Attachment

Question 1

attachment

Answer 1

a strong, enduring, emotional and reciprocal bond between 2 people especially an infant and caregiver

Question 2

New born alert phases

Answer 2

from birth babies and mothers/ Primary care giver spend a lot of time in intense and pleasurable interactions
babies have periodic alert phases and signals they are ready for interactions which mothers respond to around 2/3 of the time.

Question 3

international synchrony

Answer 3

the temporal coordination of micro level social behaviours. some actions simultaneously.
mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other

Question 4

when is international sychrony first displayed

Answer 4

in infants as young as 2 weeks old

Question 5

International synchrony Meltzof and Moore (1977)

Answer 5

adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or 1 of 3 distinct gestures and the child’s response was filmed
an association was found between the expression/ gesture and the action of the child

Question 6

International synchrony Isabella et al

Answer 6

observed 30 mothers and infants to asses degree of synchrony and quality of attachment
high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment.

Question 7

international synchrony is important in

Answer 7

development of attachment

high synchrony = higher quality attachment

Question 8

reciprocity

Answer 8

where one person responds to the other
from 3 months reciprocal interactions increase
it involves the close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions
both mother and infant can initiate interactions.

Question 9

evaluation of caregiver interactions (5)

Answer 9

• hard to know what is happening when observing. we cannot get the infants perspective
• well controlled procedures: experiments were filmed. babies don’t know their being observed. better validity
• purpose of synchrony and reciprocity: it is simple a description of the two not how they occur. some evidence that synchrony is helpful in the development of mother infant attachment, stress responses, empathy, language and moral development.
• socially sensitive: child may be at disadvantage because of child rearing practises, mothers who work.
• value to society: international synchrony foundation for high quality attachments lead to valuable methods for improving and developing mother- infant attachments.

Question 10

secondary attachment are most likely to be formed with the

Answer 10

father

75% if infants studied formed attachments with father by the age of 18 months

Question 11

role of father. Grossmann

Answer 11

• carried out longitudinal study looking at parent’s behaviour and its relationship to the quality of child attachment into teens
• quality of attachment with the father was less important in attachment type of the teenagers than quality of attachment with mother
• therefore fathers may be less important in long term emotional development

Question 12

father role in attachment

Answer 12

quality of father’s play with infants was related to attachment
suggests fathers have a different role in attachment one more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with nurturing

Question 13

fathers as primary caregivers Field

Answer 13

when fathers take on the role of the main caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers
filmed 4 month old babies and found that primary caregiver fathers like mothers, spent more time smiling imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers

Question 14

level of response is more important than gender

Answer 14

• smiling, imitating and holding infants are behaviours that appear to be important in building attachments
  fathers can be a more nurturing attachment figure
• the key to attachment relationship is the levels of responsiveness not gender

Question 15

Evaluation of role of father

Answer 15

• research interested in different questions: some focus on fathers as secondary caregivers other focus them as primary caregiver.
• evidence undermines idea father have distinct role: children growing up in same sex or single are not different
• no clear answers about fathers as primary attachment. related to traditional gender roles or could be female hormones that mean women are more nurturing are more commonly primary attachment figures
• social biases: preconceptions and stereotypes about fathers cause observer bias. hard to disentangle actual role from social biases about their role
• economic implications: mother’s pressurised to stay at home. not to contribute to the economy. research comforts women in making a decision.

Question 16

shaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 16

1, asocial stage: fist weeks cant distinguish between objects and humans

2. indiscriminate: 2-7 month. preference for people. accept comfort from any adult no separation or stranger anxiety
3. specific: 7 months + display stranger and separation anxiety from PAF
4. multiple: 1 year+ form secondary attachment

Question 17

A social stage

Answer 17

first stage
first weeks
recognising and forming preferences to familiar adults
can’t distinguish between objects and humans
happy in presence of other humans

Question 18

indiscriminate attachment

Answer 18

the second state
2-7 months
preference for people rather than objects
recognise and prefer familiar adults
accepts comfort from any adults
does not show separation or stranger anxiety

Question 19

specific attachment

Answer 19

3rd stage
7 months +
display stranger and separation anxiety from 1 particular adult
this is the primary attachment figure
not necessarily the person child spends most time but one that offers most interaction.

