Attachment Flashcards
Define 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, almost as if taking turns
Define interactional synchrony
When mother and infant both reflect the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated, synchronised way
Summarise research into reciprocity
- Brazleton found children as young as two weeks old could attempt to copy the caregiver and described reciprocity as a dance
- Feldman (2007) found mothers pick up on babies social interactions 2 thirds of the time and these increase in frequency from three months
Summarise research into interactional synchrony
- Feldman (2007) stated this was temporal coordination of microlevel social behaviour
- Meltzoff + Moore (1977) observed interactional synchrony. Parents made one of three expressions. Child response filmed and association found between gesture and action of baby
- Isabella (1989) observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed degree of synchrony and quality of relationship. Positive correlation found
Summarise research into parent infant attachment
- Schaffer + Emerson (1964) found the majority of babies attached to mother within seven months and formed secondary attachments after
- 75% attached with father by 18 months determined by protest when father absent
Summarise research into the role of the father
- Grossman (2002) carried out longitudinal study looking at parent behaviour and relationship to quality of attachment
- Quality of attachment with mother but not father related to adolescent attachment
- Quality of fathers play related to adolescent attachment suggesting father is for play not nurture
Summarise research into the role of a father as a primary caregiver
- Evidence to suggest when fathers take on role they adopt motherly behaviours
- Field (1978) filmed 4-month old babies in face to face interaction with primary mothers, fathers and secondary fathers
- Primary spent more time smiling and imitating
- This behaviour can be seen to be important in formation of attachment
- Key to attachment is responsiveness and not gender
AO3: Why is it hard to know what is happening when observing infants?
- Studies with observation show same interactions (Gratier 2003)
- Only expression and movement is observed
- Difficult to be certain what takes place from infant perspective (conscious or not)
- Cannot know that these behaviours have a special meaning
AO3: Why are controlled observations good in attachment studies?
- Well controlled observations such as Brazleton who filmed different angles
- Fine detail captured and babies do not know they are filmed so demand characteristics do not change behaviour
- Strength as good inter-rater reliability and therefore valid conclusions
AO3: Why don’t observations tell us the purpose of behaviour in attachment research?
- Feldman (2012) points out synchrony and reciprocity only describe behaviour
- Reliable observed but not useful as purpose unknown
- Bremner distinguished between behavioural response and behavioural understanding
- Although evidence shows important for attachment
AO3: Why are there inconsistent findings on fathers?
- Psychologists aim to find different things
- Primary attachment father research shows fathers more maternal and secondary attachment father research does not
- Psychologists cannot still determine role of the father
AO3: Why are children without father’s not different?
- Grossman (2002) found fathers as secondary attachment figures were important
- Other research (MacCallum and Golombok 2004) found children growing up with one or same sex parents are not different
- Suggest fathers role as secondary attachment figure not important
AO3: Why don’t fathers become primary attachment figures?
- Result of traditional gender roles where women expected to nurture
- Fathers feel they don’t act like that
- Female hormones create higher levels of nurture and are biological predisposed to be primary attachment figure
AO3: Why is research into caregiver infant interaction socially sensitive?
- Suggests some children disadvantaged due to certain child rearing practices
- E.g mother who returns to work
- Suggests parent should stay at home
- Benefit of research must be considered
Define stages of attachment
Many developmental theories identify a sequence of qualitatively different behaviours linked to specific ages. In stages of attachment some characteristics of behaviour to others changes as the infant ages
Define multiple attachments
Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachment once one has been formed with the main carer
Summarise the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- Longitudinal study with 60 babies, 31 male, 39 female
- Glasgow estate and from skilled working class
- Babies visited at home every month for a year and at 18 months
- Researcher asked about protests e.g separation anxiety and stranger anxiety and analysed interaction
Summarise the findings of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- Between 25 and 32 weeks of ages, 50% showed separation anxiety to an adult, usually the mother
- Attachment tended to be to the adult who was most interactive and sensitive and not who spent the most time
- By 40 weeks, 80% had a specific attachments and 30% had multiple attachments
State and describe the stages of attachment
Asocial stage (first few weeks) = Baby's behaviour towards non human and human similar. Preference for familiar adults Indiscriminate attachment = 2-7 months where babies more sociable and prefer humans more. Accept affection from all adults Specific attachment = From 7 months the baby displays anxiety to strangers and separation from particular adult (primary attachment figure) who offers the most interaction Multiple attachments = Babies begin to show attachment to other adults who they spend time with. 29% have one within a month of a specific attachment with multiple by the age of 1
AO3: How does Schaffer and Emerson (1964) have good external validity?
