Attachment Flashcards
What is reciprocity?
Where a mother will respond to infant alertness
(Like a conversation)
When does reciprocity begin?
From 3 months close attention between mother and infant
What is interactional synchrony?
Interactions become co-ordinated
(In sync)
What did Isabella et al say about interactional synchrony?
That the quality of attachment is related to synchrony
Disadvantage of caregiver infant interactions
Hard to know what is happening by observing simple gestures
What did Feldman say about purpose of caregiver interactions?
Just observations, the purpose is not entirely understood yet
Advantage of caregiver infant interaction experiments?
Highly controlled- capture fine detail of interaction
What did Grossman do research into?
The role of the father
What did Grossman find?
Attachment to fathers less important
Fathers play a different role (play and stimulation)
What did Feild say?
Fathers as primary caregivers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers
Disadvantage of research into attachment figures
Inconsistent findings- overall picture unclear
Why are fathers not usually primary caregivers?
May be due to traditional roles or even biological differences
What would suggest fathers are not important?
Children without fathers are not different
What did Schaffer and Emerson study?
Stages of attachment
What were Schaffer and Emersons aims?
Investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with
What was Schaffer and Emersons method?
Mothers of 60 babies reported monthly on separation anxiety
What did Schaffer and Emerson find?
Most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this.
Advantage of Schaffer and Emersons study?
Good external validity- observations in PPS natural environment
Disadvantage of Schaffer and Emersons study?
Limited sample characteristics
All families from Glasgow- and over 50 yrs ago
So may lack generalisability
Why was the longitudinal design an advantage for Schaffer and Emerson’s?
Same PPS observed at each age, eliminating individual differences as a cofound.
What were the 4 stages of attachment identified by Schaffer and Emerson?
Asocial stage
Indiscriminate attachment
Specific attachments
Multiple attachments
What was observed in the asocial stage?
Little observable social behaviour
What was observed in the indiscriminate attachment stage?
More observable attachment behaviour, accept cuddles from any adult
What was observed at the specific attachment stage?
Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety in regard to one particular adult
What was observed at the multiple attachment stage?
Attachment behaviour directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments)
Evaluation of the asocial stage
Social behaviour is hard to observe in the first few weeks but this doesn’t mean the baby is asocial
Disadvantage of measuring multiple attachments
Just because a child protests when an adult leaves does not necessarily mean attachment
What is the conflicting evidence linked to Schaffer and Emersons stages of attachment research?
Van LJzendoorn: research in different cultural context found that multiple attachments may appear first
What did Lorenz do research on?
Baby Gozlings
What was Lorenzes procedure?
Split a group of gozling eggs in half
Half hatched under a lamp
Half hatched with Lorenz as the first moving thing
What did lorenz find?
Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object the see (imprinting)
What is sexual imprinting?
Adult birds try to mate with whatever species or object they initially imprinted on (someone tested it with rubber gloves) LOL
Disadvantage of Lorenzes research?
Lacks generalisability as birds and mammals have different attachment systems
Lorenz not relevant to Humans
What did Guiton find (conflicting on Lorenz)
Found that birds whom initially imprinted on rubber gloves later preferred their own species
Who did Harlow do research on?
Baby monkeys
What was Harlow’s procedure?
Baby monkeys put in a cage with one wire mother covered in a towelling cloth, and one wire mother with a feeding bottle attached.
The monkeys were then scared by the experimenter.
Time spent on each mother was recorded
What did Harlow find?
Monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than the wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk
What happened to these maternally deprived monkeys?
Grew up socially dysfunctional eg. Killed offspring
How long was the critical period?
After 90 days attachments wouldn’t form :(
What did Harlows research demonstrate?
Attachment depends more on contact comfort than food :)
How can Harlows research help social workers?
Howe:
Helps them understand the risk factors for child abuse
What ethical issues are associated with Harlows research?
Suffering of monkeys will be human like
Explain classical conditioning in link to attachment
Caregiver (NS) associated with food (US)
Caregiver becomes (CS)
Explain operant conditioning in link to attachment
Crying behaviour reinforced positively for infant and negatively for caregiver
What does secondary drive mean in link to attachment?
Attachment becomes a secondary drive through association with hunger
How can animal research disprove learning theory?
Lorenz and Harlow showed that feeding is not key to the attachment
How does Schaffer and Emerson disprove learning theory?
Most primary attachment figures were the mother even if they didn’t do the feeding
Disadvantage of learning theory as an explanation for attachment
Cannot account for the importance of sensitivity and interactional synchrony
What is Bowlby’s theory of attachment?
Monotropy
What is monotropy?
One particular attachment is different in quality and importance than others
What did bowlby say about social releases and the critical period?
