Attachment Flashcards
What is an attachment
A two way emotional bond
What is reciprocity
When infants coordinate their actions with a caregiver in a kind of conversation, taking turns e.g one person smiles the other one smiles back
What age do interactions become increasingly reciprocal
One month onwards
What is the research on reciprocity
Tronick et al the still face experiment- researchers asked mothers who had been interacting with baby in conversation to stop moving and don’t respond when the baby tries to get them to and gets distressed. Results= babies expect and anticipate concordant responses to their smiles, unethical
What is interactional synchrony
A type of interaction between parent and child in which partners share a mutual focus, mirror each other’s affect, exhibit a high degree of reciprocity and are responsive to each other’s cues. Like reciprocity but with more of a focus on the emotional factors than on behaviour
What’s the research on interactional synchrony
Meltzoff and Moore - infants were presented with three facial expressions and one hand movement. Had a dummy in so we’re still during the movement. After presentation of behaviour from model dummy removed and saw if the baby reflected the expression.
What was the aim and the results of the experiment on interactional synchrony
Aim= to investigate interactional synchrony in 2-3 week old infants
Results= significant associations between models behaviour and infants so very young infants will spontaneously imitate facial and hand movements of adult models. Could be reciprocity due to no emotional connection but mirror mean interactional synchrony. Complete stranger so no emotional attachment
Evaluation points for care giver interactions with humans
Problems with testing infant behaviour- infants can’t tell you why they behave the way they do so don’t know if mirroring is conscious and deliberate or not.
Failure to replicate- studies failed to find the same thing as Meltzoff and Moore. Marian et al found they couldn’t distinguish difference between videotaped and real life adult suggesting the baby doesnt respond to the adult but to something else however acknowledged that the problem could lie with the procedure not the babies ability to replicate expressions
Cultural validity- interactional synchrony isn’t related to security of attachment in all cultures. Levine et al showed mothers in Kenya don’t interact closely with kids even though they have secure attacmentns
What was Schaffer and Emersons research about
Aim= to investigate early attachments in particular the age they develop, emotional intensity and whom they're directed at 60 babies 31 male 29 female from Glasgow majority working class observed every month for the first year then again at 18 months. Researchers asked about separations and stranger anxiety
What were some results from Schaffer and Emerson
Between 25 and 30 weeks 50% infants showed separation anxiety to a specific adult. Specific attachment
40 weeeks 80% of babies had a specific attachment 30% displayed multiple attachment
Problems with the research and the stages(Schaffer and Emerson)
Isn’t representative as all from one area of country, could be differences between social classes. temporal, was from the 1960 childcare has changed a lot since then, no of fathers staying at home has quadrupled (cohen et al)
Impractical- takes a long time as a longitudinal study
Subjective- some mothers think same levels of stress are worse than others this creates a systematic bias and challenges the validity of the data
Stage theories are inflexible it suggest multiple attachments can’t form first but in some cultures and situations multiple attachments may come first. this creates a standard against which families are judged and may be classed as abnormal
What were the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer
Pre attachment stage birth to 3 months- prefer humans over objects
Indiscriminate stage 3 to 8 months- discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people but allow strangers to handle
Discriminate attachment 7/8 months onwards- develop specific attachments stranger and separation anxiety
Multiple attachments 9 months onwards - strong emotional ties with caregivers fear of strangers reduces
Name some research on the role of the father
Tiffany field- filmed face to face interaction with primary caregiver mums and secdonary fathers and primary fathers. Both primary attachments spent more time smiling imitating and holding infants gender isn’t important it’s the type of interactions
Evaluation of Lorenzs research
Guiton demonstrated leghorn chicks will imprint on the first moving thing it sees
Like the yellow gloves. Supporte the view that the animals aren’t hard wired to imprint on a certain thing also tried to mate with the glove so proves they’ll have strange sexual imprinting
Evaluation of Harlows research
The experiment lacked validity because the two mothers varied in more ways than being a wire mother or a cloth mother so it became a confounding variable
What is the learning theory of attachment
All behaviour is learned rather than innate when children are born they’re a blank slate and everything they become can be explained by the experiences they have
Includes operant and classical conditioning
What is classical conditioning
Learning through association, a neutral stimulus is constantly paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that it eventually takes on the properties of this stimulus and becomes a conditioned stimulus that gives a conditioned response
UCS=UCR
NS+UCS=UCR
CS=CR
What is opérant conditioning
Learning through reinforcement
A behaviour is learnt when it is rewarded. It involves learning though consequence
Positive reinforcement is reward by adding something good
Negative reinforcement is reward by taking away something bad
Punishment adding something bad
Evaluation of learning theory
Contact comfort is more important than food backed up by harlows research and contradicts the idea that a mother is only valued for her food.
