Attahcment Lessons 6-9 Flashcards
Learning theory
According to the learning theory, all behaviour is learnt rather than being inherited
Two types of Conditioning
Classical and Operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
The stimulus of food is an unconditioned stimulus and pleasure is an unconditioned response
The person providing the food is the neutral stimulus and the baby produces a neutral response
Then after conditioning, the person that becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces pleasure which is a conditioned response
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning strengthens attachment.
The baby receives positive reinforcement for crying when they are hungry. (behaviour produces a pleasant consequence)
Negative reinforcement is when behaviour removes something that is h pleasant. When the caregiver feeds their baby, they stop crying, removing something unpleasant
Evaluation of Learning Theory
- The theory explains how attachments form but not why they form. According to Bowlby’s theory of attachment, infants form attachment to their caregiver to ensure they are protected
- The learning theory is environmentally reductionist because it explains complex human behaviour in a very oversimplified way. It doesn’t take into account the different types of attachment
- Schafer et al found that food is not necessary for attachments to form because it wa found that 39% of babies were not attached to their mother even though they fed the baby
- Harlow conducted the Rhesus monkey experiment where he separated infants from their mothers. He allowed monkeys to get milk from a wire mesh mother or a soft cloth mother. It was found that monkeys clung to the soft cloth mother when scared suggesting comfort is more important than food in determining attachment
- The learning theory is scientifically sound and plausible because it is established and there is evidence for it making it a valid theory
WESHS
Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory
Attachments form because it is an instinct that has evolved to make the likelihood of the parents passing on their genes and the babies to survive. It is adaptive
Infants have an innate drive to be attached
How attachments form
Through the critical period and also it is determined through the caregivers sensitivity. Social Releasers include smiling and crying
Critical Period
2 years of age and if infants don’t form attachment by this time, they’ll find it hard to form attachments later on
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Monotropy
One special bond that infants will form which is usually with the mother
The monotropic bonds importance in the internal working model
If a monotropic bond is secure, it results in positive internal working model which creates positive relationships in later life
If a monotropic bond is insecure, there may be a lack of intimacy and commitment
If there is no monotropic bond, there will not be an adequate internal working model and therefore it can make having relationships hard
The continuity hypothesis
Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory
- Individuals who are securely attached continue to be socially and emotionally competent
Evaluation of Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory
- Schaffer found that multiple attachments are more common than monotropic bonds. In 18 months, only 13% of infants had one attachment figure
- Feminists Erica Burman have found monotropy places a massive burden on women, making them the culprit of anything in the infants life goes wrong. The role of the father being economic is outdated
- Tizard and Hoges found children who had been adopted could still form attachments to their new parents which goes against the critical period
- Impossible to test that the monotropic theory would has been the same though evolution
SFTT
Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation
Maternal Deprivation leads to a positive internal working model not being made and occurs through separation. Leads to Low IQ and affectionless psychopathy
Bowlby’s Study and Findings into the theory of maternal deprivation
Studied 88 children in the child guidance clinic in london.
44 had been caught stealing and 44 were a control group. Suggested that 14 of the 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths
12 of the 14 experienced separations and 5 of the 30 thieves had seperations
Affectionless Psychopaths
They lack shame and also responsibility for their actions
Evaluation of Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation
- Before Bowlby’s theory, hospitals would not allow parents to visit their children during stays in hospital l which was found to have a damaging effect on the child.
- Spitz examined children in a poor quality orphanage in South America. It was found children weren’t given attention and led to anaclitic depression
- Skodak and Skeeles found that children placed in institutions that only looked after them physically had poor intelligence. When there was also emotional care, the IQ increased
- Bowlby didn’t distinguish between deprivation which is where the attachment figure is lose and privation where there was never an attachment figure meaning the negative effects could be caused by the latter, privation
- Tizard and Hoges found the effects of maternal deprivation have been seen to be reversible. Children who never formed attachments and were adopted were able to form attachments to the new parents after being adopted
SHSTD
Institutional care
Care outside of the infants family. Children are raised in children’s homes, hospitals or orphanages
Romanian Orphan Studies was investigated by who?
Rutter et al
Background of the Romania Orphan Studies by Rutter et al
- Romania was ruled by a communist regime which prohibited contraception and abortion in the hopes to increase the population to support industrialisation. Children were left in homes because their parents couldn’t afford taking care of them
Procedure of Romanian Orphan Studies
165 Romanian Children who were in institutional care before being adopted.
Children were tested at ages 4,6,11 and 15 and compared to 52 British children adopted in the UK who acted as a control group and were adopted before 6 months. Assessed their emotional, social and psychological development
Findings of the Romanian Orphan Study
Romanian orphans lagged behind emotionally, socially and physically. They were intellectually delayed. Those’d adopted after sixth months showed quasi autism and had delayed intellectual development
The study suggested that if the children were adopted before 6 months and received sensitive parenting, the consequences of institutional care would be less
Effects of Institutionalisation
1) Delayed intellectual development - Low IQ and Concentration problems
2) Disinhibited Attachmemt - Children wouldn’t know what appropriate behaviour with strangers is
3) Emotional Development - Children have difficulty managing their anger
4) Lack of internal working model - They can’t form good relationships
5) Quasi Autism - Stuggle to understand social context
6) Delayed Physical Development - Children who are in institutional care are small and they show a lack of emotional care
Evaluation of Institutionalisation
- Studies that have investigated effects of institutionalisation have enhanced the understanding of the potential negative effects of institutional care, making it be better suited for children and reduce the negative effects
- Cannot be generalised because the romanian orphanages were exceptionally poor where they effects were so detrimental.
- It is possible that the negative effects of institutional care can be reversed through the use of sensitive parenting and providing the infant with emotional and psychological support
- Random allocation through the creation of the adoption group and the control group was not created through random allocation meaning participant variables can effect the study. It reduced the validity of the study