Question 20

multiple attachment

Answer 20

4th stage
1 year +
form secondary attachment with whom they spend time with

Question 21

schaffer and Emerson study

Answer 21

procedure: 60 infants from working class Glasgow
babies and mothers visited at home every month for a year and at 18 months
separation and stranger anxiety measured by asking mothers 50% of babies showed separation anxiety between 25 and 32 weeks.
primary attachment mother
attachment was caregiver most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expression i.e reciprocity

Question 22

evaluation of shaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 22

• external validity: baby behaviour unlikely to effected by observer, observations made by parent. participants behaved naturally whole being observed.
• longitudinality: better validity have less confounding variables due to participant differences in cross sectional
• problems with how multiple attachment assessed: just because they are distressed could be playmate.
• problems with asocial year: young babies are immobile so it is different to make judgements based on observation. babies may be quite social but because of flawed methods seem a social
• timing of multiple attachments: some cultures multiple attachments appear from outset. collectivist

Question 23

Lorenz

Answer 23

aim: to study for imprinting in geese
- classical experiment randomly divided eggs
half hatched with mother other half with Lorenz
findings:
- Lorenz group followed him everywhere and mother’s group followed mother even when groups mixed.
critical period for imprinting was the first few hours
if imprinting did not happen in this time it never did

Question 24

Lorenz and sexual imprinting

Answer 24

birds that imprint on a human showed courtship behaviours towards humans
a peacock reared with giant tortoises sowed courtship behaviours with tortoises
sexual imprinting occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of desirable characteristics required in a mate.

Question 25

evaluation of Lorenz

Answer 25

• hard to generalise to humans- mammalian attachment system is very different to birds. e.g emotional attachment
• concept of imprinting: chicks imprinting to yellow gloves would try to mate with them. animals are born with innate mechanisms to imporint on a moving object in a critical window
• some of observations and conclusions questioned: chicks and rubber gloves after experience they learned to mate with own kind. effects of imprinting are not as long lasting

Question 26

Harlow’s Monkeys

Answer 26

• investigate importance of contact and comfort inn attachment
  procedure: 16 baby rhesus monkeys with 2 wire mothers. in one condition milk was dispensed by wire mother
  condition 2 dispensed by cloth mother
  findings:
  monkeys sort comfort from the cloth mothers regardless of which gave milk. comfort more important than food in attachment behaviour.

Question 27

Harlow: maternally deprived monkeys

Answer 27

• maternally deprived monkeys were more aggressive, less sociable, bred less, neglected their young or attacked their young

Question 28

Harlow: critical period

Answer 28

a mother figure had to be introduced in a 90 day period

Question 29

Evaluation of Harlow

Answer 29

• important practical value: helped social works understanding risk of child abuse and the importance of attachment figures
• ethics: monkey similar to humans and suffered greatly.. Harlow was aware of the suffering he caused. however findings might have enough significant important to allow for such procedures.
• generalising: monkeys are not human. human babies develop speech and communication influences formation of attachment. can’t generalise findings

Question 30

classical conditioning

Answer 30

learning to associate 2 stimuli together so that you begin to respond the same way you already responded to the other

Question 31

the role of classical conditioning in attachment

Answer 31

UCS (food) –> UCR (pleasure)
UCS (food) + NI (mother) –> UR (pleasure)
CS (mother –> CR (pleasure)

Question 32

opperant conditioning

Answer 32

learning to repeat a behaviour, or to not repeat, depending on its consequences
if behaviour produces pleasant consequences it is likely to be repeated again
if consequences is negative behaviour is less likely to be repeated.

