Attachment

Question 1

What is a Bond?

Answer 1

A set feeling that ties one person to another

Question 2

What is an Attachment?

Answer 2

A close two way emotional bond between individuals in which everyone sees the other as essential for their own security

Question 3

What is Reciprocity?

Answer 3

Turn taking behaviour

Question 4

What is Interactional Synchrony?

Answer 4

Synchronised behaviour between two people

Question 5

What did Meltzoft and Moore (1977) do? Interactional Synchrony

Answer 5

They videotaped and observed 12 to 21 day old infants, to see when they had interactional synchrony. Adults then had to do three expressions to see there reaction.

Question 6

What did Meltzoft and Moore find? Interactional Synchrony

Answer 6

They found that babies showed interactional synchrony as young as three weeks

Question 7

Evaluate Meltzoft and Moore. Interactional Synchrony

Answer 7

Strengths:
-Observations were filmed in a lab (Inter-rather reliability). This means they are unlikely to miss behaviour even if they are small because it can be watched back

-Infants are unaware there being studied. This means they wont display demand characteristics in the experiment

Weaknesses:
-It is difficult to interpret infants behaviour. This is because they cannot explain to us what something meant

Question 8

What did Schaffer and Emerson do? When attachment

Answer 8

They did an experiment to find out when babies get attachment. They did this through having 60 Glaswegian babies and looked at there stranger distress and separation anxiety.

Question 9

What did Schaffer and Emerson find? When Attachment

Answer 9

They found that attachment is formed at 25-36 weeks, and that there are 4 stages of attachment:
-Asocial/Pre attachment: 0 - 8 weeks. This is when infants respond positively to people e.g. smiling
-Indiscriminate attachment: 2 - 7 months. This is where they prefer humans over objects, and can be comforted by a familiar caregiver.
-Specific/discriminate attachment: 7 - 11 months. This is where they have a preference to a caregiver, and we can see there reaction to stranger and separation anxiety
-Multiple attachment: 1 year onwards. This is where they increasingly grow in independence and form attachments with multiple people

Question 10

Evaluate Schaffer and Emerson. When attachment

Answer 10

Strengths:
-External validity. The observations were made by parents, if a researcher was there they may have been anxious

-Real world application. They saw practical application of this at day cares, in the first two stages babies could be comforted by anyone. In this last two babies cannot.

Weakness:
-Observer Bias. They parents may have reported what they didn’t see, this creates false results

-Poor evidence for the asocial stage. If there was any anxiety it would have been very subtle and hard to notice

-Not ethnocentric. They only used 60 babies from Glasgow, so babies from around the world may act differently

Question 11

What is the role of the father study?

Answer 11

It is a research question in whether attachment to fathers hold some specific value in a child’s development, and if so whether it plays a different role in a child’s development

Question 12

What did Grossman (2002) say? Parent Attachment

Answer 12

They looked at attachments in life stages from infants to adolescence. they did this through studying parent behaviour.

Question 13

What did Grossman (2002) find? Parent Attachment

Answer 13

They found that the attachment of the mothers was important in adolescence. The role of the Father was important in play and adolescence

Question 14

Evaluate Grossman (2002)? Parent Attachment

Answer 14

Strengths:
-Real-world application. The parents make decisions over who should be the primary care giver, and stereotypes say the mother should stay home while the father works. But what happens to same-sex parents, and lone parents families?

• Counter point to conflicting evidence. Could take on distinctive roles in two parent families

Weaknesses:
-Confusion over research question. What is the role of the father? And the answer is not simple

-Conflicting Evidence. Finding vary, and if the father is that important what about lone parent families?

-Stereotypes in research. Stereotypes on parenting could be reflected in the research e.g. fathers are the breadwinners and mothers stay home

Question 15

What is an Animal Study?

Answer 15

A study that uses animals in there test instead of humans

Question 16

What did Lorenz say? Animal Study

Answer 16

Lorenz said that animals will imprint on the first thing they see and they’ll believe it to be its mother. They will then follow and copy the mother throughout there life.

They did this through having two groups: an incubator group who first saw Lorenz and a control group who saw a mother goose first. They then looked at which mothers the babies followed.

Question 17

What did Lorenz find? Animal Study

Answer 17

Lorenz found that the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, and the other group followed the mother duck. Even when they were mixed up they still followed there perceived mother.

Question 18

Evaluate Lorenz? Animal Study

Answer 18

Strengths:
- Research Support. Lucia Regolin and Giorgi Vallortigora supports him, they exposed baby chicks to moving shaped the second they were born so the chicks imprinted on them.

Weaknesses:
- Generalisability to Humans. Do we react the same as ducks or chicks? If not how would we react then?

Question 19

What did Harlow say? Animal Study

Answer 19

Harlow said that soft objects serve some of the functions of a mother.

he looked into this through having two groups a wire mother and a cloth mother. Harlow then recorded the time spent on each of the mothers.

