Attachment

Question 1

In van Ijzendoorn’s cross-cultural investigations which 2 countries had the highest percentage of insecure avoidant children?

Answer 1

West Germany

Question 2

In van Ijzendoorn’s cross-cultural investigations which country had the highest percentage of insecure resistant children?

Answer 2

Japan

Question 3

In van Ijzendoorn’s cross-cultural investigations which attachment type was found to be the most common in all the countries investigated?

Answer 3

Secure

Question 4

What is type A attachment?

Answer 4

Insecure avoidant

Question 5

What is type B attachment?

Answer 5

Secure

Question 6

What is type C attachment?

Answer 6

Insecure resistant

Question 7

What are the characteristics of type A attachment?

Answer 7

• Do not look to mother for comfort when distressed
• Do not see the mother as a safe base when exploring environment
• Low stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
• Do not experience joy upon reunion

Question 8

What are the characteristics of type B attachment?

Answer 8

• Look to their mother for comfort when distressed
• Confidently use mother as safe base when exploring environment
• Moderate stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
• Experiences joy upon reunion

Question 9

What are the characteristics of type C attachment?

Answer 9

• Overly clingy to mother for comfort when distressed then quickly rejects them
• Hesitant to leave mothers side to explore environment
• High stranger and separation anxiety
• Experiences joy on reunion, then quickly rejects mother.

Question 10

What did Feldman and Eidelman (2007) suggest about the importance of reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 10

• Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ that signals they are ready for interaction
• Mothers pick up on this 2/3 times.
• Frequency increases from 3 months
• Focuses on verbal signals and facial expressions.

Question 11

How did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) investigate the importance of interactional synchrony in caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 11

• Argued that mother and infant interact in a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other
• Observed infants observing their CG do 1 out of 3 distinctive actions e.g. frowning, sticking out tongue
• Positive correlation was found between CG and infants actions.

Question 12

What did Isabella suggest about Meltzoff and Moore’s (1977) investigation into interactional synchrony?

Answer 12

Found that better synchrony was shown by infants who had high levels of attachment to their PCG

Question 13

What did Schaffer and Emerson find out about parent-infant attachments?

Answer 13

• Most infants become attached to their mother first (7 months)
• Later form secondary attachment to other CGs
• By 18 months 75% infants formed secondary attachments to their fathers

Question 14

What did grossman conclude about the role of the father in parent-infant attachment:

Answer 14

• Father attachment is less important than mother attachment
• Positive correlation between quality of fathers play and adolescent attachments

Question 15

Explain Fields investigation and findings of fathers as the primary caregiver:

Answer 15

• Filmed 4 month old infants in face-face interactions with PCG mothers, PCG fathers and secondary CG fathers.
• PCG fathers, like PCG mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than the secondary CG fathers.
• Fathers can be the PCG; attachment is formed from the level of responsiveness not gender of PCG.

Question 16

Evaluate and explain Fields investigation into the research of fathers as the primary caregiver:

Answer 16

1) Inconsistent findings on fathers role - different researchers are interested in different research questions; cannot conclude the actual role of the father
2) Inconsistent findings on consequences of absent SCG father- Grossman found fathers as SCG were important, other studies found that absent father SCG made no difference to child’s development
3) Fathers are not usually the PCG- consequence of traditional gender roles VS women being biologically predisposed to becoming PCG

Question 17

Explain Schaffer and Emerson’s investigation and findings on attachments in infancy:

Answer 17

• Observed 60 infants from Glasgow each month for a year then at 18 months
• Measured separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
• Found that around 7 months 50% infants displayed separation/stranger anxiety
• Infants were most attached to individual who was most responsive to their needs
• By 10 months 80% infants had multiple attachments

Question 18

Evaluate and explain Schaffer and Emerson’s investigation and findings on attachments in infancy:

Answer 18

1) Good external validity - Same environment
2) Longitudinal study - Same Infants
3) Limited sample characteristics - Large sample from the same area

Question 19

According to Schaffer and Emerson how many stages of attachment are there?

