Attachment Flashcards
Define reciprocity
Description of how two people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that they respond to each other’s signals and elicits a response
Define interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a co-ordinate (synchronised) way
Outline a study into interactional synchrony
- Meltzoff + Moore
- Controlled observation
- Adult displayed 1/3 facial exp + child’s (2 weeks old) reaction was filmed
- Results: association btw infant behaviour + adults
Evaluate caregiver-infant interactions
(+) Controlled procedure - filmed + babies don’t know they’re being observed - high val
(+) Real life application - parent child interaction therapy improved interactional synchrony
(-) Observation don’t tell the purpose of IS + reciprocity - describe they occur but not purpose - not useful
(-) Socially sensitive research - suggests children at disadvantage by specific rearing practice eg. mothers may return to work
When do babies form a primary attachment and w/ who?
- 7 months
- Mother
When do babies form a secondary attachment and w/ who?
- 18 months (75%)
- Father
Outline the role of the father
- Grossman: longitudinal study looking at parents’ behaviour to teen attachment. Qual of attachment less important for father - less important in LT emotional development
- Qual of father’s play related to qual of adolescent attachment - play + stimulation rather than nurture
Outline a study into father’s being primary caregivers
- Field
- Adopt behaviour typcial of mother
- Filmed 4 year old in FTF interaction w/ 1º mother, 2º father + 1º father
- 1º father: more time imitating, smiling + holding babies than 2º father
Evaluate the role of the father
(-) Researchers interested in diff Q - role of father as 1º + 2º both diff - can’t ans: what is the role of the father?
(-) If distinct role then those w/o must be diff - studies found children growing in single/ same sex families don’t develop diff
(-) Social bias prevent objective observation - stereotypes cause unintentional bias + see what they expect eg. father’s are playful
(-) Socially sensitive
What are the stages of attachment?
- Asocial stage
- Indiscriminate attachment
- Specific attachment
- Multiple attachment
Asocial stage
- First few weeks
- Behaviour towards humans + objects are similar
- Prefer familiar adults
Indiscriminate attachment
- 2-7 months
- Prefer people to objects
- Don’t show stranger/seperation anxiety
Specific attachment
- 7 months
- Form special attachment w/ primary attachment
- Show seperation/stranger anxiety
Multiple attachments
- 1 year
- Schaffer + Emerson: 29% have 2º attachment w/in month of forming 1º
Outline a study into stages of attachment
- Schaffer + Emerson
- 60 Glaswegian babies from working class
- Visited every month for year + at 18 months
- Sep anx: asked mothers bout child’s behaviour during seperations
- Stra anx: asking anx response to unfamiliar adults
- 50% bb showed sep anx towards specific adult btw 25 - 32 weeks
- Attachment tended towards caregiver most interactive + sensitive
Evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment
(+) High ext val - observations carried out by parents, behaviour unaffected
(+) Longitudinal - good internal validity bc no confounding variables btw individuals
(-) Timing of multiple attachments is conflicting - Argues bb form specific before multiple but multi attachment appear first in collectivist cultures
(-) Problem studying asocial year - bb have poor coordination + immobile so difficult to observe
Outline a study into imprinting
- Lorenz
- Randomly divided goose eggs, half hatched w/ mother + other in incubator, mixed gosling to see who they’d follow
- Incubator followed Lorenz + control followed mother
- Identified critical period where imprinting needs to take place, if unsuccessful, chicks don’t attach to mother figure
Sexul imprinting
Birds acquire template of desirable characteristics required in mate
Outline a study into the importance of contact comfort
- Harlow
- 16 rhesus monkey: 1) milk dispensed from wire mother 2)milk dispensed from cloth covered mother
- Baby monkeys cuddled cloth in preference to wire + sought comfort regardless of which dispensed milk - contact comfort more important than food
- Followed to adulthood: aggressive, less sociable + neglected/killed offspring
Evaluate Lorenz’ study into imprinting
(+) Supporting evidence - Guiton found chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate w/ them as adults
