attachment Flashcards
what is reciprocity?
when both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other
how many times do mothers pick up on babies ‘alert phases’?
2/3 of the time
what is the interaction of the mother and baby described as?
A dance
do babies take an active or passive role in reciprocity?
active
what is interactional synchrony?
caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way
what did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) find?
found that babies’ expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict
what was the Isabella et al. (1989) experiment?
- observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-baby attachment
- They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
Evaluation of Caregiver-infant interactions
Filmed observations:
- checked by other researchers so high inter-rater reliability
- babies didn’t know they were being observed
Difficulty observing babies:
- hard to interpret a babies behaviour
Developmental importance:
- reciprocity and IS don’t tell us the purpose of these behaviours
Counter:
- Isabella et al
what was Schaffer and Emerson (1964) procedure?
- 60 babies from Glasgow
- mostly working-class families
- researchers visited mother and baby every month for 18 months
- investigated separation anxiety by asking mothers about behaviour during everyday separations
- investigated stranger anxiety by asking mothers questions about child’s response to unfamiliar adults
what were the 4 stages of attachments Schaffer and Emerson found?
- Asocial
- Indiscriminate attachment
- Specific attachment
- Multiple attachment
Schaffer and Emerson evaluation
- has external validity Counter: mothers may have been biased
- poor evidence for the asocial stage
- RWA to day care
-
what percentage of cases was the father the sole and joint first object of attachment
sole object - 3%
joint first object - 27%
what percentage of secondary attachments were the father?
75%
What did Grossmann et al 2002 find?
- quality of attachment with the father was less important for adolescent attachment than the quality of attachment with the mother
- the quality of the fathers play with babies was related to quality of adolescent attachments
- fathers have a different role
what did Field (1978) find?
- primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers
- fathers can be primary attachment figures
- level of responsiveness is the key to the attachment relationship, not the gender of the parent
role of the father evaluation
- confusion over research questions
- conflicting evidence
- using findings in parenting advice
Lorenz findings and conclusions
- incubator group followed Lorenz, Control Group followed the mother
- identified a critical period in which imprinting takes place
- if imprinting did not occur during this time, Chicks did not attach themselves to the mother figure
- Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable characteristics required in a mate
Lorenz evaluation
- (str) support for the concept of imprinting
- (lim) generalising from birds to Humans
- (str) applications to human behaviour
Harlow findings and conclusions
- Baby monkey’s cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire mother regardless of which dispensed milk - suggests that contact comfort was of more importance than food when it came to attachment behaviour
- the monkeys sought comfort from the cloth mother when frightened
- as adults, the monkeys who had been deprived of their real mothers suffered severe consequences - they were more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in mating than other monkeys
Harlow Evaluation
- (str) real-world value
- (lim) generalising from Monkeys to Humans
- (lim) ethical issues
what is Drive Reduction?
- Hunger is a primary drive, an innate biological motivator
- we are motivated to eat to reduce the hunger drive
- attachment is a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
- Sears et al. (1957) - suggested that, as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them
Learning theory evaluation
- (lim) counter-evidence from animal studies
- (lim) counter evidence from human studies
- (str) some elements of conditioning may be involved Counter: ignores the fact that babies take an active role in the interactions that produce attachment
why did Bowlby believe the more time spent with the primary attachment figure the better?
- Law of continuity - the more constant a child’s care, the better the quality of attachment
- Law of accumulated separation - the effects of every separation add up
what are social releasers
- babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours that encourage the attention of adults
- the purpose is to activate adult social interaction
what was Bowlby’s critical period?
up to 2 years
what was Bowlby’s internal working model of relationships?
the child forms a mental representation of the relationship with their primary attachment figure which serves as a ‘template’ for what relationships are like
evaluation of Bowlby’s theory of monotropy
- (lim) the concept of monotropy lacs validity
- (str) evidence supporting the role of social releasers
- (str) support for the internal working model
what were the 5 categories that Ainsworth used to judge attachment quality in the strange situation?
- proximity seeking
- exploration and secure-base behaviour
- stranger anxiety
- separation anxiety
- response to reunion with the caregiver after separation for a short period of time
what are the three types of attachment?
Secure:
- baby happy to explore but seeks proximity to caregiver
- shows moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
- requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion
Insecure avoidant:
- baby explores freely but does not seek proximity
- shows little/no separation and stranger anxiety
- avoids contact at the reunion stage
Insecure resistant:
- baby explores less and seeks greater proximity
- shows considerable stranger and separation anxiety
- resists comfort when reunited with caregiver
Aisnworth’s strange situation evaluation
- (str) good predictive validity
- (str) good inter-rater reliability
- (lim) may be culture bound
van IJzendoorn and Kroonenburg findings
- secure attachment was the most common classification in all countries, but ranged from 50% in China to 75% in Britain
- in individualist cultures, rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to the original sample
- in collectivist cultures, samples from China, Japan and Israel showed rates of above 25%
- variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries
- in the US, one study found 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%
simonelli study
- assessed 76 babies aged 12 months in Italy using the Strange Situation to see whether the proportion of attachment types still matched previous studies in Italy
- found that 50% were secure and 36% insecure-avoidant - mothers work longer hours and use childcare more
Jin et al. (2012) study
- compared the attachment types of 87 Korean babies to proportions in other studies
- found similar patterns of secure and insecure attachment to other studies but there was only one baby that was avoidant - similar to Japan maybe because of their similar child-rearing practices
cultural variations evaluation
- (str) use of indigenous researchers
- (lim) the impact of confounding variables
- (lim) imposed etic
what is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development according to Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
continuous emotional (maternal) care
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation AO1
- continued emotional care is essential
- separation may lead to maternal deprivaiton
- separation is different from deprivation
- critical period of 2 and a half years
- intellectual development: lower IQ
- Emotional development: affectionless psychopathy
findings of 44 thieves study
- 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths
- 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives
- in contrast, only five of the 30 remaining 30 ‘thieves’ had experienced separations
- suggests prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation evaluation
- (lim) sources of evidence for maternal deprivation are flawed Counter: Levy et al 2003 rat separation for a day
- (lim) Bowlby confused deprivation and privation
- (lim) critical period is more of a sensitive period
Romanian orphan study procedure
- 165 Romanian orphans
- 52 adopted children from UK in control group
- Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at 4,6,11,15 and 22-25 years
Romanian orphan study findings
- half of the orphans showed delayed intellectual development when they came to the UK
- at age 11, recovery rates were related to their age at adoption:
- those adopted before 6 months had a mean IQ of 102 and those adopted after 2 years had a mean IQ of 77 and these differences continued to be apparent at age 16
- frequency of disinhibited attachment related to the age at adoption
- apparent in children adopted after they were 6 months old: clinginess, attention-seeking and indiscriminate affection to strangers
- rare in children adopted before the age of 6 months
what is disinhibited attachment?
- such children tend to be equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or total strangers
- this may be an adaptation to multiple caregivers
Romanian Orphan studies evaluation
- (str) RWA
- (str) fewer confounding variables than other research
- (lim) lack of data on adult development
Hazan and Shaver (1987) findings
- secure respondents were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic relationships
- Avoidant respondents tended to be jealous and fear intimacy
influence of early attachment on later relationships
- (str) strong research support Counter: not all evidence supports this
- (lim) validity issues with retrospective studies
- (lim) possible confounding variables
