attachment

Question 1

what are two caregiver interactions

Answer 1

reciprocity and interactional synchrony

Question 2

what is interaction synchrony

Answer 2

• mirroring

- it takes place when mother and infant interact in such way that their actions and emotions mirror the other

Question 3

what did Meltzof and Moore (1977) observe and find

Answer 3

• 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.

Question 4

what does it mean if there is high interactional synchrony

Answer 4

higher quality of attachment- provides necessary foundation for the mother and infant connection which can be built in later years

Question 5

what did Isabella et al (1989) investigate

Answer 5

-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

Question 6

what is Reciprocity

Answer 6

when one person responds to the other. involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 7

what did brazleton et al (1975) do in relation to Reciprocity

Answer 7

described it as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couples dance, where each partner responds to the others moves.

Question 8

what is different about the baby, that was different in more traditional views

Answer 8

the baby is now seen to be more active in the attachment process.

Question 9

A03 EVALUATION (is and recip) - limitation when observing infants

Answer 9

• 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.

Question 10

AO3 EVALUATION (is and recip) - strengths

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

AO3 EVALUATION (is and recip) - Limitations

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

who does research into the role of the father

Answer 12

Shaffer and emerson (1964)

Question 13

what did shaffer and emerson find

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

who thought attachment with mother was most related to teen attachments

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Fathers ______ is more important in attachment as they have a different role

Answer 15

play

their role is in attachment is more playful and stimulating - less to do with nurturing,

Question 16

who said fathers can be primary caregivers

Answer 16

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

Question 17

what is most important in forming attachments

Answer 17

level of response - key to attachment is level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent

Question 18

A03 EVALUATION - role of the father

limtiations

Answer 18

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,

Question 19

what are shaffers four stages of attachment

Answer 19

• 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.

Question 20

briefly explain Schaffer and Emerson’’s research into stages of attachment

Answer 20

-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.

Question 21

A03 EVALUATION- strengths of Shaffer and Emersons stages of attachment study

Answer 21

• 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.

Question 22

A03 EVALUATION- Limitations of Shaffer and Emersons stages of attachment study

Answer 22

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 )

Question 23

name two animal studies done into attachment

Answer 23

• harlows monkeys; contact comfort

- lorenz geese; imprinting

Question 24

what were the findings of Harlows study

Answer 24

-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.

Question 25

A03 EVALUATION- supporting study for Lorenz imprinting study

Answer 25

-support for the concept of imprinting; Guiton (1966) found that chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as adults. this suggests that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint during a critical period.

Question 26

A03 EVALUATION- weaknesses of Lorenz imprinting study

Answer 26

x generalising findings and conclusions from birds to humans; the mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds - mammals mothers show more emotional attachment to their young.–> not appropriate to generalise ideas to humans.

x some of lorenz observations and conclusions have been questioned.
Guitons- chicks imprinting on yellow gloves –> but with experience they learned to mate with their own kind. this study suggests that the effects of imprinting are not long lasting

Question 27

A03 EVALUATION- strengths of Harlows research into contact comfort

Answer 27

• his research has important practical applications; it has helped social workers understand risk and factors in child abuse and so intervene to prevent it. we also now know the important of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild. the usefulness increases it’s value.

Question 28

A03 EVALUATION- weaknesses of Harlows research into contact comfort

Answer 28

x harlow faced severe criticism for the ethics of his research; rhesus monkeys are similar enough to humans for us to generalise findings, which also means their suffering was presumably human-like. –> he was aware of this and referred to the wire mothers as ‘iron maidens’ named after a medieval torture device.

^^countered by arguing his research was sufficiently important to justify the procedures.

x a limitation is generalising monkeys to humans

Question 29

explain briefly Dollard and Millers learning theory of attachment

Answer 29

• importance of food ‘cupboard love’ children learn to love whoever feeds them.
  -role of classical conditioning; baby learns that mother produces a sense of pleasure
  -role of operant conditioning; crying leads to response from caregiver. as long as caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced because it produces a pleasurable consequence.
  -negative reinforcement; the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops ; interplay between positive and negative reinforcement strengthens attachment
  -drive reduction; hunger is primary drive, an innate biological motivator- we are motivated to eat to reduce hunger drive.
  attachment is a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and satisfaction of a primary drive (Sears et al 1957 suggests that as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them )

Question 30

A03 EVALUATION- weaknesses of learning theory

Answer 30

x animal studies provide evidence against food as the basis of attachment; lorenz and harlows findings.

x human research also shows that feeding is not an important factor; Shaffer and Emerson showed that for many babies a primary attachment was not the person who fed them. shows that feeding is not a key element of attachment.

Question 31

A03 EVALUATION- strengths of learning theory

Answer 31

• there is some elements of conditioning could still be involved; the main problem with learning theory is that feeding provides the unconditioned stimulus, reinforcement or primary drive. however many aspects of human development are affected by conditioning so it seems plausible that it could still play a role in attachment.
• there is a new learning explanation based on social learning theory; Hay and Vespo suggest that parents teach children to love them by modelling attachment behaviours e.g. hugging them. and also rewarding them with approval when they display their own attachment behaviours. –> babies have learned attachment behaviours as a result of their interactions, which fits with research on the importance of interactional synchrony and reciprocity.

Question 32

briefly explain bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment

Answer 32

• attachment is innate; for survival
• emphasis on child’s attachment to one caregiver; unique and different to the rest
• more time spent with the mother-figure is beneficial ; law of continuity and law of accumulated separation ‘safest does is therefore a zero dose’
• babies are born with social releasers to activate adult attachment system
• there is a critical period; 2 years, if attachment isnt formed then s/he will find it much harder to form one later
• first attachment forms an internal working model of relationships; child forms a mental representation of the relationship with their primary attachment figure. and is a ‘template’ for what relationships are like- can affect later parenting and relationships