Attachment Flashcards
Reciprocity.
How two people interact. Babies have periodic alert phases and signal that they are ready for reaction. Mothers typically pick up on this ⅔ of the time
Interactional synchrony.
Parent and infant reflecting on actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way. From around three months this interaction seems to be increasingly frequent.
Attachment
A two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional stability
Stages of attachment: stage one.
Asocial stage - Baby’s behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is very similar.
Stages of attachment: stage two.
Indiscriminate attachment - 2-7 months - Babies show more observable social behaviour and a preference for people rather than objects.
Stages of attachment: stage three.
Specific attachment - around 7 months - Babies start to show anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when separated from one particular adult.
Stages of attachment: stage four
Multiple attachments - Attachment is extended to other adults with whom they regularly spend time.
Schaffer and Emerson.
Investigate the formation of early attachments - in particular, the age that they developed. 60 babies, All from Glasgow, majority working-class families. visited every month for the first 18 months, then asked questions about the infants separation anxieties. 25 - 32 weeks - 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, (specific attachment). Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals. 40 weeks - 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments. Human attachments develop in three distinct stages.
Multiple attachments.
Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one true attachment to a main carer.
Schaffer and Emerson PEI’s
+It is backed up by Schaffer and Emerson’s own research.
-One methodological criticism of this research is that the characteristics of the sample are very alike - decreases the population validity of the experiment.
+Another strength is that the study was longitudinal, this means that the same children were followed up and observed regularly - longitudinal studies have higher internal validates.
-There is a problem studying the ‘asocial stage’ and although it is ‘asocial’ many important interactions take place during this stage. You cannot observe the behaviour of a baby so young.
Role of the father.
Grossman carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the infants quality of attachments into their teens. Quality of attachment with mother was related to attachments in adolescence suggesting that father attachment was less important. However, the quality of fathers play was related to quality adolescent attachments. This suggests that fathers have a different role.
Fathers as PCG’s.
There is evidence to suggest that when fathers take on the role of PCG they adopt behaviours more predominant in mothers. Field filmed 4-month-old babies interactions with PCG mothers, SCG fathers and PCG fathers. PCG fathers spent more time holding the babies than SCG fathers. This behaviour seems important to building a relationship with the infant. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness.
Animal studies.
Studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on human, either for ethical or practical reasons.
Lorenz
Investigated the mechanisms of imprinting. Lorenz split a large clutch of goose eggs into two batches. One batch hatch naturally, the other batch hatched and Lorenz was the first moving thing they saw. After birth, the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz around. Imprinting is a form of attachment, exhibited mainly by nidifugous birds, whereby close contact is kept with the first large moving object encountered.
Harlow
Test learning theory by comparing attachment behaviour in baby monkeys. Two types of surrogate mother were constructed – a harsh wire mother and a soft towelling mother. 16 baby monkeys were used, 4 in each condition. Monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother when given a choice of surrogate mother regardless of whether she produced milk. Rhesus monkeys have an innate unlearned need for contact comfort, suggesting that attachment concerns emotional stability more than food.
Animal studies: PEI’s
-Hard to generalise to humans.
-Questions of Lorenz’ findings - imprinting doesn’t seem to be as permanent as Lorenz thought.
+Harlow’s findings have had a profound effect on psychologists understanding of human-mother infant interaction.
+Practical value - Harlow’s research has had many important applications in practical contexts.
Learning theory
Name given to a group of explanations which explain behaviour in terms of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher order thinking.Behaviourists believe that all behaviour (including attachment) is learned either through classical or operant conditioning. We are all born as ‘blank slates’ and everything we become can be explained as as a result of our experiences.
Classical conditioning.
Learning through association. Behaviours demonstrated are a reflex action and there is no intervening thought process. Involves learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we already respond to the other. In the case of attachment, food serves as an unconditional stimulus.
Operant conditioning
Learning occurs when we are rewarded or punished for doing something.Each time you do something with a pleasant consequence (reward) the behaviour is reinforced. It becomes more probable that you will repeat this behaviour in the future. If something has an unpleasant consequence (punishment) then it it less likely you’ll repeat the behaviour.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
Developed an evolutionary theory of attachment. He believed that all humans were born with the innate ability to form attachments, and that helps us to survive.
