Attachment Flashcards
What does reciprocity and interractional synchrony mean?
Reciprocity- Mothers respond to infant alertness
Interractional synchrony-Interactions become co-ordinated
Evaluations of reciprocity and interractional synchrony
It is hard to know what is happening
Controlled observations
Purpose of reciprocity and interactional synchrony- Fieldman ~just observations no understood purpose
What is the parent-infant attachment?
Traditionally mother-infant , other figures like a father may be important.
The Role of the Father.
Grossman et al = attachment to fathers are less important but they play a different role in childrens life- play and stimulation rather than nurturing.
Fathers as primary caregivers.
Tiffany Field found that fathers as primary carers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers. Males are just as capable of becoming primary attachment figures as women are.
Evaluations of the role of the father and fathehr as primary caregiver
Role of the father- children without fathers are no different
Father as primary attachment figure-traditional gender roles
What was the procedure of Shaffer and Emerson’s ‘Glasgow babies study’?
Longitudinal study
60 infants from a working class area of Glasgow over a two year period keeping a detailed record of their observations.Infants were observed every 4 weeks until they were 1 years old then again at 18 months.
What were Schaffer and Emerson’s findings?
Half the children showed their first specific attachment between 25-32 weeks. Intensely attached children had mothers who responded quickly to their demands , however weakly attached children’s mothers didn’t respond very fast.
What were schaffer and Emerson’s conclusions?
It is usual for children to have multiple attachment figures.
What were Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment?
1-Asocial stage(first few weeks)little difference in attachments to people or objects
2-Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months) shows preference for people over objects, will accept comfort from anyone
3-Specific(7 months) shows anxiety to strangers and preference to one caregiver
4-Multiple attachment(most by 12 months) have developed attachments to other adults as well~secondary attachment
Operant conditioning-Learning theory
BF Skinner said people and animals can both learn through the same process , reinforcement or punishing which he called operant conditioning (pigeon)
Evaluations of BF Skinners learning theory
-A range of animal studies have shown that young animals don’t necessarily attach too those who feed them e.g Lorenz
Lorenz- Geese Procedure
With 12 goslings he split a clutch of eggs half of which were raised by goose the other half raised in an incubator by him.Made sure he was the first thing they saw in the first 2 hours of life, they were then let out of a box with their mother on one side of the room and Lorenz on the other
Lorenz-Geese results
The geese raised by their mother went to her but the ones raised by Lorenz went to him and didn’t recigonise their own mother.
Lorenz- Geese conclusions
Goslings formed an imprint of the object they were to follow, in this case Lorenz. However if they weren’t able to attach in the first few hours of life they wouldn’t have made the attachment- creating the critical period
Evaluations of Lorenz
Can’t apply the findings to humans
Some of Lorenz’s findings have been questioned- imprinting is not permanent (Guiton et al)
What did Harlow do?
He removed young monkeys from their natural mothers a few hours after birth and left them to be ‘raised’ by surrogates (a wire monkey who provided nourishment and a cloth monkey who provided contact and comfort)
