Attachment exam questions Flashcards
What is meant by the term attachment ( 2 marks)
Attachment is an emotional bond between two people
Name three stages in the development of attachments identified by Schaffer. ( 3 marks)
- asocial
- indiscromante attachemnt
- discriminate attachment
- multiple attachments
Describe one way in which psychologists have investigated caregiver-infant interaction in humans.
Refer to a specific study in your answer. ( 3 marks)
- Meltzoff and Moore investigated interactional synchrony of babies
- They observed what a baby would do when shown three facial expressions
- they recorded what the baby did
- this was labelled by independent observers
Mark scheme said you would have to refer to the methodology, not the aims or conclusions
Evaluate the way of investigating caregiver-infant interaction that you have described in your answer to part (a).
Do not refer to ethical issues in your answer ( 3 marks)
- A limitation is that it is difficult to know if babies are doing the facial expressions for a reason. This is because babies have bad muscle coordination, so it could be falsely assumed that the baby was doing a facial expression or if they were holding in a sneeze. Therefore studies on international synchrony may have a low validity as it is hard to prove a cause and effect
- other points include: babies were filmed, so babies cant show demand characteristics, there is high inter-rater reliability as multiple observers can watch the video back, this means the studies have high validity and reliability
Other points include the usefulness of combining data from several studies as in meta-analysis; short-term v long-term effects, the usefulness of controlled experimentation in researching social relationships eg artificiality v cause and effect;
Make sure points are not genric and link fully back to caregiver and infant interactions
Some researchers believe that caregiver–infant interactions influence the development of attachment.
Explain one reason why it is difficult to draw conclusions about the role of caregiver–infant interactions in the development of attachment.
( 2 marks)
Likely answers: cannot ever show cause and effect because it is ethically impossible to manipulate the amount/quality of caregiver-infant interaction; extraneous factors such as home environment/substitute care/life events/culture/temperament may have a long term effect on attachment and cannot be controlled.
They would give you one mark for the point and the second for elaborations
Ainsworth and Bell observed infants in an unfamiliar room to assess the quality of their attachment to their mother. Observations during this ‘Strange Situation’ related to the following categories of behaviour:
Exploration – how much the infant explored the unfamiliar room;
Separation behaviour – how the infant reacted when the mother left;
Stranger anxiety – the response of the infant to a stranger;
Reunion behaviour – how the infant reacted when the mother returned.
Select two of these categories and explain how the behaviour of securely attached infants and insecurely attached infants would be different in the ‘Strange Situation’. ( 4 marks)
Reunion behaviour
- when a securely attached infant is reunited with their mother, they let her embrace them and calm them down. However and insecure resistant child would push the mother away and insecure avoidant would not need to be consoled.
Exploration behaviour
- A securely attached child would look around and then return to their mother using their mother as a safe base. An insecure resistant child would cling onto the mother and not explore the room. An insecure-avoidant child would explore the room but not return to the mother.
By observing interactions between the infants and their mothers in a Strange Situation, Mary Ainsworth was able to identify different types of attachment.
Describe possible demand characteristics in this research. ( 3 marks)
Possible demand characteristics may be shown by the mothers, as they may comfort their children more than they usually would when Ainsworth is assessing reunion behaviour. They may do this as they have worked out the aim of the study
Outline how Ainsworth studied types of attachment. (2 marks)
Ainsworth conducted a study called the strange situation. she observed how babies would act when left alone by themselves, with a stranger.
Some people say that Ainsworth’s studies lacked validity.
Explain this criticism of Ainsworth. ( 3 marks)
It may have lacked validity because it was a lab study, which means there was control of variables, it may be hard to generalise this to real life as a mother would not leave her baby for thirty seconds with a stranger and then come back. Therefore, Ainsworth study lacks ecological validity.
Other points can include its ethnocentric used American infants hard to generalise
Apart from ethical issues, explain one or more limitations of using the Strange Situation to assess the type of attachment in young children. ( 4 marks)
- there may be a cultural bias with the strange situation as attachment styles differ in different parts of the world. There may be more insecurely resistant children in collectivist cultures than individualist cultures. Therefore it may be hard to use the strange situation to assess these attachments types.
