Attachment

Question 1

What is an alert phase ?

Answer 1

Where a baby signals they are ready for a spell of interaction.

Question 2

How often did Feldman and Eidelman say mothers pick up on their babies alertness ?

Answer 2

2/3 but varied due to mothers skill and external factors (Finegood)

Question 3

What is intetactional synchrony ?

Answer 3

Where baby and caregiver reflect both actions and emotions if each other in a co ordinated way.

Question 4

When did Meltzoff and Moore find interactional synchrony begins ?

Answer 4

As young as 2 weeks old.

Question 5

What did Isabella et al suggest about interactional synchrony ?

Answer 5

High synchrony levels associated with better quality mother baby attachment.

Question 6

What is a strength of care giver infant interaction research ?

Answer 6

Filmed observation - Usually filmed in lab so activity that may have distributed baby can be controlled. Also can be analysed later. One observer can record data and establish inter rated reliability. Babies unaware of being observed so no demand characteristics. So high validity and reliability.

Question 7

What are limitations of infant caregiver interaction research ?

Answer 7

Difficult to observe babies - lack coordination and subtle expression. Hard to know if movements are triggered by caregiver or just random. So cannot be certain behaviours have special meanings.

Doesn’t explain developmental importance - Feldman, ideas like synchrony only give names to behaviours. Doesn’t tell purpose of behaviours so not useful in understanding child development. So cannot be sure reciprocity and synchrony are important for child’s development.

However, evidence shows early interactions are important eg isabella et al found synchrony predicted good quality attachment.

Question 8

What are Schaffers 4 stages of attachment ?

Answer 8

1. Asocial (first few weeks)
2. Indiscriminate (2-7months)
3. Specific
4. Multiple

Question 9

What are strengths of Schaffer’s stages of attachment ?

Answer 9

Good external validity - most observations by parents in normal activities. So natural behaviour likely.

However, mother’s may not be objective and could be biased towards child. So not accurately recorded.

Real world application - practical use in day care. Asocial and indiscriminate stages may be straightforward as babies can be comforted with skilled adult. But specific stage may be problematic. Can be used to plan day care.

Question 10

What’s a limitation of Schaffers stages of attachment ?

Answer 10

Poor evidence of asocial stage - young babies show subtle behaviour and hard to observe. They may be social but because of flawed methods appear asocial.

Question 11

What did Schaffer and Emerson find about attachment to fathers ?

Answer 11

Babies attach to mother at around 7 months. Only 3% father was first sole attachment. 75% attached to father by 18 months.

Question 12

What did Grossman find about the role of fathers ?

Answer 12

Quality of fathers play with babies was related to quality of adolescent attachments. So fathers more important for play and stimulation.

Question 13

What did Field find about role of father ?

Answer 13

Primary caregiver fathers were like mothers bad didn’t find smiling and holding babies more than secondary caregiver fathers. So fathers may also be more emotion focused if the primary caregiver.

Question 14

What are limitations of the role of father research ?

Answer 14

Research question confusion - some more focused with secondary attachment fathers some primary.

Conflicting research - Grossman suggested fathers have important role in play but then single mother or lesbian parents children would be different. So whether fathers have distinct role remains unanswered.

However, lesbian families may just adapt and play the role of a father.

Question 15

What is a strength of role of father research ?

Answer 15

Real world application - parents can be reassured with research. Eg. fathers can be primary attachment and lesbians can have children without worry of it affecting child.

Question 16

What did Lorenz find ?

Answer 16

Imprinting if ducklings. Critical period in which imprinting needs to take place.

Question 17

What did Harlow find ?

Answer 17

Baby monkeys favoured cloth mom to plain wire. Went to cloth when frightened. Monkeys with wire most dysfunctional later. 90 day critical period.

Question 18

Evaluate Lorenz study.

Answer 18

Research support - Regolin and Vallortigara, chicks exposed to moving shapes and followed first most closely. Supporting imprinting.

