Attachment Flashcards
Define interactional synchrony
Is when a mother and infant reflects and copy each others micro social interactions
what are the 4 stages of emmersons and schaffers theory of attachment?
1.Asocial Stage (0 to 6 weeks)
2. Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 6 months)
3. Specific Attachments (7 months)
4. Multiple Attachments (10-11 months onwards)
Examples of what role of father research has presented
Grossman (2002)- found fathers have a more playful and stimulating role whilst mothers are an emotional and nurturing support
Tiffany field - (1978) found in single father families the father were the primary caregivers and they can adopt the behaviour of mothers
The baby through the Asocial stage
Similar responses to objects & people.
- Preference for faces/eyes.
- Discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people through their smell and voice.
baby through Indiscriminate attachment
Preference for human company.
- Ability to distinguish between people but comforted indiscriminately.
- Do not show fear of strangers.
Baby through specific attachment phase
Baby begins to feel separation anxiety: protesting when their primary attachment figure leaves them.
- Show fear of strangers.
Baby through multiple attachment phases
Multiple attachments formed.
- Attachment behaviours are shown towards several different people, such as siblings, grandparents etc.
Evaluation of the Schaffer and Emersons attachment study points
Sample: Glasgow babies so cannot be generalised.
Size: Only 60 babies so the conclusion cannot be generalised.
Date: 1964 and the primary caregiver may not always be the mother so the temporal validity can be questioned.
Self Report Interview: parents have a bias towards their own children so they may be untruthful.
Data Type: Quantitative and Qualitative data so more insight
Natural Experiment: has mundane realism so the conclusion has ecological validity.
define an interworking model and explain its importance
Is the idea that the first primary attachment forms the schema for all future attachments
so serves as a model for the infants future relationships
What is a limitation that explores the research into interworking model?
Internal working models are unconscious in our behaviour yet the self report methods used are conscious so aren’t a good way to study them
what is classical conditioning?
The idea that a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus combine to create a positive unconditional response
so the neutral stimulus now becomes a conditioned response
what is operant conditioning?
In terms of attachment
An infant is hungry and this is an unpleasant sensation
milk is given so removes the unpleasant sensation
Leads to negative reinforcement as consequences are pleasant when they stop- Baby will do more social releases to make it stop.
Outline Bowlby’s monotropic theory
States that attachment is an instinctual behaviour that was developed out of the infants innate desire to survive
Is monotropic and should happen within the critical period so within 6-10months
The internal working model, the idea that the first primary attachment causes an influence on future attachments known as the continuity hypothesis
Evaluation points for Bowlby’s monotropic theory
- Schaffer and Emersons found that attachment is not monotropic
Out of the 60 babies 2/3 had multiple attachments by 10 months old
Rutter et al - Found children could still form attachments outside of the critical period (so first primary attachment is not as important as bowlby says) Romanian orphans
Kagan-The baby’s temperament allows them to make attachments not the sensitive of the care giver (insecure future attachments)
Evaluation points for the learning theory of attachment (specific to classical conditioning)
- overreliance on supporting research coming from animals. These behaviourist approaches oversimplify the bond within a infant and child
- reduced validity as it is reductionist due to simplifying it to a stimulus response association (link to Bowlby’s monotropic theory of it being a much deeper evolutionary trait)
Outline Lorenz’s animal study of attachment
An investigation into imprinting
Two groups of geese one hatched with its mother and the other were incubated with Lorenz
Geese followed the first thing they saw (the critical period) Is in imprinting so is innately biological
Evaluate Lorenz’s animal study
Cannot be generalised to humans
Unreliable as humans don’t imprint
Application- later applied to support other theories of human attachment
Outline Harlow’s study
sed 8 rhesus monkeys who were taken away from their biological mothers soon after birth and raised in cages. In the cage, there were two ‘surrogate’ mothers: one made of wire, one padded with a soft warm cloth..
When only the wire monkey dispensed food he found that the monkey’s displayed attachment behaviour only towards the soft cuddly mother and not towards the food giving mother.
Disproves the learning theory that contact comfort (which the mother is the primary reinforcer of) then food
Evaluate Harlow’s study of attachment
Monkeys are much closer genetically to humans and SO the study is more generalisable to humans
- Confounding variables The two surrogate mothers had different faces while also being made out of different materials so lacks internal validity.
- Ethical dilemma as the study harmed the monkeys BUT it was necessary to do this research in order to learn about humans SO it might be justifiable
Aim of Ainsworth strange situation
to see how infants behave under conditions of mild stress
what did Ainsworth conclude on her study?
Secure attachment babies had a parent that was sensitive and reponsive
Describe insecure avoidant babies
Does explore but doesn’t use the mother as a safe base
Shows little separation and stranger anxiety
indifferent upon reunion behaviour
describe insecure resistant babies
Has no willingness to explore stays close to the mother
Is very distressed when mom leaves or stranger comes
Seeks and rejects upon reunion
describe secure attachment babies
Moderately distressed when mom leaves and stranger comes
Is easily soothed
And explores with the mother as a safe base
Factors that limit or provide validity to Ainsworth study
we do not know if the babies attend day-care so is a confounding variable
controlled observation so limited extraneous variables
low ecological validity
Generalisablity points for ainsworth
Only uses american middle class babies
sample is ethnocentric
cannot be applied to a non american group
what was attachment type D?
