Attachment Flashcards
Definition.
According to Shaffer, an attachment is “a close emotional relationship between two persons, characterised by mutual affection and a desire to maintain proximity.”
Who has an attachment?
Nearly all children have an attachment to somebody else (even if they have been abused) what differs is the TYPE of attachment.
Maccoby (1980) identified four key behaviours of SECURE attachment:
1) Seeing closeness to a primary caregiver.
2) Distress on separation.
3) Pleasure when reunited.
4) General orientation of behaviour towards primary caregiver.
What are a child’s needs?
Warmth, love, food and security.
Shaffer and Emerson’s three stages of attachment.
- Asocial (0-6 weeks)(none discriminant)
- Indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks to 7 months)(Discriminant between toys and career givers)
- Specific attachments (7-11 months) (from specific bonds)
- Used a naturalistic observation (every four weeks) Attachment was measured using separation protest and stranger anxiety.
- High in mundane realism
Findings of Shaffer and Emerson’s stage Theory.
Stage theory is generally correct. Small infants can be comforted by anyone but as they get older they experience separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
Mary Ainsworth and the Strange Situation.
- In order to determine the type and strength of attachment that babies have to their parents, Mary Ainsworth devised a CONTROLLED OBSERVATION “Strange Situation”
- Positive - Secure
- Negative - Insecure
Ainsworth.
-Studied 106 middle class US infants.
The Strange Situation - 8 Stages.
- Observer takes mother and infant into a room, then leaves (30 sec)
- Mother allows baby to explore - stimulates play if necessary (3 mins)
- Stranger
- Enters room, stranger is silent (1 min)
- Converses with Mother (1 min)
- Approaches Baby (1 min)
- Mother leaves - Stranger’s behaviour geared to Baby (3 mins - or less if Baby becomes distressed).
- Stranger leaves, Mother returns and greets and/or comforts baby - settles Baby - settles Baby in play - leaves, saying “bye-bye” (3 mins - more if needs to settle)
- Baby is alone (3 mins - less if distressed)
- Stranger enters - (3 mins - less if distressed)
- Mother enters, greets and picks up baby - stranger leaves (3 mins).
Secure Attachmet
Separation Anxiety
- Distressed when mother leaves
Stranger Anxiety
- Avoidant of stranger when alone but friendly when mother present.
Reunion behaviour
- Positive and happy when mother returns
% of Infants
- 70%
Insecure Resistant Attachment
Separation Anxiety
- Infant shows sighs of intense distress
Stranger Anxiety
- Infant avoids the stranger - shows fear of stranger
Reunion Behaviour
- Child approaches mother but resists contact, may even push her away
% of Infants
- 10%
Insecure Avoidant Attachment
Separation Anxiety
- Infant shows no sign of distress when mother leaves
Stranger Anxiety
- Infant is okay with the stranger and plays normally when stranger is present
Reunion Behaviour
- Infants shows little interest when mother returns
% of Infants
- 20%
Secure Attachment (70%) Type B
- Children given a positive working model
- Carer who is emotionally available, sensitive and supportive
Insecure Avoidant Attachment (20%) Type A
- Children have a working model of themselves as unacceptable and unworthy
- Carer who is rejecting
Insecure Resistant Attachment (60%) Type C
- Children have a negative self-image and exaggerate their emotional responses to gain attention
- Carer who is inconsistent
Schema
Packet of knowledge (basic knowledge of certain things)
Finding of The Strange Situation
- The strange situation showed that Mothers who were most sensitive to their baby’s needs had more securely attached infants.
- The better the care the better the attachment.
Key Issue is Sensitivity of the Caregiver.
- In Securely Attached children the caregiver will be sensitive to the infant’s needs (Ainsworth’s Maternal sensitivity hyposthesis)
- In Insecure Resistant children the caregiver is often interested in the child, but misunderstood the needs
- In Insecure Avoidant children, the caregiver is often uninterested and rejecting of the child
Evaluation - Stage Situation. (Part One)
Weaknesses:
- Cultural Bias, cannot be applied to other cultures lower in ecological reliability.
- CONTROLLED OBSERVATION so could produce DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS (lowering internal validity)
- e.g. The mother may have responded to the situation by changing their behaviour and becoming more attentive to please the researcher. This could lead to their child changing their behaviour.
Evaluation - Stage Situation. (Part Two)
- High levels of inter-observer reliability.
- Also because the test was Developed in USA it may be criticised for being culturally biased meaning that the findings cannot be applied to explain behaviours in other cultures (thus it has low external validity).
- There is also another, important, FUNDAMENTAL flaw with the procedure of the strange situation test which lowers the internal validity
Does the test actually test the child’s attachment type or does it test their relationship with their caregiver?
- Main and Weston found that children behaved differently with different parents.
- So, it may be suggested that the strange situation measures the strength of the relationship between mother/carer with child and NOT, as suggested, the child’s attachment type. = Internal Validity.
Evaluation
- Main & Solomon (1990) suggested that the use of three attachment types was too simplistic and so they introduced a new attachment style - insecure/disorganised
- This can involve a bizarre set of behaviours on reuniting, including freezing, rocking and a dazed look but not definite.
- This is the most disturbing of the styles, and may be an indicator of abuse.
Temperament Kagan (1984)
- Kagan rejected the notion that attachment type was a response to sensitivity and argued that attachment types may be due to innate temperament rather than maternal sensitivity.
Evidence of Temperament Hypothesis
Belsky & Rovine (1987)
- Infants that have behavioural instability at birth are less likely to form secure attachments
- It is most likely that attachment is a mixture of the two things (temperament and sensitivity)
