Attachment Flashcards
what’s an attachment ?
an emotional connection or bond between the child and the principle caregiver
what’s attachment characterised by
mutual affection
frequent interaction
desire for proximity
selectivity (child wants to be with caregiver more than anyone else)
what’s proximity
trying to stay physically close to those whom which you’re attached to
what’s seperation distress
becoming distressed when an attachment figure leaves your presence
what’s secure base behaviour
tending to make regular contact with attachment figure despite independence of them
how do babies interact with their caregiver
reciprocity and interactional synchrony
what’s reciprocity
2 way process where each person provides a response
E.g. smiling may elicit a response
Who looks into reciprocity?
Meltzoff and Moore
Meltzoff and Moore sample
6 babies (aged 12 to 27 days) and 12 babies (aged 16 to 21 days)
What is the Meltzoff and Moore procedure?
Controlled observation of babies in a response to 4 stimulus
Videoed and independent observer noted all instances of tongue protrusion and head movements
What were the 4 stimulus?
3 facial gestures
1 manual gesture
How was inter-rater reliability increased?
Each observer scored the tape twice
What were Meltzoff and Moore’s findings?
Babies aged 12-27 days old could imitate both facial and manual gestures
what’s interactional synchrony
actions and emotions are the same as each other
E.g. mirroring one another’s emotions or behaviours
What was the aim of Evans and Porter?
Weather reciprocity and interactional synchrony impact on attachment quality
Evans and Porter sample
Studied 101 infants and their mothers for the first year after birth
53 female and 48 male
What was Evans and Porters procedure?
Invited to lab at 6,9 and 12 months and placed in an observation room with toys and instructed to play as normal for 15 mins (videoed)
What happened at 12 months?
quality of mother-infant attachment was assessed using strange situation
What did Evans and Porter find?
Babies with secure attachment had the most reciprocal interactions and most interactional synchrony
how many stages of attachment did Schaffer suggest
4
what is stage 1 of Schaffer’s stages of attachment
asocial
what is the asocial stage of attachment according to Schaffer
recognising and forming bonds but behave similarly towards objects as they do humans
What is stage 2 of Schaffer’s stage of attachment
indiscriminate
what is the indiscriminate stage of attachment according to Schaffer
more social behaviour and accepts comfort from any animal
What is stage 3 of Schaffer’s stage of attachment
specific
what is the specific stage of attachment according to Schaffer
stranger and separation anxiety with specific attachment with primary caregiver
What is stage 4 of Schaffer’s stage of attachment
multiple
what is the multiple stage of attachment according to Schaffer
formation of secondary attachments
Schaffer and Emerson aim
To investigate the formation of early attachments
Schaffer and Emerson sample
60 babies (31 males and 29 females) from Glasgow and were from skilled working class backgrounds.
What was Schaffer and Emerson’s procedure?
Visited at the babies home every month for the first year and again at 18 months of age (longitudinal study)
researchers told the mother to keep a personal diary to measure the effects of certain characteristics
What did mothers put in there personal diary to measure the effects of?
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Social referencing
Response to strangers
Distress when carer leaves
What did Schaffer and Emerson find?
Between 25-32 weeks, about 50 % of babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult (specific attachment).
By 40 weeks 80% had a specific attachment
What did Shaffer and Emerson find?
Main attachments are with person who is most interactive
suggesting fathers are not as important but could if interacted the most
Who looked into the role of the farther?
Grossman (2002)
Grossman aim
Find out how important fathers are and weather they have a distinctive role
What was Grossman’s procedure?
longitudinal study looking at both parent’s behaviour and its relationship quality of children’s attachments into their teens
What did Grossman find?
Mothers was related to children’s attachments in adolescence attachments
father was more of a play and simulation and less to do with nurturing.
Who looked into the fathers as a primary care-giver?
Field (1978)
What was Fields procedure?
filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
What did Primary furthers do when interacting with infant?
Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants.
What were Field findings
fathers can be more nurturing attachment primary figures. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent.
Who conducted animal studied?
Harlow: Monkeys
Lorenz: Goslings
What were the two things Harlow looked into?
contact comfort
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults
What was the aim of Harlow’s study?
tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother.
What was Harlow’s procedure to studying contact comfort?
In one experiment 8 baby monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth and introduced with two wire model mothers.
