Attachment

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

Infants and caregivers develop deep and long lasting emotional bonds. They both seek closeness and feel more secure when close to them.

Question 2

What is reciprocity?

Answer 2

It is mutual turn taking form of interactions, they both respond to each others signals and cues

Question 3

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 3

Simultaneous interactions between the infant and caregiver who appear to be acting rhythmically with matching coordinated behaviour and matching emotional state

Question 4

What are some strengths of caregiver infant interactions in humans?

Answer 4

Meltzoff & Moore - Experimenter displayed facial gestures such as sticking a tongue out and opening their mouths in shock to 12-21 day olds. They found infants had the ability to observe and reciprocate through imitation

Condon & Sander - Videotaped interactions between adults and neonates focussing on the movement of the neonates in response to adult speech finding evidence of interactional synchrony

Question 5

What are some limitations of caregiver infant interactions in humans?

Answer 5

Caregiver infant interactions research is dependent on inferences

Social sensitivity in the research of caregiver infant interactions

Question 6

What is the first stage of attachment identified by Schaffer?

Answer 6

Asocial 0-6 weeks

Babies display innate behaviour that ensure proximity to any potential caregiver

Anyone can comfort them as they do not prefer any caregiver

Question 7

What is the second stage of attachment as identified by Schaffer?

Answer 7

Indiscriminate attachment 6w-7m

Infants develop the ability to tell the difference between familiar and unfamiliar individuals, smiling more at the people they frequently see

Question 8

What is stage three of attachment as identified by Schaffer?

Answer 8

Specific attachment 7m-9m

Babies form a strong attachment to a primary caregiver, this is where separation and stranger anxiety begins to develop

Question 9

What is stage four of attachment as identified by Schaffer?

Answer 9

Multiple attachments 9/10m +

The infant start to form attachments with other regular caregivers and stranger anxiety starts to decrease

Question 10

What are some strengths of the stages of attachment as identified by Schaffer?

Answer 10

Schaffer and Emerson - conducted a longitudinal observation of 60 W/C babies from glasgow, they found that separation anxiety was found in most babies 25-32 and in the 18 month follow up 87% had developed multiple attachments

Question 11

What are some limitations of the stages of attachment as identified by Schaffer?

Answer 11

The study may not be generalisable of have temporal validity

Only included a group of W/C mothers in 1966s Glasgow

Question 12

What is the role of the father as the primary caregiver?

Answer 12

If men take on their role of primary caregiver their interaction style becomes more like mothers which increases their capacity for sensitive responsiveness

Question 13

What is the role of the father in active play?

Answer 13

Fathers are seen to engage babies in active play activities more than mothers which encourages risk taking behaviour

Question 14

What did Schaffer find in the role of the father?

Answer 14

Schaffer found at 18 months, 75% of infants had formed an attachment with their fathers showing separation anxiety which suggests fathers play an important role in their infants lives.

Question 15

What are some strengths of investigating the role of the father?

Answer 15

Field (1978) found fathers focussed more on game-playing and less on holding

Verissimo found a strong attachment to the father was the best predictor of the ability to make friends in school

Question 16

What are some limitations of investigating the role of the father?

Answer 16

Social sensitivity - theorists argue that the role of the mother cannot be replaced by the father

Question 17

What was Lorenz procedure?

Answer 17

Tested imprinting on birds forming a strong attachment with and following their mothers after hatching

Greylag goose eggs were randomly divided in half, they were taken to be hatched by Lorenz the other half by the mother

Question 18

What did Lorenz find?

Answer 18

He found that the goslings he hatched imprinted on him and that they had a critical period of about 32 hours

Question 19

What is a strength of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 19

Highly influential - Bowlby argued humans also have a critical period of 6-30m

Question 20

What was Harlow’s procedure?

Answer 20

He tested the cupboard love theory that babies love mothers because they feed them

He placed infant Rhesus Macaque monkeys were placed in cages with two surrogate mothers - one provides milk, one provides comfort

Question 21

What did Harlow find?

Answer 21

He found that the monkeys spent most of their time with the ‘cloth monkey’ and only went to the food mother when hungry

Question 22

What is a strength of Harlow’s study?

Answer 22

Highly influential - Bowlby argued similar to the monkeys, infants crve comfort from their mothers in an attempt to form a monotropic relationship

Question 23

What is a limitation of both Lorenz and Harlows studies?

Answer 23

The generalisation of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic

Question 24

What is a limitation of Harlow?

Answer 24

Harlow is criticised on ethical grounds for intentionally causing distress to the monkeys

Question 25

What is the explanation of attachment according to the learning theory?

Answer 25

Dolland and Miller (1930) theory of cupboard love is based on the theory of learning - it argues infants become attached to their caregiver because they learn the caregiver provides food

The learning theory states attachment is a secondary drive and it will ultimately lead to satisfying a primary drive

Question 26

What is the explanation of attachment according to Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 26

Bowlby’s argues infants have an innate and instinctual drive to form an attachment to their mother and stay in a close proximity to ensure a child’s survival

Babies use signals called social releasers to attract the caregivers attention - mothers are biologically programmed to find these behaviours cute

Bowlby argues that there is a critical period of 30 months - lack of monotropy results in permenant negative social, intellectual and emotional consequences for infants

Bowlby claims the childs monotropic schema is called the internal working model - frame work for later relationships

Question 27

What is a strength of bowlby’s monotropic theory?

Answer 27

His idea of monotropic relationships has been adapted and applied to childcare

Question 28

What are some limitations of bowlbys monotropic theory?

Answer 28

The IWM is highly deterministic

Bowlby’s view lacks temporal validity

Bowlby’s work is based upon Lorenz findings and rather a childhood critical period is sensitive but care can lead to recovery

Question 29

What is bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 29

Bowlby believed that the infants and mothers relationships during the first five years of life was critical to socialization

A lack of care from the primary caregiver during the critical period will lead to long lasting damage to the child’s intellectual, social and emotional development

The consequences included :
- Affectionless psychopathology - children are unable to show caring behaviours to others or empathy and guilt
- Low IQ - cognitive abilities are lower than peers
- Social development deliquency - Behaviour is often outside acceptable norms such as petty crimes

Question 30

What are some strengths of Bowlbys theory of maternal ddeprivation?

Answer 30

Bowlbys 44 thieves study - 44 child thieves and control group ere accessed for affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation - they found 14 had AP and 12 had MD

Question 31

What is a limitation of bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 31

Monotropy provides alpha bias

Bowlbys research is correlational