Attachments

Question 1

Attachment.

Answer 1

Strong enduring emotional and reciprocal bond between a mother/ caregiver and an infant.

Question 2

Caregiver infant interactions in humans

Answer 2

Important in regard to the Childs social development and to the childs development of an attachment.

Question 3

Reciprocity

Answer 3

The way the mother and infant interact both in terms of how they respond and now they elicit a response.such interactions takes place during the babies alert phases and become more frequent from around the age of 3 months.

Research compares caregiver to a dance where the responses are the moves

Question 4

Interactional synchrony.

Answer 4

Refers to the co-ordinated or synchronised way the mother and infant reflect the actions and emotions of each other and is defined as ‘the temporal co-ordination of microlevel social behaviour.

Question 5

Multiple attachments

Answer 5

Attachments with two or more people
Formed when the main attachment has been formed

Question 6

Role of The Father

Answer 6

Secondary attachment figure
Grossman found that the quality of the attachment the infant made with The Father wasn’t related to attachments in adolescence but the quality of the play was, suggesting The Father has a different role of attachment

Question 7

Stages of attachment

Answer 7

• Pre attachment
  0-2 months
  Smile towards inanimate objects and humans
  Begin to smile more at the end which shows attraction.
• indiscriminate attachment
  2-7 months
  Begin to recognise similar faces.
  Smile towards known people.
  Allow strangers to look after them
• discriminate attachment
  7-8 months onwards
  Specific attachments developed
  Anxious of strangers
  Protest when strangers hold them
  Main attachment formed

-Multiple attachments
9 months onwards
Forms multiple attachments termed secondary attachments
Primary attachment becomes strongest.

Question 8

Animal studies of attachment

Answer 8

Harlow
16 baby rhesus monkeys
Two wired model ‘mothers’
One covered in cloth one was not but fed
4 conditions used.
The monkey stayed with the cloth one for 17 +hours and the one feeding for less than an hour.
When frightened the monkey ran to the cloth one for comfort.
This shows that it isn’t based on milk supply for attachments but for comfort.

Lorenz
Split a clutch of goose eggs with half eggs being hatched in their natural environment with the mother and the other in an incubator with the first person they see being Lorenz.
The study found that goslings imprinted on the first thing they saw
It was also found that imprinting only happened within a critical period and if it didn’t happen an attachment wouldnt be formed

Question 9

Learning theory of attachment

Answer 9

According to the learning theory of attachment,infants become attached to the person who feeds them
This is based on classical conditioning and operant.
Ucs-food NS- mother UCR- pleasure

Food satisfies an infants hunger and makes it feel comfortable, this is drive reduction.
Food is therefore a primary reinforcer and the mother is the secondary reinforcer
The infant is attached to the mother as a source of reward

Operant conditioning can also explain why babies cry for comfort
If the caregiver responds correctlye.g. Feeding, the crying is reinforced
The baby cries for comfort the caregiver response is known as a social
Suppressor.

Question 10

Bowlbys monotropic theory
Critical period
Internal working model

Answer 10

Evolutionary explanation that suggests one specific attachment is the most important (monotropy) in the Childs development.
The theory is based on survival, innate programming, biological process during a critical period, social releasers, monotropy, internal working model and continuity hypothesis.
Suggests attachment is important for survival.
Infants are innately programmed to form an attachment according to Bowlby so this means they are born ready to form attachments.

Bowlby argues the formation of attachments through a biological process and a critical period.
The role of social releasers is emphasised.to help form attachments infants are born with innate social releasers such as cooing.

Bowlby’s theory claims the Childs relationship with a primary caregiver provides an internal working model which influences later relationships (continuity hypothesis) i.e. if the attachment is secure then future relationships are likely to be secure and stable.

Question 11

Ainsworth’s strange situation.

Answer 11

Ainsworth and Bell studied individual differences in attachment by using a controlled observation research method called the strange situation.
About 100 middle class American infants and mothers took part.
The infants behaviour was observed during a set of pre-determined activities.
These included introducing mother and child to room,child playing with toys, stranger entering, mother leaving, stranger interacting, mother returning, child left on its own, stranger and mother returning.
8 stages lasting 3 minutes each

Three attachment types were found.
- Secure attachment
- infant will use caregiver as a safe base and explore strange environments
- infant shows distress when separated from the caregiver and pleasure on renunion

-Insecure resistant
- infant not willing to explore
-high stranger anxiety
-will seek and reject contact at the mothers return.

• insecure avoidant
  -Willing to explore
  -low stranger anxiety
  -Avoid contact at return of caregiver

70% were securely attached
15% were insecurely avoidant
15% were insecurely resistant

Question 12

Cultural variations in attachment.

Answer 12

Van Ijzendoorn and kroonenberg used a meta analysis of 32 studies in which the strange situation had been used in 8 countries.in total the study used results of 1990 children.
-Type B (secure) was most common overall.
-Type A (insecure avoidant) ave relatively more common in western European countries
-type C insecure resistant) relatively more frequent is Israel and Japan.
Secure attachments varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China
Resistant varied from 3% in Britain to 30% in Israel
Avoidant varied from 5% in Japan to 35% in Germany

They also found that there were quite marked variations between studies in the same cultures. For example one Japanese study showed similar proportions to that found in the original Ainsworth study.

Question 13

Theory of maternal deprivation.

