Attachment

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

Developmental psychology refers to a branch of psychology concerned with progressive behavioural changes that occur in individuals across their lifespan.

Question 2

What is attachment?

Answer 2

Atttachment is when two people, an infant and their caregiver, develop long and lasting emotional bonds.

Both members seek closeness to each other, and feel more secure when close to their attachment figure.

Question 3

What is reciprocity?

Answer 3

Reciprocity is a type of caregiver-infant interaction.

This is a mutual turn-taking form of interaction, similar to a conversation.

Here, both the caregiver and the infant contribute to the interaction by responding to the others’ signals and cues.

Question 4

What is interactional synchronicity?

Answer 4

Interactional synchronicity is a type of caregiver-infant interaction.

This is a simulataneous form of interaction, where both the infant and caregiver are coordinated in their behaviour and emotional states.

Question 5

What is sensitive responsiveness?

Answer 5

Sensitive responsiveness is when the adult caregiver correctly interprets the meaning of the infant’s communication and is motivated to respond accordingly.

An example might be feeding the baby when they show distress.

Question 6

What is child-directed speech?

Answer 6

Child-directed speech refers to when an adult caregiver talks to an infant in a “sing-song” tone, modulating their voice by slowing it down and raising the pitch in order to keep the infant’s attention.

Question 7

What research evidence supports reciprocity?

What research evidence supports interactional synchronicity?

Answer 7

• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) found that infants 12-21 day old infants would match the facial expressions of an experimenter, suggesting reciprocity from a young age.
• Condon and Sander (1974) found evidence of interactional synchronicity between movement of a newborn and patterns of an adult’s speech, suggesting that humans have an innate ability for social attraction from birth.

Question 8

What are 2 weaknesses of research into caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 8

• Since infants are unable to directly communicate, findings from research into caregiver-infant interactions are based entirely on inferences (assumptions about their internal mental states), which are unscientific and could be mistaken.
• Social sensitivity is a concern, as women may find their life choices critiqued for not being able to maintain a high level of interactional synchrocity with their child.

Question 9

What is the first stage of attachment identified by Schaffer?

Answer 9

The first stage of attachment is the asocial phase, which lasts from 0-6 weeks.

Babies dispaly innate behaviours (crying, smiling) to both humans and non-humans. They will also display these behaviours to non-humans. They do not have a preference for caregiver, so anyone can comfort them.

Question 10

What is the second stage of attachment identified by Schaffer?

Answer 10

The second stage of attachment is indiscriminate attachment, which lasts from 6 weeks to 7 months.

In this stage, babies are able to tell the difference between humans and objects, as well as the difference between familiar and unfamiliar individuals.

In this stage, they do not show any stranger anxiety or separation anxiety.

Question 11

What is the third stage of attachment identified by Schaffer?

Answer 11

The third stage of attachment is specific attachment. This lasts from 7-9 months.

In this stage, babies form a strong attachment to a primary caregiver, usually their mother. This is when they begin to show separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.

Question 12

What is the fourth and final stage of attachment identified by Schaffer?

Answer 12

The fourth stage of attachment is the multiple attachment stage. This lasts from 9 months onwards.

In this stage, the infant begins to form attachments with other regular caregivers, and stranger anxiety begins to decrease.

Question 13

What observation supports Schaffer’s stages of attachment theory?

What is one strength and one weakness of this observation?

Answer 13

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) conducted a longitudinal observation on 60 working class babies and their families from Glascow.

They discovered that seperation anxiety was highest in babies aged 25-32 weeks. Stranger anxiety occured in most babies one month later.
In an 18 month follow up, 87% of the babies had developed multiple attachments, the strongest being with the mother.

Strength:
- High level of mundane realism, as the infants and their families were observed in their own homes.

Weaknesses:
- May not be generalisable to other countries, as the study was conducted on working class mothers in Glascow. May also not be generalisable to other time periods, as the study was conducted in 1964, and childrearing processes may have changed.

Question 14

What did Schaffer and Emerson find in their observation about the role of the father?

Answer 14

In their observation, Schaffer and Emerson found that the primary caregiver for the infants were:

• Their mother 65% of the time
• Both parents 30% of the time
• The father alone 3% of the time.

