Attachment Flashcards
1
Q
What are the characteristics of caregiver and infant interaction?
A
- Bodily/eye contact
- Mimicking
- Caregiverese
2
Q
What is meant by caregiverese?
A
A high pitched, slow and repetitive vocal language that people generally use to communicate with babies
3
Q
What did Papousek (1991) find about caregiverese?
A
- The tendency to use this voice was shown in all cultures
- This suggests it is a biological responses to facilitate the formation of attachments
4
Q
What is attachment?
A
An emotional bond between 2 people, this bond is reciprocated and endures over time
5
Q
How might attachment be characterised?
A
By seeking proximity to the object of attachment and potential distress on their separation
6
Q
Why do infants form attachments?
A
- Survival, humans require care and protection
- They are born at an early stage of development (altricial)
7
Q
What did Johnson and Morton (1991) do to study whether forming attachments is innate?
A
- Studied babies who were less than an hour old
- Showed the babies 3 faces: featureless face, schematic (normal) face and a scrambled face
- Babies spent more time looking at the schematic face
8
Q
What did Johnson and Morton (1991) conclude about attachments being innate?
A
They concluded that the babies had an interest in the face-like stimuli with minimal opportunity for learning, implying that forming attachments is innate (not learnt
9
Q
What did Klaus and Kennell (1976) do?
Infant-caregiver interactions
A
- Compared 2 mothers in the first 3 days after birth
- 2 conditions: - mothers who had extended physical contact with their babies for several hours a day
- mothers who only had physical contact with their babies during feeding
10
Q
What did Klaus and Kennell (1976) find in their observations of infant-caregiver interactions?
A
1 month later
- Mums with greater physical contact were found to cuddle their babies more and make greater eye contact with them than the mums who only had contact during feeding.
These effects were still noticeable a year later
11
Q
What did Klaus and Kennell (1976) conclude in their observations of infant-caregiver interactions? What practical application does this have?
A
- They concluded that more physical contact leads to stronger and closer attachments
- The practical application is that hospitals now put mothers and babies together from the moment of birth to encourage attachment
12
Q
What is reciprocity? (reciprocal)
A
Mutual, returned, two-way feelings
13
Q
How is caregiver-infant interaction reciprocal?
A
The infant and the caregiver are both active contributors in the interaction. Both the infant and the caregiver respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other
14
Q
What did Meltzoff and Moore (1983) find and conclude about caregiver-infant interaction being innate?
A
- Studied 3 day old babies
- Infants as young as 2/3 weeks old would imitate hand gestures and facial expressions
- This is not much time to learn which suggests it is innate
15
Q
What did Piaget say about caregiver-infant interaction being innate? (Pseudo imitation)
A
Piaget believed that true imitation only developed towards the end of the first year and anything before this was ‘response training’. The infant is repeating behaviour that is rewarded. It is pseudo imitation and not an innate reaction because the infant has not consciously translated this
16
Q
What did Murray and Trevarthen (1985) find about caregiver-infant interaction being innate?
A
Infants showed expressions to a video of their mother who is not responding, this shows they are interacting by trying to attract the attention of their mother and it is not pseudo or learned through reward
17
Q
What are the problems with trying to study and test infant behaviour?
A
- Infants are constantly in motion, this makes it difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviours
- Studies are more difficult to control and harder to replicate making them less reliable
18
Q
What are the 3 types of cry that Woolf (1969) identified?
A
Basic cry
Angry cry
Pain cry
19
Q
What is a basic cry?
A
Signals hunger and consists of half second rhythmic cries interspersed with short silences
20
Q
What is the angry cry?
A
Crying with shorter periods of silence in between
21
Q
What is a pain cry?
A
A loud initial cry followed by breath holding
22
Q
How do parents interact with infants when they are crying?
A
They respond with nurturing, soothing and distracting behaviours such as feeding, rocking and stroking
23
Q
What did Mehler (1978) find that shows reciprocity in attachment being innate?
A
Month old babies would suck faster on a dummy (feel more comforted) in response to their mothers voice compared to a strangers
24
Q
What is Tronick’s (1979) still face experiment?
A
He asked mothers who had been enjoying exchanges with their babies to stop moving and maintain a static unsmiling facial expression. He then observed the responses to this
25
What did Tronick find and conclude from the still face experiment?
