Attachment Flashcards
Define attachment
Emotional link between an infant and a caregiver
Each seek closeness to the other, and feel more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure
Interactions between the carer an infant is where the attachment starts, but it is their responsiveness of the caregiver to the infant signals that has a deep effect on the child
Caregiver infant interactions
Interactional synchrony
Caregiver and infant respond in time to keep communication is going
For example, infant smiles caregiver smiles back at the same time
Ensures infant and caregiver emotions and actions mirror each other
Meltzoff and Moore- conducted a controlled observation on 40 two week old babies to measure caregiver infant interactions
Adult displayed official expression, and the child’s response was filmed and identified by an independent observer. A link was found between the facial expression of the adult, and the response of the baby.
Caregiver infant interactions
Reciprocity
A two way mutual process where infant and caregiver take turns to respond to each other’s behaviours to sustain interaction
Behaviour of each party elicit a response from the other. For example, infant puts its arm out caregiver picks him up.
Babies have an alert face and signal when they are ready for interaction. Mothers pick this up and act on the signals
Brazelton said both mother and baby initiate the interaction and take turns to do so he called this the dance
Evaluation points for caregiver infant interactions
Lacks ecological validity
High control over extraneous variables
Prone to bias
PEEL: Caregiver infant interactions
Lacks ecological validity
Lacks ecological validity
Takes place in controlled environments Where caregiver and infants are being filmed in a controlled observation
Difficult to generalise findings to real life cases of caregiver infant interactions as the infant may not behave how they usually do in the real world
For example, they may interact less as they feel uncomfortable in unfamiliar environment
Lowers external validity
PEEL: caregiver infant interactions
High control of extraneous variables
High control over extraneous variables
Research takes place in controlled environment
Potential extraneous variables that would be controlled, is not having other adults in the room during observations of interactions as it may distract the baby
Cause-and-effect can be established in interactions between
Increases internal validity
PEEL: caregiver infant interactions
Prone to bias
Prone To bias
Babies cannot speak, so inferences must be drawn about their behaviour
Psychologists me interpret this information in a way that fits that hypothesis
For example, a baby may have wind, but a psychologist may interpret this as a smile in response to their parents smile
Reduces internal validity
Stages of attachment identified by shaffer and Emerson
Aim
Investigate the formation of only attachments under the age of which they develop, and who they are directed to
Stages of attachment identified by Scheffer and Emerson
Procedure
Outline how shaffer investigated stages of attachment
Longitudinal study on 60 working class, a newborn babies and their mothers from Glasgow
Babies and mothers were visited at their own home every month for the first year of the babies life and again at 18 months
Observations and interviews with the mothers were used
Attachment is measured in two ways : separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety - infant being left alone in a room or researcher asking the mother how the infant reacts in this instance
Stranger anxiety- researcher a starting each home visit by approaching the infant to see if this distressed the child
Outline what shaffer and Emerson have found about research in the stages of attachment
Four Stages to attachment: asocial, indiscriminate, specific, multiple
Asocial- first few weeks
Babies behaviour, two adults and inanimate objects were similar
Indiscriminate - 2 to 7 months
Baby show a preference to people over inanimate objects but do not show stranger or separation anxiety
Specific - from around seven months
Babies from attachment and show separation and strangers anxiety when separated
In 65% of the cases, this was with the mother
Multiple- within one month of forming a specific attachment
29% of the children from the multiple attachments
By one year, most infants had multiple attachments
At 18 months, 75% of the children had an attachment with their father
Evaluation points for stages of attachment identified by shaffer and Emerson
High ecological validity
Prone to social desirability bias
Culture bias
PEEL: stages of attachment by shaffer
High ecological validity
High ecological validity
Observations were carried out in the family’s own homes during ordinary activities by the parent, such as leaving the room
Easy to generalise the findings to real life. Examples of attachment as a children’s behaviour is more likely to be representative of every day interactions.
Increasing external validity
PEEL: stages of attachment by shaffer
Social desirability bias
Social desirability bias
Interviews were used together information
Mothers could have lied about the child’s behaviour to present their parenting in the best possible light
For example, they may say that their child is distressed when leaving a room, even when they are not
Lowers internal validity
PEEL: stages of attachment by shaffer
Cultural bias
Cultural bias
Simple use were all from the same city of Glasgow
Difficult to generalise the findings to other cultures,
For example, Psychologists studying non-Western cultures where families often work together to look after a child have found that infants can for multiple attachments from the outset without forming a specific attachment first
Decreasing external validity
Role of the father; AO1 grossman and field
findings and conclusions
Grossman-
finding one- quality of infant attachment with their mothers, but not, their fathers, was related to children’s attachment in adolescence suggesting fathers attachment is less important than mothers
Finding two- quality of fathers play with infants was related to the quality. The children’s adolescence attachment, suggesting fathers have a different role in attachment one that is more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with nurturing, but it’s still important for the child’s well-being.
