Attachments

Question 1

What is an Attachment?

Answer 1

Attachment is an emotional bond between the child and their primary caregiver, which ties them together.

Question 2

Give 3 examples of Attachment Behaviours

Answer 2

1. Clinging
2. Proximity-seeking
3. Protecting an infant.

Question 3

What is a bond?

Answer 3

A Bond is a set of feelings that ties one person to another.

Question 4

Benefits of an Attachment

Answer 4

1. Survival
2. Food
3. Love
4. Security

Question 5

Give 2 caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 5

1. Reciprocity
2. Interactional Synchrony

Question 6

What is Reciprocity?

Answer 6

Reciprocity is a description of how two people interact, the mother infant interaction is reciprocal in that they both respond to each other’s signal and each shows a response from the other.

Question 7

What is Interactional Synchrony?

Answer 7

Interactional Synchrony is when two people interact and mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial and body movements. This includes imitating emotions as well as behaviours. This is described as a synchrony-When two (or more) things move in the same pattern.

Question 8

Outline Research that supports reciprocity by Jaffe et al (1973)

Answer 8

Jaffe et al (1973) demonstrated that infants coordinated their actions with Caregivers. In a kind of conversation, Birth babies move in a rhythm when interacting with an adult almost as if they are taking turns.

Question 9

Outline Research that supports reciprocity by Brazelton (1979)

Answer 9

Brazelton (1979) discovered the ‘Dance’ in which each partner responds to each other’s moves. Both the baby and the caregiver can initiate interactions and take turns in doing so.

Question 10

Outline Research that supports Interactional synchrony

Answer 10

Meltzoff and Moore conducted a study in which they observed infants at two weeks old and had adults show one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures. The children response was filmed and identified by independent observers. They found an association between the action of the adult and the action returned by the babies.

Question 11

Evaluate research into Infant-caregiver interactions (advantages)

Answer 11

• Intentionality supported-no response to inanimate object (Anravanel and DeYong).
• ‘Like me’ hypothesis (Meltzoof)-interactional synchrony leads to Theory of Mind.

Question 12

Evaluate research into Infant-caregiver interactions (disadvantages)

Answer 12

• Problems testing infant behaviour as they are in constant motion.
• Failure to replicate Meltzoff and Moore, e.g. Marian et al (Live vs taped interactions).
• Individual differences-security of attachment associated with interactional synchrony (Isabella et al.).

Question 13

Outline research studies into the role of the father by Schaffer

Answer 13

Schaffer found that initially babies become attached to their mother (7 months) and then after this form secondary attachments with others such as the father. 75% of babies had an attachment with their father by 18 months of age, they showed separation anxiety.

Question 14

Outline research studies into the role of the father by Lamb (1997)

Answer 14

Lamb indicated that between the ages of 15-24 months they will show a preference towards their father, this suggests that the father may become the Primary Caregiver.

Question 15

Outline research studies into the role of the father by Frank et al (1997)

Answer 15

Research has found that in two-parent families where the father is the primary caregiver, both parents often share the role of primary attachment figure (Frank et al, 1997). So, men can be primary attachment figures, but biological and social factors may discourage this.

Question 16

Evaluate research into the role of the father (only disadvantages)

Answer 16

:( - It is very difficult to draw one conclusion from all the research as some psychologists have looked to prove he father as the PCG and others have tried to prove him as the secondary caregiver.

:( - Alternative explanations about why fathers don’t usually become the PCG could be because of traditional gender roles that people don’t like to break as it is not seen as normal and thus, they continue with the social norms.

:( - Alternatively it could be biological reasons for mothers being the PCG majority of the time. Females have much higher levels of oestrogen and oxytocin and these create higher levels of nurturing behaviour.

:( - Socially sensitive research as it suggests children may be at a disadvantage by child rearing practices.

Question 17

Define Multiple attachments

Answer 17

Multiple Attachments is having more than one attachment figures.

Question 18

What is a Primary attachment figure?

Answer 18

A primary attachment figure is the person who has formed the closest bond with the child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship. This is usually a child’s biological mother, but other people can fulfil the role-an adoptive mother, a father, grandmother and so on. Throughout this chapter when we say ‘mother’ we are referring to the person who fulfils the role of primary attachment figure.

