Attachment

Question 1

Define Attachment

Answer 1

A close, two-way, emotional bond between two individuals which is seen as essential for their emotional security

Question 2

3 attachment behaviours

Answer 2

Proximity: people trying to stay physically close.
Separation anxiety: Feeling distressed when the figure leaves.
Secure base behaviour: explore the environment but return back to the att. figure for comfort

Question 3

2 Caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 3

Reciprocity: one person responding to another with a similar action
Interactional synchrony: Reflecting the actions and emotions of the other. (Meltzoff and Moore)

Question 4

Role of the father- Grossman (2002)

Answer 4

Longitudinal study - fathers attachment was less important to the quality of children’s attachments in their teens
However, the quality of the father’s play was related the quality of attachments they have in the future

Question 5

Role of the Father: Extra

Answer 5

-Lamb: found that the role of the father was a playmate but the mother is preferred for comfort
-Paquette: Father’s are more likely to take part in risk taking activities & enjoyable games

Question 6

Schaffer and Emerson: Background Info

Answer 6

Longitudinal, 60 babies, Glasgow, Working class, 5-23 weeks Mother’s had to keep track in a diary, all children were studied at home

Question 7

Schaffer and Emmerson: Stages of Attachment

Question 8

Schaffer and Emerson A03

Question 9

Define Imprinting and Critical period

Answer 9

Imprinting: An innate readiness to form a strong attachment with the mother.
CP: The period of time in which imprinting must occur.

Question 10

Lorenz - Geese Experiment

Answer 10

Divided a clutch of eggs in half
1/2 hatched with their mother
1/2 with Lorenz in an incubator
Controlled group followed their mum everywhere, whilst Lorenz’s group followed him everywhere. Once mingled together, they still went to their respective “mothers”

Question 11

Lorenz evaluation

Answer 11

+(Hess) repeated the study on ducklings & found imprinting period can be strongest at 13-17 hrs.
(Guiton) found that chickens tried to mate with yellow rubber gloves after imprinting with them. // However, after spending time with their own species, they begun mating as normal.
Ag: Sluckin said it can be reversed

Question 12

Harlow - Effects of privation

Answer 12

16 rhesus monkeys, immediately separated from mothers after birth. Access to 2 mothers - 8 got milk from a wire mother, 8 from the cloth mother.

Question 13

Harlow’s findings

Answer 13

Both groups spent more time with the cloth mother.
- more timid
- aggressive and unsure of how to behave around other monkeys
- difficulty mating
- inadequate mothers, often killed offspring
Early maternal deprivation led to emotional damage, leaving permanent dysfunctional behaviours.

Question 14

Harlow A03

Answer 14

+Helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse; how to intervene and prevent it
- If the rhesus monkeys were similar enough to humans to generalise the findings, their suffering was presumably also human-like
- Monkeys weren’t in their natural habitat which would already alter behaviour

Question 15

Classical Conditioning

Answer 15

Learning through association, of two stimuli together

UCS = UCR
NS = No response
UCS + NS = UCR
CS = CR
Example: (Pavlov) dog salivating at the sound of the bell

Question 16

Classical Conditioning: A03

Answer 16

• “food giver becomes primary attachment figure” only in 60% of cases
• atts. are emotionally rich and complex, CC reduces this behaviour and it’s importance (reductionism)

Question 17

Operant conditioning

Answer 17

Learning through reinforcement
Crying leads to a response from the caregiver, so crying is reinforced because it produces a pleasurable consequence (i.e. feeding).
Negative reinforcement (escaping from something unpleasant) the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops

Question 18

Bowlby’s monotropic/evolutionary theory

Answer 18

“an innate process that serves an important evolutionary function”. a prime example of a behavioural pattern that’s rooted in biology & evolution.
The purpose of att. is the same regardless of any culture and ethnic differences

Question 19

Bowlby’s monotropic theory
(My Cat Is Always Sleeping)

Answer 19

M - Monotropy - forming one main att, which is unique to all others (with your mother)
C - Critical Period - Need to form an att in 2.5 years.
I - IWM - An internal cognitive template for all future relationships.
A - Adaptive - Humans are born with the innate need to form an att, to increase their chances of survival.
S - Social releasers - Innate behaviours that trigger responses.

Question 20

Bowlby’s monotropic theory A03

Answer 20

+ Hazen and Shaver love quiz supports the IWM
+ Brazelton et al found social releasers in IS when observing babies & mums
- Lorenz supports the idea that we have innate att behaviours (lacks generalisability = animals)
- Lamb proposed that we form atts with our parents for different reasons

Question 21

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 21

measured the security of attachment between mother & child
used 5 categories to judge quality of att.
procedure had 7 procedures, 3 mins long

Question 22

Ainsworth’s strange situation findings

Answer 22

Type B: secure attachment: (60-75%) requires & accepts comfort at reunion. moderate SSA. happy to explore but seeks proximity
Type A: insecure avoidant: (20-25%) doesn’t require comfort at reunion. little/no SSA. Explores freely, no proximity
Type C: insecure resistant: (3%) resists comfort at reunion. considerable S/S A. Explore less, seek greater proximity.

