Attachment Flashcards
What are Maccoby’s characteristics of attachment ?
-Seeking proximity
-Distress on separation
-Joy on reunion
-Orientation of behaviour
Define attachment
A strong lasting emotional and reciprocal bond between two people e.g. between an infant and caregiver
What are the two infant caregiver interactions ?
-Reciprocity
-Interactional synchrony
What is meant by reciprocity ?
Where the infant caregiver interactions are a two-way process, each party respond to each others signals
What is the procedure of Tronick’s study focusing on reciprocity ?
He asked the mothers to engage in reciprical behaviours then asked the mother to stop reacting to the baby
What were the findings of Tronick’s study focusing on reciprocity ?
The baby became distressed and started trying to get attention from it’s mother by pointing before starting to cry and show clear signs of distress
What are some positive evaluations of Tronick’s study focusing on reciprocity ?
-high internal validity
-high reliability
-standardized procedure
What is Feldman and Eidelman’s supporting study for reciprocity?
Mothers tend to pick up on the baby’s alert phase 2/3 of the time
What are some negative evaluations of Tronick’s study focusing on reciprocity ?
-lack of protection from harm
-lack of ecological validity
-social desirability
What is Brazeltons viewpoint on reciprocity ?
He describes reciprocity as a dance where each partner respondws to the action of the other
What is interactional synchrony?
The co-ordination of movements and gestures.
What study supports interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore
What was the procedure of Meltzoff and Moore?
Observed infants as young as 2 weeks old
Adults displayed 2/3 facial expressions
The study was recorded
What were the findings of Meltzoff and Moore?
There was a correlation between adult behaviour and infant response - they tended to synchronise.
What are strengths of Meltzoff and Moore?
High Internal Validity - control over what facial expressions were used
Reliability - It was filmed so others can watch it
Practical Application - Explains how you can support families and improve relationship’s
What are the weaknesses of Metzoff and Moore ?
-It may be difficult to differenciate between general motion or intentional copying of behaviour
-Other studies have failed to recreate the study
-There are practical issues involved with infants as they spend most of their time sleeping or being fed
-There are ethical issues regarding lack of consent and protection from psychological harm
What study focuses on stages of attachment ?
Schaffer and Emmerson
What is the procedure of Schaffer and Emersons study focusing on the stages of attachment ?
They conducted a longitudional study on infants of working class households in Glasgow, they asked the children’s mothers to keep a diary of the babies reaction to seven different social situations
What are the 4 stages of attachment according to Schaffer and Emerson ?
-Asocial attachment
-Indiscriminate attachment
-Specific attachment
-Multiple attachments
What is the asocial attachment stage ?
From birth to 8 weeks, there is a similar response to most objects however there is a preference to human interaction
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage ?
From 2 months to 7 months old, the child shows a clear preference to human interaction and starts to show a preference towards familiar adults such as family members, they accept comfort from any adult
What is the specific attachment stage ?
From 7-9 months, infants begin to show both separation and stranger anxiety. The child has formed a specific attachment to the primary attachment figure
What is the multiple attachment stage ?
About a month after the child has formed a specific primary attachment, they begin to form secondary attachments to familiar adults
What were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson ?
-the mother was the primary attachment figure for 70% of infants
-3% of infants formed primary attachments to their father
-27% were joint attachments
-By 18 months old 31% had formed multiple attachments
Different stages of infancy led to different levels of stranger/separation anxiety
What are some negative evaluations of Schaffer and Emerson’s study ?
-the sample is unrepresentative
-the data lacks validity due to social desirability
What does Hewlett argue that supports the idea of the role of the father changing cross-culturally ?
As shifts in the UK are changing so the amount of male involvement in childcare and housework, this is because they have more time to spend with the family as shift lengths decrease, even though they are still expected to be the breadwinner however in some countries such as CAR men are expected to care for the children
Why do economic factors have an impact on the role of the father ?
In some countries fathers are less involved because of work patterns, they may work far away or for very long hours to provide for the family, this means they have less time at home to spend with their children however in the UK shift lengths are decreasing and more women are going back to work after having children so the childcare is more evenly shared
Why do social policies have an impact into the involvement of fathers ?
As policy changes it makes it easier for fathers to be involved in their children’s life from an early stage such as shared parental leave which allows fathers to be stay at home parents rather than the responsibility being passed straight to he mother
Why might biological factors have an impact on fathers involvement and their role ?
Some psychologists argue that men do not have the capacity to fulfill the same role as the mother due to a lack of oestrogen and this means that they miss more of the baby’s cues such as when the babies are in their alert state
What does Freeman argue about how the gender of the child changes the involvement and role of the father ?
He found that the father is more likely to make a bond with a baby boy, he also found that fathers are more likely to make an attachment with the child when they are a little older during their childhood and adolecense
What did Frodi find about the biological differences changing the role of the father ?
They found that there was no difference between men and women for how they responded to the baby
What did Manlove find about the temperament of the child changing the role of the father ?
Fathers are less likely to be involved if the child has a difficult temperament
What did Bowlby find about the role of the father ?
Fathers will often treat their children how they were taught as a child due to the internal working model, fathers are more likely to be seen by the child as a playmate because they are more likely to engage in sports rather than fulfill the childs physiological needs
What did Schaffer and Emerson find about the role of the father ?
Only 3% of children formed a primary attachment to their father first, they tended to form joint attachments to the father before they were 18 months old
What did Grossman find about the role of the father ?
He found that the fathers play style reflected their internal working model, however play sensitivity was a better predictor of the long term attachment
What did Field find about the role of the father ?
He compared the role of the father between primary and secondary caretaker fathers, he found that the primary caretaker fathers engaged more with the child and this behavior was comparable to the mother
What did Brown et al find about the role of the father ?
Involvement and sensitivity influenced the parent-child relationship, involvement was a greater predictor when the fathers were rated as less sensitive
What was the procedure of Lorenz ?
He divided a clutch of goose eggs into two, half hatched with the mother and half hatched with Lorenz
What were the findings of Lorenz ?
The geese that hatched with Lorenz imprinted on him and followed Lorenz, this proved that attachment is innate
What was the procedure an findings of Guiton ?
He exposed chicks to rubber gloves in the first moments of their lives, he found that they imprinted onto them and would try to mate with them instead of other chickens later in life
Define imprinting
Where offspring follow the first large thing they see, this is often found in birds
What are some evaluations of Lorenz ?
-lacks generalisability to humans
-may be seen as unethical because it caused the animals problems in later life
What was Harlows procedure ?
8 rhesus monkeys that were caged since birth, they were put into an enclosure with a wire food-dispensing mother and a cloth-bound mother, Harlow measured the amount of time the monkey spent with each of the surrogate mothers
What were the findings of Harlow ?
The monkeys showed more attachment behaviours towards the cloth-bound mother when they were frightened which goes against cupboard love
What were the consequences of Harlows study on the monkeys ?
The monkeys struggled in social environments, they became timid, unpredictable and difficulty mating with the other animals. The female monkeys also became inadequate mothers
What are some positive evaluations of Harlow’s study ?
-There is practical application - foster care
-It cannot be replicated on humans
