Attachment Flashcards
What is reciprocity?
when both infant and mother respond to each others signals and elicit a response from each other.
Feldman (2007)
from around 3 months oldreciporicty tends to be increasily frequent.
What is interactional synchrony?
mother and infact reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a c–ordinated way.
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
observed the beginings of interactioncal synchrony in infants as young at 2 weeks old.
adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures.
response of child filmed.
an assocation with the actions of the babies was found.
What is a parent-infant attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson found that the majority of babies have their mothers as their primary attachment figure, and within a few weeks formed secondary attachments to other members.
The role of the father
Grossman: longitudanal study looking at both parents behaviour and the quality of childrens attachments in their teens.
The quality of the fathers play with infants was related to the quality of adolesense attachments- father role is to do with play.
Fathers as primary care givers
Field- filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interactions with their primary care giver mothers and fathers, and secondary caregiver fathers.
the key to an attachment relationship is the level of responsivness and not the gender of the parent
Controlled observations
observations of mother-infant interactions are well-controlled
better validity
Observations don’t tell the purpose of synchrony and reciporcity
feldmen- describes behaviour occuring but not why these behaviours occurs
Inconsistent findings on fathers
some research says fathers can be maternal, some researchs suggests that fathers play a different role.
Children without fathers are not different
MacCallum and Golombok- found that children growing up in a single-parent or same-sex parent household do not develop any differently than those in a two-parent hetrosexual family.
Why do fathers not become primary attachments?
Female hormones, such as oestrogen create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically predisposed to be the primary attachment figure.
what are Schaffers stages of attachment?
asocial stage
indiscriminate attachment
specific attachment
multiple attachments
what is the asocial stage of the stages of attachment?
first few weeks
babies behaviour towards non-human objects and humans are similar.
babies show some preference for familiar adults
what is the indiscriminate attachment stage?
from 2-7 months
show a preference for people rather than objects
recognise and prefer familiar adults
do not show stranger or seperation anxiety.
what is the specific attachment stage?
from around 7 months
anxiety towards strangers, and anxiety when separated from a particular adult.
has a primary attachment figure
What is the multiple attachments stage?
shortly after babies start to show attachment to one adult, they usually extend this behaviour to other adults with whom they regulary spend time.
These are secondary attachments.
29% of children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment.
Evaluation of Stages of Attachment
good external validity
carried out in homes
observation done by parents during ordianry activites.
Evaluation of Stages of Attachment
Longitudinal design
the same children used
better internal validity beause no participant variables
Evaluation of Stages of Attachment
limited sample characteristics
culturally bias
cannot generalise to other times or cultures
same social class and in the same city
Evaluation of Stages of Attachment
Measuring multiple attachments
Bowlby pointed out that children may have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room but this doesnt signify an attachment.
Lorenz’s research
randomlly divided goose eggs, half with their mother, half hatched with him.
the experimental group followed Lorenz (imprinting)
What did Lorenz identify?
a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place.
What is sexual imprinting?
birds who imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans.
Harlow’s research
reared 16 baby monkeys with two mothers- a wire mother and a cloth mother.
the monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort with the soft one when frightened regardless of which one dispensed milk.
Maternally deprived monkeys as adults
more dysfunctional, more aggressive and less sociable and unskilled at mating.
as mothers some neglected their young and other attacked and killed their babies.
Evaluations of Lorenz’s study
generlaisability to humans- mammalian attachment is different than birds- not appropriate to generalise to humans.
some observations have been questioned- the ideas that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour disproved by Guiton et al- chickens who imprinted on a yellow glove would try to mate, but later change their preferences to othr chickens.
Evaluation of Harlow’s research
Theoretical value- attachment does not develop as a result of being fed. The importance of early relationships for later social development.
Practical value- helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect and when to intervene to prevent it.
Ethical issues- no protection from harm, no consent
Learning theory and attachment
Classical conditioning- us- ucr ns- no response uc+ns- ucr cs- cr Operant conditioning- positive and negative reinforcement
Learning theory
attachment as a secondary drive
hunger is a primary drive
attachment is a secondary drive
Evaluation of learning theory
counter-evidence from animal research (Harlows monkeys prefered the mother who was soft than the one who provided food)
counter-evidence from human research- most babies formed primary attachment with mother even when other carers did most the feeding (schaffer and emerson)
What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
the child’s attachment to one caregiver is different and moer important than the others.
the more time a baby spent with this mother figure, the better
What is the law of continuity and law of accumulated separation (monotropic theory)
the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better quality attachment.
every separation from the mother adds up
Monotropic theory:
What are social releasers?
babies born with a set on innate ‘cute’ behaviours.
purpose is to activiate the adult attachment system.
Monotropic theory:
What is the critical period?
around 2 years when the infant attachment system is active, bowlby viewed this as a sensitive period.
Monotropic theory:
What is the internal working model?
a mental representation of relationship with primary caregiver.
serves as a model for what relationships are like.
power effect on future relationships.
Evaluation of Monotropic theory
mixed evidence for monotropy
Schaffer and Emerson: found a significant number of babies made multiple attachments at the same time.
Evaluation of Monotropic theory
Support for social releasers
Brazleton et al: observed mothers and babies during interactions, then turned it into an experiment.
Mothers had to ignore the social releasers. the babies initially showed some disress, but then curled up and lying motionless.
