Attachment mini-topics

Question 1

Caregiver infant interactions

Answer 1

Reciprocity

Interaction synchrony

Question 2

Reciprocity

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Interactional synchrony

Answer 3

From 2-3 weeks old, infants imitate specific specific facial and hand gestures exhibited by their carers.

Question 4

Evidence against caregiver infant interactions

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What are the three types of attachment figures?

Answer 5

Parent-infant

Role of the father

Fathers as primary carers

Question 6

The role of the father

Answer 6

Grossman et al attachment to fathers less important but fathers may have a different role - play and stimulation.

Question 7

Fathers as primary carers

Answer 7

Field: fathers as primary carers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers.

Question 8

Schaffer and Emerson study

Answer 8

A classic study on the development of attachment

Question 9

Schaffer and Emerson Aim

Answer 9

To investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with.

Question 10

Schaffer and Emerson procedure

Answer 10

Mothers of 60 Glasgow babies reported monthly on separation anxiety

Question 11

Schaffer and Emerson findings

Answer 11

Most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this.

Question 12

Evaluate strengths of Schaffer and Emerson study

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Evaluate weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson study

Answer 13

Limited sample characteristics, all families were from the same area over 50 years ago, so may lack generalisability.

Question 14

Schaffer stages of attachment

Answer 14

Asocial stage

Indiscriminate attachment

Specific attachments

Multiple attachments

Question 15

Asocial stage

Answer 15

Little observable social behaviour

Question 16

Indiscriminate attachment

Answer 16

More observable attachment behaviour, accept cuddles from any adult.

Question 17

Specific attachments

Answer 17

Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety in regard to one particular adult.

Question 18

Multiple attachments

Answer 18

Attachment behaviour directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments).

Question 19

Evidence against Schaffer’s stages of attachment?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Animal studies of attachment

Answer 20

Harlow’s Rhesus monkey

Lorenz’s Gosling study

Question 21

Lorenz’s Gosling study

Answer 21

Gosling saw Lorenz when they hatched.

Question 22

Lorenz’s findings

Answer 22

Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see imprinting on them permanently.

Question 23

Evaluate supporting Lorenz’s gosling study

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

Evaluate against Lorenz’s

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Harlow’s monkey study

Answer 25

Baby monkeys give cloth or wire ‘mother’ with feeding bottle attached.

Question 26

Findings Harlow’s monkey study

Answer 26

Monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk.

Monkeys grew up maternally deprived.

Question 27

Evaluative weaknesses of Harlow’s monkey study

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

Evaluate supporting Harlow’s monkey study

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

Bowlby’s monotropic theory as an explanation of attachment

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

Features of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 30

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)

Question 31

Evidence supporting Bowlby monotrpobc theory?

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Evidence against Bowlby monotropic theory?

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 33

A measure of attachment quality

Question 34

Procedure Ainsworth Strange situation

Answer 34

7 stage controlled observation.

Assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety in response to reunion

Question 35

Ainsworth strange situation findings

Answer 35

Infants showed constant patterns of attachment behaviour.