Field -
Findings - primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time, smiling imitating and holding infants, then secondary caregiver fathers. This behaviour seems to be more important in building an attachment to an infant. Suggests fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure and take on a traditionally maternal role. The keto attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent.
Evaluation points for role of the father
Practical applications
Grossman’s father as secondary attachment focus
Fathers to not to become primary attachment figures could simply be the result of traditional gender roles
PEEL: role of the father
Practical applications
Practical applications
Principles of the research Byfield, that responsiveness to the child’s needs not gender is most important forming an attachment can be used advice parents
Mothers, may feel pressured to stay at home because of stereotypical views of mothers and fathers roles. Equally fathers may feel pressured to go back to work rather than focus on parenting.
This has led to a change in paternity leave so fathers can share responsibility
Important part of applied psychology
PEEL: role of the father
Grossman’s father is a secondary attachment figure focus
A criticism is that the study by Grossman found that father is a secondary attachment. Figures had an important and stings role in the child’s development of play and stimulation
Other studies have shown that children going up in single mother or lesbian parent families do not develop any differently than those from two parent heterosexual families
Suggesting fathers role may not be distinct
PEEL: role of the father
Result of traditional gender roles
The fact that fathers tend not to become the primary attachment figure could simply be the result of traditional gender roles
On the other hand, it could be that female hormones oestrogen create high levels of nurturing, and therefore women are biologically predisposed to be the primary attachment figure for children
Therefore, there are several explanations to consider when investigating the role of the father
Animal studies
Intro
Animal studies are carried out or nonhuman animal species, rather than on humans for ethical or practical reasons. They look into how early bonds are formed between non-parents and their offspring. These are used to help us understand attachment in humans.
Lorenz
Field experiment
Randomly divided goose eggs
Half of the eggs hatched with the mother Goose in their natural environment
The other half were hatched in an incubator were the first moving object they saw was lorenz
Lorenz recorded the behaviour of the goslings and who they imprinted on
Found that in the incubator group that saw Lorenz first imprinted upon and followed him everywhere whereas the group who saw the mother Goose first imprinted upon and followed her
Identified a critical period of 12 to 17 hours after hatching, in which imprinting needs to take place if imprinting did not occur Within that time the chicks will not attachment themselves to a mother figure.
Goslings imprinting on humans would as adult birds attempt to mate with humans
In conclusion, goslings imprint on the first move objects that they see there is a specific time period in which this needs to take place, otherwise they will not imprint
Evaluation points for Lorenz
Practical applications
Animal bias
Researcher bias
PEEL: Lorenz
Practical applications
Practical applications
The principles of the theory that goslings has imprint within 12 to 17 hours, otherwise they will not imprint at all, and the fact that goslings who imprint on humans latest show sexual behaviours towards humans when their adult birds show the importance of this critical period and future relationships
Psychologist can use this information to promote the importance of early interactions between parents and infants, and hopefully reduce issues later in life
Important part of applied psychology
PEEL: Lorenz
Animal bias
Animal bias
Conducted on animals -goslings
Human attachment behaviour may be more complex than animals in attachment behaviour as human emotions are more sophisticated towards their offspring than birds
For example, attachment in humans is a two-way process, so it is not just a young. He become attached to their mothers, but also mothers who shows an emotional attachment to their young.
Issues with extrapolating the findings of Lorenz research to attachment in humans
PEEL: Lorenz
Researcher bias
Researcher bias
Lorenz recorded his own observations of the bird, so he may have chosen to only include findings that would support his theory of imprinting
Lois internal validity of research as it may not be in measuring the effect of imprinting on attachment
Harlow
Aimed to investigate where the food or comfort is more important in the formation of attachments
Lab experiment
16 baby rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers of birth and brought up in cages
Cage contained surrogate mothers wire mother with milk and a cloth mother with comfort
Amount of time spent with each mother was recorded
Monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test which more than they preferred when stressed
Long-term effects were recorded such as social ability and relationships to the future offspring
Say found that monkeys spent more time with a cloth mother than the wire mother
When frightened monkeys would go to the cloth mother
Monkeys later in life had emotional damage, such as being more tomatoes. Easily bullied difficulty mating and females being in adequate mothers when older
In conclusion, contact comfort is the most important factor when forming an attachment