Attachment: Paper 1

Question 1

What is Reciprocity?

Answer 1

Reciprocity is how two people interact. The primary caregiver and infant interaction is reciprocal because both respond to each other’s signals and elicits a response from the other.

From around three months, this interaction involves paying close attention to the each other’s verbal and facial expressions.

Both primary caregiver and child can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so. For example, babies can send out a signal (like a giggle or a look), and the caregiver responds in a way that ‘matches’ the baby’s action, like laughing back or giving a hug.

Question 2

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

Interactional symphony is the way in which the primary caregiver and baby interact so that their actions and emotions mirror each other. This is done in a synchronised way. For example, the child may move their body or carry out an act in the same way as their primary caregiver. This strengthens communication between the caregiver and infant.

Question 3

What is body contact?

Answer 3

Physical contact, especially skin-to-skin contact is necessary for bonding, especially within the first few hours of their life such as breastfeeding.

Question 4

What is child-directed speech?

A.K.A –> Baby Talk

Answer 4

The adult caregiver talks in a ‘sing-song’ tone, modulating their voice by slowing it down and raising their tone; this change of voice helps keep the infant’s attention.

Question 5

Parent-infant attachment towards the mother rather than father?

Answer 5

Research shows that infants gain attachment to their mother first before the father.

Schaffer and Emerson found that a majority of the babies became attached to their mother first from around 7 months but within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members such as the father.

In 75% of the infants, an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months, demonstrated in their protesting when their father walked away - a notable sign of attachment.

Question 6

Why is active play important for the role of the father?

Answer 6

Fathers are seen to engage babies in active ‘play activities’ more consistently than mothers.

Fathers’ interactions emphasise stimulation, and so it is thought that their role is to encourage risk-taking behaviours compared to the more comforting style of mothers.

Question 7

How can the father play the role as a primary caregiver?

Answer 7

In modern Western society, mothers are more likely to take part in the workplace; there is evidence to suggest that if men take on the role of the primary caregivers, their interactional style changes to be more like the mothers, increasing their capacity for sensitive responsiveness.

Question 8

Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment

Answer 8

There are four stages: Asocial, indiscriminate, specific and multiple attachments.

Asocial stages:
- Lasts up to 6 weeks after birth
- No discrimination of humans
- Prefer human stimulus over non human stimulus such as dolls

Indiscriminate stages:
- Lasts from six weeks after birth to six months
- No fear of strangers
- Attachment is formed with primary caregiver and stronger bond start to form with familiar adults.

Specific Stage:

• Distress in presence of stranger
• Anxiety when separated from primary caregiver

Multiple Attachments:

• Attachment with primary caregiver grows
• Infant increased interest in developing more attachments other than the primary caregiver.

Question 9

Describe Schaffer & Emerson’s Aim, Method & Findings

Answer 9

Wanted to investigate the age infants form attachments, with whom they form these attachments with and how these attachments form.

They observed 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life through a longitudinal study).

Schaffer and Emerson found that a majority of the babies became attached to their mother first from around 7 months but within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members which include the father.

By 18 months of age, the majority of infants had formed multiple attachments.

Question 10

Describe Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 10

Strange Situation

• It was a controlled observation designed to test attachment security, with a two-way mirror which psychologists used to observe the infant’s behaviour to judge attachment.
• Infants were assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar
  room, being left alone to explore (separation anxiety), left with a stranger (stranger anxiety) and being reunited with a caregiver (tests reunion behaviour)

Question 11

What three main types of attachment styles did Ainsworth identify from her study?

What criteria is needed for each attachment style and what % of infants were in each attachment style?

Answer 11

Secure attachment (70% of infants)

• Show distress when separated from mother
• Avoidant of stranger, unless accompanied by mother
• Happy to see mother after separation

Insecure resistant attachment (15% of infants)

• Show intense distress when separated from mother
• Significant fear of stranger
• Approach mother but reject contact after separation

Insecure Avoidant attachment

• Show no interest when separated from mother
• Play happily with stranger
• Ignore mother after separation

Question 12

What does Ainsworth suggest about how differences in infants’ attachment styles occur?

Answer 12

• Ainsworth’s caregiver sensitivity hypothesis suggests that differences in infants’ attachment styles are dependent on the mother’s behaviour during a critical period of development

Question 13

Describe Lorenz’s Research: Aim, Method & Findings

Answer 13

• Wanted to investigate the process of imprinting
• Conducted an experiment in which goose eggs were randomly divided so that half of them hatched with the mother goose (in their natural environment) and half hatched in an incubator so the goslings first saw Lorenz when they hatched.
• He found that the control group (that hatched with mother) followed mother everywhere whereas the experimental group (that hatched in incubator) followed Lorenz.
• This is called imprinting - in which newly hatched chicks attach to the first large moving object they see.
• Lorenz also identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place (13-16 hours after birth).
• If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.

Question 14

Describe Harlow’s Research: Aim, Method & Findings

Answer 14

• Harlow reared 16 baby monkeys with two wired surrogate ‘mothers’. In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain surrogate mother whereas in a second condition milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother
• Baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one. Sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk.
• ‘Contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour
• Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour. This meant that a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form.
• After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.

Question 15

Describe explanations of attachment: Learning Theory in terms of classical and operant conditioning

• ‘Cupboard love’ approach, emphasises the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food.

Answer 15

• ‘Cupboard love’ approach, emphasises the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food.

Classical conditioning:

• Classical conditioning is associating stimulus with response.
• The caregiver is a neutral stimulus which elicits no response from an infant at first. On the other hand, the food is a unconditioned stimulus, which elicits an uconditioned response from an infant such as comfort.
• When the caregiver (neutral stimulus) is paired with food (unconditioned stimulus), this results in an unconditioned response such as comfort.
• Eventually through repeated pairing, the neutral stimulus (the caregiver) comes to elicit a conditioned response over time without the presence of an unconditioned stimulus such as food. Learning theorists would call this love.

