Attachment Flashcards
ATTACHMENT
A strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary care giver.
Care giver Interactions
Facilitate attachment
Interactions
Babies have important and frequent interactions with their caregiver
Reciprocity
Turn taking
Mothers respond when baby is alert
From 3 months becomes more intense and reciprocal
interactional synchrony
Same actions simultaneously
Interactions co-ordinated from two weeks =(meltzoff and Moore)
Quality of attachment related to synchrony(Isabelle et al)
Isabella et al (1989)
Observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed:
a) Degree of synchrony.
b) Quality of mother-infant attachment.
- They found high levels synchrony associated with better quality attachments.
Evaluation of care giver interactions
+Filmed observations ~ captured fine detail, can establish inter-relate
-Difficult to observe babies~ hard to know what each small movement means
- developmental issues~ observational behaviour does not tell us the importance in development
COUNTERPOINT~ Evidence from Isabelle et al suggests that interactional synchrony is important in attachment
Schaffer’s stages of attachment
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate attachment
- Specific attachments
- Multiple attachments
Stages of attachment - Asocial stage
- 0-6 weeks
- Babies behaviour towards humans and non humans is quite similar.
Stages of attachment - Indiscriminate attachment
- 6 weeks to 7 months
- shows a preference to people rather than non human objects
-recognise and prefer familar adults
- accept cuddles from any adults
- no stranger anxiety or separation anxiety
- described as indiscriminate because it is not different towards any one person
Stages of attachment -Specific attachments
Stranger and separation anxiety in regard to one particular adult= primary care giver(65% were mother )
Highly selective attachment often displayed by human infants sometime between six and 18 months, when increased responsiveness is displayed toward primary caregivers and distress may be displayed when separated from parents
Stages of attachment -Multiple attachments
Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one true attachment to a main carer.
Schaffer and Emerson research
PROCEDURE :
Mothers of 60 working class Glasgow babies reported monthly on separation and stranger anxiety
FINDINGS:
Babies attachment behaviour progressed as detailed in the Shaffer and Emerson stage theory
Evaluation of Shaffer and Emerson’s study
+ GOOD EXTERNAL VALIDITY~ mothers did the observing so babies not stressed by being observed
COUNTERPOINT~ Mothers may not have recorded all information fully and may be biased
-POOR EVIDENCE FOR THE ASOCIAL STAGE ~ Babies have poor co-ordination so may seem asocial
+ REALWORLD APPLICATION ~ No harm in starting at daycare during asocial/ indiscriminate stage but problematic when starting during specific attachment stage
-GENERALISABILITY~ Data gathered in 1960s working class glasgow not generalisable to else where
Role of the fathers
-Often help child develop autonomy and social competence.
-More physical play interactions build spatial skills.
-Effective attachment figures.
Attachment to fathers
Most babies attach to their father (75% by 18 months) but rarely as the first attachment (only 3% first sole attachment) (Schaffer and Emerson)
Distinctive role for fathers
Fathers may have a distinctive role involving play and stimulation (Grossmann et al)
Quality of play with babies related to quality of adolescent attachments
Role of the mother
affectionate, attentive, and responsive to baby’s signals
Fathers as primary attachment figures
There is evidence to suggest that when fathers do take on the role of primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers . For example in one study Tiffany Field ( 1978 ) filmed 4 - month - old babies in face - to - face interaction with primary caregiver mothers , secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers .
Primary caregiver fathers , like primary caregiver mothers , spent more time smiling , imitating and holding babies than the secondary caregiver fathers . Smiling imitating and holding babies are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony , ( Isabella et al . 1989 ) .
So it seems that fathers have the potential to be the more emotion - focused primary attachment figure - they can provide the responsiveness required for a close emotional attachment but perhaps only express this when given the role of primary caregiver .
Evaluation of role of the father
Confusion over research questions - lack of clarity over question being asked. ‘What is the role of the father’ which in terms of attachment is very complicated. Some researchers attempting to answer this question want to understand role of father as secondary attachment figures and others more concerned with fathers as primary attachment figures. Former tended to see fathers behaving differently to mothers and having a distinct role. Latter found fathers can take on maternal role. This makes it difficult to offer simple answer to ‘roe of father’. Depends on what role is being discussed.