Question 20

What did Harlow Find? Animal Study

Answer 20

Harlow found that:
- The monkeys spent more time on the cloth covered mother
- While in isolation the baby monkeys grew on to face dysfunctional adult behaviour

Question 21

Evaluate Harlow. Animal Study

Answer 21

Strengths:
- Real world Value. It has helped social workers with seeing how we react without a secure attachment

Weaknesses:
-Generalisability to Humans. Do we react the same as monkeys? If not how do we then react?

-Ethical Issues. The experiment caused long term harm to the monkeys

Question 22

What is Classical conditioning?

Answer 22

learning to associate two stimuli together, we then begin to respond to one as we would the other.

For example, a baby would eventually associate its mother with food, here the neutral stimulus (the mother) becomes the conditioned stimulus (the food)

Question 23

What is Operate Conditioning?

Answer 23

This is where you learn from the consequences of your behaviour, if it will be repeated depends on the sanction after the action

Question 24

What is Learning Theory?

Answer 24

The learning theory of attachment is a behaviourist explanation that suggests that attachments develop through classical and/or operant conditioning. It is sometimes referred to as a cupboard love theory, as the infant attaches to the caregiver who provides the food.

Question 25

Evaluate the Learning Theory!

Answer 25

Strengths:
- Some conditioning may be involved. This is rather than food being the uncontrolled stimulus e.g. a baby may process the feeling of warmth and happen is with there primary care giver. A real life example could be Little Albert who was conditioned to not like fluffy things, they did this through creating a loud scary noise whenever he saw or interacted with a fluffy thing

Weaknesses:
- Counter evidence from animal studies. Lorenz geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw, Harlow monkeys preferred comfort over food. This shows factors other than food are important for attachment

-Counter evidence from human studies. Schaffer and Emerson found babies form an attachment with there mother even if not being fed, Isabel found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment . This shows factors other than food are important for attachment

• Babies play a relative. They simply associate comfort with reward, conditioning may not be adequate explanation for attachment

Question 26

What did Bowlby say? ASMIC

Answer 26

He rejected the learning theory, as he believed attachment is inbuilt. To support his theory he said there were 5 points: Adaptive, Social releases, Monotropy, Internal Working Model, and Critical Period.

Adaptive: attachment gives infants a adaptive advantage
Social releases: they unlock a I ate tendency in adults to care for children
Monotropy: One special attachment with the pig
Internal Working Model: your first relationship forms a template for later relationships
Critical Period: attachment behaviours need to occur in the first two years of infancy

Question 27

Evaluate Bowlby. ASMIC

Answer 27

Strengths:
-Studies supporting. Berry Bazelton et al found that babies trigger reactions in adults and that babies are distressed without the pcg

-Studies supporting. Heidi bailey et al found that if a mother had a poor attachment with there mother then they have a bad attachment with there child

Weaknesses:
-Lacks Validity. Schaffer and Emerson said babies attach to at least one person, so Bowlby would be incorrect about there unique quality and importance to the child’s primary attachment

-Other Influences. Some psychologists believe that genetic differences in anxiety effect social behaviours

Question 28

What did Ainsworth say? Strangers

Answer 28

Ainsworth looked into the effects of stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, and reunion behaviour on a baby, their mother, and a stranger.

1) baby and mother enter and the baby explore
2) a stranger comes in to talk to the mother
3) the mother leaves
4) the mother returns and the stranger leaves
5) the caregiver leaves the baby alone
6) the stranger returns
7) the caregiver returns

Question 29

What did Ainsworth find? Strangers

Answer 29

They found three attachments:
Secure attachment: 60-75%
They regularly go back to their caregiver, and show moderate separation distress. I trust you

Insecure resistant attachment: 3%
They seek greater proximity and so explore less, then can also not be comforted by strangers only primary care givers. I don’t trust you.

Insecure avoidant attachment: 20-25%
They explore freely and don’t show proximity , and there’s no reaction when the caregiver leaves. I don’t care.

Question 30

Evaluate Ainsworth. Strangers

Answer 30

Strengths:
-Replicability. It was a standardised procedure, so it is highly controlled and easy to replicate

-High interater reliability. Brick te al found agreement on attachment types for 94% of babies, this means the observations are reliable

-Validity. The attachment types are predictable for later development, this explains the sequenced outcomes

Weaknesses:
-Main and Solomon added a fourth category. This is called disorganised type and is for the minority of children that don’t fit into any category.

-Temperament. Karon suggested that temperament is a more important influence on behaviour in the stranger situation

-Cultural Bondage. The experiment was created to measure western parenting styles, however in other places the results could differ

Question 31

What did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg say? Culture

Answer 31

They repeated the stranger situation in different countries around the world to see how the results may differ.

