Attachment Flashcards
What Is Attachment?
Attachment is an emotional tie or bond between two people, (usually a caregiver and a child),
The relationship is RECIPROCAL, which means it is shared and a two-way relationship. This shows how it endures over time,
Interactions between caregivers and children are a subject of psychological research as they provide an insight into the type and nature of attachment.
What Is Reciprocity?
Reciprocity is when an infant responds to the actions of another person in a form of turn-taking,
Actions of one person elicits a response from the other,
Brazelton et al (1975) describes this interaction as a ‘dance’ because when a couple dance, they respond to each toe he’s movement and rhythm,
Feldman (2007) says that from 3 months old, reciprocity increases in frequency as the infant and caregiver pay increasing attention to each other’s verbal and facial communications.
This interaction lays foundations for attachment to develop later.
What Is Interactional Synchrony?
Interactional synchrony takes place when infants mirror the actions or emotions of another person,
This could be facial expressions,
This mirroring can be referred to as ‘imitation’ or simply copying the adults behaviour,
The acts are simultaneous and the two are said to be synchronised,
This interaction sustains communication between the two individuals.
Meltzoff and Moore?
1977 - Key Study,
Aim: To examine Interactional synchrony in infants.
Method:
- Used a controlled observation,
- An adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or a hand gesture,
- The child has a dummy placed in their mouth to prevent a facial response,
- Following the display from the adult, the dummy is removed and the child’s expressions were filmed.
Results:
- There was a clear association between the infants behaviour and that of the adults model,
- Later research by these people found the same finding in three day old infants.
Conclusion:
- These finishing suggest that Interactional synchrony is innate and rescuers the strength of any claim that imitative behaviour is learned.
Caregiver-infant interactions AO1 and AO3?
Define attachment,
Define reciprocity and Interactional synchrony.
Use Meltzoff and Moore as supporting evidence for this.
Criticise Meltzoff and Moore’s study.
Evaluation Of Caregiver-Infant Interactions?
Limitation: questionable reliability,
Infants move their mouths and arms constantly,
Some of the infants behaviour may have occurred by chance so researchers cannot be certain weather the infants were partaking in international synchrony or reciprocity,
Limitation: observer bias,
Researchers may consciously or unconsciously interpret the infants behaviour to support their findings,
To address this issue, more than one observer should be used to examine the inter-observer reality of the observations,
Research by Koepke et al (1983) failed to replicate the finding of Meltzoff and Moore,
Limitation (And Strength): Isabelle et al (1983),
Research suggests that only securely attached infants engage in international synchrony,
Isabelle found that the more securely attached an infant is, the greater level of international synchrony,
This suggests that Meltzoff and Moore’s research is accurate to an extent, as they overlooked individual differences.
What Are The Stages Of Attachment?
Asocial,
Indiscriminate Attachments,
Discriminate (Specific) Attachments,
Multiple Attachments,
These stages show how attachment develops in an infant from birth.
Asocial?
- From birth to two months,
- Similar respond to objects and people,
- End of stage, they show preference for eyes and faces,
- First stage of attachment.
Indiscriminate Attachment?
- From two to six months,
- Infant shows a preference for human company over non-human company,
- They can distinguish between different people but are comforted by anyone,
- Second stage of attachment.
Discriminate (Specific) Attachment?
- From seven to twelve months,
- Infant shows a preference for one caregiver,
- Stranger and separation anxiety,
- The infant looks to a particular person for security and protection,
- Shows joy on arrival of primary caregiver,
- Third stage of attachment.
Multiple Attachments?
- One year onwards,
- Attachment behaviours are now displayed towards several different people,
- They are sometimes referred to as secondary attachments,
- They typically form in the first month after the primary attachment is formed and the number of multiple attachments which develop depends on the social circle to whom the infant is exposed.
Schaffer And Emerson?
- To examine the formation of early attachments,
- 60 babies (29 female and 31 male) from working class families in Glasgow (5-23 weeks of age),
- 12 months - visited babies first time,
- 18 months - visited babies second time,
- Interviewed months and observed children in relation to separation anxiety,
Results:
- Different stages of attachment showed,
- At 12 months, 25-32 weeks, 50% kids showed attachment issues and at 18 months, 80% of kids showed attachment issues,
- At 18 months, 30% had started to form multiple,
Conclusion:
- Results price support for Schaffer’s stages of attachment.
- Results revealed that attachments were most likely to form with carers who were sensitive to the baby’s signals, rather than the person they spent the most time with.
Evaluation Of Schaffer And Emerson?
1964,
Strength: high external validity,
They conducted the observations in each child’s home so infants and parents are likely to act normally,
Good external validity means results are likely to apply to other children from similar demographic,
Limitation: lacks population validity,
Study consisted of only 60 working class mothers and babies from Glasgow - different social classes and areas may form different attachments with their children,
Unable to generalise the results of this study to mothers and babies from other countries and backgrounds.
