Attachment Flashcards
Attachment
A close two way emotional bond between two individuals. It takes a few moths to develop. It can be recognised if they are in close proximity, get distressed if they are separated (separation distress.) and make regular contact with them. (Secure base behaviour.)
Reciprocity
How two people interact. Eg. Mother and infant respond to each others signals and each elicits a response.
(Brazelton et al, like a dance.)
Interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect both actions and emotions of the other and do it in a synchronised way.
High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment. (Isabella et al.)
Caregiver-infant interactions
Reciprocity and interactional synchrony
Attachment figures
Parent-infant attachment, the role of the father, fathers as primary carers.
Parent infant attachment
Schaffer and Emerson found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mother first. After 7 months, they then begin to form secondary attachments. Eg. Father.
75% at 18 months had all created secondary attachments.
The role of the father
Grossman- longitudinal study found that fathers have a different role in attachment, theirs is to do with play and stimulation and less nurture.
Fathers as primary care givers
Father adapts behaviour to be more nurturing. Eg. Smiling, imitating and holding them. Key to attachment is level of responsiveness, not gender.
Evaluation- caregiver infant interactions
Its hard to know what is happening when observing infants, don’t know if its deliberate/special.
Good validity, studies are controlled and recorded so can be watched back and later analysed.
Observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity.
Evaluation- attachment figures
Inconsistent findings on fathers, as psychologists are researching different questions.
If fathers have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different? Suggests fathers S.A aren’t important.
Fathers may not become P.A because of gender roles or lower levels of female nurturing hormones.
Key study: Schaffer and Emerson. Method
Method: 60 babies, 31 males and 29 females from Glasgow. Working class families. Mothers were visited every month for first year then at 18 months. Questionnaire about separation anxiety (leaving the room) and stranger anxiety (unfamiliar adults).
Key study: Schaffer and Emerson. Findings.
Between 25-32 weeks 50% showed separation anxiety. By 40 weeks 80% had a specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments.
Stages of attachment
Asocial stage, Indiscriminate attachment, Specific attachment and Multiple attachments.
Stage 1: Asocial stage
First few weeks, baby recognises and forms bonds with its carers. Reactions towards objects and humans is similar. Some preferences for familiar adults.
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months. Preference for humans rather than objects. Recognise and prefer familiar adults. Usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult. So don’t show stranger or separation anxiety.
Stage 3: Specific attachment
7+ months, start to display anxiety towards strangers and separation from one particular adult (usually mother). Formed first primary attachment.
Stage 4: Multiple attachment
Shortly after stage 3 they begin to form other attachments with other adults who they see regularly. In Schaffer and Emersons study one month later after primary attachments formed 29% had created multiple attachments.
Schaffer and Emerson evaluation
Good external validity- study done in natural environment (home) and reported later so babies behaviour less likely to be affected by presence of observers.
Longitudinal design- better than using different children (cross sectional) as then theres no confounding variables meaning higher validity.
Not generalisable- same district, social class, same city and 50+ years ago.
Stages of attachment evaluation
Problem studying asocial stage, hardly any observable behaviour as they are immobile, evidence cant be relied on.
Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments, some believe that babies form multiple attachments first from particular cultures where families work together in everything.
Bowlby pointed out that children can become distressed when a playmate leaves, this doesn’t signify attachment.
Lorenz’s research procedure
Observed imprinting, he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs, half were hatched with the mother goose, then the others in an incubator where they saw Lorenz first.
Lorenz’s research findings
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere when the control group followed the mother. When the two were mixed up, they continued to follow Lorenz. (Imprinting.)
Imprinting
Where bird species which are mobile from birth attach and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period where imprinting needs to take place. If it doesn’t occur during the critical period, chicks didn’t attach to a mother figure.
Sexual imprinting
Birds that were imprinted to a human from birth would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans.
Evaluation of Lorenz’s research
There is a problem generalising the study to humans since it was done on birds. (Mammalian mothers are more emotional).
Imprinting behaviour may not be as permanent, chicks imprinted on rubber gloves found later they learned to prefer hens.
Harlow’s research procedure
Reared 16 monkeys with 2 different wire ‘monkeys’. One condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire, the other condition milk was dispensed by the wire monkey covered in cloth.
Harlow’s research findings
Baby monkey’s cuddled the cloth for comfort when they were scared.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults
Severe consequences when they had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother. They were more aggressive, less sociable and bred less often. When they became mother monkeys, they neglected their young.
Harlow’s research evaluation
Attachment doesn’t develop as the result of being fed but as a result of contact comfort. Showed importance of early relationships on future.
Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect so they intervene to prevent it.
Ethical issues, monkey’s in horrible conditions.