Operant Conditioning:

• Operant conditioning is the active process of learning to repeat behaviour through consequences. If a behaviour produces a positive consequence - it is more likely to be repeated.
• Operant conditioning can explain why babies cry for comfort. When a baby cries, this leads to the caregiver providing comfort through feeding for example.
• This is an example of positive reinforcement, where the baby is being rewarded through feeding for crying, increasing the likelihood of this behaviour of crying being repeated again if it seeks comfort in the future.
• At the same time, negative reinforcement can occur for the caregiver because the caregiver knows when they baby seeks comfort and in order to eliminate the unpleasant sound of crying, they provide comfort the for infant through feeding, increasing the likelihood of the caregiver performing this behaviour in the future to avoid this unpleasant stimulus.

Question 16

Describe explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

ASCMI

Answer 16

Adaptive - Bowlby sees attachment as an evolutionary behaviour that helps with survival. Attachment is an innate process because children are born with biological abilities such as the rooting reflex to seek an attachment figure and be close with them; to increase their chances of survival by meeting their needs and protecting them from dangers.

Social Releasers - Babies are born with a set of innate cute behaviour such as gripping that encourage an adults attentions. These are called social releasers as their intention is to active the adult’s attachment system.

Critical Period - Certain timeframe for a baby to form an attachment with their caregiver. (2.5 years old)

Monotropy - Placed a great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver and believed that this attachment to this caregiver is different and more important than other ones. He believed that the more time a baby spent with the caregiver (which he called the mother) the better.

Internal Working Model - As a result of the monotropic relationship formed with the caregiver, the child forms a model for all their future relationships. Their relationship with their mother forms a model for what to expect from others such as future romantic relationships. For example, if they have a loving relationship formed with their caregiver, they formulate an expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable and bring these qualities to future relationships.

• Infants will base their parenting behaviour in the future on their own relationship with their parents.

Question 17

Cultural Variations in Attachment

Answer 17

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg conducted a meta-analysis, studying 32 studies from 8 countries with 1990 participants in total.

These studies made use of the Strange Situation to measure attachment.

Wanted to see if there were any intra (within) and inter (between) differences in cultures.

They found secure attachment was the most common in all cultures studied. This suggests that the pattern of attachment found in the USA (secure attachment) appears to be the pattern across other cultures. This means that secure attachment appears to be the norm for healthy social development. This universal finding for secure attachment supports the notion that attachment may be an innate biological process

However, there is still a clear difference in the patterns of attachment across cultures. For example,

• Germany had a higher number of insecure avoidant children at 35% whereas Japan had the lowest number of insecure avoidant children at 5%.
• Germany is an individualistic culture and highly values independence in their children. This meant that behaviours identified as insecure avoidant are viewed positively in German children.
• However, Japan is a collectivist culture and highly valued dependence as it is the norm for the mother to stay physically close to infants in Japan.

Question 18

Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 18

• Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis suggests that early separation of a child from their primary caregiver during a critical period (first 2.5 years of life) with no substitute for emotional care can have irreversible damaging consequences for the development of the child such as in their intellectual or emotional development.
• One way in which maternal deprivation affects children’s
  development is their intellectual development.

Bowlby believed that if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ.

• A second way in which being deprived of a mother figure’s emotional care affects children is in their emotional development. Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others, preventing them for developing normal relationships. For example, affectionless psychopaths cannot understand the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for any of their actions.

Question 19

Bowlby’s 44 Thieves Study

Answer 19

• Bowlby’s aim was to investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation.
• Bowlby acquired an opportunity sample of 88 children, who attended his clinic.
• Half of the children became the ‘thief group’, as they were known the for stealing, the other half, the control group who had been emotionally disturbed.
• Bowlby identified 14 of the ‘thief group’ as affection-less psychopaths
• And of these 14 psychopaths, 12 of them had experienced prolonged separations during their critical period.
• Therefore, it was concluded that prolonged early separation or
  deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Question 20

Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation

Answer 20

• Rutter conducted a longitudinal study following a group of 165 Romanian orphans, who were adopted by families in the UK

He wanted to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

The children were assessed at ages 4,6,11,15, and 22-25.

• When the children first arrived in the UK, half of the children showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were undernourished
• The earlier the child was adopted, the higher IQ they have
• Children adopted after 6 months old showed signs of signs of disinhibited attachment (such as attention seeking) compared to those children adopted before the age of 6 months who rarely shared these signs.

Effects of institutionalisation

Disinhibited attachment

• is a typical effect of spending time in an institution. They are equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or who are strangers that they have just met, which is unusual as most children show distress in the presence of strangers at around 6 months.
• Rutter has explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation. In poor quality institutions like those in Romania a child might have 50 carers none of whom they see
  enough to form a secure attachment.

Mental retardation

• In Rutter’s study most children showed signs of retardation when
  they arrived in Britain.

However, most of those adopted before they were six months old caught up with the control group by age four.

• It appears that, like emotional development, damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered and reversed provided adoption takes place before the age of six months ( the age at which attachments form).

Question 21

Influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 21

Internal Working Model

• Primary attachment relationship between the infant and mother acts as a model or template for later relationships. It leads to the formation of a mental representation or schema of how to relate to other people.
• A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them e.g. without acting too emotionally close.

Kern

• Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties
• He further went on to develop that insecurely attached children have higher levels of anxiety and this may be because they are less likely to develop skills to interact with others.

Hazan & Shaver: Love Quiz (620 responses)

• They found a positive correlation between attachment type and alter love experiences.
• Secure attachment: most likely to have a good and longer lasting relationship and believed that love endures.
• Insecure avoidant: most likely to fear closeness in a relationship and believe that love doesn’t last

Question 22

Controlled observations capture fine detail

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 22

• Observations of mother–infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles.
• This ensures that very fine details of
  behaviour can be recorded and later analysed.

