Attachment (easy)

Question 1

Name me alllllllll the content in attachment

Answer 1

caregiver infant interaction
Schaffer’s stages of attachment
The role of the father
Animal studies of attachment

Explanations of attachment:
Learning theory
Bowlby’s theory
Types of attachment
Cultural variation in attachment
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Romanian orphan studies
Institutionalisation
Influence of early attachment on later relationships

Question 2

what is reciprocity?

Answer 2

Infant responds to actions of another through turn-taking.
Primary caregiver’s actions provoke a response from the infant.
Interaction between both individuals flows back and forth.

Question 3

What is the alert phase

Answer 3

signal that they are ready for spell of interaction
Mothers pick up on babies alertness 2/3 of the time
From around three months, becomes increasingly frequent.

Question 4

What is active involvement

Answer 4

baby once seen to take passive role before caregiver-infant interactions?
Now seen to both take on active role
Brazelton -> dance

Question 5

so which two things will you talk about when asked about reciprocity?

Answer 5

Active involvement, alert phases

Question 6

what is interactional synchrony?

what does synchrony provide?

Answer 6

mirroring actions e.g. baby mirror the mother actions and emotions

necessary foundation for a mother-infant connection that can be built upon

Question 7

what did Meltzoff and Moore observe?

Answer 7

interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old

Question 8

what did Isabella et al observe which is important in A?

Answer 8

30 mothers + babies, degree of synchrony. Quality of mother-baby attachment
High levels synchrony= better quality A

Question 9

Give me limitations of interactional synchrony and reciprocity

Answer 9

-ve criticism of M + M is research found only securely attached engage in IS
Isabella et al= more SA= higher IS
Suggests not all babies engage in IS. M + M overlooked individual differences, could be mediating factor.

-ve difficulty observing babies.
observational method, observer bias, consciously/unconsciously interpret B.
Meltzoff X know if baby stuck tongue out when mother did.
X be certain that baby + mother interactions have special meaning.

ADDRESS…
using more than 1 observer to examine inter-observer reliability. Meltzoff + Moore replication FAILED (unreliable)

Question 10

Give me a strength for interactional synchrony

Answer 10

Filmed observation. Ensures fine details of B, recorded + later analysed. Baby X know they are being filmed/observed, X change response. Increases internal validity.

Question 11

What are the four stages of attachment

Answer 11

asocial stage (0 - 3 months)
indiscriminate attachment (2 - 7 months)
specific attachment (7 months onwards)
multiple attachment (7 months onwards)

Question 12

Shaffer and Emerson (1964)

Answer 12

Investigated development of attachment in infants using a longitudinal study where they followed 60 infants and their mothers for 2 years
Decided there were four stages in development of attachment in infants

Question 13

Stage 1 and 2
Asocial and indiscriminate

Answer 13

1) B towards human + object=similar
forms bonds

2) prefer humans compared to objects
recognise + prefer company of familiar people
Accept cuddles from anyone.
X separation anxiety or stranger anxiety

Question 14

Stages 3 and 4
Specific and multiple

Answer 14

3) Infants develop specific attachment to primary attachment figure staying close to that person
demonstrate anxiety towards strangers when A figure absent, separation anxiety too.
Primary A figure= mother in 65% cases

4) nfants develop strong emotion ties with other major caregivers such as father and grandparents and non caregivers such as siblings
These are called secondary attachments
Fear of strangers weakens but attachment to primary attachment figure remains the strongest

Question 15

What did Schaffer + Emerson do?

Answer 15

60 babies
Glasgow, working class families.
visited homes every month for first year, then again at 18 months.
researcher asked ? to mother about protests of baby. Designed to measure babies A
Identified 4 diff stages from this.

