Attatchment 1 Flashcards
What is it meant by the term attachment?
Attachment is a strong, enduring, emotional and reciprocal bond between two people, especially an infant and caregiver
State why caregiver-infant interactions in humans are significant
Caregiver-infant interactions in humans are believed to be important in regard to the child’s social development of an attachment
What does reciprocity describe?
- Reciprocity describes the way the mother and the infant interact both in terms of how they respond and how they elicit a response from each other
When does reciprocity take place for babies?
such interactions take place during babies’ ‘alert phases’ and become increasingly more frequent from around the age of 3 months
Give an example of caregiver-infant interactions in humans
Brazelton et al. (1975) Compares caregiver-infant interactions to a ‘dance’ where each partner responds to each other’s moves
What does research suggest about caregiver-infant interactions?
- As opposed to the traditional view in which the baby was seen to receive care
- research suggests the baby takes in an active role taking it in turns with the mother to initiate the interactions
What does interactional synchrony refer to?
Interactional synchrony refers to the coordinated or synchronised way the mother and infant reflect the actions and emotions of each other
- defined by Feldman as being ‘the temporal co-ordination and micro-level of social behaviour’
How does interactional synchrony help in a child’s social development?
Contacts like these help in a child’s social development and the formation of attachments with important figures such as the mother
What do Condon and Ogston say about interactional synchrony?
Condon and Ogston (1971) suggests that interactional synchrony is the coordination between the speech of a speaker and the movements of a listener during an interaction
What is a strength of caregiver-infant reactions? (Meltzoff and Moore (1977))
- Meltzoff and Moore (1977) found an association between the gesture or expression of the adult and the behaviour of the baby
- This evidence supports the idea that child mimicry is an innate ability which helps the formation of attachments
- as not only was it found in infants aged 2-3 weeks but it was also found in infants of less than 3 days old
What is a weakness of caregiver-infant interactions? (Research into mother-infant reaction)
- however, research into mother-infant interaction, by suggesting children might be disadvantaged by mothers returning to work, is socially sensitive
- is because the suggestion could be deemed as sexist as it gives evidence for and encourages traditional gender stereotypes
What are the four stages of attachment according to Schaffer?
Pre-attatchment
Indiscriminate attachment
Discriminate attachment
Multiple attachments
Describe pre-attachment
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) infants between 0-2 months are not attached from birth as they show similar behaviour towards inanimate objects as they do towards humans
Describe indiscriminate attachment
- babies start smiling more towards the end of the period which suggests they’ve become attracted to other humans and prefer them over objects
- changes that happen to infants between the ages of 2-7 months
- are that babies begin to recognise familiar faces, demonstrated by them smiling more at known people
- but will still allow strangers to look after them
Describe discriminate attachment
- 7/8 months onwards infants develop specific attachments
- staying close to one particular adult and becomes anxious of strangers, protesting when strangers attempt to handle them
- adult with whom the attachment is formed is known as the primary attachment figure
Describe multiple attachments
- after main attachment, the infant will become attached to others
- that it has a consistent relationship with such as grandparents
- this occurs from 9 months and onwards
- attachment to mother figure, according Schaffer, still remains strongest
- multiple attachments are termed secondary attachments
What is a strength of the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer?
- Shaffer’s stages of attachment are supported and based upon research by Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- this found out of the 60 Glaswegian babies studied, 80% had formed a specific attachment at the age of 40 weeks
- 29% had formed a secondary attachment within a month of forming a primary attachment
What is a weakness of the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer?
- Schaffer’s theory is questioned by conflicting work by Van Ijzendoorn et al (1993)
- which suggested babies form multiple attachments from the outset
- Ijzendoorn’s research observed babies in cultures where they had multiple caregivers from birth
- this research could be considered culture bias as it doesn’t explain attachments in collectivist cultures
What is the role of the father traditionally?