Question 23

Less chance of demand characteristics

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 23

• Furthermore babies don’t know or care that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation - which is generally a problem for observational research.
• This is a strength of this line of research because it means the research has good validity and has a reduced chance of demand characteristics

Question 24

However it is hard to know what is happening when observing infants

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 24

• However, what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression. It is extremely difficult to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant’s perspective. and psychologist are required to infer what these behaviours mean.
• This means that we cannot really know for certain that behaviours seen in mother–infant interaction have a special meaning.

Question 25

Crotwell et al

Practical Value

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 25

• Research into early caregiver-infant interactions has practical applications in parenting skills.
• For example, Crotwell et al found that through a 10 min parent-child interaction therapy, they were able to improve interactional symphony in 20 low-income mothers and their babies.

Question 26

Research is socially sensitive

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 26

• However, this research is socially sensitive as it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to work it affects their babies development.
• This means that before this research, the researcher has to carry out a cost-benefit analysis so only beneficial research is being carried out.

Question 27

Heimann

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 27

Found that infants who show a lot of imitation from birth have a better relationship with caregivers at 3 months.

However, is it unclear if this imitation causes synchrony or is an effect of it.

Thus, it doesn’t fully explain the differences between each individual caregiver-infant interaction.

Question 28

Psychologists suggest that caregiver-infant interactions, such as reciprocity, are present from birth.

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 28

• It is suggested caregiver-infant interactions are the product of nature in order to help infants form and maintain an attachment.
• However, such innate behaviours don’t act in isolation and interact with the environment (caregivers) to prompt a response, (attention).
• Consequently, researchers should consider the interaction of innate infant behaviours with the environment, (their caregivers), to fully appreciate and understand the complex nature of caregiver-infant interactions.

Question 29

Caregiver infant interactions: not found in all cultures.

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 29

• A weakness is that caregiver-infant interactions are not found in all cultures.
• For example, Le Vine et al (1994) reported that Kenyan mothers have little physical interactions or physical contact with their infants, but such infants do have a high proportion of secure attachments.
• This shows that the research is culturally biased (ethnocentric) as it ignores how attachments may be formed within other cultures.
• This means that the findings cannot be generalised to other cultures therefore it lacks external validity.

Question 30

Meltzoff and Moore

A03: caregiver–infant interactions

Answer 30

An experimenter displayed facial gestures such as sticking their tongue out and opening their mouth in shock to 12-21 day old infants.

Recordings of the infant’s responses were rated by people blind to the experiment.

It had been found that infant responses matched the experimenter’s facial expressions.

These results suggest the ability to observe and reciprocate through imitation is present from a very early age.

Question 31

If fathers have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers
different?

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 31

• A limitation of research into the role of the father is that fathers don’t seem to have a distinct role.
• For example, Grossman found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important role in their children’s development
• However, other studies have found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families.
• This would seem to suggest that the father’s role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.

Question 32

Real Life Applications

A03: Role of the Father

If developed; can yield 2 marks.

Answer 32

• Real-life application as it can be used to offer advice to parents.
• This means that fathers are also capable of being primary caregivers.
• This is significant as parental anxiety can be reduced.
• This has useful implications for society because this means that mothers don’t have to feel pressured to stay at home, and fathers don’t have to solely focus on work rather than parenting.
• This shows that research into role of the fathers has realism and validity.

Question 33

Why don’t fathers generally become primary attachments?

Biological & Social Factors

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 33

• The fact that fathers tend not to become the primary attachment figure could simply be the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men.
• Therefore fathers simply don’t feel they should act like that.
• On the other hand, biological explanations as to the role of the father suggest that it could be that female hormones (such as oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure.

Question 34

Research into the role of the father may be biased.

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 34

• Preconceptions are discussed.
• Stereotypes may cause observer bias and inaccurate observations, means observational studies of fathers may lead to lack of validity and untrustworthy conclusions.

Question 35

Confusion over research questions

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 35

• Some psychologists want to understand the role of fathers as secondary attachment figures, but others are more concerned with fathers as primary.
• Former tended to see fathers behave differently, and have distinct role, latter found maternal role.
• Means psychologists cannot easily answer the question

Question 36

Fathers can form secure better attachments with children in a close marriage.

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 36

Belsky found that males who reported higher levels of marital intimacy displayed a secure father-infant attachment whereas males with lower levels of marital intimacy displayed an insecure father-infant attachment.

This shows that males can form secure attachments with their children however it the strength of this attachment would depend on the father and mother’s relationship.

Question 37

Fathers are not able to provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment with infants.

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 37

Hrdy found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress compared to mothers.

These results support biological explanations, showing that the lack of oestrogen in men would render fathers to be unequipped biologically to form close attachments with their children.

Question 38

How can this link to determinism?

A03: Role of the Father

Answer 38

This suggests that the role of the father is biologically determined to that of a provider and that a father’s role as a nurturer is restricted as a result of their biological makeup.

However, the fact that some fathers can form close attachments with their children would mean that a softer view of determinism would be more appropriate.

This provides further evidence that fathers cannot provide a nurturing type of attachment due to being unable to detect stress in their children.

Question 39

Good external validity

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 39

• A strength of the Schaffer and Emerson study is that it has good external validity.
• For example, the study was carried out in the families own homes and most of the observations were done by parents and reported to the researchers later.
• This matters because it means that the behaviour of the babies is unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers, increasing the validity of the findings.

Question 40

Carried out longitudinally

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 40

• A strength of the study was that it was carried out longitudinally.
• For example, the same children were followed up and observed regularly over a long period of time.
• This is a strength because longitudinal studies have high internal validity as they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants (participant variables

Question 41

Limited Sample Characteristics

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 41

• A limitation is that there are limited sample characteristics.
• For example all the families involved were from the same district and social class in the same city and at a time over 50 years ago.
• This matters because child rearing practices vary from one culture to another and the historical periods another. These results do not necessarily generalise well to other social and historical contexts.

Question 42

Real world application

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 42

• Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson is that the stages there have are practical applications in day care.
• In the asocial and indiscriminate stages of attachment day care is much more simple and easier to get on with as the child is more likely going to allow anyone to comfort them however Schaffer’s stages tell us it may become more problematic as they hit the specific attachment period.
• This means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages.