Question 33

role of operant conditioning

Answer 33

from infants perspective: +ve reinforcement
crying –> +ve response from caregiver –> crying is reinforced
from caregiver’s perspective: -ve reinforcement
caregiver responds –> infant stops crying –> more pleasant so responding is reinforced.

Question 34

positive reinforcement

Answer 34

is where someone receives something pleasant from doing a behaviour

Question 35

negative reinforcement

Answer 35

behaviour results in the removal of something unpleasant

Question 36

internal working model of relationships

Answer 36

Bowlby montropic theory
- child forms a mental representation of the relationship with paf
- this serves as a template for what relationships are like
child experiences loving relationship –> future loving relationships
poor treatment relationship PAF –> poor relationships in future expect treatment or treats others
affects childs ability to parent

Question 37

drive reduction

Answer 37

hunger is primary drive an innate biological motivator
motivated to eat reducing drive
attachment is secondary drive learned by an association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive.
as care givers provide food primary drive of hunger generalised to them

Question 38

evaluation of learning theory of attachment

Answer 38

• animal studies evidence against: comfort more important
• human research against: shaffer and emmerson PAF was the mother even when others did feeding.
• ignores other factors: cannot account for sensitivity and international synchrony, reciprocity studies show importance
• element still involved: many other aspects of development associated by condition. primary caregiver associated with comfort and interaction
• SLT: parent’s teach children to love by modelling rewarding with approval. behaviour learnt as a result of interaction. fits with importance of interactional synchrony

Question 39

monotropic

Answer 39

Bowlby
emphasis on the child’s attachment to one caregiver
this attachment is different from others and more important
this person is the mother although not necessary bio one.

Question 40

law of continuity

Answer 40

the more constant a childs care the better the quality of attachment

Question 41

law of accumulated separation

Answer 41

effects of every separation adds up.

so the safest does is zero

Question 42

social releasers

Answer 42

innate cute behaviours act as a social releaser because their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system
reciprocal process
both had innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response

Question 43

critical period

Answer 43

bowlby
critical period is 2 years where the infant attachment system is active
could be called sensitive period
a child is maximally sensitive up to the age of 2 years
if an attachment has not formed in this time they will find it mushc harder to form one later

Question 44

evaluation of Bowlby monotropic theory

Answer 44

• mixed evidence for montoropy: shaffer and emerson found a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time. mother attachment better predictor due to PA not different quality
• support social releasers: when social releasers ignored babies were distressed and motionless strong response supports
• support internal working model: interview of mothers and assessed attachment. those reported bad attachments with their mother had a bad attachment with their own child
• monotropy social sensitive: feminist blaming the mother and life choices
• overemphasise role of attachment: temperament is more important. temperamental difference rather than quality of attachment explain latter behaviours.

Question 45

aimsworth strange situation
aims
type of investigation

Answer 45

developed strange situation as a method to assess the quality of child’s attachment to a caregiver
controlled observation procedure in lab
with 2 way mirror in which psychologists could observe infants

Question 46

ainsworth strange situation

5 categories used to judge attachment quality and type

Answer 46

1. proximity seeking
2. exploration and secure base behaviour
3. stranger anxiety
4. separation anxiety
5. response to reunion with caregiver after separation for short period of time

Question 47

ainsworth strange situation

procedure

Answer 47

1. child encouraged to explore
2. stranger enters interacts with caregiver and infant
3. caregiver leaves
4. the caregiver returns, stranger leaves
5. caregiver leaves child alone
6. the stranger returns
7. the caregiver returns

Question 48

secure attachment

Answer 48

60-75% of British toddlers

• child happy to explore but seeks proximity with care giver (secure base)
• shows moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
• requires and accepts comfort from caregiver on reunion

