Attachment

Question 1

what is interactional synchrony

Answer 1

is when a mother and infant reflect each others emotions and actions in a coordinated way .

Question 2

Identify Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 2

• Asocial stage (0-6 weeks),
  -Indiscriminate attachment stage (6 weeks to 6 months),
  -Specific attachment stage (7-9 months)
  -Multiple attachment stage (10+months)

Question 3

describe the various roles of the father which research has shown us .

Answer 3

-Grossman (2002) found that fathers have more of play and stimulation role .
- Tiffany Field (1978) found fathers can be primary caregivers and adopt the behaviours of mothers .

Question 4

Define an internal working model and explain its importance .

Answer 4

An internal working model is the mental representation a child has of how the relationship with their primary caregiver is.
Bowlby believes these have a powerful effect on future relationships as internal working models serve as models of other relationships . Children will later form relationships similar to and in line with their internal working models .

Question 5

Give a limitation of research into internal working models

Answer 5

there is a theoretical problem with research related to internal working models . internal working models are unconscious yet the methods used to study them- self-report methods - are conscious. Therefore the self-report technique cannot really be a good method to assess them.

Question 6

what method is used to measure attachment type in children.

Answer 6

Ainsworth’s strange situation.

Question 7

what are the behaviours that Ainsworth uses to judge attachment

Answer 7

• Proximity seeking
  -Exploration and secure base behaviour
• Stranger anxiety
  -Separation anxiety
• Response to reunion.

Question 8

List the episodes to the strange situation

Answer 8

1- child and mother enter unfamiliar playroom.
2-child encouraged to explore
3- stranger comes in and tries to interact with child
4- mother leaves child and stranger together.
5-mother returns stranger leaves
6-mother leaves
7-stranger enters
8-mother returns and is reunited with child.

Question 9

list the three attachment types

Answer 9

Type A - insecure-avoidant
Type B - secure attachment
Type C - insecure-resistant

Question 10

what personality will an insecure-resistant child tend to develop?

Answer 10

a controlling and argumentative personality

Question 11

what can we conclude from Harlow’s research?

Answer 11

Monkeys have an innate , unlearned need for contact and comfort , suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security more than food . Contact comfort is associated with lower levels of stress and willingness to explore.

Question 12

describe the two laws of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 12

Law of continuity- the more constant and predictable the relationship is when the mother, the stronger the attachment .
Law of accumulated separation- for there to be no future problems and the attachment to be secure and healthy , there should be no separation between the mother and infant

Question 13

define imprinting

Answer 13

Imprinting is when a young animals eventually comes to recognise another animal or a person or thing as a parent.

Question 14

give two example of cultural variation studies into attachments.

Answer 14

Van ljzendoorn and Kronenberg (1988) did a meta-analysis of 32 studies in 8 countries which looked into proportions of attachment types
Simonella et al (2014)- Italian study where the strange situation was used to measure attachment in 70 6-12 month old babies

Question 15

define maternal deprivation

Answer 15

describes the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his or her mother .

Question 16

Give a limitation of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 16

Bowlby failed to properly distinguish between deprivation and privation . Rutter (1981) attempts to distinguish between the two saying that privation is the failure to form an attachment in the first place whereas deprivation is the loss of an attachment after it has formed . Rutter argues that privation is deprivation , as Bowlby’s theory states .

Question 17

give three effects of institutionalisation.

Answer 17

-poor peer interaction
-disinhibited attachment
-mental retardation ( delayed cognitive development )

Question 18

define social releasers

Answer 18

social releasers are a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours e.g. smiling and gripping which children elicit to activate an adult’s attachment system

Question 19

outline the learning theory explanation of attachment

Answer 19

through classical conditioning, attachment can start through a child learning to associate a mother with food which brings pleasure to the child. through operant conditioning this association can be strengthened. By positive reinforcement- when a baby cries the mother feeds the baby so this reinforces the crying behaviour in the child. Also by negative reinforcement from the mother’s side as the baby stops crying when the mother feeds it, the mother continues to feed the baby to prevent it crying.

Question 20

Define Attachment

Answer 20

A close two way emotional bond between two individuals in which individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.

