Attachment Flashcards
Define: Reciprocity.
Reciprocity is where an infant will respond to the actions of a care-giver, eliciting a response from the other.
What is meant by interactional synchrony?
- The care-giver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other.
- They do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) manner.
How is attachment measured?
- Proximity
- Separation distress
- Secure base behaviour.
What is another term for reciprocal interactions.
Turn-taking.
What are 2 components of reciprocity?
- Alert phases
- Active involvement
What is meant by an infants alert phase?
- A periodic phase in which they signal (eye-contact or noise) that they are ready for a spell of interaction.
What fraction of the time will mothers detect babies alert phases?
2/3 of the time.
This will vary depending on the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress.
What is meant by active involvement?
Active involvement refers to the ability of the baby, as well as the caregiver, being able to initiate an interaction.
(This is opposed to the baby taking a passive role)
They also appear to take turns in doing so.
What occurs in interactional synchrony?
The infant and caregiver carry out the same reaction simultaneously - both individuals act in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
State Meltzoff and Moore’s observation into caregiver-infant interactions.
- Meltzoff and Moore observed the beginning of synchrony in babies as young as two weeks.
1) An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures.
2) The babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.
Findings: The babies expression and gestures were more likely to mirror the caregiver more than chances would predict. (there was a significant association).
What are the two types of caregiver-infant interactions?
- Reciprocity
- Interactional synchrony
State Isabella et al. research into interactional synchrony.
- Isabella et al. observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony. Researchers also investigated the quality of mother-baby attachment.
Findings: They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment (for example, the emotional intensity of the relationship)
Evaluate caregiver-infant interactions.
- Filmed observations ✔
- Difficulty observing babies ✘
- Does not clarify if these have developmental importance ✘
What are the 4 stages of attachment?
(in order)
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate stage
- Specific attachment
- Multiple attachments
Who studied / founded the stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson.
Describe the asocial stage of attachment.
In the asocial stage (first 3 weeks)..
- Babies observable behaviour towards inanimate objects and humans is fairly similar.
- Schaffer and Emerson believe that there is a tendency to show human preference.
- Babies show a preference for familiar people, more easily comforted by them.
- At this stage, the baby is beginning to form bonds.
Describe the indiscriminate stage.
In the indiscriminate stage (2-7 months)..
- Babies display more obvious and observable social behaviours.
- Show a clear preference for being with other humans as opposed to inanimate objects.
- They can recognise and find comfort in the presence of familiar people.
- They WILL usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person.
- They do not usually show separation OR stranger anxiety.
Describe the specific attachment stage.
In specific attachment (7+ months)
- Babies display attachment to display classic signs of attachment towards a singular person. (e.g.: stranger and separation anx.)
- The person who they form a specific attachment to is called the primary attachment figure.
(This is not necessarily who the individual spends the most time with - it is the one who offers more interaction and is the most skilled at detecting the babies signals) - This is the mother 65% of the time.
Describe the multiple attachment stage.
In the multiple attachment stage.. (7+)
- Occurs shortly after specific attachment, extending into multiple attachments.
- The people they have bonded to after regularly spending time with are called secondary attachments.
- Schaffer and Emerson found that 29% of the children observed formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment.
- By the age of one year the majority of babies had developed multiple attachments.
Outline Schaffer and Emerson’s research.
OBSERVATIONAL STUDY.
- Involved 60 Glaswegian babies.
- The babies were working-class.
- Researchers visited every month for the first year and then again at 18 months.
- The researcher asked mothers questions surrounding their response to separation and strangers.
- From this, Schaffer and Emerson were able to formulate distinct stages involved in infant attachment.
Evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment.
- Practical application (nursery) ✔
- Good external validity (natural) ✔
- Generalizability (only Glaswegians) ✘
- Mothers can be unreliable observers ✘
Define what is meant by the “father” in psychology.
The father is anyone who adopts the role of the main male caregiver regardless of biological relation.
In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, what % of the time did fathers become the primary attachment figure?
3% of the time.
(In 27% the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother)
In Schaffer and Emerson’s study what percentage of babies formed an attachment with their fathers by 18 months?
75% of babies.
Outline Klaus Grossmans study into distinctive roles of the father.
LONGITUDINAL STUDY.
Grossmann followed babies up into their adolescent years, looking at how both parents behavior and their relationships with the baby influenced the quality of attachments later in life.
- Grossmann found that a quality of babies attachments with the mothers, NOT THE FATHERS, was related to attachment in adolescence.