Has some explanatory power as infants do learn through reinforcement but doesn’t take into account other viable reinforcements e.g attention and responsiveness
Learning theory ignores other factors associated with attachment e.g reciprocity and interactional synchrony
Why are attachments important
Attachment behaviour evolved as a survival function as infants would be in danger if they weren’t close to an adult. Two way as it allows the parent to ensure that the infants are cared for
What was bowlbys monotropic theory
Monotropic because he placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver and thus attachment is more important than others He believed the more time a baby spends with primary care giver the better
what two principles support monotropic theory
Law of continuity- the more constant and predictable a child’s care the better quality of attachment
Accumulated separation- effects of every separation from mother adds up the most healthy dose is zero
Statistics for the role of the father
2013 5.3 million British mothers in employment
Males comprising 10% of those who care for kids while partner works
9% of single parents are male
Evaluation of multiple attachments and the role of the father
Multiple attachments equivalent- bowlby view infant forms one special emotional relationship others are secondary as a safety net and provide other functions e.g dad play time. Argue - Rutter all attachment figures equivalent
Benefits- able to form and conduct social relationships. If lose one has others to fall back on
Evidence that men are less sensitive to infant cues e.g Herman etal but conflicting research is Frodi et al. Showed video tapes of infants crying no physiological difference in response between men and women
Inconsistent findings
Explain the procedure for Lorenz study
Clutch of gosling eggs and split them in two groups. One left with real mother other in an incubator. Incubator group first moving thing they saw was Lorenz and imprinted on him. To test this placed them all back together with markings about which group and saw who they went to
Findings of Lorenz study
Split up again showed no recognition of mother
Imprinting restricted to limited period called critical period up to two days. If not done within this time they can’t at all. Lorenz did however note that some animals won’t imprint on human backs up the generalisability issues
Long lasting effects from Lorenz study
Process is long lasting irreversible
Early imprinting has effect on sexual imprinting. Whatever they first imprint onto will become what they want to mate with
What was the aim of Harlows researxh
To study the behaviour of infant monkeys separated from their mothers at birth to test affects of separation
What was procedure of Harlow research
Two wire mothers with different heads. One also wrapped in cloth. Eight monkeys were studied for 165 days. Four monkeys bottle on cloth other four bottle on wire. Measurements made of time with each mother and response when frightened by mechanical teddy bear
What were the Harlow findings
All eight spent most time with cloth covered mother. Those with wire bottle spent little time while feeding then returned to cloth. When frightened with cloth mother. Playing with new things monkey kept one foot on cloth for reassurance suggest infants develop attachment to person offering contact comforts
Harlow long lasting effects
Motherless monkeys developed abnormally. Socially abnormal, froze or fled when approached by other monkeys. Sexually abnormal didn’t cradle babies. If monkeys spent time with peers before three months old could recover if more than six months were unable to recover- critical period
What is bowlbys critical period
Babies have innate drive to be attached. The critical period for attachment in infants is around 3-6 months. Infants who don’t have opportunity to form an attachment during this time have trouble in later life
