Attachment Flashcards
Define attachment
A two way bond between 2 individuals. In this context it is between a parent and child
What behaviours show attachment
-proximity
-separation distress
-secure base behaviour
Define proximity
The way that infants try to maintain physical contact or be close to their attachment figure
Define separation distress
When child is left alone by familiar caregiver, it becomes unhappy and shows distress
Define secure-base behaviour
-behaviour that promotes security, confidence, compliance and resilience. Caregiver offers a reliable base from which to explore
What is reciprocity?
The idea that attachments are interactional and that mothers and infant initiate and respond to each other in a meaningful way. Both get something out of the interaction, for example pleasure, comfort, security and so on
What did Feldman(2007) say about reciprocity?
From around 3 months, reciprocal interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions
Sensitive responsiveness
-caregiver pays attention to infants behaviour ajd pucks up and responds to their signals
-suggests it lays strong foundation for attachment to develop later between the caregiver and infant
Whay did Brazelton et al(1975) describe sensitive responsiveness as a dance?
When a couple dance, they respons to one another’s movements and rhythms
What is interactional synchrony?
-When people are interacting they tend to mirror what is happening in terms of their emotions and their facial or body movements. It is described as synchrony as they are both moving in the same way ot similar pattern
-This interaction serves to sustain communication between the 2 individuals
Describe the Meltzoff and Moore study
-used a controlled observation
-videotaped 12 babies aged 21 days
-babies watched an adult experimenter perform different expressions. There were 3 different ones
–child’s response was identified by blind observers who had no idea what infant had seen
-dummy was removed from babies mouth and child’s expression was filmed
-BABY showed similar expressions as adult
What did Meltzoff and Moores study show?
Interactional synchrony is innate as child was young yet continued to mimic the gestures of the adults
What did Koepke et al(1983) find about Meltzoff and Moores study?
-Found it difficult to replicate findings and more research support was required to validate it
-LACKS ecological validity-experiment should be in natural conditions
-LACKS generalisibility-cannot generalise all babies
What did Piaget(1962l believe that went against Meltzoff and Moore’s ideas?
-believed that true imitation only develops towards the end of the first year and anything before this is ‘response training’
-shows interactional synchrony isn’t innate but babies do it to reap the rewards
Summary of Isabella et al(1989)
-believed that synchrony provides the necessary foundation for mother infant interaction which can be built upon in subsequent years
-Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed degree of synchrony and quality of mother infant attachment
-it was found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment
How did Tronick et al find research supporting reciprocity
-ASKED mothers who had been enjoying a dialogue with their baby to stop moving and remain static
-babies would try tempt mother into interaction by smiling and would feel distressed when their smile didn’t provoke usual response
How did Tronick et al research show importance of sensitive responsiveness and reciprocity?
-showw that without it, children will become distressed which is bad for their development
Why is controlled procedures a strength?
-there are well controlled standardised procedures so fine details can be recorded
-this has control over extraneous variables
Why is it a weakness to know what is happening when observing infants?
-what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression
-not easy to analyse and it is subjective
What did Feldman(2002) talk about the research?
-synchrony is robust phenomena but they don’t state the purpose of it however research has shown it is important for baby’s development
Why is research into mother-infant interactions socially sensitive?
-perception of mothers will become negative
-challenges women’s liberation
-offensive to single dads and same sex marriages
What is contradictory evidence for role of I traditional synchrony( Le Vine et al 1994)
-found that Kenyan mothers who have little physical contact or interactions with their infants still have infants with a high proportion of secure attachments so interactional synchrony isn’t linked to security of attachment in all cultures therfore research over emphasises the role of caregiver infants interactions
What are the biological factors that affect the tole of father?
-female hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour therfore, women are more orientated towards interpersonal goals than men. The lack of oestrogen in men is why they are unable to form a close attachment
What are some social factors that affect the role of fathers?
-cultural expectations and sex stereotypes affect male behaviour
What research shows that primary attachment is with mothers and not fathers
Schaffers and Emersons(1964)
What research shows that fathers are more likely to be secondary attachment figures?
Schaffer and Emerson(1964)
What research shows that fathers can be primary caregivers?
Field et al(1978) filmed parents during face to face interactions with 4 month old babies and found primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling than secondary caregiver fathers. Father can in fact be more nurturing
How does Field et also research impact economy or show
-goes against biological explanations as to why men are unable to form an attachment
-shows that attachments are due to a nurturing caregiver not the parent
How does Grossman (2002) research provide evidence that undermines idea of fathers having distinct roles
Found fathers ad a secondary attachment had an important and distinct role in their children’s development
What did Malcullum and Golombrook find
Children without father do not develop differently
Describe Schaffer’s and Emerson’s research
-LONGITUDINAL study of 60 babies from Glasgow from working class families
-babies interactions with their carer were observed and carer was interviewed
Their stranger anxiety was observed
Mother kept a diary to record development of attachment
What does Stranger Anxiety mean?
Infants response to unfamiliar adults
What were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s research?
-between 25 and 32 weeks about 50% showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult usually the mother-primary attachment
-attachments tended to be to the caregiver who was the most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions
What were the 4 stages that attachments occur (Schaffer and Emersons)
1)Asocial stage
2)indiscriminate attachment
3)discriminate attachment
4)multiple attachments
Describe Asocial stage(0-6 weeks)
-indant produces a similar response to humans and inanimate objects. Babies show preference for eyes/faces
Describe indiscriminate attachment(6 weeks-6 months)
-babies show a preference for people and attachment behaviour is for everyone. Babies will accept care from anyone
Describe discriminate attachment(7 months+)
Babies will show stranger and separation ancient when separated from 1 particular adult
Describe multiple attachments (1 year +)
-Baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments-secondary attachments.
