Attachment Flashcards
What are the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer?
Asocial (0-6)
Similar responses to objects & people. Preference for faces/ eyes.
Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks – 6 months) Preference for human company. Ability to distinguish between people but comforted indiscriminately.
Specific (7 months +)
Infants show a preference for one caregiver, displaying separation and stranger anxiety. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection.
Multiple (10/11 months +)
Attachment behaviours are displayed towards several different people eg. siblings, grandparents etc.
Animal study of attachment- Lorenz.
Some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet, which is called imprinting.
This process suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.
Lorenz study procedure
He took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch out. Half of the eggs were then placed under a goose mother, while Lorenz kept the other half hatched in an incubator, with Lorenz making sure he was the first moving object the newly hatched goslings encountered.
Lorenz study findings
The naturally hatched baby goslings followed their mother, while the incubator hatched ones follow Lorenz.
Imprinting does not appear to be active immediately after hatching
Supposedly there is a critical period during which imprinting can occur.
Harlow study procedure
8 rhesus monkeys which were caged from infancy with wire mesh food dispensing and cloth-covered surrogate mothers.
measured the amount of time that monkeys spent with each surrogate mother and the amount of time that they cried for their biological mother.
Harlow study findings
separated infant rhesus monkeys would show attachment behaviours towards a cloth-covered surrogate mother when frightened, rather than a food-dispensing surrogate mother.
Monkeys were willing to explore a room full of novel toys when the cloth-covered monkey was present but displayed phobic responses when only the food-dispensing surrogate was present.
Displayed dysfunctional adult behaviour- timid, unpredictable, difficulty mating and females were inadequate mothers.
What is reciprocity?
The actions of one person (e.g. the mother) elicits a response from the other (e.g. the infant).
What is interactional synchrony?
Interactional synchrony is where an infant mirrors the actions of another person, for example, their facial expressions and body movements - moving their body in tune with the rhythm of their carer.
EXAMPLE IS “AINSWORTH STRANGE SITUATION.”
What is multiple attachment?
Multiple attachments are attachments to two or more people.
Bowlby (1988) has shown that most babies are able to form multiple attachments once they have formed a specific attachment to their main caregiver.
What was Bowlby’s study showing? And what did he suggest/argue?
It explored the role of the father in attachment.
He reasoned that if patterns of attachment are a product of how their mother has treated them it could be the same for the father.
Fathers can fill a role closely resembling that filled by a mother but points out that in most cultures this is uncommon.
In most families with young children, the father’s role tends to be different.
A father is more likely to engage in physically active and novel play than the mother and tends to become his child’s preferred play companion.
What were Schaffer and Emerson’s study for the role of the father in attachment findings?
Found that additional attachments developed in the proceeding months following the 4th stage, observing 31% of infants displaying 5 or more attachments by 18 months.
What are some key studies in the role of the father? (Give names and the findings)
Field (1978)-
Face-to-face interactions were analysed from video footage with infants at 4 months of age. Overall, it was observed that fathers engaged more in game playing and held their infants less. However, primary caretaker fathers engaged in significantly more smiling, imitative grimaces, and imitative vocalizations than did secondary caretaker fathers and these were comparable with mothers’ behaviour.
Brown et al. (2012)-
Investigated father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father−child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years of age. Results demonstrated that involvement and sensitivity influenced father−child attachment security at age 3. Involvement was a greater predictor of secure attachment when fathers were rated as less sensitive.
Link - The research from Brown and Field indicates that the gender of a caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types/ quality, rather it is the extent of caregiver involvement.
Grossman’s (2002)-
Longitudinal study of 44 families comparing the role of fathers’ & mothers’ contribution to their children’s attachment experiences at 6,10 and 16 years.
Fathers’ play style (whether it was sensitive, challenging and interactive) was closely linked to the fathers’ own internal working model of attachment. Shows the continuity hypothesis.
Play sensitivity was a better predictor of the child’s long-term attachment representation than the early measures of the of attachment type that the infant had with their father.
What is the key concept of the critical period?
It was lorenz’s findings in his study of the hatchlings which bowlby then worked on and suggested that if a child does not form an attachment before the age of two and a half years (the critical period) then an attachment would never occur. He later revised his theory and proposed a sensitive period (where an attachment can still form, although it takes longer) of up to 5 years.
The critical period is 2 and a half years!!!!
What is the key concept of an ‘internal working model’?
Bowlby (1969)
It is a cognitive framework comprising mental representations for understanding the world, self, and others which guides future social and emotional behavior as the child’s internal working model guides their responsiveness to others in general.
In Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, what are the types of attachments that she discovered and what do they mean?
Insecure resistant- (C) clingy and dependant behaviour although reject when the caregiver interacts. They will be difficult to soothe and not comforted by caregiver.
Insecure avoidant- (A) emotional distress, caregiver is insensitive and doesn’t care about needs.
Secure- (B) confident that needs will be met, caregiver is sensitive and responds to their needs.