They did 33 studies in 8 countries, this included 1990 children

Question 32

What did van ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg find? Culture

Answer 32

Secure Attachment:
-The UK had the highest with 75% secure attachments
- China had the lowest with 50% secure attachments

Insecure Avoidant Attachments:
- Germany had the highest with 35% Insecure Avoidant Attachments
- Japan had the lowest with 5% Insecure Avoidant Attachments:

Insecure Resistant Attachments:
- Israel had the highest with 29% Insecure Resistant Attachments
- The UK had the lowest with 3% Insecure Resistant Attachments

Question 33

What was Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation? Culture

Answer 33

This is that babies without a primary care give to attach to have the consequences as they are separated and deprived of any source of security.

He says this deprivation of an attachment can make you have a low IQ, and be a affectionless psychopathy

Question 34

What was Bowlby experiment with 44 thieves (1944)? Deprivation

Answer 34

Bowlby wanted to examine the link between affection less psychopathy and maternal deprivation. So he got 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing something.

He also had a control group of 44 young people who were emotionally disturbed but were not criminals.

So Bowlby interview the criminals and their families, he looked for signs of psychopathy and separation from there mother at a early age

Question 35

What did Bowlby 44 thieves experiment show (1944)? Deprivation

Answer 35

He found the 14 of the 44 thieves could be describe as affectionless psychopaths. From these 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of life.

In contrast 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives

Question 36

Evaluate the 44 thieves experiment. Deprivation

Answer 36

Strengths:
~> A new piece of research has provided support for the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects.Levy et al.
(2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother for a day had a permanent effect on their development

Weaknesses:
~> Poor quality of the evidence.This is because it was Bowlby himself who carried out both the family interviews This left him open to bias

~> Confusion between different types of early experience. Rutter (1981) drew a distinction between two types of early negative experience.Deprivation is the loss of a PCG. Privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place. Rutter pointed out that the severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation.

Question 37

What is Institutionalisation?

Answer 37

The long term effects/consequences of living in a institution e.g a orphanage, for a continuous amount of time.

Question 38

What was Rutter et al research (2011)? Deprivation

Answer 38

The followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romania (ERA) study.

They wanted to look at the effects on there physical, cognitive, and emotional development throughout all there stages.

Question 39

What did Rutter Et al find? Deprivation

Answer 39

They found that children had:
~> Delayed Intellectual development
~> Twisted joints
~> Animalistic behaviours
~> Malnourishment
~> Rocking motions
~> Aggressive behaviour

They also found the longer they are institutionalised there IQ goes down, and they are more Disinhibited attachments.

Question 40

Evaluate Rutter et al? Deprivation

Answer 40

Strengths:
~> Real world application. It has improved psychologists understanding of the effects of early institutionalisation. This led to improvements in the condition experiences by looked after children. This caused more care workers to enter the roles.

~> Few Confounding variables. Many orphan were studied before this study, this means confounding studies have already been sorted out. This makes the experiment more true.

Weaknesses:
~> Lack of adult data. We only saw them in the experiment as children but not adults, this means we have no current data to answer the questions of the long term effects of care.

~> Could introduce new confounding variables. These could change the care and experiments, thus harmful effects seen in studies of Romanian orphans may represent.

~> Socially sensitivity. Results show the late adopted children have poor developmental outcomes. Results may be that their parents, teachers and anyone else may lower their expectations- self fulfilling prophecy.

Question 41

What is Inhibited Attachment? Deprivation

Answer 41

A type of attachment where children do no form close attachments. Such children will treat strangers inappropriate familiarity (over friendly ness) and may be attention seeking

Question 42

What happened in Later Childhood attachments?

Answer 42

~> Attachment type is associated with quality of poor relationships
~> Secondary attachments children form the best quality attachments, insecure have friendships difficulties

Question 43

What did Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) research? Bullying

Answer 43

They assessed the attachment type and bullying involvement. They did this through having a self report questionnaire for 196 children aged 7-11 from London.

Question 44

What did Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) find? Bullying

Answer 44

~> Secure attachments are less likely to be involved in bullying
~> Insecure avoidant attachment are more likely to be victims of bullying
~> Insecure resistant attachments are more likely to be bullies

Question 45

What happens in adulthood with Secure attachment (McCarthy)?

Answer 45

As Children:
~> Are able to separate from parents
~> Seek comfort from parents when frightened
~> Greet return of parents with positive emotions
~>Prefer parents to strangers

As Adults:
~> Have trusting, lasting relationships
~>Tend to have high self esteem
~> Are comfortable sharing feelings with friends and partners
~> Seek out social support

Question 46

What happens in adulthood with Insecure resistant attachment (McCarthy)?

Answer 46

As Children:
~> May be wary of strangers
~> become greatly distressed when parents leave
~> Do not appear to be comforted when parents return

As Adults:
~> Reluctant to become close to other
~> Worry that their parent/partner does not love them
~> Become very distraught when relationships end

Question 47

What happens in adulthood with Insecure avoidant attachment (McCarthy)?

Answer 47

As Children:
~> May avoid parents
~> Does not seek much contact of comfort from parents
~> Shows little to no preference for parents over strangers

As Adults:
~> May have problems with intimacy
~> Invest little emotion in social and romantic relationships
~> Unwilling or unable to share thoughts and feelings with others