Attachment

Question 1

Attachment

Answer 1

a strong emotional bond between two people

Question 2

Interactional Synchrony

Answer 2

a co-ordinated, rhythmic exchange between infant and carer

Question 3

Reciprocity

Answer 3

mutual behaviour between infant and carer which produce responses from one another

Question 4

Types of communication between carer and infants (5)

Answer 4

Reciprocity 
Interactional Synchrony 
Bodily contact 
Mimicking 
Caregiverse

Question 5

Caregiverse

Answer 5

Carer speech to infant which is high-pitched and song-like which strengthens the attachment

Question 6

Research related to carer and infant interactions

Answer 6

Melzoff and Morre 1977
it was found that babies aged 2-3 weeks mimick adult behaviours which shows that mimicking is innate
Klaus and Kennell 1976
it was found that greater physical contact leads to a stronger bond, compared mothers who had a lot of physical contact with children and mothers who only had contact during feeding time
Evaluation
+ helpful to hospitals who do not seperate mother from child after birth

Question 7

Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment

Answer 7

Pre-attachment 0 - 3 months
Infant prefers people over objects and smile more at known people
Indiscriminate 3 - 7/8 months
Still will allow strangers to handle them and will discriminate between known people and strangers by smiling more at known people
Discriminate 7 - 9 months
Infants show distress when known people leave and will protest if strangers handle them
Multiple Attachments 9 months onwards
Infants form attachment to several people like parents, siblings and grandparents and develop sensitive responsiveness

Question 8

Schaffer and Emerson’s development of social attachments

Answer 8

1964
Aim: to assess whether there is a pattern of formation that infants use to form attachments
To identify and describe the distinct stages of attachment
Procedure: longitudinal study looking at 60 newborns in Glasgow, looked at stranger anxiety and seperation protest
Findings: mothers who responded to their child’s needs had a closer attachment to their child rather than the mother’s who did not respond to their child’s needs
Conclusion: pattern of attachment formation common to all infants
Mother’s who respond to their child’s needs have a closer bond to their children
Multiple attachments are the norm
Evaluation: - used only mothers
+ has mudane realism
- mothers were from one country so it is hard to genereliase to other cultures
- big differences between how attachments are formed

Question 9

Factors affecting father - child relationships

Answer 9

Degree of sensitivity
Attachments with father’s parents
Marital Intimacy
Supportive Co-parenting

Question 10

Role of the father research (2)

Answer 10

Geiger
showed that father’s play interactions are more desirable than mother’s who are more intimate
Lamb
he showed that father’s are preferred for positive emotions and mother’s are preferred for distress
Belsky 2009
high levels of marital intimacy is related to high father-child attachment and low levels of marital intimacy is related to low father-child attachment

Question 11

Harlow’s Monkeys

Answer 11

1959
Aim: To see if baby monkeys prefer comfort or food
Procedure: separated 16 baby Rhesus monkey’s from mothers and had two segerate mothers: cloth mother and feeding mother, monkeys were timed on how much time they spend on each ‘mother’
Findings: monkeys preferred cloth mother to feeding mother
when frightened, they went to cloth mother and explored more when cloth mother was present
Evaluation: - psychological harm (ethical issue)
- used animals
+ showed that infants prefer comfort over food

Question 12

Lorenz’ Goslings

Answer 12

1935
Aim: investigate the mechanisms of imprinting
Procedure: goose eggs were split into two groups, one was hatched naturally and the other was hatched in an incubator and when the eggs hatched he made sure he was the first moving object the incubated goslings saw
Findings: Naturally hatched goslings followed mother while incubated chicks followed Lorenz. Imprinting occurs within a set time period
Conclusions: imprinting is a form of attachment which is displayed by many birds attachment is innate
Evaluation: - done on animals
+ supports Bowlby’s theory of a critical period
+ supports Bowbly’s continuity hypothesis

Question 13

Monotropic theory

Answer 13

the idea that infants have an inbuilt tendency to make an initial attachment with one attachment figure - heirarchy and critical period

Question 14

Critical Period

Answer 14

time period in which attachments must be formed or no attachments can be formed

Question 15

Learning Theory

Answer 15

belief that attachments develop through conditioning processes

Question 16

Internal Working Model

Answer 16

a cognitive framework used to understand the world, self and other that acts as a template for future relationships based on a child’s primary attachment figure

Question 17

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 17

1978
Aim: assess how infants aged between 9 and 18 months behave under conditions of mild stress and novelty and to assess individual differences between mother-infant pairs
Procedure: mother and child were in a room where there were toys and after a certain amount of time, a stranger would walk in and interact with the child, the mother would leave and after a certain amount of time, the mother would come back and then the stranger would leave and then the mother would leave, after some time, the stranger would try and comfort the infant and then the mother would enter and comfort the infant while the stranger leaves
Findings: Infants explored the room more when the mother was present and Ainsworth found 3 different attachment types: Insecure-avoidant, Secure and insecure-resistant
Conclusions: sensitive responsiveness is the major factor determining the quality of attachments
Evaluation: - only used mothers
+ became a paradigm
- lacks mudane realism
+ backed up by other studies

Question 18

Privation

Answer 18

children who have never formed an attachment

Question 19

Institutionalisation

Answer 19

attachments of children who were raised in orphanages or foster homes

Question 20

Research on Privation

Answer 20

Curtiss 1977 and Rymer 1993
Longitudinal study which involved a girl called Genie who was denied human contact and strapped in a potty seat for 13 years. She was put through a lot of therapy and her language skills and IQ improved and returned to her mother. Genie then went to different foster homes which caused her to deteriorated
Koluchova 1972, 1991
Indentical twins who were locked in a cellar for 5 and a half years. When they were found, the twins were underdeveloped, could not talk and did not understand pictures. This study shows that the effects of privation can be reversed

Question 21

Research on Institutionalisation

Answer 21

Bowlby 1944
44 juvenile thieves were compared with a control group of teenagers with emotional problems. 32% of the juveniles were affectionless psychopaths. This study supports Bowlby’s idea of maternal deprivation having negative long-term effects
Rutter 2006
It was found that the care provided in children’s resident homes lead to the formation of disinhibited attachments which supports the idea of Institutional care creating specific attachment types

Question 22

Romanian Orphans

Answer 22

Rutter et al 1998
Aim: assess whether loving and nuturing care could overturn the effects of privation the children has suffered in Romanian orphans
Procedure: the orphans were adopted by British families and were assessed at arrival and later at age 4
Findings: around 50% of the orphans were retarded in cognitive functioning at the first assessment and most were underweight and when they turned 4, the orphans showed great developement both physically and cognitivally
Conclusions: negative effects of institutionalisation can be reversed with nurturing care and the British adopted children did not suffer from any developemental outcomes
Evaluation: - difficult to generalise findings
- children were only assessed up to 4 years
+ showed that negative effects of institutionalisation can be reversed

Question 23

PDD Model

Answer 23

distress children show when they are separated from their carers for a short amount of time
stands for protest, despair and detachment

Question 24

sensitive responsiveness

Answer 24

responding to baby’s signals