Attachment

Question 1

What is reciprocity?

Answer 1

An interaction where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.

From birth babies have ‘alert phases’ that signal they are ready for interaction. Mothers pick up on this 2/3 of th time. From 3 months this is increasincly frequent and involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman 2007)

Question 2

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.

Meltzoff and Moore observed this in infants as young as 2 weeks. (An adult displayed one of 3 expressions or gestures and the child was filmed).

Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and infants and found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment.

Question 3

What is the role of the father?

Answer 3

1. Grossman’s longitudinal study showed quality of attachment was related to attachment in adolescence but quality of father’s play with infants was related to adolescent attachment quality.
2. Feld filmed 4 month babies in interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregivers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding than the secondary caregivers. Therefore the father can be the more nurturing attachment figure and it is to do with responsiveness not gender.

Question 4

What are 2- and 1+ of researching infants?

Answer 4

WEAKNESS: Difficult to know what is happening when observing infants.

WEAKNESS: Observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity.

STRENGTH: Controlled observations and filming can capture fine detail increasing validity.

Question 5

What is the main issue with research into the role of the father?

Answer 5

Inconsistent findings. Some psychologists look at father as primary caregiver, others as secondary.

If fathers do have a distinct role, why aren’t children without fathers different (MacCallum and Golombok found no difference in children from same sex or different sex parents).

Not certain what role hormones play in primary attachment role

Question 6

What is the method of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment study?

Answer 6

60 babies, 31 male, 29 female. All from Glasgow and majority from working-class families.

The babies were visited every month for the first year and then again at 18. months. The mothers were asked questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations, and stranger anxiety was assessed - to measure the attachment.

Question 7

What were the key findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 7

1. Between 25 and 32 weeks, 50% of the babies showed separation anxiety, usually the mother.
2. Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive, not necessarily the person with whom the infant spent most time.
3. By the age of 40 weeks, 70% of the babies had a specific attachment and 30% multiple attachments.

Question 8

What are the four stages of attachment?

Answer 8

Stage 1: Asocial stage (first few weeks).
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment from 2-7 months
Stage 3: Specific attachment from 7 months.
Stage 4: Multiple attachments

Question 9

Evaluate Schaffer and Emerson’s study

Answer 9

Good eternal validity as it took place in the patient’s own homes rather than in a lab which may lead to more natural behaviour

Longitudinal design - thorough and indepth study - more internal validity as it does not have confounding variables of individual differences between participants

Limited sample - the families were from same area and same social class - therefore the findings may not be generalisable to other cultures/class/areas

Question 10

Evaluate Schaffer and Emerson’s stages

Answer 10

Difficult to study the asocial age as babies are so young

Some babies form multiple attachments from the start, especially in collectivist cultures - therefore this does not follow the stage theory

It is a strength that Schaffer and Emerson used the measures of attachment they did. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety are easy to observe. This makes it possible to be objective about judgements of attachment. It also means that there should be good inter-rater reliability – two or more observers will probably agree on the attachment status of any child they observe.

On the other hand, it can be argued that attachment is more complex than just two behaviours and that therefore these measures are not valid.

Question 11

Animal studies of attachment - summarise Lorenz’s research

Answer 11

Ethology - The study of animal behaviour.

Imprinting - Newly hatched goslings attach to the first moving object they see.

Critical period - Imprinting must occur within a few hours after birth.

Sexual imprinting - Birds show courtship behaviour towards whatever species they imprint on.

Question 12

Evaluation of Lorenz’s research

Answer 12

Influenced understanding of human development

But its is difficult to generalise findings of bird studies to humans as we have such different child rearing practices

Other researchers have found that the effects of imprinting may not have been as permanent of Lorenz believed e.g. birds to have been unsuccessful at mating with the inanimate objects they have imprinted upon eventually move on to their own species

Question 13

Animal studies of attachment - summarise Harlow’s research

Answer 13

Importance of contact comfort - Infant monkeys prefer a soft toy mother to a wire one regardless of which provides milk.

Maternal deprivation - Monkeys brought up without a mother were dysfunctional as adults.