(-) Limitation to generalising - Mammalian attachment system diff from birds eg. show more emotional attachment
(-) Conclusions have been questioned - Guiton: w/ experience they learned to mate w/ own kind
Evaluate Harlow’s study into the importance of contact comfort
(+) Practical applications - helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse + prevent it + importance in zoo
(-) Unable to generalise to humans
(-) Unethical - monkey similar to humans to generalise findings so suffering is human-like
Outline the role of operant conditioning as an explanation of attachment
- Crying leads to respone, as caregiver responds, crying is reinforced bc it produces pleasurable consequence
- Caregiver recieves -ve reinforcement bc crying stops
- Interplay of +ve + -ve reinforcement strengthens attachment
Evaluate the learning theory as an explanation for attachment
(+) Some elements of conditioning could be involved - still credible that association btw 1º+ comfort builds attachment
(-) Counter evidence from human research - Schaffer showed bb developed 1º to mother even if other carers fed them
(-)Counter evidence from animal studies - Harlow showed monkeys found comfort in cloth despite which mother fed them
(-) Oversimplifies attachment - ignores reciprocity + interactional synchrony
Outline Bowlby’s theory as an explanation of attachment
- Attachment is innate - survival advantage
- Monotropic - one special attachment
- Bb born w/ social releasers - elicits caring behaviour from adult
- Critical period - 2 years, if not, harder to form attachment
- Forms internal working model of relationships - serves as a template for what relationships are like
Evaluate Bowlby’s theory as an explanation of attachment
(+) Support for IWM - Bailey studies 99 mothers, those w/ poor attachment to parents were poorly attached to baby
(+) Evidence for social releasers - Brazleton instructed 1º caregiver to ignore bb, lay motionless
(-) Mixed evidence for monotropy - Schaffer + Emerson found most bb attached to 1 person but some multi at same time
(-) Socially sensitive - feminist argue that mothers are blamed for children + are pushed to certain lifestyle choices
Outline Ainsworth’s strange situation procedure
- Controlled observation in lab w/ 2 way mirror
- Categories: proximity seeking, exploration + secure base, stranger + seperation anxiety + response to reunion
- Child encouraged to explore
- Stranger enters
- Caregiver leaves
- Caregiver returns, stranger leaves
- Caregiver leaves
- Stranger returns
- Caregiver returns
Outline Ainsworth’s strange situation findings + conclusions
- Secure attachment: 60-75% (happy to explore but seeks proximity, moderate anxiety + requires + accepts comfort)
- Insecure-avoidant: 20-25% (explores freely + doesnt’s seek proximity, little anxiety + doesn’t require comfort)
- Insecure-resistant: 3% (explores less + seeks proximity, anxiety + resists comfort at reunion)
Evaluate Ainsworth’s strange situation
(+) High inter-rater reliability - 94% agreement
(-) Culture bound - Japanese mother’s rarely leave bb so high seperation anxiety
(-) Confounding variable - main influence in anxiety is qual of attachment but temperment is important
(-) Other attachment types - Main + Solomon: atypical attachments which is disorganised attachment, mix btw avoidant + resistant
Outline Ijzendoorn + Kroonenberg’s meta analysis into cultural variations of attachment
- 32 studies from 8 countries + btw cultures
- Secure was most common in every country
- Avoidant next in individualist countries
- But collectivist (Israel + Japan) had resistant next
- Variation w/in countries was 1.5x greater than btw eg. America securely was 46% + 90%
Outline Simonelli et al’s study into cultural variation in attachment
- 76 12 month old bb using strange situation + matched to previous study
- Mother’s varied in terms of education level + profession
- 50% secure, 36% avoidant - lower secure found than previous
- Due to inc working hrs
Evaluate cultural variations in attachment
(+) Large sample - I + K 2000 bbs - inc internal val
(-) SS in culture bound - designed by American based on British theory - imposed etic
(-) Findings based on countries not culture - Tokyo: found similar results to Western but in rural, more resistant
(-) Confounding variables - influence on anxiety due to qual of attachment but temperament is important
What is the difference btw seperation and deprivation?
