Attachments - Strange/Early/Cultural/Maternal/Romanian

Question 1

What is the Strange Situation?

Answer 1

• introduced by Ainsworth and Bell (1970)
• tests the nature of attachment systematically

Question 2

What is Ainsworth and Bell’s (1970) study?

Answer 2

• to see how infants (9-18 months) behave under conditions of stress
• the behaviours assessed were:
  
  • stranger anxiety
  • separation anxiety
  • using parents as secure base
  • reunion behaviour (distinguishes between types of attachment)
    ‎
• the procedure consists of 7 episodes:
  
  • parent sits with infant (secure base)
  • stranger enters (stranger anxiety)
  • parent leaves (separation anxiety)
  • parent returns/stranger leaves (reunion behaviour)
  • parent leaves (separation anxiety)
  • stranger enters (stranger anxiety)
  • parent returns (reunion behaviour)
    ‎
• a group of observers recorded what the infant is doing every 15 seconds

Question 3

What are the findings of Ainsworth’s study?

Answer 3

• secure: 66%
  
  • willingness to explore = high
  • stranger = high
  • separation = easy to soothe
  • reunion = enthusiastic
    ‎
• insecure avoidant: 22%
  
  • willingness to explore = high
  • stranger = low
  • separation = indifferent
  • reunion = avoids contact
    ‎
• insecure resistant: 12%
  
  • willingness to explore = low
  • stranger = high
  • separation = distressed
  • reunion = seeks and rejects

Question 4

What are the strengths of the Strange Situation?

Answer 4

• high reliability:
  
  • inter-observer reliability as two or more people observed the infants’ behaviour
  • they found 0.94 agreement (1.00 is perfect)
• real world application:
  
  • intervention strategies can be developed for this with disordered patterns of attachment
  • ‘Circle of Security’ project teaches caregivers to understand their infants’ signals of distress better
  • this improved relationships between caregivers and infants

Question 5

What are the weaknesses of the Strange Situation?

Answer 5

• fails to measure other types of attachment:
  
  • Main and Soloman (1986) analysed the SS video tapes and proposed insecure-disorganised
  • this type is characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of behaviour
• ethical issues:
  
  • caused possible psychological harm during the separation episodes
  • when conducted in Japan, many had to be stopped at episode 6 as they were crying uncontrollably
• concerns with validity:
  
  • Main and Weston (1981) found that children behaved differently depending on which parent they were with
  • suggests that classification of an attachment is not valid as it measures one relationship type only
  • due to its highly controlled lab setting, it has low ecological validity
  • also lacks population validity as study was carried out on American, white middle-class mothers/infants

Question 6

What is the internal working model?

Answer 6

• Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver
• this becomes a template for what future relationships will be like and what to expect
• it can be described as a schema for what relationships entail
• therefore the quality of the first relationship with primary figure is crucial
• Bowlby’s theory predicted that there would be continuities between early attachment experiences and later social/emotional behaviour

Question 7

What is the influence of attachment on childhood relationships?

Answer 7

• Minnesota study (Sroufe (2005)):
  
  • securely attached = highest rated for social competence, less isolated, more popular and empathetic
  • they have better IWMs so they have higher expectations of those around them
  • this enables them to form relationships much easier
• Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998):
  
  • assessed attachment type and bullying involvement
  • used standard questionnaire in 196 children
  • secure = not involved
  • avoidant = victims of bullying
  • resistant = bullies
  • insecure attached children did not have a strong IWM due to poor relationship with primary caregiver

Question 8

What are the strengths/weaknesses of early attachment on childhood relationships?

Answer 8

• supporting research from the two studies (+) :
  
  • Minnesota is a longitudinal study as same children are followed throughout their life
  • conclusions drawn from this study are strong
• flawed methodology (-):
  
  • Myron-Wilson and Smith used standard questionnaires
  • this may cause social desirability bias as the ppts may pretend they have a secure attachment

Question 9

What is Hasan and Shaver’s (1987) study? (adult relationships)

Answer 9

• decided to study the internal working model
  
  • predicted correlation between adults’ attachment styles/type of parenting received
  • different attachment styles = different characteristic mental models
• they placed a Love Quiz in a newspaper which asked questions about current/past attachment experiences
• it also asked about attitudes towards love
  
  • sample 1 = 620 responses
  • sample 2 = 108 students (focused more on self side)

Question 10

What are the findings of Hasan and Shaver’s study?

Answer 10

• secure = 56%
• avoidant = 23/25%
• resistant = 19/20%
  
  • securely attached individuals described most important relationships as happy/friendly/trusting
  • they also believed in lasting love
  • avoidant ppts were more doubtful about the existence of romantic love
  • they showed feelings of jealousy and fear of intimacy
  • insecure resistant were the most vulnerable to loneliness
• shows how adult mental models differ according to attachment styles

Question 11

What are the behaviours influenced by the internal working model?

Answer 11

• childhood friendships
• poor parenting
• romantic relationships
• mental health

Question 12

What are the strengths/weaknesses of the influence of early attachment in later relationships?

Answer 12

• mixed evidence on continuity of attachment type
• most supporting studies have validity issues:
  
  • they mainly use self report techniques
• association does not mean causality:
  
  • other factors like the child’s temperament may affect their attachment and later relationships
• the influence of early attachment is probabilistic but not definite:
  
  • Clark and Clark believed that people are not always doomed if they have had problems with attachment in infancy

Question 13

What are the cultural variations in attachments?

