attachment Flashcards
what is a bond
set of feelings that ties one person to another
what is an attachment
a close two-way emotional bond between individuals in which everyone sees the other as essential for their own emotional stability
how do infants and caregivers interact/communicate
- bodily contact
- mimicking
- caregiverse
- international synchrony
- reciprocity
reciprocity
- An interaction shows reciprocity when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
- birth - 3 months
- E.G infant smiles at caregivers in response, caregiver says something, smiles or laughs back at them
alert phases
- signals babies show that their ready for interaction
- feldman = 2/3 mothers pick up on it
active involvement
- Babies and caregivers can initiate interactions and take turns in doing so
interactional synchrony
- The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour
- Feldman – mother and baby mirror each other
synchrony begins
- Meltzoff and Moore – observed the beginning of synchrony as young as 2 weeks old
- Association with adult pulling different faces and baby mimicking it
importance for attachment
- for the development of caregiver-infant attachment
- Isabella observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
- High levels of synchrony = better mother – baby attachment
evaluation of caregiver-infant interaction
- filmed observation
- difficulty observing babies
- development importance
- counterpoint
filmed observation
- filmed in lab
- control of distractions
- recorded and analysed later
- babies don’t know being filmed - no demand characteristics
- data is reliable and valid
difficulty observing babies
- interpret behaviour
- many are immobile, movements are subtle
- cant be certain behaviours seen have special meaning
developmental importance
- may observe irrelevant behaviour
- feldman ( names given to behaviours with no explanation)
- cant be sure reciprocity and synchrony are important to child development
developmental importance counterpoint
- isabella - early interaction are important
- attachment of international synchrony predicted the development of good quality attachment
schaffers stages of attachment procedure
- 60 babies from Glasgow majority from working class
- Visited babies and mothers in their home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
- Interviewed mothers – how babies responded to separations ( mum left the room) – measure of separation anxiety
- Observed interactions with stranger – measure of stranger anxiety
schaffer stage 1
asocial stage
asocial stage
- Babies observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar
- Preference for familiar people
- 0-6 weeks
schaffer stage 2
indiscriminate attachment
indiscriminate attachment
- Don’t show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people
- 2-7 months
- Preference for humans not objects
schaffer stage 3
specific attachment
specific attachment
- Signs include anxiety directed towards strangers and separation anxiety
- Formed a specific attachment – primary attachment figure
- 7 months
schaffer stage 3
specific attachment
specific attachment
- 7 months
- Attachment to one person - primary caregiver
- Signs include anxiety directed towards strangers and separation anxiety
schaffer stage 4
multiple attachment
multiple attachment
- 10-11 + months
- Extend behaviour to multiple attachments with other people they regularly spend time with
- secondary attachments
- Schaffer and Emerson – 29% of children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming primary
schaffer stages of attachment evaluation
- good external validity
- poor evidence for asocial stage
- real world app
good external validity
- Most observations were made by parents during ordinary activities during ordinary activities
- Participants behaved naturally while being observed
- If observed by experimenter may have made baby anxious or distracted them
counterpoint
- Mothers are unlikely to be objective observers
- May have been biased
- E.g. may not have noticed when baby showing signs of anxiety
- Means even if babies behave naturally, behaviour may have not been accurately recorded
poor evidence for asocial stage
- Babies have poor co-ordination and are quite immobile
- If baby felt anxiety it may have displayed it very subtly
- Making it hard for mothers to report back to researchers
- Means baby may be quite sociable but because of flawed methods may appear to be asocial
real world app
- day care
- Asocial and discriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be simple as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult
- However during the specific attachment stage, it may be difficult without an unfamiliar adult
- Means parents use of day care can be planned using the stages
role of the father
- attachment to fathers
- distinctive role for fathers
- as primary attachment figure
attachment to fathers
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- Majority of infants first attached to mothers (7 months)
- 3% of cases, infant first attached to fathers
- 27% of cases, father and mother as joint first attachment
- 75% of cases infant formed an attachment with their father by 18 months
distinctive role for fathers
Grossmann (2002)
- Longitude study where babies attachment were studied until they were teens
- Looked at both parents behaviour and relationship to quality of babies attachment to other people
- Quality of attachment with mothers was important to attachment in adolescence
- Suggests attachment to fathers is less important than attachment to mothers
- Quality of fathers play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachment
- Suggests fathers have a different role from mothers – play and stimulation, less to do with emotional development
fathers as primary attachment figures
- Forms the basis of all later close emotional relationships
- When fathers take on the role of primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers
fields 1978 research
- Filmed 4 month old babies face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary fathers and primary fathers
- Primary fathers spent more time smiling, imitating, (interactional synchrony – part of the process of attachment) than the secondary fathers
- Shows fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary attachment figure – can provide the responsiveness required for close emotional attachment
role of father evaluation
- confusion over research questions
- conflicting evidence
- real world app
confusion over research questions
- Question ‘what is the role of a father?’ in context of attachment is complicated
- Different researchers want to know role of father in primary or secondary attachment figures
- Makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as it depends what specific role is being discussed
conflicting evidence
- Findings vary according to the methodology used
- Longitudinal studies (Grossmann) have suggested that secondary fathers have important role in child development involving play and stimulation
- However, if true we would expect children in single mother or lesbian families to turn out differently
- McCallum and Golombok show children don’t develop differently from children in 2 parent heterosexual families
- Question remains unanswered