What were the two conditions of Harlow’s study?
- milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother
- milk was dispensed by the cloth mother
4 monkeys could get milk from wire and 4 from cloth
How long were the monkeys studied for?
165 days
What did Harlow find in terms of contact comfort?
Monkeys spent more time with cloth mother and would only go to the wire mother when hungry.
What happened if a frightening object was place in?
took refugee with cloth mother as its secure base
What is concluded from Harlow’s study
“contact comfort” was a more important thing to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
What was the Aim of Lorenz’s study?
To assess the mechanisms of imprinting
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
randomly divided a group of goose eggs. Half were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment and the other half hatched into an incubator where the first moving object they was was Lorenz.
What did Lorenz find?
incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed the real mother.
When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz.
What did Lorenz identify?
a critical period (12-17 hours) in which imprinting needs to take place which is innate and programmed genetically
What did Hess find?
who found strongest response of imprinting occurred within 12-27 hours
what’s the learning theory of attachment
babies are born as blank slates so learn to form attachments not innately
why do babies attach according to learning theory
to get food
process of classical conditioning according to the learning theory of attachment
mother is neutral stimulus
baby associated her with food
mother eventually becomes a conditioned stimulus
brings pleasure on her own
classical conditioning
Food (US) - Happy baby (UR)
Mother (NS) - Food (US) - Happy baby (UR)
Mother (CS) - Happy baby (CR)
operant conditioning according to learning theory of attachment
food = primary reinforcer
mother = secondary reinforcer
mother is also negatively reinforced by feeding
On the whole learning theory
attachment is learned through food
What does Bowlby’s monotropic theory suggest?
Attachment is innate
what’s innate adaptation
bowlbys belief that attachment is adaptive and aids survival
what are social releasers in Bowlby’s theory
different behaviours or physical features of infants that stimulate caregiving behaviour in adults e.g looking cute and crying
what’s the critical period in Bowlby’s theory of attachment
the time in development in which primary attachment must be made - first 30 months of life
what’s Bowlby’s theory of monotropy
we only form on primary attachment
what’s the internal working model
a mental representation of relationships and creates expectations of what all future relationships should be like
what did the creation of the working memory model lead to
the idea of the continuity hypothesis
what does the continuity hypothesis suggest
there will be consistency between early attachment and later relationships
On the whole Bowlby’s monotropic theory
Attachment is innate and is vital for development
Who developed the strange situation?
Ainsworth
Ainsworth aims
observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver.
What was Ainsworth’s sample?
100 middle class families from America with the child being from 12-18 months of age.
what’s proximity seeking
an infant with good attachment will stay fairly close to the caregiver
What were the behaviours used to judge attachment?
Proximity seeking
Exploration and secure base behaviour
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Response to reunion
Stages of Ainsworth’s research
- Mother, baby and experimenter all in the room together
- Mother and baby alone and the baby encouraged to play (Tests exploration, secure base)
- Stranger enters room and interacts with the child (Tests stranger anxiety)
- Mother leaves the room and the child and stranger left together (Tests separation and stranger anxiety)
- Mother returns and and stranger leaves (Tests reunion and exploration/secure base)
- Mother leaves and the child’s completely along (Tests separation anxiety)
- Stranger returns (Tets stranger anxeity)
- Mother returns and stranger leaves (Tests reunion behaviour)
Where was Ainsworth’s research conducted ?
room with controlled conditions (lab) with toys and and natural settings for a baby, with a two way mirror through which psychologists can observe the infants behaviour.
what’s exploration and secure bas behaviour
good attachment enables a child to feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a secure base to return to
what’s stranger anxiety
one of the signs of becoming closely attached is displaying anxiety when a stranger approaches
what’s separation anxiety
a sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver
what’s the response to reunion
securely attached children are happy to be reunited with their caregiver but others may show avoidance or resistance
What did Ainsworth find?
found that there were distinct patterns in the way that infants behaved. She identified three main attachment types;
- Secure
- Insecure Resistance
- Insecure Avoidant
secure attachment
feel confident that the attachment figure will be available to meet their needs. They use the attachment figure as a safe base to explore the environment and seek the attachment figure in times of distress
insecure-resistant attachment
These children seek greater proximity than others and so explore less. They show huge stranger and separation distress but they resist comfort when reunited with their carer.
insecure-avoidant attachment
These children explore freely, but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. They show little or no reaction when their caregiver leaves and they make little effort to make contact when the caregiver returns. They also show little stranger anxiety.
what is maternal deprivation
the absence of a mother figure
What is secure attachment associated with?
success at school and in romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood
What is insecure attachment associated with?
insecure attachment is associated with bullying in later childhood and adult mental health
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg aim
Researcher located 32 studies of attachment where the SS had been used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types. Conducted across 8 different countries. Meta analysis
How many children did the 32 studied have?
