Attachment - Paper 1 Flashcards
Paper 1
What was Lorenz’s aim?
To investigate imprinting in attachment formation
What was Lorenz’s procedure?
- Randomly split batch of grey goose eggs into two
- One group hatched by mum natural environment (control group). Other hatched in incubator first moving object they saw was Lorenz
- Behaviour was observed
- Observed effect of imprinting on adult mate preferences
What were Lorenz’s findings?
- Experimental group imprinted on Lorenz; followed him
- Control group imprinted on mother
- When two groups mixed, control group continued to follow mother and experimental followed Lorenz
- Imprinting only occurred within critical period (between 4 and 25 hours)
- Geese who imprinted on human later displayed courtship behaviour towards humans
What are the negative evaluation points against Lorenz’s study?
Crticial period questioned by Sluckin: replicated research using ducklings. Ducklings imprinted on him but he kept one in isolated beyond the critical period. Found it was still possible to imprint it and concluded it was actually a sensitive period
Imprinting can be reversed: Guiton found chickens who imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults but eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens suggest impact of imprinting on mating behaviour isn’t permanent
What was Harlow’s aim?
To find whether contact comfort was more important in attachment than food (Cupboard love)
What was Harlow’s procedure?
- Put baby rhesus monkeys with 2 surrogate mothers. One wire and one cloth, wire produced milks cloth didn’t
- Amount of time spent with each mother was recorded
- Monkeys deliberately frightened with loud noise to test mother preference during stress
- Long-term effects recorded e.g., behaviour in adulthood (sociability and relationship with offspring)
What were Harlow’s findings?
- Monkeys spent most of their time on the cloth mother even though she didn’t give milk because it provided contact comfort. Monkeys stretched across to wire mother to feed while clinging to cloth mother
- When rightened the monkeys clung to the cloth mother
- As adults, monkeys were abusive to their offspring, even killing them in some cases. The monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable
What was Harlow’s conclusion?
Contact comfort is of more importance to monkey than food when it comes to attachment
What are the positive evaluation points of Harlow’s study?
Profound effects on psychologist’s understanding of mother-infant attachment. He showed attachment doesn’t develop as the result of being fed as learning theory suggests but as a result of contact comfort. Harlow showed importance of quality of early relationships for later social development.
Practical applications: helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse to intervene and prevent it
What are the negative evaluation points of Harlow’s research?
Ethical issues: monkeys suffered greatly, deliberately stressed and frightened. Rhesus monkeys closely related to humans suggesting these animals suffered more than geese. Unethical practices undermined credibility of psych as a science.
However: sufficiently important to justify negative effects
Not all extraneous variables controlled, faces of cloth and wire mother were different, cloth had more resemblance of monkey. Factors other than whether the mother provided food or contact may have influenced attachment formed. Validity effected, cause and effect can’t be established between contact comfort and attachment.
What is the process of classical conditioning?
Before conditioning:
Food (UCS) –> Happy baby (UCR)
During conditioning:
Mother (NS) + Food (UCS) –> Happy baby (UCR)
After conditioning:
Mother (CS) –> Happy baby (CR)
What is classical conditioning?
Infant learns to associated primary caregiver with food
What is operant conditioning?
Reinforcement produces attachment. Crying leads to response from caregiver. If caregiver provides pleasant response crying is positively reinforced so will be repeated
Caregiver receives negative reinforcement because crying stops
What is the positive evaluation point for learning theory (classical and operant)?
Provides valuable insight into how infants become attached and the key role food plays. Practical applications: providing advice that if feeding is important in attachment then anyone who wants to create attachment should be involved where possible (father). Helps to increase attachment between babies and caregivers
What are the negative evaluation points for learning theory (classical and operant)?
Many form attachments with people who DON’T feed them. Schaffer and Emerson found in 39% of cases primary attachment figure was not who fed them. Many infants attach to parents who abuse them so food isn’t the key factor weakening validity of the explanation
Harlow found that monkeys formed attachment with cloth mother (contact comfort) rather than wire who provided food suggesting attachment isn’t due to regular feeding contradicting the research
Bowlby’s monotropic theory is a more complete explanation as it looks at attachment as an evolutionary mechanism for survival processes
What is the monotropic bond?
Attachment to one specific caregiver, usually the biological mother, monotropic bond is more important than any other attachments that the child may form
What is the internal working model?
Monotropic bond acts as. a template for all later relationships (internal working model) and has powerful effect on nature of a child’s future relationships. IWM affects child’s later ability to be a parent themselves, appears to be passed on through families. E.g., if a child is insecurely attached to parents, likely to have similar attachment to their own children
What is the critical period?
Bowlby said the first 2 years of life are the critical period for attachment to develop, if it doesn’t develop, it might seriously damage a child’s social and emotional development
What are the evolutionary principles?
