Attachment

Question 1

What does a baby show which shows they have developed an attachment?

Answer 1

Separation distress

Proximity seeking

Stranger anxiety

Question 2

Reciprocity

Answer 2

When babies and carers mutually respond to each other’s behaviours. They are responsive and sensitive to each other.

Question 3

Interaction all synchrony

Answer 3

The detailed mimicry and mirroring between cared and baby which forms the early basis of communication.

Question 4

Meltzoff and Moore

Answer 4

Asked adult models to display one of 3 facial expressions to a baby in controlled conditions and videoed the baby’s face.
The baby’s expressions were then coded by an independent observer who didn’t know what expression the baby had seen (reduces investigator bias)

It was found that infants as young as 3 days old can imitate facial expressions.

This suggests that interactional synchrony may be partly innate as the babies were too young to have learned to imitate.

A strength of this study was that the baby’s facial expressions were rated using a precisely operationalised behavioural coding system. This is important as it increases the accuracy and objectivity of the ratings.

Question 5

Isabella

1989

Answer 5

Observed 30 mothers and children and measured the amount of interactional synchrony. In the sample, 10 babies were securely attached, 10 showed insecure avoidant and 10 showed insecure resistant.

She found that mothers and infants who were very responsive to each other at 1 month old were more likely to be securely attached at 9 months

Question 6

Schaffer and Emerson

1964

Answer 6

Conducted a longitudinal study over the first 2 years of life of 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow. Each child was observed every 4 weeks until they were 1 year old and then again at 18 months old. They assessed whether the child was attached to an adult. The child was said to be attached if they protested when separated from their career and showed stranger anxiety.
Data was collected by direct observation and by records kept by mothers. The children were observed in their natural surroundings

In 39% of children, the person who usually fed, bathed and changed the baby was not their
primary attachment figure

Question 7

Pre attachment

Answer 7

0-2 months
Baby initially shows little difference in their response to humans compared to objects.

During this stage they start to show a preference for humans

Question 8

Indiscriminate attachment

Answer 8

2 to 7 months

The baby shows little difference in their response to a stranger compared to a familiar career.

Gradually the baby starts to show a preference for familiar people

Question 9

Discriminate attachment

Answer 9

7 to 9 months

The baby is showing a clear attachment to 1 or 2 t cries if they are separated.

Question 10

Multiple attachments

Answer 10

9 months upwards

The baby begins to show attachments to other people such as grandparents

Question 11

Strengths of Schaffer and Emerson

Answer 11

This is an important study as its findings had implications for out theories of attachment. The learning theory argues that babies become attached to whoever feeds them however this study contradicts this as 39% of children weren’t attached to the person who usually fed them.

Longitudinal

Observed infants in their natural surroundings

Question 12

What are the advantages of using a longitudinal study?

Answer 12

It allows the researchers to track changes in attachment in the same babies as they grow up. This gives greater internal validity.

Question 13

Cross sectional study

Answer 13

Where babies of different ages are assessed . This is quicker than a longitudinal study but the researcher can’t be sure that differences in attachments may be due to differences in those babies personalities rather being due to their ages.

Question 14

Limitations of Schaffer and Emerson

Answer 14

The study was conducted over 40 years ago and the structure of families has changed in that time. Women are more likely to be working and children often arsenic nursery from a young age, therefore, the study may have limited temporal validity. This means we can’t be sure that the results are relevant to today’s children,

Question 15

Geiger

1996

Answer 15

Found that fathers tend to engage in more exciting, physical games with their children than movers . There is also some evidence that fathers are less able to detect low levels of infant distress compared to mothers.

Some have argued that this may be due to biological differences

Question 16

Ainsworth and bell

Answer 16

100 middle class American infants

66% secure
22% avoidant
12% resistant

Question 17

Issues of strange situation

Answer 17

Ethical issues- infant is put under moderate stress. However it lasts a short amount of time and if the infant appeared excessively distressed, the procedure is stopped.

Ethical issues are raised by categorising children as secure or insecure. The caregiver may feel worried that they were be identified as having a child who is insecurely attached.

The caregiver is likely to act in a way which they think the observer wants them too. Demand characteristics

Artificial environment

Question 18

Cultures

Answer 18

Culture is the rules, beliefs, moral values and customs that are common to certain groups of people.

Question 19

Vanljzendoorn and Kroonenberg

Answer 19

Aimed to compare data on attachment in children from a range of different countries. Their method involved gathering data from 32 different studies that had been undertaken in 8 different countries, nearly 2000 children

Germany had the highest amount of insecure avoidant

Secure attachment was most common in all cultures. This supports the idea that there may be an innate drive to form a secure attachment.

Differences between cultures suggest that cultural differences in parenting styles may influence attachment.

Question 20

Limitations of Vanljzendoorn and Kroonenberg

Answer 20

Some counties only had a small number of studies involved. For instance, there was only 1 study from China with just 25 children. Therefore, we must be more cautious about drawing conclusions about attachment patterns of Chinese children.

Doesn’t tell us anything about why some cultures may vary in their patterns of attachment.

Question 21

Takahashi

Answer 21

60 middle class Japanese infants
68% secure
0% avoidant
32% resistant

The a sense of avoidant attachment in Japan may be because it is considered rude to ignore an adult in Japan so children may be taught from an early age not to ignore adults
Y

Question 22

Internal working models

Answer 22

Mental representations of the world and relationships which influence how we feel and behave,

Question 23

Myron Wilson and smith

Answer 23

Used questionnaires to assess attachment type and bullying in 196 children

Securely attached children were least likely to be involved in bullying
Insecure avoidant were most likely to be victims
Resistant most likely to be bullies

Question 24

Harlow

Answer 24

Found that monkeys that had been isolated at birth and so hadn’t formed attachments grew up to be cruel and abusive parents

Question 25

Quinton

Answer 25

Compared 50 women who had been raised in institutions and had poor attachments with a control group of 50 women raised at home.

The women who had been raised in institutions had significantly more parenting problems

However 31% of the ex care women did go on to be good parents

Question 26

Attachment definiton

Answer 26

A close emotional relationship between 2 persons characterised by mutual affection and desire to maintain proximity.