Attachment: Influence Of Early Attachment (L10-12) Flashcards
Procedure of Harlows’ (1959) Animal Study?
- created 2 wire ‘mothers’
- one wire mother wrapped in soft cloth
- 8 infant rhesus monkeys separated from mums at birth and studied for 165 days
- they were placed in a cage with 2 wire mothers
- 4 monkeys received milk from cloth mother
- other 4 received from exposed wire mother
- during the 165 days time monkeys spent with each of the 2 mothers was measured
- observations made of the monkey’s responses to being frightened by mechanical teddy bear
- and how they coped with exploring a new room full of unfamiliar toys
Findings of Harlows’ Monkey Study?
- all 8 spent most time on the soft cloth mother regardless of whether this was the feeding wire mother or not
- those fed by exposed wire mother only stayed on it long enough to get milk then returned to soft mother
- when frightened my mechanical teddy all monkeys clung to soft cloth mother
- when playing with new objects monkeys kept one foot on soft cloth mother
- when placed in new env not confident enough to explore unless soft cloth mother was with them
Long Term Effects of Harlows’ Study?
- Harlow continued to study the 8 monkeys as they grew up
- they grew up abnormally, froze or fled when approached by other monkeys
- did not show normal mating behaviour, did not cradle their own babies
- if monkeys spent time with other monkeys then they could recover but ONLY if this happened before they were 3 months olf
- more than 3 months with only wire mother cannot be recovered from
+ve Evaluation Harlows’ Monkey Study:
- has implications for theories for attachment
- suggestion that comfort/sensitive responsiveness is more important than food contradicts learning theory
= highlights implications of early neglect and long term consequences of poor attachment in childhood for future relationships
= fits with Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory but in humans this may be more of a sensitive period as studies show children have been able to recover from early deprivation (Romanian orphan study) - Schaffer + Emerson (1964) found food is not necessary for attachments to form
- discovered babies are often attached to people who play with them rather than people who feed them
- 39% of cases found even though baby was fed by mother the baby was still more attached to someone else
-ve Evaluation Harlows’ Monkey Study:
- could be considered unethical
- monkeys removed from their mothers, could have been traumatic
- also then deliberately scared in order to get reactions
- led to long term emotional harm as when older they would freeze or flee when approached by other monkeys
- also had difficulty caring for their own young, they didnt cradle them as they had not been cared for themselves
What is imprinting?
- the instinct in several species of animals to attach to the first moving thing they see after they are born
Procedure of Lorenz’s Study (1939) ?
- wanted to investigate imprinting
- took a clutch of goose eggs and divided into 2 groups
- one group left to hatch with their natural mother present
- other eggs placed in an incubator
- when eggs in the incubator hatched the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
- Lorenz marked the 2 groups to distinguish betwen them then placed them all together again
Findings of Lorenz’s Study?
- goslings quickly divided themsleves up
- one group followed the mother, the other following Lorenz
- goslings from incubator showed no recognition of natural mother
- Lorenz found that this process of imprinting is restricted to a very definite period of a young animals life, called a critical period
- if young animal is not exposed to moving object furing early critical period then it will not imprint
- animals imprint on consistently moving object during their first 2 days
- imprinting similar to attachment as it binds an animal to a caregiver in a special relationship
- Lorenz had to teach goslings how to swim and they would return to him when he called
Long Term Effects of Lorenz’s Study?
- noted several features of imprinting, process is irreversible and long lasting
- one of the geese that imprinted on him would sleep on his bed evert night
- found this early imprinting also had an effect on later mate preferences, this is called sexual imprinting
- animals (especially birds) will choose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted
+ve Evaluation Lorenz’s Study:
- imprinting similar to the idea of a critical period in Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory
- both cases have a ‘window of opportunity’ in which attachments must be formed otherwise there will be negative long term consequences
= oher studies support the idea that animals are born with an instinct to attach to the first moving object they see
= Gutton (1966) demonstrated that chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding in their first few
weeks of life imprinted on the gloves
-ve Evaluation Lorenz’s Study:
- imprinting is more reversible than Lorenz thought
- Gutton (1966) found that he could reverse the imprinting in chickens that had initially 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
= problematic to extrapolate the findings from animal studies to attachment in human infants
= what applies to a non-human species does not
necessarily apply to human infants
= humans are physiologically very different from monkeys/geese as well as having several other influences that monkeys/geese do not have, such as culture, society, peers, upbringing etc
= attachment bond between human infants and their attachment figures is far more complex than it is in monkeys/geese
= for instance, there are several different types of attachment styles that human infants can have (e.g. secure,
avoidant, resistant)
= argument that, of the two, Harlow’s study may be more relevant to human experience as it uses a mammalian species
What is the internal working model?
- Bowlby claims that early attachment provides blueprint/prototype for later attachment known as internal working model
- is mental representation of an infants first attachment and affects later relationships during childhood and adulthood
What does the internal working model include?
- what relationships are
- how partners in a relationship behave towards each other
- what they should expect of a relationship
How does ones attachment affect their internal working model?
- attachment type in infancy associated w quality of peer relationships in childhood
- people who are securely attached during infancy will have a +ve internal working model for relationships
- so better at forming and maintaining rs
- including childhood friendships with others
- those who were insecurely attached will have negative internal working model
- so struggle to form and maintain rs
What is the critical period, IWM?