- Babies would try to tempt the mother into interactions by smiling themselves, they would become puzzled/distressed when their smile did not provoke the usual response
- Tronick concluded that babies expected concordant responses to their smiles which suggests reciprocity is innate
26
What did Le Vine (1994) say about cultural differences within reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
It is not found in all cultures which suggests that it is not necessary to the formation of attachments. Kenyan mothers have little physical contact and interaction with their children however can still form secure attachments
27
What are the 3 stages of attachment?
1. Indiscriminate attachment
2. Beginnings of attachment
3. Discriminate attachment
28
What are the behaviours that indicate attachment?
- Proximity seeking
- Separation distress
- Stranger anxiety
- Pleasure with reunion
29
What are some of the important factors that affect the relationship and security between a father and child?
- Degree of sensitivity to child's needs
- Type of attachment with own parents
- Marital intimacy
- Supportive co parenting
30
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) do?
- Conducted a longitudinal study upon 60 newborns and their mothers
- First 18 months of life, in participants homes
- Observations/interviews assessing attachment patterns
- Measured by separation protest and stranger anxiety
31
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find?
- Most infants started to show separation protest when parted from primary attachment figure between 6-8 months
- Most infants developed multiple attachments, 87% having more than one, 31% more than 5
- 39% of infant's prime attachment was not the main carer
32
What can be concluded from Schaffer and Emerson's experiment?
- The formation of attachments is innate
- Attachments are more easily made with those who display the most sensitive responsiveness rather than the most time spent w the infant
- Multiple attachments are normal and of similar quality, challenges Bowlby
33
What are some strengths of Schaffer and Emerson's study?
- Longitudinal, more reliable
| - Mundane realism, conducted in an everyday environment
34
What are some weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson's study?
- Observations made by mothers are prone to bias and demand characteristics
- Subjective
35
What are the general differences between the role of the mother and father with the infant?
Mother: more sensitive to needs (Hardy), more nurturing and affectionate (Geiger), more comforting.
Father: more physical and playful (Bowlby/Geiger)
Each parent fulfils different needs of the infant which enables strong, secure attachments to be made to both of them
36
What is the biological reasoning for mother's being more sensitive to infant's needs?
The female hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour so women are generally more orientated towards interpersonal goals than men
37
What did White and Woollet (1992) suggest about a lack of sensitivity from fathers being positive for the infant?
It fosters problem solving by making greater cognitive and communicative demands on children thus making them more resilient individuals
38
What is the first stage of attachment and when does it occur?
Asocial Stage (show preference for all humans) occurs 6 weeks after birth. At this stage, the infant can not distinguish between people but enjoys human stimuli
39
What is the second stage of attachment and when does it occur?
Indiscriminate stage occurs between 6 weeks and 6 months. This is when the infant can tell people apart, has general sociability and does not show stranger anxiety
40
What is the third stage of attachment and when does it occur?
Specific stage occurs from 7-9 months. They begin to form specific attachments to a primary figure and have separation anxiety when away from this person
41
What is the fourth stage of attachment and when does it occur?
Multiple attachments stage occurs from 10-11 months and infants are able to become attached to a wider social circle
42
How does Schaffer and Emerson support the multiple attachments stage?
- 29% of secondary attachments also displayed separation anxiety from that person
- 1/3 of participants at 1 year had several strong secondary attachment
43
What are some of the general advantages of using animal studies for attachment?
- No demand characteristics
- Similarities with humans
- Shows the relationship between survival needs (food source) and the primary attachment figure
44
What are some of the general disadvantages of using animal studies for attachment?
- Unethical
- Different brains/survival needs, harder to generalise to the human population
- Animals have differences in attachment, e.g) they tend to have specific not multiple attachments
45
What did Lorenz (1935) do?
- Divided gosling eggs into 2 groups
- One group left with their natural mother, one group put in an incubator
- When the incubator eggs hatched the first living thing the saw was Lorenz
46
What did Lorenz (1935) find?
- G1 followed their natural mother and G2 followed Lorenz
- Lorenz had been imprinted on the goslings during their critical period, after this period the animal will not imprint (4-25 hours)
47
What did Lorenz (1935) conclude?
- Keep close contact with first large moving object
| - Imprinting is a form of attachment
48
What is meant by imprinting?
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with an attachment figure. Only occurs during the critical period
49
What is meant by the critical period?
