Attachment- Types Of Attachment (1-4)

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with the progressive behavioural changes that occur in individuals across their lifespan.

Question 2

What is an attachment?

Answer 2

Attachment is an emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way process that endures over time.

Question 3

Describe reciprocity

Answer 3

• aka: turn-taking
• a two-way, mutual process, where each party responds to the other’s signals to sustain interaction.
• The behaviour of one party elicits a response from the other.
• Studies show that infants coordinate their actions with their caregiver’s actions in a kind of conversation. The regularity of an infant’s signals allows a caregiver to anticipate the infant’s behaviour and respond appropriately. This sensitivity to infant behaviour lays the foundation for later attachment between the caregiver and the infant.

Question 4

Describe interactional synchrony

Answer 4

• adults and babies respond in time to sustain communication, their actions and emotions mirror each others
• infants 2/3 weeks old show imitated specific facial and hand gestures they saw adults do
• adult model displayed 1/3 facial expressions or hand movements, dummy was placed in baby’s mouth to prevent response. After dummy removed infants expression filmed and an association was found between adults gestures and baby’s gestures.

Question 5

Evaluate caregiver and infant reactions.

Answer 5

• strength: Murray and Trevarthen (1985) got mothers to interact with their babies over a video monitor. In the next part of the study the babies were played a tape of their mother so she was not responding to them. The babies tried to attract their mother’s attention but when this failed they gave up responding. This shows that babies want their mothers to reciprocate.
• strength: Abravanal and DeYong (1991) observed infant behaviour when interacting with a puppet that looked like a human mouth opening and closing. Infant’s made little response to this, which shows they are not just imitating what they see; interactional synchrony is a specific social response.
• weakness: Babies cannot use language to communicate so psychologists are relying on their inferences. They cannot be sure that infants are actually trying to communicate with their caregiver.
• Weakness: The expressions tested (tongue sticking out, yawning, and smiling) are ones that infants frequently make so they may not have been deliberately imitating what they saw.

Question 6

What are the difficulties of investigating caregiver-infant interaction?

Answer 6

• Studies have found that babies’ attachment behaviours are much
  stronger in laboratory settings than in their home environment. Hence, studies should take place in a natural setting (e.g. the child’s
  home) to increase validity.
• Most studies into caregiver-infant interactions are observational so there
  may be bias in the observer’s interpretation of what they see (observer
  bias). This can be countered by using more than one observer (interrater reliability).
• There are practical issues when investigating caregiver-infant
  interactions. Infants are often asleep or feeding when psychologists want
  to observe them. Researchers need to use fewer but shorter observation
  periods because of babies limited waking periods.
• Extra care needs to be taken is relation to ethics when investigating
  caregiver-infant interactions so as not to affect the child or parent in
  any way e.g. protection from harm, confidentiality etc

Question 7

Who investigated attachment? + how
(stages of attachment)

Answer 7

Shaffer and Emerson (1964) investigated the development of attachment in infants using a longitudinal study where they followed 60 infants and their mothers for two years. They decided that there were four stages in the development of attachment in infants

Question 8

State the four stages of attachment

Answer 8

1. Pre-attachment
2. Indiscriminate attachment
3. Discriminate attachment
4. Multiple attachment

Question 9

Describe pre-attachment

Answer 9

(0-3 months) = From six weeks of age infants become
attracted to other humans, preferring them to objects and events. This
preference is demonstrated by their smiling at people’s faces.

Question 10

Describe indiscriminate attachment

Answer 10

(3-7 months) = Infants begin to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people, smiling more at people they know. They will still allow strangers to handle them.

Question 11

Describe discriminate attachment
What was concluded about who the primary attachment figure would likely be

Answer 11

(7 months onwards) = Infants develop a specific
attachment to their primary attachment figure (usually the mother) staying close to that person. They show separation protest (the distress an infant shows when their primary attachment figure leaves them) and display stranger anxiety (the distress an infant shows when approached by someone they do not know).

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) noticed that the infant’s primary attachment figure was not always the person who spends the most time with the child. They concluded that it is the quality of the relationship, not quantity that matters the most in the formation of an attachment.

