Attachment Flashcards

1
Q

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

A

West Germany

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2
Q

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

A

Japan

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3
Q

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

A

Secure

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4
Q

What is type A attachment?

A

Insecure avoidant

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5
Q

What is type B attachment?

A

Secure

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6
Q

What is type C attachment?

A

Insecure resistant

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7
Q

What are the characteristics of type A attachment?

A
  • 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
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8
Q

What are the characteristics of type B attachment?

A
  • 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
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9
Q

What are the characteristics of type C attachment?

A
  • 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.
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10
Q

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

A
  • 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.
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11
Q

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

A
  • 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.
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12
Q

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

A

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

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13
Q

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

A
  • 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
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14
Q

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

A
  • Father attachment is less important than mother attachment
  • Positive correlation between quality of fathers play and adolescent attachments
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15
Q

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

A
  • 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.
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16
Q

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

A

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

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17
Q

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

A
  • 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
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18
Q

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

A

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

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19
Q

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

A

4

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20
Q

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

A
  • 0 to 2 months
  • Observable behaviour between infants and objects
  • Infants have a preference for being with familiar people
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21
Q

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

A
  • 2 to 7 months
  • Infants display more social behaviour
  • Shows separation/stranger anxiety
  • Will accept comfort from anyone
22
Q

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

A
  • 7 months
  • Show significant stranger anxiety, especially when not with attachment figure
  • Have formed primary attachment
23
Q

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

A
  • After 7 months
  • Have multiple attachments
  • After 1 year most babies have formed secondary attachments
24
Q

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

A

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

25
Q

Explain Lorenz’s research and findings into animal imprinting:

A
  • 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
26
Q

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

A
  • Hatchling peacock saw a giant tortoise as its first moving thing
  • Adult peacock would only display courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises.
27
Q

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

A

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

28
Q

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

A
  • Attachment must form within 90 days
  • After this attachment is impossible and damage done by early deprivation is irreversible
29
Q

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

A
  • 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
30
Q

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

A
  • 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.
31
Q

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

A

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.

32
Q

Explain classical conditioning through an infant and milk:

A
  • 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)
33
Q

Evaluate the learning theory of attachment (2 points):

A

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

34
Q

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

A

Monotropy
Social releasers
Critical period
Internal Working Model.

35
Q

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

A

Feldman and Eidelman

36
Q

Evaluate Bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment:

A

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

37
Q

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

A

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

38
Q

What did Bowlby believe about maternal deprivation?

A
  • 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
39
Q

Evaluate bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation:

A

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

40
Q

Explain Rutters investigation and findings of the Romanian Orphanage study:

A
  • 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
41
Q

Explain physical underdevelopment as an effect of institutionalisation:

A
  • Usually small
  • Due to lack of emotional care over physical care
  • Deprivation dwarfism
42
Q

What are the 4 effects of institutionalisation:

A
  • Physical underdevelopment
  • Intellectual under-functioning
  • Disinhibited attachment
  • Poor parenting
43
Q

Explain intellectual under-functioning as an effect of institutionalisation:

A
  • Poor intellectual development
  • Can be recovered quickly if adoption occurs before 6 months
44
Q

Explain disinhibited attachment as an effect of institutionalisation:

A
  • Form of attachment where children do not discriminate between who they choose as attachment figures
  • See strangers with inappropriate infamiliarity
45
Q

Explain poor parenting as an effect of institutionalisation:

A
  • Children raised in institutions are poor parents
  • Quinton found 50 women who experienced difficulties in childhood compared to 50 women who hadnt
46
Q

Evaluate the roman orphanage study:

A

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

47
Q

Explain Ainsworths investigation of the strange situation:

A
  • 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)
48
Q

Evaluate Ainsworths strange situation:

A

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

49
Q

Define reciprocity:

A

Where an infant responds to the actions of another person.

50
Q

Define interactional synchrony:

A

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