Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment?
It is a close bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
What are the three behaviours that we can use to recognise attachment?
- Proximity - people try to stay physically close to those whom which they are attached.
- Secure-base behaviour - Even when we are independent of our attachment figures we tend to make regular contact with them. Infants display secure-based behaviour when they regularly return to their attachment figure while playing.
- Separation distress - People are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence.
Explain the element of reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions
Reciprocity is when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
Mothers and babies take it in turns to initiate interactions.
What evidence is there to support reciprocity?
Tronick’s “Still-Face Paradigm” (1978) tested whether infants are active contributors to social interaction.
Infants underwent three stages:
- Normal interaction
- Still-face episode
- Reunion
Infants show increased gaze aversion, less smiling and more negative affect during the still face episode compared to normal interactions. This shows the relationship between non-verbal communication and children showing the reciprocity they need.
Explain the element of interactional synchrony in caregiver-infant interactions
Interactional synchrony takes place when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
What evidence is there to support interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore (1977) – an adult displayed one of three facial expressions to babies as young as two weeks old. An association was found between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies.
Give an example of evaluation for caregiver-infant interactions
- It lacks validity because it is difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviours. We don’t know for certain that behaviour seen in mother-infant interactions have a special meaning.
- Controlled observations are used to study it so it lacks ecological validity and the behaviour may be artifical.
What are Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
Stage 1 : Asocial
First few weeks of life
Babies behaviour towards objects and humans is similar. Forming first bonds.
Stage 2 : Indiscriminate Attachment
2-7 months
Preference being with other humans. Accepts cuddles and comfort from any adult.
Stage 3 : Specific Attachment
From 7 months
Attachment to one specific person (primary attachment figure). Includes stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
Stage 4 : Multiple Attachments
1+ year
Bonds with people they see often - secondary attachments.
Evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment
- Good external validity (observations were natural in environment and behaviour) ➜ COUNTERPOINT issues with asking mothers to be the “observers”
- Real world application (day care settings)
- Poor evidence for asocial (babies have poor coordination and are immobile)
- Generalisability ➜ looked at one sample which had unique features in terms of cultural + historical context. in other cultures e.g. collectivist cultures multiple attachments from an early age is the norm
What is the Glascow study/ Schaffers and Emerson’s research?
Rudolf Schaffer & Peggy Emerson (1964)
Involved 60 babies (31 male and 29 female). All from skilled working class families in Glasgow.
Researched babies in their homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months. They interviewed the mother and observed the children.
The researchers asked mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations e.g. adult leaving the room.
This was designed to measure attachment.
They also assessed “stranger anxiety”.
The results provided support for the stages of attachment.
At around 25-32 weeks, 50% of children showed clear separation anxiety towards their mothers, expected of the discriminate attachment stage.
Furthermore, by 40 weeks, 80% of the children had a specific attachment stage and 30% had started to form multiple attachments.
What is the reason for the differences between the role of mothers and fathers?
- Gender stereotypes - fathers as breadwinners, mothers stay at home
- Fathers are less psychologically equipped - mothers are more sensitive
- Biological explanation - females produce oestrogen which promotes nurturing behaviour
- Traditions
Evaluate the role of the father
- McCallum and Golombok - Single parent or same-sex parents children do not develop differently from two parent heterosexual ones
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Tiffany Field
Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers/fathers and secondary caregiver mothers/fathers.
Findings:
- Both primary caregiver mothers and fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their babies than secondary
- Fathers have the potential to be more emotionally focused primary attachment figures but only show this when given the role of primary caregiver
NAMED STUDY
Konrad Lorenz - Imprinting
Aim: to understand the phenomenon of imprinting in birds
Procedure: randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs into 2 groups
- Control group - stayed with the mother
- Experimental group - placed in an incubator and Lorenz was the first moving object they saw
Findings: when the two groups were mixed they continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz.
This supports the idea of imprinting.
Furthermore, the experimental group birds became adults they displayed unusual mating behaviours, directing mating behaviours towards humans rather than other geese
Evalutation:
- Limitation - The attachment system for mammals is different and more complex than in birds so it isn’t really appropriate to apply it to humans. For example, the mammal attachment is a two-way process, the mothers also show an emotional attachment to their young
- Limitation - Ethical issues such as taking away offspring from mother and birds mating behaviours altered
- Strength - Provides valuable insights into the process of imprinting in birds. His observations and experiments helped us understand how animals form attachments and recognize their parents or caregivers. This research has broader implications for understanding animal behavior and the role of early experiences in shaping social bonds
NAMED STUDY
Harlow’s Research - The importance of contact comfort
Aim: to investigate the effects of maternal deprivation on infant monkeys
Procedure: 16 rhesus monkeys divided into 4 groups:
- Wired mother dispensing milk and towel covered soft mother not dispensing milk
- Wired mother not dispensing milk, towel covered soft mother dispensing milk
- Wired mother dispensing milk
- Towel covered soft mother dispensing milk
Observed how much time was spent with each mother + reaction when scared (who they went to)
Findings: spent more time clinging to a soft, cloth covered mother which provided no food rather than one made of wire but provided babies with food. This suggests contact comfort is more important than food in the development of attachments.
Maternal-deprived monkeys were more aggressive as adults, found interacting with other difficult and were sometimes cruel to their own young.
Evaluation:
- Limitation - Ethical issues such as maternal-deprived mother killing her own baby, anxiety and stress the monkeys went through, the monkeys cant consent to the experiment. This means it cannot be repeated to get more results.
- Strength - Real-world application such as for social workers and clinical psychologists in understanding that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development
- Limitation - Whilst the rhesus monkeys are more similar to humans than geese, the human brain and behaviour is still more complex meaning it’s hard to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans
What is the learning theory?
Commonly called ‘cupboard love’ as it emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food
Explain classical conditioning within the learning theory
Food (unconditioned stimulus)
Being fed results in pleasure (unconditioned response)
Caregiver (neutral stimulus)
Caregiver is associated with food so now produces pleasure
Caregiver = conditioned stimulus
Pleasure = conditioned response
Explain operant conditioning (learning theory)
Crying leads to a response from the caregiver (e.g. feeding) as long as the caregiver provides the correct response crying is reinforced. The baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver responds with comforting ‘social suppressor behaviour’
2-way process because as the baby is reinforced for crying the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because they escape something unpleasant (crying).
How is attachment a secondary drive?
Learning theory believes in drive reduction.
Hunger = primary drive as it is biological so we eat to reduce hunger drive
Robert Sears suggests caregiver is generalised with drive of hunger thus attachment is a secondary drive between caregiver + satisfaction of a primary drive
What are limitations of the learning theory?
- counter evidence from animal studies. Lorenzo’s geese imprinted on fist moving object regardless of food. Harlow’s monkeys displayed attachment behaviour toward a soft surrogate mother instead of the one producing milk. Food isn’t the most important factor
- counter evidence from human studies. schaffer + Emerson found babies form main attachment to their mother regardless of who feeds them.
What are strengths of the learning theory?
- some conditioning may be involved conditioning (association with comfort) may influence choice of primary attachment figure
What is monotropy (Bowlby’s theory)?
One particular attachment is different in quality and importance than others
