Attachment Research Flashcards
What did Feldman and Eidelmann find (2007)?
Babies have ‘alert phases’ and signal they are ready for interaction. Mothers typically pick up on this and respond around two thirds of the time.
What did Feldman research (2007)?
Interactional synchrony can be defined as the ‘temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour. It takes place when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
What did Meltzoff and Moore observe (1977)?
The beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old. An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers. An association was found between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies.
What did Schaffer and Emerson research (1964)?
Found the majority of babies did become attached to their mother first (around 7 months) and within a few weeks or months formed a secondary attachment. In 75% of infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months. This was determined by the fact the infants protested when the father walked away.
What did Grossman research (2002)?
Carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachment in adolescence, suggesting that father attachment was less important. However, the fathers’ play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments suggesting that fathers have a different role in attachment.
What did Isabella et al (1989) observe?
Observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment.
What did Tiffany Field (1978) research?
Filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregivers. This behaviour appeared to be important in building an attachment with the infant.
Outline the method of Schaffer and Emerson’s research (1964).
The study involved 60 babies- 31 male and 29 female. All were from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working-class families. The babies and mothers were visited monthly for the first year and again at 18 months. The researcher asked questions about the protest the babies showed in seven everyday separations. This was designed to measure the infant’s attachment. Stranger anxiety was also assessed.
What were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s research?
Between 25 and 32 weeks of age, around 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, a specific attachment. Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions. By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of babies had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments.
What are the stages of attachment?
- Asocial stage (first few weeks)- The baby isn’t recognising and forming bonds with carers. The baby’s behaviour is similar towards non-human objects. They show some preference towards familiar adults.
- Indiscriminate (2-7 months)- Display more observable behaviour and show a preference for people than inanimate objects. Don’t usually display stranger anxiety.
- Specific (7+ months)- Display anxiety towards strangers and anxious when separated from a specific adult- primary attachment figure.
- Multiple- Show attachment behaviour to more than one adult- secondary attachments. 29% of children formed multiple attachments within a month of forming a specific attachment.
Outline Lorenz’s research.
Set up a classic experiment where he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half hatched with the mother goose and half hatched in an incubator where Lorenz was the first moving object they saw.
What were the findings of Lorenz’s research?
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed the mother. When the two groups were mixed, the control group continued to follow their mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz. He identified a critical period where imprinting must take place as if it doesn’t occur the chicks won’t attach to a mother figure.
Outline Harlow’s research.
Tested the idea that soft objects serve some functions of the mother. In one experiment he reared 16 monkeys with 2 wire model monkeys. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the second milk was dispensed by a cloth-covered monkey.
What were the findings of Harlow’s research?
Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth monkey in preference to the wire one. They found comfort with the cloth monkey regardless of which was dispensing milk. This showed ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
Outline Van Ijzendoorn’s research.
Researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation was used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types. The studies were conducted in 8 countries, 15 in the USA. The 32 studies included 1990 children and the data was meta-analysed.