Question 19

Define Separation anxiety

Answer 19

Separation anxiety is the destress shown by an infant when separated from his/her caregiver. This is not necessarily the child’s biological mother.

Question 20

What is Stranger anxiety?

Answer 20

Stranger anxiety is the distress shown by an infant when approached or picked up by someone who is unfamiliar.

Question 21

Outline Schaffer’s stages of attachment Research

Answer 21

He has 60 babies from Glasgow and had Psychologists visited once a month for the first year and again at 18 months in participants homes and interviewed mothers.
During observations psychologists tested separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. He found that between 25-32 weeks of age 50% of the babies showed separation anxiety towards adults, usually the mother (specific attachment). He also found that attachments were formed with the adults who were the most sensitive to babies’ signals (reciprocity). By 40 weeks 80% had a specific attachment and 30% showed multiple attachments.

Question 22

Evaluate Schaffer’s research into attachment (advantages)

Answer 22

:) - The babies were never taken out of their homes and thus were always observed in a natural setting for the babies, this allows for results that can be more easily generalised to the population.

Question 23

Evaluate Schaffer’s research into attachment (Disadvantages)

Answer 23

\:( - The sample size was much too small to be able to have any sort of reliable generalising to the wider population. Not only was it too small but it was all people from working class families that lived in Glasgow. This sample is too specific.
\:( - The study was a longitudinal study which has its benefits however it then is susceptible to attrition where participants will inevitably drop out of it over time, making the sample even less generalisable to other children's stages of development.

Question 24

Outline Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 24

stage 1 - indiscriminate attachment 0-2 months
No preference for any object/ people
Preference for social stimuli
Stage 2 - beginnings of attachment 2-4 months
Can distinguish familiar people from strangers
No stranger anxiety - comforted by anyone
Stage 3 - Discriminate attachment 4-7 months
separation anxiety begins
preference for one person (primary figure)
Stage 4 - multiple attachment 7+ months
discriminate attachments are formed with others
secondary attachment figure is often fathers

Question 25

Evaluate Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment (Advantages)

Answer 25

• Challenging monotropy- Rutter argued that all relationships equivalent.
• Cultural variations- infants raised in collectivist environment showed less maternal attachment than in individualist/family-based homes (Sagi et al.)

Question 26

Evaluate Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment (Disadvantages)

Answer 26

• Unreliable data-mothers of less securely attached infants would be less sensitive and possibly less accurate in their reports, a systematic bias.
• Biased sample-working-class population from 1960s, results may not generalise.
• Stage theories of development-may be too inflexible.

Question 27

Define Imprinting

Answer 27

Imprinting is an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen at this time it probably will not happen.

Question 28

Outline Lorenz’s Animal Study into attachment

Answer 28

Lorenz divided up a clutch of goose eggs, where half were hatched with the mother goose and the other half in an incubator where Lorenz was the first living thing they saw. He found that the incubator group followed him around everywhere whereas the control group stayed with the mother and ignored him. When there two groups were mixed, they stuck with their original attachment figure.
Lorenz called this imprinting and he suggested that there was a critical period of a few hours depending on the species and if imprinting does not occur then the chicks do not attach to the mother figure.

Question 29

Evaluate Lorenz’s Animal Study (Advantages)

Answer 29

• Research support-imprinting on yellow rubber gloves (Guiton et al.).

Question 30

Evaluate Lorenz’s Animal Study (Disadvantages)

Answer 30

• Criticisms of imprinting-may not be irreversible and may be little more than just learning.
• This type of research will always have animal bias and we must be cautious when applying the findings to humans as we are very different to other species, cognitively that is.

Question 31

Outline Harlow’s Animal Study into attachment

Answer 31

8 baby rhesus monkeys were reared with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was given to the plain wire mother whereas in the second it was given to the cloth covered mother.
He found that the babies always chose to spend their time with the cloth covered monkey over the wire frame one. Specifically 22 hours compared to 2 hours, this shows that contact comfort was more important to the monkey then drive reduction when it came to attachment.
Harlow also suggested that there was a critical period of 90 days, and if an attachment had not been formed by then, then it never could and the damage is irreversible.

