attachment Flashcards
what is attachment
A close two way emotional bond between two individuals, where they see each other as essential to their own emotional security
what are the attachment behaviours
Proximity, Separation, Secure base behaviour
what are the carer-infant interactions
Reciprocity and Interactional synchrony
what is reciprocity
the infant and care giver respond to each other and elicit a response from the other
who is the psychologist that created the stages of attachment
Schaffer
explain the method of the Schaffer and Emerson study
-60 infants from working class families in Glasgow
-Ranging from 5-23 weeks old
-Studied once every 4 weeks
-mother reports infants response to separation and describes the intensity (rated on a 4 point scale) of any protest
what were the findings of the Schaffer and Emerson study
-Between 25-32 weeks old about 50% showed signs of separation anxiety usually towards the mother
-By the age of 40 weeks 8%of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
what is the first stage of attachment and what age does it occur?
Asocial, 0 to 8 weeks
What is a description of behaviour for the first stage of attachment?
recognise specific faces, happier in presence of humans, prefer familiar people, prefer faces to non-faces and smile at everyone
What is the second stage of attachment and what age is it?
Indiscriminate attachment and 2 to 7 months
What is a description of behaviour for the second stage of attachment?
Recognise and prefer familiar people, smile at familiar people more, preference of people objects, except comfort from any adult
What is the third stage of attachment and for what age?
Specific attachments and 7 to 12 months
Description of behaviour for third stage of attachment
Primary attachments to one individual, show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, use familiar adults as secure base
What is the fourth stage of attachment and for what age?
Multiple attachments and one year and over
Description of behaviour for the fourth stage of attachment
Secondary attachment with familiar adults with whom they spend time with
Explain the procedure for Grossmans study
It was a longitudinal study with 44 families which looked at both parents behaviour and relationship to the quality of children’s attachment experience from babies to teenagers
What was the aim of Grossmans study?
To find how important fathers are in children’s development and whether they have a distinct role from mothers
What are the findings of Grossmans study?
Attachment with mothers related to emotional stability and adolescence, suggesting that fathers attachment is less important to children. However, they also found that fathers play a different role in attachment linking to play and stimulation.
What did Grossman argue that overall children need?
Mothers as primary caregiver with nurturing and father as secondary caregiver with play
What was found in relation to fathers as primary caregivers by field
Field found that when Dad is in the role of primary caregiver, there was no different interacting with babies compared to mothers and levels of oxytocin were the same in the mother and father
What is suggested from fields research?
The role of the father is determined by cultural norms, rather than a real biological difference
What were the aims of Harlows study
To demonstrate that loving your mother was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant but on contact comfort
Explain harlows procedure
Separated 8 baby monkeys from their mothers at birth, who were then split into 2 conditions. One had a cloth covered mother with a milk bottle and the other a wire mother with a milk bottle he measured the amount of time the money spent with each mother and hello their reactions to things like being scared
What did Harlow measure
The amount of time each infant spent with two different mothers, and their responses when frightened
What were Harlows findings
The monkeys all spent more time with the cloth mother, those who were fed by the wire mother only spent a short time feeding with her and then moved to the cloth mother. When scared all monkeys cling to the cloth mother. He found that if separated from natural mothers before 90 days it resulted in abnormal social and sexual development of the monkeys, however if returned within 90 days they were able to recover
What were Harlows conclusions
That contact comfort was more important to attachment that feeding. The critical period for attachment was 90 days and that’s it it isn’t formed within this time then it will lead to abnormal social and sexual development
What was the aim of Lorenz’s study
To investigate the effects of imprinting in nonhuman animals
Explain lorenz’s procedure
Randomly divided 12 goose eggs, so half hatched with their mother, and the other in an incubator so the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
Mixed the goslings together to see who they would follow, Lorenz or their mother
What were lorenz’s findings
He found that the incubator group followed him and the control group followed their mother
He identified a critical period where imprinting must take place, that being a few hours
If attachment did not occur during this time, they would never attach to the mother figure
He found that they also looked for desirable characteristics in a mate that they found in who they imprinted on
What is imprinting?
Readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place a few hours after birth
What is sexual imprinting
A desire to mate based on imprinting
Explain What 3 things does Bowlby believe attachment is
Inate so is an instinct, adaptive as improves chances of survival, monotropic so form attachment with one specific caregiver
Explain attachment being monotropic
Special attachment to one care giver, called primary attachment, assumed to be with mother, can also form secondary attachment’s but are not as important
Explain social releasers
Behaviours displayed to encourage care givers to care for them, pre programmed to display, e.g. smiling, crying etc
Explain Bowlbys critical period
Inspired by Lorenz and claimed that human attachment needed to happen within a set critical period (2 and a half years) otherwise it is damaging for later life
Explain internal working model
Babies form a mental template of what healthy attachment and relationship is based on primary attachment, so forms the basis of their future interactions and relationships
Explain continuity hypothesis
The idea that your primary attachment will continue to influence and affect your behaviour in the long term, so secure child attachment will cause secure adult relationships
Explain classical conditioning in attachment
Attachment is formed through associating the pleasure of eating with the caregiver
Explain classical conditioning in attachment in terms of stimuli and responses
Before food is an unconditioned stimulus and produces pleasure an unconditioned response, along with the caregiver who is a neutral stimulus producing no response.
During food is an unconditioned stimulus with the caregiver who is a neutral stimulus causing pleasure, an unconditioned response
After the mother is a conditioned stimulus who produces pleasure as a conditioned response
Explain drive reduction theory and what reinforcements punishment it is
When someone is uncomfortable they have a desire to reduce this discomfort, this behaviour that reduced discomfort is therefore reinforced as its negative reinforcement
Explain operant conditioning in attachment in infants
When an infant cry’s it is feel which produces Al feeling of pleasure, this means that the behaviour or crying was positively reinforced so is more likely to be repeated. Attachment occurs because the child seeks the person who supply’s the reward
Explain operant conditioning in attachment to do with caregivers
The caregiver is negative reinforced as the baby stops crying and positively reinforced by the baby being happy
What is a secondary reinforcer in attachment
A person who reinforces a behaviour after they have been associated with a primary reinforcer
What was the aim of Ainsworth’s strange strange situations study
observe the quality of attachment in infants to their caregiver
What was the procedure of Ainsworth’s study
Room was marked into gird of 16 squares, 106 infant observed, 8 episodes each 3 minutes, data was collected through a one way mirror in relation to separation, reunion and response to a stranger, behaviour was split into 5 categories and scored on intensity 1-7
What is an example of exploration being assessed
. Caregiver and infant playing
What episode is an example of parent as secure base
Caregiver sits while infant plays
What episode is an example of assessing stranger anxiety
Stranger entering
What episode is an example of separation anxiety being assessed
Caregiver leaves infant alone
What episode is an example of reunion behaviour
Caregiver returns and green infant
What were Ainsworth’s findings
3 attachment styles:
Secure attachment (type B)
Insecure avoiding (type A)
Insecure-resistant (type C)
Explain secure attachment
- Infants snow secure base behaviour
- moderate stranger and separation anxiety
- reunion behaviours include need for comfort from care giver
Explain insecure avoidant attachment
- Don’t show secure base behaviour
- little to no reached when caregiver leaves+ no stranger anxious
- don’t seek caregiver upon reunion, avoidance of care giver observed
Explain insecure resistant attachment
- Increased proximity seeking behaviour
- High levels of stranger anxiety and separation distress
- resist coupon when reunited
What is culture
Shared beliefs and values of members of a particular society
What is the difference between collectivist and individualist culture
Collectivist culture uses group effort while individualist emphasises personal achievement
What was ijendoorn and kroonenberg method
Completed a meta analysis of 32 studies across 8 counties looking at attachment types both within and between cultures
What were the key findings of the cultural variations study
Secure attachment was the most common in au cultures, Germany had the highest number of avoidant children, Japan and Israel have very few avoidant children but high proportion of resistant chicaren.
