attachment Flashcards
what is reciprocity? what evidence is there to support
taking turns as in a conversation
Jaffe – demonstrated that infants coordinated their actions with caregivers in a conversation.
Brazelton – suggested that this basic rhythms is an important precursor for later communications, allows the caregiver to anticipate the infant’s behaviour and responds appropriately. Caregiver’s sensitivity
what is interactional synchrony? evidence
Interactional synchrony – coordinated behaviour, mirroring
Meltzoff and Moore – 3 day old babies imitate mothers actions, ruled out the possibility that imitations are learned, response must be innate
what was Meltzoff and Moore’s study?
Meltzoff and Moore study:
* Infants 2-3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures
* The adult would display one of three facial expressions or hand movements
* The child’s response was filmed
* Found that there was an association between the infant behaviour and the that of the adult model
what was the still face study? supports MandM
Evidence to support Meltzoff and Moore
Still face study:
* Murray and Trevarthen
* two month old first interacted by a video monitor played a tape with the mother in real time.
* The video monitor played a tape of the mother so that the image on screen was not responding to the infant’s facial and bodily gestures.
* Resulting in acute distress.
* Infant tried to attract their mothers’ interest but gained no response
* Shows that infant is actively eliciting a response rather than displaying a response that has been rewarded
* Further supports behaviours are innate rather than learned
what were the stages of attachment? schaffer and Emerson
Asocial – 0-2months respond similar to animate and inanimate objects
Indiscriminate – 2-7months, start to prefer animate objects and human comfort rather than inanimate, relatively easily comforted by anyone, don’t show stranger’s anxiety
Discriminate – 7-9months, developed separation and stranger anxiety, preference to one person that they have formed an attachment with. Formed an attachment with the primary caregiver
65% children first attachment was the mother
30% mother was first joint object of attachment
3% Fathers were the sole attachment
27% fathers were joint first object of attachment
Multiple attachments – 9+ months, within one month of first attachment, 29% had an attachment to someone else, parent, grandparent, sibling etc. within 6 months of first attachment 78% of infants had a second attachment
what was Harlow’s procedure?
Created two wire mothers, one wired, one cloth covered.
8 infant monkeys were studied for 165 days
4 of the monkeys the milk bottle was on the cloth covered monkey
4 of the monkeys the milk bottle was on the wired monkey
Measurements were made of the amount of time each infant spent with the two different mothers.
Observations were also made of the monkey infants responses when frightened by the mechanical teddy bear
what were Harlow’s findings?
8 monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered mother whether or not the mother had the feeding bottle
Those monkeys who fed from the wired mother only spent a short time getting milk then returned to cloth-covered monkey
When frightened all monkeys clung to the cloth covered mother
Suggest infants don’t develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but the person offering contact comfort
what were the lasting consequences of Harlow’s study?
Noted the consequences of their early attachment experiences
Motherless monkeys, even those with contact comfort developed abnormally
Socially abnormal
Sexually abnormal – did not show normal mating behaviours, did not cradle their own babies, killed their babies
There was a critical period
what was Lorenz’s procedure?
Took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two groups.
One left with natural mother
Other eggs were placed in an incubator
When eggs in incubator hatched, first moving thing they saw was Lorenz.
The goslings started to follow Lorenz
To test the effect of imprinting, Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish them. Placed together and walked away and the goslings followed, they had imprinted
what were Lorenz’s findings?
Goslings divided themselves up, following their natural mother and the other group following Lorenz
Lorenz noted that the process of imprinting is restricted to a definite period, critical period
If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during the critical period the animal will not imprint
Suggests that animals can imprint on a persistently present moving object seen within its first 2 days
what were lasting consequences of Lorenz’s study?
Process is irreversible and long lasting
Early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences, sexual imprinting
Animals will choose to mate with the same kind of object which they were imprinted
what did Guiton find?
Guiton, chicks imprinted on a yellow rubber glove, support the view that young animals are not born with a predisposition to imprint on a specific type of object. Also found that the male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves, showing early imprinting is linked to later reproductive behaviour - supporting Lorenz
however
Guiton found that imprinting is reversible, chickens who tried to mate with rubber gloves, if they spent time with their own species, able to engage in normal sexual behaviours.
what is the learning theory explanation, CC?
Innate stimulus is food which produces the innate response of pleasure. Food is the UCS and pleasure is UCR.
The mother is the NS, if NS is regularly and consistently associated with a UCS and will produce the same response
So NS is now CS and produces CR
what is the learning theory explanation, OC?
Dollard and Miller offered an explanation of attachment based on operant conditioning and drive reduction theory
A drive is something that motivates behaviour, case of hungry infant, there is a drive to reduce the accompany discomfort
When infant is fed, the drive is reduced and produces a feeling of pleasure. This is rewarding, positive reinforcement. Food becomes a primary reinforcer because it supplies the reward, reinforcing the behaviour that avoided discomfort
Attachment occurs because the child seeks the person who can supply the reward.
what is the social learning theory of the learning explanation?
Hay and Vespo suggested the modelling could be used to explain attachment behaviours, proposed that children observe their parent’s affectionate behaviour and imitate this. Parents would also deliberately instruct their children about how to behave in relationships and reward appropriate attachment behaviours.
what was Ainsworth’s aim for strange situation?
was to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of child’s attachment to a caregiver
what was the procedure of strange situation?
controlled observation, two-way mirror
Behaviours used to judge attachment: proximity seeking, exploration and secure-base, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, response to reunion
* Child and caregiver enter
* Child encouraged to explore
* A stranger enters and tries to interact with child
* Caregiver leaves the child and stranger together
* Caregiver returns and stranger leaves
* Caregiver leaves the child alone
* Stranger returns
* Caregiver returns and is reunited with child
what were the findings of strange situation?
Secure attachment – type B, show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety, 60-75% of toddlers have this attachment
Insecure-avoidant attachment – type A, show little reaction when caregiver leaves, little effort when caregiver return, little stranger anxiety, 20-25% of toddler have this attachment
Insecure resistant attachment – type C, show high levels of distress of separation and stranger anxiety, but resist comfort when reunited, 3% of toddler have this attachment