Question 16

Strengths of Schaffer’s stages of A +ve AO3

Answer 16

+ve high external V

observation made by mother reported to researcher, since researcher could make baby anxious. likely to behave normally
HOWEVER»> mother=observer, unlikely to be objective observers, BIASED, X noticing anxiety, misremember X accurately recorded

+ve real world application

S + E stages have practical application in day care.
Asocial + indiscriminate= straightforward in day-care, comforted by any adult

HOWEVER»> unfamiliar adult=problematic in specific stage. Parents use of day-care planned to suite stages.

Question 17

Weakness of Schaffer’s stages of attachment -ve AO3

Answer 17

-ve generalisability

GLASGOW
1 sample, unique in terms of cultural + historical context.
collectivist cultures= multiple attachments @ young age is normal
HOWEVER»> large scale study with good design features.

Question 18

What will you discuss for the AO1 for role of the father?

Answer 18

attachment to fathers
distinctive role for fathers
fathers as primary attachment figures

Question 19

what did Schaffer and Emerson find for primary attachment?

Answer 19

found that majority of babies are attached to their mother within the first 7 months
3% cases - father was primary attachment
secondary attachemt with fathers- 75% by 18 months

Question 20

what did Grossman carry out?

Answer 20

• Longitudinal study examines parents’ behavior and its impact on children’s attachment into their teen years.
• Quality of infant attachment with mothers correlates with children’s attachment in adolescence, indicating maternal attachment’s significance.
• Father attachment appears less influential on children’s attachment quality in adolescence.
• However, the quality of fathers’ play with infants plays a distinct role in attachment, focusing more on play and stimulation rather than nurturing.

Question 21

what does Grossman’s study suggest?

Answer 21

that the father is less important in emotional development
BUT
the quality of the father’s play related to quality of A in adolescents, father has a more stimulating role than nurturing

Question 22

Give me evidence to suggest when fathers take on role of primary caregiver, they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers.

Answer 22

Filed filmed 4 month old babies
Interaction with P caregiver mum, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
P caregiver fathers, like mums, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies that secondary C fathers.

Fathers have potential to be emotion focussed primary A figure.

Question 23

Role of father +ve AO3

Answer 23

+ve real world application

advice for parents, who agonise over decisions. Both question who takes on primary role.
Mothers feel pressure due to stereotype
Fathers feel pressure to work, stereotype
But research gives reassurance.

for example, same sex parents. Have no affect on child development, can be primary attachment.
Parental anxiety for males decreases.

Question 24

Role of father -ve AO3

Answer 24

_ve conflicting evidence

Grossman found fathers play role in baby development, like play and stimulation,
BUT is father was so significant, lesbians with child would turn out differently.
Means ? as to whether fathers have distictive role = unanswered

BUT lines of research may not conflict.
Father takes on disctictive role in heterosexual family but in same sex parents they adapt to accommodate role, role of father is clear, families adappt.

Question 25

what research is there to criticise Grossman’s research?

Answer 25

McCallum found that children who grow up in single or same-sex parent families don’t develop differently

the fathers role as a secondary attachment is not important

Question 26

Who conducted animal studies into attachment?

What will you talk about for each one?

Answer 26

Lorenz
imprinting + sexual imprinting

Harlow
contact comfort, critical period, maternally deprived monkeys as adults

Question 27

What is imprinting?

Answer 27

It is an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place within a specific time period.

Question 28

Talk me through Lorenz’s study

Answer 28

Method:
- He took some gosling eggs and divided them into 2 groups
- One group was left with their mother while the other eggs were left in the incubator
- When the eggs hatched the first living thing they saw was Lorenz
- He then put the 2 groups back together
Findings:
- The goslings quickly divided themselves up, one group following their natural mother and the other one following Lorenz
- Lorenz noted that imprinting is restricted to a critical period
Conclusion:
- Imprinting is a form of attachment exhibited mainly in bird species that are mobile from birth
- The first 12-17 hours are the critical period

Sexual imprinting- birds imprinting on humans showed courtship towards humans
Peacock reared into reptile house, saw giant tortoise. As adult, showed courtship towards giant tortoise

Question 29

Harlow (1959)