Answer 19

4

Question 20

Explain stage 1 of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment:

Answer 20

• 0 to 2 months
• Observable behaviour between infants and objects
• Infants have a preference for being with familiar people

Question 21

Explain stage 2 of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment:

Answer 21

• 2 to 7 months
• Infants display more social behaviour
• Shows separation/stranger anxiety
• Will accept comfort from anyone

Question 22

Explain stage 3 of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment:

Answer 22

• 7 months
• Show significant stranger anxiety, especially when not with attachment figure
• Have formed primary attachment

Question 23

Explain stage 4 of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment:

Answer 23

• After 7 months
• Have multiple attachments
• After 1 year most babies have formed secondary attachments

Question 24

Evaluate and explain Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment:

Answer 24

1) Problem studying the asocial stage - difficult to study very young infants
2) Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments - unknown when babies can form multiple attachments
3) Problem measuring multiple attachments- difficult to distinguish if experiment is causing distress or other factors

Question 25

Explain Lorenz's research and findings into animal imprinting:

Answer 25

- Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs - Half of the eggs were returned to mother goose and natural environment - Half pf the eggs were hatched in an incubator where the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz - Control eggs followed mother goose, incubator eggs followed Lorenz - When the 2 groups were mixed the hatchlings divided into their original groups - Lorenz concluded that the birds attached to the first moving thing they saw within the critical period

Question 26

Explain Lorenz's research and findings into animal sexual imprinting:

Answer 26

- Hatchling peacock saw a giant tortoise as its first moving thing - Adult peacock would only display courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises.

Question 27

Evaluate and explain Lorenz's research and findings into animal imprinting:

Answer 27

1) Generalisability to humans- cannot extrapolate findings onto humans 2) Some of Lorenz's observations have been questioned- significant contradicting data has been found

Question 28

What did Harlow say about the critical period for attachment in his monkey study:

Answer 28

- Attachment must form within 90 days - After this attachment is impossible and damage done by early deprivation is irreversible

Question 29

Explain Harlow's research and findings into the importance of contact comfort:

Answer 29

- Reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers - 1 mother dispensed milk, 1 mother was covered in cloth - Monkey was frightened and cuddled cloth-covered mother over milk-dispensing mother - Contact comfort is more important than food in attachment

Question 30

Explain Harlow's research and findings into maternally deprived monkeys as adults:

Answer 30

- Followed monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother until adulthood - Found monkeys who were reared with the wire mother were more dysfunctional, aggressive and less social than monkeys reared with cloth-covered mother. - Wire mother monkeys were unskilled at mating so bred less, showing behaviour of neglecting their young.

Question 31

Evaluate and explain Harlow's research and findings into the importance of contact comfort:

Answer 31

1) Theoretical value = showed importance of early relationships to psychologists 2) Practical value = Important in real world application e.g. child abuse 3) Ethical issues = Severe criticism as monkeys suffered.

Question 32

Explain classical conditioning through an infant and milk:

Answer 32

- Unconditioned stimulus (food) = unconditioned response (pleasure) - Neutral stimulus (caregiver) = no response - Unconditioned stimulus (food) + Neutral stimulus (caregiver) = unconditioned response (pleasure) - Conditioned stimulus (caregiver) = Conditioned response (pleasure)

Question 33

Evaluate the learning theory of attachment (2 points):

Answer 33

1) Schaffer and Emerson - babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though others did most of the feeding 2) Harlow - Distressed monkey went to the cloth-covered monkey over the milk-dispensing mother for comfort

Question 34

What are the 4 main points of Bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment?

Answer 34

Monotropy Social releasers Critical period Internal Working Model.

