Attachment

Question 1

Discuss caregiver infant interactions in the development of an attachment (16 marks)

Answer 1

A01:

Section 1 - Reciprocity = When a baby and mother elicit responses to each other. Also known as ‘turn taking’.

Alert phases = When babies signal (i.e make eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction.

Study on alert phases:
Research shows mothers pick up one and respond 2/3rds of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007) - varies on skill of mother and external factors such as stress (Finegood 2016). Around 3 months interaction becomes frequent by both baby and mother paying close attention to verbal and facial signals.

Active involvement:
Traditional views show babies in a passive role, receiving care from adult. However, both babies and adults can take an active role as they appear to take turns in doing so.

Section 2 - Interactional synchrony = It takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.

Study on interactional synchrony:
Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed interactional synchrony (IS) in babies as young as 2 weeks.
- Adult displayed 3 facial expressions/gestures
- Babies response filmed and labelled by independent observers
- Babies expression/gesture mirrored adult more than chance would predict (i.e there was a clear/significant association)

Importance of IS for attachment = Interactional synchrony is important in caregiver-infant attachment.

Study:
Russel Isabella (1989) observed 30 babies and mothers interact and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researcher also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.

A03:

Filmed Observations:
- filmed in lab
- controlled distractions
- inter-rater reliability (more than one observer can watch)
- babies don’t know they are being filmed so behaviour doesn’t change
Therefore, data has good reliability and validity

Difficult to observe babies:
- babies lack coordination
- so observing small movements are difficult
- hard to understand babies intention and what is taking place from their point of view (POV)
Therefore, we cannot know if a babies movement is triggered by the caregiver or is a random twitch. This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning

Developmental importance:
we cannot be sure if interaction synchrony and reciprocity have any value in a Childs development as the names are simply given to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. They can be reliably observed but do not tell us the purpose.

Counterpoint:
Isabella’s study showed interactional synchrony predicted the development of a good quality attachment. This means that is it probably important in development

Practical value vs ethics:
- has practical application in parenting skills training
- but can be socially sensitive that if a mother returns to work too early then she may be potentially damaging their babies development

Question 2

Discuss stages of attachment in forming an attachment (16 marks)

Answer 2

A01: Stages by Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
Study:
- 60 babies - 31 male, 29 female
- 5-23 weeks old
- All from Glasgow - majority from working class families
- Researchers visited baby and mother in their own home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
- researchers asked mothers questions about how babies reacted in 7 different everyday separations I.e adult leaving the room
- this was designed to measure the babies attachment
- researchers also assessed stranger anxiety

Findings:
From the results, S&E identified four distinct stages in the development of infant attachment behaviour which make up their stage theory

Stage 1: Asocial stage
- observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar

Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
- from 2-7 months
- display more obvious social behaviours
- clear preference for being with humans rather than intimate objects
- recognise and prefer familiar company, however except cuddles and comfort from any person hence the term ‘indiscriminate’
- don’t show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety

Stage 3: Specific attachment
- around 7 months
- display attachment to one particular person
- display separation anxiety from attachment figure and stranger anxiety, especially when attachment figure absent
- formed an attachment with primary attachment figure
- doesn’t necessarily spend the most time but responds to babies signals with the most skill and interaction
- this is the mother in 65% of cases

Stage 4: Multiple attachments
- start to show attachment behaviour to more than just primary attachment figure (other people they regularly spend time with)
- Called secondary attachments
Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment
- by the age of 1 year the majority of babies had developed multiple attachments

A03:
Good external validity:
- parents reported during ordinary activities
- if the researcher had recorded the observations, it may have distracted or made the babies feel anxious
This means that it is highly likely that the nannies behaved naturally while being observed

Counterpoint:
- mothers may be biased in what they noticed or reported (may not report anxiety - not noticed/misremembered)
This means that even if the babies behaved naturally their behaviour may have not been accurately recorded

Poor evidence for the Asocial stage:
- babies less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations which may have been hard to observe
- this made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group
This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear to be asocial

Real world application:
- practical application in day care
- asocial and indiscriminate stages, day care is likely to be straightforward as babies dan be comforted by any ‘skilled’ adult
- however, S&E research tells us that day care may be problematic during the specific attachment stage (starting day care with an unfamiliar adult)
This means that parents use of day care can be planned using S&E’s stages

Generalisability:
- only looked at one culture (Glasgow)
- other cultures (collectivist), multiple attachments from a very early age are more the norm
- However, the study was large-scale with some good design features

Question 3

Discuss the role of the father in forming an attachment (16 marks)

Answer 3

A01:
Fathers are less likely to become a babies first/primary attachment figure compared to mothers. Schaffer and Emerson found that 3% of fathers are the first sole object of attachment. In 27% of cases the father was the going first object of attachment with the mother.