After 18 months however, 75% of infants had formed an attachment with their fathers. This suggests that the role of the father is not important at first, but is important later in development.

Question 15

What is thought to be the role of the father?

Answer 15

• Fathers engage babies in ‘active play’, suggesting that their interactions emphasise stimulation and encourage risk-taking behaviours compared to the comforting style of the mother.
• If men take on the role of the primary caregiver, their interactional style is thought to be more similar to mothers, increasing their capacity for sensitive responsiveness.

Question 16

What research evidence support theories into the role of the father?

Answer 16

Field (1978) observed 3 groups of people interacting with 4-month old infants:

• Primary caretaker mothers
• Primary caretaker fathers, who showed more sensitively responsive behaviours, similar to mothers.
• Secondary caretaker fathers, who focused more on game playing and less on holding.

Question 17

How may research into the role of the father have social implications?

Answer 17

• Research that argues that the role of the mother cannot be replaced by the father may lead single father/two father families to feel as though they cannot provide for their children.
• Research that argues that the role of the mother can be replaced by the father may give fathers the confidence to take an active role in their child’s upbringing.

Question 18

How may research into the role of the father have economic implications?

Answer 18

Research into the importance of the role of the father may convince employers to grant equal paternity and maternity leave.

• One one hand, this may reduce the number of males in the workforce, reducing economic activity and placing pressure on businesses.
• On the other hand, equalising maternity and paternity leave may help to address the gender pay gap.

Question 19

What was Konrad Lorenz’s animal study into attachment?

Answer 19

Lorenz wanted to investigate imprinting, the idea that animals follow and attach to their mother strongly.

He did this by taking a group of goose eggs. Half of them were hatched naturally by the biological mother, the other half were hatched by Lorenz using an incubator.

He found that the goosling that Lorenz hatched imprinted onto him, whilst the goosling hatched in a natural environment imprinted onto their mothers. He had also found that if the gooslings did not imprint onto an object in 32 hours, they would not imprint at all.

Question 20

What was Harry Harlow’s animal study into attachment?

Answer 20

Harlow wanted to test the theory that babies love mothers because they feed them (cupboard love theory).

He did this by removing monkeys from their biological mothers and placed them in cages with surrogate, inanimate mothers: one provided milk and the other provided comfort.

Harlow found that the monkey spent most of its time with the mother that provided comfort, only visiting the food mother when needing to eat. When the babies were frightened, they ran to the cloth mother. This goes against the theory that babies love mothers because they feed them.

Question 21

What is a weakness and strength of animal studies of attachment?

Answer 21

Weakness:
- Animal behaviour cannot be generalised to human behaviour, as there is very different biology involved between the two.

Strength:
- Harlow’s findings on contact comfort have been highly influential, Bowlby discovered the same concepts in human infants. Likewise, Lorenz’s findings of the critical period have been highly influential, as Bowlby discovered there is a similar critical period for humans from 6-30 months.

Question 22

What is a flaw with Harlow’s study on animals?

Answer 22

Harlow has been criticised on ethical grounds, as the maternal deprivation his studies caused resulted in permanent social disorders in the monkeys as adults. The suffering was real, and the publicisation of the study damanged the reputation of psychology.

Question 23

How can classical conditioning be used to explain how attachments are formed?

Answer 23

Classical conditioning refers to learning due to association.

In terms of attachment, the food is an unconditioned stimulus, which provides pleasure, an unconditioned response. Because of the presence of the mother, she becomes associated with the pleasure of being fed, therefore, the baby experiences a conditioned pleasure response upon seeing their mother.

Question 24

How can operant conditioning be used to explain how attachments are maintained?

Answer 24

Operant conditioning refers to learning due to patterns of reinforcement.

In terms of attachment, if a parent feeds a crying baby, it is therefore more likely to repeatedly cry to be fed more. This is positive reinforcement.

The parent’s feeding behaviour continues when the baby stops crying. This is negative reinforcement.

Question 25

What are 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of learning theory for attachment?

Answer 25

Strengths:
- Face validity; it makes intuitive sense that babies learn that crying = more food, therefore they cry more.
- Learning theory has been supported by research by the likes of Pavlov and Skinner.

Weaknesses:
- Research conducted by Harlow and Bowly reject the cupboard love and learning theories to explain attachment.
- Learning theory is environmentally reductionist, as it attempts to explain a complex human behaviour in an overly simplistic way.

Question 26

What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory for how attachments are formed?

Answer 26

Bowlby’s monotropic theory states that infants have an innate desire to form a strong attachment an adult (usually their mothers). This is called monotropy. This drive is instinctual, as forming a strong attachment is vital to the survival of the infant.

Babies will instinctively use signals called social releasers (crying, smiling, etc) to attract the attention of the caregiver. Mothers are biologically programmed to react to these social releasers.

Question 27

What are two weaknesses of Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

Answer 27

• This theory suffers from alpha bias (emphasising the differences between men and women) by suggesting that the mother provides comfort and the father provides resources.
• This theory is socially sensitive, placing the burden on mothers to take the place if anything goes wrong in their child’s life. It also puts pressure on mothers to stay at home and give up their careers.

Question 28

What is the Insecure Avoidant attachment type?

Answer 28

Insecure Avoidant is the Type A attachment type in infants. These infants explored freely, not using their mother as a secure base. They also showed:

• Low stranger anxiety
• Low separation protest
• Low reuinion joy

Mothers of these infants would show little sensitive responsiveness to their infant’s needs.

Question 29

What is the Secure attachment type?

Answer 29

Secure is the Type B attachment type in infants. These infants used their mother as a safe base as they explored their environment. They also showed:

• Moderate stranger anxiety
• Moderate separation protest
• Moderate reuinion joy

Mothers of these infants would show high sensitive responsiveness to their infant’s needs.

Question 30

What is the Insecure Resistant attachment type?

Answer 30

Insecure Resistant is the Type C attachment type in infants. These infants did not explore the environment and sought closeness to their mothers. They also showed:

• High stranger anxiety
• High separation protest
• Inconsistent reuinion joy

Mothers of these infants would show inconsistent sensitive responsiveness to their infant’s needs.

Question 31

What was Ainsworth’s strange situation study?

Answer 31

Ainsworth conducted a study on mothers and their infants (who were 48-57 weeks old). The study was conducted in a lab setting, a room with toys, and had 2 observers behind a one way mirror. Characteristics assessed included the infant’s proximity to their mother, their reactions when their mother left the room and their attitudes towards strangers.

Ainsworth found that:

• 22% of infants were Type A - insecure avoidant
• 66% of infants were Type B - secure
• 12% of infants were Type C - insecure resistant.

Question 32

What are 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of Ainsworth’s strange situation study?

Answer 32

Strengths:
- Highly replicable, as the study is highly controlled with standardised procedures and clear behavioural categories.
- High predictive validity - McCarthy found that infants who were labelled as secure grew up to have the most secure and long lasting friendships and relationships in adulthood.

Weaknesses:
- May lack ecological validity, as the study is held in a laboratory and unfamiliar to the infant. Furthermore, the mothers were aware they were being observed, so she may have shown demand characteristics.
- As the study was conducted in America, may not be valid to apply to other cultures. In other countries, children may be taught to be more independent compared to America.

Question 33

What was the meta-analysis conducted by Van Ijzendoorn?

Answer 33

Van Ijzendoorn conducted a large scale anaylsis of 2000 infants in 32 studies in 8 different countries replicating Ainsworth’s strange situation. He discovered:

• Secure attachment was the most common in every country.
• Avoidant was more common in western cultures, although Germany had the highest % of avoidant. This could be explained as German families encouraging more independent behaviours.
• Resistant was more common in non-western cultures, where Japan had the highest %. This could be explained by Japanese mothers spending a significant amount of time with their infants.
• China had the least secure infants.

Question 34

What are 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of Van Ijzendoorn’s meta-analysis?

Answer 34

Strengths:
- The meta-analysis used a very large sample, increasing the validity as poorly conducted studies would have a small effect overall.
- The dominant attachment style overall was secure, implying Bowlby’s theory that there is a biological instinct to parent in a way that produces secure attachments.

Weaknesses:
- Many countries had one study included, therefore, it cannot be representative of the entire population.
- The methodology itself is culturally biased, as it was developed in the United States.

Question 34

What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 34

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation states that if a child’s monotropic attachment is disrupted during the critical period of 30 months, it will result in irreversible consequences, such as:

• Delinquency due to disrupted social development.
• Affectionless psychopathy due to disrupted emotional development.
• Low IQ due to disrupted intellectual development.

This is because the relationship the infant with the mother creates a schema for any future relationships - this is called the internal working model. Deprivation prevents the ability for the infant to develop an effective internal working model.

Question 35

What research evidence is there to support Bowbly’s theory of maternal deprivation?

What is a weakness of this study?

Answer 35

Bowlby’s theory can be supported by the Fourty-Four thieves study conducted on 44 child thieves and 44 emotionally disturbed non-thieves.

He found that 14 thieves matched the criteria for affectionless psychopathy compared to none in the control group. He also found that 12 thieves had experienced prolong separation compared to 2 from the control group, suggesting a link between maternal deprivation and delinquency.

One weakness of this study is that this type of research is correlational, and so correlation does not equal to causation.

Question 36

What are two weaknesses of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 36

• Monotropy exaggerates the role of the mother, showing alpha bias. Other pieces of research, including those done by Shaffer, highlights the importance of the father.
• Bowlby did not distinguish between deprivation, when the attachment figure was lost, and privation, when no attachment figure was formed at all.

Question 37

What is institutionalism and how can it lead to privation?

Answer 37

Institutionalism refers to children who are cared for by the state, such as in children’s homes and hospitals.

Institutionalism may lead to privation: this refers to the total inability to form an attachment bond. This is different to deprivation, which refers to not recieving suitable care from an attachment figure.

Question 38

What was Rutter’s study on Romanian orphans?

Answer 38

Rutter conducted a longitudinal study on 165 Romanian orphans adopted into British families, assessing them at different ages:

6: Children adopted after 6 months showed overly friendly behaviour towards strangers.

11: Children who showed disinhibited attachment (friendliness to strangers) also showed delayed physical, emotional and intellectual development.
Children adopted when they were under 6 months showed an average IQ of 104, whereas children adopted when they were older than 2 years showed an average IQ of 77.

This research suggests that the effects of privation in institutions are severe and long lasting.

Question 39

What are 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of Romanian orphan studies into attachment?

Answer 39

Strengths:
- Studies like this emphasise the potential negative consequences of institutionalisation, leading to the establishment of key workers in institutions to provide emotional care for children.
- Studies like ths emphasise the importance of adoption as early as possible, as opposed to the past where mothers were encouraged to nurse their children for as long as possible before giving them up for adoption.

Weaknesses:
- Because standards of care were particularly poor in Romanian orphanages, Romanian orphans were faced with much more than emotional deprivation, therefore, it may be difficult to generalise this study to others.
- The children were not randomly assigned for adoption, but selected by the new parents in Romania. This could have resulted in a bias where the more sociable children were picked for adoption at a young age.

Question 40

What is the continuity hypothesis?

Answer 40

The continuity hypothesis states that an individual’s future relationships will follow a pattern based on their internal working model.

Question 41

What was the research conducted by Hazan and Shaver (1987) on early attachments in adult relationships?

Answer 41

Hazan and Shaver placed a ‘love quiz’ in the Rocky Mountain News, asking questions about participant’s relationship with their parents (to assess their infant attachment style), attitudes towards love (to assess their internal working model) and their relationship experiences (to assess their adult attachment style)

They found that most people’s adult attachment styles were the same as their infant attachment styles. They also found that individuals with a positive internal working model tended to be securely attached adults, which also correlated with positive love experiences.

Question 42

What are the 2 weaknesses of Hazan and Shaver’s research into early attachments into adult relationships?

Answer 42

• This study is correlational, therefore we cannot determine cause and effect. There could be a third variable that affects both infant and adult attachment styles.
• This study relies on participants remembering their early lives; these recollections are likely to be flawed as our memories of the past won’t always be accurate.