Attachment

Question 1

What is reciprocity?

Answer 1

How 2 people interact and respond to each other to gain a mutual benefit.

Question 2

What did Feldman and Eidelman (2007) find?

Answer 2

Babies have periodic alert phases which indicates that they are ready for interaction, mothers tend to pick up on and respond to this indication 2/3 times.

Question 3

What is did Feldman say is meant to happen from around 3 months?

Answer 3

Interaction begins to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions.

Question 4

What did Brazleton et al describe caregiver infant interaction as?

Answer 4

As a dance because it is where each person partaking responds to each others moves. Therefore both the mother and the infant can initiate the interaction.

Question 5

What is meant by interactional synchrony in caregiver infant interactions?

Answer 5

When the mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated synchronised way.

Question 6

What did Isabella et al find?

Answer 6

Observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-infant attachment. Found high levels of synchrony to associate with better mother infant interactions.

Question 7

What is a support for caregiver infant interactions?

Answer 7

Controlled observations capture fine details as both the mother and infant were filmed from multiple angles. This increases the validity of the study.

Question 8

What did Feldman (2012) point out concerning interactional synchrony?

Answer 8

That synchrony only describes the behaviors which happen at the same time. They are robust phenomena which can be reliably observed however these observations
are not particularly useful.

Question 9

What is a criticism for the study of caregiver infant interactions?

Answer 9

Its hard to know whats happening when observing infants as all which can be observed is hand movements or changes in expression.

Question 10

What are the different attachment figures which have been identified?

Answer 10

Parent infant attachment
The role of the father
Fathers as primary care givers

Question 11

What research has been done on the role of the father?

Answer 11

Grossman (2002)

Question 12

What did Grossman (2002) do?

Answer 12

Conducted a longitudinal study looking at both parents behavior and its relationship to the quality of children attachments into their teens.

Question 13

What did Grossman (2002) find?

Answer 13

That the quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachment in adolescence suggesting role of father is less important.
However quality of fathers play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. Suggesting fathers role is more to do with play and stimulation than nurturing.

Question 14

What research has been done on fathers as primary care givers?

Answer 14

Tiffany Field (1978)

Question 15

What did Tiffany Field (1978) do?

Answer 15

Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.

Question 16

What did Tiffany Field (1978) find?

Answer 16

The key to nurturing is a level of interaction between the main care giver and the child. Sex of care giver does not seem to matter.

Question 17

What criticisms are there for research on attachment figures?

Answer 17

Inconsistent findings on fathers
If father have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different?
Why don’t fathers generally become primary?

Question 18

What is a criticism for the role of the father?

Answer 18

That if fathers have such a distinct role why aren’t children without them different.

Question 19

Why is it said that fathers do not become primary attachment figures?

Answer 19

Due to traditional gender roles in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than women. This can be a criticism for fathers as primary caregivers.

Question 20

Why is it said that there is inconsistent findings on fathers?

Answer 20

Because different researchers are seen to be interested in different research questions. Psychologists are either interested in understanding the role of fathers as secondary or primary caregivers.

Question 21

What research has been done on parent infant attachment?

Answer 21

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Question 22

What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find?

Answer 22

Found children tend to form their first primary attachment to their mothers within 7 months, and 75% had formed a secondary attachment to their father by 18 months.

Question 23

What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) do?

Answer 23

Studied 60 babies (31 male 29 female) at monthly intervals for the first 18 moths of life.

Question 24

What was Schaffer and Emerson (1964) aims?

Answer 24

To investigate the formation of early attachments at a particular age at which they developed.

Question 25

Where were Schaffer and Emersons (1964) participants from?

Answer 25

Glasgow from skilled working class families.

Question 26

What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) measure?

Answer 26

Separation anxiety - when the parent left the room Stranger anxiety - when a unfamiliar adult entered the room

Question 27

What evaluations can we use for Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study?

