Attachment Flashcards
What is Attachment psychology?
A field of psychology that studies the emotional bonds between individuals, particularly the bonds between children and their caregivers.
What is the primary caregiver’s role in attachment theory?
To provide a ‘safe base’ for the infant by being consistent and responsive in care.
What are the four main attachment styles?
Secure, Anxious, Avoidant, and Disorganized
What are the types of caregiver-infant attachments?
- 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
What is Bowlby’s evolutionary theory?
Social releasers - what makes the child appealing and adorable
Monotropy - attachment to only 1 PCG
A
G
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
What are the stages of attachment?
- 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)
Outline the Shaffer and Emerson study (KS)
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
Evaluate S+E study
Strengths:
- Large sample (more generalisable results)
- High ecological validity (natural environment)
- Real world application (e.g. daycare)
Limits:
- Bias of what caregivers’ ideas of protest is
- Cultural bias (Scottish)
Outline Harlow’s key study (KS)
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
Evaluate Harlow’s key study
Strengths:
- Real world application (better understanding of infant-caregiver interactions)
Limits:
- Ethically unacceptable (Monkeys were not protected from psychological harm)
Outline Lorenz’s study on imprinting (KS)
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.
Evaluate Lorenz’s study on imprinting
Strengths:
- Ethically more acceptable
Limits:
- Birds are genetically different to humans = less usefulness
- Alternative research = imprinting is not permanent
Outline Ainsworth’s study on the strange situation (KS)
