Attachment P1 Flashcards
What do caregivers infant interactions do?
. Help build and strengthen the attachment between parents and children, more sensitive to signals, stronger the attachments become
What is reciprocity?
. Involve both parties producing a response from each other turns are taken like in a conversation
What is interactional synchrony?
. Takes place when caregiver an infant interact in a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other

Who studied interactional synchrony?
. Isabella (1989) observed 30 mothers in infants and found increased levels interactional synchrony were associated with better quality attachments
What is supporting evidence of caregiver infant interactions?
. Evans and Porter (2009) studied reciprocity, synchrony and attachment quality in 101 infants and Mum is in first year. Babys judged to be securely attached tended to have more reciprocal interactions and synchrony
. Meltzoff and more (1977) found babies between 2 to 3 weeks mimicked adults facial expressions in hand movements-suggests innate
What are the weaknesses of caregiver infant interactions?
. Caregiver interaction is not found in all cultures E.g. le vine et al (1994) reported kenyan mothers have a little interaction or contact with influence but high security documents or research movie ethnocentric
What was schaffers and Emersons procedure?
. 60 babies from working-class Glasgow studied
. Babies visited every month for first year and again 18 months
. Mothers ask about baby separations in stranger anxiety
What was Schaffer and Emerson‘s findings?
. Between 25 to 32 weeks of age 50% short separation anxiety towards Mum
. By 40 weeks is 80% of specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments
What are the stages of attachment?
. A social: birth-three months, infants attracted to faces more after six weeks
. Indiscriminate: at 3-7 months, infants recognise faces but except comfort from any adult and treat them all the same
. Specific: 7-8 months, infants develop anxiety around strangers and distressed if away from a particular adult – primary attachment figure
. Multiple: 9+ months, for more attachments – secondary attachments
What are the weaknesses of multiple attachments?
. Many researchers believe primary attachment must be made before multiple but different cultures find babies developing multiple from Birth-collectivist cultures
. Very difficult to measure babies you don’t judo in a social as they’re not mobile on their behaviour is difficult to interpret, behaviour due to something else and potentially
What are the strengths of shcafferand emmersons study of multiple attachments?
. Study carried out in own home so most observations done by parents so babies behaviour not affected by observers so increased internal validity
What is a fathers traditional role?
. Traditionally fathers believed to play more minor real roles in parenting
What did Karen Grossman do?
. 2002
. Carried out longitudinal study informed quality of attachments to fathers and related to play suggesting a different role
Explain fathers is primary carers?
. When father takes on the role of main carer, adopt behaviour typical of mothers
. Field (1978) filmed four-month babies interactions with their fathers and found differences in interactions when father was primary care rather than secondary spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies
. Key attachment based on level of response not gender
What are the weaknesses of role of the father?
. Studies find fatherless kids don’t turn out different suggesting fathers aren’t significant
. Evolutionary psychologists argue females more predisposed to nurture due to presence of oestrogen that leads to caring behaviours
What are the strengths of the role of a father?
. Father is important for mothers to, courage and stress in mothers, improve self-esteem and overall relationship with child
What was Lorenz‘s aim.?
. To investigate imprinting on attachment formation
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
. Randomly split batch of grey goose eggs into two groups
. One group were hatched in an incubator and one by their mother
. First move an object they saw was Lorenzo in the incubator group
. Behaviour of these carefully observed
. Also observed effective imprinting on adult mating preferences
What were Lorenz‘s findings?
. Experimental group in printed on the leorenz
. Control group hatched in imprinted on mother
. Two group mixed, control group continued with mother, experimental group went back to Laurens
. Imprinting only occurred in a critical period
. Geese who imprinted on humans later showed courtship behaviour towards humans
What are the evaluations of Lorenz?
. Weakness: critical period questions, stuckin (1966) recreated with ducklings and got them to imprint on him but isolated won’t be on critical period but still imprinted on the duck after time
. Weakness: imprinting is reversible, Guiton (1966) found chicken to imprinted on a yellow glove would try to mate with them as adults but with experience learnt instead to meet with other chickens
What was the aim of Harlow study?
. Well the contact comfort was more important in attachment than food
What procedure was used in hollow study?
. Read 16 baby monkeys with two surrogate mothers, one of wire and one with milk was the other was cloth and didn’t give milk
. Amount of time spent with each mother was recorded
. Monkeys deliberately frightened with loud noises the first preference
under stress
. Long-term effects recorded