Attachment Flashcards
Definition of attachment
An affectional bond between two people(usually infant and parent care giver) that endures over time .
Each seek to maintain proximity
There may be signs of separation anxiety when parted.
- ## e.g. crying and stress in childrenwhen two are reunited everything is fine and the child calms down really quickly
Studies of attachment
-measure a lot of these ideas through observations
- not experiments as to run an experiment we need to manipulate
And IV and this is unethical
-however observations are subjective and we may see demand characteristics
- the mother may change behaviour , which may cause the baby to change behaviour
What is infancy
-Infancy is viewed as the period in a child’s life before speech begins
-care-giver infant interactions focus on non-verbal communication
-The two main non -verbal communications
1) Reciprocity -
2) Interactional synchrony -
The more sensitively they respond (caregiver) to the signals of the other(baby) the stronger the attachment bond becomes .
What are the two main non-verbal communications
-Reciprocity
-Interactional synchrony
How do we know this bond has formed ?
- desire to keep close proximity to a particular individual
-expressed through distress at separation
-This is because the individual gives the infant a sense of security , most commonly the child’s mother
-However attachments can be with anyone who provides comfort and security
What do Shaffer and Emmerson argue ?
-say infants from multiple attachments
-They argue it is multiple because each attachment serves a different purpose
-they argue it is quality time over quantity
caregiver infant interactions
- Despite infants having no verbal ability they have ,any complex interactions
- Babies are born with two primitive reflexes - grasping and sucking
- Babies are born with Sensory abilities - turning their head and responding to loud noises
- To assess what babies like we get them to engage in preferential looking tasks
- We track eye gaze and the things they spend the most time looking at = what’s got their attention
Babies are more attracted to stripes and colour contrasts
Interactional Synchrony
-two people are synchronised when they can carry out the same action simultaneously
-In attachment this takes place when the carer and the infants actions and emotions mirror each other
Research supporting Interactional synchrony
Research - Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
- Took two week old babies and initially the baby had a dummy and an adult would pull a face (face expression
- They would then remove the dummy and they found almost simultaneously the bay and the adult pulled the same Facial expression
-The dummy acted as a control
-However the baby was born two weeks ago so this could be a learnt behaviour
-tested this on three day old behaviour and they got the same findings
-tested on babies three hours old =same findings
-so suggests nature and suggests it’s almost a bit of a dialogue as the baby can’t speak - survival idea
Recent research has also suggested that high levels of Interactional synchrony correlates with strong attachment
Reciprocity
-responding to the action of another with a similar action , the actions of one elicit a response from the other (e.g. care and infant )
Alert phases - phases where baby show there keen for interactions
-mothers respond 2/3 of the time - may be due to external factors , stress commitment
-both caregiver and infant initiate interactions and turn take
-the regularity of the interactions helps the caregiver to anticipate and respond to infant behaviour and vice versa
Research supporting reciprocity
Tronick et al - Still Face experiment
-mother and baby interact
-mum turns away -still face lasts for 2 minutes
-baby tries to tempts mother into interacting - point , screech ,laugh , cry
-if left long enough - the baby stops and lies there motionless
-suggesting they use reciprocity for a purpose
caregiver infant interactions A03-STRENGTH
Observations are highly controlled to enable thorough analysis .
Babies do not know they are being observed
Therefore they are not going to respond to demand characteristics. This means the validity will be increased
In the study . If the babies aren’t responding to demand characteristics we are getting a truer representation of behaviour.
However the mother may change their behaviour to appear better - this is called social desirable bias this may have a knock on effect to the baby .
We can video the fine details so that we can go back and keep checking - inter rater reliability
caregiver infant interactions A03-LIMITATION
Observations don’t tell us the purpose . Feldman - synchrony and reciprocity describe behaviours not purpose . We can argue this is descriptive not explanatory . For example the baby may move their hand but we cannot conclude that it relates to a response to the parent . There is research suggesting the development of mother-infant attachments helps with the stress response , empathy and language and mora development
Caregiver Infant interactions A03- LIMITATION
Observations don’t tell us the purpose .
Feldman - synchrony and reciprocity describe behaviours not purpose .
We can argue this is descriptive not explanatory .
For example the baby may move their hand but we cannot conclude that it relates to a response to the parent .
There is research suggesting the development of mother-infant attachments helps with the stress response , empathy and language and mora development
CAREGIVER INTERACTIONS - A03-LIMITATION
Research is socially sensitive - often the research relates to the mother and the qualities of the mother and infant attachment , so therefore there is a lack of synchrony and reciprocity damages attachment quality .
This will leave mothers feeling guilty , for example mothers who have to go to work .
This leads to an economic implication for example if a generation of women decided not to go to work they would not be earning money or having to pay taxes but they wouldn’t have any disposable income .
Therefore these women don’t need childcare , so these will need to close .
This leads to a wave of unemployment .
Not going back to work could induce financial pressure on the other parent .
