Attachment Flashcards
What is reciprocity?
A description of how two people interact. Mother- infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other
What does Brazleton et al argue about the interactions between a child and their mother?
He says the interaction can be described as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couples dance where each partner responds to each other’s moves
What is intersectional synchrony?
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated synchronised way
What did Isabella et al find out about synchrony and quality of attachment?
Observed mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony
- high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother- infant attachment
At what age does reciprocity become apparent?
From 3 months close attention between mother and infant
Where the mother responds to infant alertness
Evaluation of carer- infant interactions
- we cannot know for certain that behaviours seen in mother- infant interaction have a special meaning
- good validity - captures fine details
- observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity Feldman
What did Schaffer and Emerson find out about attachment?
That the majority of babies did become attached to their mother first (7 months)
- a few weeks later secondary attachments formed
Research into the role of the father
- Grossman et al - attachment to fathers less important but fathers may have a different role - play and stimulation
Fathers as primary carers
Field - fathers as primary carers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers
Evaluation of attachment figures
- children without fathers aren’t different so suggests their not important
- inconsistent finding on fathers - some research primary attachment some secondary
- fathers not primary attachments - may be due to traditional gender roles or biological differences
- socially sensitive research - working mothers
Who conducted a study into the development of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson
- they investigated the age of attachment formation and who with
- mothers of 60 Glasgow babies reported monthly on depression anxiety
- most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this
Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- good external validity - observations were in participants natural environments
- longitudinal design - the same participants were observed at each age eliminating individual differences as a confound
- limited sample characteristics - only from the same area, and over 50 years ago lacks generalisability
What are Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
- Asocial stage - little observable social behaviour
- Indiscriminate attachment - more observable attachment behaviour, accept cuddles from at adult
- specific attachments - stranger anxiety and desperation anxiety in regard to one particular adult
- multiple attachments - attachment behaviour directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments)
Evaluation of Schaffer’s stages of attachment
- social behaviour is hard to observe in the first few weeks but it doesn’t meant he baby is asocial
- conflicting evidence - Ijzendoorn et al research in different contexts has found multiple attachments may appear first
- just because a child protests when an adult leaves the room does not necessarily mean attachment
- Schaffer and Emerson used limited measures of attachment
Who conducted animal studies of attachment?
Lorenz and Harlow
What was Lorenz research?
- goslings day Lorenz when they hatched
- Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting)
- Adult birds try to mate with whatever species or object they imprint on
- there is a critical period
- the control group followed their mother
What’s the evaluation of Lorenz research?
- birds and mammals have attachment systems so Lorenz’s results may not be relevant to humans
- Guiton et al - birds imprinting in a rubber glove later preferred their own species
What was Harlow’s research?
- 16 baby monkeys
- 2 wire mothers - in one condition milk was dispensed from the wire mother and in the other the milk was dispensed from the cloth mother
- the baby moneys preferred the cloth mother regardless of what one had the milk
- they grew up socially dysfunctional as they were maternally deprived
- after 90 days attachment wouldn’t form
Evaluation of Harlow’s research
- demonstrates that attachment depends more on contact comfort rather than feeding
- it has helped social workers understand the risk factors in child neglect, and allows them to understand that a child in a loving family that lack money isn’t abuse and they shouldn’t be separated instead the family should get money
- Harlow faced severe criticism for the ethics of his research. Their suffering is seen as human like
What is the learning theory’s explanation of attachment?
- classical conditioning - caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food (unconditioned stimulus)
Caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus - operant conditioning - crying behaviour reinforced positively for infant and negatively for caregiver
Attachment becomes a secondary drive through association with hunger - learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive
Evaluation of the learning theory
- Lorenz and Harlow showed that feeding is not he key to attachment
- Schaffer and Emerson - most primary attachment figures were the mother even when others did most the feeding
- cannot account for the importance of sensitivity and interactions synchrony
- some elements of conditioning could still be involved - many aspects of human development are affected by conditioning
- newer learning theory explanation - social learning theory - social behaviour is acquired largely as a result of modelling and imitation of behaviour
What is Bowlby’s theory?
Bowlbys monotropic theory includes:
- monotropy - one particular attachment is different in quality and importance than others
- the law of continuity- the more constant and predictable a child’s care the better the quality of their attachment
- the law of accumulated separation- the effects of every separation from the mother add up ‘and therefore the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’
- social releasers - innate cute behaviours in the first two years due to the critical period lasting 2 years
- internal working model - mental representations of the primary attachment relationship are templates for future relationships
Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory
- some babies form multiple attachments without a primary attachment
- Seuss et al - other attachments may contribute as much as primary one
- support - Brazleton et al - when social releasers ignored babies were upset
- support - Bailey et al - quality of attachment is passed through generations in families
- monotropy is a socially sensitive idea
- temperament may be as important as attachment - the child’s genetically influenced personality
Who did the strange situation?
Ainsworth
- 7 stage controlled observation: assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety, response to reunion
- found that infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour
- types of attachment:
- secure - enthusiastic greeting, generally content
- avoidant - avoids reunion, generally reduced responses
- resistant - resists reunion, generally more distressed