Critical period - Monkeys had around 90 days to attach to a mother figure or they could not form an attachment

Question 14

Evaluation of Harlow’s research

Answer 14

Unethical - caused distress to the Rhesus Monkeys

Helped social workers understand the effects of abuse and neglect and therefore led to moves to prevent it

Highlighted the importance of early relationships for later relationships

Showed how the infant-caregiver attachment works and how comfort, rather than food, is important in bonding

Question 15

Summarise the Learning Theory of Attachment

Answer 15

Classical conditioning- Primary caregiver (NS) becomes associated with food (UCS), becoming a conditioned stimulus producing ‘pleasure’ (UCR and CR).

Operant conditioning of infants - Crying is positively reinforced by attention.

Operant conditioning of caregivers - Attention is negatively reinforced by cessation of crying.

Secondary drive - Satisfaction of the primary hunger drive is associated with the caregiver

Question 16

Evaluate the Learning Theory of Attachment

Answer 16

Ignores other factors such as reciprocity, interactional synchrony - it is too simplistic as a theory - human attachment is more complicated than this

Social learning theory is more credible than early learning theory explanations of attachment because the processes of modelling, instruction and reward can all be observed taking place in families. Social learning of social behaviour within families certainly takes place.

As Harlow’s research showed, food is not as important as comfort - however the Social Learning explanation also eliminates the problem of links between feeding and attachment.

However, social learning theory still cannot explain the importance and complexity of early interactions involving synchrony and reciprocity. Therefore social learning theory is not the dominant theory of attachment.

Question 17

Summarise Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment

Answer 17

Monotropy - The one primary attachment is different and more important than others.

Innate - Provides survival advantage.

Social releasers - Innate behaviours like crying and smiling designed to elicit adult responses.

Critical period - The period after birth in which babies are best adapted to form attachments.

Internal working model - The mental representation of the child’s first attachment.

Question 18

Evaluate Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment

Answer 18

Does not take into account the temperament of the child - which is genetic - some may be more anxious, some more sociable - which may effect the interaction

Support for Social releasers - Brazleton’s study - mothers were told to ignore babies signals and they observed what would happen - the response from the babies were strong which demonstrates their importance

The evidence for monotropy is mixed but if Bowlby is correct then it is a useful idea because it clarifies the importance of mothers and mothering. Before Bowlby’s time people didn’t think the mother’s role was important and, in fact, many divorces were settled in favour of the father because mothers were not regarded as necessary.

However, the idea of monotropy has certainly made things awkward for working mothers – although this was never Bowlby’s intention.

Question 19

Summarise Ainsworth’s strange situation method

Answer 19

A controlled observation - Researcher manipulates key variables and environment.

Secure-base behaviour - Assesses exploration and contact behaviour with caregiver.

Anxiety - Assesses stranger and separation anxiety.

Reunion - Assesses the child’s response to caregiver’s return.

Attachment types - Babies classified with an attachment type according to the above.

Question 20

What Attachment Types did Ainsworth identify?

Answer 20

Insecure–avoidant Avoids contact on reunion, low in anxiety, explores environment but returns often to caregiver.

Secure Easily calmed at reunion, moderate anxiety, explores environment but little contact with caregiver.

Insecure–resistant Resists embrace at reunion, high in anxiety, little exploration.

Question 21

Evaluate Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 21

Research has shown that secure and insecure infant relationships lead to secure and insecure adult relationships - validity of the research

Strange Situation has good inter-rater reliability- behavioural categories are clear and easy to observe - therefore the method is replicable and reliable

The method and categories of attachment may be culture bound - different parenting practices may mean that the SS may not be a reliable way of testing the mother-child relationship e.g. in Japan the mother and child are regularly separated

The Strange Situation is meant to assess attachment behaviour. If, however, the behaviour it measures is also affected by temperament then it does not purely measure attachment, and so its validity is not good. How much of a problem this would be depends on how big an effect temperament has on behaviour in the Strange Situation.

The existence of other attachment types does not necessarily challenge the Strange Situation as long as it can still assess those types. However, it is a problem for Ainsworth’s theory of attachment types as she only identified three types. It is now widely accepted amongst attachment researchers that there are at least four attachment types and that these four at least can be identified using the Strange Situation.

Question 22

Describe the studies that show cultural variations in attachment?

Answer 22

Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg:
Procedure: Comparison of attachment types in 32 studies in eight countries.
Findings: Broadly similar rates of attachment type across countries.

Simonelli et al.
Half secure and a third insecure–avoidant in Italy.

Jin et al. Most secure and a substantial minority insecure–resistant in Korea.

