Attachment in children Flashcards

(21 cards)

1
Q

What is Attachment psychology?

A

A field of psychology that studies the emotional bonds between individuals, particularly the bonds between children and their caregivers.

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2
Q

What is the primary caregiver’s role in attachment theory?

A

To provide a ‘safe base’ for the infant by being consistent and responsive in care.

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3
Q

What are the four main attachment styles?

A

Secure, Anxious, Avoidant, and Disorganized

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4
Q

What are the signs of attachment between caregiver-infant?

A
  • Reciprocity: when the infant or mother replicates the others actions (seen in younger infants)
  • Interactional synchrony: this is the temporal co-ordination of micro level social behaviour; and occurs when a mother and infant mirror each other
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5
Q

What is Bowlby’s evolutionary theory?

A

Social releasers - what makes the child appealing and adorable
Monotropy - attachment to only 1 PCG
Adaptive something
Good care
Internal working model - a mental framework developed in early childhood based on interactions with primary caregivers
Critical period - time period for the child to attach to a carer, impacts future life

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6
Q

What are the stages of attachment?

A
  • Stage 1: Asocial stage (0-3wks) = the baby displays no emotion
  • Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment (2-7mths) = observable social behaviour
  • Stage 3: Specific attachment (7mths) = baby displays anxiety towards strangers but is emotionally attached to their caregiver
  • Stage 4: Multiple attachments (10mths) = the baby is attached to not only the caregiver but other people (e.g. siblings)
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7
Q

Outline the Shaffer and Emerson study (KS)

A

Shaffer and Emerson (1964)
- Aim: to investigate how early attachments were formed
- Sample: 60 babies from Glasgow born from working class families
- Method: The researchers visited the babies and mothers every month for a year and then visit again after 6 months. The researchers would ask the mothers about the kind of protest the babies showed when they were separated daily. The researcher also assessed stranger anxiety.
- Findings: 50% of babies from 25-30 wk showed signs of separation anxiety. Attachment was most abundant when the caregiver was most interactive and sensitive to the child. 80% of babies age 40wks had specific attachment while 30% displayed multiple attachments

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8
Q

Evaluate S+E study

A

Strengths:
- High ecological validity (natural environment)
- Real world application (e.g. daycare)
Limits:
- Bias of what caregivers’ ideas of protest is
- Cultural bias (Scottish)

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9
Q

Outline Harlow’s key study (KS)

A

Aim: to observe how attachment forms in monkeys
Procedure: Harlow’s sample was baby monkeys which were put into a controlled environment and presented with a wire mother that dispenses food and a cloth covered mother which did nothing - this was known as the wire mother experiment.
Findings: The baby monkey spent most of its time comforted by the cloth mother but occasionally would go to the wire mother for food. Additionally, the monkey was presented with a ‘scary’ toy, they would run straight towards the cloth mother and hug it but did not go near the wire mother.
Conclusion: Contact comfort forms stronger attachments than cupboard love

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10
Q

Evaluate Harlow’s key study

A

Strengths:
- Real world application (better understanding of infant-caregiver interactions)
- Controlled experiment
Limits:
- Ethically unacceptable (Monkeys were not protected from psychological harm)
- Ungeneralisable as experiement was on animals

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11
Q

Outline Lorenz’s study on imprinting (KS)

A

Aim: to study the process of attachment in birds
Procedure: Lorenz randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half were hatched in a natural habitat with their mother, and the rest were hatched in an incubator where the first thing they saw was Lorenz
Findings: The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere he went, even when both groups were mixed, while the control group followed the mother, as expected. Lorenz called this occurrence imprinting.

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12
Q

Evaluate Lorenz’s study on imprinting

A

Strengths:
- Field experiment (higher ecological validity)
- Repeated experiment (more reliable)
Limits:
- Birds are genetically different to humans = less usefulness
- Guiton et al found that imprinting is not permanent in chickens

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13
Q

Outline Ainsworth’s study on the strange situation (KS)

A

Aim: To assess the quality of attachment
Sample: 100 middle class Americans and their infants
Procedure: Ainsworth placed a mother with her infant in a room, the mother would then leave the room and be replaced with a stranger, the baby would then reunite with the mother
Findings:
Type A: Infants showed minimal signs of distress when the mother was replaced with a stranger, and showed minimal emotion upon reunion
Type B: Infants displayed moderate distress (separation anxiety) when the mother left and experienced stranger anxiety when the stranger entered. The infant then seeked proximity upon reunion with the mother
Type C: Infants displayed extreme signs of distress when mother was replaced with stranger. However, the baby seeked separation from the mother upon reunion (as if the mother betrayed the baby)

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14
Q

Evaluate Ainsworth’s study on the strange situation

A

Strengths:
- High replicability (lab study)
- Useful application in explaining behaviour

Limits:
- Cultural bias
- Social class bias

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15
Q

Outline Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis (KS)

A

Aim: To analyse the differences in attachment between different cultures and within cultures
Procedure: They used meta-analysis to perform a comparison of cross-cultural studies using the Strange Situation. It involved 32 studies performed across 8 countries
Findings: While secure attachment was the most common type globally, there were cultural variations, with some countries showing higher rates of insecure-avoidant or resistant attachment. For example, there were higher levels of insecure-avoidant infants in individualistic countries such as Germany

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16
Q

Evaluate Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis

A

Strength:
- Large sample of 2000 (generalisable to some extent)
Limits:
- Cultural bias (15 of the 32 studies were from the US)
- Ethical considerations (Japanese infants were distressed)
- No control over variables whatsoever

17
Q

Outline Bowlby’s thieves study (KS)

A

Sample: 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
Procedure:
- The 44 were interviewed for signs of affectionless psycopathy
- Their families were interviewed to see if they had been deprived for a prolonged period
- There was a control group that were emotionally disturbed but not thieves to see if deprivation is linked with criminality
Findings:
- 14 of 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths
- 12 of 44 had experienced separation in the critical period
- 5 of remaning 30 thieves had experienced seperations
- 2 of 44 from contol had long separations

18
Q

Evaluate Bowlby’s thieves study

A

Strengths:
- Supporting research on MD (Levy et al - seperation had lasting effects on baby rats)
Limits:
- Counter = research was on animals
- Alternative research against the idea of a critical period having permanent impacts (Koluchova reported 2 twin boys recovered fully after 6.5 years of isolation)

19
Q

Outline Rutter’s ERA study

A

Sample: 169 Romanian orphans who were adopted in Britain
Procedure:
- He tested whether good care now could make up for poor early experiences in institution
- He assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development between ages 4-15.
- 52 British children adopted at the same time were a control group
Findings:
- 50% showed signs of delay in intellectual development, many were also undernourished.
- At age 11 the adopted children showed varied rates in recovery relating to their age of adoption.
- IQ of children adopted before 6mths was 102, those age 6mths-2yrs had 86 and those after 2 years was 77
Conclusions:
- There was a difference in the outcome related to at what age the adoption took place

20
Q

Evaluate Rutter’s ERA study

A

Strengths:
- Enhances our understanding of institutionalisation effects
- Fewer confounding variables in studies
Limits:
- Orphanage studies have a lack of data on adult development
- Counter = studying children from Romanian orphanage studies can introduce confounding variables

21
Q

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

A

Mental retardation: A substantial limit in present functioning and is characterised by a substantially subaverage intellectual ability

Disinhibited attachment: When a child is raised in institution during their sensitive period it can cause them to show minimum stranger anxiety