Attachment Flashcards
What is a newborn baby’s alert phase?
From birth, babies and their mothers (or carers) spend a lot of time in intense and pleasurable interaction. Babies have periodic “alert phases” and signal when they are ready for interaction, to which mothers respond to half the time.
What is interactional synchrony?
It takes place when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
When does interactional synchrony begin?
Meltzof and Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old.
An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures and the child’s response was filmed.
An association was found between the expression/gesture and the action of the child.
Why is interactional synchrony important?
It provides the necessary foundation for the mother-infant connection to be built upon in later years.
Isabella et al (1989) observed 20 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony + the quality of mother-infant attachment.
The researchers found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment.
What is reciprocity?
It is where one person responds the other - but does not copy them. Brazelton has described it as a “dance”.
It tends to occur frequently, each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
Is the baby active or passive in forming attachments?
Traditional views of childhood have seen the baby as passive - receiving care from an adults. however the baby actually takes an active role. Both mother and child can initiate interactions and appears to take turns in doing so.
What was the aim and procedure for Ainsworth’s study.
A-Assess quality of caregiver/child attachment
P- Took place in a quiet room with a two-way mirror so psychologists could observe (so Lab). They were looking for Proximity Seeking, Exploration and Secure base behaviour, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, response to reunion with caregiver. The child and caregiver then went through 7 episodes that each lasted 3 minutes.
What were the 7 episodes in Ainsworth’s study?
- Child is encouraged to explore by caregiver
- Stranger enters and talks to caregiver
- Caregiver leaves
- The caregiver returns, stranger leaves
- Caregiver leaves child alone
- Stranger returns
- Caregiver returns
What were the findings of the Ainsworth study?
Ainsworth found 3 types of attachment: B, A, C
B - Secure (around 60-75% of British toddlers). Happy to explore but seeks proximity with caregiver. Moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. Requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion.
A - Insecure-avoidant (20-25% of British toddlers) Explores freely, does not seek proximity. Little/no separation or stranger anxiety.
C - Insecure-resistant (3% of British-toddlers. Explores less and seeks greater proximity. Considerable stranger and separation anxiety. Resits comfort when reunited with caregiver.
What 2 strengths for the Ainsworth study?
Predictive validity - Attachment type predicts later development, for example secure babies typically have more success in school and with romantic relationships. However insecure-resistant attachments lead to bullying and mental health problems. This increases the external validity of the study - as it can explain future outcomes.
Shows good inter-rater reliability. Different observers watching the same children generally agree on the attachment type. This may be because the strange situation takes place under controlled conditions and because behaviour categories are easy to observe. So we can be confident that the attachment type identified does not depend on who is observing them - increasing the reliability.
What are 2 limitations of the Ainsworth study?
May be culture bound. The strange situation may not have the same meaning in countries outside the USA and Western Europe. Cultural differences in children’s experiences mean that they may respond different. Moreover caregivers from different cultures behave differently. Researchers have noted that Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their offspring, so infants show high levels of separation anxiety. This reduces the validity of the study as it cannot be expanded to cover all cultures (which some studies have tried to do).
Temperament may be a confounding variable. Ainsworth assumed that the main influence on separation and stranger anxiety was the quality of attachment. But some have suggested that temperament is a more important factor on behaviour in the strange situation. This challenges the internal validity of the study as the temperament of the child may be a confounding variable, so the the study may not be fully measuring attachment.
What is the Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study?
The researchers looked at the amount of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries. They also looked at differences within a country to get an idea of variations across a culture. They looked at 32 studies across 8 countries with 15 being in the US. Overall nearly 2,000 children were studied. The data was meta-analysed and the results were combined and weighted for sample size.
The study found that secure attachment is the most common classification in all countries (50% in china upto 75% in the UK). In individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant were similar to Ainsworth’s original sample (under 14%) but this was not true for collectivist samples from China, Japan and Israel where rates above 25% (and insecure of insecure-avoidant attachment were reduced). This suggests that were cultural differences in the distribution of insecure attachment.
Variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries. In the USA one study found 46% were securely attached compared to a sample as high as 90%.
What is a strength of the van Ijzendoorn study?
Meta-analyses can end up with very large samples. The study ended up with nearly 2000 babies and primary attachment figures. This increases the internal validity as the impact of biased methodology or unusual participants is reduced.
What are two weaknesses of the Van Ijzendoorn study?
It may not be representative of cultures. The meta-analysis made comparisons between countries, not cultures. Within any country there are different cultures that have different child rearing practises. For example another study by Van Ijzendoorn studied attachment in Japan. It found that in Tokyo results were similar to western countries, but in rural areas there were much more insecure-resistant individuals. This reduces the internal validity of the study - as it does not specify what cultural characteristics (and thus caregiving styles) needs to be specified.
The strange situation method may be biased towards American/British culture. It was designed by Ainsworth (american) and was based on Bowlby (who was British). Therefore the theory and assessment may only apply to other cultures. This would imposing a American/British etic and ignoring the uniqueness of other cultures. it also means that it ignores different cultural practises in child raising, for example in Germany a lack of pleasure on reunion is seen as a sign of independence.
What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
Bowlby argued that attachment is innate and gives a survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment evolved to ensure young animals stay close to caregivers and protects them from hazards.
It is seen as monotropic because emphasis is placed on the child’s attachment to one caregiver, as this attachment will be different and more important.
He believed that it was important that the baby spent as much time as possible with the PCG. There are two reasons for this; Continuity the more constant a child’s care the better quality of attachment; accumulated separation the effects of every separation add up so ‘the safest dose is zero dose’.
Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours that encourage attention from adults. The purpose of these releasers is to activate the adult attachment system. He recognised that attachment is a reciprocal.
He proposed that there is a system of about 2 years when the infant attachment system is active (he noted that is was a sensitive period). A child is maximally sensitive up until the age of 2. If an attachment has not formed at this time they will find it much harder to form ones later.
Bowlby argued that the child also forms an internal working model of the relationship with the primary attachment figure. This model serves as a template for what relationships should be like and may effect the child ability as a parent later on.