Attachment Flashcards
Affectionless Psychopathy
people who don’t show concern or affection for other people and show no or very little remorse or guilt - bowlby
Asocial Stage
Stage from 0-6 weeks where infant may respond to faces or voices but an attachment has not been formed
Attachment
Two-way enduring emotional tie to another person
Contact comfort
The physical and emotional comfort that an infant receives from being close to its mother
Continuity Hypothesis
The idea that early relationships with caregivers predict later relationships in adulthood
Critical period
A time period where an attachment has to form or it never will
Disinhibited attachment
Child shows equal affection to strangers as they do people they know well
Evolutionary explanation
Explanation for behaviour such as attachment that views it as increasing survival chances
Imprinting
Where offspring follow the first large-moving object they see
Indiscriminate attachment
Infants aged 2-7 months can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people but does not show stranger anxiety
Innate behaviour
A behaviour that is instinctive and does not need to be learned
Insecure avoidant attachment
where child shows low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion
Insecure resistant attachment
child shows high stranger and separation anxiety and resists comfort at reunion
Institutionalisation
effects of growing up in an institution, such as a children’s home or orphanage
Interactional synchrony
Infant and caregiver reflect each other’s actions and emotions in a coordinated manner
Internal working model
Mental representation of our relationship with our primary caregiver that becomes a template for future relationships
Learning theory
Explanations that emphasise the role of learning in acquiring behaviours such as attachment
Maternal deprivation hypothesis
Separation from the mother figure in early childhood has serious consequences
Monotropy
A unique and close attachment to one person - the primary attachment figure
Multiple attachments
Formation of emotional bonds with more than one carer
Privation
Failure to form an attachment in early childhood
proximity seeking
The way that infants try to maintain physical contact or be close to their attachment figure
Reciprocity
Infant and caregiver match each other’s responses
Secure attachment
where child shows separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and joy on reunion
Sensitive period
The best time period over which attachments can form
Separation anxiety
Degree of distress shown by the child when separated from the caregiver
Social releasers
Innate behaviours shown by an infant that lead to a caregiving response
Specific attachment
Infants aged 7 months tend to show a strong attachment to one particular person and are wary of strangers
Strange Situation
A controlled observation used to test children’s attachment patterns
Stranger anxiety
Degree of distress shown by an infant when with unfamiliar people
Temperament
The characteristics and aspects of personality an infant is born with and that might impact on its attachment type
Schaffer and Emerson Procedure
Observations to whether a child showed children showed
Seperation Protest
or
Stranger Anxiety
Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson
- Bias and inaccuracy due to the mothers recording their own results
+ Has mundane realism as it was set in everyday situations - Large individual differences
Factors affecting the relationship between Fathers and their children
Degree of sensitivity
Attachment to ones own parent
Marital Intimacy
Supportive Co parenting
Who often do children only have attachments to just their fathers
3% of the time
What do children go to their mothers for according to lamb
Comfort and sensitivity
Why does a child need their father
They are less sensitive so they are for playfulness but this is why babies dont attach to dads as much
What did Hardy conclude about fathers
They are less suitable than mothers to detect infant distress
- Harlow Evaluation - Validity
Cloth mothers faces were nicer
- Harlow Evaluation. Ethical
Causing harm to monkeys and they cant consent
… however its better to test on monkeys than human babies
- Harlow Evaluation - reversible imprinting
Chickens were imprinted on yellow rubber gloves and showed this mate preference. However, time spent with their species resulted in normal sexual behaviour.
+ Harlow evaluation - Influence on Bowlby
– Imprinting influenced Bowlby’s idea of a critical period for babies to form attachments. The continuity hypothesis can be related to sexual imprinting; early behaviour has an impact on future relationships.
+ Strange Situation Paradigm
Became a replica for assessing attachments
+ Strange Situation similar findings
Main found that infants secure at 18 months followed this security and 75% of insecure avoidant were still avoid at at 6 years
Strange Situations - ethics
causing deliberate distress - however it is everyday stress, like a new babysitter
- Strange situation Broenheffer
Questioned the validity as it was an artificial environment with scripted behaviour
What were the overall percentages from the strange situation meta analysis
A- 21%
B- 67%
C- 12%
In the strange situation meta analysis who was mostly type A
Germany
Where was predominantly Type C in the meta analysis
China and Japan
- Strange Situation Assumption of security
Ainsworth assumed seperation anxiety showed security when it could mean something else to other cultures
Strange Situation - intra cultural difference
Different parenting styles will be found in different societal classes
Strange Situations Korea and USA similarities
despite having different child rearing practices they predominantly lead to secure attachment
Strange Situation - Germany Impersonal Distance
Germans are an individualistic culture and celebrate independence and therefore dont engage with proximity
PDD meaning
Protest
Despair
Detachment
