Attachment Flashcards
Attachment
An emotional tie between two people shown in their behaviour, such as proximity-seeking, separation distress and secure base. It serves the function of protecting an infant
Interactions
From an early age infants have meaningful social interactions which are believed to have important functions in the child’s development. One function of this development is attachment.
These interactions happen before children learn speech, usually in the firs year of their life. The more sensitive each is to the others signals, the deeper the relationship
Reciprocity
A key element of the interaction between the infant and caregiver
An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
Brazleton 1975
Reciprocity
Describes the interaction as a dance. This means that there’s always a reaction to the other, they are going to respond
He also suggests the basic rhythm of the interaction is important to later communications. This means that later on in life the person is able to communicate (knows how to respond)
Interaction synchrony
A key element of the interaction between the infant and caregiver. Mother and infant reflect both actions and the emotions of the other in a synchronised way.
Meltzoff and Moore
Interaction synchrony
Found using observation that interactionalist synchrony could be seen in infants as young as 2 weeks old. They found an association between the adults and infants expressions and actions
Evaluation of infant interactions
Strengths
> Controlled observations has good control,therefore has good internal validity as it can capture fine detail
Feldman (2012) reciprocal interaction and synchrony are helpful in the development of mother-infant attachment and also in stress response, empathy, language and moral development
Evaluation of infant interactions
Weaknesses
> it is extremely difficult to be certain based off observation what is taking place from the infants perspective - is it conscious/deliberate. We cannot know if interaction seen has a special meaning
it is hard to distinguish infant
socially sensitive
Evaluation of role of the father
Strengths
Father’s role is important in secondary attachment in play and forming friendships
Evaluation of role of the father
Weaknesses
> Inconsistent findings on the famous role as we don’t really know the role of the father as single fathers can take on the maternal role but research shows they are also secondary attachment
studies have failed to replicate findings
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
The develop of attachment (method)
To find when babies develop attachments to their parents
60 infants in working class homes in Glasgow
They observed the development of attachments during the babies first year they visited the mother every month then again at 18 months
The mother made reports on the infant response in7 everyday situations eg separation anxiety
They also measured how the infants responded to others (stranger anxiety)
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
The develop of attachment (findings)
Specific attachment forms around 7 months
In 65% of cases first specific attachment was to the mother it was only the father in 3% of cases
Multiple attachments develop soon after
Large individual differences in strengths of attachments found / formed - babies didn’t necessarily form bonds to the person who carried out the most physical care
They attached to the person who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions
What 4 stages did Schaffer and Emerson find and at what age
Asocial ~ 0-8 weeks
Indiscriminate attachment ~ 2-7 months
Specific attachment ~ 7-12 months
Multiple attachments ~ 1 year onwards
Stage 1 of attachment - Asocial
Recognise specific faces
Happier in the presence of humans than when alone
Recognise for familiar individuals
Smile at anyone
Prefers faces to non faces
Behaviour between humans and non human objects quite similar
Stage 2 of attachment - indiscriminate attachment
Smile at anyone
Recognise and prefer familiar faces
Accept comfort from anyone
Preference for people rather inanimate objects
Stage 3 of attachment - specific attachment
Primary attachment to one particular individual
Show separation anxiety
Show stranger anxiety
Use familiar adults as secure base
Stage 4 of attachment - multiple attachments
Form secondary attachment with familiar adults with whom they spend time eg father, siblings grandparents
Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson
✔️ field experiment - good external validity
✖️ 60 babies in Glasgow in working class - ungeneralisable
✖️historical bias - poor temporal validity
✖️mother is reporting - social desirability bias
✖️/✔️ longitudinal study -
Lorenz
(Animal study of attachment)
To investigate imprinting behaviour in goslings
Divided eggs in two - half hatched with their mother and half hatched in an incubator Lorenz being the first thing they saw
Incubator group followed Lorenz and natural group followed mother - imprinting (instantaneous connection in critical period)
Sexual imprinting - birds who imprinted in humans wanted to show courtship (mate) with humans later on in life
Harlow
(Animal study of attachment)
To investigate origins of love - mother love not based on feeding
Method
8 rhesus monkeys were studied for a period 165 days. Harlow created 2 wire monkeys with one covered in cloth. 4 of the monkeys has a wire monkey including a feeding bottle, 4 had the cloth monkey
Harlow
(Animal study of attachment)
To investigate origins of love - mother love not based on feeding
Findings
All 8 monkeys spent majority of their time with the cloth mother regardless of where the feeding bottle was. When frightened all monkeys cling to the cloth mother for comfort
As they got older the monkeys developed abnormally. They froze when approached by other monkeys, they were more aggressive, did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their babies some even killed their children
Evaluation of animal research
✔️Practical value
✔️Theoretical value
✖️ reduced validity of Lorenz
✖️ethical issues
Learning theory of attachment
We are born with a tabula rasa (blank sheet) so all behaviour is learned
Behaviourists suggest that attachment is learnt through classical and operant conditioning
Explanation of attachment through Classical conditioning
Learning by association
Babies may learn to associate 2 things that occur together they will then learn to associate them (milk and mother = pleasure)
After conditioning mother = pleasure
