Attachment, The Self and Gender Development Flashcards
What is the term used to describe a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space?
Attachment
Who are the 2 key researchers of Attachment?
John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth
Why is attachment necessary?
Human infants are more vulnerable than infants from other species, thus they require more help from their caregiver, have less independence at a young age and have more attachment towards their caregiver
Apart from comparing human infant vulnerability with other animals, why is attachment necessary?
- As a result of human infant vulnerability and the inability to look after themselves, infants must maintain proximity to the source of care
- Infant requires greater investment from the mother/primary caregiver
- Effective strategies to elicit attachment between caregiver and child are needed for survival
Which researcher did early work with maladjusted children?
John Bowlby
Which researcher suggested that attachment supports the relationship between the primary caregiver and infant?
John Bowlby
Which researcher worked with children under incidences of large-scale separations (e.g., evacuation)
Simply = Worked with children who were separated from their caregivers during WW2
John Bowlby
Which researcher conducted research on forty-four juvenile thieves (1944)?
John Bowlby
What did Bowlby discover in his research of forty-four juvenile thieves (1944)?
A majority of the juvenile thieves had disruptions in relationships with their primary caregivers
e.g. multiple foster home histories
What does competence-motivated mean?
Infants use their caregiver as a secure base
What do the results of Bowlby’s forty-four juvenile thieves study suggest?
That weak relationships and weak early attachments with caregivers affect children’s behaviour and development
What was John Bowlby’s study inspired by?
1) Lorenz’s imprinting behaviours research
2) Harry Harlow’s attachment in rhesus monkeys research
Who conducted an attachment study on rhesus monkeys?
Harry Harlow
What happened in Harlow’s rhesus monkey study?
1) Baby rhesus monkeys were separated from their biological mothers
2) The baby monkeys were presented with two artificial “mothers”
- 1 mother provided them with food (wire mother)
- 1 mother gave them comfort with their soft “skin” (cloth mother)
3) The baby rhesus monkeys felt attached to the cloth mother even when they were fed by the wire mother
What do the results in Harlow’s rhesus monkey study suggest about early attachment?
Children develop a connection with a caregiver through warmth and comfort rather than solely for food and survival reasons
What is the term used to describe when children develop a connection with a caregiver through warmth and comfort rather than solely for food and survival reasons?
Contact comfort
Which researcher proposed the attachment theory?
John Bowlby
What did John Bowlby suggest in his attachment theory?
- Proposed that attachment is developed over 4 phases to a secure base
- A primary caregiver’s presence provides an infant or toddler with a sense of security that makes it possible for the infant to explore their environment
What is the internal working model of attachment based on?
It is based on the extent to which caregivers of infants can be depended on to satisfy the infant’s needs and provide a sense of security for exploration
According to Bowlby, what are the 4 phases of attachment?
- Preattachment phase
- Attachment-in-the-making
- Clear-cut attachment
- Reciprocal relationships
According to Bowlby, at what age do infants go through the preattachment stage?
From birth to 6 weeks
According to Bowlby, at what age do infants go through the attachment-in-the-making stage?
From 6 weeks to 6-8 months
According to Bowlby, at what age do infants go through the clear-cut attachment stage?
From 6-8 months to 1-2 years
According to Bowlby, at what age do infants go through the reciprocal relationships stage?
From 1-2 years onwards
According to Bowlby what happens in the preattachment stage?
The infant produces innate signals that bring others to their side and is comforted by the interaction that follows
e.g. Infant cries as a way to get attention and is comforted when their primary caregiver hugs them
According to Bowlby what happens in the attachment-in-the-making stage?
The phase in which infants begin to respond preferentially to familiar people
e.g. Infants start to differentiate between their caregiver and other people
According to Bowlby what happens in the clear-cut attachment stage?
When the infant actively seeks contact with their regular caregivers and typically shows separation protest or distress when the caregiver departs (separation anxiety)
According to Bowlby what happens in the reciprocal relationships stage?
Involves children taking an active role in developing working partnerships with their caregivers
At which attachment phase will infants act cute as a reward for the caregiver investing their time into caring for them?
Attachment-in-the-making phase
At which attachment stage would infants resist being separated from their primary caregiver?
Clear-cut attachment phase
At which attachment stage would the infant initiate a give-and-take relationship between them and the caregiver?
Reciprocal relationship phase
Which researcher extended Bowlby’s theory of attachment and emphasised the concept of the primary giver as a secure base?
Mary Ainsworth
Which researcher conducted observations of mothers and babies in Uganda and Baltimore?
Mary Ainsworth
Who was the first researcher to focus on attachment security?
Mary Ainsworth
Who was the first researcher to focus the making and breaking of attachment?
John Bowlby
Which researcher was the first to note individual differences in attachment relationships?
Mary Ainsworth
According to Mary Ainsworth, what were the 2 key factors providing insight into the quality of an infant’s attachment to their caregiver?
1) The extent to which the infant uses the caregiver as a secure base
2) How infants reacted when they are separated from their caregiver
Which researcher proposed the “strange situation” test?
Mary Ainsworth
What happened in Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment?
