attachments Flashcards
caregiver infant interactions (ao1)
attachment is an affectional tie that binds them together in space and endures time that an individual forms between himself and another
reciprocity - an interaction where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
research in the 1970s showed that infants coordinate their actions with caregivers in a conversational manner, from birth babies move in a rhythm when interacting with an adult as if they were taking turns which is an example of reciprocity. Brazelton et al suggested that this interaction was almost like a dance and that this basic rhythm is an important precursor to later communications.
interactional synchrony - the temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour, a special kind of interaction between caregivers and infants where each reflects what the other is doing in a synchronised way. concept studied by meltzoff and moore which showed that infants as young as 2/3 weeks old were able to imitate specific facial and hand gestures they saw adults do and there was an association between the infants behaviour and the adult model
caregiver-infant interactions (ao3)
- most studies that investigate caregiver-infant interactions are observational and are filmed and judged, however this leaves the finding susceptible to observer bias. some observers may see an action as a purposeful interaction but some might see it as a general movement as babies can be quite fidgety. therefore to counter this the studies should have two independent observers which record their data and then compare results known as inter-rater reliability
+ evidence from the study conducted by Abravanal and DeYong shows that infants between the ages of 5-12 weeks made little response to objects or puppets indicating that infants are not just imitating what they see but instead it is a specific social response
- there are some issues faced when trying to test infant behaviour which come from the difficulty to reliably test their behaviour. In these studies the conditions that are usually tested are very similar to behaviours babies display frequently, this makes it difficult to distinguish between general behaviour and specific imitated behaviours.
stages of attachments (ao1)
in the 1960’s Schaffer and Emerson conducted a longitudinal study on the developments in attachments in 60 babies and their mothers for 2 years. to collect the data they used a mixture of overt observations and interviews as well as a diary from the mother about the child’s behaviour in everyday situations measuring separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. the findings showed that for 65% of the babies the first specific primary attachment waas to the mother, 30% were jointly attached to the mother and one other figure (of which 27% were jointly attached to mother and father), and 3% were primarily attached to their father. At the 18th moth check in it was shown that after the first attachment had formed more could form with it as we see that now 75% of babies had formed a (secondary) attachment to their father
based on the information from the study, 4 stages of the development of attachment were proposed:
stage 1: pre-attachment phase (0-3m) where baby behaves similarly to humans and inanimate objects, start to become attracted/show a preference to humans shown by smiling, prefer familiar faces
stage 2: indiscriminate attachments (3-7m) much more social, begin to recognise familiar adults but do not show separation or stranger anxiety or preferences to one adult
stage 3: specific/discriminate attachments (7-8m) begin to show stranger anxitey and separation protest when one particular person puts them down, show joy at reunion with the peron and are most comforted by them indicating the formation of a primary attachment
stage 4: multiple attachments (9m-) after first attachment has formed the infant develops a wider circle of secondary attachments to their other caregivers and separation anxiety is still displayed with these attachments however the primary attachment bond is still stronger
stages of attachment (ao3)
+ the study has good external validity as the study was carried out within the families’ own homes and most of the behaviours tested was done during the parent’s ordinary activities and reported to the researchers later, this means that both the babies and mothers were likely to act normally and reduce the risk of demand characteristics invalidating the results, additionally as the observations were carried out during normal activities the study shows mundane realism meaning the study’s findings can be generalised and applied to everyday life.
- finding may be weak when generalised to wider society as the sample for the study was biased, though there was an equal split between male and female infants, all the babies came from working class families meaning that the same results may not be shown if the study was completed with families in a different social class.
- there may be some methodological issues with the study that may affect the accuracy of the results which is that as observations and self report techniques were used, both are methods that are prone to social desirability bias meaning the mothers may have answered the questions in a way they think makes them look like they have a better relationship with their infants, additionally bias may have been shown when interpreting the babies behaviour to each of the situations.
role of the father (ao1)
though most research into attachments focus on the role of the mother as the primary caregiver, there has been research to show that the role of the father into the development of attachments is just as important.
although evidence has shown that fathers are much less likely to become the first attachment figure compared to mothers, it does happen. In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, in 3% of the cases the father was the first attachment figure, 27% were jointly attached to both the mother and the father and at the 18th month mark of the study 75% of babies had formed an attachment with their father.
