Attachment

Question 1

what are the advantages and disadvantages of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 1

• subjective as babies expression may have no meaning
• observations don’t tell us why there is reciprocity and interational synchrony
• it is socially sensitive as Isabelle et al’s study shows that mothers should not go to work
  + controlled observations

Question 2

Parent- infant attachment

Answer 2

traditionally the mother
Schaffer and Emerson found what babied become attached to their mother first around 7 moths then secondary attachment a few weeks later. in 75% of the studies an attachment was made with the father by 18 months ( determined by baby showing separation anxiety from father)

Question 3

advantages and disadvantages of attachment figures

Answer 3

inconsistent findings as different researchers are interested in finding different things e.g. primary and secondary attachment. no studies actually tell us what the role of the father is.
-socially sensitive as suggests child might be at a disadvantage if mother goes back to work
- children with fathers growing up are no difference showing similar role
+ biological explanation, woman have more oestrogen making them more nurturing

Question 4

Schaffer and Emerson’s Study

Answer 4

investigated the aims of early attachment at the age which they develop emotional intensity and to whom they direct it at
60 babies (1 male and 29 female) from Glasgow working class families . they were visited to their homes every month for for the first year and again at 18 months. mothers asked if babies show any protest and tested separation and stranger anxiety.
they found that between 25 and 32 months 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety . they showed reciprocity. BY age 40 weeks 80% of babies had specific attachment and 30% showed multiple attachment

Question 5

Schaffer and Emerson evaluation

Answer 5

good external validity as carried out in the homes
+longitudinal so good internal validity as children followed up so no confounding variables as same children used
- can’t be generalised
- doesn’t necessarily measure attachment as stranger and separation anxiety are only two components that make up attachment

Question 6

Stage 1 of attachment (Schaffer and Emerson)

Answer 6

asocial stage
birth to 2 months
recognising and forming bonds with carer but behaviours towards human and non-human objects are similar.
baby shows preference to familiar people and can calm down quickly with them
baby happier in the presence of humans

Question 7

Stage 2 of attachment (Schaffer and Emerson)

Answer 7

indiscriminate stage
2-7 months
child shows preference to humans rather than inanimate objects. they recognise and prefer similar objects
they accept comfort from any adult
do not show stranger of separation anxiety

Question 8

Stage 3 of attachment (Schaffer and Emerson)

Answer 8

specific attachment
around 7 months
infant starts to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. the child has formed a specific attachment with the primary caregiver

Question 9

Stage 4 of attachment (Schaffer and Emerson)

Answer 9

multiple attachments
a month after forming specific attachments
child forms secondary attachment

Question 10

evaluation of sages of development (Schaffer and Emerson)

Answer 10

• problems with asocial stage as baby has no coordination and is immobile so judgements on behaviour can not be made when this young
• problems with multiple attachments as not clear when baby forms second attachment as different in collectivist cultures
• the stage theory suggests that development of attachment is not flexible
  +application as gives a mothers point of view of their child’s progress in attachment

Question 11

Lorenz’s Research

Answer 11

Lorenz randomly divided goose eggs. Half of them hatched in a natural environment with their mother. The others hatched in an incubator and the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz.
Incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group followed the mother duck. This was imprinting whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching. if they did not form an attachment in this time Lorenz found that the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 12

Evaluation of Lorenz’s research

Answer 12

research may not generalise to other animals let alone humans
- observations can be questioned. E.g. the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al found that some chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try and mate with them as well as adults. But with experience they learnt they preferred to mate with other chickens. This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not permanent as Lorenz believed.

Question 13

Harlow’s Research evaluation

Answer 13

-highly unethical
+ real life application for social workers as they understand the effects of neglect and abuse
+can generalise better to humans that Lorenz’s study of goose

Question 14

Harlow’s research

Answer 14

Harlow tested the idea that soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed from the plain wire mother whereas in the second condition milk was dispensed from the cloth covered mother.
it was found that the monkeys cuddled and sought comfort when frightened from the cloth mother over the wire mother even when the wire mother dispensed milk. This shows that contact comfort is more important to monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

Question 15

what is the importance of comfort contact

Answer 15

Harlow observed that new-born kept alone in a bare cage usually died but survived if they had something soft like a cloth

Question 16

Maternally deprived monkeys as adults (Harlow)