Attachment to fathers is important, but at a later stage. 75% of babies formed an attachment with their fathers by 18 months. Shown by the fact babies protested when their farther walked away - a sign of attachment.

Study into the distinctive role of fathers:
- Grossman (2002)
- Longitudinal study
- babies attachment studied into their teens
- he found the quality of babies attachment with mothers (but not fathers) was related to attachments in adolescence
- However, he found the quality of fathers play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments
This suggests that fathers have a different role to mothers - one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with emotional development

Father as primary attachment figures:
Babies relationship with primary attachment figure forms the basis of all later close emotional relationships. There is evidence to suggest fathers are able to adopt to the emotional role more typically associated with mothers

Study into this:
4 month babies in face to face interaction with = Primary fathers, secondary fathers, primary mothers

Found:
Primary mothers and fathers took on emotional role - reciprocity and interactional synchrony, whereas secondary took on role of play and stimulation

Primary father, like primary caregiver mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies compared to secondary caregiver fathers.

So it seems fathers have the potential to be the emotion-focused primary attachment figure. They can provide the responsiveness required for a close emotional attachment but perhaps only express this when given the role of primary caregiver.

A03:
Confusion over research questions:
- some researchers are trying to understand the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure, whereas others are looking at the role of a primary attachment figure
- this leads to contrasting findings as both have different research aims to begin with
This makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as to the ‘role of the father’. It depends what specific role is being discussed.

Real world application + economic value:
- can be used to offer advice to parents
- fathers can become primary attachment figure
- parental anxiety about the role of the fathers can be reduced
This means that in heterosexual households either parent can work - whichever may be more economically viable. Also lesbian-parent and single-mother families can be informed that not having a father around does not affect a child’s development.

Conflicting evidence:
- if fathers have such a key role in a Childs development, we would expect children growing up with a single mother and lesbian-parent families would turn out someway different to those in two parent heterosexual households
This means that the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered

Counterpoint:
- may not be conflict
- could be that fathers take on distinct roles in heterosexual relationships, but single mother and lesbian parents adapt to accommodate the role of fathers
This means that the question of a distinctive role for fathers is clear after all. When present, fathers ted to adopt a role, but families can adapt to not having a father.

Bias in this research:
- stereotypes on the role of the father (and how they act) may cause unintentional observer bias where observers ‘see’ what they expect rather than recording the objective reality

Question 4

Discuss Lorenz’s research into animal studies of attachment (8 marks)

Answer 4

A01:
Imprinting = when an animal ‘attaches’ to a moving thing, usually immediately after they hatch. The first ‘moving thing’ is supposed to be their mother (filial imprinting), but Lorenz was imprinted on.

Imprinting is a survival mechanism that occurs during a critical period in an animal’s development. It’s most common in birds that leave the nest shortly after hatching, like geese and chickens.

Study:
- Divided a large clutch of goose eggs
- half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment
- the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Findings:
- The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere
- The control group hatched in the presence of their mother, therefore followed her
- When the groups were mixed, control group followed mother, experimental group followed Lorenz
- Lorenz identified a critical period for when imprinting needs to take place - as brief as a ‘few hours’ after hatching/birth
- if imprinting does not occur within the time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure

Sexual imprinting:
- Sexual imprinting is the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate.
- Birds that imprinted on a human, would often later display courtship/attraction towards humans.

Study:
- described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo, where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises. As an adult this bird would only direct attraction/attention towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.

