Attachment Flashcards
What is ATTACHMENT?
- emotional bond between 2 things
- each seeks closeness
- feels more secure in the presence of attachment figure
What is STRANGER ANXIETY?
-distress of an infant in the presence of unknown individuals
What is RECIPROCITY?
- two ways or something that is mutual
- infant and caregiver both active contributors in the interaction
- responding to eachother
What is INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY?
- timing and pattern of the interaction
- infant and caregiver mirroring each others behaviour and emotion
What are the main assumptions of CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS?
- rhythmic and mutual
- infant and caregiver promoting conversation involving similar sounds, emotions and contact
- each can anticipate how the other will respond
- interactional synchrony and reciprocity
What is a positive evaluation for INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY and RECIPROCITY? (1)
RESEARCH SUPPORT
- condon and sander (1974)
- caregiver-infant interactions in response to adult speech
- used frame by frame analysis of films of babies
- found babies move in time with the rhythm of conversation which shows turn taking
What is a positive evaluation for INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY and RECIPROCITY? (2)
RESEARCH SUPPORT
- Isabella (1989)
- observed 30 mothers and infants in their homes
- measured degree of synchrony
- found mother’s who showed more interactional synchrony=more securely attached
What is a negative evaluation for INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY and RECIPROCITY?
- difficult to interpret infants perspective
- often babies hand movements and facial expressions are random
- don’t know for certain behaviours seen in caregiver-infant reaction have special meaning
- even if INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY and RECIPROCITY reliably observed, they don’t tell us the purpose
What are the 4 stages of attachment identified by SCHAFFER?
- pre attachment stage
- indiscriminate attachment stage
- discriminate attachment stage
- multiple attachment stage
What is the PRE ATTACHMENT STAGE?
- birth to 6 weeks
- similar responses to objects and people
- preferences for faces and eyes
What is the INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE?
- 6 weeks to 6 months
- preference for human company
- can distinguish between people
- doesn’t care who comforts them
What is the DISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE?
- 7 months and onward
- infant shoes preference for one caregiver
- displays separation and stranger anxiety
- baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection
What is the MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT STAGE?
- 10 months onwards
- attachment displayed to two or more people
- fear of strangers weakens
What was BOWLBYS main assumption?
- infants form one primary attachment that forms internal working model
- influence all other secondary attachments in the future
- quality of main attachment is vital
- known as BOWLBYS MONOTROPIC THEORY
What is the fathers role in attachment?
- traditionally limited/minor role
- they provide resources while mothers stay at home
- recently their role has changed significantly
What are the roles fathers are thought to play in attachment?
Some researchers say:
- men not equipped to form attachments
- caring hormone oestrogen is scarce in men
- fathers have playmate role instead for caregiver
- if fathers show sensitive responsiveness they can form emotional bond
What is a positive evaluation for fathers role as playmate
- research support Geiger (1996)
- fathers play interactions more exciting and pleasurable
- mothers more nurturing and caring
- shows father is playmate, mother is caregiver
What is a negative evaluation for fathers ability to form bonds?
- research by hrdy (1999)
- found fathers less able to detect low levels of infant distress
- supports lack of oestrogen in men as they are unequipped to form bonds
- fathers role biologically determined by their biological make up
What is a positive evaluation for sensitive responsiveness?
- research found fathers can form close bonds if in intimate marriage
- belsky et al (2009)
- fathers with high marital intimacy=secure father-infant attachment
- fathers with low marital intimacy=insecure father-infant attachment
- strength of their father-infant attachment depends on marital relationship
- fathers role is determined but also mediated by environment
Which two researchers conducted animal studies?
- Lorenz (1935)
- Harlow (1959)
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
- divides goose eggs into 2 batches
- one batch hatched naturally with mother
- other batch places in incubator and Lorenz was the first large moving object they say
What were Lorenz’s findings?
- naturally hatched goslings followed mother goose
- incubator hatched goslings followed lorenz
- imprinting only happened within critical period of 4-25 hours
- relationship persisted over time and proved irreversible
What is a negative evaluation of Lorenz’s research? (1)
- Lorenz only studied animals so we can’t generalise
- attachment formation in mammals very different to that of birds
- human parents can show more emotional reactions and form attachments beyond the first few hours
- lorenz has influenced our understanding of attachment
- caution must be applied when drawing wider conclusions
What is a negative evaluation for Lorenz’s study? (2)
- later research cast doubt on Lorenz’s conclusions
- guiton et al (1966) found chickens would imprint on yellow washing up gloves if it was the 1st large moving object they saw and try mate with it in future
- disagreed that relationship was permanent and irreversible
- chickens learnt to prefer mating with other chickens
What was Harlow’s procedure?
- attachment behaviour in rhesus monkeys
- constructed two surrogate mothers: one harsh wire mother and a soft towelling mother
- the amount of time baby monkey spent on each was recorded
What were Harlow’s findings and conclusion?
- baby monkeys preferred soft towelling mother
- would stretch across to wire mother for food while clinging to towelling mother
- baby rhesus monkeys have an innate drive to seek contact comfort
- attachment with parents formed through emotional need for security
What is a positive evaluation for Harlow’s research?
- results are of large practical value
- provide insight to attachment formation and had real world applications
- Howe (1998) suggested knowledge gained helped social workers understand neglect and abuse in children
- can prevent it occurring or Intervene
- practical applications like ensuring monkeys in captivity have adequate attachment figures
