attachment evaluation Flashcards
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• There may be a problem with how attachments are assessed.
tw: labeling distress
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• There may be a problem with how attachments are assessed.
Researchers tend to assume that distress when an adult leaves a room is a sign that the child is attached to them.
Bowlby pointed out that infants get distressed when a playmate leaves the room but that this does not signify attachment. This suggests that we are not able to distinguish between behaviour shown towards people that we think an infant should be attached to (caregiver) and those that they are unlikely to be attached to (playmates). This is problematic when investigating the stages of attachment because it means the conclusions drawn may not be valid.
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• The behaviours used to measure attachment are crude.
-stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• The behaviours used to measure attachment are crude.
Schaffer and Emerson used stranger anxiety and separation anxiety to distinguish the stage of attachment an infant was in.
Attachment will involve more complex emotions and behaviours than the two typically used.
However, the use of such simple behavioural measures allows researchers to scientifically study attachment development because the behaviours are clearly operationalised.
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• Schaffer and Emerson’s study has good external validity
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• Schaffer and Emerson’s study has good external validity. It was carried out in the families’ own homes and most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was done by the parents during ordinary activities and reported back to the researchers later. This means that the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers and is therefore natural so measuring the intended behaviours.
Stages of Attachment identified by Schaffer: Multiple Attachments
• Schaffer and Emerson’s study is longitudinal
Schaffer and Emerson’s study was a longitudinal study. The same children were followed up over the 18 months of the study.
This means that there are no individual differences regarding attachment behaviour in longitudinal studies which would have been the case if a cross-sectional design had been used.
This increases the internal validity as participant variables do not become a confounding variable impacting the stage of attachment children are believed to be in.
G R A V E : animal studies , lorenz
Animal Studies: Loren
• Generalisability - attachment in birds is not the same as in humans.
They imprint where as humans do not.
• Reliability- the procedure was standardised and has been replicated by many researchers.
• Applicability - It gave Bowlby the idea of the critical and sensitive period in his work on monotropy and the maternal deprivation hypothesis.
• Validity - the study measured what it wanted to investigate which was attachment in birds.
• Ethics - if birds follow the first moving object that they see, as well as imprinting sexually onto them, issues with removing birds from their mothers.
Animal Studies: Harlow
G R A V E
Animal Studies: Harlow
Generalisability . attachment in monkeys may not be the same in humans. Humans and monkeys are qualitatively different
• Reliability - the procedure was standardised and has been replicated by many researchers.
• Applicability- it has helped social workers understand risk factors in abuse and neglect. it has also changed how animals are looked after in zoos. showed how important the quality of human relationships are on later ones
Validity- the study was measured what it wanted to investigate which was whether
food or comfort was more important
• Ethics - the monkeys suffered greatly from psychological harm.
The fact that they were used as they were so similar to humans would suggest that humans would respond in this way too.
Learning theory: ignores other factors associated with forming attachments
• Learning theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachments.
The quality of attachment appears to be associated with factors such as reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony.
This means that there would be no point to these complex behaviours if attachment developed only as a result of feeding.
This questions the validity of the learning explanation as there are findings from attachment research That it cannot explain.
Explanations of attachment: learning theory
Some elements of conditioning could be involved in attachment behaviour
• Some elements of conditioning could be involved in attachment behaviour. Rather than feeding being the main unconditioned stimulus, it is probable that association between the primary caregiver and the provision of comfort and social interaction is part of what builds the attachment. This means that learning theory is still involved in explaining attachment, but the idea that feeding is the main factor is unlikely
Learning theory : There is counter evidence from human research.
tw: feeding
• There is counter evidence from human research. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that many babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding. This means that feeding is not the key element to attachment as no unconditioned stimulus or primary drive are involved.
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory
* There is support for the idea of the internal working model of attachment being passed through families.
- There is support for the idea of the internal working model of attachment being passed through families. Bailey’s research supports this. The mothers who reported poor attachment to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as poor, according to the observations. This suggests that the monotropic bond is important in providing a template for future relationships.
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory
Bowlby’s idea of a ‘critical period’ has been criticised.
- Bowlby’s idea of a ‘critical period’ has been criticised. Evidence from Rutter et al. found that although the idea of a critical period is true to an extent, infants are still able to form an attachment outside this window.
Researchers now use the term sensitive period’ to illustrate that infants can still form attachments after six months.
This suggest that Bowlbys original idea of a critical period was not accurate therefore questioning the validity of the monotropic theory .
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory
* There is support for the existence of social releasers
Monotropic Theory: Critical Period and Internal Working Model
* There is support for the existence of social releasers. Brazleton et al.
(1975) observed mothers and babies during interactions and reported on interactional synchrony. They then extended this observation into an experiment where careers were asked to ignore their baby’s signals. The babies became distressed and some curled up and lay motionless. This strongly supports Bowlbys idea about the significance of intranet social behaviour eliciting caregiving
Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’
-different meaning in countries outside of western europe and america
tw: japan
- The Strange Situation may not have the same meaning in countries outside of Western Europe and America.
Takahashi (1990) noted that the test does not really work in Japan because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated from their babies that there are very high levels of separation anxiety.
Cultural differences in childhood experiences are therefore likely to mean that children respond differently to the Strange Situation.
This means that infants from different cultures cannot be classified correctly into an attachment type and it would be inappropriate to use the Strange Situation to do this.
Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’.
-shows very good inter-rater reliability
The Strange Situation shows very good inter-rater reliability as different observers watching the same children agree on what attachment type to classify them with.
This may be because the Strange Situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the behavioural categories are easy to observe, Bick found agreement on attachment type for 94% of babies tested.
* This means that we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the Strange Situation does not depend on who is observing them.
Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.
Anxiety may not be the main influence on attachment types.
-temperment
Temperament
* Anxiety may not be the main influence on attachment types.
* Kagan (1982) suggested that temperament, the genetically influence personality of a child, is a more important influence on behaviour in the Strange Situation than attachment.
* This means that temperament may be a confounding variable in the Strange Situation.
* This challenges the validity of the different types of attachment.
Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.
-biased method
Biased Method
* The Strange Situation has certain cultural assumptions that are specific to its country of origin - America.
* The lack of separation anxiety indicates insecure attachment in the Strange Situation, however in Germany this behaviour would be viewed as independence rather than a sign on insecurity.
Therefore, using the Strange Situation as a tool for studying cultural differences is biased.
* This result in the misclassification of attachment types.
Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.
- large samples
Large Samples
* Cross-cultural research uses large samples.
* In the original Van Ijzendoorn meta-analysis there were nearly 2000 babies in the sample.
* A large sample size increases the internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results caused by participant variables or bad methodology.
* It adds weight to the conclusions drawn - that there are differences in attachment between culture.
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation:
children care in hospitals
- Bowly’s work led to major changes in the way children are cared for in hospitals.
- For example, parents are encouraged to visit their children and there is greater flexibility in terms of visiting hours.
- Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation has been applied to childrearing practices.
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation:
counterevidence Lewis replication
- There is counterevidence.
- Lewis (1954) partially replicated the 44 thieves’ study on a larger scale looking at 500 young people finding that a history of prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.
*This suggests other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.
-lack of clarity
- Bowlby is the clarity of his definition of deprivation.
- Rutter (1981) claimed that Bowlby did not make it clear whether the attachment bond had formed but been broken, or never formed at all.
4 * Rutter suggested that there is a distinction between privation (the failure to form an attachment) and deprivation (where an attachment bond is broken). - A lack of clarity on this distinction may affect the validity of research findings.
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.
-research support
tw: separation= anxiety
Supporting Evidence
* Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation has research support.
* Bifulco et al. (1992) found that women who had experienced separation from their mothers were more likely to experience depression or an anxiety disorder, compared to those who had no experience of separation.
* This supports Bowlby’s idea of a critical period suggesting that early childhood deprivation can lead to later vulnerability for depression and anxiety disorders.
Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.
long term effects are still not clear
- The long-term effects of institutionalisation are still not clear.
- The children in these studies were only followed until they were teenagers.
- It may be that in their later development those who had been institutionalised for extended periods of time could still catch up developmentally.
- This means we can only draw limited conclusions from this longitudinal research, reducing the validity of the findings.
Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.
- no confounding variables
ERA - No Confounding Variables
*The ERA study has higher internal validity than previous orphan studies.
* The children that were orphaned had not experienced loss or trauma before they were institutionalised, they were orphans
because of the social policy present in Romania.
* This meant that the effects of institutionalisation could be studied in isolation.
* There were no confounding variables that were impacting on the orphans such as emotional problems, unlike previous research.
* Strength, double whopper
Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.
-random allocation
Random Allocation
* A problem with the ERA is that the children were not randomly assigned to conditions.
* The researchers did not intervene with the adoption process which meant that the more sociable children were typically adopted first.
* To control this confounding variable in the Bucharest Early
Intervention project orphans were randomly allocated to institutional care or fostering.
* Interfering with the decision for a child to be cared for in an implitations for sterest biathe, unetds tif as it could potentially have
evaluate rutters GRA
-Children have not experienced loss or trauma before being institutionalised so the findings may not be generalised to other orphans
-Similar results were found by Bucharest Early Intervention Project showing consistency of findings.
-The results of Romanian orphan studies have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions.
Bucharest Early Intervention Project - validity and ethics
Bucharest Early Intervention Project
Evaluation
Validity
Children were randomly assigned - so sociability does not act as a confounding variable.
Children have not experienced loss or trauma before being institutionalised so the effects of institutionalisation could be studied in isolation.
It is not just emotional deprivation that children experienced - validity is lowered as other factors could have impacted development.
Ethics
Children were not able to give informed consent and people were not bothered about what was happening in the institutions.
Researchers decided who was not adopted which is unethical.
The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships,
zimmerman- evidence of continuity is mixed
- Evidence of continuity of attachment type is mixed.
- Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. There was little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.
- This shows that not all studies support internal working models.
*This is a problem because it is not what we would expect if internal working models were important in development.
The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, Bowlby
- no causality
No Causality
* The influence of early attachment is probabilistic.
* Researchers such as Bowlby have probably exaggerated the significant of the internal working model.
People are not doomed to always have bad relationships just because they had attachment problems, they just have a greater risk of problems.
* By emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic about people’s futures.
The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships- iwl
- The concept of the internal working model is not falsifiable.
- We are not able to measure the influence our internal working model has on our behaviour as it is an unconscious concept.
- This creates a theoretical problem.
- At best these measures give us indirect evidence about internal working models.
