Attachment Flashcards
Define reciprocity:
Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Define interactional synchrony:
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.
What are the 2 key aspects of Caregiver-Infant Interactions?
- Reciprocity
- Interactional Synchrony
What are alert phases?
Phases babies have in which they signal (e.g. make eye contact) that they are ready for interaction.
Example of a study on alert phases:
Feldman (2007):
- Mothers pick up on babies signals and alertness 2/3 of the time.
- This increases from around 3 months of age.
What is active involvement?
The theory that babies, as well as caregivers, take an active role in interaction.
Example of a study on Interactional Synchrony:
Meltzoff and Moore (1977):
- Observed IS in babies as young as 2 weeks.
Adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions and baby’s response filmed.
- Babies mirrored the adult more than chance would predict (significant association).
Example of a study on the importance of Interactional Synchrony on attachment:
Isabella et al (1989):
- Observed 30 mothers and babies together.
- Assessed degree of synchrony and quality of attachment.
- Found that high levels of synchrony are associated with higher quality of attachment.
Evaluation of Caregiver-Infant Interactions (research):
- Research is filmed and in a lab. Extraneous material can be limited. Also, observations are covert, so babies don’t know they are being observed. Good reliability and validity.
- Hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour.
- Applications: Rebecca Crotwell et al (2013) found that a 10 min PCIT session improved IS in 20 low income mothers and their pre-school children.
Who made the Stages of Attachment and when?
- Schaffer and Emerson
- 1964
What are the 4 Stages of Attachment?
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate Attachment
- Specific Attachment
- Multiple Attachments
What is the duration of each Stage of Attachment?
Asocial - 0 to 8 weeks
Indiscriminate - 2 to 7 months
Specific - 7 to 12 months
Multiple - 1 year onwards
What behaviours occur in the Asocial stage of attachment?
- Behaviour between humans and non-objects quite similar.
- Smile at anyone.
What behaviours occur in the Indiscriminate stage of attachment?
- Recognise and prefer familiar people.
- Accept comfort from any adult.
What behaviours occur in the specific stage of attachment?
- Primary attachment to one particular individual.
- Show stranger and separation anxiety.
What behaviours occur in the multiple stage of attachment?
- Form secondary attachment with familiar adults with whom they spend time.
What did Schaffer and Emerson base their stage theory on?
Schaffer and Emerson (1964):
- Observational study on 60 babies, visiting their homes every month for the first year then at 18 months.
- Their findings developed the 4 Stages of Attachment.
Evaluation of Stages of Attachment:
- Good external validity. Most observations were made by parents during ordinary activities, without the presence of researchers.
- Poor validity for asocial stage. Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile, so hard to determine their behaviour.
- Applications: Asocial and indiscriminate stages are better for daycare than the later stages.
What percentage of the babies studied by Schaffer and Emerson formed an attachment with their fathers by 18 months?
75%
What percentage of the babies studied by Schaffer and Emerson formed a primary attachment with their father?
3%
Example of a study on the distinctive role of fathers in a child’s development?
Klaus Grossmann et al (2002):
- Babies attachments studied into their teens.
- Quality of attachment to mother and not father was related to attachment in adolescence (mother more important).
- Quality of father’s play with babies also related.
What is the distinctive role of fathers in child development?
More to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with emotional development.
Who can take on the role as a primary attachment figure?
Mothers or fathers: evidence shows that fathers are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers.
Evaluation of research into the role of the father:
- Lack of clarity in the question:’‘What is the role of the father?’’. Makes it difficult to provide a simple answer.
- Bias: preconceptions in the media about fathers being less important than mothers may cause unintentional observer bias.
- Applications: parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced (mothers and fathers may feel less pressured to stay at home and work respectively).
What are the 2 main animal studies into Attachment?
- Lorenz
- Harlow
What year was Lorenz’s research?
1952
What year was Harlow’s research?
1958
Lorenz (1952) Procedure:
- Random division of geese eggs: Half hatched with mother goose in natural environment.
Half hatched in an incubator, first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
Lorenz (1952) Findings:
- Incubator (experimental) group followed Lorenz.
- Control group followed mother goose.
- When the 2 groups were mixed together these findings remained the same.
This supported the theory of imprinting. - Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting must take place.
What is imprinting?
When bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
Evaluation of Lorenz (1952)
- Increased validity due to other supporting research for imprinting (example: Vallortigara (1995)).
- Can’t generalise (extrapolate) from birds to humans. This limits applications.
Harlow (1958) Procedure:
- Investigated the importance of contact comfort.
- 8 monkeys with plain wire monkey and 8 monkeys with cloth wire monkey.
- Both wire monkeys dispensed milk.
Harlow (1958) Findings:
- Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth wire monkey more.
