Attachment

Question 1

Attachment

Answer 1

An emotional bond/relationship between an infant and their primary caregiver

Question 2

Interactional synchrony

Answer 2

Mother and infant reflect the actions/emotions of the other and do it in a co-ordinated way

Question 3

Asocial attachment

Answer 3

Stage 1
Birth-2 months
Similar response to any caregiver
Synchrony/reciprocity to establish relationships

Question 4

Indiscriminate attachment

Answer 4

Stage 2
2-7 months
Recognise/prefer certain adults
No stranger/separation anxiety
Preference for people

Question 5

Specific attachment

Answer 5

Stage 3
7-9 months
Distress when separated from certain adults
Primary attachment figure

Question 6

Multiple attachments

Answer 6

Stage 4
9+ months
Secondary attachments with others

Question 7

Stages of attachment

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Longitudinal study

Answer 8

Same kids observed over a long period of time, can see how they develop

Question 9

Role of the father

Answer 9

Paternal leave
Cultural factors
Play time
Temperament of child
Not physically adapted
Paternal involvement
Travelling for work
Males have male attachment figures

Question 10

Imprinting

Answer 10

Make and attachment with the first thing seen after birth.

Innate process

Question 11

Lorenz study

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Critical period

Answer 12

Time after birth when imprinting must take place

Chicks dont attach to a mother figure if imprinting doesnt occur

Question 13

Harlows study

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Harlow -> evaluation

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Classical conditioning - learning theory/ behaviourist approach

Answer 15

Unconditioned stimulus (food) -> unconditioned response (happy)

Neutral stimulus (mother) -> no response

Unconditioned + neutral (food + mother) -> unconditioned response (happy)

Conditioned stimulus (mother) -> conditioned response

Question 16

Operant conditioning

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Bowlbys monotropic theory

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Evaluation of bowlbys monotropic theory

Answer 18

+ 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

Question 19

Strange situation

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Separation anxiety

Answer 20

Unease shown by child when left by the caregiver

Question 21

Stranger anxiety

Answer 21

Infants response to a stranger

Question 22

Securely attached

Answer 22

Type B
66%
Explore room in mothers presence
Upset when mother leaves
Seek comfort when she returns
Treated mother snd stranger different

Question 23

Insecure-avoidant

Answer 23

Type A
22%
Ignored the mother
Few signs of stress when she leaves
Ignored/avoided on return
Treat mother and stranger similarly

Question 24

Insecure-resistant

Answer 24

Type C
12%
Very distressed when mother was absent
Sought comfort and rejected it
Caregiver was inconsistent: rejecting/angry or overly responsive/sensitive

Question 25

Evaluation of strange situation

Answer 25

+ 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

Question 26

Culture

Answer 26

Norms and values that exist within a group of people

Question 27

Individualist culture

Answer 27

Value the rights and interests of the individual
People live in small families
Typical of western-culture
More independence

Question 28

Collectivist culture

Answer 28

More value on the collective rather than an individual

Interdependence rather than independence

Question 29

Van ijzendoorn & kroonenberg - strange situation across cultures

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Evaluation of cross culture strange situation

Answer 30

+ 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

Question 31

Maternal deprivation - Bowlby

Answer 31

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

Question 32

44 juvenile thieves - Bowlby

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Maternal deprivation evaluation

Answer 33

• 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

Question 34

Deprivation vs Privation

Answer 34

Deprivation - loss of primary attachment figure after attachment has developed

Privation - failure to form attachment in the first place

Question 35

Romanian institutions

Answer 35

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