1) The child is exposed to eight episodes:
- 2 situations where they were separated from their caregiver
- 2 situations where they were reunited with their caregiver
- Interactions with a stranger when alone
- Interactions with a stranger when the caregiver is in the room
What happened in episode 1 of the strange situation?
- Experimenter introduces caregiver and infant to the unfamiliar room
- Experimenter showed toys to the baby
- Experimenter leaves
What happened in episode 2 of the strange situation?
- Caregiver and infant are alone
- Caregiver does not interact with infant but responds to infant as appropriate/if needed
What happened in episode 3 of the strange situation?
- Stranger enters for 1 minute
- Stranger talks to caregiver for 1 minute
- Stranger tries to interact with infant for 1 minute
What happened in episode 4 of the strange situation?
- Caregiver leaves the room; stranger and infant are alone
- Infant plays and stranger only responds if appropriate
What happened in episode 5 of the strange situation?
- Caregiver calls to the infant from outside and enters the room
- Stranger leaves
- Caregiver comforts infant and lets infant play
What happened in episode 6 of the strange situation?
- Caregiver leaves infant alone
What happened in episode 7 of the strange situation?
- Stranger enters the room to greet the infant who was previously alone in the room
- Stranger comforts the infant if upset
What happened in episode 8 of the strange situation?
- Caregiver calls from outside and enters the room
- Caregiver sits if infant is not upset but comforts the infant if they’re upset
- Infant continues to play
What type of attachment is this, according to Mary Ainsworth?
An infant or a child has a high-quality, relatively un-ambivalent relationship with his or her caregiver
Secure attachment
What type of attachment is this, according to Mary Ainsworth?
An infant or a child seem somewhat indifferent toward their caregiver and may even avoid the caregiver
Insecure-avoidant attachment
What type of attachment is this, according to Mary Ainsworth?
An infant or a child are clingy and stay close to their caregiver rather than explore the environment
Insecure-resistant attachment
In the Strange Situation, an infant is upset when the caregiver leaves but is happy to see the caregiver return, recovering quickly from any distress
What type of attachment is this?
Secure attachment
What type of attachment is this, according to Main & Solomon?
An infant or child approaches their caregiver but they also seem to regard the caregiver as a source of fear they want to withdraw from
Disorganised attachment
In the Strange Situation, a child seemed indifferent toward their caregiver before the caregiver leaves the room and indifferent
or avoidant when the caregiver returns
What type of attachment is this?
Insecure-avoidant attachment
If these children become upset when left alone, they are as easily comforted by a stranger as by the caregiver
What type of attachment is this?
Insecure-avoidant attachment
In the Strange Situation, an infant becomes very upset when the caregiver leaves them alone in the room, and is not readily comforted by strangers
What type of attachment is this?
Insecure-resistant attachment
When the caregiver returns, the infant is not easily comforted and both seek comfort and resist efforts by the caregiver to comfort them
What type of attachment is this?
Insecure-resistant attachment
In the Strange Situation, an infant seems to have no consistent way of coping with stress. Their behaviour is often confused or even contradictory, and they often appear dazed or disoriented
What type of attachment is this?
Disorganised attachment
Children who were securely attached as infants seem to have (……..) relationships with peers than do insecurely attached children (e.g., Vondra et al., 2001)
Closer
Secure attachment in infancy also predicts (……..) peer and romantic relationships and emotional health in adolescence (Collins et al., 1997)
Positive
Securely attached children also earn (………) grades and are (……..) involved in school than insecurely attached children (Jacobsen & Hofmann, 1987)
1) Higher
2) More
What are the limitations of Ainsworth’s strange situation study? List 4 limitations
1) Did not consider that children can have more than 1 attachment style
2) Low ecological validity (the infant’s attachment style is determined on the basis of just a few minutes of separation and reunion)
3) It may not be applicable to children outside of America or western culture
4) The study is quite outdated because a majority of mothers in modern society now work compared to mothers in the 70s; attachment styles may defer now
The secure attachment results mostly came from WEIRD countries
Define WEIRD
W - Western
E - Educated
I - Industrialised
R - Rich
D - Democratic
Young infants have a rudimentary sense of self in the first months of life. How can we tell?
By their control of objects outside of themselves (Rochat & Morgan, 1995)
When do children’s sense of self become more distinct?
At about 8 months old
How can we tell at that about 8 months, infants begin to have a more distinct sense of self?
They can now resist separation from their caregiver
This suggests that they now understand themselves as an individual who is separate from their caregiver
At what age do children begin to show a sense of self as shown by the mirror recognition (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979) and shopping cart test (Moore et al., 2007)?
By 18-20 months old
At what age do children recognize their own
photograph (Bullock & Lutkenhaus, 1990)?
By 30 months old
At what age do children exhibit embarrassment and shame through their self-assertive behaviour and their use of language (Lewis, 1995)?
By 3 years old
At what age do children understand themselves in terms of concrete, observable characteristics related to physical attributes, physical activities and abilities, and psychological traits (Harter, 1999)?