A biologically determined period of time during which certain characteristics can develop and attachments can be made (Geese, 4-25 hours)
50
What are some key strengths for Lorenz' study?
| See notes for further depth
- Influence on Bowlby's work, created applications useful to human psychology
- Hess (1958) supported idea of critical period
- Immelmann (1972) finches imprinted on each other supports Lorenz. Shows imprinting has a significant impact on future social development similar to humans
- Guiton (1966) rubber gloves
51
What are some key weaknesses for Lorenz' study?
| See notes for further depth
- Guiton suggests imprinting is reversible and is learnt with little conscious effort, suggests it is not innate
- It is difficult to draw conclusions about human attachment due to different survival needs, less valid and reliable when generalising to the human population
52
What did Harlow (1959) do?
- Created 2 wire mothers, one plain, one wrapped in soft cloth
- 8 infant monkeys were studied for 165 days
- There was a milk bottle attached to each of the mother t different points (varied who was the food source)
- Measurements were made of the amount of time each infant spent with the 2 mothers
- Observations were also made of their responses when frightened
53
What did Harlow (1959) find?
- All 8 monkeys spent the most time with the cloth mother whether or not it had the feeding bottle
- They used the plain mother only as a food source and then returned to the cloth mother
- When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth mother for comfort
54
What did Harlow (1959) conclude?
- Infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort
- Suggests innate, unlearned need for contact comfort
- Contact comfort is associated with lower stress levels
55
What did Howe claim about Harlow's research?
It helped people understand the important foundations for care and helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect and child abuse
56
What is a main key strength of Harlow's study?
Helped understand mother-infant attachment and the need for contact comfort
57
Why was Harlow's study considered as unethical?
It caused them psychological harm and they found it difficult to form relationships later on in life
58
Harlow's study lacks internal validity due to a cofounding variable, what is this variable?
The cloth mother looked more attractive and monkey-like , this could be the reason for their attraction and attachment to her
59
What could Harlow have done to make the study more ethical?
If contact comfort is a biologically innate characteristic of attachment then Harlow could've used a less sentient being to produce the same results
60
How might Schaffer and Emerson's human infant study back up Harlow's results?
S+E found that infants aren't always attached to the person that feeds them (cupboard love) but to the person who gives the best quality attachment. For example, the cloth mother providing contact comfort
61
What is a criticism to Guiton and Lorenz idea of imprinting in a critical period?
There is still a sensitive period where attachments can be formed outside of the critical window although it is harder
62
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through association
63
What is operant conditioning?
learning through reinforcement
64
What is the social learning theory?
Learning through observing and imitating others
65
How can classical conditioning influence attachment between a mother and baby?
Milk + Mother = pleasure (removal of hunger)
The baby will begin to associate the presence of the mother with pleasure and will become attached to her as they will become happy with her
66
What happens before, during and after classical conditioning?
Before: food = pleasure
During: mother + food = pleasure
After: mother = pleasure
67
How does positive reinforcement influence attachment between mother and baby?
Sad baby + positive reinforcer (milk) = happy baby.
| Baby is attached to mother in hope of seeking reward and positive reinforcer
68
How does negative reinforcement influence attachment between mother and baby?
Sad baby + negative reinforcer (hunger removed from milk) = happy baby.
Baby is attached to mother in hope of removing the hunger
69
What is the mother's role in operant conditioning for attachment?
She is the secondary reinforcer, the source of reinforcement which is why attachment forms
70
What is meant by 'drive' in Dollard and Miller's drive reduction theory? (operant conditioning for attachment)
A drive is something which triggers a social releaser and motivates behaviour
71
What are some examples of social releasers?
Crying/smiling/laughing etc
72
How would the drive reduction theory be applied to mother and infant?
The hunger of the baby is the negative drive state and the crying is the social releaser. When the infant is fed, the drive is reduced and this produces a feeling of pleasure. Attachment occurs because the child seeks the person who can supply the reward and reduce their negative drive
73
What is a criticism of learning theories for attachment?
It is a reductionist view - it reduces the complex nature of human behaviour down to simplistic behaviourist theories
74
How would Harlow criticise learning theories for explaining attachment?
Harlow opposes the idea of cupboard love and suggests that attachment is based off need for contact comfort
75
What is a key strength of learning theories as explanations for attachment?
