Attachment studies Flashcards
Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment
-Aim
To assess whether there was a pattern formation that was common to all infants
Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment
-Procedure
- Longitudinal study with 60 newborn babies and their mothers from Glasgow
- Pair were studied each month for the 1st year and again at 18 months
- Naturalistic observations were used to collect the data, as well as interviews with the mothers to gain information about who the baby responded to the most etc.
- Attachment was measured in separation protest and stranger anxiety
Separation protest and Stranger anxiety
Separation protest- Seen in everyday situations when the baby was left alone
Stranger anxiety- Seen by the researcher attempting to approach the baby to see its reaction
Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment
-Findings
- Most infants showed separation protest at 6-8 months, with stranger anxiety a month later
- Stronger attachments resulted in parents who responded to the child’s needs quickly and often
- 39% of infant’s main attachments were not to the main carer
Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment
-Conclusions
Everyone goes through the same attachment process at the same time, suggesting the process is biological and not learned by the child
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
-Aim
To assess how infants between 9 and 18 months react to different situations of mild stress including caregiver separation
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
-Procedure
- The strange situation consisted of 8 ‘episodes’ whereby the caregiver and stranger would carry out standardized behaviours, and the infants reaction to these would be assessed and recorded
- In total, 106 infants were videotaped and assessed
- The testing environment was in a laboratory divided into 16 squares that helped to track secure base movement
- These 5 categories were recorded:
1. Proximity + contact seeking behaviour
2. Contact maintaining behaviour
3. Proximity + interaction avoiding behaviours
4. Contact + interaction-resisting behaviours
5. Search behaviours - Every 15 seconds, the category of behaviour displayed was recorded and scored on an intensity of 1 to 7 (time sampling)
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
-Findings
- Type A = 15% of infants were classed as insecure-avoidant
- Type B = 70% were regarded as secure in their attachments
- Type C = 15% of the infants were fussy and irritable, even with their mother there
Ainsworth’s Strange Situations
-Findings of attachments (Avoidant)
P-Infant is indifferent towards caregiver and play isn’t affected by presence or absence
R-Infant is unresponsive when caregiver returns
E-Infant freely explores
S-Infant is unconcerned by mother’s absence and avoidant of both caregiver and stranger equally
S-Infant avoids stranger
Ainsworth’s Strange Situations
-Findings of attachments (secure)
P-Infant will show toys to caregiver and play with them
R-Infant quickly calms down when caregiver returns
E-Infant plays happily when caregiver is present
S-Infant distressed when caregiver leaves
S-Infant is avoidant of stranger, but friendly when caregiver is present
Ainsworth’s Strange Situations
-Findings of attachments (resistant)
P-Infant is upset, tearful and unwilling to explore, even when caregiver is present
R-On caregivers return, the infant shows a mixed reaction of clinginess and resistance to caregiver
E-Limited exploration with caregiver and stranger
S-Infant is very distressed when caregiver leaves
S-Infant actively resists stranger’s attempts to comfort them
Cultural variations in attachments
- > Including Van Ljzendoom
- Aim
To investigate the proportion of different attachment types in different countries
Cultural variations in attachments
- > Including Van Ljzendoom
- Procedure
- A meta-analysis of 32 studies from more than 8 countries were taken and analysed
- All of these studies used the standardised ‘strange situation’ procedure
- All studies compared at least 35 mother-infant pairs so these were relatively large samples (infants were below the age of 2)
Cultural variations in attachments
- > Including Van Ljzendoom
- Findings
- Overall attachment types were:
- > Type A (avoidant) = 21%
- > Type B (securely attached) = 67%
- > Type C (resistant) = 12%
- In all countries, type B was the most common types, suggesting that secure attachments are the norm
- Intra-cultural differences were often greater than inter-cultural differences
Cultural variations in attachments
- > Including Van Ljzendoom
- Conclusions
Data suggests differences between cultures in attachment styles
Cultural variations in attachments
- > Including Van Ljzendoom
- Findings (quantitative)
W.Germany- secure-57%, avoidant-35%, resistant-8%
Japan- secure-68%, avoidant-5%, resistant-27%
Great Britain- secure-75%, avoidant-22%, resistant-3%
Lorenz imprinting study (1935)
-Aim
To investigate the processes animals undertake when they hatch, and how they follow the first large moving object they see
Lorenz imprinting study (1935)
-Procedure
- Lorenz split a clutch of greylag geese eggs into half, and volunteered himself to be the caregiver for half
- He put the eggs into an incubator and made sure he was the first object they saw
- The mother looked after the other half
- Lorenz marked the goslings, put them all into an unturned box and observed whether they went straight to their biological mother or their human one
Lorenz imprinting study (1935)
-Findings
- Immediately after hatching, the goslings started following their respective mothers
- Lorenz noticed how imprinting would only occur within a set time period of between 4 and 25 hours after hatching
Lorenz imprinting study (1935)
-Conclusions
-Although humans do not imprint onto the first moving image in their vision, it does outline how animals are able to build attachments much quicker
Harlow maternal deprivation study (1958)
-Aim
To test the learning theory of attachment and determine if comfort or food was the most important attachment factor
Harlow maternal deprivation study (1958)
-Procedure
- Two types of surrogate mothers were used-> a ‘wire’ monkey and a ‘soft’ monkey
- 16 Rhesus monkeys were used->4 in each of the conditions below:
1. A cage containing wire monkeys producing milk + cloth monkey producing no milk
2. A cage containing a wire monkey producing no milk + cloth monkey producing milk
3. A cage containing wire monkey producing milk
4. A cage containing cloth monkey producing milk - The monkeys were frightened by a loud sound to test for mother preference during stress + a larger case was used to determine how much exploring they would do
Harlow maternal deprivation study (1958)
-Findings
- Monkeys preferred contact with the cloth monkey regardless of whether she produced milk. They spent the vast majority of time seeking comfort, not food
- Monkeys with cloth monkey were likely to explore further afield
Harlow maternal deprivation study (1958)
-Conclusions
The comforted monkeys were less stressed and more likely to explore and were healthier than the food monkeys
Romanian Orphan Study-> Rutter (2007)
-Aim
To investigate the long-term effects of institutional care and to see the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
Romanian Orphan Study-> Rutter (2007)
-Procedure
- The longitudinal study started in the early 1900’s where a randomly selected sample of 165 children from Romania (144 had been in institutions) were adopted by UK families, with placement before the age of 4, and were studied at 4,6 and 11 years of age
- Comparisons were made with a sample of 52 non-institutionalised UK children adopted before the age of 6 months, who were studied in the same way
Romanian Orphan Study-> Rutter (2007)
-Findings
- The developmental improvements made by the Romanian children were rapid and often continued over a period of several years
- The degree to which the Romanian children were under-nourished had only a minor effect on their psychological outcomes
