Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment
“Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space”
Interactional synchrony
- process in which a behaviour is matched during an interaction
- E.g. mother smiling and baby smiling back
- develops in its simplistic form in a very early stage
- mirror study
Reciprocity
- a parents speech and infants behaviour become finely synchronised so that they are in direct response to one another
- micro level behaviours occur in time with each other
- E.g. peek-a-boo study
What are the 4 stages of attachment
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate stage
- Specific stage
- Multiple attachments
Key points for Asocial stage
- 0-6weeks old
- no discrimination between humans
- preference for humans over non-humans
Key points for Indiscriminate stage
- 6weeks to 6/7 months
- can tell people apart
- stronger bonds start to grow to familiar adults
- no fear of strangers
Key points of Specific stage
- 7-9months
- strong displays of separation anxiety
- distress in the company of strangers
Key points for Multiple attachments
- 10months and onwards
- attachment with primary carer grows
- increased interest in developing bonds with others
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) - procedure
- longitudinal study
- 60 babies
- First 18months of life
- visited once a month in their own home
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) - what measures did they use to observe
- Stranger anxiety
- Separation anxiety
- Social referencing (checking with carer for new things)
Animal attachment- Konrad Lorenz - what is imprinting?
= casting on impression on the brain of an infant in regard to the primary care giver
Animal attachment - Konrad Lorenz - what is ethology?
= the study of animal behaviour
Meltzoff & Moore (1977) - procedure
-
Meltzoff & Moore (1977) - findings
- found that there was an association between the infant behaviour and that of the adult model
Meltzoff & Moore - conclusion
- it can be concluded that interactional synchrony does exist
Harry Harlow: dependency in monkeys - brief summary
Began by weaning off the wire mother then went to the cloth mother
Harlow’s monkeys - procedure
- 16 baby monkeys
- both the surrogates were placed with the infant monkeys so the infant monkey would have a choice where to go
- infant monkeys divided into 2 separate groups
- 2 wire monkeys - 1 with cloth all over it, 1 with ability to feed milk
Harlow’s monkeys - findings
- even though infants received nourishment from the wire mother, they still spent more time cuddling the cloth mother = not purely a physiological bond
- infants who grew up with cloth mothers exhibited emotional attachment and ‘normal’ behaviour in stressful environments
- results for wire mother were the opposite
Harlow’s monkeys - long term effects
- there is a critical period for attachment to develop = Harlow believed it to be 90 days after this time the maternal deprivation was done - attachment was no longer possible
Harlow’s monkeys- conclusion
- Rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for contact comfort, suggesting attachment concerns emotional security more than food
Explanations of attachment - 1. Behavioural/learning theory. Who suggested this?
Dollard and Millar (1950)
Behavioural/ learning theory - key points
- all behaviours are learnt
- classical conditioning —> s-r response bond - association of stimulus
- operant conditioning —> reward (reinforcement)
—> punishment
Behavioural/learning theory - stages (S-R)
- Food = Happy baby
- Mother + Food = Happy baby
- Mother = Happy baby
Explanations for attachment - monotropic attachment theory. Who suggested this?
Bowlby
Monotropic attachment theory - what led bowlby to formulate his attachment theory
The link between early infant separations with the mother and later maladjustment
Monotropic attachment theory - bowlby (1958) - what is the theory?