Provides an adequate explanation of how attachments form with a large body of evidence to support it
76
What are the factors of Bowlby's monotropic theory?
- Attachment is innate/social releaser
- Critical period
- Monotropy
- Continuity hypothesis
- Internal working model
77
What is Type A, B and C attachment?
Type A: Insecure Avoidant
Type B: Securely attached
Type C: Insecure resistant
78
What would Type A attachment look like?
- Willing to explore
- Low stranger anxiety
- Unconcerned by separation
- Avoid contact
79
What would Type B attachment look like?
- Keen to explore
- Higher stranger anxiety
- Enthusiastic with reunion to carer
- Higher separation distress
80
What would Type C attachment look like?
- Unwilling to explore
- High stranger anxiety
- Upset by separation
- Seek and reject caregiver
81
What is meant by monotropy?
The primary attachment figure is more important than all the others. This is usually the mother
82
What is the internal working model?
A mental model the world which acts as a template for future attachments. It is formed and based on an infant's primary attachments
83
What is meant by a social releaser?
A social behaviour that elicits caregiving and leads to attachment
84
What is the continuity hypothesis?
Emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults
85
What is Ainsworth's strange situation?
A controlled observation test designed to measure the strengths and type of infants attachment to their attachment
86
What were the aims of Ainsworth's strange situation?
- Assess 9-18 month old infant response behaviour in mildly stressful situations
- Individual differences in quality of mother-infant attachments
87
What was the procedure of Ainsworth's strange situation?
- 20 minute observation, data collected via video recorder/1 way mirror
- Measured proximity/contact seeking, exploration, stranger anxiety and reunion behaviour
- Each item is rated on an intensity scale of 1-7.
88
What are some weaknesses of strange situation?
| see notes for expansion
- Low internal validity; Main and Weston found that children responded differently depending on which parent they were with, not representative of all attachments
- Maternal Reflective Functioning (Slade, 2005)
- Attachment type D; insecure-disorganised. Van Ijzendoorn found 15% of people falling into this category
- Focus too much on infant behaviour when mother behaviour could influence results (cofounding variable)
89
What are some strengths of strange situation?
| see notes for expansion
- Inter-observer reliability (94% agreement)
- Similar findings from other researchers, Main.. Van Ijzendoorn
- Real world application, helped caregivers understand better ways to respond to infant signals which increased the number of secure attachments to 40%
90
What are the features of Bowlby's monotropic theory of attachment?
- Attachment is innate
- Social releasers
- Critical period
- Monotropy
- Continuity hypothesis
- Internal working model
91
What type of theory is Bowlby's mono tropic theory?
Evolutionary
92
What is meant by monotropy?
An infant has one significant bond which is more important than all the others. It is usually the mother
93
What is the internal working model?
A mental model of the world which acts as a template for future attachments based on an infant's primary attachment
94
What is a social releaser?
A social behaviour that elicits caregiving and leads to attachments forming
95
What is the continuity hypothesis?
Emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults
96
What are the strengths of Bowlby's monotropic theory?
| see notes for expansion
- Minnesota parent-child project supporting continuity hypothesis
- Prior and Glaser (2006) conducted a review that found similar results
97
What are the weaknesses of Bowlby's monotropic theory?
| see notes for expansion
- Schaffer and Emerson; 87% multiple attachments
- Attachments can form in a sensitive period (Rutter)
- Kagan temperament hypothesis
98
What is Kagan's temperament hypothesis?
Humans have an innate emotional personality which leads to the development of attachment
99
What is meant by deprivation?
Long term disruption of an attachment bond. the child has lost the emotional care provided by the caregiver and is not compensated for by care from another person
100
What is meant by separation?
Short term disruption of an attachment bond
101
What is privation?
Never forming an attachment bond. e.g) mother and child are separated at birth
102
What was Bowlby's quote?
| Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis
Motherly love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as vitamins and proteins are for physical health
103
What is the key point of Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis?
The disruption of attachment bonds leads to serious and permanent damage to a child's social, emotional and intellectual development
104
What was the aim of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?
To investigate the long term effect of maternal deprivation on people in order to see whether delinquents have suffered deprivation
105
What was the procedure of the 44 thieves study?
