Attachment Flashcards
Outline Lorenz’s animal study procedure. (baby geese)
He randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. 1/2 hatched with the mom, 1/2 hatched in an incubator and saw Lorenz 1st.
What were Lorenz’s findings in his animal study? (baby gooses)
The incubator group followed Lorenz, control group followed their mother.
Findings were the same when the groups were mixed because they had imprinted on the 1st thing they saw
What happened to the baby gooses if they didn’t imprint within the ‘critical period’ according to Lorenz?
He found that the baby gooses wouldn’t attach to a mother figure at all if they didn’t imprint in the critical period.
What is the research support for Lorenz’s animal study? (strength)
Regolin- chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved. A range of shape combos were then moved in front of them. They followed their original shape most closely.
This supports the findings of Lorenz’s study and the idea that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object in the critical period.
What is the limitation of Lorenz’s animal study? (generalisability)
It is difficult to generalise findings from birds to humans as the mammalian attachment system is more complicated than that of birds.
Outline the procedure of Harlow’s animal study (the one with the monkeys)
Reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model ‘mothers’. In one condition, milk was dispensed from a wire mother, in the other it was dispensed by a cloth-covered mother.
Outline the findings of Harlow’s animal study.
The monkies cuddled the cloth-covered mother when they were scared regardless of which one had the milk. This suggests that contact comfort is more important than food when it comes to attachment behaviour
What happened to the monkeys from Harlow’s animal study when they grew up?
The monkeys didn’t develop normal social behaviour; they were more aggressive and less sociable. When the females became mothers, they neglected, attacked or even killed their offspring.
What did Harlow say was the critical period for attachment?
90 days
What did Harlow say would happen if no attachment was made within the critical attachment period?
Attachment would be impossible and the damage is irreversible.
What is a strength of Harlow’s animal study? (real-world application)
Harlow’s research helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of attachment may be a risk factor. It also helps us understand the importance of attachment figures for monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes.
What is a limitation of Harlow’s animal study? (generalisability)
It’s difficult to generalise findings from monkeys to humans, even though mammals do share some attachment behaviours, the human brain is more complex than a monkey’s brain.
What are the two types of conditioning?
Classical and Operant
Outline Ainsworth’s ‘strange situation’ study
A baby and caregiver enter an unfamiliar playroom, the baby is encouraged to explore, a stranger enters and talks to the caregiver then approaches the baby. The caregiver leaves the stranger alone with the baby, the caregiver returns and the stranger leaves. The caregiver then leaves the baby alone. The stranger then returns, and after a short while the caregiver also returns.
What are the 3 types of attachment according to Ainsworth?
B- secure attachment
A- insecure-avoidant attachment
C- insecure-resistant attachment
What is type B-secure attachment?
Baby happily explores but often goes back to the caregiver, has moderate separation/stranger anxiety, and accepts comfort from the caregiver upon reunion.
What is type A- insecure-avoidant attachment?
Baby happily explores, doesn’t often go back to the caregiver, has little to no separation/stranger anxiety, and doesn’t require comfort from the caregiver upon reunion.
What is type C- insecure-resistant attachment?
Baby doesn’t explore much, goes back to the caregiver very often, has high separation/stranger anxiety, and resists comfort from the caregiver upon reunion.
What is a strength of Ainsworth’s ‘strange situation’ study? (predictive validity)
Lots of research suggests that secure babies have better outcomes in childhood and adulthood. Insecure-resistant have the worst outcomes. This suggests that the ‘strange situation’ study measures something real and meaningful.
What is a limitation of Ainsworth’s ‘strange situation’ study? (culture-bound)
The study may be culture-bound as it was focused on British and American babies. This may be because babies in different cultures have different experiences. E.G. in a Japanese version of the study, babies displayed very high levels of separation anxiety and so a disproportionate number were classified as insecure-resistant. This suggests that it is difficult to tell what the ‘strange situation’ study is measuring when it is used outside of the UK and the US.
What is an example of cultural variation in attachment?
Higher rates of anxious/insecure-resistant attachments in collectivist cultures such as Japan
What is reciprocity?
How two people interact
What are alert phases?
Where the baby signals that they are ready for interaction.
What is active involvement?
Where both baby and caregiver can initiate interactions
What is a strength for caregiver-infant interactions? (Filmed observations)
Caregiver-infant interactions are often filmed in a la so there is no distractions for baby and all variables can be controlled. Because the interactions are filmed, it can be analysed later and can be analysed by many different people so there is no researcher bias. Also, babies don’t know they’re being recorded so they don’t display demand characteristics. Means research on caregiver-infant interactions have good reliability and validity.
What is a limitation of research into caregiver-infant interaction? (Difficult to observe babies)
It’s hard to interpret what a baby is doing (e.g. are they smiling or farting?). Young babies are almost immobile so movements are just small hand movements or expression changes. So we can’t be certain that recorded behaviours actually mean something.
What is interactional synchrony?
Where the caregiver and baby reflect the actions and emotions of the other.
When does interactional synchrony begin for babies?
2 weeks