Grossman et al carried out a longitudinal study in which babies attachments were studied until they were teens, the study showed that the quality of a babys attachment with their mother but not fathers was related to attachments in adolesence, attachment to father is less important, grossman concluded that the role of the father had more to do wiht play and stimulation rather than emotional development
Field’s study was able to evidence the fact that fathers can take on the role of the primary caregiver as he filmed 4 month old babies and found that the fathers who spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their babies were the characteristics of the primary caregivers
role of the father (ao3)
+ there is real world application to this theory as it can be used to offer advice to parents, those who may be concerned about who should be the primary caregiver can be reassured that the role can be taken on by either parent which will relieve some of the societal pressures on the mother to stay at home and look after the child while the father focuses oh work rather than parenting.
- some situations show that the role of the father is insignificant for example same sex couples, single parent families. studies such as MacCallum (2005) have found that children in these situations did not develop any differently to those born in a two parent heterosexual families which indicates that the presence of a father may not always make a significant difference.
- there is no clear answer to why fathers do not generally become primary caregivers. one reason may be due to stereotypical gender roles, where women are expected to be more caring and nurturing. another reason may be that the female hormones like oestrogen create higher levels of nurturing causing women to be predisposed to be the primary caregiver
animal studies lorenz ao1
lorenz was an ethologist who investigated imprinting and how animals will form attachments to the first living thing they see at birth. in 1935 he conducted his study where he took a clutch of goose eggs and divided them into two groups for two different conditions. one group was left to hatch naturally with the mother and the others were placed and hatched in an incubator to ensure that lorenz would be the first moving object they saw. once hatched lorenz marked the goslings based upon which condition they hatched in and observed and recorded their behaviour.
the findings showed that immediately after the birth the goslings divided themselves back into their original groups where the naturally hatched goslings followed their mother and the incubator hatched goslings followed lorenz, these incubator goslings showed no recognition or bond to their mother and the bond they formed with lorenz proved to be irreversible .
lorenz concluded that the process of imprinting was restricted to a definite period in the early stages of life known as the critical period and if imprinting does not occur during this period it never will, he also discovered that imprinting had an effect on their later mate preferences known as sexual imprinting as animals like birds are more likely to chose a mate similar to the object they imprinted on
animal studies lorenz ao3
+ imprinting has similar ideas and concepts to other theories to evidence it. for example bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation and imprinting both have a concept of a critical period or a definite window of time in which the attachments must be formed otherwise there will be negative long term consequences.
- lorenz’s study was completed on birds meaning there may be issues when trying to generalise the findings of the study from birds to animals as research has shown that the mammalian attachment system is quite different to birds, for example the bond between a mammalian mother and her child is a lot more emotional and loving compared to the bonds in birds and their children, additionally some psychologists belive that mammals have the ability to form attachments at any time rather than only within a specific critical period
+/- gutton 1966 conducted a study on chickens which also evidenced this theory that animals are born with an innate instinct to attach to the first moving object they see, in this study the chickens were exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding within their first few weeks of life ended up imprinting onto the gloves and later on tried mating with the gloves. however in this study it was also proven that imprinting was more reversible than originally thought as gutton found that he could reverse the effects of imprinting in chickens after allowing them to spend time with their own species.
animal studies harlow ao1
Harlow’s study consisted on investigating the Learning theory on monkeys by seeing if their attachments are primarily formed through food. Harlow created two model mothers, one was made up of harsh wires, the other made up of soft cloths. he used 16 monkeys and put them in 4 conditions: wire mother that produces milk, wire mother w/ milk and cloth mother w/o milk, cloth mother w/ milk, cloth mother w/ milk and wire mother w/o milk. the amount of time spent with each monkey and feeding time were recorded as well as their behaviour after a stress inducing event occured.
the findings showed that monkeys preferred contact with the cloth when given the choice between mothers regardless of whether it produced milk or not. if the monkey was in the condition where both mothers were present but only the wire mother produced milk, the monkeys only stayed long enough to get milk then returned to the cloth mother. when in a frightening situation the monkeys all clung to the cloth mother when she was available.
he continued his study where he raised newborn monkeys in total isolation he found that monkeys displayed signs of psychological disturbance such as hugging their own bodies and rocking repetitively. additionally when in contact with other monkeys they were fearful and either tried attacking the other monkeys or harming themselves with the amount of isolation they had endured positively correlating with the degree of damage they were causing to others and themselves.
animal studies harlow ao3
- study could be considered extremely unethical as the monkeys were removed from there mothers and were deliberately scared to see their reaction. the effects of the study left the monkeys with long term emotional and psychological harm impacting both themselves and others around them.
