Attachment (Paper 1)

Question 1

Caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 1

These are the behaviours shown between a caregiver (usually parent) and a child that helps attachments to be developed and maintained. There are two clear types of this:

Question 2

Reciprocity

Answer 2

Where a infant responds to the actions of another person. With reciprocity the actions of one person (e.g. the primary caregiver) elicits a response from the other (e.g. the infant). This could be faces being pulled or hand actions.

Question 3

Interactional synchrony

Answer 3

Where an infant mirrors the actions of another person, for example, their facial expressions and body movements- moving their body in rhythm with their carer.

Question 4

Brazelton 1979

Answer 4

Reciprocity is shown in his frozen face study where if the parent stopped interacting with the child by pulling a straight face with not emotion then the child became distressed.

Question 5

Melzoff and Moore 1977

Answer 5

Aim: To examine interactional synchrony in infants
Method: Used a controlled observation, an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions, childs expressions were filmed
Results: Clear association between the infants behaviour and adult model, later research found the same findings in 3 day infants
Conclusion: These findings suggest that interactional synchrony is innate

Question 6

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 6

He believed that attachment in infants was split into stages from birth. There were 4 stages that he believed in:

Question 7

Asocial stage

Answer 7

• This stage is birth to 6 weeks
• Don’t show any preference to humans and have similar,at responses to people and objects

Question 8

Indiscriminate attachment stage

Answer 8

• 6 weeks to 6 months
• Preference for human company
• Can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces
• Happy to let strangers look after them

Question 9

Specific attachment

Answer 9

• 7 months and beyond
• Infants show a preference for a specific caregiver (in most cases mother)
• Display separation and stranger anxiety

Question 10

Multiple attachment

Answer 10

• 9 months and beyond
• Attachment behaviour displayed towards many different people e.g. siblings, grandparents
• Stranger anxiety becomes less important

Question 11

Schaffer and Emerson 1964 experiment on stages of attachment

Answer 11

Aim: To examine the formation of early attachments

Method: 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow, researchers observed the children and interviewed the mothers

Results: At 25-32 weeks, 50% of children showed separation anxiety, at 40 weeks, 80% of the children had formed specific attachments and 30% had formed multiple attachments

Conclusion: Supports Schaffer’s research for stages of attachment

Question 12

Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson experiment

Answer 12

+Ecological validity and mundane realism as interviewed in mothers homes and observed children in their everyday life

• Some infants may have developed earlier than others so there are individual differences
• Mothers may have given socially desirable answers

Question 13

The role of the father

Answer 13

The role of the father was hardly considered in early attachment theories and research disregarded them as they saw the mother as the primary care giver. There are split idea on the role the father plays in attachment

Question 14

Biological explanation for fathers role in attachment

Answer 14

• Some researchers argue men are not equipped to form an attachment. Some psychologists point to biological evidence for this
• The hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour in women and this hormone is not seen in men
• This could be a reason why men can’t form a close attachment

Question 15

Different role of fathers

Answer 15

• Other researchers suggest that fathers do not take on a care giver role but infact provide a different role as a playmate
• This builds a different type of attachment
• Geiger 1996 suggests fathers are more likely to engage in stimulating activity which helps develop the child in different aspects

Question 16

Sensitive responsiveness of fathers

Answer 16

-Finally, some researchers argue that fathers cant demonstrate sensitive responsiveness and respond to the needs of their children and therefore cant form a strong emotional tie or bond

Question 17

Lone fathers

Answer 17

• Fathers without a mother figure are forced to form an primary attachment with their child but psychologists argue it is not the same as the attachment with mothers
• Lamb 1987 found that sole father care givers found it hard to detect their infants unhappiness

Question 18

Animal studies

Answer 18

Animal studies have been conducted to provide controlled experiments to track the development of attachment in infants

Question 19

Lorenz 1935 animal study

Answer 19

Aim: To investigate imprinting in baby geese

Method:

• Lorenz divided a clutch of goose eggs into two groups:
• One group was left with their natural mother
• Other group was placed in an incubator
• Lorenz made sure that when the eggs in the incubator hatched, he was the first moving object they saw. After this, he marked the two groups and returned them to their natural mother

Results: The geese that had hatched in the incubator continued to follow him, whilst those who had hatched naturally followed their mother

Conclusion: Geeslings are programmed to attach to the first moving object they see, highlighting the rapid formation of attachment in animals. This suggests that attachment is innate.

Question 20

Harlow 1959 animal study

Answer 20

Aim: To investigate the nature of attachment in baby monkey

Method:

• 8 Rhesus Monkeys were placed in a cage with two surrogate mothers, one made of wire and the other made of cloth
• For half the monkeys the food was attached to the wire mother whereas, for the other half the food was attached to the cloth mother

Results: Harlow found that all the monkeys spent most of the time cuddled to the soft cloth monkey

Conclusion: This suggests that monkeys develop attachments based on contact comfort and not based off who feeds them

Question 21

Evaluation of animal studies

Answer 21

+The studies enhance our understanding of how attachment works
+Monkeys are genetically and behaviourally very similar to humans
-The relationship between human and attachment and animal attachment is very different and the results would be unreliable as there is no evidence that humans and animals will for same attachments
-Unethical
-Long term effects were seen in the animals as geese and monkeys could not form an attachment to their real mothers

Question 22

Learning theory of attachment

Answer 22

Learning theory is a nurtured base theory that suggests infants learn to became attached to their caregivers. Their are two theories attached to this: …

Question 23

Classical conditioning

Answer 23

This occurs when a natural response to an environmental stimulus becomes associated with something else