A03:
Generalisability to humans:
- cannot generalise findings and conclusions form birds to humans
- mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds
- Mammals attachment is two way - baby attached to mother but also mother attaches to baby
This means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s ideas to humans

Applications to understanding human behaviour:
- although human attachment is different from birds there has been attempts to use the idea that some kind of imprinting explains human behaviour
- Peter Seebach (2005) suggested that computer users exhibit ‘baby duck syndrome’ - which is the attachment formed to their first computer operating system, leading to them rejecting others.

Research Support:
- Regolin and Vallortigara (1995)
- chicks exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a triangle with a rectangle infront
- a range of shape combinations were moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely
This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development, as predicted by Lorenz

Question 5

Discuss Harlow’s research into animal studies of attachment (8 marks)

Answer 5

A01:
Contact comfort = the physical and emotional comfort that an infant receives from being in close contact with a parental figure, such as their mother. It’s considered a foundation for attachment and the development of trust in infants.

Study:
Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother, whereas in the second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother

Findings:
The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened (by a noisy mechanical teddy bear) regardless of which mother dispensed milk. This shows that contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

Maternally deprived monkeys as adults:
The researchers found severe consequences, the ones that reared with the wire mother were the most dysfunctional. However, even those reared with a cloth mother did not develop normal social behaviour. These deprived monkeys showed aggressive behaviour and were less sociable than other monkeys - this led to them breeding less often than is typical (being unskilled at mating). When they became mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.

Critical period for normal development:
A mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.

A03:
Real - world value:
- helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998)
- we also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild
This means that the value of Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but also practical

Generalisability to humans:
- Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, and all mammals share some common attachment behaviours
However, the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys
This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow’s findings to humans

Ethical issues:
- Harlow’s research caused severe and long-term distress to the monkeys.
- However, his findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications

Question 6

Discuss the learning theory of attachment (16 marks)

Answer 6

A01:
Dollard and Miller’s ‘Cupboard love approach’ because it emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food.

Classical conditioning = involves learning to associate two stimuli together so we begin to respond to one in the same way we already respond to the other.

What are the different stimulus in learning theory of attachment:
US = Food
UR = pleasure
NS = Caregiver

Over time:
CS = Caregiver
CR = food brings pleasure

Operant conditioning = Involves learning from the consequences of behaviour. If behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again - reinforced. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence (punishment), it is less likely to be repeated.

Baby cry = caregiver respond = reinforced behaviour = leads to baby directing crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social supressor’ behaviour.

This reinforcement is a two-way process, same time baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops - escaping from something unpleasant is reinforcing. This interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens an attachment.

Primary drive in learning theory:
Hunger can be thought of as the primary drive - it’s an innate, biological motivator. We are motivated to eat in order to reduce the hunger drive.

Secondary drive in learning theory:
Sears suggested as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them.

Attachment is thus a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.

A03:
Counter evidence from animal studies:
- lack of support from studies conducted on animals
- Lorenz geese imprinted on first object they saw regardless of food
- Harlow’s monkeys displayed attachment behaviour towards a soft surrogate ‘mother’ in preference to a wire which provided milk (food)
This shows that factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments

Counter evidence from studies on humans:
- Schaffer and Emerson found that babies tended to form attachments to their mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them
- Isabella found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment
- these factors are unrelated to food/feeding
This again suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments

Some conditioning may be involved:
- one strength is that elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of attachment
- association with food may not play a central role in attachment, but conditioning may still play a role
- baby may feel warm and comfortable with a certain adult, this could influence their choice of their main attachment figure
This means that learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments

Counterpoint:
- Both classical and operant conditioning show the baby playing a passive role in attachment development, simply responding to associations with comfort or reward
- when in fact babies take a very active role in interactions that produce attachment (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
This means that conditioning may not be an adequate explanation of any aspect of attachment

Social learning theory:
- the perspective of learning theory that states that reinforcement is a two way process/interaction between baby and adult, fits better with research into the importance of reciprocity

+ Dollard and Miller argued that during their first year, babies are fed 2000 times generally by their main caregiver - plenty of time to create association and reinforcement (classical and operant conditioning)

Question 7

Discuss Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment (16 marks)

Answer 7

A01:

Why did Bowlby come up with this theory?
- Rejected learning theory
- Believed attachment was an evolutionary explanation - that attachment was an innate system that gives us a survival advantage

What is monotropy?
- Bowlby placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver
- believed attachment to this care giver was different and more important than others

