Attachment (P1) Flashcards
Schafer and Emerson stages of attachment (1964)
1)Asocial stage
2)Indiscriminate attachment
3)Specific attachment
4)Multiple attachments
Asocial stage
-0-6 weeks
-This is when the infant responds to objects and people similarly- but may respond more to faces and eyes
Indiscriminate attachments
-6 weeks-6 months
-This is when the infant develops more responses to human company.
-Although they can tell the difference between different people, they can be comforted by anyone
Specific attachments
-7 months and onwards
-This is when the infants begin to prefer one particular carer and seeks for security, comfort and protection in particular people
-They also start to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
Multiple attachments
-10-11 months onwards
-This is when the infant forms multiple attachments and seeks security, comfort and protection in multiple people.
-They may also show separation anxiety in multiple people.
PEEL- how does the Glasweigain baby study by Schaffer and emerson lack internal validity (AO3 Limitation)
-One limitation is a lack of internal validity
-It uses self report methods as the parents kept a daily diary
-Therefore the accuracy of data collection may not be the best. The parents may not have included the full detail and social desirability bias may have occurred.
-The parents may have skewed their reports so they appear to be closer to what they see as socially acceptable or desirable.
-Ie. they may intentionally not report and negative experiences that they had.
-This also may be demand characteristics as they try to tailor their report to fit or go against what they think is the aim/hypothesis of the study.
-Therefore, caution should be taken when placing confidence in the conclusions drawn from this study.
PEEL- How does the Schaffer and Emerson study lack population validity?
-One limitation is the lack of internal validity
-Infants in the study all came from Glasgow and were mostly from working class families. In addition, the small sample size of 60 families reduces the strength of the conclusions drawn from the study. Schaffers stages of attachent lack population valdity and temporal validity.
-Parenting techniques have changed significantly since the 1950s, such as through the influence of Bowlby’s work, so caution should be taken when generalising the findings.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment (ASCMI)
A= Adaptive- attachments are an advantage, or beneficial to survival as it ensures a child is kept safe, warm and fed.
S= Social releasers- innate ‘cute’ behaviours such as smiling and cooing, unlock the innate tendency for adults to care for a child because they activate the mammalian attachment system.
C= Critical period- this is the time in which an attachment can form- Bowlby suggested that if it does not in this time it never will- it attachment does not form you will be intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically stunted. Bowlby proposed it as more of a ‘sensitive period’- 6 months-2 years
M= Monotropy- Bowlby suggested that you can only form one ‘special’ attachment, usually with the biological mother. It is unique stronger and different to others.
I= Internal working model- A mental schema for relationships. Develop our perception of our attachment with our primary attachment figure. This explains similarities in attachment patterns across families. Those who have a dysfunctional internal working model will seek out dysfunctional relationships and behave dysfunctionally within them.
What were the findings of Harlow’s experiment on monkeys?
-Baby monkeys preferred soft cuddly cloth surrogate monkeys to a wire mesh monkey that could dispense milk.
-Baby monkeys clung to the cloth monkey and only went to the wire monkey to feed.
-The findings showed that feelings of comfort and security are critical to maternal-infant bonding.
Procedure of Harlow’s study on monkeys
-Harlow investigated attachment in rhesus monkeys.
-He constructed two surrogate mothers: one harsh ‘wire mother’ that provided milk, and one soft, cuddly ‘towelling mother’ that did not provide milk.
-The amount of time that the baby monkey spent with each mother was recorded.
Conclusions of Harlow’s study on rhesus monkeys
-Harlow concluded that baby rhesus monkeys have an innate drive to seek contact comfort, suggesting that attachment with parents is formed through an emotional need for security.
AO3 Ethics/Cost-benefit analysis on animal studies in Harlow’s monkeys PEEL
-One limitation is the ethical issues in Harlow’s research.
-The baby rhesus monkeys suffered greatly in terms of emotional separation from their biological mother at such an early age due to the procedure Harlow used.
-If the species of primates are considered sufficiently human-like to generalise the results, then it stands to reason that the effects of psychological harm that they will have endured are similar to that of a human baby.
-There is, however, the question of whether the insight obtained was sufficiently important to psychologists understanding of attachment that Harlow was justified in his approach, if a cost-benefit analysis was undertaken.
Procedure of Lorenz’s study on geese
-Lorenz conducted an experiment where he divided goose eggs into two batches.
-One batch was hatched naturally by the mother, and the second batch was hatched in an incubator and Lorenz was the first moving object they saw.
Findings of Lorenz’s study
-Lorenz found that straight away after birth, the naturally hatched goslings followed the mother goose, whereas the incubator-hatched goslings followed Lorenz.
-Lorenz noted that this imprinting only occurred after within a critical period of 13-16 hours after hatching and the relationship persisted over time and proved to be irreversible.
-If the hatchlings don’t imprint in the critical period, they never imprint.
-Once birds have imprinted, they cannot imprint again.
AO3 Lorenz study on Geese- difficulty generalising to humans PEEL
(More complex/no imprinting)
-Since Lorenz only studied animals, we cannot generalise the results to humans as we are unable to conclude that they would behave in the same way.
-The mammalian attachment formation appears to be much more complex and different to that of bird species.
-Human parents, especially mothers, show more emotional reactions to their offspring and can form attachments beyond the first few hours after birth, and humans don’t imprint.
-So, whilst some of Lorenz’s findings have influenced our understanding of attachment formation, caution must be applied when drawing wider conclusions about the results