Not generalisable to humans - birds less complex so cannot generalise to humans.

Question 19

Evaluate Harlows study.

Answer 19

Real world value - helped social workers and psychologists understand that a lack of bonding may be risk in child development. Important in zoos etc. Practical value.

Cant generalise to humans - monkeys more similar to human than birds but human brain still more complex.

Question 20

What is the learning theory ?

Answer 20

Explanations for behaviour that can include classical and operant conditioning.

Question 21

How does classical conditioning work in attachment ?

Answer 21

Association between food and pleasure leads to attachment to caregiver providing food. Sees caregiver as food provider so produces conditioned response of pleasure.

Question 22

How does operant conditioning work in attachment ?

Answer 22

Learning from consequence. Why babies cry for comfort. Caregiver receives negative reinforcement for stopping crying with comfort. Strengthens attachment.

Question 23

What are limitations of the learning theory ?

Answer 23

Lack of support - animal studies eg. lorenz geese imprinted regardless of whether food was involved. Harlows monkeys did not father food mother.

Lack of support - human studies eg. Schaffer and Emerson found babies tended to form main attachment with mom regardless of whether she fed more. Isabella et al found high levels of synchrony predicted quality of attachment not feeding.

Question 24

What’s a strength of the learning theory ?

Answer 24

Elements of conditioning can be used in other aspects of attachment. eg. baby may associate feeling warm or comfortable with main caregiver. So can help understand development of attachments.

However, sees baby as passive role in development of attachment when they have an active role.

Question 25

What did Bowlby say monotrophy is ?

Answer 25

Child’s attachment to one caregiver is different and more important than others.

Question 26

What is the internal working model ?

Answer 26

Child forms mental representation of the relationship with their primary attachment figure. Shapes future relationships.

Question 27

What is an limitation of the monotropic theory ?

Answer 27

Lacks validity - Schaffer and Emerson found that a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time. First Attachment may be stronger but not necessarily difference in quality from child’s other attachments.

Question 28

What are strengths of the monotropic theory ?

Answer 28

Research support - cute babies elicit interaction from caregivers. Brazelton study of ignoring social releasers and babies became distressed.

Research support - Bailey study found mothers with poor attachment to own primary attachment figures more likely to have poorly attached babies.

However, may be due to genetics not necessarily internal working model.

Question 29

What three types of attachment did Ainsworth find ?

Answer 29

Secure
Insecure avoidant
Insecure resistant

Question 30

What is a limitation of the strange situation study ?

Answer 30

Culture bound - developed in britain and usa. Babies in japan seen as insecure resistant because mother baby separation is rare. So may not apply outside of western europe.

Question 31

What are some cultural variations in attachment ?

Answer 31

75% of uk secure 22% ia 3% ir
50% of china secure 25% ia 25% ir
35% germany ia

individualistic countries eg germany had high ia

Question 32

Who researched cultural variations ?

Answer 32

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

Question 33

What is a strength of cultural variations ?

Answer 33

Indigenous researchers - same cultural background as pps. eg Takahashi japanese. Less cross cultural problems and misunderstandings or bias. High validity.

Question 34

What are limitations of cultural variations ?

Answer 34

Confounding variables - studies not usually matched in methods across different countries. Environmental variables may impact eg size of room or quality of toys. May not show true differences in attachment type.

Imposed etic - test designed for one culture put on all. eg less proximity seeking behaviour seen as avoidant attachment in us but germany seen as independence. So behaviours may not have same meaning to everyone.

Question 35

What did Bowlby find about maternal deprivation ?

Answer 35

44 thieves study, 14/44 described as affection-less psychopaths and 12 had experienced prolonged separation from mother in first 2 years of life.
Prolonged early separation or deprivation caused affection less psychopathy.

Question 36

Who found maternal deprivation leads to abnormally low IQ ?

Answer 36

William Goldfarb, lower is of children who remained in institutions compared to those fostered.