Put forward two principles to clarify this:
- law of continuity stated that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment
- The law of accumulated separation stated that the effects of every separation from the other adds up ‘and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’ (Bowlby 1975)

What are social releasers and the critical period?
- Babies are born with innate ‘cute’ behaviours like smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults
- he called them social releasers because their purpose is to activate adult social interaction and so make an adult attach to the baby
- recognised the process was reciprocal - both mother and baby are ‘hard wired’ to become attached
- Interplay between baby and adult builds the relationship between baby and caregiver, beginning in the early weeks of life

Critical period:
- around 6 months when the infant attachment system is active
- Bowlby viewed this as more of a ‘sensitive period’
- a child is maximally sensitive at 6 months and this extends up to the age of 2
- if an attachment is not formed in this time, a child will find it much harder to form one later

What is the internal working model?
- child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure
- this is called the internal working model because it serves as a model for what relationships are like
- Childs first loving relationship with reliable caregiver will form an expectation for all future relationships to be the same - therefore will bring these qualities to future relationships
- However, if a child whose first relationship involves poor treatment will tend to form further poor relationships in which they expect such treatment from others and/or treat others in that same way
- Most importantly the internal working model affects the Childs later ability to be a parent themselves
- people tend to base their parenting behaviour on their own experiences of being parented - this explains why children from functional families tend to have similar families themselves

A03:
validity of monotropy challenged:
- lacks validity
Schaffer and Emerson found that although most babies did attach to one person at first, a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time
- although the first attachment does appear to have a strong influence later on in life - not necessarily different in quality from the Childs other attachments
- For example, other attachments to family members provide all the same key qualities (emotional support, a safe base etc)
This means that Bowlby may be incorrect that there is a unique quality and importance to the child’s primary attachment

Support for social releasers:
- clear evidence that cute behaviours are designed to elicit interaction from caregivers
- Brazelton et all observed babies trigger interactions with adult using social releasers
- the researchers then instructed babies primary attachment figures to ignore their babies social releasers
- they found that babies became increasingly distressed and some eventually curled up and lay motionless
This illustrates the role of social releasers in emotional development and suggests that they are important in the process of attachment development

Support for internal working model:
- predicts patterns will be passed from one generation to the next
- Heidi Bailey et al studied 99 mothers and 1 year old babies
- researchers measured mothers attachment to their own primary attatchment figure (parents) and also assessed the attachment quality of the babies
- they found that mothers with poor attachment to their own primary attachment figures were more likely to have poorly attached babies
This supports Bowlby’s idea that mothers ability to form attachments to their babies is influenced by their internal working models (which in turn comes from their own early attachment experiences)

Counterpoint:
- probably other important influences on social development
psychologists believe genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour in both babies and adults - these differences could also have an impact on their parenting ability (Kornienko 2016)
This means that Bowlby may have overstated the importance of the internal working model in social behaviour and parenting at the expense of other factors

Feminist concerns:
- beliefs using this theory are set up to blame the mother for anything that goes wrong with the child in the future
- also believe that mothers who work may be negatively affecting their Childs emotional development
- gives people an excuse to restrict mothers activities, for example returning to work

Question 8

Discuss the strange situation as a way of measuring types of attachment (16 marks)

Answer 8

A01:
Mary Ainsworth and Silvia Bell (1969)
- controlled observation
- measure security of attachment a baby displays to a caregiver
- lab setting - controlled conditions, with a two way mirror and/or cameras through which psychologists can observe the baby’s behaviour

Behaviours used to judge attachment:
1. Proximity seeking - a baby with a good attachment will stay fairly close to a caregiver
2. Exploration and secure-base behaviour - good attachment enables a baby to feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a safe/secure base (a point of contact which will make them feel safe)
3. Stranger anxiety - close attachment displays anxiety when stranger approaches
4. Separation anxiety - another sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver
5. Response to reunion - babies who are securely attached greet the caregiver’s return with pleasure and seek comfort

1. baby encouraged to explore = tests exploration and secure base
2. stranger comes in, talks to caregiver and approaches baby = tests stranger anxiety
3. Caregiver leaves baby and stranger together = tests stranger anxiety and seperation
4. caregiver returns and stranger leaves = tests reunion and exploration/safe base
5. caregiver leaves baby alone = tests separation anxiety
6. the stranger returns = tests stranger anxiety
7. the caregiver returns and is reunited with the baby = tests reunion behaviour