They also found one and a half times more variation within cultures than between cultures
Why might Japan have high levels of insecure resistant children
Children are rarely left by their mothers so although cutoragised as resistant it may just be a normal response
Why does Germany have high levels of avoidant behaviour
German parents seek children who are not clingy, and independent
What were the conclusions of the cultural variations study
1) findings support that attachment is innate and biological as secure attachment is the most common
2) supports that most children regardless of cultural differences are securely attached
3) shows that any differences between cultures are due to cultural differences not inadequate parenting
What is bowlbys maternal deprivation theory
Examines the negative consequences of a failed primary attachment based on his research on the 44 juvenile thieves
What is deprivation
Prolonged disruption of the attachment between a child and primary caregiver
What are the two consequences of maternal deprivation theory
Delayed intellectual development and affection-less psychopathy
What is delayed intellectual development characterised as
Abnormally low IQ
What is affection-less psychopathy characterised by
Lack of guilt/empathy or emotion
What was the aim of bowlbys 44 juvenile thieves study
Find if there was a link between maternal deprivation and effectionless psychopathy
What was bowlbys procedure
- Had 88 case study’s
- 44 were receiving treatment for emotional problems (control group)
- 44 were referred by courts as they were accused of stealing
- he interviewed them and their parents, gave them IQ tests, read their school reports, etc
What were bowlbys findings
- 14/44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths, where’s 0/44 in control group
- 12/14 affection-less psychopaths had experienced prolonged separation
- 17/44 thieves suffered from maternal deprivation
- 2/44 in control group
What did Bowlby conclude
There was a link between maternal deprivation and affection-less psychopathy
What is an institution
A place where children live for a long time, with often little emotional care provided
What can institutionalisation lead to
Mental, emotional, and social problems
Why were so many Romanian children in institutions
Communist rule banned abortion and access to contraceptives in order to increase the population, many were abandoned due to not being able to afford them
Explain Rutters procedure
Longitudinal study that started in 1990
Followed 165 Romanian adoptees- 111 adopted by 2, 54 adopted by 4
Compared them to a control British group where 52 were all adopted before 6 months
Children were assessed at 4,6,11,15 years
Were compared on physical, social, and cognitive development
What were rutters findings
At adoption- Romanian children were really behind British counterparts
At age 4- most adopted at 6 months had caught up
Later follow ups- almost all children had caught up, but still had problems with peer relationships, a minority still had significant impairments
What was Rutters conclusion
Effects of institutionalisation can be reverted if the children are able to form attachments later
Procedure of Zeanah et al
Compared Romanian children who had spent 90% of their lives in institutions to a control group of Romanian children who had not
Children were aged between 12-30 months
He assessed using the strange situation and interviews with careers
What were Zeanah et als results
Control group had 74% securely attached
Institutionalised group had 19% securely attached and 65% disinhibited attachment
Explain 4 effects of institutionalisation
1) Disinhibited attachment- lack of boundaries due to no insecure attachment so clingy and attention seeking
2) Damage to intellectual development- slowed by lack of emotional care
3) Physical underdevelopment-deprivation dwarfism as your body needs love and care to physically grow
4) poor parenting- grow up to become poor parents (has link to Harlows monkeys)
According to Bowlbys continuity hypothesis what determines our quality of relationships later in life
Internal working model
What kind of relationships would someone whos IWM was formed on secure attachment have in future
Healthy relationships and would be able to function adequately in them
What relationships would someone who’s IWM was formed on an insecure attachment (either type)
Toxic relationships
What was the procedure for Hazan and Shavers love quiz
Placed it in an American small town publication and had 620 responses
The quiz addressed the following:
Current attachment experiences
Attachment history
Attitudes towards love
What did Hazan and Shaver find from the love quiz
They found attachment types were similar to those found in infancy
56% secure
25% avoidant
19% resistant
What were Hazan and Shavers conclusions
Results support Bowlbys monotropic theory:
Childhood infancy attachment becomes IWM and can be used to predict adult attachment behaviours
Why was the love quiz created
To test the internal working model
What is research to support IWM in childhood friendships
Kerns: securely attached infants form the best quality childhood friendships while insecurely attached infants also end up with difficult friendships
What is research to support IWM in adult relationships and friendships
Hazan and Shaver love quiz
What is research to support IWM in parenting
Harlow and his monkeys