Answer 29

Aim:
- To demonstrate that attachment was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant
Method:
- Harlow created 2 wire mothers each with a different head. one was wrapped in soft cloth
- He used 16 rhesus baby monkeys
- In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother and the opposite in the other
Findings:
- The monkeys cuddled the soft mother over the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened, regardless of which one dispensed the milk
Conclusions:
- Contact comfort is more important to the monkeys when it came to attachment behaviour

Harlow continued to study his monkeys as they grew up and noted the consequences of their early attachment behaviour
They developed abnormally, aggressive, less sociable, unskilled at mating, when becoming mothers neglected young.

critical period- mother figure needs to be introduced within 90 days of A to form. After this time=impossible

Question 30

Harlow (1959) Evaluation

Answer 30

-ve generalisation
Extrapolating findings from this study to human infant attachment is problematic.
Humans have physiological and environmental differences from monkeys, including cultural, societal, peer, and upbringing influences.
Factors unique to humans may not align with findings from non-human species, suggesting caution in applying them to human infants.

+ve Practical value
Harlow’s study = real-world applications.
Howe (1998) notes that knowledge from Harlow’s research aids social workers in understanding risk factors in neglect and abuse cases with human children, potentially preventing or recognizing when to intervene.
Practical applications extend to the care of captive wild monkeys in zoos or breeding programs, ensuring they have adequate attachment figures as part of their care.

Question 31

Lorenz (1935) Evaluation

Answer 31

+ve Guiton
Studies support idea that animals are born with an instinct to attach to the first moving object they see
Guitton (1966) demonstrated chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding in their first few weeks of life imprinted on the gloves

-ve Guiton
Imprinting is more reversible than Lorenz thought
Gutton (1966) found he could reverse imprinting in chickens that tried to mate with the yellow rubber gloves
After spending time with their own species, they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens.

Question 32

what will you discuss when doing explanation for attachment, learning theory

Answer 32

CC, OC, attachment as secondary drive

Question 33

who came up with learning theory?

Answer 33

Dollard and Miller

Question 34

give an example of classical conditioning in attachment

Answer 34

food (UCS) leads to pleasure (UCR) , mother (NS) associated with food and becomes a conditioned stimulus giving the conditioned response of pleasure

Question 35

give an example of negative reinforcement in attachment?

give an example of positive reinforcement in attachment?

Answer 35

when a mother gives a baby food in order to stop it rom crying, responding the avoid the negative consequence

when a baby cries in order to get food, responding in order to get something good

Question 36

drive reduction is…

Answer 36

how attachment is a secondary drive learned by associating primary caregiver and satisfaction of the hunger drive

hunger= primary drive, it’s innate, biological motivator.

Question 37

which research supports the learning theory?

Answer 37

Harlow

Baby rhesus monkeys prefer soft toweling monkey over wire monkey despite food provision.
Attachment in monkeys involves contact comfort, not just food.
Contradicts learning theory’s emphasis on food in attachment formation.
Schaffer & Emmerson’s research on infants forming attachments to mothers despite being fed by others supports this counter-argument.

Question 38

Learning theory, AO3

Answer 38

-ve Limitation- Conflicting evidence: Schaffer and Emerson- human babies- attached to a person who responded to their cues, not the person who spent the most time with them or fed them. E/shows how factors like food do not form the basis of an attachment, babies need more L/questions the validity of this explanation

-ve Methodological issues exist with research supporting learning theory.
Criticisms focus on over-reliance on animal studies like Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s rats and pigeons.
Behaviourist explanations oversimplify attachment formation, which involves complex emotional bonds between human infants and caregivers.
Difficulty generalizing animal findings to humans undermines validity of learning theory’s explanation for attachment formation.

+ve Strength - face validity: it’s easy to understand. As some conditioning may be involved a baby may associate comfort with a certain attachment figure and therefore when sad will go to that attachment figure in order to feel better. Link/this shows how LToA can be used to understand everyday behaviour.