Perhaps along as the child care is good quality this provides substitute caregivers and the circular flow will continue
What does research related to attachment suggest
The research related to stages of attachment suggests that babies develop more than one attachment and that these attachments serve different purposes
What do many theories identify
Many theories identify a sequence of qualitatively different behaviours linked to specific ages
How is linking ages to stages socially sensitive
However linking ages to the stages is socially sensitive as it has the potential consequence for others -negative implications
-this makes the parents feel guilty or worried if their child doesn’t match the stage of their age (doesn’t consider individual differences)
What are the 5 stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson proposed
1) Asocial stage
2) indiscriminate attachment
3) specific attachment
4) multiple attachment
Asocial stage
Birth- two months
-Similar attachment to people and objects
- towards the end of the stage they prefer faces
Indiscriminate attachment
2-6 months
-Preference for human over non-human company
-distinguish between people
-comforted indiscriminately
-no stranger anxiety
specific attachment
7-12 months
-preference for one caregiver
-separation and stranger anxiety
-looks to a particular person for protection and security
-joy upon reunion
-comforted by PGC
Multiple attachments
-12 months+
Attachment behaviours displayed towards multiple different people (siblings , grandparents )
-secondary attachments - which typically form in the month after the primary forms
-number of secondary attachments depends on the infants social circle
Schaffer and Emmerson
-studies working class Glaswegian children and their mothers (this is not a representative sample only looking at women due to the time period)
-They looked at the age at which attachment developed , the emotional intensity and to whom they were directed
-emotional intensity is subjective and has no units of measure , doesn’t consider temperament (genetic personality) which will impact emotional intensity
Schaffer and Emmerson - AIM
To assess whether there was a pattern of attachment formation common to all infants
-if it’s common it suggests a biological element
They wanted to identify and describe the distinct stages by which attachments from
Schaffer and Emmerson - PROCEDURE
-used a longitudinal study (same participants over a long period of time e.g. 18 months),
-60 new born babies-31 male ,29 female
-mothers and babies were studied each month for the first 12 months and again at 18 months (13 observational periods per child )
-they interviewed the mothers and asked what distressed their infants - separation and stranger anxiety
-attachment was measured in 2 ways :
1)separation protest- assessed through several everyday situations e.g. being left in a room alone , left in a cot alone , left in a pram ,left outside shops in prams
2)stranger anxiety - start each observation with researcher approaching the baby
Schaffer and Emmerson - Findings
-between 25 -32 weeks-
-50% showed separation anxiety towards a specific adult (mother)
-attachments tended to be to the adult who was most sensitive and interactive with the child - quality over quantity - quickly and appropriately responding to the needs of the child
-by 40 weeks 80% of the babies had specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachment (more than 5 )
-for 39% of babies , their specific attachment was not with the person who spent the most time with them but with the one who was the most sensitive response
-33% of them were not attached as a specific attachment to the person that fed them - goes against learning theory of attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson - CONCLUSION
-there is a pattern of attachment formation that is common to infants
-Shaffer and Emmerson said that there were four distinct stages
-attachments are most easily formed with those who show sensitive responding
-multiple attachments appear to be the norm in this study - goes against Bowlby’s theory of attachment (monotropic theory)
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Traditional Role of the father
Through almost every studied culture, fathers have assumed three primary roles: the protector, the provider, and the disciplinarian.
Modern role of the father
Today’s father is no longer always the traditional married breadwinner and disciplinarian in the family.
He can be single or married; externally employed or stay-at home; gay or straight; an adoptive or step-parent; and a more than capable caregiver to children facing physical or psychological challenges.
Distinctive Role for fathers-Kaul Grossman
Kluass Grossman-carried out a longitudinal study where babies attachments were studied until their teens
-The researchers looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of their babies later attachments to other people
Kaul Grossman Findings
-Quality of a a babies attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachment in adolescence
-suggests - the attachment to fathers is less important to attachment to mothers
However Grossman also found the quality of the fathers play with the babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments
-suggests - father has a different role from mothers - one that is more to
do with play and stimulation and less to do with emotional development
Attachment to the father - Shaffer and Emmerson
-available evidence suggests that fathers are much less likely to become the babies first attachment figures compared to mothers
-Shaffer and Emmerson - found that the majority of babies first became attached to their mothers at around 7 months old
-in only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment
-in 27% of cases the father was joint first object of attachment with the mother
-However it appears that fathers go on to become important attachment figures
-75% of babies studies by Shaffer and Emmerson formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months - this was shown by the fact the baby protested when their father walked away
What Several important factors have been identified that effect the relationship between fathers and children :
-degree of sensitivity
-type of attachment with their own parents
-marital intimacy
-supportive co-parentings
degree of sensitivity
-more secure attachments to their children are found in fathers who showed more sensitivity to children’s need
type of attachment with their own parents
single parent fathers tend to form similar attachments with their children that they had with their own parents
marital intimacy
the degree of intimacy a father has within his relationship with his partner effects the type of attachment he will have with his children
supportive co parentings
the amount of a support a father gives to his partner
In helping to care for the children affects the type of attachment he will have with her
Children
What did Lamb et al find
-found children often prefer interacting with fathers when in a positive mental state and thus seeking stimulation
(mothers are preferred when children are distressed and seeking comfort )
-This supports the idea of fathers being preferred as play mates
-He found that fathers who become main providers seem able to quickly develop more sensitivity to children’s needs
And become a safe base from which to explore , which suggests sensitive responsiveness
-it isn’t a biological ability limited to women