Attachment Notes

Question 1

Maccoby’s 4 characteristics of attachment

Answer 1

• Seeking proximity
• Separation Anxiety
• Reunion pleasure
• Behaviour orientated towards caregiver
  (Child’s awareness of where caregiver is, and reassurances of closeness)

Question 2

Schaffer & Emerson’s Attachment Stages (1964)

Answer 2

Asocial (0-6 weeks) - Similar responses to objects & people; no stranger anxiety.

Indiscriminate (1 - 7 months) - Enjoy human interaction, responding similarly to all caregivers.

Specific (7 - 10 months) - Begin to prefer a certain caregiver; display separation & stranger anxiety.

Multiple (10 months +) - Attachments behaviours towards several people.
(Usually family, e,g. siblings or grandparents)

Question 3

What factors influence paternal involvement?
(amount of time father & infant spend together)

Answer 3

• Cultural (stereotypically are breadwinners)
• Economic: Some fathers work miles away from home or very long hours to provide
• Biological: Women are biologically adapted to provide for their infant
• Social policies: Paternal leave is often little to none, compared to maternal leave

Question 4

Role of the Father - EVALUATION

Answer 4

• Verissimo (2011) found paternal attachment important in indicating the quality of peer relationships.
• MacCallum & Golombok (2004) found no difference in children with & without fathers suggesting paternal role is insignificant
• Why aren’t fathers primary figures?
  (e.g. Gender roles or hormones?)

Question 5

Learning Theory

Answer 5

Behaviour is learned, thus those who satisfy physiological needs become attachments.

Classical Conditioning: UCS & UCR of food & pleasure leads to association between food and provider for pleasure.

Operant Conditioning: Positive reinforcement encourages behaviours; crying leads to caregiver providing food.

Question 6

Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Answer 6

He said attachments provide an Internal Working Model, that must be formed within the Critical Period (before 2 y.o). Social releasers elicit caregiving from parent.

Question 7

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
(Student of Bowlby’s)

Answer 7

1. Mother & infant settle into environment
2. Stranger sits quietly
3. Stranger begins to talk to mother, then interact with child
4. Mother leaves
5. Stranger attempts to play & maybe comfort child
6. Mother re-enters; stranger leaves
7. Mother leaves once again - child is alone
8. Strangers re-enters to offer comfort or play
9. Mother returns, stranger leaves

Results:
Secure = 66%
Insecure-avoidant = 22%
Insecure-resistant = 12%

Question 8

Maternal Deprivation

Answer 8

“Mother love in infancy is just as important for a child’s mental health, as vitamins and minerals are for physical health” Bowlby, 1953

Question 9

Romanian Orphans

Answer 9

Nicolae Ceausescu wanted to grow the population to fuel economic growth, bringing in various laws to encourage this.

‘The foetus is the property of the entire society, anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity.’

100,000+ children in orphanages in 1989 - this limited the emotional, physical and cognitive care/stimulation they received.

Question 10

Internal Working Model

Answer 10

Secure, emotionally responsive early experiences
=> Secure, quality childhood friendships
=> Secure, trusting adult romantic relationships
=> Secure, emotionally responsive parenting
=> Cycle