Limitation: social desirable bias,
Schaffer and Emerson interviewed the mothers about their children and these mothers may not have reported accurately to the researchers - to appear like a ‘better’ mother with secure attachments,
Natural beahviour may not have been recorder due to this bias - this reduces the external validity of the research.
The Role Of The Father?
- Traditionally, the role of the father may have been limited,
- Psychologists disagree over the extract role of the father,
- Some say males are not equipped to form attachments with infants; they don’t have hormone oestrogen which underlies a caring behaviour in women which men cannot have,
- Other researchers argue fathers should be playmates,
- Other psychologists argue that fathers can be sensitive and respond to the needs of their children and can form a strong emotional tie or bond.
Evaluation Of The Role Of The Father?
Strength: Geiger (1996),
Research evidence provides support for the fathers role being ‘playmate’,
Found that fathers play interactions were more exciting in comparison to mothers,
Mothers play interactions were more nurturing an affectionate,
This suggests the fathers role is as a playmate and not to respond the the needs of the child,
This also suggests the mother takes on a nurturing role,
Strength: Hrdy (1999),
Research evidence shows fathers are not as equipped as mothers,
Mothers are more able to detect low levels of distress then fathers,
This supports the biological explanation that fathers do not obtain enough oestrogen to form close attachments with their infant,
This suggests that the role of the father is, to some extent, biologically determined,
Limitation: Belsky et al (2009),
Research suggests fathers can form secure attachments with their infants, if they are in an intimate marriage,
Belsky found that fathers who have higher levels of marital intimacy also displayed a secure father-infant attachment,
This suggests males can form strong attachments with their infants, however, this depends on the marital intimacy of their marriage, (individual differences).
Issues And Debates Of Caregiver-Infant Interactions?
Psychologists suggest that caregiver-infant interactions (e.g. reciprocity) are present from birth and therefore are the product of nature,
However, the innate behaviours interact with the environment and not in isolation to prompt a response (attention),
Schaffer’s stages of attachment theory takes a nomothetic approach as it proposes a general law for child development,
However, these theories cannot apply to every child,
Schaffer suggested that before multiple attachment, single attachments occur - this cannot be true in all cultures, especially cultures that partake in community mothering.
Animal studies?
Early research into attachment was often conducted on non-human animals on the basis that there is biological similarity between animals and humans. Therefore, if something was observed in animal attachment behaviour, it stands to reason that it could also be applied to humans.
Benefits:
- Research studies using animal subjects are often seen as more ethical than when conducted with human participants.
- Since researchers are often interested in seeing results over a life span there are also practical advantages of using animals since they breed faster than humans do.
Lorenz and Harlow both conducted animals studies to study attachment.
Key study: Lorenz AO1?
Aim: To examine the phenomenon of imprinting in non-human animals. Imprinting is when the offspring follows and forms an attachment bond to the first large moving object they see after birth.
Method: Lorenz conducted an experiment where he randomly divided greylag goose eggs into two batches. Control group - hatched naturally by the mother. Experimental group - placed in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first large moving object that the goslings saw after hatching.
The following behaviour, of either the mother goose or Lorenz, was recorded. Lorenz then marked the goslings so he knew in which condition they were hatched and then placed them under an upside-down box. The box was then removed and their following behaviour of the mother goose and Lorenz was recorded again.
Results:
- Lorenz found that straight after birth the naturally-hatched goslings followed their mother goose, whereas the incubator-hatched goslings followed Lorenz.
- When the upside-down box was taken away, the naturally-hatched goslings moved immediately towards their mother, while the incubator-hatched goslings followed Lorenz, showing no attachment to their biological mother.
- Lorenz noted that this imprinting only
occurred within a critical period of 4–25 hours after hatching. This relationship persisted over time and proved to be irreversible.
Conclusion: These results suggest that imprinting is a form of attachment that is exhibited by birds that typically leave the nest early, whereby they imprint onto the first large moving object they encounter after hatching.
Key study - Lorenz AO3?
Weakness - Lorenz only studied non-human animals, we cannot generalise the results to humans since we are unable to conclude that they would behave in exactly the same way. The attachment formation in mammals appears to be very different to that of bird species - parents show more emotional reactions to their offspring with the added ability of being able to form attachments beyond the first few hours after birth. Results of thr study cannot be confidently applied to humans.
Weakness & strength - Guiton et al found that chickens would imprint on yellow washing up gloves if that was the largest moving object they first saw after birth and that, in turn, they would then try to mate with that object in adulthood. However, Guiton et al concluded the chickens could eventually learn to prefer mating with other chickens instead, suggesting that the effects of imprinting may not be as permanent as initially thought.
Key study - Harlow AO1?
Aim: To examine the extent to which contact comfort and food influences attachment behaviour in baby rhesus monkeys.
Method: Harlow constructed two surrogate mothers: one harsh ‘wire mother’ and a second soft ‘towelling mother’. A sample of sixteen baby rhesus monkeys were used across the four caged conditions:
- ‘Wire mother’ dispensing milk and ‘towelling mother’ with no milk.
- ‘Wire mother’ with no milk and ‘towelling mother’ dispensing milk.