Innate cute behaviours in the first two years
What was bowlbys internal working model?
Mental representations of the primary attachment relationship are templates for future relationships
What is the mixed evidence for monotropy? (2)
Some babies form multiple attachments without a primary attachment
Suess et al— other attachments might contribute as much as primary one
What is the support for social releases?
Brazelton et al— when social releases ignored babies upset
What is the support for the internal working model?
Bailey et al— quality of attachments is passes on through generations
What did ainsworth create?
The strange situation
What was the procedure for the strange situation?
7- controlled observations which assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety and response to reunion
What did Ainsworth find in the strange situation?
Infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour
What were the three types of attachment Ainsworth discovered?
Insecure avoidant (A)
Secure attachment (B)
Insecure resistant (C)
Was Ainsworths study reliable?
Yes
Different observers agree 90%+ of the time children’s attachment types
What is the support for Ainsworths study?
Attachment type predicts later social and personal behaviour eg. Bullying
(More valid)
How does the strange situation vary across cultures?
Attachment has different meanings in different cultures so the strange situation may be measuring different things.
What did Ljzendoorn do?
Compared rates of attachment type in 8 countries
Found wide ranges of attachment types across countries
What did Simonella et al do?
Looked into Italian attachment types and said that they have changed over time and suggested that it could be to do with changing practices
What did Jin et al do?
Looked into Korean attachment rates found it was similar to japan
Could be to do with similar child rearing styles
What is the conclusion of cultural variations in attachment?
Appears attachment is innate and universal
secure attachment is the norm
Cultural practices effect rates of attachment types
Why is using the strange situation in different cultures biased?
Research using the strange situation imposes a USA test on other cultures
Advantage of the cultural variation studies?
Large samples used
Reduces impact of anomalous results- to improve internal validity
Disadvantage of the cultural variation studies?
Unrepresentative of culture
Countries do not equal culture—- cannot generalise
What was bowlbys other theory?
Maternal deprivation
How does separation lead to deprivation?
Physical separation only leads to deprivation when the child loosed emotional care
What did bowlby say about the critical period?
First 30 months are critical and deprivation in that time causes damage
What did Goldfarb say about deprivation?
Deprivation causes low IQ
What did bowlby say you can become when maternally deprived?
Affectionless psychopath
Describe Bowlbys 44 thieves study?
44 criminal teenagers were interviewed for signs of affection-less psychopathy. Families were also interviewed to identify whether the thieves has prolonged early separation.
Control group of non criminals but emotionally disturbed individuals set up.
Describe the results of the 44 thieves study
14 of the 44 thieves were AP, of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation.
Out of the 30 remaining thieves only 5 had experienced prolonged separation.
Control group— 2/44 experienced prolonged separation
Why might bowlbys evidence be poor? (Mat dep)
Orphans have experienced other traumas
Bowlby may have been a biased observer
What is the counter evidence for bowlby? (Mat dep)
Lewis— sample of 500, no link between early separation and later criminality
Disadvantage of bowlby and the critical period?
Bowlby exaggerated the importance of the critical period
Describe Rutters English and Romanian adoptee study
165 orphans adopted in Britain
Some of those adopted later show low IQ and disinhibited attachment
Describe the Bucharest early intervention project
Random allocation to institutional care or fostering.
Secure attachment in 19% of institutional group vs 74% of controls
What are the effects of institutionalisation?
Disinhibited attachment and delay in intellectual development if institutionalisation is prolonged
Does the Romanian orphan studies have a real life application?
Yes
Both institutional care and adoption practice have been improved using lessons from Romanian orphans
Can we generalise the Romanian orphan studies?
No
Conditions were so bad that results may not generalise to better institutions
Why are there fewer extraneous variables on the Romanian orphans study?
Romanian orphans had fewer negative influences before institutionalisation than eg. War orphans
What did kerns say about the influence of early attachment on later childhood relationships?
Securely attached children have better friendships
What did Myron-Wilson and Smith say about the influence of early attachments on later childhood relationships?
Securely attached children less likely to be involved in bullying
What did McCarthy say about the influence of early attachments on relationships with romantic partners?
Securely attached adults have better relationships with friends and partners.
What did Hazan and Shaver say about the influence of early attachments on later relationships?
Secure responders had batter and longer lasting relationships, avoidant responders had fear of intimacy
What did bailey et al say about the influence of early attachment on parental relationships?
Mothers attachment type matched that of their mothers and babies
What did Zimmerman find?
Found little relationship between quality of attachment and later attachment
List 2 Disadvantages of the research into the effect of the IWM?
A third factor like temperament might affect bath infant attachment and later relationships
Low validity— uses retrospective self report which lacks validity