Question 23

Ainsworth A03

Answer 23

+ inter-rater reliability: different observers found similar results Bick et al found 94% same results.
+ validity: explains future outcomes, concludes their results.
- culture bound test: designed by an american, tested on brits
- may be more attachment types: Main and Solomon found some don’t fit them categories and have disorganised att.
-temperament may be confounding variable: Kagan suggests that temperament (child’s genetically influenced personality) is a more important influence on behaviour then SSA.

Question 24

Cultural Variations - van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg

Answer 24

(Meta-analysis) 1990 children, 32 studies of the SS - looking at secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments in a range of countries.

Question 25

Cultural Variations - Simonelli et al

Answer 25

76 12 month olds using SS, in Italy.
50% secure, 36% insecure-avoidant. The decrease in secure was suggested to be due to mother’s working much longer hours & using childcare

Question 26

Cultural Variations - Takahashi

Answer 26

Repeated the SS with 60 middle-class Japanese.
0% insecure-avoidant, 32% insecure-resistant, 68% secure
90% of the infant-alone episodes needed to be stopped due to anxiety - these steps broke their cultural norms

Question 27

Cultural variations A03

Answer 27

+ very large sample size - increased internal validity, reduces bias.
+ Bowlby’s explanation for cultural similarities is that attachment is innate and universal.
- samples were between countries not cultures - different areas have different styles and norms.
- may be biased to US/British cultures - lack of pleasure at reunion can be interpreted differently.
- Measures anxiety? : Kagan suggests att. is more related to temperament than relationship with the caregiver.

Question 28

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 28

Deprivation from the caregiver during the critical period (30 mo/ 2.5 yrs)will have lasting, harmful effects on a child’s development.
separation - being physically distanced from PAF for a short period of time
deprivation - losing emotional att., as a result of the separation over an extended time period.
Lack of emotional care leads to affectionless psychopathy, lower IQs and other developmental issues.

Question 29

Maternal deprivation: 44 thieves study

Answer 29

Aim: to investigate the long term effects of in order to see whether delinquents have suffered MD.
14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. 12/14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in their first 2 years. So, prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Question 30

Maternal deprivation A03

Answer 30

• Goldfarb’s war-orphans may have had lasting effects due to war, which may have caused difficulties compared to separation & many kids deprived of multiple aspects of care, not just maternal.
• Lewis partially repeated this study with 500 young people, early MD didn’t predict criminality
  Czech twins show servere deprivation can have positive outcomes (Critical period)
  + Animal studies demonstrated MD. However, only a certain extent to which they can be generalised

Question 31

Romanian Orphans study: Rutter et al - ‘English & Romanian Adoptees’

Answer 31

165 Romanian orphans from institutions (111 adopted before 2 and other 54 were adopted by 4). Adoptees were tested at 4, 6, 11, 15. Progress was compared to a control group of 52 British adopted before 6 months.
At adoption, RO lagged behind British counterparts for all development. Most RO adopted before 2 caught up by the age of 4.

Question 32

Romanian orphans study: Zeanah et al

Answer 32

Compared 136 RO, who had spent 90% of their lives in institutions, to a control group of 50 Romanian children who had never gone to an institution. Researchers used the SS. They showed disinhibited and disorganised attachment.

Question 33

Romanian Orphan studies - effects of institutionalisation

Answer 33

Disinhibited attachment: children don’t discriminate between people they choose as their att. figures - attention seeking, clingy, overfriendly etc.
Physical underdevelopment: children in institutional care are usually physically small - deprivation dwarfism.
Intellectual underdevelopment - lower IQs

Question 34

Romanian orphans A03

Answer 34

+ longitudinal studies
+ results of research, led to improved methods of care in institutions. Children’s homes introduced specific ‘key workers’ for children who play a central role for them - avoids disinhibited attachment
+ Quinton found that women raised in institutions were more likely to have trouble during parenting - IWM & privation
- Romanian Orphanage situations were extreme, therefore lack generalisability.

Question 35

Influence of early attachment on later relationships

Question 36

Influence of early attachment on later relationships A03

Answer 36

• validity issues: participants can lie during interviews and questions.
• influence may be exaggerated
• child’s temperament may influence their future rs.

Question 37

Hazen and Shaver romantic relationships