Answer 13

Bowlby believed that maternal care was necessary for the emotional development of children as vitamins are for physical development. He suggested that there was a critical period for attachment formation and that if a prolonged separation occurs between the mother and infant within the first few years of the Childs life, the bond would be irreversibly broken which could lead to severe emotional consequences in life.this was referred to as maternal deprivation.
It has been claimed that maternal deprivation has some of the following consequences: aggressiveness,depression,delinquency, intellectual retardation, dwarfism, dependency, anxiety, Affectionless Psychopathy and social maladjustment

One study was his own: 44 juvenile thieves. The aim was to see if frequent separations contributed to affectionless psychopathy. He interviewed them about past life. 86% had Affectionless Psychopathy.
Bowlby also suggested in terms of the internal working model, MD could lead to problems such as inability to be a good parent.in terms of continuity hypothesis, if there are prolonged separations, it could lead to issues in adulthood.

Question 14

Effects of institutionalisation

Answer 14

Rutter’s study of Romanian orphans showed that recovery from institutionalisation is possible but that the longer a child experiences institutionalisation the longer the recovery takes.

The study was conducted on 111 orphans adopted before the age of 2 and found that although physically undersized on arrival but caught up to age-related milestones however, the later the child was adopted, the longer it would take.

Rutter found that children adopted after the age of 6 months had lower IQ’s than those adopted before and showed disinhibited attachment with symptoms including attention seeking and clinginess. Another feature of disinhibited attachment is being equally as affectionate towards people they know or towards strangers they’ve just met.in terms of intellectual delay, shown by low IQ, it was also shown children could catch up with age related milestones if they were adopted before 6 months.

Question 15

Strength and weakness of caregiver infant

Answer 15

+ Meltzoff and Moore found an association between the gesture and expression between the adult and the baby.this supports the idea that child mimicry is an innate ability which helps with the formation of attachment.

• Isabella found an association between high levels of Interactional synchrony and better mother infant attachment. Research shows disadvantage to children by mothers returning to work, is socially sensitive

Question 16

Discuss the influence of early attachments on child and adult relationships

Answer 16

A theory which attempts to explain the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships is Bowlbys continuity hypothesis. This theory suggests that the influence of childhood experiences on adult relationships is strong.the internal working model claims that the relationship with their primary caregiver and the child is stable and secure then the Childs later relationships will also be secure. Research has investigated whether these attachment types influence childhood and adult relationships.

Wilson and smith assessed attachment type and bullying using 196 7-11 year olds using questionnaires into attachment type and bullying.it was shown that securely attached infants were unlikely to be involved, resistant to be bullies and avoidant to be bullied.

Hazan and shaver used a love quiz in the local newspaper and asked readers to pick a descriptor which best fitted their feelings about romantic relationships. Secure believed was love enduring and built on mutual trust. Insecure types were more likely to divorce and felt true love was rare. This therefore supported the IWM.

Question 17

Strengths and weakness of stages of attachment.

Answer 17

+ stages of attachment are supported and based upon research by Schaffer and Emerson. This found that out of 60 of the glasweigen babies studied 80% nad formed a specific attachment by 40 weeks and 29% had formed a secondary attachment within a month of forming a primary attachment.

• although most observations wore made by the Childs parents which would have negated observer effects. The parents may not have been objective and may not have recorded their babies showing anxiety.

Question 18

Animal studies strengths and weakness

Answer 18

• Lorenz study has been criticised as there is a problem of generalising findings based on birds and humans. The mammalian attachment system is different to that found in birds

Harlow
+ evaluated positively for having theoretical and practical value. Findings of Harlow affected understanding
Of attachment showing contact comfort was more important that milk supply.

• ethics can be criticised. Monkeys are close to humans and the suffering was described ‘human like’.

Question 19

Strengths and weakness of learning theory

Answer 19

• Criticised by Schaffer and Emersons study who found that even when not fed predominantly by the mother the infant would still be attached. They found less than half the infants had a primary attachment with those that fed them.
• learning theory is also criticised for ignoring other factors associated with forming attachments.research such as Isabella suggests that such factors play an important role in quality of attachment.

Question 20

Monotropic theory of attachment strengths and weaknesses

Answer 20

+ evidence to support it. Research strongly supports bowlbys notion of the importance of infants social behaviour elicting caregivings

• criticism made of the critical period. Can’t explain why some children can make a full recovery from neglect but some can’t fully cope and recover.

Question 21

Strange situation strengths and weaknesses

Answer 21

• Ainsworth’s categories were not comprehensive. Research found a minority of children didn’t fall neatly into any of the three attachment types.this is known as disorganised attachment.

+ very good inter- rater reliability. Bick found inter-rater reliability to be 94% which means the attachment type shown isn’t based on Who is observing them.

Question 22

Cultural variations strengths and weaknesses

Answer 22

• Method of assessment is criticised for being biased in terms of imposed etic . this means that the study attempted to apply a technique designed for one culture to another.

+

Question 23

Maternal deprivation strengths and weaknesses.

Answer 23

+ contribution to establish importance for emotional care for psychological development

+ evidence from animal studies which shows effects of maternal deprivation. Levy found separating baby rats from their mothers had a permanent effect on their social development even if separations were as little as a day.

• findings may be unreliable. Rely on the recollections of mothers and don’t account for whether there was a substitute mother during separation periods.