- Families own home and most observation carried out by parent
- Behaviour unaffected by presence of observers and hence behaviour natural increasing external validity
- However, parent measuring behaviour may cause problems with internal validity
AO3: Why is it a strength that Schaffer and Emerson (1964) had a longitudinal design?
- Same children observed and followed up. Although cross sectional designs are quicker, they suffer from confounding variables due to individual differences
- Hence longitudinal has better internal validity
AO3: Why does Schaffer and Emerson (1964) lack population validity?
- Sample size of 60 with large volume of data
- All families from same city, same district and same social class
- Practices vary from one culture to another and between historical periods
- Results may not generalise socially and historically
AO3: What is the problem with studying the asocial stage?
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) describe first few weeks as asocial
- In this time, babies are immobile and coordination bad
- Difficult to observe and infer this behaviour
- Does not mean child is not social, just that evidence cannot be relied on
AO3: Why is there conflicting evidence on multiple attachments?
- Not clear when this occurs
- Some research indicates most if not all form after attachment to main carer formed (Bowlby 1969)
- Others who work in cultures with multiple caregivers believe multiple attachments form first (van Ijzendoorn 1993)
- These cultures are collectivist
AO3: Why is there a problem how multiple attachments are measured?
- Hard to signify multiple attachments
- Just because distress caused when leaving does not signify attachment
- Bowlby (1969) pointed out children get distressed when play mates leave
- Weakness as does not allow distinction between behaviour for secondary attachment and playmates
Define animals studies
Studies in psychology carried out on non-human species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons. Practical as animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals
Define imprinting
When an animal forms an attachment to the first moving object or person they see directly after birth
Summarise the procedure of Lorenz
- Classic experiment and divided goose eggs
- Half hatched with mother and half hatched in incubator with Lorenz as the first object they saw
Summarise the findings of Lorenz
- Those hatched in incubator followed Lorenz and control group followed mother
- When two groups mixed, they still followed the same object/person as before
What did Lorenz identify in his research?
A critical period in which imprinting needs to occur or animals will not form an attachment. This can be as brief as a few hours and is species dependant
Other than imprinting, what else did Lorenz research?
- Relationship between imprinting and mate preferences
- Sexual imprinting is where the animal attaches to and displays sexual/courtship behaviour to first moving object
- Case study of peacock reared in reptile house
- As an adult it only showed courtship behaviour to tortoises
Summarise the procedure of Harlow (1958)
- Tested idea soft objects serve some function of the mother
- 16 rhesus monkeys reared with wire mothers, one with milk one with fur
- Frightened and observed which monkey was ran to
Summarise the findings of Harlow (1958)
- Baby monkeys cuddled soft object and went to soft one when frightened regardless of dispensing milk
- Shows contact comfort important in attachment over food
What happened to the monkeys in Harlow’s experiment?
- Monkeys deprived of real mother to see if early maternal deprivation had an effect
- Monkeys with wire mothers dysfunctional
- Even monkeys with soft mothers were not socially adept
- As mothers some attacked and killed their offspring
What was the critical period for development according to Harlow?
- Critical period for behaviour
- Mother must be introduced to infant in 90 days
- After this attachment was impossible and damage irreversible
AO3: Evaluate the generalisability of Lorenz’s research to humans
- Mammalian attachment different to birds
- Mammalian mothers show more emotion and mammals can form attachment anytime, even if it is harder after infancy
- Not appropriate to generalise to humans
AO3: Why have some of Lorenz’s observations been questioned?
- Lorenz claimed imprinting permanent
- Guiton (1966) found chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves but with experience preferred other chickens
- Weakness as impact of imprinting not permanent as thought
AO3: Why does Harlow’s research have high theoretical value?
- Profound effect on human mother infant attachment
- Showed attachment does not develop as the result of feeding but rather due to contact comfort
- Showed importance of quality of early relationships for later social development including rearing children
AO3: Why does Harlow’s research have high practical value?
- Application to a range of contexts
- Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and helped to intervene/prevent (Howe 1998)
- Important for captive monkeys and the importance of proper attachment
AO3: Why does Harlow’s research suffer from ethical issues?
- Suffered greatly
- Considered similar enough to generalise which means suffering also similar
- Harlow aware of suffering e.g iron maiden mothers
- However research was important to justify effects
Define learning theory
A set of theories from the behaviourist approach that emphasis the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. These include classical and operant conditioning
Who proposed learning theory in attachment?
Dollar + Miller (1950)