Attachment Flashcards
Who were the 2 main researchers that used animals?
Harlow (monkeys) Lorenz (Geese)
What was the procedure of the Harlow’s monkeys experiment?
Laboratory experiment.
Rhesus Monkeys were raised in isolation.
They had 2 surrogate mothers- one which provided food and the other provided comfort.
The food ‘mother’ was made of wire mesh and had a milk bottle. The ‘comfort mother’ was made from cloth and had no milk bottle.
Harlow would frighten the monkeys to see which ‘mother’ it would go to.
What was the aim of Harlow’s experiment?
Whether baby monkeys would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure.
What were the findings from Harlow’s monkeys?
The monkey’s spent most of their time attached to the comforting mother.
They only used the feeding mother when in need of food.
What was the conclusion of Harlow’s monkeys?
Supplying food isn’t sufficient enough to form an attachment. The infant monkeys needed a responsive attachment figure, not just one that provided comfort.
What were the strengths of Harlow’s monkeys?
Proved that Infants need interaction and sensitivity.
Lab experiment- meant there were strict control variables- results wouldn’t have been affected.
What were the limitations of Harlow’s monkeys?
Ethics- Negative effects on the monkey’s social development.
Low ecological validity- monkeys were kept in isolation
Cannot generalise the findings to humans.
Use of animals- Cannot communicate with them (ethics again-protection from harm)
Stimulus objects differed- feeding mother was more scary looking, results may not be accurate.
What was the procedure for Lorenz’s experiment?
Lorenz took half a group of gosling eggs and hatched them in an incubator so that he was the first thing they saw when they woke up.
What was the aim of Lorenz’s experiment?
To see if imprinting occurs to the first object the infant sees.
What were the findings of Lorenz’s experiments?
The geese began to follow him everywhere and had no interest in their own mother.
There is a critical period for imprinting (2 days)
The effects of imprinting are long lasting.
Imprinting occurs between 13 an 16 hours after hatching.
What are the strengths of Lorenz’s experiment?
Supports the idea that young animals aren’t born with a predisposition to imprint on specific objects.
Indicates that imprinting is linked with the reproductive behaviour.
What is the definition of Reciprocity?
The coordination of movements between an infant and a carer in which one is eliciting responses.
It is important for later communications and is the foundations for later attachments.
It helps the carer to learn sensitivity and understand that child’s needs.
What is the definition of interactional synchrony?
When 2 people, an infant and a carer interact, they imitate each other. Leads to a conversion dance.
What is meant by the phrase ‘conversion dance?’
When the infant reacts in time with the caregivers speech
What is a strength of interactional synchrony?
Abravanel and DeYoung- found that infants between the ages of 5 and 12 weeks made very little response to objects and focused on imitating the carers, showing a specific response to humans.
What are the limitations of reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
Observing infants- could lead to psychological conditions in the infants future and be difficult to get accurate results as the infants unpredicted needs/moods may affect the results.
Keopke- Didn’t replicate the findings of Meltzoffe and Moore and found that infants could not distinguish live from videotape suggesting that infants are not responding to the adult.
What did Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis do?
Highlighted the importance of the relationship between the care giver and the infant within the first 5 years.
What happens if the relationship between caregiver and infant is disrupted?
Causes severe emotional disturbance and delinquency.
Has long term effects on emotional social and intellectual development
What did Bowlby’s 44 thieves experiment show?
Out of the 44 children, the 86% who were classified as affectionless psychopaths had long separations with their mothers.
Supports the importance of a continuous relationship for a child’s development
How did Bifulco’s research support Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis?
Found that women who were separated from their mothers at a young age were diagnosed with depression
Supports the theory of having a critical period
How does Bowlby’s 44 thieves limit his maternal deprivation hypothesis?
Bowlby ignored other factors that could cause delinquency such as media or environmental factors
What is the definition of secure attachment?
A strong contended bond between the infant and caregiver in which the infant will show distress at separation.
Portrays a healthy development and a positive working model of a relationship for the infant
What is an insecure attachment?
Attachment bond is weaker and results in an anxious and insecure relationship. There are 2 types- insecure avoidant and insecure resistant.
What is meant by insecure avoidant?