Question 43

Poor evidence for asocial stage

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 43

• One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
• Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations, they might have displayed this in quite subtle, hard-to-observe ways.
• This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
  This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear to be social.

Question 44

Unreliable data

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 44

• Research relies on self reported data from the mothers.
• They may not have followed the same procedures or may not have been completely honest.
• It depends on their relationship and how the mother acts on the infants needs and protests

Question 45

Cultural variations and may suffer from imposed etic

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 45

• Schaffer’s stages of attachments are applied to individualist cultures, meaning it may suffer from imposed etic as attachment processes may be different in other cultures.
• There are many different child practices, for example in collectivist cultures, they value the needs of the group, and so from an early age, multiple attachments are normalised.
• This may explain research findings from Sagi et al who found that those raised in communal environments had less close relationships with their mothers.

Question 46

Babies and their development of attachment is difficult to measure

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 46

A limitation in the stages of attachment regards how multiple attachment is assessed or measured.

For example, just because a baby becomes distressed when an individual leaves the room, does not mean that the individual is the ‘true attachment figure’.

Bowlby (1969) argues that although children may be distressed when a playmate leaves the room, this does not signify attachment to them.

This mean that Schaffer and Emerson’s view of stages does not distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and towards playmates.

Question 47

Ethical Issues

A03: Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 47

A limitation in the stages of attachment is that Schaffer and Emerson used limited behavioural measures of attachment.

Schaffer and Emerson were able to carry out a scientific study of attachment developed because they used simple behaviours.

They used stranger anxiety and separation anxiety to define attachment simply but these behavioural measures of attachment were too crude and basic according to critics.

This is a limitation because, Schaffer and Emerson’s behavioural measures were too simplistic to be considered an accurate observational study into stages of attachment.

Question 48

Questions about generalisability of geese to humans.

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 48

• Although some of his findings have influenced our understanding of human development, there is a problem in generalising from findings on birds to humans.
• It seems that the mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds. For example, mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than do birds, and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time, albeit less easily than in infancy.
• This means that it is not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans

Question 49

Some of Lorenz’s observations have been questioned

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 49

• Guiton et al. (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults (as Lorenz would have predicted), but that with experience they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens.
• This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent as Lorenz believed.

Question 50

Harlow faced severe criticism for the ethics of his research.

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 50

• One weakness of Harlow’s (1959) research into monkey’s attachment is that it breached the ethical issue of protection from Psychological harm.
• For example, the monkeys were taken from their natural mothers very soon after birth and suffered a great deal of distress being reared in cages and social isolation.
• This is an issue because Rhesus monkeys are considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise the results so presumably the suffering was also human-like

Question 51

Practical Application

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 51

• One strength of Harlow’s research into attachment is that there are a great deal of practical applications from its findings.
• For example it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it (Howe 1988).
• It also helped people understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and also in breeding programmes in the wild.
• This is a strength because it shows that we can apply the research to real life so it has realism and external validity therefore the research is credible.

Question 52

Confounding Variables

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 52

• One criticism of Harlow’s study is that the two stimulus objects varied systematically in more than being cloth covered or not.
• The two heads were also different which acted as a confounding variable because it varied systematically with the independent variable (whether the mother was cloth covered or not).
• It is possible that the monkeys preferred the cloth-covered mother more because its head was more attractive
• Therefore lacks internal validity.

Question 53

We can use generalise findings from animal studies to explain human behaviour.

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 53

• The aim of animal studies is to be able to generalise the conclusions to human behaviour and it seems that these findings can be generalised.
• A number of studies have found that the observations made by animal attachment behaviour are mirrored in studies of humans.
• For example, Harlow’s research is supported by Schaffer and Emerson’s findings that infants were not attached to the person who fed them.

Question 54

Supporting evidence for imprinting

Regolin & Valiortiagra

A03: Animal studies of attachment

Answer 54

• One strength is support for the concept of imprinting.
• Regolin and Vallortigara exposed chicks to simple shape-combinations that moved.
• When shown a range of moving shapes the chicks followed these in preference to other shapes.
• This suggest that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object.

Question 55

Human and monkeys are simillar

Answer 55

Green (1994) states that, on a biological level at least, all mammals (including rhesus monkeys) have the same brain structure as humans; the only differences relates to size and the number of connections, showing that these findings can be generalised to explain human behaviour.

Question 56

A weakness of Harlow’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled, artificial laboratory setting.

Answer 56

A weakness of Harlow’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled, artificial laboratory setting.

The highly controlled laboratory setting that Harlow used is not reflective of the real life situations and may cause the monkeys to behave in an artificial manner.

This is a weakness because it means that Harlow wasn’t necessarily measuring the real-life attachment formation and therefore the study can be criticised for lacking ecological validity.

Question 57

A strength of Harlow’s study is that it was conducted in a controlled, laboratory setting.

Answer 57

Harlow was able to control potential extraneous variables such as the monkeys being taken away from their mothers straight after birth, the baby monkeys not being exposed to any love or attention from their biological mothers.

This is a strength because it means that Harlow was measuring what he intended to measure (i.e. factors that can affect the formation of attachment) and therefore, the study can be seen to have high internal validity allowing a cause and effect relationship to be established.

Question 58

Learning theory: some elements of conditioning could still be involved in attachment

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 58

• A strength is that some elements of conditioning could still be involved in attachment.
• For example, associations between the primary caregiver and provision of comfort and social interaction could be part of what builds attachment.
• This shows that many aspects of human development are affected by conditioning, so it seems plausible that it could play a role in attachment.
• Therefore, conditioning is a valid explanation for other aspects of attachment

Question 59

Counter evidence from human research

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 59

• A limitation is that there is counter evidence from human research.
• For example, in Shaffer and Emerson’s study many of the babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding.
• This is a limitation because the findings show that feeding is not the key element to attachment and so there is no unconditioned stimulus or primary drive involved.
• Therefore it is not a valid explanation for attachment.

