Attachment Flashcards
CI interactions - reciprocity
turn-taking
Brazelton - a dance
responses from both
close attention to facial expressions
EV - observations don’t reveal purpose but is a well-controlled study
CI interactions - interactional synchronicity
high synchrony = high attachment
Isabella et al assessed 20 mums and babies at 2 wees old (reaction to expressions was filmed)
mirroring micro behaviour
babies have alert phases
EV - socially sensitive but high value to society
Stages of attachment
- Asocial - behaviour to people and objects is similar. Happier in human company.
- Indiscriminate - preference for familiar adults. No anxiety.
- Specific - attachment with one person (the most responsive). Anxiety shown.
- Multiple - secondary attachment. 29% have them soon after specific.
Schaffer and Emerson
60 WC babies and mothers
visited 1x a month for a year then at 18 months
Diary kept by parents
50% showed stranger anxiety between 25 - 32 months
Attachment - with those who were most sensitive to social releasers
Stages of attachment - evaluation
- Schaffer - high external validity (natural behaviour) BUT self - report
- A problem in studying asocial time - difficult to observe the behaviour
- Carried out longitudinally - high internal validity (no confounding variables)
- Evidence on timing conflicts - Bowlby says specific time before multiple (but some cultures show multiple from the beginning)
Role of the father
Quality of play is important - related to attachment
Primary attachment - 3% of the time was the father; 27% was joint.
75% formed a secondary attachment with father
Level of response is most important - father can be nurturing too
Maternal attachment is related more to teen attachments
Role of the father - evaluation
- Research fails to provide a clear answer (could be biological or social)
- Social biases prevent objective research
Animal studies - Lorenz
Imprinting
Divided 12 goose eggs (half people; half goose)
Mixed goslings together - who do they follow?
Observed later courtship behaviour
Findings and conclusions
Critical period - few hours after birth
Sexual imprinting happens too
Incubator group - followed Lorenz
Animal studies - Harlow
16 rhesus monkeys (followed into adulthood)
response to fear tested
2 conditions - cloth and wire mothers
Findings and conclusions
Preferred cloth mother (even w/o mother)
Sought comfort
As adults - very aggressive, low mating skill and neglected offspring
Animal studies - evaluation
- Practical applications - attachment figures in zoos
- Ethical issues - rhesus monkeys are like humans
- Support for imprinting - gloves
- Extrapolations - birds and humans are very different
Learning theory
Classical conditioning - association with stimuli
- UCS (milk) —- UCR (pleasure)
- UCS (milk) + NS (mum) —- UCR (pleasure)
- CS (mum) —- CR (pleasure)
Operant conditioning
Negative reinforcement - mother stops the crying and is an escape from unpleasant experience
Drive reduction - motivated to eat by hunger drive. Attachment is secondary drive, learned by association between caregiver and primary drive
Learning theory - evaluation
- Animal studies - against food as basis for attachment
- Ignores other factors linked to attachment
- Newer explanation based on SLT - love by modelling
- Some elements of conditioning involved - problem is talk of food
Monotropic theory
Attachment is innate - gives evolutionary advantage
Monotropy - 1 primary attachment (most important person)
Babies have social releasers - activates attachment and encourages attention
Time with mother is beneficial - law of accumulated separation and law of continuity
Internal working model - affects parenting and is a template for relationships
Monotropic theory - evaluation
- Clear evidence for social releasers - Brazleton
- Socially sensitive - mothers are blamed and feel guilty
- Support for internal working model - Bailey et al
- Over emphasis on role of attachment - may be temperament too
