Attachment Flashcards
1
Q
Caregiver - infant interactions - AO1
A
- Reciprocity - responding to action of others almost like in a conversation
- Interactional Synchrony - when 2 people mirror each others actions
- Meltzoff and Moore study of IS - used an adult model who displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements where the fingers moved in a sequence - dummy was placed in the infant’s mouth during the initial display to prevent any response - dummy was removed and the child’s expression was filmed - revealed association between the infant behaviour and that of the adult model
2
Q
Development of attachment - STAGES - AO1
A
- 1 - indiscriminate attachments - 0-2 months - show greater preference for social stimuli
- 2 - beginning of attachment - 4 months - can tell difference between familiar and not familiar people - no stranger anxiety yet
- 3 - discriminate attachment - 7-8 months - form one primary attachment and show seperation anxiety with this person
- 4 - multiple attachments - after primary attachment made infant makes other secondary attachments with others
3
Q
Development of attachment - role of the father - AO1
A
- fathers less likely to be primary caregivers
- one theory is they’re not psychologically equipped
- important role as secondary attachment - more communicative and cognitive relationship
- may be special circumstances - one parent families
4
Q
Animal studies of attachment - Lorenz - AO1
A
- gosling eggs and divided them into two groups
- One group was left with their natural mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator
- incubator eggs hatched the first living (moving) thing they saw was Lorenz
- testing imprinting - he marked them and and placed them together
- goslings quickly divided themselves up, one following their natural mother and the other group following Lorenz
- Lorenz noted that this process of imprinting is restricted to a very definite period in the young animals life, called a critical period
- If a young animal is not exposed to a moving object during this early critical period then the animal will not imprint.
- Imprinting is a process similar to attachment in that it binds a young animals to a caregiver in a special relationship
5
Q
Animal studies of attachment - Harlow - AO1
A
- wanted to demonstrate that that attachment was not based on the feeding bond between the mother and infant as predicted by the learning theory
- two wire monkeys each with a different ‘head’. One wire mother was additionally wrapped on soft cloth
- Eight infant rhesus monkeys were studied
- four monkeys fed from one mother and four with the other
- All eight monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth covered mother whether or not this mother had the feeding bottle.
- When frightened, all monkeys clung to the cloth covered mother
- These findings suggests that infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort.
6
Q
Explanations of attachment; Learning theory - AO1
A
- Proposes all behaviour is learnt not inborn - born like blank slates
- Learnt through either classical or operant conditioning
- CC - food (UCS) mother (NS) pleasure (UCR)
- OC - drive reduction theory - when infant is fed drive is reduced - negative reinforcement
- Also suggested children observe their parents affectionate behaviour and imitate this
7
Q
Explanation of attachment - Bowlby - AO1
A
- Attachments are important in survival
- Critical period - infants have drive to become attached (3-6months) if not done then then hard to form other attachments later on
- Social releasers - smiling and having a ‘baby face’ - innate mechanisms
- Monotropy - infants have ONE special bond - forms mental representation of this relationship (internal working model)
- Continuity hypothesis - infants strongly attached in infancy likely to be emotionally and socially competent
8
Q
Ainsworth Strange situation - types of attachment - AO1
A
- produce a method for assessing quality of attachment by placing an infant in a situation of mild stress to encourage the infant to seek comfort and of novelty to encourage exploration behaviours
- found three main patterns of behaviour in the infants
- secure - exploration (high), stranger anxiety (high), sep. anxiety (some easy to soothe), reunion (enthusiastic), caregiver behaviour (sensitive)
- insecure avoidant - exploration (high), stranger anxiety (low), sep. anxiety (indifferent), reunion (avoids contact), caregiver behaviour (may ignore infant)
- insecure resistant - exploration (low), stranger anxiety (high), sep. anxiety (distressed), reunion (seeks and rejects) caregiver behaviour (ambivalant)
9
Q
Cultural variations in attachment - AO1
A
- meta analysis of 32 studies of strange situations
- in 8 countries
- variation BETWEEN countries - Differences were small
Secure attachment most common - Insecure avoidant second most common in every country apart from Japan and Israel - variation WITHIN countries - was 1.5x greater than the variation between cultures - Secure attachment is the ‘norm’ - cultural similarities support the view that attachment is an innate and biological process
10
Q
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (study) - AO1
A
- He analysed the care histories of a number of his patients in the child guidence clinic in London - all children attending were emotionally maladjusted - studied 88 of these children - half had been caught stealing (44 thieves) and the other half were the control group - suggested that some of the theives were afectionless pyschopaths - they lacked normal signs of affection, shame or sense of responsibility - characteristics enabled them to be ‘theives’ because their actions did not matter to them - 86% of those individuals diagnosed as affectionless thieves had experienced frequent separations from their mothers - compared to 17% of the other thieves - almost none of the control group had experienced separations - links to affectionless psychopathy
11
Q
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation - AO1
A
- Value of maternal care - was assumed for so long food and physical care were key in attachment - he said that infants need a continuous relationship with mother for the mental health
- Critical period - Bowlby believed infants who was denied care becomes emotionally disturbed - only have this affect if seperation happens before 2 1/2 years and if there was no substitute mother - risk of up till 5 years
12
Q
Romanian orphan studies (study) - AO1
A
- ERA - 165 Romanian children who spent early years in care and suffer the effects of institutionalism - 111 were adoptees by age of 2 and 54 by age of 4 - tested at regular interval ages and compared to english adoptees under age of 1 - at time of adoption romanians were behind but majority caught up by age of 4
13
Q
Romanian orphan studies - AO1
A
Effects of institutionalism:
- physical underdevelopment - poor nourishment
- intellectual underfunctioning - cognitive underdevelopment
- disinhibited attachment - treat strangers with over friendliness
- poor parenting - poor parenting when they are parents
14
Q
Influence of early attachments (study) - AO1
A
- Study testing the internal working model
- Love quiz - asked about current attachments and previous attachments and attitudes towards love
- 620 responses from men and women
- Attachments were similar to the ones they had in infancy
- 56% = secure 25% = avoidant 19% = resistant
- positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences - securely attached and good experiences with relationships lasting long times
- relationship between concept of love and attachment type too
15
Q
Influence of early attachments - AO1
A
Behaviours influencing the internal working model:
- childhood friendships - infants who were securely attached had the highest rate of competence later on - links to internal working model - more securely attached have higher expectations
- poor parenting - lack of internal working model means individuals lack reference point to subsequently form relationships with their children
- romantic relationships - link between earlier attachments and relationships
- mental health - lack of attachment in critical period means lack of internal working model
