Attachment Flashcards
Reciprocity
A description of how 2 people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.
Stages of attachment
Some characteristics of the infants behaviour towards others change as the infant gets older.
Stage 1: Asocial stage
First few weeks.
The baby is recognising and forming bonds with its carers. Can’t tell the difference between humans and inanimate objects. Babies show some preference for familiar adults.
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months.
Babies show preference towards people rather than inanimate objects, and recognise and prefer familiar adults. Babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, and they don’t usually show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety.
Stage 3: Specific attachment
From 7 months.
Babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become anxious when separated from one particular adult, normally the mother. This adult is the primary attachment figure.
Stage 4: Multiple attachments
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour one adult they usually extend their attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults with whom they regularly spend time.
Multiple attachements
Attachments to 2 or more people.
Lorenz’s research - Geese
Wanted to study imprinting.
Divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother in natural environment, the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her. This was still the case when the two groups were mixed.
This showed that species that are mobile from birth (such as geese and ducks) attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
Harlow’s research - Rhesus monkeys (1958)
Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. in one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with 2 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.
It was found that baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk. This shows that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
Learning theory and attachment - Dollard and Miller (1950)
The idea that children learn to love whoever feeds them.
Classical conditioning - learning to associate 2 stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we already respond to the other. Food serves as an UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS, being fed gives us pleasure, which is an UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE. A caregiver starts as a NEUTRAL STIMULUS but when the same person gives us food they become associated with the food, making them a CONDITIONED STIMULUS. Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a CONDITIONED RESPONSE of pleasure.
Operant conditioning - Learning to repeat behaviour, or not, depending on its consequences. If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again. The behaviour has been reinforced. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence it is less likely to be repeated.
Monotropic
A term used to describe Bowlby’s theory (1958, 1969). It indicates that one particular attachment is different from all the others and of central importance to the child’s development. Bowlby thinks the longer an infant spends with its primary attachment figure, the better. He put forward 2 principles to clarify this:
- The 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 mother add up ‘and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’.
Internal working models
The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. They’re important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like.
Critical period
The time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Lorenz and Harlow noted attachment in birds and monkeys had critical periods. Bowlby extended the idea to humans, proposing that human infants have a sensitive period after which it will be much more difficult to form an attachment.
Bowlbys Monotropic Theory (1958,1969)
Bowlbys theory is described as monotropic as it places great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular care giver and he believed that the child’s attachment to this one caregiver is different and more important than others.
- The 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 mother add up ‘and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’
Bowlbys suggested that babies are born with a set of innate behaviours e.g. Smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults. He called these social releasers as their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system. Bowlby recognised that attachment is a reciprocal process.
The interplay between infant and adult attachment systems gradually builds the relationship between infant and caregiver.
Internal Working Model
A child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver. It serves as a model for what relationships should be like.