Explanations of attachment- Learning theory (classical)
Classical conditioning- in the case of attachment. Food is the unconditioned stimulus, Pleasure from food is unconditioned response, Care giver starts as neutral stimulus. Then the caregiver becomes the conditioned stimulus. Then they become a conditioned response. (This is love).
Learning theory (operant)
Can explain baby’s crying for comfort. Crying leads to a response from the care giver, as long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced. The care giver receives negative reinforcement to stop the baby crying.
Learning theory- Attachment as a secondary drive
Hunger can be thought as a primary drive, it’s innate. We are motivated to eat to reduce the drive. This makes attachment the second drive learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction from primary drive.
Learning theory evaluation
Counter evidence- Lorenz geese imprinted before being fed and maintained these relationships regardless of who fed them. In Schaffer and Emerson, the babies developed primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding.
Explanations of attachment- Bowlby’s theory
Rejected learning theory as an explanation. Believed that attachment is innate that gives us a survival advantage. He believed that one care giver is different and more important (primary caregiver-monotropic)
Bowlby social releasers
To activate the adult attachment system, to make the adult feel love. Cooing. Trigger a response in caregivers.
Bowlby critical period
An attachment must form in this period if it’s to form at all, if it’s not formed by the age of 2, a child will find it much harder to form one later.
Bowlby internal working model
A child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver. It serves as a model for what relationships are like. We base our future relationships on the primary attachment.
Bowlby evaluation
Support for internal working models- Bailey et al, 99 mothers with 1 year olds. The parents who reported poor attachments to their own parents were most likely to have children classing as poor according to observations.
Schaffer and emerson found that a child could form multiple attachments. (Doesn’t support monotropy.)
Brazelton et all told mothers to ignore their child, they curled into a ball and laid motionless (social releaser).
Ainsworth’s strange situation
Aimed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. Lab condition with a 2 way mirror.
Ainsworth’s strange situation behaviours used to judge attachment
Proximity seeking- a child with good attachment will stay close.
Exploration and secure base behaviour- good attachment enables a child to feel confident to explore.
Stranger anxiety.
Separation anxiety.
Response to reunion.
Ainsworth’s strange situation procedure
- the child is encouraged to explore.
- a stranger comes in and tries to interact.
- the caregiver leaves the child and stranger together.
- the caregiver returns and stranger leaves.
- caregiver leaves child alone.
- stranger returns.
- caregiver returns.
Ainsworth’s strange situation findings
3 main types of attachment- secure attachment, insecure avoidant attachment and insecure resistant attachment.
Secure attachment
Most desirable attachment, healthy outcomes. Moderate stranger and separation anxiety.
Insecure avoidant attachment
Low anxiety but weak attachment. Low stranger/separation anxiety, little response to reunion.
Insecure resistant attachment
Strong attachment and high anxiety. They get angry when the mother comes back.
Ainsworth’s strange situations evaluation
Insecure resistant is associated with the worst outcomes bullying in later child hood (Kokkinos), this is valid as it can explain some outcomes.
High inter-rater reliability, other researchers agree with observations (controlled settings).
Not culturally generalizable, in Japan it’s rare to be separated from mothers meaning high levels of anxiety.
Cultural variations
Culture refers to the norms and values between a group of people. Cultural variations refers to the differences in norms/values from different groups.
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
Continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development. Separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development.
Separation
Not being in the presence of a primary attachment.
Deprivation
Lose an element of the primary attachments care.
Bowlby’s critical period (maternal deprivation)
First 30 months, if they are separated within this time or deprived, then psychological damage is inevitable.
Effects on intellectual development (maternal deprivation)
Lower IQ. Goldfarb found lower IQ in children who remained in institutions than those who were fostered.
Effects on emotional development (maternal deprivation)
Affectionless psychopathy- associated with criminality, they can’t feel guilt or strong emotion for others.
Bowlby 44 thieves
44 criminal teenagers. All were interviewed for affectionless psychopathy. 14 of 44 had affectionless psychopaths. 12 of the 14 had prolonged separation from mothers in first 2 years of life. In control only 2 had prolonged separation.
Bowlby maternal deprivation evaluation
44 thieves- Bowlby carried out the assessments, researcher bias.
Hilda Lewis replicated 44 thieves study with 500 young people, in hers, a history of prolonged separation did not predict criminality.
Romanian orphan studies
Rutter, 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain. Found that when they first arrived in the UK they showed signs of delayed intellectual development. If the child was adopted after 6 months, they showed an attachment style called disinhibited attachment where they were attention seeking and clingy.
Evaluation of Romanian orphan studies
Real life application- each child has one or 2 keyworkers rather than loads.
Able to study institutionalisation without confounding participant variables such as trauma or loss- higher internal validity.
Lack generalizability, Romanian orphanages had poor standards or care and low intellectual stimulation.