- Sep: child not being physically in presence of 1º attachment figure
- Dep: losing emotional care as result of seperation, can be avoided if alt emotional care is offered
What is the critical period, in which the child is seperated from their mother, for maternal deprivation to occur?
30 months
What are the effects of maternal deprivation?
- Mental retardation
- Abnormally low IQ
- Affectionless psychopathy - inability to experience guilt, empathy + affection, prevents development of normal relationships + associated w/ criminality
Outine the study into maternal deprivation
- Bowlby 44 thieves
- 44 delinquent teens accused of stealing, fam interviewed
- Thieves interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
- 14/44 described as AP, 12/14 experienced prolonged seperation from mother first 2 yrs
Evaluate maternal deprivation
(+) Research support - Bifulco et al found women exp sep more likely exp depression/anx disorder than control
(-) Methodologically flawed - researcher bias
(-) Counter-evidence - Lewis replicated study using 500, history of prolong sep didn’t predict criminality
(-) Sensitive period - czech twins isolated from 18 months, looked after by loving adults + fully recovered
Define institutionalisation
Term for effects of living in institutional setting. ‘Institution’ refers to place like hospital or orphanage where children live for long periods of time. Often v little emotional care provided.
Outline the effects of institutionalisation
- Disinhibited attachment - equally friendly to familiar people + strangers - adaptation to multi caregivers
- Mental retardation - not affected if adopted before 6 months
- Poor parenting in future
- Physical underdevelopment
Outline Rutter’s English + Romanian adoptee study
- 165 Romanian orphans who spent early lives in institution, 11 adopted before 2 + 54 by 4
- Physical, cognitive + social development examined by interviewing parents + teachers at age 4, 6, 11 + 15. Progress compared w/ 52 British children adopted before 6 months
- By 4 romanian children caught up w/ british but those adopted after 6 months showed clinginess, attention seeking + disinhibited attachment
Outline Zeanah et al’s Bucharest early intervention project
- Used SS to assess 95 children aged 12-31 months who spent most of their lives in institutional care
- Compared w/ control group of 50 children
- Only 19% IG were securely attached
- 65% disorganised attachment
Evaluate the effects of institutionalisation
(+) Practical application - institutions avoid large no. caregivers for each child, 1/2 play central role
(+) Fewer confounding variables - oprhan studies involved children who experienced loss + trauma, hard to isolate effects of institutionalisation. RS abandoned at birth
(-) Low generalisability - conditions poor standard of care
(-) Methodological flaw - Rutter didnt randomly assign so children adopted may be more sociable
Define the internal working model
Mental representation we carry w/ us of our attachment to our 1º caregiver. Important in affecting future relationships bc carry our perception of what relationships are like
Outline the effects of attachment types on relationships in later childhood
- Securely attached form best qual friendships, unlikely to be involved in bullying
- IA: victims of bullying
- IR: bullies
Outline the effects of attachment types on relationships as a parent
Base parenting style on internal working model so attachment type passed through fam
Outline a study showing the effects of attachment types on relationships in adulthood w/ romantic partners
- Hazan + Shaver
- Analysed 620 replies to love quiz in American local newspaper
- Quiz assessed: respondents’ current + most important relationship, general love exp + attachment type
- 56% securely, 25% IA, 19% IR
- Attachment type reflected in romantic relationship: secure had good + long lasting, avoidant jealous + fear intimacy
Evaluate the influence of early attachment on later relationships
(-) Influence of attachment type is probablistic - exaggerated, not doomed to have bad relationship just higher risk, too pessimistic
(-) Association doesn’t mean causation - temperment acts as a 3rd variable
(-) Low validity - studies use interviews + questionnaire to asses, depend on pp honesty + realistic view
(-) Counter evidence - Zimmerman assessed infant attachment + adolescent attachment to parents, little relationship btw qual
