Attachment Ao1 Only Flashcards
Early interactions…..
Are Meaningful!!!
- From early ages interactions are meaningful with the quality of these interactions associated with successful development of attachment.
- Two kinds:
1) Reciprocity
2) Interactional synchrony
What is reciprocity?
When baby and caregiver take turns responding to and elicit response from each other. Like a dance.
Alert phases:
Feldman and Eidelman
- Babies time to seek interaction. Mothers respond successfully 2/3 times. From three months interaction is more intense and reciprocal.
Babies have active role:
- Traditional views see baby as entirely passive. But they take active role and can initiate interaction.
What is interactional synchrony?
Babies and caregivers are synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously.
- Synchrony = “The temporal coordination of microlevel social behaviour”
Meltzoff and Moore
- Beginnings of interactional synchrony can be seen in babies two weeks old.
Isabella et al.
- Good levels of synchrony are associated with good quality of attachment.
Describe the role of the father?
1) Attachment to fathers:
Schaffer and Emerson
- Mother is mostly the first attachment. Some babies attach to both at same time. Most form secondary attachment with father.
2) Distinctive role for fathers:
Grossman et al.
- Attachment between mother and baby important in teen attachment and relationships.
- Quality of father’s play also related to teen attachments.
3) Fathers can be the primary attachment figure:
Field
- When fathers are PAF they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers. Attachment is not due to the gender but the level of responsiveness.
Outline the role of the father, attachment to fathers (part 1).
1) Attachment to fathers:
Schaffer and Emerson
- 3% of cases the father was primary attachment.
- 27% joint with mother.
- By 18 months 75% of babies formed attachment with fathers.
Outline the role of the father, distinctive role for fathers (part 2).
2) Distinctive role for fathers:
Grossman et al.
- Longitudinal study concluded attachment between mother and baby more crucial in teen attachment and relationships.
- Quality of father’s play also related to teen attachments. Father is there for play and mother for care.
Outline the role of the father, primary attachment figure (part 3).
3) Fathers can be the primary attachment figure:
Field
- When fathers are PAF they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers. Often have better interactional synchrony than secondary-caregiver fathers.
- Key attachment is not the gender but the level of responsiveness.
What are Schaffer’s four stages of attachment? Mention them in order.
1) Asocial stage:
(first few weeks)
- Same behaviour towards objects and humans.
2) Indiscriminate attachment: (2-7 months)
- Preference for humans; no one is favoured; no stranger/separation anxiety.
3) Specific attachment:
(About 7 months)
- Stranger and separation anxiety when separated from one particular adult.
4) Multiple attachments:
(By 12 months)
- Secondary attachment formed within a month 24% of the time.
What was the procedure and findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?
Procedure:
- 60 Glasgow babies
- Visited at home monthly for a year and at 18 months.
- Separation and stranger anxiety observed by child’s mother.
Findings:
- Babies developed attachment through the outlined stages.
- Baby’s primary attachment was to those who had the best reciprocity with them.
Describe Lorenz’s procedure and findings.
Procedure:
- Large clutch of eggs divided in two.
- Half saw biological mother within hours of attachment.
- Half saw Lorenz.
- Mixed the ducklings to see who they would follow and also viewed their courtship behaviour.
Findings:
- Ducklings followed who they saw first.
- Critical period of a few hours; after that no attachment is formed.
- Sexual imprinting occurs from a template of desirable characteristics.
Describe Harlow’s procedure
and findings.
Procedure:
- 16 rhesus monkeys.
- (Condition 1) Plain-wire monkey with milk.
- (Condition 2) Cloth covered but no milk.
- Reactions to frightening situations were measured.
- Continued observation into adulthood.
Findings:
- Babies preferred cloth covered mothers.
- When frightened, babies went to the cloth mother.
- Monkeys suffered severe consequences in future: more aggression, killing offspring, less skill mating.
Describe Dollard and Miller (1950)’s learning theory of attachment?
Importance of food in attachment (cupboard love).
1) Classical conditioning:
- Food is UCS that produces feeling of pleasure UCR.
- Caregiver is NS but when associated with food becomes CS. CS produces pleasure CR and so baby associates mother with pleasure from food. Attachment formed.
2) Operant conditioning:
- Crying reinforced because it produces caregiver response.
- Negative reinforcement as caregiver response stops crying.
Drive reduction:
- Attachment is secondary drive learned by association of caregiver with hunger satisfaction. Hunger is primary drive to reduce hunger drive.
Outline Bowlby’s theory of attachment.
Attachment is innate for survival and comes from evolution. Young animals stay close to parents for protection.
Monotropic = One primary care-giver
- In Bowlby’s theory a “mother figure”.
1) Law of continuity = constant care means better quality attachment.
2) Law of accumulated separation = effects of separation add up.
Babies have social releasers/ innate “cute behaviours”.
A critical period (sensitive period) up to 2 years for attachment to take place.
The first attachment creates an internal working model of relationships in later life.
Outline the intent behind, and categories of, the strange situation.
Ainsworth and Bell developed the controlled observation to asses the quality of attachment between baby and caregiver.
Five categories to judge attachment quality:
1) Proximity seeking
2) Exploration and secure base behaviour
3) Stranger anxiety
4) Separation anxiety
5) Response to reunion with caregiver
Outline the procedure of the strange situation.
Seven episodes in the procedure each lasting three minutes:
1) Baby encouraged to explore by CG
2) Stranger enters and approaches baby
3) CG leaves
4) CG returns and stranger leaves
5) CG leaves baby alone
6) Stranger returns
7) CG returns