His explanation of attachment is based on evolutionary principles and argues that humans have evolved a biological need to attach to a caregiver to increase their survival chances. Infants show innate behaviours like smiling and crying which make attachment possible. These are social releasers because they bring out caregiving behaviours from adults
What are the positive evaluation points for Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
Idea of internal working model is supported by evidence. Bailey et al assessed attachment of 99 mothers to their babies and their own mothers. Found the majority had the same attachment classifciation both to their babies and own mothers. Supports Bowlby’s view that an IWM is passed through families
What are the negative evaluation points of Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
It is a sensitive rather than critical period where attachments are most likely to be developed but argue that they could be formed at other times. Research has demonstrated even children raised in isolation can go on to form attachments with caregivers after the critical period
Monotropic bond not supported by research. Schaffer and Emerson found that by 10 months of age, most babies formed multiple attachments. May be that the primary attachment is just stronger not of greater importance
What is reciprocity?
Interactions involve both parties producing responses from each other. take turns. E.g., infant cries and caregiver responds by feeding baby, baby babbles and caregiver talks back.
What is interactional synchrony?
Takes place when the mother and interact in a way that their actions and emotions mirror each other
Isabella observed 30 mothers and infants and found high levels of interactional synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant interaction
What is the positive evaluation point for caregiver-infant interactions?
EEvans and Porter studied reciprocity, synchrony and attachment quality in 101 infants and mothers for the first year after birth. Mothers and babies invited into the lab on 3 occasions. At 12 months, the quality of mother-infant attachment assessed. Babies judged to be securely attached tended to be those that had the most reciprocal interactions and most synchrony. Suggests caregiver-infant interactions play a vital part in forming attachments
Meltzoff and Moore found infants aged 2-3 weeks tended to mimic adults’ facial expressions and hand movements. This mimicking of behaviour has been observed in babies as young as 3 days old suggesting caregiver interactions are an innate ability used to aid in the formation of attachment
What is the negative evaluation point of caregiver-infant interactions?
E-Le Vine et al reported Kenyan mothers have little interaction or physical contact with their infants, but a high proportion of secure attachments. The majority of the research into this area may be criticised for being ethnocentric and ignoring how attachments may be formed within other cultures weakening support for the idea that caregiver interactions are necessary for attachment formation
What did Schaffer and Emerson study?
Stages of attachment. Proposed attachments develop over 4 stages
What was Schaffer and Emerson’s procedure?
- 60 babies from skilled WC Glasgow homes studied
- Babies were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
- Mothers were questioned about how the child behaved when they were separated (separation anxiety) and how they behaved with unfamiliar adults (stranger anxiety)
What were Schaffer and Emerson’s findings?
- Between 25032 weeks of age about 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother (specific attachment)
- By 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
What were Schaffer and Emerson’s 4 stages of attachment?
Asocial, Indiscriminate, Specific and Multiple
What is stage 1 of attachment formation?
Asocial
What is stage 2 of attachment formation?
Indiscriminate
What is stage 3 of attachment formation?
Specific
What is stage 4 of attachment formation?
Multiple
What happens in the Asocial phase of attachment formation?
Birth - 3 months
Infants become attracted to other humans from 6 weeks old. They smile more at faces than objects
What happens in the Indiscriminate stage of attachment formation?
3 - 7 months
Infants begin to recognise and prefer familiar faces; however will accept comfort from any adult. Attachment is said to be indiscriminate because all adults are treated the same
What happens in the Specific stage of attachment formation?
7 - 8 months
Infants begin to develop anxiety from strangers and become distressed if separated from one specific adult (in 65% of cases the mother) - primary attachment figure
What happens in the Multiple stage of attachment formation?
9 months +
Form multiple attachments with other people who they spend a lot of time with these are secondary attachments
What are the negative evaluation points of the stages of attachment?
Evidence from cross cultural research to show babies are capable of developing multiple attachments from birth not 9m+. This is more likely to happen in collectivist cultures therefore there is no agreement within psychology about when multiple attachments are formed
Very difficult to measure the behaviour of young children especially in asocial stage as babies aren’t very mobile so there is little behaviour to observe. A baby may be crying for a different reason which creates problems because it is difficult to determine from observation alone whether behaviour shown is due to the attachment figure or some other reasons.
What are the positive evaluation points of the stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson’s study was carried out in the families’ own homes and most of the observations were done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later meaning that the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers. Big chance of natural behaviour while being observed increasing external validity
What did Bowlby think about the role of the father?
Children have one specific bond and this is usually the mother.
What was Karen Grossman’s study?
Carried out a longitudinal study and found that quality of adolescent attachment to the father is related to father’s play with infants. This suggest fathers have a different role in attachment - one that is more to do with play and stimulation and less with nurturing
What was Field’s study into fathers as primary caregivers?
filmed 4-month old babies in face-to-face interactions with their fathers. She found a difference in the interactions when the father was the primary rather than secondary caregiver; they spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their babies than the secondary caregivers. Seems fathers can be more nurturing attachment figure and key to attachment is the level of responsiveness not the gender