Question 60

Learning theory has face validity.

Answer 60

It makes intuitive sense that babies cry more when they learn crying gains them attention and ultimately food.

Question 61

Other factors such as caregiver-infant interactions

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 61

• A limitation is that the learning theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachments.
• For example, Isabella et als research suggests that the quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony.
• This is significant because it is very hard to reconcile these findings with the idea of cupboard love.
• This suggests that if attachments developed purely as a result of feeding there would be no purpose for these complex interactions and we would not expect to find a relationship between them and the quality of infant caregiver attachment.
• Therefore it is not a valid explanation for attachment

Question 62

Learning theory is based on animal studies

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 62

• Behaviourists believe that humans are no different from animals in terms of learning.
• Our behaviour patterns are constructed from the same building blocks of stimulus and response and it is legitimate to generalise.
• However not all human behaviour can be explained by conditioning.
• Therefore it lacks validity because they present an oversimplified version of human behaviour.

Question 63

Not all research demonstrates that food is an important determinant of attachment

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 63

• Fox studied the attachment of infants in Israeli Kibbutzim’s (communal farms).
• The infants in these communities tend to be looked after by full-time carers, so that the mothers can work on the farms.

-Fox found that the infants formed their strongest attachment to their mothers, even though they were mainly fed by the other carers.

• According to learning theory this should not have been the case - the infants should have most strongly attached to those who fed them most recently.

Question 64

The learning theory has been helpful in understanding some forms of attachment.

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 64

• One strength of learning theory is that elements of conditioning could be involved in some
  aspects of attachment.
• While it seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in
  attachment, but conditioning may still play a role.
• For example, Dollard and Miller’s secondary drive hypothesis. This explains how primary drives which are essential for survival, such as eating when hungry, become associated with secondary drives such as emotional closeness.
• This means that learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments.

Question 65

Alternative Explanations

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory

Answer 65

• Hay & Vespo proposed that social behaviour is acquired through modelling + imitating behaviour.
• Parents teach children to love them through modelling (e.g. seeing father and mother love each other) and rewarding attachment behaviour (with affection or attention).
• This suggests that social learning theory may offer additional explorations of attachment formation.

Question 66

There is evidence that rejects the cupboard love theory

Answer 66

Harlow’s research on rhesus monkeys showed that infant monkeys did not become attached to the surrogate wired monkey that provided milk but instead became attached to a cloth mother that did not provide milk but provided some level of contact comfort.

This suggests that attachment is not learnt but is instead instinctual.

Question 67

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Social releasers

Answer 67

A strength is that there is support for social releasers.

For example, Brazleton et al observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence of interactional synchrony.

They extended the observation to an experiment and sound that when the attachment figure continued to ignore the baby, some responded by curling up and lying motionless.

This is a strength because the fact that the children responded strongly supports Bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving.

Question 68

internal working model

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 68

A strength is that there is support for internal working models.

For example Bailey et al assessed 99 mothers with 1 year old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers. It was found that the mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents were much more likely to have children classified as poor according to observations.

This is a strength because it supports the idea that, as Bowlby said, an internal working model of attachment was being passed through the families showing that the theory is valid.

Question 69

Bowlby’s Theory: temperament as important as attachment

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 69

• A limitation is the idea that temperament may be as important as attachment.
• For example, temperament researchers suggest that some babies are more anxious than others and some more sociable than others as a result of their genetic makeup.
• These temperamental differences explain later social behaviour rather than attachment experiences.
• This is significant because Bowlby may be over emphasising the importance of a child’s early experiences and the quality of their attachment.
• Therefore, temperament research provides a credible alternative explanation for many of their observations questioning the validity of Bowlby’s theory.

Question 70

Feminist Concerns over socially sensitive research.

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 70

• Whilst not Bowlby’s intention, Bowlby’s monotropic theory may place burden on working mothers.
• Due to the law of continuity and accumulated separation - means they shouldn’t return to work.
• This is a limitation because can be used to blame mothers and restrict their activities - such as returning to work when they want to.
• Therefore, Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment is socially sensitive and researchers should carefully consider the implications for mothers if such a theory is promoted.

Question 71

Concept of monotropy lacks validity:

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 71

• Relationship with primary attachment figure may simply be stronger than other attachments, rather than different in quality, as Bowlby believed.
• Other family members may develop attachments with baby that have the same qualities, such as comfort and secure base to explore.
• This means that Bowlby may have been wrong to suggest unique quality to a child’s primary attachment.

Question 72

Schaffer and Emerson mixed evidence

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 72

• One limitation of Bowlby’s theory is that there is mixed evidence for monotropy
• Schaffer and Emerson found that most babies did attach to one person at first, but a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time.
• This contradicts Bowlby’s idea that babies form one attachment to a primary caregiver and that this attachment is unique.
• Therefore, attachment to mothers (not fathers) better predicts later behaviour but this may be because mother is the primary attachment, not the different attachment quality.

Question 73

Case study evidence contradicts Bowlby’s monotropic theory - Koluchová and the twins (1976)

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 73

• 2 Czech twins were locked in a cupboard by their stepmother for a prolonged period of time and discovered at 7 years old.
• Doctors confidently predicted permanent physical and mental handicaps.
• However, they were adopted and appeared to make a full recovery
• Critical period isn’t CRITICAL as much as sensitive

Question 74

Bowlby’s work has been impactful and has had real life applications.

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 74

He inspired later researchers such as Mary Ainsworth, who has developed research that has had a renowned impact on our knowledge of attachment.

Bowlby’s ideas have also been applied and developed to early childcare.

For example, immediate physical contact between the mother and their babies in the first few hours of their birth is encouraged and social service workers actively investigate cases of infant neglect as they understand its long-term consequences.

Question 75

Continuity hypothesis is highly deterministic

A03: Explanations of Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory

Answer 75

The continuity hypothesis suggests that the quality of infant attachment can predict those infants’ later adult relationship styles due to the development of the internal working model.