Question 12

Describe multiple attachments

Answer 12

(7 months onwards) = Very soon after developing
their first attachment infants develop strong emotional ties with other major caregivers, such as the father and grandparents, and noncaregivers, such as siblings These are called secondary attachments. The fear of strangers weakens but their attachment to their primary
attachment figure remains the strongest.

Question 13

Evaluate the stages of attachment

Answer 13

• weakness: The data collected by Shaffer and Emerson (1964) may be unreliable because it was based on mothers’ reports of their infants. Some mothers might have been less sensitive to their infant’s protests and therefore been less likely to report them.
• weakness: The sample was biased because it only included infants from a working-class population and thus the findings might not apply to other social groups.
• weakness: The sample was also biased because it only included infants from individualist cultures, infants from collectivist cultures could form attachments in a different way.
• The study does not have temporal validity, it was conducted in the 1960s and parental care of children has changed considerably since then. More women go out to work and more men stay at home.
• Stage theories such as this one are inflexible and do not take account of individual differences, some infants might form multiple attachment first, rather than starting with a single attachment.

Question 14

Discuss whether the father plays a distinct role.
What does research show?

Answer 14

• There is inconsistency in the research into the role of the father and whether he plays a distinct role.
• Some research shows that fathers provide play and stimulation to complement the role of the mother (providing emotional support), and that both are crucial to a child’s wellbeing. However, other research shows no such distinction.
• Research investigating the effects of growing up in a single female or same-sex parent family shows there is no effect on development, and suggests the role of the father is not important.
• fathers less likely to be the primary attachment figure
• causes: spend less time with infants, not as psychologically equipped as they lack emotional sensitivity, female hormone oxytocin impacts behaviour orientated women to interpersonal goals, societal norms

Question 15

Discuss multiple attachments
(Name psychologists)
(Mum/dad)

Answer 15

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found for the majority of babies their mum is their primary attachment figure.
• around 7 months of age babies form secondary attachments to other family members, including their father.
• 75% of infants studied had formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months.

Question 16

Evaluate the role of the father

Answer 16

• There is inconsistency in the research as to the importance of the role of the father. Research investigating the effects of growing up in a single female or same-sex parent family show there is no effect on development, suggesting the role of the father is not important.
• It seems the father is less important to later development than the mother in terms of nurture. Grossman (2002) found that the early attachment to the mother was a better predictor of what the teenage relationship was like than the early attachment with the father. However, if the father had engaged in active play with the child when they were young, the adolescent relationship with BOTH parents was strengthened.
• Research also questions whether the father plays a distinct role. Studies show that the father in a single parent family is more likely to adopt the traditional maternal role and can be their child’s primary attachment figure.
• Field (1978) : compared the behaviours of primary caregiver mothers with primary and secondary caregiver fathers. Face-to-face interactions were analysed from video footage with infants at four months of age. Overall, fathers engaged more in game playing and held infants less. However, primary caretaker fathers engaged in significantly more smiling, imitative grimaces and imitative vocalisations than secondary caregiver fathers. The behaviour of primary caregiver fathers was comparable with that of mothers’ behaviour. This demonstrates that there is flexibility in the role of the father and how men can respond to the different needs of their children.

Question 17

Describe the types of attachment study (method)

Answer 17

• The strange situation was used by Ainsworth et al. (1970) to investigate differences in attachments between infants and their caregivers.
• It was a controlled observation which took place in a room that had been furnished with some toys.
• The investigators observed the infants in a series of three-minute episodes;
  mother and baby, stranger enters, mother leaves, mother returns, etc.
• They recorded an infant’s proximity seeking, stranger anxiety, separation protest and reunion joy.

Question 18

Describe the findings for the types of attachment study

Answer 18

Type A:
- 20% of babies were insecure-avoidant
- Babies with this attachment style ignore their caregiver and play independently while they explore the room. They show no signs of distress when the caregiver is absent (no separation protest) and continue to ignore them when they return (no reunion joy). The baby is distressed when left completely alone but is comforted by the stranger as easily as their caregiver (no stranger anxiety). The caregiver and the stranger are treated in much the same way.