Conflicting evidence- findings vary depending on what methodology is used. Longitudinal studies like Grossman et al have suggested fathers as secondary attachment figures have important and distinct roles of child’s development involving play and stimulation. However, if fathers have important role, we would expect children growing up in single mother and lesbian parent families would turn out different from those in two-parent heterosexual household. Studies consistently show children don’t develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families. (McCallum and Golombok). This means the question as to whether fathers have a distinct role remains unanswered.
Counterpoint- The lines of research may not be in conflict. It could be that fathers take on distinctive roles in two-parent heterosexual families., but parents in single mother or lesbian parent families simply adapt to accommodate role played by fathers. This means question of distinctive role for fathers is clear after all. When present, fathers tend to adopt distinctive role but families adapt to not having a father.
Some people argue men aren’t equipped to form attachments psychologically and socially. Men have much less oestrogen than women, making women more suited and caring. Child rearing is stereotypically feminine and may deter males taking on role even if they wanted to.
Real world application- research into role of father can be used to offer advice to parents. May worry about who primary caregiver + worrying whether to have children. Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home because of stereotypical views. Equally, father may feel pressure
Evaluation of role of father (short version)
CONFUSION OVER RESEARCH QUESTIONS~Competing research questions prevent a simple answer about the role of the father
CONFLICTING EVIDENCE~ studies have reached different conclusions about distinctive roles for fathers
COUNTERPOINT ~ Fathers may be predisposed to a role but single mothers and lesbian parents simply take on these roles
REAL WORLD APPLICATION ~ Families can be advised about the father’s role in attachment
BIAS IN RESEARCH ~ Preconceptions lead to observer bias this may effect some studies
Animal studies of attachment
Lorenz (1935)
Harlow (1959)
Lorenz’s research
Method: Field Experiment
IV: who the ducklings would follow (him or mother).
Procedure: control group - normal procedure of seeing mother first. Experimental group - hatched in an incubator and the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
Findings: imprinting is innate and causes them to imprint on the first moving thing 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
Sexual imprinting (Lorenz)
- observed that birds that imprinted on a human would later display courtship behaviour towards humans.
- example case study: peacock who first saw giant tortoises after hatching only directed courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises when adult
Evaluation of Lorenz’s research
+ research support, Regolin and Vallortigara observed chicks imprinted on moving shapes
- can’t generalise to humans, mammalian attachment is different from birds, we don’t imprint we show more emotional attachment
- Lorenz’s observations have been questioned, Chickens imprinted on rubber gloves eventually learned to mate with each other, not as permanent as he believed
What did Lorenz conclude ?
Attachment is innate
Harlow’s research
Aim: to study the basis of attachment.
Method: lab experiment.
Sample: 16 baby resus monkeys.
Procedure: he put monkeys in cages with 2 monkey mothers; one cloth mum (tactile comfort) and one wire mum which had milk.
Findings: baby monkeys prefered cloth mum - contact comfort more important than food when it comes to attachment.
Contradicst the learning theory of Cupboard love of miller
Cupboard love theory
The belief that attachments are formed with people who feed infants
Evaluation of Harlow’s study
:)- practical applications- helped social workers understand the risk of child neglect and to intervene and also risk of monkey attachments in zoos.
:)- theoretical value- important for psychologists in understanding mammal attachments and that they don’t just form as a result of feeding.
:)- Generalisable to humans- Monkeys are more similar to humans than birds but human minds and behaviour are more complex
:(- ethical issues- as we can generalise these results to humans bc monkeys have similar capacity for emotion as humans it also means they suffered like humans would, this effected them as adults as they would beat or kill their children.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults (Harlow)
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.
o They were more aggressive less sociable and bred less often than other monkeys (as they were unskilled at mating).
o As mothers the deprived monkeys neglected their children and sometimes attacked their children even killing them
The critical period for normal development Harlow
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
Explanations of attachment
Learning theory
Attachment is learned through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.
Hunger - innate primary drive which is reduced by food
Attachment - secondary drive
Classical conditioning
Caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food(unconditioned stimulus)
Caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus
Operant conditioning
Crying behaviour reinforced positively for child but negatively reinforced for caregiver
Reinforcement
Increase likelyhood that behaviour will be repeated
