attachment

Question 1

what is reciprocity (caregiver-infant interactions)?

Answer 1

-mothers respond to infant alertness (from 3 months close attention between mother and infant).

Question 2

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

• interactions become coordinated.

- isabella: quality of attachment related to synchrony.

Question 3

evaluate caregiver-infant interactions (studies).

Answer 3

• hard to know what is happening = simple gestures and expressions have to be assumed.
• controlled observations = captures fine details of the interactions
• purpose of synchrony and reciprocity = Feldman: just observations, the purpose is not entirely understood.

Question 4

what is the role of the father?

Answer 4

-Grossman = attachments to fathers less important but fathers may have a different role i.e. play and stimulation.

Question 5

what is the typical parent-infant attachment?

Answer 5

-traditionally mother-infant, (other attachments figures like fathers may be important).

Question 6

how can the fathers be primary caregivers?

Answer 6

-Field: fathers as primary caregivers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers.

Question 7

evaluate attachment figures.

Answer 7

• inconsistent findings = different research questions - the overall picture is unclear.
• children without fathers aren’t different = suggests father role isn’t important
• fathers aren’t primary attachment figures = may be due to traditional gender roles or biological differences.

Question 8

what are the aims, methods and findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment study (stages of attachment).

Answer 8

• aims: investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with.
• method: mothers of 60 from Glasgow reported monthly on separation anxiety.
• findings: most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and showed multiple attachments soon after this.

Question 9

evaluate Schaffer and Emerson’s study.

Answer 9

• good external validity = observations were in participants’ natural environment.
• longitudinal design = same participants observed at each age, eliminating individual differences.
• limited generalisability = all families were from the same area and was over 50 years ago meaning there’s a lack of generalisability.

Question 10

what are the four stages of attachment?

Answer 10

• asocial stage (little observable social behaviour)
• indiscriminate attachment (accepts cuddles of anyone, more observable).
• specific attachment (stranger and separation anxiety in regards to strangers).
• multiple attachments (attach. behaviours directed towards more than one adult (secondary).

Question 11

evaluate the four stages of attachment.

Answer 11

• asocial stage = hard to observe, so doesn’t mean they are asocial.
• conflicting evidence = van Ijzendoom: research in different contexts found multiple attachments may appear first.
• measuring multiple attachments = protesting children at adult departure doesn’t equal attachments.

Question 12

what is the procedure, the findings and the conclusion of Lorenz’s animal research?

Answer 12

• procedure = Goslings saw Lorenz when they hatched.
• findings = newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting).
• sexual imprinting = adult birds try to mate with whatever object they imprint on.

Question 13

evaluate Lorenz’s animal research.

Answer 13

• generalisability = birds and mammals have different attachment systems, which may not be relevant to humans.
• questionable observations = Guiton: birds imprinting on rubber gloves later preferred their own species.

Question 14

what are the procedures, findings, and conclusions of Harlow’s animal research?

Answer 14

• procedure = baby monkey’s given cloth or wire “mother” with feeding bottle attached.
• findings = monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk.
• maternally deprived = monkeys grew up socially dysfunctional.
• critical period = after 90 days, attachments would not form.

Question 15

evaluate Harlow’s animal research.

Answer 15

• monkeys similar genetic makeup to humans, however not completely the same
• theoretical value = demonstrated that attachment depends more on contact comfort than feeding.
• practical value = Howe: informal understanding of risk factors in child abuse.
• ethical issues = suffering of the monkeys would be human-like.

Question 16

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 16

• caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food (unconditioned stimulus) which provokes an unconditioned response.
• caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus provoking a conditioned response.

Question 17

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 17

crying behaviour reinforced positively for the infant (receives comfort) and negatively for the caregiver (has to provide comfort).

Question 18

how can attachment be a secondary drive?

Answer 18

through association with hunger.

Question 19

evaluate learning theory (classical conditioning and operant conditioning).

Answer 19

• animal studies = Lorenz and Harlow showed that feeding is not the key to attachment.
• human research = Schaffer and Emerson: most primary attachment figures were the mother, even if another carer did the feeding.
• ignores other factors = cannot account for the importance of sensitivity and interactional synchrony.

Question 20

what is monotropy (Bowlby’s theory)?

Answer 20

-one particular attachment is different in quality and importance than others.

Question 21

what are social releasers and the critical period (Bowlby)?

Answer 21

-innate cute behaviours in the first two years.

Question 22

what is the internal working model? (Bowlby)

Answer 22

mental representations of the primary attachment relationship are templates for future relationships.

Question 23

evaluate Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment.

Answer 23

-mixed evidence = some babies formed multiple attachments without a primary attachment.
Suess: other attachments may contribute as much as primary ones.
-support for social releasers = Brazelton: when social releasers were ignored, babies became upset.
-support for internal working model = Bailey: quality of attachment is passed through generations in families.