At 3-4 years old
At what age do children say this
“I live in a big house with my mother and father and my brother Jason and my sister Lisa. I have blue eyes and a kitty that is orange and a television in my room. I can run real fast. I like pizza.”
At 3-4 years old
How do children refine their conceptions of self in school?
Through engaging in social comparison (Frey & Ruble, 1985)
How does social comparison help children refine their conceptions of self
Children compare aspects of their own psychological, behavioural, or physical functioning to that of others in order to evaluate themselves
When can children successfully distinguish man/boy from girl/woman using gender cues (e.g. hairstyles and vocal pitch)?
During their first year (before their 2nd birthday)
What allows children during their first year to distinguish man/boy from girl/woman using gender cues?
Perceptual abilities (mostly what they can see and hear in their environment)
When do children begin forming gender-related expectations about the kinds of objects and activities that are stereotypically associated with men and women?
By the latter half of their second year (Before their 3rd birthday)
When do children come to know which gender group(s) they feel they “belong” to?
Between their 2nd and 3rd birthdays
Fenson et al. suggests children will use gender terms such as “boy” and “girl” in their speech by age…?
a. 5
b. 2.5
c. 3
d. 4
c. 3
What is the term used to describe expectations
or stereotypes about the behaviour of people based on their gender?
Gender role norms
Who is considered to be stereotypically more instrumental?
a. Men
b. Women
a. Men
Who is considered to be stereotypically more expressive?
a. Men
b. Women
b. Women
At what age do children self-enforce gender segregation and come to spend more of their
playtime with same-sex peers (Maccoby, 1998)
Between 3-7 years old
According to Cohen-Kettenis et al., how do children ages 3-7 years old treat their peers who don’t follow the stereotypical gender role norms?
Children will avoid peers who violate gender role norms
e.g. boys who continue to play with girls in preschool will be rejected by both boys and girls
What do evolutionary scientists argue about men being better at spatial reasoning (having awareness of surroundings) than women?
Good spatial reasoning might have been selected for men because, in the evolutionary past, men who had the ability to track animals over distances could better insure the survival of themselves and their offspring (Geary, 2004)
What do evolutionary scientists argue about women being better at building strong social alliances than men?
Women’s tendency to build strong social alliances with other women could have insured assistance with childcare, benefiting their offspring (Miller et al., 2002)
What is the term used to describe this type of hormone?
Hormones that typically occur at higher levels in males than females which affect physical development and functioning from the prenatal period onward
Androgens
How can we tell that men have higher levels of androgen than women?
Higher levels of androgens in the bloodstream are associated with more rough-and-tumble play in boys (Coie & Dodge, 1998)
What is the term used to describe a condition in which the adrenal glands in girls produce high levels of hormones that have androgen-like effects?
This shows higher levels of rough-and-tumble play in girls (Nordenstrom et al., 2002) and more interest in “boy-typical” activities than do other girls (Hines et al., 2003)
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)
What is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)
When adrenal glands in girls secrete high levels of hormones that act similar to androgens, which causes girls to play like boys and prefer “boy-typical” activities
By observing other people, children gather information about gender and what is considered appropriate behaviour for their own gender
Which theory suggests this?
The social learning theory
What does Bussey & Bandura’s research suggest about children observing and imitating gender roles?
Children observe and imitate same-gender models more often than they do different-gender models
What happens when parents provide gender-typed toys (cars for boys, dolls for girls)?
It reinforces behavioural expectations
What happens when parents use gender-essentialist statements to convey indirect and subtle messages about acceptable forms of behaviour (“Boys don’t cry”, “Girls take ballet”; Gelman et al., 2004)?
It reinforces behavioural expectations
When a child has established their initial gender identification, it can (………) the impact of parental attempts to socialize the child as a member of the other gender
Outweigh
What did Diamond & Sigmundson discover about a child’s own gender assignment?
1) A male child with damaged genitals had to go through surgery and treatments to change his identity to a female
2) Even after surgery and treatments, the child still identifies as male
3) This suggests gender identity may have a biological component and the environment may not influence gender identity
Baby Kim is taking part in a Strange Situation task with her mother. Throughout the experiment, Kim is clingy, extremely
distressed when separated from her mother, and refuses to be comforted by the experimenter.
To which attachment category is Kim likely to belong?
A. Insecure avoidant attachment
B. Disoriented attachment
C. Insecure resistant attachment
D. Secure attachment
C. Insecure resistant attachment
Infants exhibit their developing sense of self in which of the following orders?
A. Displaying embarrassment in social situations, recognising self in a photograph, recognising self in a mirror
B. Displaying embarrassment in social situations, recognising self in a mirror, recognising self in a photograph
C. Recognising self in a photograph, recognising self in a mirror, displaying embarrassment in social situations
D. Recognising self in a mirror, recognising self in a photograph, displaying embarrassment in social situations
D. Recognising self in a mirror, recognising self in a photograph, displaying embarrassment in social situations
Which of the following statements about gender segregation is false?
A. Children self-enforce gender segregation from the ages of 3-7
B. Children who violate gender role norms will often be rejected by their peers
C. Gender segregation involves playing with gender-specific toys
D. None of the above
D. None of the above