Question 37

What is affectionless psychopathy ?

Answer 37

The inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others.

Question 38

What are limitations of Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation ?

Answer 38

Flawed evidence - 44 thieves study conducted by bowlby himself. May have been biased because he knew what teens he expected to show psychopathy signs. Also Goldfarbs study was during wartime so confounding variables like trauma may have affected children as well as prolonged separation. So research cannot be taken seriously now.

Deprivation and privation - confusion between types of early experience. Rutter drew important distinction between deprivation and privation. Deprivation = loss of primary attachment figure after attachment occurred. Privation = failure of attachment in first place. So children of goldfarbs study may have been prived not deprived. So bowlby may have overestimated seriousness of effects of deprivation.

Critical vs sensitive periods - Bowlby said damage was inevitable if child hadn’t formed attachment in first 2 and half years. But good quality aftercare has been seen to prevent most damage. Koluchova reported case of twins with serious abuse from ages of 18 months until 7. After excellent after care they recovered. So critical period is better seen as sensitive period.

Question 38

What did Rutter et al study ?

Answer 38

165 Romanian orphans adopted by ik families.

Question 39

What did Rutter et al find ?

Answer 39

IQ of those adopted before 6 months = 102
6 months - 2 years = 86
After 2 years = 77

Those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment.

Question 40

What is reciprocity?

Answer 40

Caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.

Question 41

How many of British babies were classified as securely attached ?

Answer 41

60-75%

Question 42

What are strengths of Ainsworth’s strange situation study ?

Answer 42

The outcome predicts aspects of baby’s later development. Securely attached usually have better outcomes like achievement in school. So suggests that the study measure something real and meaningful in a baby’s development.

Good inter tater reliability - Bick et al found agreement with study in 94% of cases. Could be due to use of controller conditions and because the stranger anxiety and proximity seeking behaviours are clear to measure. So can be confident that attachment type can be assessed by strange situations.

Question 43

What did Zeanah et al research ?

Answer 43

95 romanian children 12-31 months who spent most their lives in institutions.

Question 44

What did Zeanah et al find ?

Answer 44

74% control group securely attached
19% institutional group
44% institutionalised disinhibited attachment
20% control group

Question 45

What are strengths of institutionalism studies ?

Answer 45

Real world application - Application to improve conditions of children growing up outside family home. Improved understanding of effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these effects. eg. care homes now avoid having large numbers of carers for one child. So children in care now have chance to develop normal attachments.

Lack of confounding variables - Orphan studies before mainly during war so had varied amounts of trauma. But romanian orphanages had been handed over by loving parents who couldnt afford them. So results less likely to be confounded by other negative experiences meaning higher internal validity.

Question 46

What is a limitation of institutionalism studies ?

Answer 46

Lack of data on adult development - Up to mid 20s so we do not have long term effects. Take a long time to gather the data because it is longitudinal. So will be some time before we know the long term effects. Late adopted children may possibly catch up.

Question 47

What was found about influence of early attachment on later relationships ?

Answer 47

Childhood - securely attached babies tend to go on to form best quality child friendships.
eg. Wilson and Smith found ia children most likely to be victims of bullying and ir most likely to be bullies.

Adulthood - Hazan and Shaver love quiz
Bailey et al found the majority of mothers had same attachment type with their mothers than their babies.

Question 48

What is a strength of research of later relationship studies ?

Answer 48

Research support - Reviews of evidence find early attachment consistently predicts later attachment. Disorganised attachment strongly associated with later mental disorder.So secure attachment’s are seen to show advantages for future development.

Question 49

What are limitations of research on impact of early attachment on later attachment ?

Answer 49

Assessed retrospectively - most research not longitudinal. Causes validity problems due to honesty and accuracy of pps. Hard to know whether early attachment or adult attachment is being measured. Confounding variables.

Confounding variables - eg parenting style or genetics so can never be entirely sure it’s early attachment and not just other factors affecting later development.