- Analysed the case histories of a number of adolescent patients at the Child Guidance Clinic where he worked
- Interviewed them to gain knowledge on their backgrounds
- Studied 88 patients, half were known thieves and the other half were a control group
106
What did all the children who attended the clinic in Bowlby's 44 thieves study have in common?
They were all emotionally maladjusted
107
What did Bowlby suggest about some of the thieves?
They suffered from affection less psychopathy - lacked normal sense of emotion, shame and responsibility
108
What were the findings of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?
- 86% of those diagnosed as affection less psychopaths had experienced frequent early separations
- 17% of the other thieves also experienced some form of separation
- Only 4% of control group experienced separation whereas 39% of all thieves were
109
What separations did the participants in Bowlby's 44 thieves study experience?
These separations often consisted of repeated stays in hospitals or foster homes where they were scarcely visited by their families
110
What did Bowlby conclude from the 44 thieves study?
- Supports MDH
- Suggest separations could lead to emotional maladjustment
- Shows there are long term effects of separation (up to adolescence)
111
What is the definition of affectionless psychopathy?
A lack of emotional development, characterised by a lack of concern for others, lack of guilt and inability to form meaningful and lasting relationships
112
What are some further evaluation points of the strange situation?
- Cultural variations
- Assumes attachment types are fixed
- Brofenbenner questions validity as it is an artificial environment and scripted behaviour - attachment is much stronger at home than in the lab
113
What is collectivist culture?
A culture where they emphasise the importance of the group and sharing things; they value interdependence
114
What is a culture?
Rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind group of people together
115
What is individualistic culture?
A culture where they value independence and the importance of the individual
116
What is imposed etc?
Using techniques that are only relevant to one culture to draw conclusions about another culture
117
What is interculture?
Cross culture, comparison of findings from people of different cultures
118
What is intraculture?
Studies across different groups within the same culture
119
If Bowlby is correct about attachments being biologically innate, what should this mean for Van Ijzendoorn?
There should be minimal differences in findings, inter and intra culturally
120
What did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) do in the cultural variations study?
- Conducted a meta analysis of findings from 32 attachment studies
- Over 2,000 strange situations were studied from 8 different countries
121
What is a meta analysis?
When the researcher looks at the findings from a different number of studies to produce a statistic which represents the overall effect
122
What were the countries that had the highest percentages for the attachment types?
Type A: Germany, 35%
Type B: Sweden, 75%
Type C: Israel, 29%
123
What did Van Ijzendoorn find from the culture variations meta analysis?
- Percentages fairly consistent with Ainsworth
- Modal attachment Type N
- Intra cultural differences were often greater than inter cultural differences
- Type A found more in western cultures, Type C found more in Israel, China, Japan
124
What is a key criticism of Van Ijzendoorn's study?
The techniques used in the observation may decrease validity due to imposed etc. Japanese children may appear to be insecurely attached by Western standards however may be secure by Japanese standards
125
Why were the Japanese infants in strange situation significantly stressed when left alone in comparison to American infants?
Japan is more collectivist than America, so infants rarely exercise independence.
126
What did Grossman and Grossman find significant about German infants in Van Ijzendoorn's study?
German infants appear more insecure because their culture encourages interpersonal distance where infants will display less proximity seeking. This is a weakness because it shows cultural differences and suggests attachment types are not biologically innate
127
What did Goldfarb (1943) find in his study of maternal deprivation?
The institution group lagged behind the foster group on all of the measures that were taken. This includes IQ, abstract thinking, social maturity and rule following
128
What did Spitz/Spitz&Wolf find in their study of maternal deprivation?
A third of institutionalised children died before the age of 1. The remainder failed to thrive and showed signs of 'anaclitic depression'. This involved apathy, withdrawal and helplessness.
129
What did Bowlby find in his study of maternal deprivation?
- 86% of the thieves had experienced maternal deprivation early in life
- Only 2 of the disturbed group had experienced maternal deprivation
- Bowlby claimed the thieves showed signs of affection less psychopathy
130
What do the findings of maternal deprivation studies suggest about the way a child's development is affected?
- Lead to depression/mental health issues (affection less psychopathy)
- Affect intellectual health (IQ, abstract thinking)
- Disrupt ability to behave in socially acceptable way (rule following, maturity)
131
What are some key criticisms of Bowlby's maternal deprivation research?
- Memories may not be accurate
- Researcher bias, misdiagnosing participants with affection less psychopathy
- Opportunity sample problems