Answer 27

+ Good external validity + Longitudinal design - Limited sample characteristics

Question 28

Why is Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study said to have good external validity?

Answer 28

Due to it being carried out in the parents own homes and most observations being done by parents during ordinary activities. Meaning behaviour of babies was unlikely to be effected by the researchers presence.

Question 29

Why is Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study said have a beneficial longitudinal design?

Answer 29

Carried out longitudinally meaning same children were followed up and observed monthly. This increases the internal validity of the study as it means there are no confounding variables of individual differences.

Question 30

Why is Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study said to have a limiting sample?

Answer 30

Although they used a large volume of participants all were from the same district and the same social class ad was conducted over 50 years ago making it hard to generalise.

Question 31

What are the four stages of attachment?

Answer 31

Stage 1 - Asocial stage Stage 2 - Indiscriminate attachment Stage 3 - Specific attachment Stage 4 - Multiple attachment

Question 32

What is meant by the asocial stage of attachment?

Answer 32

Where the baby cannot recognise differences between humans and non human objects. May show some preference for familiar adults in that they find it easier to calm them.

Question 33

What is meant by the indiscriminate stage of attachment?

Answer 33

From 2 - 7 months. Show preference for people and recognise familiar ones. However accept care and cuddles from any adult. Therefore indiscriminate as behaviour shows no difference to any one person.

Question 34

What is meant by the specific stage of attachment?

Answer 34

From 7 months and baby was seen to show anxiety when separated from one particular adult. Therefore child has formed a specific attachment figure which is termed primary caregiver (65% of cases were biological mother).

Question 35

What is meant by the multiple stage of attachment?

Answer 35

Shortly after specific attachment the baby show attachment behaviour towards other adults with who they spend time with. These relationships are called secondary and in the study 29% of children formed this within a month of forming primary attachment.

Question 36

What evaluations can we use for Schaffer and Emersons (1964) stages of attachment?

Answer 36

- Problems in studying the asocial stage - Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments - Difficulties in measuring the multiple attachment stage

Question 37

Why is there said to be problems in studying the asocial stage?

Answer 37

They described the first few weeks of the attachment to be the asocial stage however in those first few weeks babies have poor coordination and are generally immobile. Therefore difficult to make judgements about them based on observations of behaviour.

Question 38

Why is there said to be conflicting evidence on the multiple attachment stage?

Answer 38

Its unclear when the multiple attachment stage happens. Some psychologists say its formed after the primary caregiver is whereas others say multiple caregivers are the norm (Van Iljendoorn et al) these cultures are called collectivist.

Question 39

Why is there said to be a problem when measuring multiple attachments?

Answer 39

Bowlby argued that just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves a room does not necessarily mean they are a true attachment figure. He pointed out that children have playmates as well and could show distress when they leave.

Question 40

What animal studies are there into attachment?

Answer 40

Lorenz's imprinting with geese Harlow's monkeys

Question 41

What was Lorenzs procedure?

Answer 41

Conducted a classic experiment where he separated half a clutch of goose eggs half of which hatched with the mother and the others in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.

Question 42

What did Lorenz find?

Answer 42

The incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group followed the original mother. This phenomena was called imprinting.

Question 43

What is meant by imprinting with birds?

Answer 43

Where a bird species which are mobile from birth attach to the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified this as the critical period and can be as brief as a few hours after hatching depending on the species. If imprinting didn't happen in that time then it was seen to make no attachment to mothers.

Question 44

What is meant by sexual imprinting?

Answer 44

Birds who imprint on humans would often show courtship behaviours towards humans.

Question 45

What problems are seen with Lorenz's research?

Answer 45

Generalisability to humans Some observations have been questioned

Question 46

Why is it said that Lorenz's study is not generalisable to humans

Answer 46

Humans have a much higher level of thinking and emotion than birds. Therefore findings from this species cannot be applied to humans and therefore isn't that useful.

Question 47

Why are Lorenzs observation often questioned?