Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

Interactional synchrony

A

When infants react in time with the caregiver’s speech

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2
Q

Reciprocity

A

When interaction flows back and forth between the caregiver and the infant

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3
Q

Name the four stages in attachment formation in order

A

Pre-attachment

Indiscriminate attachment

Discriminate attachment

Multiple attachment

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4
Q

Describe pre-attachment phase

A

First 0-3 months of life

Baby can separate people from objects but has no preference of carer

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5
Q

Describe the indiscriminate attachment phase

A

Between 6 weeks and seven months

Infant can recognise different people
No strong preference of carer

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6
Q

Describe the discriminate attachment phase

A

From seven to eleven months

Infant forms strong attachment with ONE individual

Happy when they’re there and distressed when they’re not

May avoid strangers

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7
Q

Describe the multiple attachment phase

A

From about nine months

Infant can form attachments to several people

Some attachments are stronger than others and have different functions

Original attachment is strongest

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8
Q

Summarise Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment study

A

They observed 60 babies in Glasgow every four weeks for 18 months in their homes

As well as interviewing their families

They identified stages of attachment and that quality of care is important

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9
Q

Evaluation points for Schaffer and Emerson’s study

A
  • limited sample - 60 babies
  • evidence from interviews may be unreliable/demand characteristics

+ research support

  • lacks population validity - Glasgow

+ natural setting

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10
Q

What is the role of the father?

A

Schaffer and Emerson found that one third of infants preferred their father.

Goodsell and Meldrum found that those with a secure attachment to their mother were likely to be securely attached to their father

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11
Q

Harlow’s study - aim, procedure and findings?

A

aim: To investigate whether food or comfort was more important when forming an attachment

procedure: lab study - monkey is raised in isolation with two mothers.
1 - wire mesh with a feeding bottle
2 - cloth monkey without feeding bottle

findings: More time was spent with cloth monkey only using the wire mesh for food so comfort is more important
The female monkeys grew up to be violent mothers

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12
Q

Evaluation points for Harlow

A

+ lab study - control over variables - can be replicated

  • Can it really be generalised to humans?
  • ethical concerns - monkeys were psychologically damaged after
  • Lacks ecological validity
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13
Q

Describe Lorenz’s imprinting theory

A

He found that geese attach to the first moving thing they see when they hatch (IMPRINTING)

Fast, automatic process

He divided goose eggs into two groups - one group was left with the mother and other with him so they attached to them

Imprinting occurs during a CRITICAL PERIOD (13-16 hours after hatching)

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14
Q

Briefly describe each stage of Ainsworth’s strange situation

A

1) Parent and infant play
2) Parent sits while infant plays
3) Stranger enters and talks to parent
4) Parent leaves, infant plays and stranger offers comfort
5) Parent returns, stranger leaves
6) Parent leaves infant completely alone
7) Stranger enters and offers comfort
8) Parent returns and stranger leaves

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15
Q

What behaviours did Ainsworth assess?

A

Use of parent as secure base
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Reunion behaviour

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16
Q

What types of attachment did Ainsworth identify?

A

Secure attachment
Inseure-avoidant
Insecure-resistant

17
Q

Secure attachmemt

A
Have a strong bond to their caregiver
Become distressed if separated
Easily comforted by caregiver
Would explore unfamiliar room
Mother is described as sensitive
18
Q

Insecure-avoidant attachment

A

Not distressed when separated from caregiver
Can be comforted by strangers
Generally avoid social interaction and intimacy with others

19
Q

Insecure-Resistant attachment

A

Often uneasy around caregiver but distressed when separated
Strangers cannot comfort them
Rejected caregiver when she returned
Accept and reject social interaction and intimacy

20
Q

Evaluation points for Ainsworth’s strange situation

A

+ control of variables - reliable

  • artificial? - reduces ecological validity
  • demand characteristics? - parents may have changed behaviour which affect child’s behaviour
  • may not accurately represent the child’s actual behaviour
  • assumes that mother is main caregiver
  • only measures child’s attachment to the mother so can their attachment style really apply to how they form all attachments
  • Solomon and main identified a type D attachment style - insecure disorganised - study lacks internal validity

+ High reliability - .94 agreement between raters

21
Q

Who conducted a cross-cultural study of attachment?

A

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

22
Q

Describe the method and findings of Van Ijzenddorn and Kroonenberg’s study

A

meta-analysis of 32 studies of the strange situation in different countries

The percentages of each attachment type were similar in different countries

There were more differences within countries than between them

23
Q

Evaluation points for Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

A
  • Assumes that different countries is the same as different cultures
  • The strange situation was created in USA therefore it is culturally bias - ethnocentric - uses American norms
  • Similarities may not be innate but actually due to the mass media - this increases global culture
24
Q

Maternal deprivation

A

The long term or permanent loss of the mother as an attachment figure

25
Q

What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?

A

> Deprivation from the main carer during the critical period can have harmful effects on the child (emotional, social, physical etc)

> Can cause long term effects and affect future relationships

26
Q

Describe the method and findings of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves

A

Bowlby compared the case studies of 44 thieves to 44 people in a control group who were emotionally disturbed

He found that 17 of the thieves had experienced frequent separations from their mother before the age of 2
compared with 2 in the control group

Therefore maternal deprivation in the early life can have detrimental long term consequences

27
Q

Evaluation points for maternal deprivation theory

A
  • Rutter the deprivation is due to the disruption of an attachment rather than the physical separation.
  • Bowlby does not take the quality of substitute care into account
  • Assumes that the mother is the most central carer
  • Assumes the effects are non-reversible
  • Doesn’t consider individual differences
28
Q

Maternal privation

A

When a child NEVER had an attachment to its mother or caregiver

29
Q

Describe the internal working model

A

Acts as a template for future relationships

If a child is securely attached as a child they are likely to form futures secure relationships
If a child is insecurely attached as a child they may feel unloved leading them to form insecure relationships

known as the continuity hypothesis

30
Q

Who conducted the love quiz?

A

Hazan and Shaver

31
Q

Describe the love quiz

A

It was made up of two parts: the first part assessed their attachment type to their parents
the second part questioned their current beliefs around love

Secure children were more likely to have happy, trustworthy relationships

Insecure-avoidant children feared intimacy

EARLY ATTACHMENTS DO INFLUENCE ADULT RELATIONSHIPS

32
Q

What is the cycle of privation?

A

The idea that those who experience privation as a child become less caring parents

33
Q

Name the explanations of attachment

A

> The learning theory

> Bowlby’s monotropic theory

34
Q

Describe the learning theory

A

Behavioural theory

suggests attachment is a set of learned behaviours

The basis of the attachment is food as an attachment will form from whoever feeds the infant

Classical conditioning - infant associates the comfort of food with caregiver

Operant conditioning allows them to repeat these behaviours

35
Q

Describe Bowlby’s monotropic theory

A

Evolutionary theory

suggests that infants are biologically programmed to form attachments

infants produce innate SOCIAL RELEASERS(crying,smiling)
which stimulate innate caregiving responses

CRITICAL PERIOD=0-5 YEARS