Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment?
An emotional bond between 2 people in which each seeks closeness and fells more secure in the attachment figure’s presence
-ves of using animals in studies
- Problem of extrapolation to attachment in human infants. What applies to non-human species may not apply to human infants
Demand characteristic in the strange situation
- Infants too young to respond to DC
- Mother’s behav may change. They may try to guess what the researcher is looking for, so may change their behav and try to be more attentive to their babies than normal
How to investigate attachment type using the strange situation
- R observes mother and child’s behav when left in a room
- Then observe behav of child, when mum leaves the room
- Observe behav when stranger plays w/ the child
- Observe behav when child is alone and when mum returns
How Bowlby confused privation and deprivation?
- He didn’t differentiate between them, late researchers did
- In the 44 thieves study, many had experienced privation not deprivation
Explain one reason why it is difficult to draw conclusions about the role of caregiver–infant interactions in the development of attachment.
(Total 2 marks
- Cannot ever show cause and effect because it is ethically impossible to manipulate the amount / quality of caregiver-infant interaction;
- Extraneous factors such as home environment / substitute care / life events / culture / temperament may have a long term effect on attachment and cannot be controlled.
Briefly discuss how researchers might address difficulties encountered when trying to investigate caregiver-infant interaction.
(Total 4 marks)
- Problem of context affecting behaviour – research should take place in natural setting e.g. child’s home to increase validity.
- Most research is observational so bias in observer interpretation – may be countered by using more than one observer.
- Practical issues e.g. need for fewer but shorter observation periods because of limited waking periods.
- Taking extra care in relation to ethics so as not to affect child/parent in any way e.g. protection from harm, confidentiality etc.
Suggest two suitable behavioural categories the researcher could use to record the boy’s behaviour.
Behaviour must be operationalised. Suitable behavioural categories could include crying, clinging to mother, smiling, playing independently etc.
Outline possible negative effects of institutionalisation
- As Luca was in a poor quality orphanage for four years cognitive impairment is likely.
- Answers could also refer to consequences such as affectionless psychopathy and problems with later relationships. eg Luca may have problems forming relationships
Identify two infant behaviours that are characteristic of the insecure-resistant attachment type.
- High or extreme stranger anxiety
- High or extreme separation anxiety
- Resist comfort from the caregiver on reunion
- Explore less
- More clingy.
Outline Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.
- Bowlby’s use of the term ‘deprivation’
- Effects on development – intellectual, emotional, social, e.g. affectionless psychopathy, delinquency, low IQ
- Critical period – an issue if prolonged separation, if before two and half years (but risk up to 5 years) and if no substitute available
- Internal working model – this can lead to inability to be a good parent
- Continuity hypothesis – if there are prolonged separations then there may be issues into adulthood.
Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment
- Idea of ‘cupboard love’ - children learn to become attached to their caregiver because they give them food
- Secondary drive/drive reduction in relation to feeding and attachment
- Learning can be due to associations (classical conditioning) – outline of how this process works in attachment
- Learning can be due to patterns of reinforcement (operant conditioning) – outline of how this process works in attachment
- Dolland and Miller (1950) - Infants learn to associate the caregiver with the feeling of pleasure when they are fed (classical conditioning) and infants are reinforced in the behaviours that will produce these desirable responses from others (e.g. being fed when they cry - operant conditioning).
effects of institutionalisation (linked with studies)
- Likely effects include: effects identified by Bowlby (1946): eg affectionless psychopathy, delinquency, low IQ
- ERA findings of quasi-autistic symptoms in Romanian orphans, impaired language and social skills; disinhibited attachment; attention seeking, clinginess; lower frequency of pretend play and reduced empathy (Kreppner et al 1999);
- more likely to be classified as disorganised attachment type (Zeanah et al 2005)
Effects of institutionalisations (general)
- delayed intellectual development/low IQ/problems with concentration
- disinhibited attachment – Anca may not know what counts as ‘appropriate’ behaviour towards strangers
- emotional development – Anca may experience more temper tantrums, etc.
- lack of internal working model – Anca may have difficulty interacting with peers, forming close relationships, etc.
- quasi-autism – Anca may have a problem understanding the meaning of social contexts, may display obsessional behaviour, etc.
- credit the idea that Anca may have been adopted before the age of 6 months and therefore any effects may not be as severe/long term had she been adopted later.
