attachment Flashcards
what are two caregiver interactions
reciprocity and interactional synchrony
what is interaction synchrony
- mirroring
- it takes place when mother and infant interact in such way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
what did Meltzof and Moore (1977) observe and find
- observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks
old
an adult displayed 1 of three facial expressions or gestures and the childs response was filmed.
an association was found between the expression/ gesture and the action of the child.
what does it mean if there is high interactional synchrony
higher quality of attachment- provides necessary foundation for the mother and infant connection which can be built in later years
what did Isabella et al (1989) investigate
-observed 20 mothers and infants together assessing the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother- infant attachment
they found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment
what is Reciprocity
when one person responds to the other. involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions
what did brazleton et al (1975) do in relation to Reciprocity
described it as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couples dance, where each partner responds to the others moves.
what is different about the baby, that was different in more traditional views
the baby is now seen to be more active in the attachment process.
A03 EVALUATION (is and recip) - limitation when observing infants
- its hard to know whats happening when observing infants. many studies have shown the same patterns of behaviour (GRATIER 2003). however, what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression. it is difficult to be sure, based on observations, what is taking place from the infants perspective–> are signals deliberate or conscious.
AO3 EVALUATION (is and recip) - strengths
research uses well controlled procedures ; often filmed from multiple angles and so fine details of behaviour can be recorded.
- babies dont know they are being observed, so they show no demand characteristics. - this is a strength because it means the study has good validity.
a strength is its potential value to society
-identification of interactional synchrony as an important foundation in the formation of high- quality attachments could have partical applications that benefit society.
-crotwell et al (2013) found that a 10 minute parent-child interaction therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their pre-school infants compared to a control group.
these findings suggest that research on interactional synchrony could lead to valuable methods for improving and developing mother-infant attachments.
AO3 EVALUATION (is and recip) - Limitations
Observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
- Feldman (2012) points out that synchrony simply describes behaviours that occur at the same time
- they are robust phenomena in the sense that the can be reliably observed but this may not be useful because it doesn’t tell us its purpose.
social sensitive
-it suggests children might be disadvantaged by particular -child rearing practices. specifically mothers who return to work shortly after a child is born as it ‘restrict the opportunities for achieving interactional synchrony’ this suggests that mothers should not return to work so soon- obvious socially sensitive implications.
who does research into the role of the father
Shaffer and emerson (1964)
what did shaffer and emerson find
majority of babies became attached to their mothers first
-3% father was first sole attachment
-27% father was joint first with mother
within a few weeks secondary attachment is formed
-75% formed secondary attachments by 18 months (infants protested when father left, suggesting attachment)
who thought attachment with mother was most related to teen attachments
Grossman (2002)
-longitudal study looking at parents’ behaviour and its relationship to quality of childrens attachments into their teens.
-found quality of attachment with father was less important in the attachment type for teenagers and so may be less important in long-term emotional development.
Fathers ______ is more important in attachment as they have a different role
play
their role is in attachment is more playful and stimulating - less to do with nurturing,
who said fathers can be primary caregivers
Field (1978) filmed 4month old babies and found that primary caregiver fathers, like mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants more than secondary caregiver fathers
what is most important in forming attachments
level of response - key to attachment is level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent
A03 EVALUATION - role of the father
limtiations
x a limitation is researchers are interested in different research questions
psychologists what to understand role as the father as different things and so simply cannot answer the question what is the role of the father
x evidence undermines the idea of fathers having distinct roles
Grossman; fathers as secondary attachments had a distinct role in children development, other studies (e.g. McCallum & Golombok ) found that children growing up in single sex parent families don’t dvelop differently from those in two- parent.
xfails to provide clear answer about fathers and primary attachments.
the answer could be related to traditional gender roles on the idea of the female being expected to be more caring and nurturing - or female hormones crete higher levels of nurturing and so are biologically predisposed to be primary attachment figures.
x social biases prevent objective observations
preconceptions about how fathers behave influence researcher to look out and see what they expect to see unintentionally.
x has economic implications
mothers feel pressured to stay home even though economically might not be the best decision for the family,
what are shaffers four stages of attachment
- asocial ; some preference for familiar adults, behaviour between objects and humans are quite similar
- Indiscriminate; babies display preference for people instead of inanimate objects. do not show stranger or separation anxiety
- Specific; show stranger and separation anxiety. formed primary attachment
-Multiple; secondary attachments formed
29% form secondary attachments within a month of forming primary ones.
briefly explain Schaffer and Emerson’’s research into stages of attachment
-60 babies from Glasgow, working class families,
visited one a month for a year and at 18 months
- separation anxiety measured by asking mothers about their behaviour during everyday separations.
-stranger anxiety measured by asking mothers questions about their children’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.
FINDINGS
-50% showed separation anxiety between 25 and 32 weeks. -specific attachment stage
- attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infants signal.
A03 EVALUATION- strengths of Shaffer and Emersons stages of attachment study
- it has high external validity; most observers were made my parents and reported to researchers. so the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of the observer. and so highly likely ppt behaved naturally when being observed.
- the study was carried out longitudinally; same children were followed-up and observed regulary, so has high internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable or individual differences between participants.
A03 EVALUATION- Limitations of Shaffer and Emersons stages of attachment study
x may be a problem with how multiple attachments is assessed; just beause a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean that the individual is a ‘true’ attachment figure.
x problem in stuyding asocial behaviour; young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile, making it difficult to make judgments based on observations of their behaviour. it may be babies are actually quite social but, due to flawed methods they appear asocial
x evidence on the timing of multiple attachments in conflicting; Bowlby argues that most or all babies form attachments to single main cargeiver before they are able to devlop multiple attachments. but multiple in attachments appear from the outset in cultures where multiple attachments are the norm (Van Ijzendoorn- collectivist cultures )
name two animal studies done into attachment
- harlows monkeys; contact comfort
- lorenz geese; imprinting
what were the findings of Harlows study
-baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire mother one and regardless of which dispensed milk. this suggests that contact comfort was more important than food when it came to attachment (goes against Dollard and milliers theory of cupboard love)
monkeys that had been deprived of their real mothers suffered severe consequences; more aggressive, less socialable, and less skilled in mating and sometimes neglected or killed their own offspring.