Question 35

Which psychologists stated why reciprocity is important in caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 35

Feldman and Eidelman

Question 36

Evaluate Bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment:

Answer 36

1) Meta-analysis supports internal working model - Bailey et al found that mothers who had poor attachments with parents had poor attachments with their children 2) Idea is socially sensitive - Discourage mothers to work as they dont want to harm children's attachment 3) Overestimated impact of attachment - not taking into account temperament

Question 37

Explain Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbergs investigation and findings into cultural variations in attachment:

Answer 37

1) Located 32 studies similar to the strange situation 2) Meta-analysed data 3) Most common attachment type is secure

Question 38

What did Bowlby believe about maternal deprivation?

Answer 38

- Maternal love and care is as important as food and shelter - Maternal deprivation occurs when infant experiences separation from PCG - Separations are cumulative and irreversible - Will have a permanent negative impact on child’s development

Question 39

Evaluate bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation:

Answer 39

1) Evidence is flawed - Bowlby himself carried out interviews and assessments - Bowlby was influenced by Goldfarbs research - confounding variables 2) Critical period is a sensitive period. - Evidence that goes against Bowlby saying the critical period isnt the end all be all - Koluchova twins study

Question 40

Explain Rutters investigation and findings of the Romanian Orphanage study:

Answer 40

- 165 Romanian children who had spent most of their early lives in institutions were observed - Proportion of Romanian children were adopted (before age of 3.5 years) were adopted and studied at 4, 6, 11 and 15 - Control group of 52 adopted children were studied - Proportion of children adopted after 6 months experienced difficulties e.g. inattention - Some children were significantly more impacted e.g. autism like qualities - Follow ups at 15 showed persistent issues

Question 41

Explain physical underdevelopment as an effect of institutionalisation:

Answer 41

- Usually small - Due to lack of emotional care over physical care - Deprivation dwarfism

Question 42

What are the 4 effects of institutionalisation:

Answer 42

- Physical underdevelopment - Intellectual under-functioning - Disinhibited attachment - Poor parenting

Question 43

Explain intellectual under-functioning as an effect of institutionalisation:

Answer 43

- Poor intellectual development - Can be recovered quickly if adoption occurs before 6 months

Question 44

Explain disinhibited attachment as an effect of institutionalisation:

Answer 44

- Form of attachment where children do not discriminate between who they choose as attachment figures - See strangers with inappropriate infamiliarity

Question 45

Explain poor parenting as an effect of institutionalisation:

Answer 45

- Children raised in institutions are poor parents - Quinton found 50 women who experienced difficulties in childhood compared to 50 women who hadnt

Question 46

Evaluate the roman orphanage study:

Answer 46

1) Fewer extraneous variables than other orphanage studies = possible to study institutionalisation without confounding variables e.g. loss, trauma 2) Real life application = can improve psychologist understanding and the effects of institutionalisation 3) Lack of adult data = Dont know long term effect of institutionalisation

Question 47

Explain Ainsworths investigation of the strange situation:

Answer 47

- Sample of American middle class infants and mothers were used - Infants aged from 9 to 18 months - Infants were encouraged to explore (tests exploration and safe base) - Stranger comes in (tests starnager anxiety) - CG leaves and baby and stranger are together (tests stranger and separation anxiety) - CG returns and stranger leaves (tests reunion behaviour, exploration, safe base) - CG leaves baby alone (Tests separation anxiety) - Stranger returns (Tests stranger anxiety) - CG reunites with baby (tests reunion behaviour)

Question 48

Evaluate Ainsworths strange situation:

Answer 48

1) Methodolical procedure = controlled observation = good predicatability 2) Replication = Assessed using inter-rather reliability 3) Culture bounds = Test does not mention same thing in 2 countries outside of Western society = cannot generalise findings

Question 49

Define reciprocity:

Answer 49

Where an infant responds to the actions of another person.

Question 50

Define interactional synchrony:

Answer 50

Where an infant mirrors the actions of another person in turns, such as their facial expressions and body movements.