Attachment Flashcards
Around how many times do mothers respond to babies periodic alert phases
Two thirds of the time
What is interactional synchrony
The coordination of micro-level behaviour (Feldman)
When does interactional synchrony take place
When mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
Who did a study on interactional synocrhony
Meltzof and Moore
What did the Meltzof and Moore study entail
Observed interactional synchrony in infants as young as two week old.
An adult displayed one of three facial expressions and the child’s response was filmed and an association was found between these
Why is synchrony important for the development of mother/infant attachment
Provides the necessary foundation for the connection which cns br built upon in subsequent years
What is reciprocity
Each person responds to the other and elicits a response form them like a conversation
When in a babies life do interactions become reciprocals
Around three months
How are traditional views of childhood changed in recent years
Have seen the baby in a passive role recieving cafe from the adult but it seems the baby takes an active role.
Limitation of observing infants
Hard to know what it happening when observing children. It is difficult to be certain what is taking place from the infants perspective like if their immitation or adult signals is conscious and deliberate or not. Means we can not know for certain if behaviours seen in mother infant interactions have special meanings
Strength of research into mother infant interactions
Involved well controlled procedures. They are usually filmed from multiple angles to ensure the fine details of behaviour can be recorded and analysed. Also babies don’t know they are being observed do their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation. A strength because it means the research has good validity
Limitations of observations in mother infant interactions
Observations don’t tell us the purpose of interactional synchrony and reciprocity. It simply describes behaviours that occur st the same time but it does not tell us what the infant is learning. However there is evidence that they are helpful in the development of mother infant attachment.
What did Schaffer and Emerson find
The majority of babies became attached to their mother first and this happens around the age of 7 month.
In only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment.
In 27% the mother and father were joint.
75% of infants had a secondary attachment to their father by 18 months
Key study in mother infant interaction
Schaffer and Emerson
What is a sign of attachment
Protesting when someone walks away
What did Grossman find
Carried out a longitudinal study looking at parents behaviour and it’s relationship to the quality of children attachment into their teens. Research suggest e that the father attachment was less important to the attachment type of teenagers
What suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment
The quality of fathers play with infants was related to the children’s attachments so their role is more to do with play and stimulation rather than nurture
When a father does take on the role of main caregiver what happens
They adopt behaviours more typical of mothers
What is the key to the attachment relationship
Level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent
What seem to be important actions in building an attachment with an infant
Smiling
Imitating
And holding infants
Limitation of the role of mothers in caregiver interactions
Important economic implications. Mothers feel pressured to stay at home because of research that says they are vital for healthy development. In some families this is not economically viable. Social implications.
Limitations of the role of fathers in caregiver interactions
Socially sensitive. The idea that fathers have distinctive roles is undermined by the evidence. Gross man found that fathers as a secondary attachment figure had important roles but other studies found that children with same sex families do not develop any differently. Suggest that a fathers role is not important
Limitation of fathers becoming primary attachment figures
They can become them but the answer of why they don’t remains unanswered. Could be result of traditional gentler roles therefore fathers may feel they shouldn’t act in a nurturing ways or it could be female hormones create higher levels of nurturing and therefore woman are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure
Key study into the stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson
What are the four stages provided by Schaffer and Emerson
- Asocial stage (first few weeks)
- Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
- Specific attachment (around seven months)
- Multiple attachment (by one year)
What happens in the asocial stage of Schaffer and Emerson’s theory
Baby’s behaviour towards non human objects and humans are quite similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults and are happier in the presence of other humans
What is the indiscriminate stage of Schaffer and Emerson’s theory
Shoe preference for people rather than inanimate objects and recognise and prefer familiar faces. Usually accept comfort from any adult and don’t show Stranger anxiety or separation anxiety.
What is stranger anxiety
Distress shown by infant when approached by unfamiliar person
What is separation anxiety
Distress shown by infant when separated form an attachment figure
What is the specific attachment in Schaffer and Emerson’s theory
Babies start to display anxiety towards stanrgets and become anxious when separated from one particular adult. (The mother in 65% of cases).
Who is usually the primary attachment figure
The person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill
What is the multiple attachments stage in Schaffer and Emerson’s study
Attachments form with other adults whom they spend time with, called secondary attachments. 29% had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment.
Procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
60 Scottish babies from Glasgow. The babies and mothers were visited at home every month for a year and again at 18 months. Measured separation anxiety by asking mothers questions about their child’s behaviour during separation and stranger anxiety by observing the infants response to unfamiliar adults
Findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
50% formed specific attachments at 25-32 weeks.
Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions not necessarily who the infant spent the most time with.
Strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s study (external validity)
It has good external validity. Carried out in families own homes and most of the observations were done by the parent during everyday activities and reported back later. Means the behaviour of babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers. Means participants behaved naturally increasing the validity of the data.
What is external validity
The degree to which research findings can be generalised to for example other settings (ecological validity) other groups people (population validity) and over time (historical validity)
Strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s study (longitudinally)
Carried out longitudinally. Same children were followed up and observed regularly. The quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at each age this is called cross-sectional design. However longitudinal studies have better internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants
What is cross-sectional design
One group of participants representing one section of society compared to participants from another group
What is participant variables
Characteristics of individual participants like age that might influence the outcome of a study
Limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s study (asocial)
Problems studying the asocial year. Describe the first few weeks as asocial yet important interactions take place in those weeks. Problem is that babies that are young have poor coordination and are generally pretty immobile. Therefore it’s difficult to make judgment based on observations of their behaviour. May be that babies are asocial but can’t be sure because the method of measurement lacks validity
What are two animal studies of attachment
Lorenz
Harlow
What is the key study for imprinting
Lorenz
Key study for the importance of contact comfort
Harlow
Procedure of Lorenz’ study
Divided a clutch of goose eggs and half the eggs were bathed with the mother goose in the natural environment the other half hatched in an incubator and first saw Lorenz.