Findings:
3 main types of attachment:

Secure (type b) = babies explore happily, regularly go back to caregiver, show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety, require and accept comfort at reunion with caregiver, about 60-75% British babies are classified as secure

Insecure-Avoidant (type A) = explore freely, do not seek proximity or secure base behaviour, no reaction/little when caregiver leaves, little stranger anxiety, little effort to male contact when caregiver returns and may even avoid such contact, about 20-25% British babies are classified as insecure-avoidant

Insecure-Resistant (type C) = seek greater proximity than others and so explore less, high levels of stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, resist comfort on reunion with caregiver, around 3% of British babies are classified as insecure-resistant

A03:
Good predictive validity:
- predicts aspects of babies later development
- type b have better outcomes than others in both childhood (better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying) and adulthood (better mental health)
- Insecure-resistant and those not falling into any category tend to have the worst outcomes
This suggests that the Strange situation measures something real and meaningful in a baby’s development

Good reliability:
- Bick tested inter - rater reliability for the SS for a team of trained observers and found agreement on 94% of cases
- high level could be as a result of controlled conditions and easy observation conditions
This means that we can be confident that attachment type as assessed by the strange situation does not depend on subjective judgements

The test may be culture bound:
- Developed in Britain and USA (western cultures)
- babies have different experiences in different cultures (may effect response to the SS)
- This means that it is very difficult to know what the strange situation is measuring when used outside Western Europe and the USA

Other attachment types:
- fourth category of attachment = type D (disorganised) a mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours
- however type d are unusual and have generally experienced severe neglect or abuse
- Most will go on to develop psychological disorders by adulthood

Question 9

Discuss cultural variations in attachment (16 marks)

Answer 9

A01:
Val Ijzendoorn and Krooenberg
- 32 studies where the strange situation had been used
- 8 countries (15 studies in USA)
- yielded results for 1990
- the data for the 32 studies was meta-analysed
This means that the results of the studies were combined and analysed together, weighting each study for its sample size

Findings:
- wide variation of attachment types
- secure attachment was the most common in all countries
- however the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China

• in individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth’s original sample (all under 14%)
• but this was not true for collectivist cultures from China, Japan and Israel where rates were above 25% (rates of insecure-avoidant attachment were reduced)
• An interesting finding was that variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries. In the USA, for example, one study found only 46% of securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%

Conclusions:
- secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm. However, the research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type.

Other variations:
An Italian study = Alessandra Simonelli et al. (2014) conducted a study in Italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies. The researchers assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using the Strange Situation.

They found 50% were secure, with 36% insecure–avoidant. This is a lower rate of secure attachment and a higher rate of insecure–avoidant attachment than has been found in many studies. The researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare.

These findings suggest that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change.

A Korean study = Mi Kyoung Jin et al. (2012) conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies. The Strange Situation was used to assess 87 babies.

The overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most babies being secure. However, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one baby was avoidant. This distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in Japan (van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988). Jin and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing style.

A03:
Indigenous researchers:
- those from the same cultural background as the participants
- For example, Val Ijzendoorn and Krooenberg included research by a German team (Grossman) and a Japanese team (Takahashi)
- this means that any potential problems in cross cultural research can be understood (no language barriers)
- difficulties can also include bias because of one nations stereotypes of another
This means that there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected

confounding variables:
- characteristics such as poverty, social class can confound results as can the age of participants studied in different countries and environmental challenges
- baby may explore more in a smaller interesting (toy full) room rather than a large bare one
- less visible proximity seeking because of room size may make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant
This means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross cultural patterns of attachment

Imposed etic:
- Emic = cultural uniqueness
- Etic = cross-cultural university

• imposed etic occurs when we impose an idea that works in one cultural context to another, such as how we interpret behaviour patterns
  This means that the behaviours measure by the strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts, and comparing them across cultures is meaningless

Competing explanations:
- Bowlby states that attachment types are innate and universal
- Val Ijzendoorn and Krooenberg state that global media represents a particular view of how parents and babies are meant to behave. This may override traditional cultural differences in the way children are brought up

Question 10

Discuss Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (16 marks)

Answer 10

A01:
This theory is based on the idea that mother love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health.