This however is high deterministic as people like to think that they have complete conscious control over their relationships, including responsibility for the success of relationships, not that this is set in infancy.

Therefore, Bowlby’s monotropic theory has social sensitivity issues and downplays factors of freewill in an adult’s relationship styles.

Question 76

Support for validity

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 76

• Attachment type as defined by the Strange Situation is strongly predictive of later development.
• Babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas, ranging from success at school to romantic relationships.
• For example, Hazan & Shaver found a positive correlation between attachment type and later love experiences.
• Secure attachment: most likely to have a good and longer lasting relationship and believed that love endures.
• Insecure avoidant: most likely to fear closeness in a relationship and believe that love doesn’t last
• This matters because it is evidence for the validity of the concept because it can explain subsequent outcomes, showing that Ainsworth’s research is credible.

Question 77

The Strange Situation shows very good inter-rater reliability.

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 77

• Different observers watching the same children in the Strange Situation generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with.
• This may be because the Strange Situation takes place under
  controlled conditions and because the behavioural categories are
  easy to observe.
• For example Bick et al looked at inter-rater reliability in a team of trained strange situation observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies
• This is significant because it means that we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the strange situation does not just depend on who is observing them this shows that Ainsworth’s research is valid.

Question 78

Lacks validity in terms of individual differences like temparent

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 78

• A limitation is that it lacks validity.
• For example, Kangan et al suggested that attachment type is more related to temperament than to the relationship with the primary attachment figure.

The temperament hypothesis suggests that infants that inherited high reactivity —> high disress.
infants that inherited low reactivity –> low distress.

in this case the strange situation is not assessing attachment rather just measuring anxiety.

• This matters because if the strange situation is affected by factors other than attachment then it lacks validity as a measurement tool.

Question 79

Low in ecological validity

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 79

• The Strange Situation is an artificial way of assessing attachment, as it is laboratory based with a mother and stranger acting to a ‘script’.
• This is far from an everyday basis or situation and thus lacks ecological validity as the findings may not be generalisable to other situations and settings (e.g. infants’ home)

Additionally, the observation is overt for the mother, as she knows her behaviour is being monitored, so she may show more sensitive responsiveness than usual due to demand characteristics.

Question 80

High internal validity and control

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 80

The strange situation is a highly controlled observational research study with standardised procedures and clear behavioural categories.

This standardisation has allowed for a systematic and consistent approach to studying attachment: researchers have been able to replicate the strange situation and compare results across different groups

Question 81

Does not consider different types of attachment (e.g. to father) only to the mother.

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 81

Mary Ainsworth’s conclusion that the strange situation can be used to identify the child’s type of attachment has been criticised on the grounds that it identifies only the type of attachment to the mother.

The child may have a different type of attachment to the father or grandmother.

This shows that it lacks validity, as it is not measuring a general attachment style, but instead an attachment style specific to the mother.

Question 82

Real world applications

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 82

Real world application

For example, intervention strategies such as The Circle of Security Project (Cooper et al., 2005) have been developed to help children with disordered patterns of attachment.

This project taught caregivers to understand infant signals of distress, leading to an increase in the number of infants classed as securely attached.

The success of these strategies highlights the importance of attachment research as it leads to improvements in the lives of children.

Question 83

Strange situation may be a culture-bound test.

A03: Strange Situation

Answer 83

The Strange Situation was developed in one culture, in America and thus may not be valid when applied to toher culture.

It may suffer from imposed etic as in other cultures, children are taught to be more independent (e.g. Germany) and may not show distress, leading to misinterpretations of their behaviour in the Strange Situation as signs of insecure attachment,

Alternatively, children may be cared for and close to the mother more at all times.

For example, Takahashi (1990) notes that Japanese mothers are rarely separated from infants, thus the infants show high levels of separation anxiety in Japan.

Thus, Strange Situation seems to be be influenced by values held in the West meaning its findings may not apply in other cultures such as collectivist cultures like that of Japan or independent cultures like Germany.

Question 84

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Highly Controlled

Answer 84

• As the meta-analysis is based on using the Strange Situation procedure which is a highly controlled observation , the finding are less likely to be affected by extraneous variables.
• Both Ainsworth and Bell and the other researchers who replicated their study, would have had high control over the environment.
• The researchers can therefore identify and standardise extraneous variables, preventing them from becoming confounding variables.

Question 85

Cultural differences in attachment (+) & (-)

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 85

• They found secure attachment was the most common in all cultures studied. This suggests that the pattern of attachment found in the USA (secure attachment) appears to be the pattern across other cultures. This means that secure attachment appears to be the norm for healthy social development. This universal finding for secure attachment supports the notion that attachment may be an innate biological process and perhaps this secure attachment appears to be the ‘normal’ attachment types across cultures around the world.
• However, there is still a clear difference in the patterns of attachment across cultures. For example, Takahashi noted that the test doesn’t really work in Japan (as it is a part of a collectivist culture where an infants development is emphasised)
• Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their babies so infants have very high levels of separation anxiety.
• This is significant because it means that cultural differences in childhood experiences are likely to mean that children respond differently to strange situation therefore the research is not fully valid as you cannot generalise it to other cultures.

Question 86

Large sample size

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 86

• A strength of cross cultural studies is that there is a very large sample.
• For example in the Van Ijzendoorn meta analysis there was a total of nearly 1990 babies and their primary attachment figures.
• This is a strength because large samples increase internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results caused by bad methodology or very unusual participants, suggesting that cross cultural studies have a high validity

Question 87

Unrepresentative of culture

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 87

• A limitation is that the samples tend to be unrepresentative of culture.
• The meta-analysis by Van Ijzendoon and Kroonenberg claimed to study cultural variations whereas the comparisons were between countries and not cultures.
• For example, distributions of attachment types in Tokyo are similar to the western studies.
• This is significant because it means that comparisons between countries have little meaning; the particular cultural characteristics and caregiving styles of the sample need to be specified, suggesting that the results are valid for what they are intended for.