- ‘Wire mother’ dispensing milk.
- ‘Towelling mother’ dispensing milk.
The amount of time the baby rhesus monkey spent with each mother was recorded, alongside how long they spent feeding at each one.
To test for mother preference during periods of stress, the monkeys were startled with a loud noise and their responses recorded.
A larger cage was used in some conditions in order to observe the degree of exploration by the baby rhesus monkeys.
Results: Harlow discovered that, when given a choice of surrogate mother, the baby monkeys preferred to make contact with the soft ‘towelling mother’ irrespective of whether she dispensed milk.
The baby monkeys in the condition with only the ‘wire mother’ showed sign of stress such as diarrhoea.
When startled by the loud noise, the baby rhesus monkeys would cling tightly to the soft ‘towelling mother’ in the conditions where this surrogate was available to them. When given larger caged conditions, greater exploration behaviour was seen by the baby monkeys with the ‘towelling mother’ surrogate, which is indicative of emotional security.
Conclusion:
- Harlow concluded that baby rhesus monkeys appear to have an innate drive to seek contact comfort from their parent suggesting that attachment is formed through an emotional need for security rather than food, which is in contrast to the learning theory explanation.
- This contact comfort provided by the mother is associated by a higher willingness to explore their surroundings and lower levels of stress.
Key study - Harlow AO3?
Strength - real-world application. Howe reports that the knowledge gained from Harlow’s research has helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect and abuse cases with human children which can then serve to prevent it occurring or, at the very least, recognise when to intervene.
Strength - real world application again. There are practical applications which are used in the care of captive wild monkeys in zoos or breeding programmes to ensure that they have adequate attachment figures as part of their care.
Weakness - Harlow was criticised for the ethics of his research on baby rhesus monkeys. The monkeys suffered greatly in terms of emotional separation from their biological mother at such an early age due to the procedure Harlow used.
Weakness - There is an issue with applying findings from animal research to humans. Although the participants of Harlow’s research were baby rhesus monkeys which are non-human, it could be argued that they are far more like humans than the geese that Lorenz studied. It is still heavily debated amongst psychologists as to what extent studies of animals, specifically primates, should be generalised to the human population due to their apparent differences.
What are the two explanations for attachment?
The learning theory - which explains attachment through operant and classical conditioning.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
The learning theory in explaining attachment - AO1?
The learning theory explanation for attachment explains how infants learn to become attached to their primary caregiver through the process of either classical or operant conditioning.
Before classical conditioning, food is an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response in the offspring – relief from hunger (pleasure). This unconditioned stimulus (food) is then associated with the caregiver who feeds them (the neutral stimulus). Through repeated pairing, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus who is associated with the pleasure from feeding. This results in the caregiver eliciting a conditioned response (relief from hunger/pleasure) from the child and the formation of an attachment.
Dollard and Miller applied Skinner’s principles of operant conditioning to explain human attachment between a caregiver and an infant.
When an infant feels hunger, it cries to reduce this discomfort. When the caregiver provides food, the discomfort is reduced (pleasure) which is rewarding. This is positive reinforcement. This is a reciprocal process because the child will cry to reduce the discomfort again, therefore, negative reinforcement is experienced in the caregiver (the infant stops crying), so they too will repeat the caregiving behaviour again in the future.
Hunger is the primary drive and the food is the primary reinforcer. Attachment, called the secondary drive, will occur because the infant will seek the person who can supply the reward from the caregiver (secondary reinforcer).
The learning theory in explaining attachment - AO3?
Weakness - there is research conducted by Harlow which criticises the learning theory in explaining attachment. Harlow found that baby rhesus monkeys spent more time with a soft towelling money which provided no food, in comparison to a wire monkey which provided food. This shows that monkeys do not form attachments for food/survival purposes only, and also for comfort. This suggests that the process of positive reinforcement through associating food and a caregiver is not the sole purpose for attachments.
Weakness - This argument is further supported by Schaffer and Emmerson’s research which demonstrated that infants formed attachments to their mothers despite often being fed by other carers. Furthermore, Lorenz found that baby geese follow the first moving object they saw upon hatching (imprinting). This shows that non-human animals demonstrate some inborn attachment behaviours to aid survival which goes against the idea that we ‘learn’ to attach to a caregiver because they feed us. Furthermore, Lorenz concluded a critical period whereby imprinting can take place (4-25 hours). This would not be enough time for the birds to learn any behaviour. This strengthens the argument that animal attachment is predetermined by innate behaviour, and not learnt.
Weakness - A final criticism of the learning theory is that it is environmentally reductionist. The theory suggests that attachments are the result of learning through classical/operant conditioning, and therefore support a nurture based view of behaviour. (Weakness -) Bowlby suggested an alternative theory for the development of attachments. He believed that infants have an innate readiness during the critical period to form an attachment to their caregiver to increase chances of survival. This suggests that further factors surrounding nature also contribute to attachment development. More research should be conducted in order to test the extent of nature and nurture factors in explaining attachment.