This suggests that the fathers role is less significant than a mothers. - However, Grossmann also found that the quality of the fathers play with the infant was related to adolescent attachments.
This suggests that fathers do have a distinctive role, relating to play and stimulation as opposed to emotional development.
What happens when fathers adopt the role of primary caregivers?
The fathers are able to adopt an emotional role typically associated with mothers.
Outline Fields study into the role of the father.
- Field filmed 4-month old babies in face-to-face interactions with:
Primary caregiver mothers
Primary caregiver fathers
Secondary caregiver fathers. - Primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies compared to secondary caregiver fathers.
This shows reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
Evaluate the “role of the father.”
- Vague research questions, lack of clarity over what is asked. ✘
- Challenges to distinctive role: presence of lesbian and single mothers. ✘
- Counterpoint: lesbians and single mothers may fill in and account for role. ✔
- Real world application: reassurance to families through advice. ✔
Who were the two psychologists who investigated animal attachments?
Harlow and Lorenz.
What did Lorenz investigate in his animal studies?
- Imprinting
- The critical period
- Sexual imprinting.
Outline Lorenz’s procedure in studying geese.
Lorenz randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs in a classic experiment.
Half of the clutch were hatched with their mother, the other half were incubated where the first moving object they saw was him
What did Lorenz find in his experiment on geese?
- The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere
- The control group, hatched in the presence of their mother followed her.
- When the two groups were mixed, the control group still followed the mother whereas the experimental group followed Lorenz.
What is meant by imprinting? (geese case study)
Imprinting, regarding geese, is where birds that are mobile from birth will follow the first moving object they see upon hatching.
What is meant by the critical period?
The idea that attachment has to form within a certain time scale, or it will never happen :(
Lorenz found that if imprinting does not occur within the critical period, chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
What is meant by sexual imprinting?
The concept that there is a relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences.
What case study conducted by Lorenz investigated sexual imprinting?
- Peacock that had been reared in a zoos reptile house.
The first moving object the peacock saw when hatching were giant tortoises.
As an adult the peacock would only direct courtship behavior to giant tortoises.
Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
What was Harlow’s procedure when investigating attachment in monkeys?
- Harlow had observed that newborns kept alone in a bare cage often died, however, they usually survived if provided with something soft like a cloth to cuddle.
The procedure:
Harlow reared 16 baby monkeys using two models.
There was a plain wire ‘mother’ that provided milk and a clothed ‘mother’ that dispensed milk depending on what was being tested.
Outline Harlow’s findings into attachment in animals.
- The monkeys displayed a clear preference to the cloth mother, seeking comfort from them when frightened.
(Harlow had presented a noisy mechanical teddy bear) - This applied regardless if the cloth mother dispensed milk or not.
- This demonstrates how, to monkeys, comfort was more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment.
How did maternal deprivation have an impact on Harlow’s monkeys in adulthood?
- Monkeys reared with plain-wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional
- The monkey group overall did not develop normal social behaviour.
The monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys. - The monkeys bred less due to being unskilled in mating, in the event where they became mothers, some neglected or attacked their children.
What is the critical period for monkeys to form attachment, proposed by Harlow.
90 days for attachment to form
Evaluate animal studies into attachment.
- Research support (ducks) ✔
- Generalizability to humans ✘
- Real world value (Harlow) ✔
(Has helped psychologists identify that lack of bonding experience is a risk factor to poor child development - research is not theoretical it is also practical)
What is learning theory in attachment?
A theory based on the behaviorist approach.
The learning theory emphasizes learning in the formation of behavior.
How does learning theory explain attachment?
Attachment behaviours can be formed from classical and operant conditioning.
What is “cupboard love”?
Where the importance of the attachment figure is surrounding the role as a food provider.
(Proposes that children learn to love whoever feeds them)
What is the process of classical conditioning?
- Unconditioned stimulus → unconditioned response.
- Neutral stimulus → No response
- Unconditioned + neutral stimulus → unconditioned response
- Conditioned stimulus → conditioned response.
In relation to food, how does classical conditioning operate in learning theory?
- Food is an unconditioned stimulus, creating an unconditioned response of pleasure in the baby.
- The caregiver begins as a neutral stimulus, prompting no response initially.
- When the caregiver provides food, over time the baby associates the caregiver with the satiation of hunger.
- From this, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus.
- Once conditioning occurs, the caregiver will produce a conditioned response in the infant of pleasure / love.
What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is learning through associating two stimuli together to produce a conditioned response.