Answer 13

• Ainsworth in Uganda (1967):
  -.
• Simonella in Italy (2014):
• Jin in Korea (2012):
• Tronick (1992) (African tribe):
• Takahashi in Japan (1990):
• Grossman and Grossman in Germany (1991):

Question 14

What is Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s (1988) study?

Answer 14

• meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 different countries (China, Netherlands, UK, Japan, Israel, Sweden, US, West Germany)
  
  • secure attachment was the most common in all countries
  • West Germany had the highest avoidant (individualist)
  • Israel/Japan had the highest resistant (collectivist)
  • variation within the same countries were 150% greater than those between countries
• shows that regardless of culture babies are still able to form secure attachments
• but cultural practises have a significant impact on the likelihood of whether an avoidant or resistant attachment is formed

Question 15

What are the strengths/weaknesses of cultural variations in attachment?

Answer 15

• large samples
• samples are unrepresentative of the culture
• method of assessment is biased

Question 16

What is maternal deprivation?

Answer 16

• idea that continual presence of nurturing from the mother is essential for the normal psychological development (emotional/intellectual)
• separation = not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure
• deprivation = when the child is not in the presence of the p.a.f. and loses an element of her care
  
  • prolonged separations can lead to deprivation
    ‎
• the first 30 months of life is seen as the critical period for psychological development
• separation during this period can cause lasting psychological damage:
  
  • intellectual development = can suffer delayed intellectual development (low IQ)
  • emotional development = Bowlby believed they would become affectionless psychopaths (inability to experience guilt/string emotions)

Question 17

What is Bowlby’s 44 Thieves study?

Answer 17

• 44 criminal teenagers where interbred for signs of affectionless psychopathy
• their families were also interviewed to establish whether teenagers had prolonged separations from their mothers (maternal deprivation)
• control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed teens were used for comparison
  ‎
• 30% of the thieves were described as affectionless psychopaths
  
  • of them 86% had experienced prolonged separations from their mothers during the critical period
• 17% of the remaining thieves had experienced separations
• of the control group 5% had experienced long separations from their mother

Question 18

What are the strengths/weaknesses of the maternal deprivation hypothesis?

Answer 18

• evidence may be poor:
  
  • studied war-orphans who were traumatised and would’ve had poor after care
  • these factors could’ve caused the psychological difficulties instead of separation
  • the 44 thieves study had some design flaws as he may have shown bias during the interviews
• counter evidence:
  
  • Lewis (1954) partially replicated the 44 thieves study (500 people)
  • found that prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality/difficulty forming close relationships
  • questions the MDH as other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation
• effects are reversible:
  
  • Kulochova (1976) found that twin boys who were isolated from 18 months to 7 years were able to recover
  • they were taken in by two loving adults
  • shows that maternal deprivation during the critical period does not always lead to long term/permanent psychological damage
• does not distinguish between deprivation and privation:
  
  • Rutter (1981) claimed that the severe long term damage associated with deprivation is actually a result of privation
  • privation = failure to form an attachment in the first place
• supporting animal studies:
  
  • Levy (2003) separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development (but nothing else)
  • this shows truth in Bowlby’s theory but its effects are not as clear as he claimed

Question 19

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 19

• when babies are placed in an institution (hospital, mental home) where due to unfortunate circumstances are unable to be looked after by parents/caregivers
• the effects of institutionalisation include:
  
  • child adopting rules/norms of the institution (can impair functioning)
  • loss of personal identity, deindividuation

Question 20

What is Rutter and Songua-Barke’s (2010) study?

Answer 20

• studied 165 Romanian children who spent time in Romanian institutions
• the three age categories were:
  
  • 54 adopted before 6 months
  • 57 adopted between 6 months - 2 years
  • 54 adopted between 2-4 years
• assessed physical, cognitive, social development at regular intervals
• the orphans lagged behind British counterparts on all measures of development
  
  • those adopted after the critical period had a much lower IQ and were more likely to suffer mental health issues
• institutional care does not always mean children will recover
• this study shows the long-term consequences of this

Question 21

What are the strengths/weaknesses of the study?

Answer 21

• conditions of orphanage unknown
• ethical issues like consent
• difficult to generalise as only few children received detailed clinical investigations
• there may have been many extraneous variables as this was a natural experiment

Question 22

What are the other Romanian Orphan studies?

Answer 22

• Le Mare and Audet (2006)
  
  • conducted a longitudinal study and found that adopted orphans were much smaller than a matched control group of the same age
  • but the diff. had disappeared by the age of 11
• Zeanah (2005)
  
  • used SS to identify attachment types of orphanage children compared to a control group
  • control group = 74% securely attached
  • institutional group = 19% securely attached
  • 65% were classified as type D (disorganised attachment)

Question 23

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 23

• physical underdevelopment
• intellectual underfunctioning
• disinhibited attachment = children will be friendly towards people they know as well as strangers
• poor parenting

Question 24

What are the strengths of the institutionalisation studies?

Answer 24

• real life application
• longitudinal studies
• Rutter’s research has very few extraneous variables

Question 25

What are the weaknesses of the institutionalisation studies?

Answer 25

• ethical issues
• individual differences