attachment Flashcards
what is stage 1 of schaffer and emersons stages of attachment?
stage 1 is ‘asocial’ and is in the first few weeks after brith.
baby recognises and forms bonds with carers.
behaviour to non human objects and humans is similar.
show preference for familiar adults as they can calm them easier.
happier in presence of humans.
what is stage 2 of schaffer and emersons stages of attachment?
stage 2 is ‘indisriminate’ and is ages 2-7 months.
preference for people over inanimate objects.
recognise and prefer familiar adults.
usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult.
no stranger or seperation anxiety.
what is stage 3 of schaffer and emersons stages of attachment?
stage 3 is ‘specific’ months 7+.
stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety from one certain adult (biological mum 65% of time).
formed specific attachment to primary figure.
what is stage 4 of schaffer and emersons stages of attachment?
stage 4 is ‘multiple’ and occurs shortly after stage 3.
have multiple attcahments with other adults they are regularly with (secondary figures).
29% of kids had this second attachment within a month of their 1st one.
by 1 year the majority had multiple attachments.
what are the 3 weaknesses of schaffer and emersons stages of attachment?
the first weakness, is that there is a problem studying the asocial stage. babies that age are immobile and have poor coordination so its hard to make judgements based on observations. this doesnt mean the childs feelings or cognitions arent social but the evidence cant be relied on.
the next weakness is that theres conflicting evidence on multiple attachments. its not exactly clear when multiple attachments form. some research suggesters most (if not all) babies form attachments to a single main carer before developing multiple attachments (bowlby). other psychologists (like those in cultural contexts where multiple caregivers are the norm) believe babies form multiple attachments from the outset (van ijzendoorn 1993).
the last weakness is that theirs problems with how multiple attachments are assessed. just because the child protests if individual leaves doesnt mean theres a ‘true’ attachment. bowlby pointed out a child may be distressed if a playmate leaves but doesn’t mean theres an attachment. this is a problem as observation doesnt show a way to distinguish behaviour to secondary attachment figures and playmates.
describe lorenzs geese study
lorenz first observed ‘imprinting’ when his neighbour gave him a newly hatched chick that followed him around everywhere.
he randomly divided a clutch of greylag geese eggs onto two groups.
one group hatched with their mum, the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was lorenz.
he found the incubator group followed him around and the mums group followed her around even when the groups mixed.
this is called ‘imprinting’ where a bird species mobile from birth attaches to the first moving object they see.
he identified a critical period for this and if imprinting doesnt occur in this period then they wont ever attach to a mother figure.
he also did a case study in 1952 on sexual imprinting. he observed a peacock raised in the reptile house of a zoo. the first moving object the peacock saw was a giant tortoise. as an adult the bird tried to court the tortoises. lorenz concluded the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
what are the two weaknesses of lorenzs research?
a weakness is that you cant generalise the results to humans. lorenz was interested in imprinting in birds. some of his findings influence our understanding of human development but we cant generalise the findings of birds to humans. the mammalian attachment system is different to birds.
the second weakness is that some of lorenzs observations have been questioned. guiton et al 1966 found chickens that imprinted on a yellow washing up gloves would try mate with them as adults, which follows lorenzs prediction. but with that experience they learned to prefer mating with other chickens. this shows that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour isnt as permanent as lorenz believed.
describe harlows research
harlow (1958) worked with rhesus monkeys to investigate contact comfort. he observed newborn monkeys kept alone in a bare age and found they normally died, but they survived if they were given something soft to cuddle.
he reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model ‘mothers’. in 1 condition the milk was dispensed by plain wire one and in the 2nd condition milk was dispensed by cloth ‘mother’. they found that baby monkeys cuddled the cloth one over the wire on and sought comfort in the cloth one if frightened regardless of who was dispensing milk. this showed contact comfort was more important than food.
he followed the monkeys deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. they found severe consequences and monkeys reared with wire mothers were the most dysfunctional but those with the cloth monkey still didnt develop normal social behaviour. they were all more aggressive, less sociable and bred less often than typical monkeys as they were unskilled at mating. as mothers some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and attacked them, sometimes killing them.
found a critcal period of 90 days and after that attachment was impossible.
what are the 2 strengths of harlows research?
one strength is it has theoretical value. its had a big effect on psychologists understanding of human mother infant attachment. it shows attachment doesnt occur as a result of being fed by the mother but because of contact comfort. it also showed the importance of quality or early relationships for later social development.
the other strength is that it has practical value. e.g. its helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so they can prevent it. the findings are also important in care of captive monkeys as we now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and wild breeding programmes.
what is the weakness of harlows research?
a weakness is ethical issues as the monkeys suffered greatly as a result. monkeys are similar enough to humans that we can generalise the findings so the suffering was probably human like. he knew how much suffering he caused but said the research was important enough to justify the effects.
describe learning theory of attachment
dollard and miller 1970 proposed caregiver infant attachment can be explained by learning theory.
this is also known as ‘cupboard love theory’ as it emphasises the importance of caregiver as a food provider.
describe learning theory of attachment - classical conditioning
classical conditioning is ‘association’.
in this case food works as the unconditioned stimulus, being fed is pleasure so creates an unconditioned response.
the caregiver starts as the neutrall stimulus, but as the same person provides food this neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus so pleasure becomes a conditioned response.
describe learning theory of attachment - operant conditioning
operant conditioning is ‘reinforcement’ so repeating or not repeating behaviour depending on the consequences.
this can explain why babies cry for comfort as it leads to a response from caregivers like feeding.
as long as the caregiver gives the right response crying is reinforced so the baby directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who repsonds with comforting ‘social supressor’ behaviour.
reinforcemnet is a two way proces. the baby cries so the caregiver gets negative reinforcement when they stop the crying - escape the unpleasantness. this two way process strengthens attachment.
learning theory draws on the idea of drive reduction. hunger is a primary drive so attachment is secondary.
what are the three weaknesses of learning theory?
the first weakness is that there is counter evidence from animal studies. a range of studies have shown young animals dont necesarily attach or imprint to those who feed them. lorenz geese imprinted before being fed and maintained the attachment no matter who fed them. its clear attachment isnt due to feeding so the same must be true for humans, as learning theorists thought humans and animals were equivalent.
another weakness is that theres counter evidence from human research. research from humans shows feeding isnt important. schaffer and emerosn found babies formed attachments to theur biological mum even if other carers did the feeding. these findings are a problem for learning theory as it shows feeding isnt key so theres no unconditioned stimulus or primary drive.
the last weakness is that learning theory ignores other factors involved like reciprocity and interactional synchrony. also studies show best attachments are with carers who pick up signals and respond well. its hard to link findings with the idea of cupboard love. if attachment is just due to feeding thered be no purpose for the complex interactions and theres no relationship between them and the quality of attachment.
describe bowlbys monotropic theory
bowlby rejected learning theory as an explanantion for attachment. he looked at harlow and lorenzs work and proposed an evolutionary explanantion - that attachment was an innate system for a survival advantage.
monotropy is the idea one attachment is different and has central importance to a childs development (primary attachment figure).
describe bowlbys monotropic theory - the two principles
bowlby put forward two principles.
1. law of continuity - the more constant or predictable the childs care, the better quality attachment.
2. law of accumulated seperation - effects of separation from mother add up so the ‘safest dose is zero’.
describe bowlbys monotropic theory - reciprocal relationship
he suggested babies are born with a set of ‘social releasers’ - a set of cute behaviours like smiling to get attention from adults. he recognised attachment as a reciprocal process.
mother and baby have an innate predisposition to be attached and social releasers trigger this response in a cargiver.
the interplay between adult and infants attachment builds the relationship between them starting in the early weeks of life.
describe bowlbys monotropic theory - critical period
bowlby proposed a critical period of around 2 years when the infants attachment system is active.
he viewed it as more of a sensitive period and if attachment wasnt found in this time its harder to form one later.
they are maximally sensitive at age 2.
describe bowlbys monotropic theory - mental representation
bowlby proposed a child forms a mental representation of the relationship with their primary caregiver - an internal working model (IWM).
this IWM is a model for what relationships are like so has a powerful effect on a childs future relationships.
if the first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to form an expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable. they bring these qualities to future relationships and vice versa for poorer relationships.
IWM also affects a childs ability to be a parent later on.
what is the one weakness of bowlbys monotropic theory?
the weakness is that theres mixed evidence for monotropy. bowlby believed babies formed one attachment to a primary caregiver and this was special and then only after this could they form multiple ones.
schaffer and emerson 1964 didnt support this, they found most babies attached to one person 1st but also a significant minority could form multiple at the same time. it was also unclear if the 1st attachment is special. studies show attachment to mother is more important in predicting later behaviour but could mean attachment to primary figure is just stronger than others, not different in quality.
what are the two strengths of bowlbys monotropic theory?
one strength is that theres support for social releasers. brazelton 1975 observed mothers and babies reporting the existence of interactional synchrony. they extended this to an experiment where caregivers ignored babies social releasers and babies showed distress. such a strong repsonse supports bowlbys idea of social releasers eliciting caregiving.
another strength is that theres support for internal working model. Bailey et al 2007 assessed 99 mums with their 1 year olds using interviews to assess attachment to their own mums before observing them with their 1 year old. they found mums with poor attachment with their own parents in an interview, had a higher likelihood of poor relationships with their own babies in observation. this supports IWM being passed down through families.
desribe bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
bowlby proposed this in 1951 and said maternal deprivation is the emotional and intellectual comsequence of seperation between child and mother/mother substitute.
bowlby said continuous care from mother is essential for normal psychlogical development and prolonged seperation causes serious damage to emotional/ intellectual development.
theres an important difference between seperation and deprivation. seperation is when a child isnt in the presence of a primary attachment figure.
its only a problem for development when child is deprived (e.g. lose element of her care), brief separations arent significant for development.
desribe bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation - critical period
bowlby saw the fist 30 months as a critical period for psychological development. if there was seperation from the mother with no suitable substitute care and so got deprived of emotional care for an extended time, then psychological damage was inevitable.
desribe bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation - intellectual development
effect on intellectual development - if the child is deprived fr too long then they will get an abnormally low IQ.
this is demonstrated in adoption studies like Goldfarb 1947.
they found a lower IQ in children who stayed in institutions than those who got fostered.
