attachment Flashcards
Attachment
A close two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each person sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
3 characteristics of attachment
Proximity
Secure base behaviour
Separation distress
Reciprocity
A description of how 2 ppl interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other signals and each eilicits a response from eachother
Alert phases
From birth, babies signal when they are ready to interact eg eye contact- Feldman and Eldelman said mothers pick up on alertness 2/3 of the time
Interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of eachother in a co-ordinated way.
Synchrony begins
Babies mirror adults gestures from 2 weeks old looking at one of the three facial expressions or gestures
Importance of attachment
Synchrony linked to better quality mother attachment
Evaluation of caregiver infant interaction
+ Meltzoff and Moore supports interactional synchrony. They found that 2-3 week old children do imitate adults specific facial expressions and hand movements. Infants interactional synchrony is an innate ability that helps form attachments
+controlled observations capture fine detail
-infants cannot speak so interpreting their behaviour is an issue making it hard to draw conclusions
- studies should take place in child’s home to increase validity
-limited waking periods
Stage 1: asocial
0-8 weeks
Smile at anyone
Prefer faces to non-faces
Recognise specific faces
Happier in human presence
Stage 2: indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months
Recognise and prefer familiar ppl
Accept comfort from any adult
Prefer people then inanimate objects
Stage 3: specific attachment
7-12 months
Single strong attachment to one individual
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Familiar adults as secure base
Stage 4: multiple attachments
1 year
Secondary attachments
Schaffer and emerson
Longitudinal study on 60 Glasgow infants 5-23 weeks old 31 male and female from working class homes
Mothers kept a diary of infants response to separation in 7 everyday situations eg left alone in a room, left with other ppl, left in their cot at night
These were designed to measure separation anxiety
Up to 3 months=stage 2
4 months= prefer certain ppl
7 months= single attachment figure
After 9 months= multiple attachments
Mother was main attachment figure for 65% and only 3% was their father.
Attachments form with those who accurately respond to babies signals
Evaluation Schaffer stages of attachment
+ external validity
Mother observed babies in their natural environment so reduces demand characteristics
+Real life application for day care as in first two stages there will be lack of stranger anxiety so parents plan to put children in these stages so they can better settle in
The importance of contact comfort procedure
16 monkeys observed with 2 wired monkeys in a cage. 1 wrapped in soft cloth and one was plain wire. Both dispensed milk in one condition, in another only the wired monkey did.
The importance of contact comfort findings
Monkeys went to the cloth covered mother especially when there was loud mechanical noises as they prefer contact comfort
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults
Those reared by plain- wired mothers were most dysfunctional. Those with cloth covered mothers also didn’t develop normal social behaviours and were more aggressive, less social, bred less then normal monkeys and attacked their children less
Critical period for normal development
A young monkey needs to be introduced to mother figure by 90 days for attachment to form after this deprivation was irreversible.
Evaluation of Harlows monkeys
+Humans and monkeys are similar
Green (1994) states that on a biological level all mammals have the same brain structures as humans and the only diff is size and no of connections. Animal research enabled psychologists to study attachment as it wouldn’t of been possible with human pp’s.
+Important practical applications
Howe found research has helped social workers and health care professionals as can detect when bonding has been unsuccessful so they can intervene.
-Monkeys aren’t as advanced as humans
-Despite theoretical and practical applications the research caused the monkeys high distress and later life consequences
Role of the father
Schaffer and Emerson showed that primary attachment is more likely to be made with mothers and fathers are secondary attachment figure. Fathers have a role to do with play and stimulation. When fathers do take on the role of being the main caregiver they adopt behaviours typical of mothers.
Rudolf and emerson
Babies 1st become attached to mothers by 7 months. 3% of the time was the father the primary caregiver. 27% were joint.
75% of babies studied formed an attachment with fathers by 18 months shown as they protested when father walked away.
Grossman
Did a longitudinal study looking at babies to adolescence
Quality of attachment to mother was related attachment in adolescence
Showing mothers attachment is more important
HOWEVER quality of fathers play with babies was related to quality of adolescence attachments suggesting mothers role is emotional development and fathers role is play and stimulation.
Field (1978)
Filmed 4 month old babies face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary fathers and primary fathers. Smiling imitation and holding babies are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
Fathers can be emotion focused primary caregivers
Evaluation of role of the fathers
- Diff researchers want to answer diff questions
eg wanting to understand the father as a secondary attachment figure and some are interested in the father as primary attachment figure - If fathers have a distinct role why are children without fathers different to those with them. Eg homosexual relationships
+But do single mothers or lesbian couples just take on the extra role and adapt to compensate
+can offer advice to parents
Mothers do not have to be primary caregiver and leave work, fathers do not need to be breadwinners all due to stereotypes. Single mothers and lesbian couples show babies do not need a father
-Pre existing stereotypes of fathers may sway data and researchers may have a preconception of what to expect
Explanations of attachment: The learning theory
Children are born with a blank slate and all behaviour is learned due to associations (classical conditioning) or by patterns of reinforcement (operant conditioning)
Babies become attached to their caregiver because they learn to give them food also known as ‘cupboard love’
Learning theory
- Food is the unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response of pleasure. Caregiver is neutral stimulus
- Because he/ she is continually paired with the UCS she slowly becomes associated with it until mother alone can produce pleasure
- She is now a conditioned stimulus and the pleasure is a conditioned response
Positive reinforcement
Hungry infants feel uncomfy and are driven to reduce uncomfort. When fed the discomfort is reduced and feeds the pleasure.
Primary reinforcer
Food
Secondary reinforcer
Caregiver
What are the 2 opposing explanations of attachment?
- We attach because we learn through conditioning processes, so an infant learns to associate a caregiver with feeding.
- Bowlby’s evolutionary theory where we have an innate need to form a bond with the primary caregiver which has a survival value.
procedure of imprinting
Lorenz randomly halved a large clutch of goose eggs. Half were left with their mother, half were hatched in an incubator and Lorenz/ their mother was the first moving object they saw.
findings of imprinting
The incubated group followed Lorenz, their control group followed their mother. Even when mixed up, this still happened. Imprinting happens with species mobile from birth and there is a critical period where this must happen otherwise the babies will not form an attachment to their mother.
