Attachment

Question 1

Describe and evaluate research into Romanian Orphans (AO1)

Answer 1

• Rutter - 165 oprhans adopted in Britain - checked at 4,6,11 and 15
  - delayed intellectual development and undernourished
  - 11 - differential rates of recovery based on age of adoption eg. IQ of those adopted before 6 months =102/ those adopted between 6 months and 2 years=86/ those adopted after 2 years = 77
  - disinhibited attachment - attention seeking, clinginess… mostly in those adopted after 6 months
• Bucharest Early Intervention project - Zeanah et al - 95 kids 12-31 months, measured using strange situation.
  - found that 74% control group was secure attachment// 19% orphans were secure, 65% disorganised attahment - 44% disinhibited attachment

Question 2

Describe and evaluate research into Romanian Orphans (AO3)

Answer 2

• Real-life application - key workers introduced
• Less extraneous variables - no trauma involved mostly so an increase of internal validity
• Lack generisability
• Ethical issues and implications

Question 3

Describe and evaluate research into cultural variations in attachment (AO1)

Answer 3

• Van Ijzendoorn - compared rates of attachment type in 8 countries using 32 studies. Found more variation within than between countries - 150% greater
  - secure attachment most popular in all
  - insecure-resistant least common
  - insecure-avoidant - Germany and Japan
• Simonella (Italy) - attachment rates have changed - 50% secure, 36% insecure-avoidant - due to mothers working more?
• Jin (Korea) similar to Japan, could be due to similar child-rearing style
• Conclusions = attachment is universal and secure is the norm. However, cultural practises affect roles of attachment type

Question 4

Describe and evaluate research into cultural variations in attachment (AO3)

Answer 4

• Large samples- reduce the impact of anomalous results so improve the internal validity
• Unrepresentative of culture- comparisons were between countries not cultures so can’t make generalisations of culture
• Biased- research using the strange situation imposes a USA test on other cultures (imposed etic)

Question 5

Describe and evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment (AO1)

Answer 5

• Schaffer and Emerson - babies and mothers visited every month for first year and then at 18 months, asked q’s about separation and stranger anxiety to measure attachment types - found that between 25 and 32 weeks 50% showed separation anxiety - 40 weeks 80% had specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments
• 1) asocial stage (first few weeks)
  2) indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
  3) specific attachment (after 7 months)
  4) multiple attachments (within a month after stage 3)

Question 6

Describe and evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment (AO3)

Answer 6

• good external validity
• longitudinal design - good internal validity
• asocial stage - difficult to observe babies
• difficult to measure multiple attachment
• Ijzendoorn -collectivist cultures form multiple attachments quicker

Question 7

Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment (AO1)

Answer 7

• innate - gives a survival advantage
• monotropy- primary care-giver attachment is more important than others - law of continuity - more constant and predictable = better attachment
  - law of accumulated seperation - effects of each seperation adds up so never seperate
• Social releasers = ‘cute’ behaviours to encourage attention from adults - reciprocal
• Critical period = 2 years - attachment must be formed by then ot they will find it harder later
• Internal working model - mental representations of our attachment to our PCG - perception of what relationships should be like

Question 8

Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment (AO3)

Answer 8

• Schaffer and Emerson - babies can form multiple attachments at the same time - against monotropy
• Brazleton et al - PCGs ignored social releasers - babies curled up and lay motionless
• Bailey et al - 99 mothers - assessed their quality of attachment with their own mum and their baby - poor quality with mum = more likely to have poor quality with baby - support internal working model

Question 9

Describe and evaluate research into the influence of attachment on childhood and adult relationships (AO1)

Answer 9

• Myron-Wilson and Smith - bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type - secure = unlikely to bully
  - avoidant =victims
  - resistant = bullies
• Hazan and Shaver - love quiz - most important relationships, general love experiences and attachment type by asking to which best described their feelings
  - found that 56% =secure
  - 25% =avoidant
  - 19% = resistant
• Bailey et al - mothers assessed using SS and also assesed their relationship to own mother

Question 10

Describe and evaluate research into the influence of attachment on childhood and adult relationships (AO3)

Answer 10

• self-report techniques - lacks validity - subjective
  - social desirability
  - realistic view?
• correlation not causation - attachment type might not cause the quality

Question 11

Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (AO1)

Answer 11

• seperation v deprivation - short period of times aren’t harmful
• critical period = first 30 months
• intellectual development - abnormally low IQ
• emotional development - affectionless psychopath - lack remorse for their actions
• 44 theives study - interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy, also interviewed families for early seperations - found that 14 could be ap’s - 12/14 had prolonged seperation for first 2 years - 5/the other 30 had long seperations

Question 12

Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (AO3)

Answer 12

• bias - 44 thieves - Bowlby knew what he wanted to find so could have just made the results fit his agenda
• Lewis- replicated 44 thieves with 500 - early seperation didn’t predict criminality - opposes Bowlby
• Koluchova - boys isolated from 18 months to 7 years - fully recovered when adopted by loving family - not a critical period - just sensitve