- the ultimate aim of animal studies is to be able to generalise the findings to human behaviour however we are not able to attain how animals make decisions and whether it is in the same way as humans where our decisions are governed by conscious decisions. this means that we cannot immediately use these findings and conclusions to explain human behaviour and instead we should seek confirmation from human studies.
+ however a strenth to this study was the fact that its theoretical concepts were accurate and have allowed us to understand human-infant interactions and most importantly how attachments do not form based off feeding but instead due to contact comfort. additionally thr study highlighted the importance of good quality early relationships to allow for later social development for example raising children in the future, which emphasises the importance of the internal working model as proposed by bowlby.
explanations of attachments - learning theory ao1
the learning theory proposed that all behaviours are learnt rather than being innate or being inherited from parents. behaviourist suggest that behaviours are learnt either through classical or operant conditioning.
classical conditioning - learning based on an association between a stimuli.
explanations of attachments - learning theory ao3
- the studies that evidence the learning theory are based upon animal studies conducted by behaviourists like Skinner and Pavlov who believe that there is no difference between how humans and animals learn. the belief is that our behavioural patterns are constructed from the same basic building blocks and therefore generalised findings from animal studies would be accurate, however it is argued that attachments are a complex behaviour and that generalising findings would be inaccurate
+ the learning theory is in fact plausible and scientific as it is founded in established theory. it is likely that an association between the provision of needs and the person providing these needs can lead to strong attachments.
- many consider the learning theory to be quite reductionist as it focuses too much on conditioning in terms of food and pleasures whilst ignoring other factors such as caregiver-infant interactions which are not based on food but also are important factors in the forming of an attachment.
explanation of attachments - monotropic theory ao1
attachments are formed between an infant and their caregiver as an innate instinct which increases both the babies’ survival and the inheritance of the parental genes as the infant stays close and protected by the caregiver allowing them to survive whilst the paernts are attached to their child which ensured they are cared for and protected and so will successfully pass on their genes.
attachments are formed by an innate drive to become attached. this will normally occur during a critical period and if it does not occur during this first 2 year period, an attachment will never form and the infant will have difficulty forming attachments later on in life.
bowlbys theory was described as monotropic because he believed that infants form a number of attachments which form a hierarchy of sorts but one has special importance creating a bias towards one individual which is most usually the primary attachment figure. this special bond would be formed with the person who responds most sensitively to the infants needs which can be determined by two principles proposed by bowlby
law of continuity - the more constant and predictable the childs care, the better quality the attachment
the law of accumulated separation - the effects of ever separation from a mother add up and the safest dose is no dose
social releasers are a set of cute innate behaviours such as smiling, cooing, gripping that encourage attention from adults and elicit caregiving. they are an important part of forming an attachment as both the baby and the mother have an innate predisposition to become attached which is triggered by social releasers.
since attachments are innate there is a limited window of time for which these attachments must be formed known as the critical period which bowlby argued is the first two years of life, if an attachment is not formed during this time, it will be extremely difficult to form any other attachments.
additionally bowlby proposed the concept of an internal working model which is that the attachment between a caregiver and an infant becomes a template for what future relationships should look like and what to expect from others in trust/love
he also proposed the continuity hypothesis which proposes that there is a link between the early attachment and later emotional behaviours, those who are scurely attached in infancy continue to be socially/emotionally competent.
explanation of attachments - monotropic theory ao3
+ bowlby’s theory of monotropy is supported by studies such as tronick et al who studied an african tribe in zaire where babies are looked after and breastfed by other women in the tribe but sleep with their mothers in the night. it was still found that these baies had one primary attachment with their mother and had formed a special attachemtn to them.
+ there is also support to his continuity hypothesis as the minnesota longitudinal study had followed participants throughout their life from infancy to late adolescense and found a corrrelation between the strength of their early attachment and their later emotional and social behaviour. the study showed that those who were classified as having secure attachments as a child were the ones who were rated highest in social competancy in later life evidencing the continuity hypothesis.