1. Before conditioning food is the UCS, which produces an UCR (hunger relief)
2. Before conditioning the mother is the NS who produces no response
3. During conditioning the baby associates the NS with UCS
4. After conditioning, the mother becomes a CS who produces a CR and the baby forms a attachment

Question 24

Operant conditioning

Answer 24

This is linked to drive reduction, an instinctive need that causes behavioural change. The baby feels hunger which is a negative drive, the caregiver feeds the baby which reduces the negative drive. The primary caregivers presence is positively reinforced by the reduction of hunger forming attachment between the baby and caregiver

Question 25

Evaluation of learning theory

Answer 25

• Lorenz geese attached to first thing they saw, even though they hadn’t been fed.
• This suggests that attachment is not based on learning to attach to the person who feeds you.
• Similarly, Harlows study suggests attachment is formed through comfort not food
• However, these are animal studies

Question 26

Bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment

Answer 26

Bowlbys theory takes an evolutionary perspective. He argues that children are born with innate tendencies to form attachments with their parents in order to increase chance of survival. He identified 5 key criteria for the process of attachment: …

Question 27

Adaptive/Innate

Answer 27

Attachments are adaptive. Give species adaptive advantage of survival.
The will to attach has been adaptive to the point where it is innate.

Question 28

Social releaser

Answer 28

Babies have social releases (big cute eyes). Unlock innate tendency for adults to care for them.

Question 29

Critical period

Answer 29

Babies have to form an attachment within a critical period (birth and 2.5 years old)

Question 30

Monotropy/Internal working model

Answer 30

They form one special attachment with their mother, known as monotropy, and this relationship acts as a model for future relationships through internal working model.

Strong attachments in infancy=Socially and emotionally competent later
Weak attachments in infancy=Social and emotional difficulties later

The style of attachment an infant has continues throughout life. It predicts the type of relationships the person would develop throughout life.

Question 31

Ainsworths strange situation

Answer 31

A technique involving a controlled observation that is used to test a child’s attachment patterns. In a controlled setting, behaviour of infant aged 12-18 months is assessed through a 2 way mirror.
1. Mum and baby play
2. Mum sits and baby plays
3. Stranger enters and talks to mum
4. Mum leaves, baby plays, stranger offers comfort
5. Mum returns and offers comfort and stranger leaves
6. Mum leaves, baby is alone
7. Stranger enters and offers comfort
8. Mum returns and offers comfort.
Researchers recorded willingness of baby to explore, stranger anxiety, separation protest, reunion behaviour.

Question 32

3 types of attachment according to Ainsworth

Answer 32

Ainsworth concluded there were 3 types of attachment

Secure (type B)- 66% of infants- uses caregiver as secure base, showing moderate stranger and separation anxiety and shows joy on reunion with caregiver

Insecure avoidant (type A)- 22% of infants- does not uses caregiver as secure base, showing little or no stranger or separation anxiety and has no reaction to reunion

Insecure resistant (type C)- 12% of infants- unable to use caregiver as secure base and is stuck to caregivers leg and does not explore. Shows high stranger and separation anxiety. At reunion rejects caregiver as feel betrayed and is very upset.

Question 33

Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 33

If attachment is universal and develops from caregiver-infant interactions (such as sensitive responsiveness) then it should be seen across cultures despite different child-reading practises.

Question 34

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) cultural variations

Answer 34

Aim: To investigate cross-cultural differences in attachment

Method: Conducted meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries

Results:

• Secure attachment is most common in all cultures
• Japan and Israel showed higher levels of insecure-resistant attachment
• Germany showed higher levels of insecure-avoidant attachment

Conclusion: Attachment behaviours (in particular crying and exploration) mean different things to different cultures

Question 35

Evaluation

Answer 35

+Meta analysis so sample size is large

• Different studies in the analysis might have had different interpretations of children’s behaviour
• 18 of studies were done in USA and only 1 was done in China.

Question 36

Bowlby (1944) maternal deprivation

Answer 36

Aim: To see if early separations (deprivation) were associated with behavioural disorders. In particular, Bowlby defined a particular disorder, affectionless psychopathy, to describe individuals who have no sense of shame or guilt

Method: 88 children from 5-16 examined. 44 of these children were thieves 14 of the thieves were classified as affectionless psychopaths. Bowlby interviewed the children and their families

Result: 86% of AP experienced early and prolonged attachment separations. Only 17% of the other thieves had experienced such separations. 4% of the control group had experienced frequent early separations.

Conclusion: These findings suggest a link between early separations and later social maladjustment. Maternal deprivation appears to lead affectionless psychopathy and antisocial behaviour.

Question 37

Rutter (2010) Romanian orphan studies

Answer 37

Aim: To examine the long term effects of institutionalisation and children who do not for an early attachment.

Method: 165 children from a Romanian orphanage were examined. 111 children were adopted before the age of 2. 55 adopted by the age of 4. Compared to a control group of 52 British children.

Results: The children who were adopted after six months showed significant deficits in terms of social, cognitive and physical development. Whereas those who were adopted earlier caught up with the British children.

Conclusion: Institutionalisation can have long term effects on development, especially if children are not provided with adequate care by two years old

Question 38

Hassan and Shaver (1987) influence of early attachment

Answer 38

Aim: To investigate any possible correlation between early childhood attachment experiences and later adult attachment

Method: Used a questionnaire called the ‘Love Quiz’ to examine current attachment experiences and earlier adult and childhood attachment history

Results: There was a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences

Conclusion: Suggests that our early childhood attachment experiences do affect out later adult relationships