Question 21

what are the two types of care giver infant interaction

Answer 21

• reciprocity
• international synchrony

Question 22

what is reciprocity

Answer 22

• how two people interact. mother - infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other .
  Brazelton liked reciprocity to a dance where each partner responds to each other’s moves

Question 23

what is the reciprocity study

Answer 23

Condon and sander (1974) studied reciprocity in infants .
They analysed frame by frame recording of infants movements whilst and adult was talking.
They found that the infants coordinated their actions in sequences with the adult’s speech to form a kind of turn taking conversation.
This supports the idea of reciprocity.

Question 24

who studied interactional synchrony

Answer 24

Meltzoff and moore

Question 25

what was the study for interactional synchrony

Answer 25

• Meltzoff and moore observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old .
  -an adult displayed one of the three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. The child’s response was filmed and identified by an independent observer.
  -an association was found between the expression of gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the baby.
  -this was taken as support for interactional synchrony.

Question 26

What did Isabella et al study

Answer 26

investigate interactional synchrony in infants.

Question 27

How many criminals did Bowlby use in the maternal deprivation theory.

Answer 27

44

Question 28

What did bowlby find in his affectionless psychology and material deprivation study

Answer 28

-14 of the 44 could be described as affectionless psychopaths
-12 of the 14 affectionless psychopaths had experienced prolong separation from their mothers in the first years of life
-only 2 out of the 44 controls had experienced long separation .

Question 29

what was the aims and procedures of Schaffer and Emersons study

Answer 29

Aim-To identify stages of attachment/find a pattern in the development of
an attachment between infants and parents
Procedure - 60 babies from Glasgow, all from the same estate.
● They analysed the interactions between the infants and carers
● They interviewed the carers
● The mother had to keep a diary to track the infant’s
behaviours based on the following measures:
stranger anxiety , separation anxiety , social referencing
It was a longitudinal study lasting 18 months
● They visited the infants on a monthly basis and once again at
the end of the 18 month period.

Question 30

define separation anxiety

Answer 30

signs of distress when the carer leaving, and
how much the infant needs to be comforted when the carer returns

Question 31

define stranger anxiety

Answer 31

• signs of distress as a response to a stranger
  arriving

Question 32

define social referencing

Answer 32

• how often the infant looks at their carer to check
  how they should respond to something new

Question 33

what did Schaffer and Emmerson find and conclude

Answer 33

They found that sensitive responsiveness was more important than
the amount of time spent with the baby, so infants formed more attachments with those who spent less time with them but were more sensitive to their needs than those who spent more time with them but were less sensitive.
Attachments seemed to form when the carer communicates and plays with the child rather than when the carer feeds or cleans the child.
They also used their findings to come up with the different stages of attachment:
- Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)
-Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks – 6 months)
-Specific (7 months +)
-Multiple (10/11 months +)
They found that many of the infants reached this final stage by 10
months. The infants had attachments not only with their mothers, but
their fathers, siblings, extended family members and family friends

Question 34

explain the Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)

Answer 34

This is when the infant responds to objects and people similarly - but
may respond more to faces and eyes

Question 35

explain the Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks – 6 months)

Answer 35

This is when the infant develops more responses to human company.
Although they can tell the difference between different people, they
can be comforted by anyone.

Question 36

explain the Specific (7 months +) stage

Answer 36

This is when the infants begins to prefer one particular carer and
seeks for security, comfort and protection in particular people. They
also start to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.

Question 37

explain the Multiple (10/11 months +) stage

Answer 37

This is when the infant forms multiple attachments and seeks
security, comfort and protection in multiple people. They may also
show separation anxiety for multiple people.

Question 38

who conducted the animal studies of attatchment

Answer 38

Lorenz and Harlow

Question 39

Explain Lorenz’s concept of imprinting

Answer 39

Lorenz showed that imprinting occurred
in a clutch of goose eggs, where half attached to and followed Lorenz after seeing him as the
first moving person after birth. Imprinting/ the formation of an attachment must occur within the
critical period of attachment development, which is usually the first 30 months of life, after
which an attachment is not possible and the consequences of a failure to form an attachment
are irreversible.
Sexual imprinting is also a similar idea, where animals will attach to and display sexual
behaviours towards the first moving object or animal they see directly after birth. Lorenzi
reported of a case of a peacock who was born surrounded by turtles, and so only desired to
mate with turtles in later life.