Evaluation of Monotropic theory
Support for internal working model
Bailey et al: assessed 99 mothers with one year old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers unsing an interview. also assessed attachment with the babies via observation.
It was found that mothers who had had poor attachments with their own mothers were more likely to have children who were poorly attached.
Evaluation of Monotropic theory
Socially senstive
temperament may be important
Procedure of Ainsworth’s strange situation
controlled observation
proximity seeking
exploration and secure-base behaviour- child is encouraged to explore
stranger anxiety- stranger enters and interacts
separation anxiety- caregiver leaves the child and stranger together, then the caregiver returns and leaves again, leaving the child alone, then stranger returns
response to reunion- caregiver returns
Findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation
Secure attachment- 60- 75%
insecure-avoidant- 20-25%
insecure-resistant- 3%
Findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation
Secure attachment
explore happily, but go back to caregiver.
moderate seperation distress and moderate stranger anxiety.
require and accept comfort at reunion
Findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation
insecure-avoidant
explore freely but do not seek proximity.
show little or no reaction when caregiver leaves
little stranger anxiety
do not require comfort on reunion
Findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation
insecure-resistant
seek greater proximity
explore less
huge stranger anxiety
huge seperation distress
resist comfort when caregiver returns.
Evalution of Ainsworth’s strange situation
Support for validity
Attachment type is strongly predictive of later development.
Secure- better success at school and romantic relationships and friendships.
insecure-resistant- bullying and adult mental health problems
evidence for validity because it can explain subsequent outcomes.
Evalution of Ainsworth’s strange situation
Good reliability
good inter-rater reliability- observors often agree- 94%
behavioural categories are easy to observe.
Evalution of Ainsworth’s strange situation
Culture-bound
Takahashi- japanese mothers are rarely separated from their babies so the children showed high levels of separation anxiety.
Evalution of Ainsworth’s strange situation
Another attachment type
Disorganised attachment- odd mix of behaviours.
what was van ijzendoorns study?
meta analysis of strange situation in many countries
32 studies
75% securely attached in uk, 50% in china
3% resistant in uk, 30% in israel
avoidant most common in germany, least common in japan
what did simonella et al research and find
italy- strange situation
50% secure
36% insecure avoidant
maybe because more mothers working long hours
what did jin et al find and study
strange situation- south korea
most secure
higher proportion of insecure resistant
only one child was insecure avoidant
evaluation of cultural variations in attachment
larger samples
samples tend to be unrepresentative
method of assessment is culture biased
What is Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother .
continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development , and that prolonged separation causes serious damage to development
what is separation vs deprivation?
separation is the child not being in the presence of the caregiver
What is the critical period
first 30 months of life
psychological damage is inevitable is there is an absence
what are the effects on development of maternal deprivation
intellectual development- abnormally low IQ
emotional development- affectionless psychopathy
what was bowlbys 44 thieves study?
44 criminal teenagers
all were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
found that 14 of them were affectionless psychopaths , if the 14, 12 of them had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives
Evaluation of maternal deprivation
evidence may be poor- eg war orphans grew up in poor quality orphanages so may be traumatised
counter evidence- lewis replicated 44 theives with 500 young people, found no correlation
critical period is more of a sensitive period
What is instutionalisation?
the effects of living in an institutional setting.
very little emotional care provided
What was the procedure of Rutters english and romanian adoptee study?
Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adpoted into Britain.
Assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years.
Control group of 52 british adopted children.
What was the findings of Rutters orphan study?
when first arrived- 50% showd signs of delayed intellectual development.
Age 11- mean IQ of those adpoted before 6 months was 102, compared to 86 of those adopted between 6 months and 2 years and 77 for those adopted after 2 years.
These remained at age 16.
Those adpoted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
What was the findings of the Bucharest Early Intervention project?
74% of control securely attached.
19% of institualised securely attached, 65% disorganised attachment
What are the effects of institutionalisation?
Disinhibited attachment
Mental retardation
Evaluation of Romanian orphan studies
Real-life application
enhanced our understanding of the effects of instsutionalsation.
led to improvemtns in the way children are cared for, eg avoiding large numbers of care givers for one child.
Evaluation of Romanian orphan studies
Fewer extraneuos variables than other studies
many orphan studies before involved children who had been through trauma, eg neglect, abuse, bereavement.
Evaluation of Romanian orphan studies
The Romanian orphanages were not typical
the conditions were so bad that the results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of better quality institutional care .
unusual situational variables- lack generalisability.
Evaluation of Romanian orphan studies
Ethical issues
children not randomly assigned.
What does attachment type mean for relationships in later childhood?
securely attached infants go on to form the best quality childhood friendships.
Insecurely attached infants go on to have friendship difficulties.
Research: assessed attachment type and bullying involvment using questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11. secure less likely to be involved in bullying. avoidant most likely to be victims and resistant most likely to be bullies.
What does attachment type mean for relationships in adulthood romantic partners?
Hazan and Shaver- love quiz.
56% securely attachted, 25% avoidant, 19% resistant.
Those with secure attachments were more likely to ghave good and longer lasting romantic experiences.
avoidant- jealousy and fear of intimacy.
What does attachment type mean for relationships in adulthood as a parent?
internal working models affect the childs ability to be a parent.