This showed that contact comfort was more important than food. - When the maternally deprived monkeys were studied into adulthood, they found severe consequences.
- When they became mothers, some neglected and attacked their children, even killing them.
What did Harlow conclude about the critical period in his study?
A mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days, or else attachment was impossible and damage became irreversible.
Evaluation of Harlow (1958)
- Real world applications for social workers.
- Can’t generalise (extrapolate) from monkeys to humans, because human behaviour is more complex.
- Massive amount of ethical issues. Severe and long term damage caused to monkeys.
What is Learning Theory?
A set of theories from the behaviourist approach that emphasise the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour.
What are the 3 key aspects of Learning Theory?
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Drive reduction
What are the 2 types of drives?
- Primary
- Secondary
Example of a primary drive:
Hunger
Example of a secondary drive:
Attachment
Why is attachment a secondary drive?
Because the drive of hunger becomes generalised to caregivers.
Evaluation of Learning Theory explanations for attachment:
- Counter evidence from animal studies: Lorenz and Harlow both don’t support the importance of food as the main factor.
- Counter evidence from human studies: Schaffer and Emerson - babies attached to mother regardless of who fed them.
- High internal validity due to the conditioning theories which have lots of supporting evidence.
What does ‘Monotropic’ mean?
One particular attachment is different to all others and of central importance to a child’s development.
Mono - One
Tropic - Leaning towards
What are the 2 main explanations of Attachment?
- Learning Theory
- Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory
What did Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory reject?
Learning Theory
What are the 4 key aspects of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?
- Monotropy
- Social releasers
- Critical period
- Internal working model
What are the 2 principles of monotropy?
- The law of continuity
- The law of accumulated separation
What is the law of continuity?
The more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment.
What is the law of accumulated separation?
The effects of every separation from the mother (primary attachment figure) add up.
‘The safest dose is therefore a zero dose’.
What are social releasers + examples?
Innate ‘cute’ behaviors to activate adult social interaction and make an adult attach to the baby.
- Smiling
- Cooing
- Gripping
How long is the sensitive period in humans?
6 months, possibly extending to 2 years.
When is a child maximally sensitive according to Bowlby?
6 months
What did Bowlby view the critical period moreover as?
The sensitive period
What will happen if a child doesn’t form an attachment in the critical/sensitive period?
The child will find it much harder to form one later.
What is an internal working model in terms of attachment?
A mental representation of a child’s relationship with their primary attachment figure, serving as a model for what relationships are like.
What does the internal working model affect in later life?
The child’s later ability to be a parent. People base their own parenting behaviour on their experiences of being parented.
Evaluation of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory:
- Monotropy may not be valid: Schaffer and Emerson found a significant minority of babies formed multiple attachments at the same time as the first.
- Strong support for social releasers (Brazelton et al (1975)).
- Feminist concerns: laws of continuity and accumulated separation suggest that the mother is at fault.
When was Ainsworth’s Strange Situation developed?
1970
What are the 3 main types of attachment?
- Secure
- Insecure avoidant
- Insecure resistant
What 5 behaviours were observed in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation?
- Proximity seeking
- Exploration and secure base behaviour
- Stranger anxiety
- Separation anxiety
- Response to reunion
Procedure of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation:
- controlled, covert observation measuring the security of babies’s attachments with their caregiver, with 7 episodes, each of which lasting 3 minutes.
Findings and conclusions of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation:
Three main attachment types found:
- 60 to 75% of British babies classed as secure.
- 20 to 25% of British babies classed as insecure avoidant.
- 3% of British babies classed as insecure resistant.
Behaviours associated with secure attachment:
- Explore happily
- Regularly go back to caregiver
- moderate separation anxiety
- moderate stranger anxiety
- accept comfort in reunion
Behaviours associated with insecure-avoidant attachment:
- Explore freely
- Do not seek proximity
- No separation anxiety or stranger anxiety
- Little contact with caregiver in reunion
Behaviours associated with insecure-resistant attachment:
- Explore less
- Seek greater proximity than others
- High levels of stranger and separation anxiety
- Resist comfort when reunited with caregiver
Evaluation of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation:
- High internal validity due to covert, controlled observation. Also good reliability.
- May be more than 3 attachment types: Solomon (1986) identified a fourth category as a mix between IA and IR attachments.
- Can’t be generalised to other cultures due to being developed in US and Britain (western).
Example of a study which measures cultural variation in attachment:
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
Example of an Italian study on attachment types:
Simonelli et al (2014)
What is the most common attachment type in all cultures?
Secure
Procedure of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988):
Meta analysis of 32 studies using the Strange Situation, conducted in 8 countries, yielding results for 1990 children.
Findings of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988):
- Secure attachment was most common in each country.
