Attachment theory

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

A close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for they own emotional security.

Question 2

What are the 3 characteristics of attachment?

Answer 2

1. Proximity seeking
2. Separation distress
3. Secure base behaviour

Question 3

Define reciprocity.

Answer 3

A description of how 2 people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.

Question 4

Who referred to reciprocity as a dance?

Answer 4

Brazleton et al.

Question 5

Define interactional synchronicity.

Answer 5

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.

Question 6

What was the Meltzoff and Moore study (1977)?

Answer 6

They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old.
An adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions/distinct gestures.
The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers, with an association being found.

Question 7

State 2 criticisms of caregiver-infant interaction?

Answer 7

It is difficult to be certain what is taking place from the infant’s perspective as only hand gestures or facial expressions are being observed. Are the signals conscious and deliberate?
Feldman argued that synchrony and reciprocity don’t have a purpose, however, there is some evidence to suggest that it is useful in mother-infant attachment quality (Isabella et al.).

Question 8

State 1 positive of care-giver infant interaction?

Answer 8

Controlled observations captured fine detail - babies don’t know or care that they are being observed and therefore do not change their behaviour as a result of the observation which means the research has good validity.

Question 9

What did Grossman find in his longitudinal study about the role of the father?

Answer 9

Quality of infant attachments to mothers was related to the children’s attachments in adolescence.
The quality of fathers’ play with infant’s was related to the quality of adolescent attachments - suggesting that fathers’ have a different role in attachment, one that is more to do with stimulation and play rather than nurturing.

Question 10

Why don’t fathers generally become primary attachment figures?

Answer 10

May simply be the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are meant to be more caring and nurturing than men.
Female hormones (eg oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary-attachment figure.

Question 11

State 2 criticisms of research into the role of the father.

Answer 11

MacCallum and Golombok have found that children growing up in same-sex or single-parent households do not develop differently to those in two-parent heterosexual households - therefore the fathers role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.
Socially sensitive research - research may suggest that children may be disadvantaged due to different child-rearing practices.

Question 12

What study did Schaffer and Emerson carry out?

What was the aim of their research?

Answer 12

Glasgow babies
Aimed to investigate the early stages of attachment, the age they developed, their emotional intensity and whom they were directed at.

Question 13

What was the methodology of the Glasgow babies study?

Answer 13

60 babies and their mothers - visited every month for the first year and then again at 18 months.
The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest they babies showed in 7 everyday situations, e.g.: leaving the room (measuring separation anxiety).
The researchers also investigated stranger anxiety - the infant’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.

Question 14

What were the findings of the Glasgow babies study?

Answer 14

• Between 25-32 weeks of age about 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety for a particular adult.
• By 40 weeks 80% of the babies had formed specific attachments and 30% multiple attachments.

Question 15

Name the 4 stages of attachment.

Answer 15

Stage 1: asocial
Stage 2: indiscriminate
Stage 3: specific attachment
Stage 4: multiple attachment

Question 16

Describe the asocial stage of attachment.

Answer 16

0-2 months
Similar response to all objects (animate or inanimate)
Towards the end of stage the child shows preference to people

Question 17

Describe the indiscriminate stage of attachment.

Answer 17

2-7 months
Child shows a marked preference for people
Accepts comfort from any adult
Recognise and prefer familiar adults

Question 18

Describe the specific stage of attachment.

Answer 18

7 months +
Shows stranger anxiety and distress when separated from a specific adult
Child formed specific attachment (the primary caregiver)

Question 19

Describe the multiple stage of attachment.

Answer 19

A short period after forming the specific attachment the child then extends this to display attachment behaviour towards other familiar adults (secondary attachment figures)

Question 20

State 2 positives of the Glasgow babies experiment.

Answer 20

Good external validity - observations carried out in the babies home so likely to have been acting naturally and unlikely to have been affected by the presence of the observers.
Longitudinal study - same children followed up and observed regularly so better internal validity as there aren’t confounding variables or individual differences between participants.

Question 21

State a criticism of the Glasgow babies experiment.

Answer 21

Limited sample size - only 60 babies observed that were from the same district and social class so difficult to generalise.

Question 22

State 3 criticisms of the stages of attachment.