Little response to separation and reunion
What is meant by insecure resistant?
Intense distress at separation but shows conflicting desires for and against contact at reunion
What was the aim of the strange situation?
To investigate individual differences in infant attachments
What was the procedure or the strange situation?
Controlled observation
Involved 8 stages and scenarios for the infant such as being approached by a stranger, the infant being left alone and the mother returning. The infants reactions were constantly observed.
What were the findings from the strange situation
66% of infants have a secure attachment to their caregiver. 22% have an insecure avoidant attachment. 12% have an insecure resistant attachment.
Conclusion: infants showing different reactions to their carers have different type of attachments
What are the strengths of the strange situation?
Controlled observation- allowed control of the variables, making the results more reliable sources
What are the limitations of the strange situation?
Low ecological validity- BrofenBanner found that infants tend to display stronger attachments in a lab setting, making the research artificial
Lacks cross cultural validity- can’t apply the strange situation to other cultures as infants may have grown up in different cultures and had different experiences.
What was the aim of Rutter and Songua Barke’s experiment?
To discover the effects institutionalisation had on infants
What was the procedures of Rutter and Songua Barke?
Longitudinal study
165 Romanian children who regularly spent their early lives in a Romanian institution were compared to English orphans, on their physical, cognitive and social development
What were the findings from the Rutter and Songua Barke experiment?
111 Romanian orphans were adopted before the age of 2 and 54 before the age of 4. However 52 English orphans were adopted before 6 months.
Romanian orphans lagged behind the British orphans in their physical, cognitive and social development and were classified as mentally retarded
However, by the age of 4 they had caught up showing that the effects of institutionalisation are less severe the earlier they become attached
What are the strengths of Rutter and Songua Barke?
Longitudinal study- results provided a better insight into the long term effects of institutionalisation (privation)!
What are the limitations of Rutter and Songua Barke?
Collected qualitative data which meant that it was more difficult to create generalised theories from
What did Schaffer and Emerson do?
Developed a stage theory of attachment which argued that infants go through a number of stages in their development of attachment to others
What is the first stage of Schaffer and emersons stage theory of attachment?
Birth- 2 months
Indiscriminate attachment
Similar responses to all objects but show greater preferences for people
Intersectional synchrony and reciprocity play a role in developing relationships
What is the second stage of shaffer and emersons stage theory of attachment?
2-4 months
Beginnings of attachment
Infant seeks attention from a number of different individuals
Doesn’t show stranger anxiety
What is the third stage of shaffer and emersons stage theory of attachment?
4-7 months
Discriminate attachment
Develops a strong attachment bond to one individual and shows separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
What is the final stage of shaffer and emersons stage theory of attachment?
7-9 months
Multiple attachment stage
Strong emotional ties with other caregivers and non-caregivers
Known as secondary attachments
What are the limitations of shaffer and emersons stage theory of attachment?
Cross cultural variation- imposed etic meant that it wasn’t appropriate to generalise the findings to other cultures
Biased sample- data collected is only from one point of view and doesn’t represent the wider population. Experiment was done in the 60’s in which parenting was different causing desirability bias
What does the learning theory suggest about why we form attachments?
Babies are born with a set of reflex responses of which 2 of them are are hunger and satisfaction.
When the baby is hungry, the mother provides the food and the baby feels satisfied. This then becomes associated with the mother overtime as the baby will associate the mother with attachments
Use operant conditioning as an explanation of attachment
Behaviour will be learnt through positive reinforcement (reward) or negative reinforcement (the removal of the unpleasant thing)
we have drive states (eg hunger) which motivates behaviours to reduce the drive
If the infant is hungry and cries the carer will feed them, making the unpleasant stimuli go away, showing negative reinforcement. At the same time, being red is rewarding showing positive reinforcement
The attachment figure becomes associated with positive/negative reinforcement causing attachment to occur
What is a strength of the learning theory of attachment?
Pavlov- his research with dogs showed that classical conditioning works
What are the limitations of the learning theory of attachment?
Harlow- suggests that it’s natural instinct to form an attachment. The findings also show that the monkeys chose comfort over food, going against the learning theory hypothesis
Reductionist- tries to explain complex attachment using simple stimuli responses
