprinted on a shape combination that moved >eg chicks exposed to simple shape combos that moved like triangle with rectangle in front range of shape combos were moved and they followed the original most closely >supports suggestion that animals are born with a mechanism allowing them to form attachments

-poor generalisation to humans> mammalian attachment systems are quite different and more complex than in birds > eg mammals attached in a two way process so both mammalian mother and their young show emotional attachments to one another > inappropriate to generalise to humans

Question 20

Animals studies of attachment - Harlow

Answer 20

-followed monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. severe consequences were found
-monkeys reared with wire mothers were most dysfunctional but those reared with soft toy as mother did not develop normal social behaviour ; they were more aggressive, less sociable and unskilled a mating
-concluded there was a critical period for this behaviour, other figure ha to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to be formed or else after its impossible and damaged becomes irreversible

Question 21

Animals studies of attachment - Harlow A03

Answer 21

-real world value > helped social workers and clinical psychs understand that a lack of bonding may be a risk factor in a child’s development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes > also has implications for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes> value of harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical

-ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkey to humans> rhesus monkeys are much similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds and all mammals share some common attachments behaviours but human brain and behaviour is still much more complex than of monkeys> may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans