attachment

Question 1

what is meant by the term attachment?

Answer 1

Humans are born with a need to form a close emotional bond with a caregiver and that such a bond will develop during the first six months of a child’s life if the caregiver is appropriately responsive. An emotional tie between two people, usually a mother (caregiver) and a child. The relationship is reciprocal (shared).

Question 2

what are some examples of attachment behaviours

Answer 2

• Seeking proximity (closeness)
• Distress on separation
  -Joy on reunion
  -Person used as safe base to explore world

Question 3

what is the adaptive part of Bowlby’s theory of attachment?

Answer 3

• forming attachments help survival
• attachments give species an “adaptive advantage”
• this is because if an infant has an attachment to a caregiver, they are kept warm, safe, given food and kept warm
• examples:
  -rooting - turn their cheek towards where strokes and a sucking/ swallowing reflex follows
  - breathing - infant will move their arms to cover their face to protect their oxygen intake
  -maintaining a body temperature - infants shiver and tuck their legs into their body

Question 4

what is the social releaser part of Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 4

• babies have social releasers which “unlock” an innate tendency in adults ( in particularly mothers) to care for them
  these social releasers are both:
• physical- the typical baby face and body proportions
• behavioural- crying , cooing, smiling

Question 5

what is the critical period of Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 5

• babies have to form an attachment with their caregiver during a critical period
  -this is between birth - 2 ½ years old
• Bowlby said that if the child doesn’t form an attachment during this time, then the child would be damaged socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically

Question 6

what is the monotropy part of Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 6

• an infant must form a more important than the others attachment to the “mother” (doesn’t have to be the actual mother or even a woman)

Question 7

what is the law of continuity?

Answer 7

the more constant and predictable a child’s care is, the better quality of their attachment

Question 8

what is the law of accumulated separation?

Answer 8

the effects of every separation from the mother adds up “and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose”

Question 9

what is internal working memory in terms of Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 9

• through the monotropic attachment, the infant would form an internal working model
• this is a special model for relationships
• all the child’s future adult relationships will be based on their early attachment relationship

Question 10

limitation of Bowlby’s theory - the validity of monotropy was challenged

Answer 10

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that although babies did attach to one person at first, a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time
• although initial attachments do have a stronger influence on later behaviour, this may be because they are stronger not different than other attachments
• this means that Bowlby may be incorrect about the unique qualities of a first attachment

Question 11

strength of Bowlby’s theory- support for social releasers

Answer 11

• clear evidence that cute baby behaviour is designed to elicit reactions from caregivers
• Brazelton et al (1975) observed babies trigger interactions with adults
• the researchers then instructed the parents to ignore the babies and they soon became distressed
• this highlights the importance of social releasers in emotional development and attachment

Question 12

strength of Bowlby’s theory - support for internal working model

Answer 12

• Bailey et al (2007) assessed the attachment between 99 mothers and their 1 year old children
• the researchers the attachment of the mothers with their own mothers and the quality of attachment with the babies
• they found that mothers with poor attachment to their own mothers were more likely to have poorly attached babies

Question 13

counterpoint to support for internal working model

Answer 13

• there are other important influences on social development
• for example, some psychologists believe that genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour in both babies and adults (Korneikno 2016)
• this means that Bowlby may have overstated the importance of the internal working model without other factors

Question 14

what was the method of Lorenz (1935)

Answer 14

• Lorenz divided a group of goose eggs into two groups
  - one group was left with their natural mother
  - the other group was placed in an incubator
• Lorenz made sure that the eggs that hatched in the incubator, saw him as the first moving object.
• He then put the two groups together with their mother

Question 15

what were the results of Lorenz (1935)

Answer 15

The geese that had hatched in the incubator continued to follow him, while those who had hatched naturally continued to followed their mother.

Question 16

evaluation of Lorenz

Answer 16

• Imprinting is an innate process which Lorenz said happened in a very definitive period which was very short. This idea of a definitive period supports Bowbly’s critical period theory.
• However, it must be acknowledged that this research is done on animals whose imprinting period is very different to humans and may not be as similar as we thought.

Question 17

Outline how Hazan & Shaver conducted their research.( strength of Bowlby internal working model)

Answer 17

Hazan and Shaver used a questionnaire that was called the “love quiz” ; they allowed people to voluntarily take part by publishing it in a newspaper called the Rocky Mountain, which 620 people did, giving them a volunteer sample.

Question 18

Outline what Hazan & Shaver found

Answer 18

They found a positive correlation between attachment type and later love experienced. their results support bowbly’s theory of internal working model and the fact that the attachments that you form in earlier life will affect you later in life, which he said in his original theory.

Question 19

criticisms of Hazan & Shaver

Answer 19

• population validity
• sampling bias
• social desirability
• privacy
• socially sensitive research

Question 20

limitation of Bowlby - Rutter et al (1998) - Critical period or sensitive period?

Answer 20

• Rutter et al. (1998) carried out research on orphans who did not form an attachment during the critical period.
• Rutter found that when the children were adopted into UK or US families they were still able to form an attachment, but it took them longer to do so.
• He claimed that the idea of a critical period was wrong and therefore it should be called a ‘sensitive period’.
• This matters because it suggests that Bowlby’s original theory is not correct, as children are still able to form an attachment after their critical period (contrary to what Bowlby claimed), but it takes them longer to do so.

Question 21

what do Dollard and Miller say about attachment and conditioning?

Answer 21

• it can be explained by learning theory
• often explained as “cupboard love” as it emphasises the role of providing food for the infant - children love who feed them

Question 22

how does classical conditioning relate to infant attachment?

Answer 22

Babies have an unconditioned,positive response to milk, an unconditioned stimulus, which means that it is innate. And although they don’t have a necessarily negative reaction to their mother, their mother is a neutral stimulus on her own and the baby will have no response. However, through classical conditioning, the combination of the mother and the milk produces the unconditional positive response due to the association between a mother and the milk and the baby. Eventually it gets to a point where the conditioned stimulus, the mother automatically causes a conditioned response as the baby sees their mother as a way to get a reward and forms an attachment.

Question 23

how does operant conditioning relate to infant attachment?

Answer 23

crying leads to a response from a caregiver. as long as the caregiver gives the correct response, crying is reinforced. the baby then directs crying for comfort toward the caregiver who responds with “social suppressor” behaviour.

The reinforcement is a two way process. At the same time as the baby is reinforced from crying, the parent receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops, this mutual reinforcement strengthens the attachment

Question 24

what is meant by attachment is a secondary drive?

Answer 24

Sears et al (1975) suggested that, as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them. attachment is thus a secondary drive learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive

Question 25

limitation of learning theory- animal studies

Answer 25

• one limitation of learning theory is lack of support from animal studies
• for example, Lorenz’s geese imprinted on the first thing that they saw, regardless of food
• Harlow’s monkeys also saw them prioritise comfort over food
• this shows that other factors other than food are important in forming attachments

Question 26

what was the method of Harlow’s monkeys

Answer 26

• 8 rhesus monkeys were placed in a cage with two surrogate mothers: one made of wire and one wrapped in cloth
• for one half of the monkeys, the food was attached to the wire mother, and for the other half, it was attached to the cloth monkey

Question 27

what was the conclusion of Harlow’s monkeys?

Answer 27

• Harlow found that all of the monkeys spent most of their time cuddled with the soft-clothed mother
• Harlow concluded that monkeys form attachments based on contact comfort, not food

Question 28

limitation of learning theory- lack of support from studies on human babies

Answer 28

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that babies to form their main attachment to their mothers regardless of whether they feed them or not
• Isabella et al (1989) found that high levels of interaction synchrony predicted the quality of attachment
• this suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of attachment

Question 29

strength of learning theory- some conditioning may be involved

Answer 29

• one strength of learning theory is that elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of attachment
• it seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in attachment, but conditioning may play a role
• for example, a baby may learn to feel warm in the presence of an adult and can influence the choice of attachment and the main caregiver

Question 30

counterpoint for some conditioning may be involved in learning theory

Answer 30

• both classical and operant conditioning explanations see the baby playing a relatively passive role in attachment development, simply responding to the association with comfort or reward
• research shows that babies take a very active role in the interactions that produce attachment
• this means that conditioning may not be an adequate explanation of any aspects of attachment

Question 31

what is reciprocity?

Answer 31

responding to (a gesture or action) by making a corresponding one - where an infant responds to the action of another person or where the actions of one partner (e.g the infant) elicits a response from another (e.g the mother)

Question 32

what are alert phases?

Answer 32

• babies have periodic “alert phases” in which they signal (e.g make eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction
• research shows that mothers typically pick up their baby’s alertness 2/3 of the time - can be affected by things like stress
• from around 3 months, this interaction tends to be a lot more frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 33

what is active involvement?

Answer 33

• traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult
• however, it seems that babies, as well as caregivers, take an active role
• both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions
• Brazelton described it as a “dance”

Question 34

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 34

where an infant mirror the actions of another person - for example an infant imitating behaviours and/or the emotions of their parents/ carer

Question 35

Why is social interaction so important for infants?

Answer 35

the brain is easily changed and moulded and more and more social interactions will make the brain grow and help with language development

Question 36

what was the method of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 36

• An adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or 1 of 3 distinct gestures
• the baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observes

Question 37

what were the findings of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 37

Babies’ expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict.
i.e there was a significant association

Question 38

what was the method of Isabella et al’s research into interactional synchrony and attachment

Answer 38

• observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony

Question 39

what was the results of Isabella et al’s research into interactional synchrony and attachment

Answer 39

• they found that higher levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother- baby attachment

Question 40

strength of Meltzoff and Moore (1977) - controlled observations

Answer 40

• both the mother and the infant are filmed, often from multiple angles, this ensures that fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed.
• Furthermore, babies are unaware that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observations which is generally a problem for observational research.
• This is positive because it means that in general the research has high internal validity it is measuring what it is intending to measure.

Question 41

weakness of Meltzoff and Moore (1977) - lack of purpose

Answer 41

• observations don’t tell us the purpose if synchrony and reciprocity.
• For example, Fieldman (2012) points out that synchrony (and by implication reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time.
• This is a weakness because these are robust phenomena that can be reliably observed, but this may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us their purpose.

Question 42

weakness of Meltzoff and Moore (1977) - It is hard to know what is happening when observing infants.

Answer 42

• For example, is the infant’s imitation of the adult conscious and deliberate or a coincidence?
• What is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expressions.
• It is extremely difficult to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant’s perspective. - - - This is a weakness because we cannot really know for certain that behaviours seen in mother-infant interactions have special meaning.

Question 43

what does evidence say about fathers and first attachments?

Answer 43

fathers are much less likely to be a baby’s first attachment

Question 44

Schaffer and Emerson’s research on first attachments

Answer 44

• they found that the majority of babies first became attached to their mother around 7 months
• in only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment
• in 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother
• 75% of fathers formed an attachment with their father by 18 months - babies protested when their fathers left the room

Question 45

Grossmann et al - distinctive role for fathers

Answer 45

• carried out a longitudinal study where babies’ attachment where studied until they were in their teens
• the researcher looked at both parents’ behaviour and the relationship to the quality of their babies’ later attachment to other people
• quality of a babies’ attachment with mother but not fathers was related to attachment in adolescence.
• this suggest that attachment to fathers is not as important
• however it was also found that quality of the fathers play was related to the quality of adolescent attachment
• this suggests that fathers have a different role role from mothers- more to do with play, not emotional development

Question 46

Field (1978) - primary and attachment figures

Answer 46

• filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interactions with primary care giver mothers , secondary care giver fathers, and primary care giver fathers
• the proven care giver interactions show that fathers do have the potential to be more emotion focused primary attachment care giver
• could only be if they are labelled the primary care giver

Question 47

limitation of research into the role of the father - confusion over research questions

Answer 47

• the question “what is the role of the father/” is more complex than it sounds
• some researchers ask this as secondary attachment figures, while some answer this as primary attachment figures
• some recognise the difference between mothers and fathers, others not so much
• this makes it difficult to properly distinguish the role

Question 48

limitation of research into the role of the father- conflicting evidence

Answer 48

• longitudinal studies like Grossmann et al have suggested that fathers have a important role in play and simulation as a secondary attachment figure
• however, this would mean that children growing up in lesbian households would act differently than those from heterosexual households
• McCallum and Golombok (2004) consistently show that there is no difference in behaviour
• this makes the question of the role of the father difficult to answer

Question 49

strength of research into the role of the father - real life application

Answer 49

• one strength is that it can be used to give advice to parents
• parents and prospective parents often argue over decisions around child care
• parents may feel pressured to follow stereotypes
• also can help hetero and homosexual couples understand the importance and non importance of a father figure

Question 50

according to schaffer and emerson, what is the first stage of attachment?

Answer 50

• a social stage
• behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is similar but there is some preference towards people
• beginning to form attachments with familiar people

Question 51

according to schaffer and emerson, what is the second stage of attachment?

Answer 51

• indiscriminate stage
• from 2-7 months, babies begin to show more observable social behaviours and have clear preference for familiarity
• accept hugs and kisses from anyone
• do not have stranger or seperation anxiety

Question 52

according to schaffer and emerson, what is the third stage of attachment?

Answer 52

• specific attachment
• from 7 months, babies show preference for one person
• develop stranger and seperation anxiety
• development of primary attachemnt figure (mother in 65% of cases)

Question 53

according to schaffer and emerson, what is the fourth stage of attachment?

Answer 53

• multiple attachments
• extend their attachement to behaviour to multiple people (secondary attachments)
• 29% of children formed secondary attachments within a month of primary attachments
• majority of babies formed multiple attachments in a year

Question 54

what was the procedure of schaffer and emerson?

Answer 54

• involved 60 babies - 31 boys and 29 girls - all from glasgow and working class families
• visted babies and mothers every month for a year and then again at 18 months
• asked the mother questions about the kind of protest the babies showed in seperation ( eg parent leaving the room)
• they also assessed the babies’ stranger anxiety

Question 55

what were the findings of schaffer and emerson?

Answer 55

• around half of the babies showed separation anxiety between the ages of 25-32 weeks.
• Attachment generally formed with the mother primarily (known as specific attachment), although the babies tended to become attached to the caregiver who responded most sensitively to them, rather than who they spent most time with.
• By 40 weeks, most babies had a specific attachment, and 30% had multiple attachments (to others, e.g. the father).

Question 56

strength of schaffer and emerson - good external validity

Answer 56

• most of the observations were made by parents during normal activities and reported to the researchers
• having the researchers observe may make the babies anxious or distracted
• this makes the participants more likely to behave in the experiment

Question 57

counter point for external validity for schaffer and emerson

Answer 57

• mothers may be biased in what the observe or report
• they may miss when their baby is showing signs of anxiety
• this means that the results may not be as accurate

Question 58

limitation of schaffer and emerson - poor evidence for the a social stage

Answer 58

• young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile
• if a 2 month old is feeling anxious, it can be difficult to observe making it difficult to report back accurately to the researchers
• this means that flawed methods can leave to wrong impressions

Question 59

strength of schaffer and emerson - real life application

Answer 59

• in the asocial and indiscriminate stage, it means that babies can be cared for and comforted for example in day care
• however, research shows that in the specific attachment stage, it can be difficult to meet new people

Question 60

what was the aim of strange situation?

Answer 60

to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of baby’s attachment to caregivers

Question 61

what was the procedure of mary ainsworth’s strange experiment?

Answer 61

• a controlled observation designed to measure the security of attachment to a caregiver
• it takes place in a room with quiet observation and a 2 way mirror

Question 62

what behavior did the researchers use to judge attachment?

Answer 62

• proximity seeking
• exploration and secure based behaviour
• stranger anxiety
• separation anxiety
• response to reunion

Question 63

what were the steps that the researchers conducted?

Answer 63

• caregiver and baby enter unfamiliar room
• the baby is encouraged to explore
• a stranger comes in, talks to the caregiver and approaches the baby
• the caregiver leaves the baby and stranger together
• the caregiver returns and the stranger leaves
• the caregiver leaves the baby alone
• the stranger returns
• the caregiver returns and is reunited with the baby

Question 64

what were the findings of mary ainsworth’s experiment?

Answer 64

• 3 types of attachment:
• secure - babies explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver. they usually show moderate separation and anxiety and stranger anxiety. they accept comfort upon reunion. 60-75% of British babies have this attachment
• insecure avoidant attachment - they explore freely but do not seek proximity. they show little or no reaction when the caregiver leaves and little stranger anxiety. the make little effort to reunite or even show eye contact upon reunion. 20-25% of british babies have this attachment.
• insecure resistant attachment - they seek greater proximity and explore much less. they show higher levels of stranger and seperation anxiety but resist comfort upon reunion. 3% of british babies have this attachment

Question 65

strength of strange situation - good predicative validity

Answer 65

• its outcome predicts the behaviours of a baby’s later development
• a large body of research has shown that baby’s with secure attachment have better outcomes in childhood and adulthood e.g they achieve better in school and have less involvement in bullying ( McCormick et al 2006)
• those in insecure resistant attachment have the worst outcomes
• this shows the real and meaningful outcomes of development

Question 66

counterpoint to good predicative validity

Answer 66

• the strange situation clearly measures something that is important in later development
• however, some psychologists like Kagan (1982) suggests that genetically influenced anxiety levels could influence behaviour in the situation and later life

Question 67

strength of strange situation - good reliability

Answer 67

• the strange situation has good inter-reliability ( the agreement between different observers)
  -BIck et al (2012) tested inter- reliability and found a 94% agreement rate
• this may be because of the high levels of control and how easy the behaviours are to observe
• this adds confidence and takes away the subjectivity of the results

Question 68

limitation of strange situation - the test may be culture bound

Answer 68

• it may not be a valid measurement of attachment in different cultural contexts
• the strange situation was developed in Britain and the US and may only be useful in these western cultures
• babies have different experiences of cultures that may affect the way that they behave
• this makes it difficult to know what the strange situation is like outside of the US and UK

Question 69

what was the aim of Ijzendoorn and Kroonberg (1988)?

Answer 69

they conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure- avoidant and insecure- resistant attachments across multiple countries to assess cultural variations. they also looked at differences within the same culture

Question 70

what was the procedure of Ijzendoorn and Kroonberg (1988)?

Answer 70

the researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used - 8 countries overall, 15 in the US - 1,990 children. the results were meta analysed

Question 71

what were the results of Ijzendoorn and Kroonberg (1988)?

Answer 71

• in all countries, secure attachment was the most common
• however, they varied - 50% in china and 75% in Britain
• in individualist countries, rates of insecure - resistant were similar to ainsworth
• rates were higher in collectivist cultures of insecure - resistant

Question 72

what was the aim of simonelli et al (2014) ?

Answer 72

to see whether the proportions of babies with different attachment types matched those in previous studies

Question 73

what was teh procedure of simonelli et al (2014) ?

Answer 73

• the researcher assessed 76 babies using the strange situation

Question 74

what were the findings of simonelli et al (2014) ?

Answer 74

• 50% were secure
• 36% insecure avoidant
• the higher increase in insecure avoidant and lovwer in secure is thought to be caused by an increase in young mothers working long hours

Question 75

what are the conclusions of cultural studies?

Answer 75

• secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowbly’s theory that attachment is innate and universal
• however the research shows that there are some cultural factors that affect the results

Question 76

strength of cross cultural studies - indigenous researchers

Answer 76

• one strength of the studies talked about is that most of them were completed by indigenous reporters
• indigenous psychologists are researchers that are from the same backgrounds as the participants
• this means that any problems with cross-cultural research can be avoided such as language barries and bias
• this enhances communication and raises the validity

Question 77

counterpoint to indigenous researchers

Answer 77

• this is not true of all cross cultural research
• morelli and Tronick (1991) were american outsiders trying to conduct attachmetn research abroad

Question 78

limitation of cultural research - confounding variables

Answer 78

• one limitation of cross cultural research is that confounding variables can impact findings
• studies conducted across different countries usally struggle to take different factors into account e.g poverty which cna make behavioural factors change
• this means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross cultural patterns in attachment

Question 79

limitation of cross cultural research - imposed etic

Answer 79

• a limitation of cross cultural research is trying to impose context of one culture into another
• imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea that works in one culture will work in another
• in UK and US, lack of joy on reunion is seen as bad, in germany, it is seen as independance

Question 80

what is maternal deprivation?

Answer 80

the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother or mother substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development and prolonged separation causes serious intellectual and emotional problems

Question 81

what is separation vs deprivation

Answer 81

• Separation means that the child is not in the presence of the primary care giver
• this only becomes a problem is the child is deprived of care ( even if the mother is present )
• brief separations are not harmful, but long separation can be harmful

Question 82

how does the critical period relate to maternal derivation

Answer 82

if a child is separated from their mother and therefore has deprivation during the critical period, psychological problems are inevitable

Question 83

what are the intellectual effects of deprivation?

Answer 83

• deprivation can lead to intellectual delays adn an abnormally low IQ
  Goldfarb (1947) found that children in institutions had lower IQs

Question 84

what are the emotional effects of deprivation?

Answer 84

• bowlby said affectionless psychopathy (the inability to express guilt or emotions to others) prevents meaningful relationships and increased crime

Question 85

what was the procedure fo Bowlby’s research into affectionless psychopathy?

Answer 85

• sample was 44 criminal teenager accused fo stealing
• they were all interviewed for affectionless psychopathy adn so where their families to look for early separation
• the group was comapred to control group of non criminals but emotionally challenged people

Question 86

what were the findings of Bowlby’s research?

Answer 86

• 14 of the 44 criminals were affectionless psychopathy and 12 had prolonged separation from their mother
• only 5 of the remaining 30 had separation
• only 2 in the control group has separation
• concluded that separation did cause affectionless psychopathy

Question 87

limitation of maternal deprivation - flawed evidence

Answer 87

• bowlby himself carried out the interiviews with the participants and their families
• this left him open to bias as he knew which teenagers he thought to have affectionless psychopathy
• Goldfarbs particpants had experienced trauma as well as separation

Question 88

counterpoint of flawed evidence

Answer 88

• a new line of research has shown the long term effects of maternal deprivation
• Levy et al (2003) showed that seperating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day hasd permananent effects on their social development

Question 89

limitation of maternal deprivation - deprivation and privation

Answer 89

• Rutter (1981) made clear distinction between deprivation ( the loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment has developed ) adn privation ( the failure to form attachment in the first place)
• it is thought that a lot fo children e.g in institutions have issues due to privation not deprivation
• shows there is too much emphasis on deprivation

Question 90

limitation of maternal deprivation - critical versus sensitive period

Answer 90

• bowlby was adament that during the critical period, it was inevitable that affectionless psychopathy would form
• cases like koluchova ( 1976) study on chezch twins vwho were abused during the critical period but made a full recovery suggests that the critical period shoulf be the sensitive period

Question 91

what is institutionalisation?

Answer 91

refers to a place like a hospital or orphanage where people live for as long, continuous period of time. in these places, there is often little emotional care provided.

Question 92

what is the procedure for Rutter et al (2011)

Answer 92

• followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted in the UK
• the aim was to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
• physical, emotional and cognitive development had been measured at ages 4,6,11, 15 and 22-25 years
• agroup of 52 children from the uk adopted around the same time were the control group

Question 93

what were the findings of Rutter et al

Answer 93

• when tehy arrvied in teh UK, half of the children showed signs of intellectual delay and malnourishment
• the mena IQ was much higher in childeren who had been adopted between 0-6 months compared to those adopted between 6 months - 2 years (108 compared to 86) - Beckett et al (2010)
• ADHD was much more common in the 15 year old and 22-25 year old samples
• more likely to have disinhibited attachment (attention seeking, clinginess etc)

Question 94

what was the procedure of Zeanah et al (2005)

Answer 94

• conducted the Bucharest early intervention (BEI) project assessing attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% of it )
• carers were also asked about any behaviours that could indicate disinhibted attachment

Question 95

what were the findings of Zeanah et al

Answer 95

• The research also found that participants who experienced institutionalisation were more likely to develop disinhibited attachments. (65.3%)

Question 96

strength of romanian studies - fewer confounding variables

Answer 96

Most of the children examined in these studies were placed in institutions from birth, which means they have not suffered from abuse, neglect or other trauma. This makes it easier to study the effects of institutionalisation in isolation because there are fewer confounding variables. There were no significant ethical issues in Romanian orphan studies.

Question 97

strength of romanian studies - real world application

Answer 97

• one strength is their application to improve living conditions of children
• studying romanian orphans has given psychologists an insight into the effects of instituionalisation (langton 2006) which has led to changes in the way children in care are raised
• children nwo have one or two key workers to provide in their emotional development
• this gives children in instituions a chance to develop normally

Question 98

limitation of Romanian studies - lack of data on adult development

Answer 98

• the latest data from the ERA study looks at children in their early - mid 20s menaing we do not have enough data to look at the long term effects
• it will take even longer to get this data because it is a longitudinal study
• it is then possible that late adopted orphans may “ catch up”