Question 39

what is Bowlby’s theory?
how did Bowlby describe attachment?
what does monotropic mean?

Answer 39

monotropic theory
as being an innate system that gives a survival advantage
primary attachment figure.

Question 40

what did Bowlby believe mattered the most in attachment?

Answer 40

the time spent with the child

Question 41

what 2 laws did Bowlby come up with?

Answer 41

law of continuity - more constant care, better attachment

law of accumulated separation - effects of separation add up

Question 42

social releasers are..

Answer 42

innate cute behaviours that babies are born with that activate the human attachment system

Question 43

the critical period according the Bowlby is…

Answer 43

2 years, meaning if they haven’t made an attachment by then it will be harder to form an attachment in the future

Question 44

what is the internal working model?

Answer 44

mental representation that acts as a template for future relationships and can affect the child’s ability to parent themselves

Question 45

what elements of Bowlby’s theory is there support for?

Answer 45

social releasers and the internal working model

Question 46

who found evidence for social releasers?

Answer 46

Brazleton et al
parents ignore social releasers, babies showed distress and eventually curled up and was motionless
that infants social releasers are key for eliciting caregiving from adults and initiating social interaction

Question 47

who found research to support the internal working model?

Answer 47

Bailey et al
studied 99 mothers, those with poor internal working model more likely to have children poorly attached
can be passed down generations

Question 48

AO3 for Bowlbys theory

Answer 48

+ve support for IWM
Bailey et al, 99 mothers, 1 year old baby, tested attachment of mother with their mum, and attachment of mother to baby. Poor A to mum=poor A to baby, supports the idea of IWM

BUTTTTT
other influences. Genetic differences in anxiety, affect social B of mother and child. Overstated importance.

-ve lacks validity
Schaffer and Emerson found:
most babies have 1 A
minority have several A

also, the first A has influence on later B, may not be different in quality compared. Example, other family members show support.
Bowlby may be incorrect that there is unique quality and importance to the child’s primary A.

+ve support for social releasers
Brazleton et al
parents ignore social releasers, babies showed distress and eventually curled up and was motionless
that infants social releasers are key for eliciting caregiving from adults and initiating social interaction

Question 49

what was the aim of Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 49

asses the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver

Question 50

how many categories were there to assess attachment quality?

Answer 50

5

Question 51

what were the five categories to asses attachment?

Answer 51

proximity seeking
exploration and secure base
stranger anxiety
separation anxiety
reunion stage

Question 52

what were the seven episodes in the procedure?

Answer 52

child explores caregiver
stranger enter and talks to caregiver
caregiver leaves
caregiver returns stranger leaves
caregiver leaves child alone
stranger returns
caregiver returns

Question 53

what were Ainsworth’s findings?

Answer 53

found 3 types of attachment
insecure avoidant
secure
insecure resistant

insecure avoidant 20-25%
type A
explore well, but no secure base
no stranger and separation anxiety
no comfort at reunion

secure attachment 60-75%
type B
good exploration and secure base
moderate separation and stranger anxiety
requires and accepts comfort at reunion stage

insecure resistant 3%
type C
doesn’t explore, too strong secure base
too much stranger and separation anxiety
resists comfort at reunion stage

Question 54

Evaluation of strange situation AO3

Answer 54

-ve Methodological weakness: Ainsworth’s Strange Situation relied on overt observation.
Parents knew they were being observed, potentially leading to demand characteristics.
Mothers may have displayed overly affectionate behavior due to perceived expectations.
This could alter children’s behavior, reducing internal validity.
Consequently, the Strange Situation may be less valid for assessing attachment.

+ve high reliability
Observations conducted under strict and controlled methods, including video recording.
Predetermined behavioral categories used for coding.
Several observers watch and code the same infant behaviors.
Ainsworth et al. (1978) found 94% agreement between observers.
High inter-observer/inter-rater reliability enhances the meaningfulness of findings