Attachment Flashcards
Reciprocity
How two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal.
Interactional Synchrony
Caregiver and baby reflect both actions and emotions of each other
Attachment
A close two way emotional bond between two individuals.
Meltzoff and Moore
They observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old. An adult displayed one of three distinct facial expressions or gestures and the babies reaction was filmed and labelled by independent observers. They found high levels of interactional synchrony.
Eval for interactional synchrony
+ Filmed observations were usually in a laboratory meaning that activity that may have distracted the baby was able to be controlled.
- Difficulty observing babies as babies lack co-ordination and so it is difficult to be sure.
+Early interactions are important as Isabelle et al predicted that high levels of synchrony were associated with better mother-baby attachment.
Schaffer and Emersons stages of attachment
Asocial stage - first few weeks when the babys behavior towards an object and a person are similar.
Indiscriminate attachment - 2 to 7 months when babies start to display more obvious behaviors and prefer the company of people.
Specific attachment - from around 7 months babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one specific person (primary attachment figure).
Multiple attachment - extended to secondary attachments
Schaffer and Emersons research
60 babies from working class families.
Researchers visited the mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months. The researchers asked the mothers questions about the protest their babies showed after 7 every day separations.
Eval for stages of attachment
+Good external validity as most observations were made by parents during ordinary activities.
-Poor evidence for asocial stage as young babies cannot communicate or coordinate and so even if babies are quite social they could still be classified as asocial.
+Real-world application for example in day care as during the specific attachment it could be problematic.
Attachment to fathers
Schaffer and Emerson found that the majority of babies became attached to their mother at around 7 months. In only 3% of the cases the baby became solely attached to the father and in 27% of cases the father and the mother were joint first attachments.
Distinctive role for fathers
Grossmann carried out a longitudinal study where babies were studied until they were teens. The researchers looked at both parents behavior and its relationship to the quality of their babies later attachments to other people. Quality of a babies attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachment in adolescence. Suggests that attachments to fathers is less important that the attachment to mothers. Also found that fathers role is more to do with play and simulation and less to do with emotional development.
Eval on role of the father
-Confusion over research questions as some attempt to understand the role as a secondary or a primary figure which makes it difficult to tell what specific role is being discussed.
-Conflicting evidence as the findings vary according to the methodology used as saying that the role of the father is distinct, suggests that children from a lesbian couple or a single parent should turn out differently.
+Real-world application as it can be used to give advice to parents . Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home but it is shown that fathers are able to become the primary attachment figure. This means that the parent anxiety can be reduced.
Lorenz’ research
observed the phenomenon of imprinting
set up experiment where he randomly divided a large clutch of eggs.
half were hatched with mother goose but half were hatched with Lorenz
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed the mother
Sexual Imprinting
Studied relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
Peacock and Tortoise
Harlows research
Reared 16 baby monkeys with with two wire model mothers (one condition milk was dispensed and the other was cloth-covered).
The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth monkey in preference to the plain wire monkey
Shows that contact comfort was of more importamce
Eval of Lorenz’ research
+research support
+generalisability to humans is lacking as there is a clear difference between geese and humans
Learning theory
A set of theories from the behaviorist approach to psychology that emphasize the role of acquisition of behavior.
Classical conditioning
involves learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond do one in the same way we respond to the other. A caregiver starts as a neutral stimuli and when the caregiver gives food overtime thy begin to be associated with food. The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus once they give the child the conditioned response of pleasure. An attachment is formed.
Operant conditioning
involves learn through consequences of behavior. Cam explain why babies cry for comfort as crying leads to a response like feeding. The caregiver also experiences negative reinforcement as the baby stops crying.