To investigate the relationship between imprinting Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour
Findings of Lorenz’ study
The incubator group followed Lorenz around whereas the control group followed the mother. When the toe groups were mixed the experimental group still followed Lorenz.
There was a critical period where imprinting needed to take place and if it did not occur within a few hours the chicks would not attach themselves to a mother figure.
Birds who attached to a human would display courtship behaviour towards humans.
Limitation of Lorenz research
Problem in generalising findings about birds to humans. The mammalian attachment system is different to that of birds. Mammalian mothers shoe more emotional attachment to young than birds do so it is not appropriate to generalise any findings
Strength of Lorenz study
Further research supports the concept of imprinting. Guiton found the chicks imprinted in a yellow washing up glove would try to mate with them as adults. Supports the view that the young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on some sort of moving object that is present in the critical period. Supports Lorenz conclusion and increases validity of the research findings
Procedure of Harlows study
16 monkeys with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed by plain wire monkey whereas a second condtion the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered monkey.
Frightening situations were also used and the reactions of the monkeys were observed. They also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of their real mother into adulthood
Findings of harlows study
Monkeys preferred contact comfort to food. The monkeys cuddled with the soft one when scared regardless of who gave the food.
Conclusions of harlows study
There was a critical period for this behaviour as a mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this attachment was impossible and the damage done by deprivation became irreversible
What is deprivation
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his mother or mother substitute.
When he followed the monkeys into adulthood he discovered severe consequences from maternal deprivation; more agressize, less socialsble and less skilled in mating. They also neglected and sometimes killed their offspring
Limitations of harlows study
Faced severe Criticism for the ethics of his research. The monkeys suffered emotionally as a result of the study. The specifies is considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise the findings so it is possible their suffering was human like. Harlow knew the suffering he was causing and referred to the iron monkeys as ‘iron maidens’ a form of torture device. The counter argument is that harlows research was sufficiently important to justify this.
Strntgrh of Harlows research.
Important practical applications. It helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and intervene to prevent it. Also important in the care of captive monkeys so zoos now can give proper attachment figures. The usefulness of harlows research increases its value as it’s important when considering ethical costs versus benefits
Who provided the learning theory
Dillard and miller
Why is the learning theory sometimes called ‘cupboard love theory’
Emphasis the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food. The children learn to love wherever feeds them
Wha does classical conditioning involved
Learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we respond to the other
How does clsssicsl conditioning work in the learning theory by Dollard and Miller
Food is an unconditioned stimulus creating a feeling a pleasure as an unconditioned response.
The mother is a neutral stimulus and be aimed associated with food becoming a conditioned stimulus. Once condtioning has taken place the caregiver produced a conditioned response.
According to the learning theory this is the basis of attachment.
How does operant conditioning work in Dollard and Millers learning theory
Crying from the baby leads to a response from the caregiver like feeding. As long as the caregiver provides the correct response the crying is positively reinforced because it produces a pleasurable consequence.
Also the caregiver is negatively reinforced because the crying stops - escaping from something unpleasant. This interplay of positive and negative reinforcement strngthens attachment
What is drive reduction in relation to the learning theory
Animal is motivated to act in order to satisfy biological needs, once satisfied the result is drive reduction
What is a primary drive
Innate drives (motivators) such as food, water and sex
What does the learning theory say about human and attachment
Hunger is a primary drive
Attachment is a secondary drive
What is a secondary drive
Learned drives acquired through association with a primary drive
What did Sears suggest
Caregivers provide food so the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them. Attachment is this a secondary drive learned by an association between the cetegiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
Weakness of the learning theory (animal)
Animal studies provide evidence against food as the basis of an attachment. Harlows monkeys attached to a soft surrogates in preference to a wire one that gave milk. It is clear that attachment does not develop as a result of feeding. Therefore it must be the same for humans as learning theorists believe that humans and non-humans are equivalent
Weakness of the learning theory (other fsctors)
Learning theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachments. Early research into caregiver interaction suggests that the quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and interactionsl synchrony. It’s hard to reconcile these findings with the idea that attachment develops through feeding.
Strength of learning theory
Problem with learning theory is that feeding provides the unconditioned stimulus, reinforcment or primary drive. However we believe that may aspects of human development are affected by conditioning so it seems plausible that it could still play a role in attachment just not in relationship to feeding. Association bretern the primary caregiver and the provision of comfort could build attachment
What is the new learning explanation based on social learning
Social learning theory - based on the idea that social behaviour is acquired largely as a result of modelling and imitation behaviour
Who suggested the social learning theory
Hay and Vespo
What does the social learning theory suggest
Parents teach children to love them by modelling attachment behaviour e.g by hugger them and other family members and instructing and rewarding them with approval when they display attachment behaviour of the their own.
Why is the social learning theory a better theory of attachment than the learning theiry
Good explanation of why studies suggest interaction and reciprocity are important factors in the development of attachment
Who theorised ASCMIC
Bowlby