- the idea of monotropy can be argued to be quite socially sensitive as it places a terrible burden of responsibiltiy on mothers and sets them up to have the blame placed upon them for anything that goes wrong in their child’s life. his law of accumulated separation puts pressure upon mothers to stay at home and give up their careers whilst the role of the father is severely underestimated.
maternal deprivation ao1
Bowlby proposed the theory of maternal deprivation in 1951 which focuses on the idea that the continual presence of nurturing from the mother is essential for the normal psychological development of babies and toddlers and that children who suffer from prolonged emotional deprivation will have long term intellectual, social and emotional difficulties. the effects of maternal deprivation are seen to be irreversible and will have life long impacts due to the lack of an internal working model.
The negative impact of maternal deprivation is most likely to occur if happens during the first 2/3 years of the infants life which bowlby labelled the critical period, however can also occur during the sensitive period which is up to 5 years old.
maternal deprivation can be harmful to both intellectual development and emotional development
intellectual development - if they suffered maternal deprivation they are likely to suffer a delayed intellectual development causing a very low IQ
emotional development - if infants are deprived of maternal care for too long they could begin to suffer affectionless psychopathy which is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others.
44 Juvenile Thieves Study
bowlby analysed 44 criminal teenagers who had been accused of stealing for signs of lack of affection, guilt, empathy as well as interviewing their families in order to find out if any went through a period of separation from their mothers. bowlby found that 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopathy, and 12/14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during the critical period. of the remaining 30 only 5 had suffered separations from their mother.
maternal deprivation ao3
- the effects of maternal deprivation have been proved to be reversible. there was a study done by kulochova in 1976 where two twin boys were isolated (locked in a cupboard by their stepmother) from the age of 18 months to 7 years, however after this they seemed to fully recover which indicates that the effects of this hypothesis are reversible.
+ there is counter evidence to disprove the juvenile thieves study, it was partially replicated on a larger scale using 500 teenagers rather than 44. it was found that early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships and instead of maternal deprivation causing this criminality there are other factors involved.
- there is a failure to distinguish between deprivation and privation. according to rutter, when bowlby talked of deprivation he was confusing the concepts of deprivation and privation. deprivation is defined as the loss of an attachment figure after the attachment had already been developed however privation is the failure to form an attachment in the first place. rutter suggested that the damaging long term effects that bowlby spoke of were actually a consequence of privation.
strange situation and types of attachments ao1
the strange situation was a methodology developed by Ainsworth et al and was used to investigate the nature of attachments systematically. the aim of the investigation was to see how infants behave under conditions of mild stress and anxiety in 7 episodes.
parent sits while infant plays - testing for secure base
stranger enters, talks to parent - testing for stranger anxiety
parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort - separation anxiety
parent returns, offers comfort to infant, stranger leavers - reunion behaviour
parent leaves, infant alone - separation anxiety
stranger enters and offers comfort - stranger anxiety
parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort - reunion behaviour
they recorded an infant’s proximity seeking, separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, reunion behaviour.
the types of attachments
insecure avoidant (Type A) 22% - high explore, low stranger anxiety, indifferent separation anxiety, avoids contact at reunion
secure (Type B) 66% - high explore, high stranger anxiety, some separation anxiety but easy to soothe, enthusiatstic at reunion
insecure resistant (Type C) 12% - low explore, high stranger anxiety, high/distressed separation anxiety, seeks but rejects contact at reunion
strange situation and types of attachments ao3
+ the study has good reliability and repeatability, it has been replicated many times over thr years and is easy to replicate due to the high level of control and standardised procedures. this has allowed it to be tested globally in order to see the differences in attachments in different countries and between cultures while producing scientific results.
- the strange situation can be seen as gender biased once again being a study that overlooks the role of the father. in all the replications of the study it has only ever been carried out using mothers as the caregiver. this may cause some inaccurate results as the children may have different attachments to each parent for example insecurely attached to their mother but ecurely attached to their father. therefore the strange situation does not measure a child’s overall attachment style but instead their attachment to one individual.