Question 32

Evaluate Harlow’s Animal Study (Advantages)

Answer 32

• Many very useful practical applications have come from this as it gives us a very valuable insight into caregiver-infant attachment. It has helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect and instead of making sure people have shelter and food that they are also being treated with love and care.

Question 33

Evaluate Harlow’s Animal Study (Disadvantages)

Answer 33

:( - There are however drawbacks of this study and it is that it lacks the following of any ethical guidelines. The monkeys suffered greatly with irreversible effect and as they share a high percentage of human’s gene pool, they have strong emotions like us. However, the argument is that the research is important enough to justify the effects on the monkeys.

Question 34

State two theories for the learning theory

Answer 34

Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

Question 35

Briefly explain classical conditioning

Answer 35

Learning a behaviour through stimulus, response and association

Question 36

Briefly explain operant conditioning

Answer 36

Learning a behaviour through rewards reinforcements and punishments

Question 37

What is the learning theory?

Answer 37

The name given to a group of explanations (classical and operant conditioning), which explain behaviour in terms

of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher order thinking.

Question 38

What is the social learning theory?

Answer 38

Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded.

Question 39

Explain classical conditioning linking it to attachment

Answer 39

Milk provided by the mother is an unconditioned stimulus which provides an unconditioned response in the baby of relief from hunger.
This response is automatic and does not need to be learnt. The neutral stimulus is the feeder, and through repetition of feeding the feeder becomes the conditioned stimulus. Therefore, whenever the baby is hungry at just the sight of the feeder it will link the CS and the UCR together and become relieved.

Question 40

Explain operant conditioning linking it to attachment

Answer 40

When the baby feels uncomfortable because it is hungry, they experience a drive state. This drive state motivates the baby to find a way to lessen the discomfort. In the early years the baby can do nothing but cry and being fed leads to drive reduction as the child is satisfied. The food is the primary reinforcer and the child learns that the food is a reward. The person that feeds the baby becomes the secondary reinforcer and the infant thus seeks to be near to this feeder as they are the source of reward and the attachment is formed.

Question 41

Evaluate the learning theories explanation of attachment (Advantages)

Answer 41

-Learning theory can explain some aspects of attachment-attention and responsiveness are rewards.

Question 42

Evaluate the learning theories explanation of attachment (Disadvantages)

Answer 42

• Animal studies-lack external validity because simplified view of human attachment.
• Attachment is not based on food-Harlow showed it was contact comfort; supported by Schaffer and Emerson.
• Drive reduction theory is limited-reducing discomfort does not explain secondary reinforcers.

Question 43

What is the continuity hypothesis?

Answer 43

The idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults.

Question 44

Define the critical period

Answer 44

A biologically determined period, during which certain characteristics can develop. Outside of this time window such development will not be possible.

Question 45

What is the Internal working model?

Answer 45

A mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and control their environment. In this case of attachment, the model relates to a person’s expectations about relationships.

Question 46

Define Monotropy

Answer 46

The idea that the one relationship that the infant has with his/her primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development.

Question 47

What is a social releaser?

Answer 47

A social behaviour or characteristic that elicits caregiving and leads to attachment.

Question 48

Outline Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Answer 48

Bowlby stated that it is likely that adults are innately programmed to become attached to their children as attachments have short and long term benefits such as survival.

Question 49

What are the four main features of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?

Answer 49

Monotropy - He suggested that the child attaches to one caregiver which is the mother (not necessarily the biological one). The law of continuity is the more consistent a child’s care = better quality of attachment. The law of accumulated separation is the separations from the mother adding up affecting the attachment.

Social Releasers - These are important and ensure interaction takes place, they are behaviours such as smiling crying etc.

Critical Period - This is biological and if an attachment is not formed in this critical period of 2.5 years then it may not take place at all.

Internal Working Model - This relationship with the monotropy provides infants with an IWM of relationships. This is a template of self-worth and they will apply it to all future relationships.

Question 50

Evaluate Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Answer 50

Attachment is adaptative-human infants form attachments when they start to be mobile.

• A sensitive period rather than a critical one (Rutter et al.).
• Multiple attachments-Bowlby’s views are not contradictory because secondary attachments contribute to one single internal working model.
• Continuity hypothesis-securely attached infants later classed as more empathetic and more popular (Sroufe et al.).
• Temperament hypothesis-Kagan suggested that innate emotional personality determines attachment.

