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A Level Psychology > Attachment > Flashcards

Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

What is an attachment?

A

A two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

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2
Q

What is proximity?

A

People try to stay physically close to those to whom they are attached

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3
Q

What is separation anxiety?

A

People are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence

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4
Q

What is secure-base behaviour?

A

Even when we are independent of our attachment figures we tend to make regular contact with them

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5
Q

What is reciprocity?

A

A description of how two people interact, a response to each other’s signals

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6
Q

What is interactional sychrony?

A

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated (synchronised) way.

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7
Q

What is the role of the father?

A

Fathers have a different role in attachment - one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.

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8
Q

Can the father be the primary attachment figure?

A

Yes - Smiling, imitating and holding infants is most important in building an attachment with the infant. So it seems that fathers can be the more nurturing figure. The key to the attachment relationship is the level responsiveness not the gender of the parent.

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9
Q

What is a multiple attachment?

A

Attachments to 2 or more people

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10
Q

When do babies most appear to develop multiple attachments?

A

Once they have formed one true attachment to their main caregiver.

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11
Q

What are the stages of attachment?

A
  • Asocial Stage
  • Indiscriminate attachment
  • Specific attachment
  • Multiple attachments
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12
Q

What is the asocial stage of attachment?

A

When the baby has similar behaviours to both humans and objects

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13
Q

What is the indiscriminate attachment stage?

A

From 2-7 months babies display more observable social behaviour. They show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects, and recognise and prefer familiar adults. At this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, and they do not usually show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety. Their attachment behaviour is therefore said to be indiscriminate because it is not different towards any one person.

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14
Q

What is the specific attachment stage?

A

From around 7 months the majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become anxious when separated from one particular adult (the biological mother in 65% of cases). At this point the baby is said to have formed specific attachment. This adult is termed the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily the person the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill.

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15
Q

Why are animal studies used?

A
  • Ethical reasons
    practical reasons - practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals.
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16
Q

What is imprinting?

A

Forming of an immediate attachment to the first thing you see

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17
Q

What is the learning theory?

A

A set of theories from the behaviourist approach to psychology, that emphasise the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. Explanations for learning include classical and operant conditioning.

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18
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

A caregiver starts a neutral stimulus i.e a thing that produces a neutral response. When the same person provides the food over time they become associated with ‘food’ - when the baby sees this person there is an immediate expectation of food. The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus. Once conditioning has taken place the sight if the caregiver produces a conditioned response of pleasure

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19
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

Involves learning to repeat behaviour, or not, depending on its consequences. If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again. The behaviour has been reinforced. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence it is less likely to be repeated.

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20
Q

What is a drive?

A

A biological motivator

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21
Q

Is attachment a primary or secondary drive and why?

A

Secondary drive - it is learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of primary drive.

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22
Q

What is monotropic?

A

The mono means ‘one’ and indicates that one particular attachment is different from all the others and of central importance to the child’s development

23
Q

Why is Bowlby’s theory described as monotropic?

A

Because he placed a great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver and he believed that the child’s attachment to this one caregiver is different ad more important than others. Bowlby called this person the ‘mother’ but was clear that it need not be the biological mother.

24
Q

What is the Law of Continuity?

A

It states that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment

25
Q

What is the Law of Accumulated Separation?

A

It states that the effects of every separation from the mother add up and the safest dose if therefore a zero dose

26
Q

What is the internal working model?

A

The mental representations we carry with us of our attachments

27
Q

Why is our internal working model important in affecting our future?

A

They carry out perception of what are relationships are like and form an expectation for future relationships

28
Q

What is the critical period?

A

This refers to the time with which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. This is around 2 years when the infant attachment system is active

29
Q

What is a social releaser?

A

A set of innate, cute behaviours like smiling and cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults

30
Q

What is the sensitive period?

A

A child is maximally sensitive at the age of 2 but, if an attachment is not formed in this time a child will find it much harder to form one later.

31
Q

What is the Strange Situation?

A

A controlled observation designed to test attachment security. Infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left alone with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver.

32
Q

What is secure attachment?

A

Most desirable type

Moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion

33
Q

What is insecure-avoidant attachment?

A

Low anxiety and weak attachment

Low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion, an avoidance of the caregiver

34
Q

What is insecure-resistant attachment?

A

Strong attachment and high anxiety

High levels of stranger and separation anxiety and resistance to be comforted at reuinion

35
Q

Which attachment type is associated with psychological health outcomes?

A

Secure attachment

36
Q

What is a cultural variation?

A

The differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups

37
Q

What are individualist cultures?

A

Value independence with each working to their own individual goals

38
Q

What are collectivist cultures?

A

Value cooperation with each working towards the family or group goals

39
Q

What is maternal deprivation?

A

The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute

40
Q

What is privation?

A

Failure to form an attachment

41
Q

How can the intellectual development of an infant be affected by maternal deprivation?

A

Could suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by low IQ.

42
Q

How can the emotional development of an infant be affected by maternal deprivation?

A

The child may become an affectionless psychopath

43
Q

What is affectionless psychopathy?

A

The inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others. This prevents the person from developing normal relationships and is often associated with criminality. Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and therefore lack remorse for their actions.

44
Q

What did Bowlby’s 44 thieves study aim to investigate?

A

This study examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation

45
Q

What did Bowlby do in his 44 thieves study?

A
  • 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
  • All thieves interviewed for signs of affection less psychopathy (lack of affection, lack of guilt, lack of empathy)
  • Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers
  • A control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/deprivation occurred in the children who were not thieves.
46
Q

What did Bowlby find in his 44 thieves study?

A
  • 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths
  • 12 of the 14 experienced prolonged separation
47
Q

What did Bowlby conclude from his 44 thieves study?

A

Prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy

48
Q

What is disinhibited attachment?

A

A pattern of behaviour in which a child actively approaches and interacts with unfamiliar adults

49
Q

What is institutionalisation?

A
  • A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting
  • Institution = a place where a child has lived for a long, continuous period, often a place where little emotional care is provided with high staff turnover
50
Q

What did Rutter aim to study?

A

To test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

51
Q

What did Rutter do?

A
  • Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain
  • Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years
  • Control group = 52 British children adopted around the same time
52
Q

What did Rutter find?

A
  • When they first arrived in the UK half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely malnourished
  • IQ was lower in those adopted after 6 months than in those adopted before 6 months
  • Those children adopted after they were six months showed signs of disinhibited attachment
53
Q

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

A
  • Disinhibited attachment

- Mental retardation

A Level Psychology (11 decks)

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