- period in which an infant needs to have an early attachment or else they will lack an iwm for attachment
- could lead to attachment disorder where children have no preferred attachment figure
- and inability to interact and relate to others
- becomes evident from the age of 5
- is usually caused by severe neglect or frequent change of caregivers
+ve Evaluation Bowlby IWM:
- Myron-Wilson and Smith investigated IWM to see if association between early attachment types in participation in bullying, as bully or victim, in childhood
- sample consisted of 196 children 7-11 years from South East London primary school
- all children assessed for attachment type and quality of relationship with parents using the Separation Anxiety Test and a Parenting Styles
Questionnaire - children then divided into secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachment types
- involvement in bullying, both as a perpetrator and victim were examined by a test called the Participant Roles Scale
- where each child identifies their peers as either a bully, a victim of bullying or uninvolved in bullying
- number of bullies and victims identified by
peers in each category were counted - secure children were very unlikely to be
involved in bullying - insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims of bullying
- insecure-resistant children were most likely to be rated by their peers as bullies
= Simpson et al’s longitudinal study assessed infant attachment type at one year of age (using the strange situation)
= then gathered data through interviews and questionnaires up to the age of 20-23
= found that ps who were securely attached as infants were rated as having higher social competence as children
= supports the view that attachment type
does predict future childhood and adult relationships
-ve Evaluation Bowlby IWM:
- Zimmerman et al’s longitudinal studies found that childhood attachment type was not a good predictor of attachments in adolescence
- and that life events often altered secure attachments to an insecure type in adulthood
- those who had changed attachment type had generally experienced a life event such as the loss of a parent, parental divorce or a life-threatening illness
What is Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?
- Bowlby argued that infants will have one special emotional bond
- referred to this as monotropy
- bond is usually, but not always, with the biological mother
- importance of the monotropic bond is that the infant uses this
relationship to form a mental view of all relationships called an internal working model
What is a secure mono tropic bond, BMT?
- results in positive internal working model
- means current, future and romantic adult relationships will be positive and secure
What is an insecure monotropic bond, BMT?
- associated with fear of intimacy
- and lack of commitment in adult relationships
What happens when an infant does not have the opportunity to form a monotropic bond, BMT?
- they are not provided with an adequate iwm for later rs
- according to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory, disruption to
the monotropic bond before the critical period leads to later emotional problems - like lack of intimacy or commitment
What is the continuity hypothesis, BMT?
- proposes that individuals who are securely attached in infancy continue to be socially and emotionally competent
- is because a secure childhood leads to a positive internal working model
-ve Evaluation BMT:
no +ve
- Schaffer and Emerson suggest that multiple attachments are more common in babies than monotropy
- they found that by 18 months only 13% of the infants had only one person they were attached to
= feminists pointed out idea of monotropy is socially sensitive
= it places terrible burden of responsibility on mothers
= setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in their child’s life
= also puts pressure on mothers to stay at home and give up their careers
- Bowlby also underestimated the role of the father
- saw father’s role as primarily economic
- is an outdated sexist view, many families view both parents as equally responsible for childcare
- in many families the father is
the primary caregiver
= Tizard and Hodges found children who never formed any
attachments by the age of four (after the critical period), and were then adopted, could still form attachments to their new adopted parents
= even though they would not have had a positive internal working model
What did Hazan and Shaver aim to study?
- test connection between a persons infant attachment style, internal working model and adult attachment style
- love quiz study
Procedure of Hazan + Shaver study?
- Hazan and Shaver placed a ‘Love Quiz’ in the Rocky Mountain News
- quiz asked questions about their rs with their parents (to identify infant attachment style)
- attitudes towards love (to assess their internal working model)
- and current rs experiences (to determine their adult attachment style)
- they analysed 620 responses
- 205 from men
- 415 from women
- from a fair cross-section of the population
Findings of Hazan + Shaver study?
- when analysing adult attachment style they found that the prevalence of adult attachment styles was similar to infant attachment styles
- 56% were classified secure, 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant
- suggests that most people’s infant attachment styles are the
same as their adult attachment style - also found a rs between an individual’s iwm and their adult attachment style
- adults with a positive iwm tended to be securely attached adults
- found a positive correlation between adult attachment style and love experiences
- securely attached adults described their love experiences as happy, friendly and trusting
- emphasised being able to accept and support their partner despite faults
- these rs were most enduring – ten years on average compared six years for avoidant and five years for resistant
-ve Evaluation Hazan + Shaver:
no +ve
- study is unreliable as several other studies have failed to find the strong correlation between infant attachment style and adult attachment style
- Fraley (2002) conducted review of 27 samples where infants were assessed in infancy and later reassessed (ranging from one month to 20 years later)
- he found correlations ranging from .5 to as low as .1
= study is correlational rather than experimental and therefore we can’t determine cause and effect
= is impossible to say that infant attachment styles determine adult attachment styles
= could be that there is a third
variable that affects both, such as a person’s innate temperament
- study relies on ps mems about their early lives in order to
assess their infant attachment style
- recollections are likely to be flawed as our memories of the past are not always accurate
- making the study not valid