Question 24

what are the procedures of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 24

-procedure = 7 stages controlled observation, assessed proximity seeking, exploration, secure base, stranger and separation anxiety and response to a reunion.

Question 25

what are the findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 25

-infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour.

Question 26

what are the conclusions of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 26

• secure = enthusiastic greeting, generally content. (60-65%)
• avoidant = avoids reunion, generally reduced responses (20-25%)
• resistant = resists reunion, generally more distressed (3%).

Question 27

evaluate Ainsworth’s strange situation.

Answer 27

• support for validity = attachment types predict later social and personal behaviour e.g. bullying.
• good reliability = different observers agree 90%+ of the time on children’s attachment types.
• culture-bound = attachment behaviour may mean different things in different cultures, so SS may be measuring different things.

Question 28

what did van Ijzendoorn find in cultural variations?

Answer 28

• he compared rates of attachment in 8 different countries.

- found more variation within that than between countries (i.e. 75% secure in Britain, 50% secure in China).

Question 29

what did Simonella and Jin find in their studies?

Answer 29

• Simonella = Italian attachment rates have changed, which may be due to changing practices. (50% secure, more mothers working).
• Jin = Korean attachment rates similar to Japan, could be due to similar child-rearing styles. (more insecure)

Question 30

what is the conclusion of cultural variation studies?

Answer 30

• attachment is innate and universal and secure attachment is the norm.
• however, cultural practices can affect rates of attachment types.

Question 31

evaluate cultural variation studies.

Answer 31

• large samples = reduces the impact of anomalous results in turn improving internal validity.
• samples are unrepresentative of culture = countries do not equate to cultures, nor to culture-specific methods of child-rearing, lacks generalisability.

Question 32

what is separation vs deprivation (Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation)?

Answer 32

physical separation only leads to deprivation when the child loses emotional care.

Question 33

what is the critical period (Bowlby: maternal deprivation)?

Answer 33

the first 30 months are critical and deprivation in this time can cause damage.

Question 34

how can maternal deprivation affect development?

Answer 34

• Goldfarb: deprivation causes low IQ.

- Bowlby: emotional development e.g. affectionless psychopathy.

Question 35

what were the findings of the 44 thieves study?

Answer 35

many more affectionless psychopaths than controls had prolonged deprivation.

Question 36

evaluate Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory.

Answer 36

• evidence may be poor = orphans have experienced other traumas, Bowlby may be biased.
• counter-evidence = Lewis: sample of 500, no link between early separation and later criminality.
• sensitive period = Bowlbly exaggerated the importance of a critical period.

Question 37

what happened in Rutter’s ERA study?

Answer 37

• 165 orphans adopted in Britain.
• Some of those adopted showed low IQ and dishibited attachment. (adopted at 6 months: IQ at 102. adopted at 6mths-2years: IQ at 86).

Question 38

what happened in Bucharest’s early intervention project?

Answer 38

• random allocation to institutional care or fostering.

- secure attachment in 19% of institutional group versus 74% of controls.

Question 39

what are the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 39

-disinhibited attachment and delay in intellectual developments if institutionalization is prolonged.

Question 40

evaluate roman orphan studies and the effects of institutionalization.

Answer 40

• real-life application = both institutional care and adoption practice have been improved from research.
• fewer extraneous variables = Romanian orphans had fewer negative influences before institutionalization than e.g. war orphans.
• Romanian orphanages not typical = conditions were so bad that results may not generalise to better institutions.

Question 41

how does the internal working model affect later relationships?

Answer 41

-Bowlby’s idea that the primary attachment relationship provides a template for later relationships.

Question 42

how does the internal working model affect relationships in later childhood?

Answer 42

• Kerns: securely attached children have better friendships.
• Myron-Wilson and Smith: securely attached children less likely to be involved in bullying, avoidant = victims, resistant = bullies.

Question 43

how does the internal working model affect romantic relationships?

Answer 43

• Mccarthy: securely attached adults have better relationships with partners and friends.
• Hazan and Shaver: love quiz, 620 females respondents: 56% secure responders had better and longer-lasting relationships, 25% avoidant responders had a fear of intimacy.

Question 44

how does the internal working model affect parental relationships?

Answer 44

-Bailey: 99 mothers’ attachment type matched that of their mothers and babies.

Question 45

evaluate the influence of early attachments on later relationships.

Answer 45

• evidence is mixed = Zimmerman: found little relationships between quality of attachment and later attachment.
• low validity = most studies assess infant attachment by retrospective self-report which lacks validity.
• association does not mean causality = a third factor like temperament might affect both infant attachment and later relationships.