Attachment Flashcards
Attachment
An emotional bond/relationship between an infant and their primary caregiver
Interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect the actions/emotions of the other and do it in a co-ordinated way
Asocial attachment
Stage 1
Birth-2 months
Similar response to any caregiver
Synchrony/reciprocity to establish relationships
Indiscriminate attachment
Stage 2 2-7 months Recognise/prefer certain adults No stranger/separation anxiety Preference for people
Specific attachment
Stage 3
7-9 months
Distress when separated from certain adults
Primary attachment figure
Multiple attachments
Stage 4
9+ months
Secondary attachments with others
Stages of attachment
Schafer and emerson study 60 Glasgow infants External validity Longitudinal design Limited sample Hard to study asocial stage Conflicting evidence Hard to measure multiple attachments
Longitudinal study
Same kids observed over a long period of time, can see how they develop
Role of the father
Paternal leave Cultural factors Play time Temperament of child Not physically adapted Paternal involvement Travelling for work Males have male attachment figures
Imprinting
Make and attachment with the first thing seen after birth.
Innate process
Lorenz study
Goslings
Half with the mother
Half with lorenz
His group followed him around
Cant be generalised to human babies and theyre unable to move and follow attachment figure around
Differences are too vast between humans/birds
Critical period
Time after birth when imprinting must take place
Chicks dont attach to a mother figure if imprinting doesnt occur
Harlows study
Effects of privation
16 monkeys separated from mothers
Access to surrogate mothers, one cloth & one wire
- 8 got milk from cloth
- 8 got milk from wire
Both groups spent more time with the cloth mother and sook comfort
Monkeys with surrogate mothers were more timid, aggressive and had difficulty mating
Harlow -> evaluation
Contact comfort is necessary for animals/humans
Monkeys are most alike to humans
Both become distressed when isolated from mother figure
Social workers realise the risks of child neglect
Zoo’s can have better breeding programmes
Ethical issues as monkeys suffered greatly
Permanently scarred and severe emotional damage
Classical conditioning - learning theory/ behaviourist approach
Unconditioned stimulus (food) -> unconditioned response (happy)
Neutral stimulus (mother) -> no response
Unconditioned + neutral (food + mother) -> unconditioned response (happy)
Conditioned stimulus (mother) -> conditioned response
Operant conditioning
Reward and punishment
Child is hungry and makes noise to attract attention
Comfort is provided by the food (reward) - primary reinforcer
Mother gives food so child wants to be with her - secondary reinforcer
Bowlbys monotropic theory
1) attachments are needed for survival - social releasers
2) biological process - during critical period
3) monotropic - one primary attachment figure
4) internal working model - what to expect from others
5) continuity hypothesis - securely attached cope well with emotional/social situations
6) secure base - safe place to return in danger
Evaluation of bowlbys monotropic theory
+ securely attached kids are more popular
+ social releasers lead to interactional synchrony
+ in interviews, those with poor attachments to parents had bad attachments in future
- some children cope better than others and can recover
- temperament hypothesis, some form relationships better
- many children form multiple attachments
Strange situation
1) parent + child in room
2) parent watches child play
3) stranger enters room and parent leaves
4) stranger tries to interact
5) parent enters, stranger leaves, parent leaves
6) child alone
7) stranger comes back in
8) parent + child reunited and stranger leaves
Separation anxiety
Unease shown by child when left by the caregiver
Stranger anxiety
Infants response to a stranger
Securely attached
Type B 66% Explore room in mothers presence Upset when mother leaves Seek comfort when she returns Treated mother snd stranger different
Insecure-avoidant
Type A 22% Ignored the mother Few signs of stress when she leaves Ignored/avoided on return Treat mother and stranger similarly
Insecure-resistant
Type C 12% Very distressed when mother was absent Sought comfort and rejected it Caregiver was inconsistent: rejecting/angry or overly responsive/sensitive
Evaluation of strange situation
+ good reliability
+ standardised procedure - has been repeated many times
- only looks at attachment to mother, others could be different
- different behaviours on different occasions e.g. If mother becomes ill
- ethical issues, child is purposely put under stress
- biased sample, middle class americans
- low ecological validity, in a lab environment
Culture
Norms and values that exist within a group of people
Individualist culture
Value the rights and interests of the individual
People live in small families
Typical of western-culture
More independence
Collectivist culture
More value on the collective rather than an individual
Interdependence rather than independence
Van ijzendoorn & kroonenberg - strange situation across cultures
Compare findings across cultures
Secure attachment is always the norm, innate process
There are differences in patterns, could be due to cultural attitudes or parenting styles
Evaluation of cross culture strange situation
+ meta-analysis is ethically sound, no more traumatic strange situations
+ larger sample increases internal validity
+ applications in psychology, different child rearing practices can impact on the attachment type
- biased, ethnocentric procedure and based on american norms
- samples could be unrepresentative of the culture, comparison was between countries not cultures
Maternal deprivation - Bowlby
Lack of mother figure could lead to affectionless psychopathy
First 2.5 years is critical period
Deprivation occurs when primary attachment figure is gone for an extended period of time
44 juvenile thieves - Bowlby
1- 44 teenagers, stealing
2- 44 teenagers, emotional problems
Matched for age/IQ
1- 14 were affectionless psychopaths, 12/14 had prolonged separation
5/30 of none affectionless psychopaths experienced separation
2- 2/44 had separations and none were affectionless psychopaths
Maternal deprivation evaluation
- poor evidence, war orphans were traumatised and deprived of many aspects of care
Carried out the assessment knowing what he hoped to find - critical period is sensitive period, effects could be reversed
- could be psychological separation not physical separation
Deprivation vs Privation
Deprivation - loss of primary attachment figure after attachment has developed
Privation - failure to form attachment in the first place
Romanian institutions
111 adopted by the age of 2
54 adopted by the age of 4
Interviewed and progress compared with a British control group
- romanian children behind in all aspects at time of adoption (physical, cognitive and social development), classed as mentally retarded
- romanian children adopted before the age of 6 months caught up development wise by the age of 4