Answer 22

Asocial stage - babies in this stage have poor co-ordination skills and are immobile so therefore it is difficult to make any judgements about them based on observations of their behaviour.
Von Ijzendoorn - argued babies can form multiple attachments from the outset, collectivist cultures normally have families that closely work together in everything (e.g. producing food and child rearing).
Bolwby - suggested that children have playmates that they may get distressed over if they leave the room but does not signify attachment.

Question 23

Name the 2 explanations of attachment.

Answer 23

Learning theory

Bowlby’s monotrophic theory

Question 24

What does monotropy mean in terms of Bolwby’s theory?

Answer 24

Bowlby’s theory is described as monotrophic because he placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver and that this attachment was different and more important.
The attachment figure was not necessarily the biological mother.

Question 25

What 2 principles clarify monotropy?

Answer 25

The law of continuity

The law of accumulated separation

Question 26

How are social releasers used in attachment?

Answer 26

• Babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours.
• Their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system.
• It is recognised as a reciprocal process as both mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers.

Question 27

Give an example of a social releaser.

Answer 27

Smiling
Crying
Cooing

Question 28

What is the critical period?

Answer 28

Reviewed as more of a sensitive period.
The first 2 years when the infant attachment system is active.
If an infant does not make an attachment during this time the effect is irreversible and causes psychological harm.

Question 29

What is the internal working model?

Answer 29

• A child forms a mental representations of their relationship with their primary caregiver.
• The representation serves as a model to the child of what relationships are like and they usually use this model when creating relationships with other people.
• They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like.
• The model also effects a child’s ability to parent as they will base this off the parenting they received.

Question 30

State 2 positives of Bowlby’s theory.

Answer 30

Support for social releasers - Brazleton et al. observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence of interactional synchrony.
Support for IWM - Bailey et al. assessed 90 mothers and their 1 year old infants on the quality of their attachment with their own mothers through a standard interview procedure and then observed the mother and infant attachment. - They found that mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents were much more likely to be observed as having a poor attachment with their own infant.

Question 31

State 2 criticisms of Bowlby’s theory.

Answer 31

Schaffer and Emerson found that most babies did attach to one person first but also found that a significant minority appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time.
Socially sensitive research - monotropy is controversial - the law of accumulated separation states that a substantial amount of time away from the primary caregiver will lead to a poor quality of attachment and be detrimental to development.

Question 32

What can the learning theory also be referred to as?

Answer 32

The theory of ‘cupboard love’.

Question 33

What are the 2 stages of conditioning?

Answer 33

Classical

Operant

Question 34

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 34

Learning by association.

Question 35

Explain classical condition in learning theory.

Answer 35

• Food - an unconditioned stimulus that creates an unconditioned response (pleasure).
• Caregiver - neutral stimulus who produces no response.
• The caregiver is continually paired with the unconditioned stimulus of food, the infant slowly associates food with the caregiver - until eventually the caregiver alone can produce pleasure.
• The caregiver is now a conditioned stimulus and the pleasure they bring is a conditioned response.

Question 36

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 36

Learning by reinforcement.

Question 37

Explain operant conditioning in learning theory.

Answer 37

• Explains why babies cry for comfort as crying leads to a response from the caregiver (e.g. feeding).
• As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced because it produces a pleasurable consequence.
• The caregiver is negatively reinforced as they are escaping something unpleasant (the crying).
• ## This interplay of positive and negative reinforcement strengthens the attachment.

Question 38

Who proposed the learning theory?

Answer 38

Dollard and Miller.

Question 39

State 3 criticisms of the learning theory.

Answer 39

Counter-evidence from animal research - Lorenz’s geese were imprinted before they were fed, Harlow’s monkey always showed preference for the surrogate ‘wire’ monkey over the monkey with food.
Counter-evidence from human research - Schaffer and Emerson found that babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding.
Quality of attachment can be associated with reciprocity and interactional synchrony - if babies were purely driven for food then these complex interactions would serve no purpose.

Question 40

What is drive reduction in terms of the learning theory?

Answer 40

• Hunger = primary drive, an innate biological motivator. We are motivated to reduce the hunger drive.
• Attachment is a secondary drive, learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of the primary drive.
• As caregivers provide the food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them.