Found by main and solomon were disorganised in their attachment and would show different responses
What is a collectivist culture?
Group effort and family and high degrees of interpersonal dependency
what is an individualistic culture?
emphasises personal dependence and achievement.
Main findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
Germany- highest amount of avoidant babies
Britain- most secure attached- promotes and individualistic culture
Japan- highest resistant baby at 27% mothers barely ever leave the child
A03 of cultural variations in attachment
27 studies were carried out in individualistic cultures rather than 5 in collectivist so not truly representative.
Goldberg- cultural relativism cannot make valid interpretations without understanding the childrearing culture of that countries- a child being insecurely attached when in reality they are not
What was Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
if there was no attachment or a disruption during the critical period then the child would suffer both emotionally and socially later on in life
leads to them becoming an affectionless psychopath, which is permanent and irreversible
Bowlby says : love and presence is as essential for psychological development as vitamins and minerals are for physical development’
Describe the study for Bowlby’s maternal deprivation (44 thieves study)
Aim- to see the effects of early separation and affectionless psychopathy
compared 44 thieves and 44 boys with no criminal record at the Clinic he worked at
Operationalised variable of an affectionless psychopath- acts impulsively with little to no regard for the consequences of there actions
he claimed 14 of the thieves were affectionless psychopaths
and 12 of them had separations from the mother
A03 of 44 thieves study
- confounding variables - all from a clinic so all had behavioural problems which made them be perceived to be an affectionless psychopath
- Use of interviews on the boys is a self report method - social desirability bias
A03 of maternal deprivation study
Hodges and Tizard’s-goes against the MD study as it found children in intuitions could make attachments past the critical period
Rutter et al- Found in boys with separated parents, if the mother had died there was no sign of delinquency but if it was due to psychological disorder within the family then they became delinquent- Not the actual act of separation but the conflict and stress leads to affectionless psychopathy
describe Rutter’s ERA study
followed 165 Romanian children adopted in Britain
and assessed IQ and emotional attachment at 4,6,11,16 years old.
Adopted before 6 months- Had an IQ of 102
6 months- 2years- 86 IQ
AFTER 2 Years - 77 IQ
most after 6 months had a disinhibited attachment means they were clingy and attached quickly onto any care giver.
found quasi-autistic symptoms, impaired language, social skills, reduced empathy.
Describe the Bucharest Early intervention project
Assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who spent most of their life in an institution compared to control and measured attachment
19% of group was securely attached compared to 74% of control
65% of the group had a disorganised attachment
44% had disinhibited attachment
A03 of Romanian orphan studies
Real life application- improving institutions through lower child to staff ratio to allow child to form an attachment
Generalisability- poor due to only use of Romanian orphans, Romania very poor so many kids severely malnourished which had an effect
Rutter- does not use randomly assigned groups, research didn’t interfere with adoption so investigates a naturally occurring IV- so isn’t unethical
what are the effects of institutionalisation?
- Disinhibited attachment disorder - no stranger anxiety
- Low IQ - later they are adopted less of a chance to make up intellectual development - can be recovered if adopted before 6 months
3.delayed physical development- suffer from deprivation dwarfism due too lack of nutrition - quasi- autistic symptoms- difficulty in forming healthy peer relationships
Or even reactive attachment disorder, an inability to form emotional bonds.
Describe Hodges and Tizard’s longitudinal study
Aim- to observe if the children are given a second chance in a caring environment can they recover their social development
Observed 65 kids who had been raised in a nursey from birth to those raised at home
Those who were adopted managed go form close attachments and better in life
then those who had returned to biological parents failed to make attachments
This pattern continued until they were 16.
A03 of studies on institutionalisation
Quinton et al- contradicts being able to make a second chance
women who had grown up in privation where more insensitive of their children compared to control. Suggests the psychological effects are long term and into the 2nd generation.
the Low IQ is not an effect of the institution but rather personality which allows the child to have the desirable characteristics to get adopted in the first place as they have more responsive behaviour
what are the findings of Hazen and shavers study ?
Securely attached adults had certain beliefs that love in enduring and were less likely to be divorced
Insecurely attached adults felt true love was rare and more likely to be divorced.
Avoidant- love in not necessary for happiness
Resistant - trouble finding true love.
what does the attachment theory claim about childhood relationships?
those with a secure attachment style would be more confident in interactions with friends.
studies on early attachment on childhood relationships
Verismo et al- found a positive correlation with attachment security to father and amount of friends at preschool.
Moore et al- found securely attached teenagers were less likely to engage in risky sexual activities. Suggests a secure attachment can help support the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