Question 49

insecure avoidant

Answer 49

20 - 25% British toddlers

• child explores freely but does not seek proximity (no secure base)
• shows little / no separation and stranger anxiety
• does not require comfort at reunion stage

Question 50

insecure resistant

Answer 50

3% of British toddlers

• child explores less and seeks greater proximity
• shows considerable stranger and separation anxiety
• resist comfort when reunited with caregiver

Question 51

evaluation of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 51

• predictive validity: attachment types predict later development validity of the concept explains subsequent outcomes
• good inter-rater reliability: different observers agree same 94% of the time. controlled conditions and categories easy to observe
• culture bond test: attachment behaviour different meaning in different cultures.
• temperament confounding variable: more important influence on behaviour. questions validity
• other attachment types: disorganised attachment mix of avoidant and resistant behaviour

Question 52

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg meta analysis

Answer 52

cultural variations strange situation
32 studies across different countries
Britain secure 75% china secure 50%
insecure resistant more common in collective
Britain 3%. 30% in Israel
insecure avoidant: most common in Germany and least in Japan
- variation in same country was 150% greater than those between countries

Question 53

simanelli et al

Answer 53

cultural variations
assessed 76 12 months olds
mothers reasonably varied in terms of education
50% secure. 36% insecure avoidant
lower rate of secure attachment in previous studies. due to increasing no. of mothers working long hours using professional child care.
cultural changes make dramatic differences in patterns of attachment

Question 54

takahashi

Answer 54

cultural variations
- 60 middle class Japanese infants and mothers
0% insecure avoidant
32% insecure resistant
68% secure
90% stop due to extreme infant stress
- Japanese infants rarely separated from mothers and extremely impolite to avoid interacting with others.

Question 55

evaluation of cultural variation in attachment

Answer 55

• large samples in meta analysis reduces impact of anomalous results. improve internal validity
• samples unrepresentative of culture: countries do not equate to culture. specific methods of child rearing can’t make generalisation
• method assessment is biased: research imposes USA test on other cultures (imposed etic)
• cross cultural differences due to media: creating different parenting norms
• temperament confounding variables

Question 56

continuous emotional care

Answer 56

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

- care from mother or mother substitute is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development.

Question 57

separation

Answer 57

bowlby theory of maternal deprivation

separation means the child not being physically in the presence of primary attachment figure.

Question 58

deprivation

Answer 58

bowlby theory of maternal deprivation
- deprivation means losing emotional care as a result of separation
deprivation can be avoided if alternative emotional care is offered this separation doesn’t always cause deprivation

Question 59

critical period of separation

Answer 59

bowlby theory of maternal deprivation
30 months
if a child is separated from mother (without substitute emotional care) for an extended time during 1st 30 months, then the psychological damage is inevitable

Question 60

how does deprivation effect intellectual development

Answer 60

Bowlby theory of maternal deprivation
if a child is deprived of maternal care for too long during critical period they will suffer mental retardation and abnormal low IQ
Goldfast found lower IQ in children from institutions compared to faster children

Question 61

how does deprivation effect emotional development

Answer 61

lack of emotional care may lead to affection less psychopathy the inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others
this prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
affection less psychopathy.

Question 62

Bowlby’s 44 thieves study

Answer 62

procedure: sample of 44 delinquent teens accused of stealing.
families were interviewed to established prolonged separation
all thieves interview showed signs of affection less psychopathy
findings: 14 could be described as affection less psychopaths. of these 12 experienced prolonged separations n first 2 years. only 3 of the remaining 30 had experienced separation.
this suggests prolonged early separation / deprivation causes affection less psychopathy.

Question 63

what are the 2 effects of institutionalisation

Answer 63

Romanian orphan studies

• dis-inhibited attachment
• damage to intellectual development

Question 64

dis-inhibited attachment

Answer 64

a child is equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or who are strangers
this may be an adaptation to multiple caregivers

Question 65

mental retardation

Answer 65

damage to intellectual development

effect is not as pronounced if the child are adopted before 6 months of age.