Being separated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences (maternal deprivation).

Seperation vs deprivation:
- important distinction to be made
- separation means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure
- This only becomes a problem if the child becomes deprived of emotional care
- brief separations where the child is with a substitute caregiver is not as significant as they are also able to provide emotional care, but extended separations can lead to deprivation, which by definition causes harm

The critical period:
- Bowlby saw the first two and a half years of life as a critical period for psychological development
- if a child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended duration during this critical period then psychological damage was inevitable
- he also believed there was a continuing risk up to the age of five

Effects on development:
Intellectual development:
- delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ

Emotional development:
- Bowlby identified affection less psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or a strong emotion towards others
- this prevents a person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
- affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of a victim and so lack remorse for their actions

Study:
Bowlby’s research:
- 44 thieves study - exmained link between affection less psychopathy and maternal deprivation

• sample consisted of 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
• all interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy - characterised by a lack of affection/guilt for their actions and a lack of empathy for their victims
• families also interviewed in order to establish whether the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers
• the sample was compared to a control group of 44 non-criminal nit emotionally-disturbed young people

Findings:
- found 14 out of 44 could be described at affection less psychopaths
- 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives
- in contrast only 5 of the remaining 30 ‘thieves’ had experienced separations
- only two participants in the control group of 44 had experienced long separations
Bowlby concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy

A03:
Flawed evidence:
- 44 thieves study open to bias as all of it was conducted by bowlby (including the interviews)
- prejudice in terms of which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy
- based his findings on another study which struggled due to confounding variables, which consisted of the children experiencing early trauma and institutional care as well as long separation from their primary caregivers
This means that Bowlby’s original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had serious flaws and would nit be taken seriously as evidence nowadays

Deprivation and privation:
- confusion between different types of early experience
- Rutter drew an important distinction between two types of early negative experience
- deprivation strictly refers to the loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment has develped
- on the other hand, privation is the failure t for any attachment in the first place - this may take place when children are brought up in institutional care
- Rutter found that what Bowlby classified as deprivation was actually privation during the 44 thieves study - distrupted early lives and may never have formed strong attachments
This means that Bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation in children’s development

Critical versus sensitive periods:
- good aftercare can potentially prevent damage caused due to child not forming attachment in the first 2.5 years
- Koluchova (1976) - two Czech twins
- experienced physical and emotional abuse from 18 months until 7 years old
- they received excellent care and by their teens they had recovered fully even though they were damaged emotionally by their experiences
This means that lasting harm is not inevitable even in cases of severe privation. The ‘critical period’ is therefore better seen as the ‘sensitive period’.

Question 11

Discuss research into institutionalisation (16 marks)

Answer 11

A01:
Rutter
- followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans as part of the English and Romanian adoptee study
- orphans had been adopted by families in the UK
- The aim of the ERA (English Romanian Adoptee) study was to see the extent that good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
- physical, cognitive, and emotional development assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years
- A group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time served as a control group

Findings:
Intellectual Development:
- adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and were severely malnourished
- at age 11 children showed different rates of recovery (dependent on the age they were adopted)
- Mean IQ for children adopted before the age of six months was 102, compared with 86 for those adopted between six months and two years, and 77 for those adopted after two years
- differences remained at age 16
- ADHD was more common in 15-18 and 22-25 year old samples

Attachment:
- attachment differed based on whether adoption took place before or after 6 months
- after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment
- symptoms include attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar
- In contrast, those adopted before 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment

Zeanah’s research:
- conducted the Bucharest early intervention (BEI) project
- assessed 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months - 90% spend life in institutional care
- compared to 50 children control group - no institutional care
- Their attachment tutor was measured using strange situation
- in addition carers were asked about social behaviour (E.g clingy/attention seeking) directed inappropriately at all adults ( a measure of disinhibited attachment)

Findings:
- 74% of control group classes as securely attached in the SS
- 19% of institutional group were classified as securely attached
- in contrast, the description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of the controls

