Attachment Flashcards
Reciprocity
How 2 ppl interact Caregiver - infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver ad a baby respond to each others signal and each elicits a responce from the other.
This is an essential part of any conversation otherwise people will talk over each other. Babies have alert phase in which they signal that they are ready for a spell of interaction.
Active involvement: Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However it seems that babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take in doing so.
Interactional synchrony
2 ppl are said to be synchronised when they carry out the sme actions simultaneously.
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a synchronised way.
This takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other. Meltzoff and Moore observed interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old. An adult displayed one of the 3 facial expressions or one of 3 gestures. The babies response was filmed and labelled by independent observers. Babies expression and gesture were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict.
High levels of synchrony associated with better quality of mother - baby attachment.
strength of Caregiver interaction
One strength of this is the reserach is that caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a lab. This means that other activit might distract a baby, can be controlled. Also using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore it is unlikely that research will miss seeing key behav. furthermore having filmed interactions can record data and establish the inter-reliability of observation. Finally babies dont know they are being observed, so behav wont change. Therefore the data collected has good reliablity and validity
limitation of Caregiver interaction
One limitation of caregiver interaction is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behv. Young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are immobile. The movements being observedare just small hand movements or subtle changes in expression so it is difficult to be sure. Also it difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby’s perspective. THis means that we cannot be certain that the behav seen in caregiver-infant interaction have a special meaning.
Stages of attachment
Asocial stage
Indiscriminate attachment
specific attachment
Multiple attachment
asocial stage
behav towards human and inanimate object is fairly similar. Schaffer and emmerson did not believe this as at this stage babies showed signs that they prefer to be with other people. Babies also tend to show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more likely to be comforted by them.
first few weeks of life
Baby makes more obvious and observable social behav.
They now show a more clear preference for being with humans than inanimate objects.
They can recognise and prefer the company of familiar ppl.
However they accept cuddles and comfort from any person.
They don’t show separation anxiety when caregiver leaves and they don’t shoe stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
2-7 months
Specific attachment
babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one particular person. These signs include anxiety direct towards stranger esp when the caregiver leaves and anxiety when they are separated from their attachment figure. Attachment figure is known as primary attachment and these are the people who offers the most interaction.
around 7 months
Multiple attachment
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behav towards one person they usually extend this behav to multiple attachment with whom they regularly spent time with. These are called secondary attachment. Schaffer and emerson found that 29% of the children formed secondary attachment within a month of forming a primary attachment. By the age of one most babies had developed multiple attachment.
Schaffer and emerson research
study involves 60 babies - 31 boys and 29 girls. Were from Glasgow and the majority was skilled working class family. Researchers visited the babies and mothers every month for the first year and then again at 18 months. Researchers asked the mothers qs about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday life. This was designed to measure the babies’ attachment.
Schaffer and emerson found 4 distinct stages in the development of infant attachment. These make up the stage theory.