- additionally, the strange situation overlooks a fourth attachment style proposed by Main and Solomon in 1986 known as the insecure disorganised (type d) in infants. this attachment style is characterised by the lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour or a consistent type of attachment. this concept of an additional attachment type was further evidenced by Van Ijzendoorns meta analysis which found that 62% of infants were secure, 15% were insecure avoidant, 9% were insecure resistant, 14% insecure disorganised
cultural variations in attachments ao1
there are huge variations in child rearing practices that would lead us to expect significant cross-cultural variations in attachment types
one cultural variation in attachment types would be the difference between individualistic cultures which value independence vs collectivist cultures which emphasise the importance of the group. Van Ijzendoorns meta analysis evidenced this.
Van Ijzendoorn conducted a meta analysis in 1988 consisting of 32 studies in 8 different countries to see if attachment occurs in the same way across all cultures. all of the studies used the strange situation to measure attachment and the relationship between mothers and their babies who were under the age of 2 years. the countries investigated were USA, UK, West Germany, Israel, Japan, China, Sweden, Netherlands.
The findings showed that in all countries secure was most common (uk highest 75%, china lowest 50%), insecure avoidant was next common and was high in individualist cultures like wg (35%), insecure resistant was most common in collectivitst countries like israel (29%). however the study also found that variations within cultures were 1.5 times greater than variations between cultures.
the similarities suggest that there are universal characteristics that help the forming of attachments such as caregiver infant interactions and that as secure was most common despite the culture infants will still form secure attachments, and that culture will cause a variation in the likelihood of an avoidant or resistant attachment forming.
there are additional studies that investigate cultural variations
tronick et al - african tribe in zaire, feb by other sleep with mother still form primary attachment to mum
Takashi - strange situation conducted in japan found no insecure avoidant but high rates of insecure resistant, additionally in 90% of cases the study had to be stopped as infants became so distressed when left alone.
cultural variations in attachments ao3
+ this study was conducted as a meta analysis using over 2000 strange situations across multiple countries all having different cultures for raising children. the large sample size increases the validity of the study and its finding by reducing the impacts of anomalous results that may be caused by methodology issues or unusual participants.
- the meta analysis although claimed to investigate the cultural differences, was actually comparing differences between countries. In reality there are many different cultures within one country which are likely to have different child rearing practicies. For example in a study of an urban area of japan they found similar attachment distributions to western countries such as the USA, whereas when investigating the rural areas of japan there was high rates of insecure resistant infants indicating greater variation within a country than between countries.
- the meta analysis can be seen as gender biased once again being a study that overlooks the role of the father. in all the 2000 studies carried out only the mother has been used as the caregiver. this may cause some inaccurate results as the children may have different attachments to each parent for example insecurely attached to their mother but securely attached to their father. therefore the strange situation does not measure a child’s overall attachment style but instead their attachment to one individual which may indicate inacurate differences between cultures.
Effects of Institutionalisation - Romanian Orphans ao1
institutionalisation is when infants are placed in an institution (such as a hospital, mental home, orphanage) after unfortunate circumstances meaning that they are unable to be looked after by parents or caregivers within their normal family. there are many damaging consequences to institutionalisation for example adopting the rules and norms causing impaired functioning, and a loss of personal identity causing deindividuation.
romanian orphans study by rutter et al 2010, involved 165 romanian childred who had spent their early lived in orphanages and had therefore suffered the effects of instituionalisation. they were then divided into three catergories (adopted before 6months, beetween 6m-2years, between 2-4years) and adopted into british families and were tested at regular intervals of ages 4,6,11,15 to assess their physical, cognitive and social development whilst their results were compared to a control group of british children adopted before 6 months. the findings showed that the orphans that the romanian orphans lagged behind their british counterparts in all measures of development, however by the age of four those who were adopted before the age of six months had caught up with their british counterparts however those adopted after six months still had significant deficits. the study suggests that the long term consequences of institutionalisation may be less severe and reverssible if the children are adopted before 6 months and recieve sensitive parenting.
effects of institutionalistion include
delayed intellectual development - they have low IQ and concentration problems, delayed language development, suffer mental retardation
disinhibited attachment - a form of insecure attachment where childrens do not know what appropriate behaviour towards strangers, overly affectionate and attention seeking
lack of internal working model - will struggle to form relationships and attachments in the future, impaired adult relationships and poor parenting
Effects of Institutionalisation - Romanian Orphans ao3
- there are many ethical issues with the study for example there was no consent taken from the orphans in order
- individual differences between cases of instituitionalisation
+ value of longitudinal sutdy, able to understand the long term effects and whether they are reversible
Influence of early attachments
on child relationships:
