Attachment Flashcards
what key study shows cultural variations in attachment?
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg, meta-analysis, which looked at 32 studies in 8 countries, that all used the strange situation
What is an individualistic culture?
A culture that emphasises personal independence and achievement (US, UK, Germany)
What is a collectivist culture?
A culture that emphasises the importance of family and shared goals above individual needs and desires (China, Japan)
what did Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg find about the most common attachment?
secure attachment most common ranging from 50% China to 75% Britain
Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg found that insecure resistant…
results were similar in individualist cultures but not collectivist where it was increased
variations of results within the same country were…
150% greater than those between countries
what was Simonelli et al’s procedure?
assessed 12 month year olds using strange situation see if proportion of attachment matched in Italy
Simonelli et al found that secure attachment was at a lower rate than at previous studies
reason for Simonelli et al’s results was increasing mother working long hours and using childcare
conclude that cultural changes can make dramatic differences in patterns of attachment
AO3 for cultural variation
-ve
Sample bias 27/32 studies in their meta-analysis conducted in individualistic cultures.
Results are biased towards individualistic norms and values.
Generalizing the results to collectivist cultures is inaccurate.
This lowers the population validity of the findings.
-ve
comparing countries rather than cultures.
compared Great Britain with Israel in their meta-analysis.
Within each country, there can be many different subcultures, each with unique child-rearing practices.
Variance within countries was noted to be greater than between countries.
It’s likely they collected data on subcultures within the countries rather than the entire nation.
+ve large sample increases validity
‘secure’=dominant, supports Bowlby, biological instinct drive to parents to produce secure A
what did Bowlby say separation from the mother may lead to?
maternal deprivation
the difference between separation and deprivation is…
losing emotional care due to separation
does separation always cause deprivation?
no if alternative emotional care is offered
how long was the critical period that Bowlby identified?
30 months
what can happen as a result of maternal deprivation?
lowered intellectual development
Goldfarb, found lower IQ in children who stayed in institutions compared to higher standard of emotional care
emotional development
affectionless psychopathy, inability to feel guilt or feelings for others
what was the procedure for Bowlby’s 44 Thieves?
44 delinquent teenagers
families interviewed to establish any prolonged maternal separation
interviewed for affectionless psychopathy, with lack of affection, guilt and empathy
14/44 affectionless psychopaths
12/44 prolonged maternal separation within age of 2
Bowlby said prolonged separation/deprivation= affectionless psychopathy
AO3 for Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
+ve research support. Children=thieves, 14 affectionless psychopaths, 86% experience prolonged + early attachment separation, compared to 17% of ‘other thieves’ and 4% link separation to later social maladjustments.
-ve however, poor quality evidence, since Bowlby did the interviews, open to bias, knew in advance which teens showed signs of psychopathy. Bowlby’s was influenced by Goldfarb, which had issues with confounding variables, children had early trauma. Serious flaws
-ve A limitation of this experiment is the results may not be accurate. The participants were required to recall information from a long time ago, which is known as retrospective data collection. Therefore, it is possible that some participants couldn’t remember an the details accurately.
what are the two effects of institutionalization?
disinhibited attachment
damage to intellectual development
Describe Rutter’s study on the effects of institutionalisation on Romanian orphans
Longitudinal study
Measured the impact of attachment over rime for 165 Romanian orphans
111 were adopted before age 2
54 adopted after 2 but before 4
A control group of 52 British children adopted by 6 months
The children were tested for physical, cognitive and emotional development aged 4, 6, 11, and 15
At the time of adoption the Romanian children were behind the British children in all 3 aspects
The children adopted quickly caught up with the British children; by 4 most Romanian children adopted before 6 months had caught up, and rarely showed disinhibited attachment
Many of the children adopted after 6 months had difficulties with peer relationships and showed disinhibited attachment behaviour
⅓ of those adopted late had problems requiring the intervention of an educational psychologist or psychiatrist. These problems persisted, all the way to age 15
These findings supported Bowlby’s idea of a critical period, as those who did not form an attachment in this period never seemed to fully recover
What is disinhibited attachment?
When the child doesn’t seem to prefer their parents over other people, even strangers. The child seeks comfort and attention from virtually everyone and is very clingy
Evaluate research on the effects of institutionalisation AO3
+ve Rutter’s study =high ecological validity. Longitudinal studies have high ecological validity and can examine the effects of institutionalisation over a longer period of time. Therefore the results are more valid.
A limitation of Rutter’s study is that participant attrition may have been an issue. In longitudinal studies some participants may drop out, especially in studies with children, as they may not want to participate anymore when they get old enough to decide. The data from these cases is unavailable but may be highly important. Therefore, this is a limitation as the results may not be accurate.
+ve Rutter and Zeanah’s = real life application.
Previously, children in institutions often had multiple carers.
Institutions now prioritize assigning a key worker to each child to foster relationships.
Adoption agencies aim to place children before 6 months to prevent negative impacts on development.
Both research findings significantly improve societal approaches to child welfare.
-ve hard to generalise, as the children were only in Romanian orphanages. This is a problem as Romanian orphanage were renowned for having low quality of care, especially for having a lack of intellectual stimulation. Therefore, these findings cannot be generalised to other children in other countries as it is likely that they received different levels and types of care which will have affected the children in a different way. This means the research has low external validity as they can only explain the impact of institutionalisation in Romania.
Zeanah et al research
Bucharest early intervention
95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months
spent lives in institutional care
compared to control of 50 who X live in institution
SS used.
74% control group= securely attached
19% institutionalised= securely attached
disinhibited A applied to 44% for I, less than 20% in control.
what is important in early attachment as it can affect later relationships?
the internal working model
it is the template for future relationships
secure infants form better friendships, less likely to bully (Kerns)
insecure-avoidant children are more likely to be victims of bullying
insecure-resistant children are more likely to be bullies
What do IWM affect in adults?
romantic relationships, parental relationships with own children.
What did Hazan and Shaver do?
They put a “love quiz” in a local newspaper
620 replies
The quiz assessed current relationships, past relationships, and attachment types
56% secure, 25% avoidant, 19% resistant
Those who were securely attached believed love is enduring, had mutual trust, and were less likely to get divorced
Those who were insecurely attached felt love was rare, fell in and out of love easily, found relationships harder, and here more likely to be divorced
Influence of early attachment on later relationships research evaluation AO3
-ve validity.
Many studies don’t employ the “strange situation” method, opting for interviews or questionnaires years later.
This approach can lead to issues with participant honesty and a skewed perception of their relationships.
Consequently, the data may lack validity and fail to provide an accurate representation of childhood attachments.
Measures of early attachment in these studies may be influenced by other factors, rendering them meaningless.
-ve deterministic. For example, the research of Hazan and Shaver suggests that very early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships. This is not the case as researchers have found plenty of instances where participants were experiencing happy adult relationships despite not having been securely attached as infants. Therefore, early attachment is not the only factor that affects later relationships.
-ve Mixed research exists regarding continuity of attachment type from childhood to adulthood.
Zimmerman (2000) proposes that infant attachment type and the quality of parent relationships in adolescence are unrelated.
These findings contradict the significance of the internal working model in childhood and adult relationship development, questioning its emphasis by psychologists like Bowlby.
