Attachment Flashcards
Interactional synchrony
When infants react in time with the caregiver’s speech
Reciprocity
When interaction flows back and forth between the caregiver and the infant
Name the four stages in attachment formation in order
Pre-attachment
Indiscriminate attachment
Discriminate attachment
Multiple attachment
Describe pre-attachment phase
First 0-3 months of life
Baby can separate people from objects but has no preference of carer
Describe the indiscriminate attachment phase
Between 6 weeks and seven months
Infant can recognise different people
No strong preference of carer
Describe the discriminate attachment phase
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
Describe the multiple attachment phase
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
Summarise Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment study
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
Evaluation points for Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- limited sample - 60 babies
- evidence from interviews may be unreliable/demand characteristics
+ research support
- lacks population validity - Glasgow
+ natural setting
What is the role of the father?
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
Harlow’s study - aim, procedure and findings?
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
Evaluation points for Harlow
+ 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
Describe Lorenz’s imprinting theory
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)
Briefly describe each stage of Ainsworth’s strange situation
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
What behaviours did Ainsworth assess?
Use of parent as secure base
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Reunion behaviour
What types of attachment did Ainsworth identify?
Secure attachment
Inseure-avoidant
Insecure-resistant
Secure attachmemt
Have a strong bond to their caregiver Become distressed if separated Easily comforted by caregiver Would explore unfamiliar room Mother is described as sensitive
Insecure-avoidant attachment
Not distressed when separated from caregiver
Can be comforted by strangers
Generally avoid social interaction and intimacy with others
Insecure-Resistant attachment
Often uneasy around caregiver but distressed when separated
Strangers cannot comfort them
Rejected caregiver when she returned
Accept and reject social interaction and intimacy
Evaluation points for Ainsworth’s strange situation
+ 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
Who conducted a cross-cultural study of attachment?
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
Describe the method and findings of Van Ijzenddorn and Kroonenberg’s study
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
Evaluation points for Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
- 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
Maternal deprivation
The long term or permanent loss of the mother as an attachment figure
What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
> 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
Describe the method and findings of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves
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
Evaluation points for maternal deprivation theory
- 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
Maternal privation
When a child NEVER had an attachment to its mother or caregiver
Describe the internal working model
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
Who conducted the love quiz?
Hazan and Shaver
Describe the love quiz
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
What is the cycle of privation?
The idea that those who experience privation as a child become less caring parents
Name the explanations of attachment
> The learning theory
> Bowlby’s monotropic theory
Describe the learning theory
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
Describe Bowlby’s monotropic theory
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