- Individualist cultures had less IR and more IA.
- Collectivist cultures had more IR and less IA.
- Variation within the same country was 150% greater than between countries.
- One US study found 46% secure whilst the other found 90%.
What percentage of babies in Britain had secure attachment in Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?
75%
What percentage of babies in China had secure attachment in Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?
50%
What is the second most common attachment type in individualist cultures?
Insecure avoidant
What is the second most common attachment type in collectivist cultures?
Insecure resistant
Procedure of Simonelli (2014):
Study conducted in Italy using the Strange Situation, assessing 76 babies aged 12 months.
Findings and conclusions of Simonelli (2014)
50% = secure
36% = insecure avoidant
The researchers attributed this lower secure and higher avoidant attachments to increasing numbers of mothers working and using childcare.
What can Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta analysis be used to support?
Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal.
Evaluation of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988):
- Indigenous researchers used: German team (Grossmann et al) and Takahashi (Korean).
- Confounding variables due to the studies not being matched on methodology.
- Imposed etic as a result of cross-cultural research.
Who created the theory of maternal deprivation?
Bowlby
What is the difference between separation and deprivation (acc. to Bowlby)?
Separation means the child simply isn’t in the presence of the primary attachment figure. Deprivation is when extended separations cause harm.
How long is the critical period according to Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation?
2 and a half years
What did Bowlby believe would occur if a child suffered from maternal deprivation during the critical period?
Inevitable psychological harm
What are the effects of maternal deprivation on intellectual development?
- Abnormally low IQ
What are the effects of maternal deprivation on emotional development?
- Affectionless psychopathy
What is affectionless psychopathy?
The inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others.
What year was Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
1944
Procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study:
- 44 teenage thieves interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. Families interviewed to determine whether they had experienced maternal deprivation.
- Control group of 44 non-criminal, emotionally disturbed teenagers.
What study did Bowlby base his theory of Maternal Deprivation on?
44 Thieves study (1944)
Findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study:
- 14/44 criminals were affectionless psychopaths, 12 of which experienced maternal deprivation.
- 5/30 non affectionless psychopath criminals experienced maternal deprivation.
- 2/44 control group experienced maternal deprivation.
Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation:
- Flawed 44 thieves study because Bowlby interviewed families himself (bias).
- Critical period has low validity, should be seen more as a sensitive period because children can recover.
What are the Romanian Orphan studies investigating?
The effects of institutionalisation
What is institutionalisation?
The effects of living in an institution setting with little emotional care.
What are the two main Romanian Orphan Studies?
- Rutter et al (2011)
- Zeanah et al (2005)
What is disinhibited attachment?
Being equally friendly and affectionless towards familiar people and strangers
What are the 2 main effects of institutionalisation?
- Disinhibited attachment
- Intellectual disability
Procedure of Rutter et al (2011):
- Followed 165 Romanian orphans as part of the ERA, who were adopted by UK families.
- Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at ages 4,6,11,15 and 22 to 25.
- 52 UK adopted children used as a control group.
Findings of Rutter et al (2011):
- Half showed signs of delayed intellectual development and most were severely undernourished on arrival to UK.
- Age 11: Differing rates of recovery related to age of adoption.
- Mean IQ of those adopted before 6 months = 102
- Mean IQ of those adopted between 6 months and 2 years = 86
- Mean IQ of those adopted after 2 years = 77
- Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
Procedure of Zeanah et al (2005):
- 95 Romanian children aged 12 to 31 months who had spent 90% of their lives in institutional care.
- Control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution.
- Strange Situation used.
- Interviews with carers on unusual behaviours: disinhibited attachment.
Findings of Zeanah et al (2005):
- 74% of control group classed as secure.
- 19% of institutional group classed as secure.
- 20% of control group classed as disinhibited.
- 44% of institutional group classed as disinhibited.
What year was Rutter’s study on institutionalisation?
2011
What year was Zeanah’s study on institutionalisation?
2005
Evaluation of Romanian Orphan Studies (Rutter and Zeanah):
- Real world applications, effects of institutional care can be decreased.
- Confounding variables: is the cause of their development due to institutional care in general, or the poor quality of the Romanian institutions themselves.
- Lack of adult data because the children haven’t all grown up yet. Limited explanation as of right now.
What does ERA stand for?
English Romanian Adoptee (study)
What does BEI stand for?
Bucharest Early Intervention (project)
What Romanian Orphan study was based on the ERA?
Rutter et al (2011)
What Romanian Orphan study was based on the BEI?
Zeanah et al (2005)
What does the Internal Working Model have an impact on in later life?
- Adult relationships
- Childhood relationships
What two major adult experiences does the internal working model have an impact on?
- Romantic relationships
- Parenting of their own children