Conclusions Attachment broadly similar across a range of cultures. Some variation, probably linked to child-rearing.

Question 23

Evaluation research/theories into cultural variations and attachment

Answer 23

The fact that there is broad similarity in attachment patterns in a range of cultural contexts suggests that attachment is universal, as Bowlby said

The fact that there is some variation is also in keeping with Bowlby’s theory, as Bowlby believed that the quality of attachment is influenced by the behaviour of the primary attachment figure towards the baby. If this varies according cultural norms then we would expect some variation between countries and between different groups within a country – which is exactly what we see.

Imposed etic- using a technique created in one culture to assess another culture - SS method is biased

The comparison was between countries not cultures - comparing families in urban areas throughout the world may have similar results but rural areas may provide different results

Question 24

What is Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation?

Answer 24

Bowlby - Mother-love as important as vitamins.

Maternal deprivation - Separation and from a primary attachment figure that is prolonged and results in lack of emotional care.

Critical period - The first 30 months of life.

Effects - Intellectual development (low IQ), emotional development (affectionless psychopathy).

Question 25

What is Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

Answer 25

44 thieves study:

Procedure: 44 thieves assessed for affectionless psychopathy, early separations established through interviews with parents.

Findings: 14 affectionless thieves, of which 12 had prolonged early separations.

Used this study to support his theory of maternal deprivation

Question 26

Evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 26

Pressure/guilt on working mothers or for mothers that have to be separated from their child for other reasons

Animal studies of maternal deprivation are interesting because they show that separation from the mother for as little as a day can have serious lasting effects on social development. This is consistent with Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation, and suggests that separations from the primary attachment figure can have a significant effect on development.

The critical period is more of a sensitive period - some children who are deprived but receive good after care can have a normal development e.g. adopted Czech twins who were abused until 7 years old but then adopted by loving sisters and fully recovered.

Question 27

What does research into Romanian Orphans show about the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 27

Institutionalisation: The effects of spending significant time in an orphanage or children’s home.

The ERA study (English and Romanian Adoptee):

Procedures: longitudinal study of the cognitive and social development of orphans adopted in England.
Findings: some attachment problems and lower average IQ in those adopted late.

Bucharest Early Intervention project:

Procedures: longitudinal study of the social development of orphans fostered in Romania.

Findings: much more insecure and disinhibited attachment in children who remained in institutions.

Effects of institutionalisation: Disinhibited attachment (over-friendly) and mental retardation (low IQ).

Question 28

Evaluation of research into Romanian Orphanages

Answer 28

This studies were carried out in the real world look at real effects of deprivation - therefore its findings are much more applicable than animal studies or lab based observations

Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, other orphanages may have better standards and therefore the findings are difficult to generalise

The results we have at the moment from the ERA and Bucharest studies give us a good idea about the effects – both social and intellectual – of early institutionalisation and adoption up to adolescence.

However, we only know from these studies effects as long as follow-ups are carried out. Only when participants have been followed up for their entire lives will we have a good idea what the very long-term effects might be. So for the moment any conclusions have to be tentative because these children may well catch up and lead fairly ‘normal’ lives.

Question 29

How do early attachments affect later relationships?

Answer 29

Internal working models - Mental representations based on infant’s primary attachment affects later relationships.

Later childhood - Securely attached children have better friendships.

Bullying - Securely attached children are unlikely to be victims or perpetrators of bullying.

Adult friendships - Securely attached adults have better friendships.

Romantic relationships - Securely attached adults tend to have better romantic relationships.

Parenting - Securely attached adults tend to form secure attachments to their own children.

Question 30

Evaluation of the theory that early attachments affect later relationships

Answer 30

Deterministic view - it may not necessarily be the case - it does not look at temperament or resilience of the child which may affect how they handle later relationships

Mixed evidence to show whether early attachment affects later attachment

Most research into early attachment comprises of adults self-reports and retrospective accounts which may not necessarily be accurate.

Socially sensitive research, such as this, has to be seriously considered. It may create expectations in individuals and their partners and the health services that children/adults who have experienced early separation/privation are doomed not to recover. Such expectations may be self-fulfilling. So some people would argue that this is not helpful and it is better to believe in recovery whatever the truth.

On the other hand, if we know about such potential outcomes, it may be that intervention strategies might help such individuals, such as extra attention and emotional care, in which case the benefits outweigh the costs.