Question 51

Define Insecure-Avoidant

Answer 51

A type of attachment which describes those children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others.

Question 52

Define Insecure-resistant

Answer 52

A type of attachment which describes those infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction, i.e. resist.

Question 53

Define Secure attachment

Answer 53

This is a strong and contented attachment of an infant to his or her caregiver, which develops as a result of sensitive responding by the caregiver to the infant’s needs. Securely attached infants are comfortable with social interaction and intimacy. Secure attachment is related to healthy subsequent cognitive and emotional development.

Question 54

What is the strange situation?

Answer 54

A controlled observation designed to test attachment security.

Question 55

Outline The strange Situation (Research into children’s attachment behaviour)

Answer 55

She had a sample of 100 middle class American infants and observed them through a two way mirror. Specifically watching how children reacted to; Separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and reunion behaviour.
What they did was:
1) Parent entered room for three mins with adult and explored room
2) Stranger enters and joins, adults talk
3) Parent leaves
4) Parent returns and stranger leaves
5) Parent settles infant and leaves
6) Stranger returns
7) Parent returns and stranger leaves

Results: She found three attachment types; secure (66%), insecure avoidant (22%) and insecure resistant (12%).

Question 56

Explain Ainsworth’s three attachment types

Answer 56

Secure - Upset when put under separation anxiety, avoidant of stranger but curious, instantly soothed when mother returns. Responsive and sensitive caregiver.
Insecure Avoidant - Unconcerned by mothers’ absence, avoidant of both, unresponsive in reunion. Unresponsive caregiver.
Insecure resistant - Overly distressed when mother left, fear of stranger, clinginess + rejection on reunion. Inconsistent caregiver.

Question 57

Explain Ainsworth’s three attachment types

Answer 57

Question 58

Evaluate Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 58

• Other types of attachment-disorganised (Type D) (Main and Solomon).
• High reliability-inter-observer reliability > .94.
• Real-world Application-Circle of security project.
• Low internal validity-children behave differently depending on which parent (Main and Solomon), through attachment type may be related to primary attachment figure.
• Maternal reflexive functioning may explain attachment better than sensitivity (Raval et al.).

Question 59

Define cultural variations

Answer 59

The ways that different groups of people vary in terms of their social practices, and the effect these practices have on development and behaviour.

Question 60

Outline Cultural variations in individualistic and collectivist cultures

Answer 60

Different cultures have different rules, laws social norms and customs etc. If there is difference in social norms it is natural to assume that attachment types vary across different countries. People use different child rearing practices when bringing up their children which encourages them to develop different qualities and abilities.

Question 61

Outline research done into cultural variations in attachment types

Answer 61

Van Ijzendoorn conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries based on around 2000 children.
He found non-western cultures had the greatest number of insecure resistant and most attachment types were secure.
Overall consistent results in countries were found showing us that there must be universal characteristics.

Question 62

Evaluate research into cultural variations in attachment types

Answer 62

• Similarities may be due to global culture (Van Ijzendoorn and Kronenberg).
• Results relate to countries yet within countries there are cultural differences, e.g. rural versus urban Japanese (Van Ijendoorn and Sagi).
• Cross-culture research-uses tools developed in one country in different setting where it has a different meaning (Imposed etic).
• Indigenous theories-may be the solution, though Posada and Jacobs suggest that there are universal attachment behaviours.

Question 63

Define Deprivation

Answer 63

To be deprived is to lose something. In the context of child development deprivation refers to the loss of emotional care that is normally provided by a primary caregiver.

Question 64

Outline Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 64

The theory is concerned with prolonged separation from the mother and the effects on the children that this has, emphasising how important continuous care from a mother figure is essential.
If separations are brief it is acceptable and wont damage the child, it is when these become common and for prolonged periods when it becomes deprivation where attachments can be broken.
Bowlby stated that the first 2.5 years are the critical period and if separation occurs here then psychological damage is inevitable.
Damage can be mental retardation, lowered IQ, which Goldfarb found when comparing IQ in children who were fostered to children in institutions. Bowlby also said that it could lead to affectionless psychopathy, which is where children cannot feel remorse and prevents children from forming normal relationships.