Separation anxiety is also shown when these people leave
What are some strengths of Schaffer and Emersons research
-variety of methods(interviews and diaries)
-naturalistic observation
-real life application to day care
-longitudinal
What are some weaknesses of Scahffers study
-longitudinal study so infants could’ve been used to researcher
-biased sample
-use of self report
-temporal validity
Grossman(2002)-fathere play is important
-carried longitudinal study of 44 families looking at parents behaviour and its relationship to quality of children’s attachments into their teens
-quality if fathers play with infants was related to quality of adolescent attachment suggesting fathers play a distinct role
summary of Lorenz’s research(1935)-imprinting
-randomly divided 12 goose eggs. Half were hatched into their natural environment and the other half hatched onto incubator where they see Lorenz first
-incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and became distressed if they were separated
-control group followed mother
What is imprinting?(lorenz)
-bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. By doing this, they were more likely to survive
what did Lorenz find?
-a critical period where imprinting takes place-32 hours
-bonds are irreversible
-goslings are biologically programmed to imprint to the first moving object they see and this is a fast process
-it had an effect later on sexual preferences
Define sensitive period
-an attachment has an ideal time interval to develop but can still occur outside of this time, but with more difficulty
Internal working model
-a mental representation/schema of the relationship with their primary attachment figure which serves as a ‘template’ for future relationships
evaluation for Lorenz: difficult to generalise
-mammalian attachment is different to birds
evaluation for Lorenz: Conflicting evidence
-Sluckin(1966) questioned whether or not there was indeed a critical period, a set time in which imprinting could occur. He used duckling =s and kept 1 duckling away from him and found that the duck could still be imprinted onto him
evaluation for Lorenz: research support for imprinting
-Guiton et al(1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as adults however he found later on that they learned to mate with their own kind
Summary of Harlow’s research#1
-separated rhesus monkeys from their mothers and raised them in cages containing a blanket. When blanket was removed, babies became distressed
-went against the learning theory of attachment which claims attachments form based on food
Details of Harlow’s research
-16 monkeys were separated from their mothers with access to 2 surrogate mothers. ! was made of wire and one was made out of cloth
condition 1: 8 of the monkeys could get milk from wire mother
condition 2:8 of the monkeys could get milk from the cloth mother
-monkeys spent more time with their cloth mother and infants of second group would only go to wire mother for food
findings of harlow
-privated monkeys suffered severe social and emotional consequences. became more aggresive, less sociable and less skilled
-this suggests that attachments are crucial in raising a healthy and developed child
-there is a 90 day critical period for this behaviour
Evaluation of Harlow: generasibilty
-clear differences between monkeys and humans
evaluation of Harlow: supported by Schaffer and Emerson
-found that infants do not always attach to the person who feeds them
Evaluation of Harlow: real world applications
-helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development
Evaluation of Harlow: Lack of control of the 2 mothers
-2 stimuli varied in more ways than being cloth or wire. Their heads were also different
Evaluation of Harlow: the use of a lab experiment
-easily replicable
Dollard and Miller(1950)
-proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explined by the learning theory. ‘cupboard love’ theory which emphasises the importance of food in attachment formation. Children love those who feed them
Drive reduction
Dollard and Millard(1950) explain operant and classical conditioning based on the drive reduction theory.
-hunger is the primary drive
-food is the primary reinforcer
-when infant is fed, a feeling of pleasure is produced which is called positive reinforcement
-caregiver becomes secondary reinforcer and attachment becomes the secondary drive
Evaluation of the learning theory:against food as basis of attachment
-animal studies prove it wrong. Lorenz;s geese imprinted before they were fed
Evaluation of the learning theory: reductionist explanation
-cannot explain complex attachments formed
Evaluation of the learning theory: scientific principles
-Pavlov and Skinners research
Bowlby
-rejected the learning theory of attachment
-proposed that attachment is an innate system
-theory has a number of principles that can be broken into the acronym ASCMI
What does ASCMI stand for?
A-adaptive-attachment is innate-promotes survival
S-social releasers-babies are born with a set of innate cute behaviours that elicit caregiving behaviours from adults
C-critical period- attachment takes place during a critical period. If child does not form attachment during critical period(2.5 yrs), attachment will not occur
M-monotropy-infants form a special attachment with a mother-figure which is of central importance
I-internal working model-mental representation of the relationship with the primary attachment figure which serves as a template for future relationships
Bowlby proposed the more time spent with this mother figure, the better. There are 2 reasons why:
1)law of continuity-the more constant a child’s care the better quality the attachment
2)law of accumulated separation- the effects of separation add up, ‘the safest dose is a zero dose’
Bowlby evaluation: challenging monotropy
-Schaffer and emerson found most babies did attach to one person at first but a lot formed multiple attachments, suggesting monotropy is not important
Bowlby evaluation: evidence for social releasers
-Brazelton et al(1975) observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting existence of interactional synchrony
Evaluation of Bowlby: Bailey et al(2007)
-studied 99 mothers and found that mothers who had reported poor attachments to their mothers were more likely to have children classified as poorly attached
