Attachment key terms (paper 1)

Question 1

Reciprocity?

Answer 1

• A description of how two people interact.
• Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.

Question 2

Interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.

Question 3

Multiple attachments?

Answer 3

• Attachments to two or more people.
• Babies are most likely to develop another attachment once formed one strong attachment to their carers.

Question 4

Father?

Answer 4

• In attachment research, it is anyone who takes on the role of the main male caregiver.
• Doesn’t have to be the biological father.

Question 5

Animal studies?

Answer 5

• In psychology these are the studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than humans, either for ethical or practical reasons.

Question 6

Learning theory?

Answer 6

• A set of theories from the behaviourist approach to psychology, that emphasise the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour.

Question 7

Monotropic?

Answer 7

• A term sometimes used to describe Bowbly’s theory.
• Mono means ‘one’ and tropic means ‘learning towards’.
• This indicates that one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to a child’s development.

Question 8

Critical period?

Answer 8

• The time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all.
• Human babies have a sensitive periods after which it will be much more difficult to form an attachment.
• 6 months to 2 and half years.

Question 9

Internal working model?

Answer 9

• Our mental representations of the world.
• e.g. the representation we have of our relationship to our primary attachment figure.

Question 10

Strange situation?

Answer 10

• A controlled observation designed to test attachment security.
• Babies are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver.

Question 11

Secure attachment?

Answer 11

• Most desirable attachment type, associated with psychologically healthy outcome.
• Moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion.

Question 12

Insecure-avoidant attachment?

Answer 12

• Characterised by low anxiety but weak attachment.
• Low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion, maybe a little avoidance of the caregiver.

Question 13

Insecure-resistant attachment?

Answer 13

• Strong attachment and high anxiety.
• High levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resistance to being comforted at reunion.

Question 14

Cultural variation?

Answer 14

• ‘Culture’ refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people.
• Cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups.

Question 15

Maternal deprivation?

Answer 15

• The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother.
• Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and prolonged separation can cause serious damage to intellectual and emotional development.

Question 16

Orphan studies?

Answer 16

• These concern children that are placed in care because their parents cannot look after them.
• Orphan is a child whose parent have either died or have abandoned.

Question 17

Institutionalisation?

Answer 17

• A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting.
• Institution refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where people live for long.

Question 18

Childhood relationships?

Answer 18

• Affiliation with other people in childhood. e.g. classmates, adults, teachers.

Question 19

Adult relationships?

Answer 19

• Those relationship the child goes on to have later in life as an adult.