Study within similar cultures e.g. individualistic + individualistic

Question 88

Use of Secondary Data (-)

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 88

• Since the study is used of secondary data, we cannot be sure all the studies were carried out in the same way.
• It is possible that the ‘Strange Situation’ procedure or ways of categorising types of attachment were different in different replicates.
• Therefore any errors/mistakes in the original data (e.g. the child is incorrectly classified), means that these errors or mistakes will also be presented in the meta-analysis.

Question 89

While overall there was a large sample size altogether, most countries only had been represented by one study…

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 89

This small sample is not representative of a country’s population, for example, the sample may have over-represented groups such as urban infants or those in poverty.

The fact that when more than one study was included to represent a country’s population, it was found that there was more variation within countries than between countries.

Question 90

Lacks temporal validity due to the changing nature of family life in the modern world…

A03: Cultural variations in attachment

Answer 90

Simonelli et al measured attachment using the strange situation in modern Italian infant-mother pairs.

It was found that compared to historical Italian families, there had been a significantly lower percentage of secure infants and a significantly higher percentage of avoidant infants,

The researchers argue that these results suggest that change is a healthy coping mechanism due to the demands of modern life, with infants adjusting to a frequently absent mother by not constantly showing extreme emotion when separated.

Question 91

The evidence may be poor

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 91

• Children growing up from birth in poor quality institutions were deprived of many aspects of care, not just maternal care.
• Furthermore the 44 thieves study had some major design flaws, most importantly research bias.
• Bowlby himself carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathy and the family interviews, knowing that he had hoped to find links of maternal deprivation to affectionless psychopathy.
• Thus research suffers from research bias and lack of control.

Question 92

Counter evidence from Ms Lewis (what?!?!)

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 92

• Not all research has supported Bowlby’s findings.
• For example, Lewis et al partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people.
• In her sample, a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.
• This is a problem for the theory of maternal deprivation because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation and thus the theory may not be reliable.

Question 93

Animal studies show effects of maternal
deprivation

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 93

• Levy et al. (2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social
  development though not other aspects of development.

Question 94

Practical Applications

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 94

• Another strength of Bowlby’s theory is that it has had wider practical application.
• For example: in orphanages, they now have to take account of emotional needs and fostered children have to be kept in one stable home rather than being moved around.
• This suggests that Bowlby’s theory has highlighted the importance of the presence of emotional care in attachment development.
• And, therefore his theory has educated caregivers on how to strengthen the attachment between their infants and themselves.

Question 95

Socially sensitive

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 95

Social sensitivity should also be considered as the focus on maternity rather than paternity leave (52 weeks compared to 2 weeks) may have resulted in an increase in the gender pay gap, with women missing opportunities for development and promotion.

Thus his research may have actually led to negative changes in society, and thus a cost-benefit analysis should be performed before socially sensitive research like this is released.

Question 96

Supporting for long term effects of deprivation

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 96

• Early maternal deprivation creates increased likelihood of negative outcomes.
• Antonia Bufulco et (1992) found 25% of women who experienced early separation (due to death or temporary for 1+ Years) had depression/ anxiety compared with 5% who hadn’t.
• Moreover, mental health issues were greater in those women that experience loss before six months
• This provides support for the critical period,

Question 97

How are individual differences a limitation of Bowlby’s research into the effects of maternal deprivation?

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 97

• Individual differences needs to be considered - research has shown that not all children are affected by maternal separation in the same way.
• Barrett, after reviewing various studies concluded securely attached children coped reasonably well with separation, whereas insecure attachment children become especially distressed.
• A similar conclusion was drawn from another study by Bowlby of children who were hospitalised (because they had TB) and experienced prolonged disruption of attachment. Bowlby suggested that those children who coped better may have been more securely attached and thus more resilient to the separation.
• Both studies therefore suggest that individual differences such as attachment types need to be considered when assessing the negative effects of disruption of attachment.

Question 98

Failure to distinguish between deprivation and privation

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 98

• Rutter claimed that Bowlby was confusing the term deprivation with privation. Privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place.
• Meaning that Bowlby’s theory does not adequately account for the different experiences that children have.

Question 99

Critical period sensitive

A03: Bowlby’s theory of maternal
deprivation.

Answer 99

• A limitation is that later research suggests the critical period is more of a sensitive period.
• For example, Jarmila Koluchova reported a case of twin boys from Czechoslovakia who were isolated from the age of 18 months until they were 7.
• Subsequently they were looked after by 2 loving adults and appeared to recover fully.

This is significant because cases like this show that the period identified by Bowlby may be a sensitive one but it cannot be critical.

Question 100

Real-life Application

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 100

• Studying the Romanian orphans has enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation.
• Such results have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions
• For example, orphanages and children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people, perhaps only one or two people, play a central role for the child.
• Having a key workers (play central role for the child) means that
  children have the chance to develop normal attachments and helps avoid disinhibited attachment.
• This shows that such research has been immensely valuable in practical terms.

Question 101

The Romanian orphanages were not typical

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 101

• Although much useful data about institutionalisation has come out of
  Romanian orphan studies, it is possible that conditions were so bad that results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of better quality institutional care or indeed any situation where children experience deprivation.
• For example, Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, especially when it came to forming any relationship with the children, and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation.
• This is a limitation of the Romanian orphan studies because the unusual situational variables mean the studies may after all lack generalisability.

Question 102

Longitudinal studies, followed the lives of children over many years, and are thus very important.

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 102

• The strength of the Romanian orphan study is that they followed the lives of children over many years.
• It has been important in showing that the effects of institutional deprivation were as strong in later years as in early childhood, but also showed that there had been gains in functioning right up to the age of 15.
• Without such studies, we may mistakingly conclude that there are major effects due to early institutional care, where some of these studies show that the effects may disappear after sufficient time and with suitable high-quality care.
• This research taken together with the consideration of individual differences shows that is wrongly to assume that institutionalisation inevitably causes negative effects.