Give one limitation of the use of the Strange Situation in attachment research. ( 2 marks)
- Cultural bias - as attachment styles differ universally
others include effects of being in daycare or lacks ecological validity
or ethical issues
A researcher used the Strange Situation to investigate the attachment types of two infants. Megan was classified as insecure-avoidant. Rosie was classified as insecure-resistant.
Explain how Megan’s behaviour would differ from Rosie’s behaviour in the Strange Situation. ( 4 marks)
Megan would feel indifferent to a stranger being in a room whereas Rose would cling to her mother. Megan would explore the room and not return to her mother, whereas Rosie would stay near to her mother the whole time. During reunion behaviour, Meghan would not need to be consoled whereas when Rosie is being consoled she would push her mother away.
Outline what research has shown about cultural variations in attachment ( 4 marks)
- Research has shown that there is more intraspecific variation compared to interspecific variation. An example of this could be when the strange situation was carried out in America 40% were secure in one study compared to 90% in another study. The research has also shown that the most common attachment type globally is a secure attachment, as this was the most frequent attachment type for each country studied
Describe and evaluate Ainsworth’s work on attachment. As part of your evaluation, you should refer to the work of at least one other researcher. (16 marks)
Plan
A01- Paragraphs
- Procedure
- placed the babies into 7 different episodes, each one was about 30 seconds - observed the babies using a two-way mirror
- another observer present to assess attachment type
- they observed things like exploration, reunion behaviour, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety
Para 2 - Findings: Type A, Type B and Type C
AO3: strengths
Good reliability: P: Good reliability/ E: Bick et Al watched trained observers of the strange situation s 94% gave the same response E/ high inter-rater reliability, is due to babies behaviour is easy to observe and be categorised, could give example /L: this can be used across different cultures
Good internal validity: It was done in lab/ E- controlled how long the episodes were /E-can show a cause and effect relationship baby behaviour and the situation/ L-study has high internal validity. CP- lacks ecological validity/ demand characteristics by mothers
Good predictable validity: ward said secure babies more emotionally stable etc
A03: Limitations
Ethnocentric: P: ethnocentric E-Takahehsi and his findings/ E- child-rearing is different in Japan, an example of why/ L:
Attachment Type 4: Main and Solomon/ E: found that disorganised attachment was a mix of resistant and avoided behaviours/ E- this raises the question that Ainsworth attachment types incomplete, but its an unusual attachment type, due to neglect and abuse/ L- so could be agreed that due to its unusualness that Ainsworth attachment categories are correct for normal attachment types
Temperament- Kagan e Al said that babies behaviour may be due to high levels of anxiety/behaviours seen may have not been representative of attachment type but rather of temperament. L/ what does Ainsworth study actually measure
Other points ethical etc
Outline and evaluate research into cultural variations in attachment. (16 marks)
AO1: Van injenzoddon and Kronenberg- meta-analysis based on 32 studies of the strange situation around the world. 18 was in America,
Para 2: Findings/ there is more intraspecific variation rather than interspecific. Secure attachments are the most common across all countries studied/give examples like China and the UK etc
Para 3: Other studies of cultural variation/ Simonella et al/ more tye A in Italy because mothers are going to work. Grossman et Al found more type As in Germany because germans prefer independent children. Jin et al only one Type As in Korea because children don’t separate from mothers
AO3- Strengths
P-less cultural bias E: Researchers from a country of origin example Takahashi is from japan /E-they understand their culture and will be able to correctly classify children and overcome any language barriers/L- increases the validity of data collected
A03 - Limitations
P: confounding variables E: Studies are not matched for methodology, for example, environmental factors, poverty etc/E- the room or area the study was done may have been small so it would be hard to observe proximity seeking behaviour, as the baby may not return so could be called avoidnet/L: hard to compare attachment types across culture because results may be heavily influenced by confounding variables
P: there may be imposed etic. E: in SS in the UK or Us being clingy to the mother may be classed as insecure resistant whereas in Japan it may be normal as the child is always with their mother. E: This is bad because it would be hard to compare attachments across cultures as some behaviours may be seen as normal to one culture but abnormal to another/L-researchers should find another way of comparing attachments types as using the strange situation may be meaningless