Question 66

Rutter’s English and Romanian adoptee ERA study

procedure

Answer 66

• researchers followed group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted to Britain
• longitudinal. test the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences
  physical cognitive an emotional development has been assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years
  the study followed a control group of 52 adopted British children.

Question 67

Rutter’s ERA study

findings and conclusions

Answer 67

half of orphans showed mental retardation when they come to the UK. at age 11 recovery rates were related to age of adoption
before 6 months IQ 102
between 6 months and 2 years IQ 86
those adopted after 2 years mean IQ 77
children adopted after 6 months were clingy, attention seeking and indiscriminate affection
rare in those adopted before 6 months
findings support sensitive period in development of attachment. failure to form before 6 months long lasting effects.

Question 68

Burcharest Early Intervention Project.

Zeanah et al

Answer 68

procedure: used strange situation to asses attachment in 95 children aged 12 -31 months who spent most of their lives in institutional care
they were compared to a control group of 5 kids who had never experienced institutional care
findings:
- 19% of institutionalised securely attached
- 65% classified with disorganised attachment

Question 69

Romanian orphan studies evaluation

Answer 69

• important practical application: led to improvements in institutions change key workers develop normal attachments
• fewer confounding variables: studies before children experienced trauma. without these increased internal validity
• generalisability: conditions so bad results can be applied as unusual situation variables cant apply to other situations
• Not randomly assigned: did not interfere with the adoption process likely those adopted were more sociable. Bucharest did randomly assign to remove confounding variables but this raises ethical issues
• long term effect: those who lag behind may still catch up. early adopted may experience problems later in life.

Question 70

good experience of attachment =

Answer 70

good relationship expectations
a child whose first experience is a loving relationship with reliable caregiver assumes that this is how all relationships are meant to be
they will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.

Question 71

bad experience of attachment =

Answer 71

bad relationship expectations
a child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these experiences to later relationships
this means they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they do not behave appropriately in them

Question 72

how does secure attachment in infancy affect friendships and bullying

Answer 72

securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality of childhood friendships
securely attached infants are less likely to be involved in bullying whereas in secure-avodiant children are most likely to be the victims and insecure- resistant most likely to be the bullies.

Question 73

how does internal working model affect parenting

Answer 73

people base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family

Question 74

Hazan and Shaver love quiz

Answer 74

influence of early attachment on later relationships
researchers analysed 620 replies american local newspaper
quiz assessed different aspects
- general love experiences
- respondents current and most important relationship
-attachment type 56% secure 25% avoidant 119% resistant
attachment type reflected in romantic relationships
- secure respondents were most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic relationships
- avoidant tended to be jealous and fear intimacy

Question 75

evaluation of influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 75

• evidence on continuity is mixed: assessed infant and adolescent attachment with very little relationship found.
• validity issues: test attachment using interview ans questions retroactive bias views
• indicates association: temperament may effect. alternative explanations. internal working model may not cause outcome
• exaggerated: probabilistic. does not doom people just increases risk of problems too pessimistic
• theoretical problem: Internal working model is unconscious and un-falsifiable no direct evidence. participants answers depend on conscious understanding.

Question 76

evaluation of Bowbly theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 76

• evidence flawed. studied war orphans who were traumatised and had poor after care. these factors were more important. poor quality institutions deprived of many aspects of care. Bowbly interviewed himself bias.
• counter evidence: Lewis replicated 44 thieves. early prolonged maternal separation did not predict criminality or different relationships. limitation.
• later research sensitive period. Czech twins. after care fully recovered. positive outcomes. sensitive rather than critical as not permanent
• animal studies. separating baby rats from mother even for a day had permanent effect on social development. extent of generalisation
• didn’t distinguish between deprivation and privation. privation is the failure to form any attachment. Bowbly misdiagnosed. many 44 thieves did not form attachments in the first place.