Attachment descriptions Flashcards
Attachment definition
A close 2 way emotional bond in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
Reciprocity
From 1 month, babies respond to parents behaviour and illicit a response
Interactional synchrony
Melzoff and moore
Found babies could imitate facial and manual gestures of an adult
Development of attachment
Researchers, description + results (%)
Schaffer and Emerson
-Longitudinal observational study on 60 infants
-Studied at monthly intervals for 18 months
-Mother reported infants response to 7 everyday situations
-Up to 3 months indiscriminate attachment
-4 months preference of certain people
-7 months special preference for 1 attachment figure
-9 months multiple attachments
-Mother was main attachment figure for 65% of children
Stages of attachment
-Asocial 0-6 weeks
-Indiscriminate 6wks to 6 months - prefer human company, don’t prefer specific individuals
-Specific 7-9 months - show separation + stranger anxiety
-Multiple 9 months onwards
4 factors affecting a secure attachment
-degree of sensitivity
-type of attachment to their own parents
-marital intimacy
-supportive co-parenting
Role of the father
3 research
Hardy- fathers are less able to detect low levels of distress in infants
Geiger- father’s play was more exciting, while mothers are more nurturing and affectionate
Lamb- fathers who became main care providers quickly developed and were more sensitive to a child’s needs
Imprinting
aim, procedure, results
Lorenz
-investigate the mechanisms of imprinting
-divided gosling eggs into 2 groups
-one group left with natural mother, other in incubator
-incubator eggs saw Lorenz as first moving object so followed him around
-found Lorenz’s goslings shoed no recognition of natural mother
-critical period between 13-16 hrs
Effects of privation
pps, procedure, results
Harlow
-separated 16 monkeys from mother at birth
-put in cages with 2 surrogate mothers
-1 was wire and gave them food
-other was cloth without food
-monkeys spent more time on cloth mother
-shows contact comfort is more important in attachments than food
privated monkey behaviour
-timid
- didn’t know how to behave around other monkeys, were aggressive
-difficulty mating
-females were inadequate mothers, some killed offspring
Learning theory of attachment
Dollard and Miller
-Classical conditioning- learning through association
Food=UCS gives UCR=pleasure
Caregiver=NS when NS is paired with UCS it causes baby to associate caregiver with feeling of pleasure (CR)
-Operant conditioning- learning through reinforcement
Behaviour resulting in positive rewards is positively reinforced
Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment
-attachment is an innate, reciprocal process
-evolutionary function, well attached=protected
-babies born with social releasers eg.smiling to make parents love the baby
-form one main attachment which provides an internal working model for all attachments
-need to attach before the age of 3 (critical period)
-law of continuity- more predictable the care, stronger the attachment
-law of accumulated separation- effects of separation add up
Strange situation
pps, procedure, %s
Mary Ainsworth
-100 middle class American infants + mothers
-controlled observation
-8 situations each lasting 3 mins
-observers recorded infants willingness to explore, separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, reunion behaviour
-66% securely attached
-22% insecure avoidant
-12% insecure resistant
Cross cultural variations in attachment
Ijzendoorn + Kroonenberg
-meta analysis of 32 studies in 8 countries using strange situation
-studied over 2000 babies
-most secure in GB with 75%
-most avoidant in Germany 35%
-most resistant in Israel 29%
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
-strong attachment to mother was essential for development of babies
-loss of existing attachment can cause long lasting problems eg. affectionless psychopathy
-if separated from primary caregiver for long durations in first 2.5 yrs of life (critical period) damage was inevitable
-children deprived of maternal care will have abnormally low IQs
-lack emotional development, so can cause affectionless psyhchopathy