Answer 16

Harlow followed the monkeys into adult hood to see if the effects of not having a real mother, being maternally deprived had any permanent effects. The researchers found sever consequences. The monkeys reared by only the wire mother were the most dysfunctional even those reared with the cloth mother did not develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive less sociable and bred less often than other monkeys (as they were unskilled at mating). As mothers the deprived monkeys neglected their children and sometimes attacked their children even killing them

Question 17

the critical period for normal development (Harlow)

Answer 17

A mother had to be introduced to the infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible

Question 18

Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 18

Bowlby rejected the learning theory of attachment because ‘if it were true an infant of 2years old should take readily to whoever feeds them and this is not the case’. Instead he looked at the studies of Lorenz and Harlow and proposed an evolutionary explanation: attachment is an innate system that gave us a survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment evolved they ensure that young animals stay close to their caregiver and this protects them from hazards. Millions of years ago this might have been wild animals, today it is traffic and electricity.

Question 19

monotropy

Answer 19

he placed emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver and believed that this attachment is different and more important than others. Bowlby called this person the mother but it did not need to be the baby’s actual mother. The more time the baby spent with the mother the better.

Question 20

The law of continuity

Answer 20

that the more predictable and constant the child’s care the better the quality of attachment.

Question 21

The law of accumulation separation

Answer 21

the effects of every separation from the mother add up and therefore the safest dose is the zero dose.

Question 22

social releasers

Answer 22

Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate cute behaviours like smiling that encourages the attention from an adult. He called these social releasers as their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system i.e. make an adult feel love towards a child. He also noticed this behaviour was a reciprocal process. Both babies and mothers have innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers.

Question 23

critical period

Answer 23

around two years when the infant attachment system is active and if it is not formed in this time they will find it difficult to form one later

Question 24

internal working model

Answer 24

a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver and therefore has an effect on the child’s relationships when older. A child’s whose first relationship is loving and reliable, will expect all relationships to be like this and also be loving and reliable back. However, a child’s relationship that involves poor treatment will and expect poor treatment and treat others that way. It also affects a child’s ability to be a parent themselves as people base their parenting on experiences

Question 25

Bowlby’s theory of attachment evaluation

Answer 25

• critical period should be sensitive period
• contradicting research be schaffer and Emerson says you can form more that one attachment
• could be due to alternative hypothesis temperament
  + support for internal working model from baily et al he assessed 99 mothers attachment and the attachment they had with their own parent through standard interview. he found mothers who had a poor attachment with their mothers had a poor attachment with their children

Question 26

1) Type A attachment (Bowlby)

Answer 26

insecure avoidant attachment (20-25%) - these children explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. They have little/no reaction when their care giver leaves and does not seek contact when caregiver returns. They show little stranger anxiety. They do not require comfort during reunion

Question 27

type b attachment (Bowlby)

Answer 27

B secure attachment (60-75%of British toddlers) - explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver (proximity seeking and secure base behaviour). Show moderate stranger and separation anxiety. they require and accept comport in reunion stage

Question 28

type c attachment

Answer 28

resistant attachment (3% of British toddlers)-seek greater proximity and so explore less. Huge stranger and separation anxiety but resist comfort when reunited with their carer.

Question 29

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory

Answer 29

Mother love in infancy is as important in mental health as vitamins and proteins are for physical health. Being separated from a mother in childhood can lead to serious consequences

Question 30

proximity seeking

Answer 30

an infant with a good attachment will stay close to the care giver

Question 31

Exploration and secure base behaviour

Answer 31

good attachment enable child to feel comfortable to explore, using their care giver as a secure base it a point of contact that will make them feel safe

Question 32

Stanger anxiety

Answer 32

if closely attached child will show anxiety when stranger approaches

Question 33

Separation anxiety

Answer 33

sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver

Question 34

Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 34

Controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. It takes pace in controlled conditions (i.e. laboratory) and with a two way mirror through with the psychologists can research the child’s behaviour. they looked for separation/stranger anxiety, exploration and secure base, proximity seeking and response to reunion

Question 35

Ainsworth’s strange situation evaluation

Answer 35

+increased reliability as there is inter-rater-reliability
+validity of these concepts as it can explain subsequent outcomes
-may be measuring temperament
-it is culture bound
-does not include all types of attachment eg disinhibited ( treat strangers and familiar people the same) and disorganised attachment