2000
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg findings
Secure: Most common classification.
However the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China.
Insecure-resistant: Least common type
Proportions ranged from 3% in Britain to 30% in Israel.
Insecure-avoidant:
Observed most commonly in Germany and the least common in Japan.
What was Rutter et al procedure?
longitudinal study in which he followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test the extent to what good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
When were the orphans tested?
Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4, 5, 11 and 15
What did the orphan show when fist arriving in the UK?
showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished.
Findings of the orphans IQ?
The IQ mean for children before 6 months was 102 compared to the mean IQ of those children adopted between 6 months and 2 years was 86.
Findings on orphans attachment?
Those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment compared to those children adopted before the age of 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
Disinhibited attachment
attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar
Zeanah et al sample
95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent on average 90% of their lives in institutional care.
Zeanah et al procedure
assessed attachment and compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution.
Their attachment type was measured using the strange situation.
What was the percentage of securely attached individuals in Zeanah et al study?
19% of the institutional group were securely attached compared to 74% of the control group came out as securely attached
What was the institutional groups attachment types?
65% = disorganised attachment.
44% = disinhibited attachment
what’s Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation?
the continued presence of nurture from a mother or substitute mother is essential for physiological development
What did Bowlby believe about the critical period?
30 months of life as a critical for psychological development
what happens if the mother is absent for a prolonged period of time during the critical period, according to Bowlby
physiological damage is inevitable
what are the consequences of maternal deprivation
intellectual development could be delayed - low IQ
problematic emotional development - affectionless
Why did Rutter criticise Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis?
what were the effects of institutionalisation according to Rutter
disinhibited attachment - equally friendly/affectionate to everyone they know
mental retardation - low IQ
What study did Bowlby conduct?
44 thieves study
What was the 44 thieves study?
examined the correlation between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
Bowlby’s sample
44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing between1936 and 1939
Bowlby’s procedure
All “thieves” were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the “thieves” had prolonged early separations from their mothers.
What were the characteristics of affectionless psychopathy?
lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and lack of empathy for their victims.
44 theives study findings
14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation for their mothers in the first two years of their lives.
Of the control group, only 2/44 had experienced long separations. It was concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
What did Bowlby conclude from the study?
if infants are separated from their parents then they will become a delinquent law breaker or some sort of socially undesirable person, showing that deprivation is indeed crucial to understanding why people may act the way they do after deprivation.
what was Bowlby’s internal working model
a template for future relationships based on early experiences with mother that’s developed in childhood
What does a child’s first relationship with there primary caregiver act as?
acts as an important template for perceptions of what future relationships should be like.
What would a child whose first experience is a loving experience in later life?
will seek functional relationships and behave functionally within them
What would a child with a bad experiences of their first attachment experience in later life?
struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may not behave appropriately when they have them, therefore displaying being too uninvolved or being too emotionally close or being argumentative towards friends and partners.
What did Hazen and Shaver conduct?
conducted a classic study of the association between attachment and adult relationships.
What was Hazen and Shavers procedure?
analysed 620 replies to a “love quiz” printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had three sections.
1. assessed respondent’s current or important relationship.
2. assessed general love experiences such as number of partners.
3. assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best describe their feelings
what was Hazen and Shaver’s love quiz
a questionnaire that could assess an individuals style of love as well as their attachment type
What was the percentage of each attachment type from the results of the “love quiz”?
56% securely attached
25% insecure-avoidant
19% insecure-resistant
What were Hazen and Shaver’s findings?
secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences.
The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.
What did Hazen and Shaver conclude?
that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.
what’s a collectivist culture
emphasises family and work goals above individual needs and desires
what’s an individualistic culture
emphasis on personal interdependence and achievement at the expense of group goals
