Attachment mini-topics Flashcards
Caregiver infant interactions
Reciprocity
Interaction synchrony
Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a form of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness, with both parties being able to produce response from each other.
Smiling is an example of reciprocity – when a smile occurs in the infant it triggers a smile in the caregiver, and vice versa
Interactional synchrony
From 2-3 weeks old, infants imitate specific specific facial and hand gestures exhibited by their carers.
Evidence against caregiver infant interactions
Hard to know what is happening, observe simple gesture and expression, and assume infant’s intentions.
Feldman said they are just observations of what the baby is doing, purpose not entirely understood.
What are the three types of attachment figures?
Parent-infant
Role of the father
Fathers as primary carers
The role of the father
Grossman et al attachment to fathers less important but fathers may have a different role - play and stimulation.
Fathers as primary carers
Field: fathers as primary carers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers.
Schaffer and Emerson study
A classic study on the development of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson Aim
To investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with.
Schaffer and Emerson procedure
Mothers of 60 Glasgow babies reported monthly on separation anxiety
Schaffer and Emerson findings
Most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this.
Evaluate strengths of Schaffer and Emerson study
Good external validity, observations were in participant’s natural environments.
Longitudinal design, some participants were observed at each age, eliminating individual differences as a confound.
Evaluate weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson study
Limited sample characteristics, all families were from the same area over 50 years ago, so may lack generalisability.
Schaffer stages of attachment
Asocial stage
Indiscriminate attachment
Specific attachments
Multiple attachments
Asocial stage
Little observable social behaviour
Indiscriminate attachment
More observable attachment behaviour, accept cuddles from any adult.
Specific attachments
Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety in regard to one particular adult.
Multiple attachments
Attachment behaviour directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments).
Evidence against Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
Asocial stage, social behaviour is hard to observe in the first weeks but this doesn’t mean the babu is ‘asocial’.
Conflicting evidence, Van Ijzendoorn et al, research in different contexts has found multiple attachments may appear first.
Just because a child protests when an adult leaves does not necessarily mean attachment.
Animal studies of attachment
Harlow’s Rhesus monkey
Lorenz’s Gosling study
Lorenz’s Gosling study
Gosling saw Lorenz when they hatched.
Lorenz’s findings
Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see imprinting on them permanently.
Evaluate supporting Lorenz’s gosling study
Guiton et al chicks attached to yellow gloves used to handle them and adults tried to mate with them agreeing with Lorenz’s conclusion that birds attach to the first moving object they see.
Evaluate against Lorenz’s
Guiton et al adult birds that were once imprinted onto yellow gloves that used to handle them, but after a while once mixed with others from the same species they later preferred their own species, suggesting imprinting isn’t permanent.
Harlow’s monkey study
Baby monkeys give cloth or wire ‘mother’ with feeding bottle attached.
Findings Harlow’s monkey study
Monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk.
Monkeys grew up maternally deprived.
Evaluative weaknesses of Harlow’s monkey study
Ethically unacceptable, many would argue that short and long-term psychological harm done to monkeys cannot be justified.
Whether we can generalise monkey attachment behaviour to humans is also questionable.
Evaluate supporting Harlow’s monkey study
Harlow’s research can be argued ethically justifiable in that monkey’s suffering was outweighed by the psychological insights gained in helping better understand the attachment process and the long-term effects of falling to attach.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory as an explanation of attachment
Bowlby proposed that attachment is adaptive, meaning that it exists because it maximises our chances of survival. Hence we haven an innate drive to become attached to a caregiver because attachment has long-term benefits.
Features of Bowlby’s monotropic theory
Bowlby proposed that attachment should take place within a critical period of 3-6 months, if it doesn’t individual will have difficulty forming relationships with others in later life and be socially and psychologically maladjusted.
Infant has innate drive to display social releasers that cause care-giving from adults.
Baby will have one primary attachment figure, usually the mother.
First relationship is a model for and creates expectations about what all future relationships will be like (IWM)
Evidence supporting Bowlby monotrpobc theory?
Harlow monkey study, monkeys that formed one-way attachments with unresponsive mothers became as adults emotionally and socially maladjusted they were aggressive, anti social and had problems mating and parenting. +IWM.
Efe tribe from Zaire formed one primary attachment to their mother as predicted by Bowlby, suggesting that attachment and monotropy is university and innate.
Evidence against Bowlby monotropic theory?
It is not always the case that poor early attachments lead to poor adult relationships. research has suggested that positive school experiences and strong adult attachments can repair harm done in childhood.
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
A measure of attachment quality
Procedure Ainsworth Strange situation
7 stage controlled observation.
Assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety in response to reunion
Ainsworth strange situation findings
Infants showed constant patterns of attachment behaviour.