- a child has innate needs to attach to one attachment figure
- attachment is adaptive as it enhances the infant’s chance of survival
- social releaser -p= crying
- a child show receive continuous care from the primary attachment figure in the first 2 years = there is a ‘sensitive’ period
- caregiver provides safety and security for the infant. An internal working model is created
- monotropy and hierarchy
- continuity hypothesis
Monotropic attachment theory - what does ISSMIC stand for
I - innate
S - social releaser
S - sensitive period
M - monotropy
I - internal working model
C - continuity hypothesis
Explanations of attachment - 3. Maternal deprivation hypothesis - who suggested this
Bowlby
Maternal deprivation hypothesis - key points
- critical period
- 0-2 years (continuous) until age 5
- if no attachment is formed, it will have irreversible consequences = .increased aggression .less intelligence
Maternal deprivation hypothesis - consequences of continued disruption of attachment between infant and primary caregiver
- Long term cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties
- delinquency
- depression
- affection less psychopathy
- aggressive behaviours
Explanations of attachment - Strange Situation study - whose study was this
Mary Ainsworth
Strange situation study - aims
- investigate to determine the nature of attachment
- attachment behaviours
- attachment styles
Strange situation study - what were the 8 stages of the study
1- mother, baby, experimenter
2- mother and baby alone
3- a stranger joins mother and baby
4- mother leaves baby with stranger
5- mother returns and strangers leaves
6- mother leaves, baby is left alone
7- stranger returns
8- mother returns and stranger leaves
strange situation study - what were the 4 interactional behaviours recorded
- proximity & contact seeking
- contact maintaining
- avoidance of proximity & contact
- resistance to contact and comforting
strange situation study - what were the others behaviours observed
- explanatory behaviours
- search behaviours
- affect displays negative
strange situation study - how often was the situation observed/recorded
every 15seconds
what % of infants showed a secure attachment in the strange situation
70%
what % of infants showed an insecure resistant attachment in the strange situation
15%
what % of infants showed an insecure avoidant attachment in the strange situation
15%
strange situation study - what are the conclusions
- caregiver sensitivity hypothesis = attachment style is dependant on behaviour that the mother shows towards them
strange situation study - what was the sensitive conclusion
more likely to have securely attached children
- positive working model of themselves
- see others as helpful
- see themselves of worthy of respect
strange situation study - what was the less sensitive conculsion
more likely to have insecurely attached children
- sometimes needs are met and sometimes ignored tends to produce insecure resistant.
–> exaggerated responses
–> negative self image
- unresponsive primary care = insecure avoidant
–> unworthy and unacceptable
–> caused by rejection from primary caregiver
what are multiple attachments
- emotional bonds with several people
- may serve different purposes for the child
what did Rutter (1995) propose a model of
multiple attachments of equal importance
(combining to form the child’s internal working model)
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) showed what about fathers
that they are less likely to be the primary attachment figure
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that 65% of children had…..
…first specific attachment to the mother
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that 30% of mothers were …….
….joint first caregivers/27% fathers joint first
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that 3% of fathers ……
….are the first specific attachment
biological factors for explaining the respective roles
- female hormone oestrogen promotes interpersonal goals
- men were shown to be less sensitive to infant cues than mother
- yet… Frodi et al. (1978) said there were no differences in physiological responses of men and women
social factors for explaining the respective roles
- sex stereotypes on sensitivity to others prevail
- mothers nurture, fathers ‘play’
- in 2 parent families where the father is the primary caregiver, both parents often share the role of primary attachment figure
factors affecting the relationship between fathers and children
- degree of sensitivity
- type of attachment with own parents
- marital intimacy
- supportive co-parenting
degree of sensitivity
fathers who show sensitivity to their children’s needs have more secure attachments
type of attachment with own parents
single parent fathers tend to form similar attachment with their children that they had with their own parents
marital intimacy
the degree of intimacy a father has with his partner affects the types of attachment he has with his children
supportive co-parenting
the amount of support a father gives to his partner in helping to care for children affecting the type of attachment he will have with his children
who studied the effects of institutionalisation on attachment
Rutter et al (2010)
Rutter et al (2010) aim
to examine the long-term effects of institutionalisation in a longitudinal study, beginning in the early 1900’s called the ERA
Rutter et al (2010) method
- 165 Romanian orphans were compared against a control group of 52 British children adopted at the time
- all assessed in terms of their physical, intellectual, emotional and social development at ages of 4,6,11,and 15 years old
Rutter et al (2010) results for IQ
- when first arrived half of the Romanian orphans showed damage to intellectual development
- at age 11 they showed different improvements in IQ depending on the age of their adoption
–> adopted by 6 months = IQ 102
–> adopted between 6 months & 2 years = IQ 86
–> adopted after 2 years = IQ 77
Rutter et al (2010) results for disinhibited attachment
- those adopted after 6months show disinhibited attachment
- those adopted before 6 months did not show this
disinhibited attachment
this includes symptoms such as clinginess, attention seeking and indiscriminate behaviour directed to all adults