Effects of institutionalisation:
Disinhibited attachment:
- equally friendly/affectionate to familiar people and strangers
- unusual behaviour = most children in second year show stranger anxiety
- Rutter explained it as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation
- in poor quality institutions (like in Romania) a child might have 50 carers but does not spend enough time with any one of them to be able to form a secure attachment

Intellectual Disability:
- In Rutter’s study most of the children showed signs of intellectual disability (previously called retardation) when they arrived in Britain
- However, most adopted before 6 months old caught up with the control group by age 4
It appears that, like emotional development, damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of six months - the age at which attachments form

A03:
Real-world application:
- can help improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home
- allowed psychologists to understand the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst effects
- led to improvements in the conditions of care institutions
- children’s homes now avoid having a large number of carers for each child, instead they have one or two ‘key workers’ who play a central role in their emotional development/care
- institutional care is now seen as an undesirable option for looked-after children - considerable effort is made to accommodate such children in foster care or to have them adopted instead

Reduced confounding variables:
- children did not experience previous trauma, they were handed over by loving parents who could not afford to keep them
This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences (internal validity)

Lack of adult data:
- latest data looked at children in early to mid 20’s
- cannot answer questions around the effects ‘long term’, such as forming romantic relationships as well are parental ones
- take a long time to gather this data due to longitudinal design (same participants studied over a long period)
This means it will be some time before we know more about what the long term effects are for the Romanian orphans. It is possible that late-adopted children may ‘catch up’.

Social sensitivity:
- due to results showing that late-adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes
- people who knew them may have lowered expectations as results are published as they are growing up, or treated them differently
- may have even created a self fulfilling prophecy
On the other hand, much has been learned from the Romanian orphan studies that might benefit future institutionalised or potentially institutionalised children

Question 12

Discuss the influence of early attachments in both childhood and adult relationships (16 marks)

Answer 12

A01:
Bowlby (1969)
- It suggests that a baby’s first relationship with primary caregiver leads to a mental representation of this relationship.
- The internal working model then acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships.
- Template affects future relationships - loving first relationships = think all relationships are like that, bad first relationships = think all relationships are like that.

• Can lead to them struggling to form relationships in the first place or seeking functional relationships even if they are not healthy (its what they have previously experienced so think is normal) and not behaving appropriately within them, i.e displaying insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behaviours towards friends or partners.

Relationships in childhood:
- Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood
- securely attached go on to form strong/best quality childhood friendships, whereas insecurely attached babies later have friendship difficulties
- in particular, bullying can be predicted by attachment type

• studies by Rowan Myron-Wilson and Peter Smith assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London
  They found that secure attached children are unlikely to be involved in bullying, insecure-avoidant were most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most lily to be bullies

Relationships in adulthood:
- the internal working model affects romantic relationships and parental relationships
- people tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment types tend to be passed on through generations of family

Love Quiz:
Procedure:
- analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in a local American newspaper
- quiz had 3 sections
- first assessed respondents current or most important relationship
- second section assessed general love experiences such as number of partners
- third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings

Findings and conclusion:
- 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached
- 25% insecure-avoidant
- 19% insecure-resistant
- those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have goods and longer-lasting romantic experiences
- the avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy
These findings suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships

A03:
Research support:
- reviews of evidence linking attachment to later development have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment (both with children and and romantically)
- whilst insecure-avoidant seems to convey faulty mild disadvantages for development, disinhibited attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder
This means that secure attachment as a baby appears to convey advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children

Validity issues with retrospective studies:
- most studies into early attachment and later development are not longitudinal
- instead researchers ask adult participants questions about their relationships with parents, and identify attachment type from this
- this causes two validity problems:
Asking questions relies on honesty and accurate perception of the participants
Secondly, it is very hard to know whether what is being assessed is early attachment or in fact adult attachment
This means hat the measures of easy attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless

Confounding variables:
- parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development
- alternatively, genetically-influenced personality may be an influence on both factors
This means that we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development

Balancing opportunity and risk:
- insecure attachment does not increase risk of later developmental problems - no one is doomed to be the victim of bullying or to never have a successful romantic relationship as a result of their early attachment, its just a question of increased likelyhood
- by knowing someones attachment status we have an opportunity to intervene and help their development
- however, we may also become too pessimistic and create a self-fulfilling prophecy