Question 103

Social Sensitivity

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 103

• Socially sensitive as the results of the study shows that late-adopted children typically have poor development outcomes.
• These results were published while the children were growing up, meaning their parents/teachers etc may have lowered their expectations and treated them differently, potentially leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Furthermore, could dissuade families from adopting children out of the critical period
• Therefore, researchers question whether the results of the studies should have been published.

Question 104

Contradictory evidence for the effects of institutionalisation being irreversible

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 104

• Evidence from Hodges and Tizard contradict the assumption that the effects of institutionalisation are irreversible.

Found that children adopted into new caring families coped better on measures of behaviourial and peer relationships than children who returned to their original, abusive families.

• Therefore, their research demonstrates that the adverse effects of institutionalisation can be overcome with adequate substitute care.

Question 105

Individual Differences

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 105

• It may not be true that all children who experience institutionalisation are unable to recover.
• Research shows that some children are not strongly affected as others. Rutter has suggested that it might be that some of the children receive special attention in the institution, perhaps because they smiled more, and this might have enabled them to cope better.
• Bowlby’s study also shows that individual differences matter. This means that it’s not possible to conclude that institutionalisation inevitably leads to an inability to form attachments

Question 106

Goldfarb

Answer 106

Their study compared 15 children that had been brought up in children homes until beyond 3 and another group who had been fostered at around 6 months.

At 12 years old, he found that the early fostering led to significantly higher levels of mental ability and social care.

These studies suggest that the adverse effects of institutionalisation can be overcome with adequate substitute care.

Question 107

Influential in our understanding as it has helped support and challenge pre-existing theories about the effects of institutionalisation

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 107

The issues Romanian orphans adopted at a later age with social development suggest the first few months are vital for the formation of an internal working model.

However, this research challenges the idea of a critical period in childhood, Bowlby argues that if children miss this window for development, the harm is permanent, however the data shows that recovery suggests a sensitive period, showing that the damaged caused, while severe, can be addressed with later care.

Question 108

Potential bias issue in the selection process.

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 108

A potential issue with Rutter’s ERA study and other research on the Romanian orphans is that the children were not randomly assigned for adoption, but were selected by new parents in Romania, it is possible that this resulted in a bias with more sociable children picked for adoption at a younger age, a confounding variable lowering the internal validity of the research.

Question 109

The long-term effects are not yet clear

A03: Romanian orphans & effects of institutionalisation

Answer 109

The studies described have now followed up fostered and adopted orphans into their mid-teens and found some lasting effects of early experience, in particular for those adopted late.

However, it is too soon to say with certainty whether children suffered short or long term effects.

It may be that the children who spent longer in institutions and currently lag behind in intellectual development or display attachment difficulties may still ‘catch up’ as adults.

Equally, early adopted/fostered children who appear to have no issues now may experience emotional problems as adults.

Question 110

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Research carried out in this area is correlational

Answer 110

• This means that were cannot make inferences on causal relationships between early attachments and later attachments.
• It could be that later attachment types are caused by other factors e.g. an infant’s temperament. Kagan found that temperament can affect the way a parent responds, which is a determining factor in attachment type. For example, a child may have an ‘easy’ temperament meaning they can be securely attached.
• This means that temperament is an intervening variable and early attachment style is not the only determinant.

Question 111

The research suggests that early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult’s relationships which is overly deterministic.

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 111

• People are not always doomed to to experience unsatisfactory relationships as adults because they had attachment problems - they are just at greater risk of having these problems.
• By over-emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic about people’s futures and thus does not take into account free will in determining the outcome of relationships.
• Therefore, research does not show that an individual’s past has a fixed impact and a more ideographic approach is needed in such socially sensitive areas.

Question 112

Real world application (2)

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 112

• An understanding of child’s early attachment can suggest what their internal working model is, so schools can use this to help alter negative internal working models to address issues like bullying and loneliness.
• This may help them to achieve stable relationships in adulthood too, potentially reducing costs to the economy related to divorce and mental health issues linked to relationship breakdown.
• Therefore, this shows that this research must have external validity and has useful applications and positive implications on the economy.

Question 113

Rely on retrospective data; issues of validity

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 113

• Most studies of attachment to primary caregiver and other significant people don’t make use of the strange situation but assess infant-parent attachment by means of interview or questionnaire, not in infancy but years later.
• This creates validity problems; first, assessment relies on self-report techniques like interviews or questionnaires to assess the quality of those relationships. These rely on honest answers and people having a realistic view of their own relationships. This produces subjective data, which could lower the validity of the research.
• A related problem concerns the retrospective nature of assessment of infant attachment. Looking back in adulthood at one’s early relationship to a primary attachment figure probably lack validity because it relies on accurate recollections.

Question 114

Strong Research Support

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 114

• There are many studies showing a link between infant attachment type and later development, including bullying, success in romantic relationships and parenting.
• A review by Fearon and Roisman (2017) concluded that infant attachment influenced development in many ways and that disorganised attachment was most prediction of later mental disorder.
• This means that research into Influence of early attachments on later relationships has helped us understand how insecure attachment appears to convey and disadvantage for children’s development.

Question 115

Counter Research

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 115

• Not all evidence supports the link between infant attachment and later development.
• For example, Regensburg’s longitudinal study (Becker-Stoll) found no evidence of continuity of attachment type from age 1 to 16 years.
• This means it is not clear how strongly attachment influences later development

Question 116

Evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 116

• Internal working models predict continuity between the security of an infant’s attachment and that of its later relationships.
• However, not all studies support IWM.
• For example, Zimmerman assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents and found that there was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.

Question 117

There are alternative explanations of adult attachment patterns

A03: Influence of early attachments on later relationships

Answer 117

Feeney found that adult attachment patterns may be properties of the relationship rather than the individual.

For example, adult relationships are guided by a self-verification process.

Therefore, it is secure adult relationship that is causing the adult attachment rather than vice versa