Question 65

Outline research into Maternal Deprivation

Answer 65

Bowlby had 44 criminal teens and interviewed them for signs of affectionless psychopathy and lack of affection to their victims. Their families were also interviewed to see whether they had had prolonged separations.
He found that 14/44 thieves were AP’s, of the 14 12 had experienced long term separation at a young age. In contrast only 5/30 had experienced separations.
He concluded that early separation can cause affectionless psychopathy.

Question 66

Evaluate Maternal Deprivation

Answer 66

• Emotional rather than physical separation is harmful (Radke-Yarrow).
• Support for long-term effects-women who experienced early separation more likely to experience depression later in life (Bifulco et al.).
• Real-world application-films of laura brought about social change (Bowlby and Robertson).
• Individual differences-some children more resilient, e.g. securely attached children in TB hospital (Bowlby et al.).
• Deprivation versus privation-loss of care (deprivation) may not have as serious consequences as a total lack of attachment (Privation) (Rutter).

Question 67

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 67

It refers to children spending a period of time within an institute such as an orphanage where there is often little emotional care provided.

Question 68

Describe the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 68

Reactive detachment disorder - This is caused by an extreme lack of sensitive responsiveness from a parent in early life and it leads top children unable to trust or love others, they ultimately end up isolated, selfish and aggressive and can end up being sociopathic.
Disinhibited attachment disorder- This is where a child may select attachment figures discriminately which can cause them to become overly comfortable around strangers.

Question 69

Describe evidence for the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 69

A longitudinal study was conducted on 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted to the UK to see what extent good care could make up for effects institutions.
Many aspects of the child’s development were assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years of age. A control group of 52 British children adopted at the same time was used. They found that 50% of the children showed signs of mental retardation/malnourished. Children adopted before 6 months has an average IQ of 100, between 6 and two years were 90 and after 2 years 80.
Children adopted after 6 months were more likely to show signs of reactive attachment disorder and disinhibited attachment disorder.

Question 70

What other studies did Zeanah et al (2005) do?

Answer 70

Zeanah assessed attachment in 136 children aged 1-3 years old that spent 90% of their life institutionalised. Compared to a control group of 50 participants. He used the strange situation to measure attachment type. He found that there were 65% insecure and 19% were secure. The control group had 74% secure.

Question 71

Evaluate these Romanian orphanage studies

Answer 71

• Individual differences-some children appear to recover despite no apparent attachments within sensitive period.
• Real-life application-adoption should be as early as possible and then infants securely attached (Singer et al.).
• Longitudinal studies-show that some changes take a while to become apparent, current studies show some recovery possible.
• Deprivation is only one factor-most institutionalised children experience multiple ‘risks’, thus maternal deprivation should not be over-exaggerated (Turner and Lloyd).
• The effects may just be due to slower development-the fact that children do appear to recover in time suggests that the effects simply slow down development (LeMare and Audet).

Question 72

Define the internal working model

Answer 72

A mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and control their environment. In the case of attachment, the model relates to a person’s expectations about relationships.

Question 73

Outline the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 73

Relationships with the monotropy provides the child with an internal working model which is a template of self-worth and will affect all other relationships in the future.
Attachment types are associated with the quality of peer relationships. Bullying behaviour can be predicted from attachment types. 196 children ages 7-1 were given questionnaires about bullying. They found that secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying, avoidant were most likely to be victims, and resistant the bullies.

Question 74

Explain information about ‘A love quiz’

Answer 74

A love quiz was created and printed in a local newspaper which had three sections; assessed participants current relationship, general number of love experiences and assessed attachment type. They found that 56% of participants were secure, 25% avoidant and 19% resistant. Secure participants were most likely to be in a good long lasting relationship, avoidant tended to be jealous of intimacy and resistant were likely to be single.

Question 75

Evaluate the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 75

• Correlational research-internal working model may not cause later relationship experiences; temperament may be intervening variable.
• Retrospective classification-childhood attachment type based on memory of childhood which may be inaccurate, though support from longitudinal study (Simpson et al.).
• Overly determinist-past attachment experiences do not always determine the course of future relationships (Simpson et al.).
• Low correlations-A meta-analysis of studies suggest correlations between early attachments and later relationships may be as low as 10 (fraley).
• Alternative Explanation-Adult relationships guided by self-verification (feeney).