Type B – Secure Attachment
- 70% of babies
- play happily while the caregiver is present and use
them as a safe base while they explore the room and play with the toys. The baby is clearly distressed when the caregiver leaves (separation protest), even if they are not left completely alone, and seeks immediate contact with their caregiver when they return (reunion joy). Their caregiver easily comforts them. The baby is wary of the stranger (stranger anxiety) but accepts some comfort from them when the caregiver is absent.

Type C – Insecure-Resistant
- 10% of babies
- these babies are fussy and cry more than other babies. They will not explore the room or play with the toys very much, instead they are clingy. The baby is distressed when the caregiver leaves (extreme separation protest), however they resist comfort from the caregiver on reunion (no reunion joy). They strongly resist the stranger’s attempts to make contact (extreme stranger anxiety).

Question 19

Evaluate the strange situation

Answer 19

+ The Strange Situation has been replicated many times over the years. It is easy to replicate because it had a high level of control and standardised procedures. It has been carried out successfully in many different cultures.
- methodology developed in US and may be culturally biased. Attachment behaviour that is seen as healthy in the United States may not be seen as such in all cultures. In Germany at this time very few mothers worked (less than 1 in 5) but children were encouraged to be independent and self-reliant. German parents view behaviour exhibited by securely attached infants, (e.g. crying when their mums leave the room) as being spoilt so do not reward this behaviour. This is why these children may have shown less anxiety when separated from their mothers and been classed as avoidant.
- The validity of some measures has been questioned, it could be argued that proximity seeking could be a measure of insecurity rather than security.
- The strange situation is gender biased (only mothers as caregiver). Children might be insecurely attached to their mothers but securely attached to their fathers. They strange situation isn’t measuring a child’s overall attachment style but their attachment to mum. Main and Weston (1981) found that children behave differently depending on which parent they are with.
- The Strange Situation being artificial means it may not reflect the infant’s real world behaviour (lacks ecological validity). Studies have found that babies’ attachment behaviours are much stronger in laboratory settings than they are in their home environment.

Question 20

What was the study for cross cultural variations in attachment
Explain it

Answer 20

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

meta-analysis of 32 studies into attachment to see if attachment occurs in the same way across all cultures.

All of the studies they included had used the strange situation to measure attachment. These studies looked at the relationships between mothers and their babies, all of whom were under 24 months of age. The studies were conducted in eight countries, some individualistic cultures (USA, UK, and Germany) and some collectivist cultures (Japan, China, and Israel).

Question 21

What were the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
What do they suggest?

Answer 21

The main findings were;
- secure attachment was the most common attachment style in all of the eight countries studied.
- the second most common attachment style was insecure-avoidant, except in Israel and Japan where avoidant was rare but resistant was common.
- the lowest percentage of secure attachments was in China.
- the highest percentage of secure attachments was in Great Britain.
- the highest percentage of insecure-avoidant attachments was in West Germany.
- overall variations within cultures were 1.5 times greater than the variation between cultures.

The similarities between cultures suggest that caregiver and infant interactions have universal characteristics and so may be partly instinctive. However, the variations between cultures show that the cultural differences in child rearing practices also play an important role in attachment styles. The variations within cultures indicate that sub-cultural differences, such as social class, play an important role in an infant’s attachment style. These factors are possibly more important than culture.

Question 22

Evaluate Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Answer 22

+ This study is a meta-analysis, with a very large sample. This increases the validity of the findings.
- The strange situation methodology was developed in the United States and it may not be valid in other cultures. For instance, Ainsworth assumed that a willingness to explore means a child is securely attached but this may not be the
case in other cultures. This means the methodology is culturally biased.
- The infants from Israel in this study lived on a Kibbutz (closed community so no contact with strangers). This could be why they showed severe distress when confronted with strangers and were classed as insecure-resistant.
- This study was not actually comparing cultures but countries. For instance, they compared the USA with Japan. Both have many different sub-cultures and have different child rearing practices. One study of attachment in Tokyo found similar attachment style distributions to the USA, whereas studies in more rural areas of Japan found many more insecure-resistant infants.
- All the studies used looked at infants’ attachments to mum . Children might be insecurely attached to their mothers but securely attached to their fathers. The strange situation is therefore not measuring a child’s attachment style but their attachment to one individual. Main and Weston (1981) found that children behave differently depending on which parent they are with.