- a secondary attachment figure
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that approximately 75%% of the 60 infants they have studied had formed a secondary attachment to their fathers by the age of 18 months
- as shown as infants protesting when their fathers walked away
- was also found that 3% of cases was the father being the first sole attachment figure and in 27% of cases the father was the joint first attachment figure
What did Grossman find about the quality of the attachment?
- Grossman (2002) found that the quality of attachment the infant made with the father was not related to attachments in adolescence but the quality of the fathers play with the infant was
- suggesting fathers have a different role in attachment
How was Grossman’s study about the quality of attachment described?
- this study was a longitudinal study that looked at both the parent’s behaviour
- and the relationship to the quality of the children’s teenage attachments
What did Field suggest about the role of fathers in an infant’s life?
- when a father adopts the primary caregiver role his behaviour, according to Field (1978), becomes more like a mothers’
How was Field’s theory shown?
- was shown by the primary caregiver fathers spending more time smiling, holding and imitating their babies than secondary caregiver fathers
- it would appear that fathers have the potential to be emotion-focused primary attachment figures
What does research by MacCallum and Golombok suggest about the role of fathers?
- other research (MacCallum and Golombok, 2004) has suggested that the father’s role isn’t important as when growing up in single, or same-sex parent families
- children’s development has not been negatively affected
- it was shown that children growing up in such households do not develop any differently to those growing in two-parent heterosexual families
What is a weakness towards the role of the father?
- referring to MacCallum’s and Golombok’s research (2004)
- this does not necessarily contradict the view that a father’s role is important
- as it may simply be that parents in a single mother and lesbian-parent families simply adapt by accommodating the father’s role
What are the views which stress the importance of nurturing?
- one view - stressing the importance of nurture suggests that this may be down to gender roles
- another view - argues that the reason is due to female hormones such as oestrogen which create higher levels of nurturing in women
Which two things explain why fathers don’t typically become primary attachment figures?
- it is likely and an interaction between both the nature (biology) and nurture (gender roles)
- best explains why fathers typically don’t become primary attachment figures
Describe Harlow’s animal study of attachement
- Harlow (1959) reared 16 baby rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’
- Harlow wanted to see if a soft object served some of the functions of having a mother
- one wire model was cloth covered and one model was not
- Harlow used four conditions involving a wire monkey and a soft towelling mother, giving or not giving it milk
What does Harlow’s study show about attachment?
- showed that attachment is not based simply on the supply of milk by finding that monkeys became attached to a cylinder
- giving contact comfort rather than another one giving milk
What else did Harlow’s study show about attachment?
- study also showed that the monkeys, reared by a wire monkey, had psychological problems in their later life
- and therefore showed the importance of a responsive parent and not just providing food
Describe Lorenz’s experiment on animal studies of attachment
- Lorenz (1935) set up an experiment whereby he split a clutch of goose eggs with half the eggs being hatched in their natural environment
- with their mother and the other half being hatched in an incubator with the first moving object they saw being Lorenz
What did Lorenz’s research find out about attachment?
- Lorenz’s research found that goslings imprinted on the first moving object they saw
- with the incubator group following Lorenz and the control group following their mother
What else was found on Lorenz’s animal study of attachment which links to Bowlby’s theory?
- it was also found that imprinting only happened within a critical period
- and if it didn’t happen in that time an attachment wouldn’t be formed
(Links to Bowlby’s theory)
What is a weakness of Lorenz’s animal study of attachment?
- Lorenz’s study has been criticised as there is a problem of generalising findings based on birds to humans
- the mammalian attachment system is different to that found in birds, as with humans the mother shows more emotional attachments to their young
- and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time
- therefore it may be inappropriate to generalise Lorenz’s findings to humans
What is a strength of Harlow’s animal study of attachment?
- Harlow’s research is evaluated positively for having both a theoretical and practical value
- the findings of Harlow’s research profoundly affected psychologists understanding of attachment showing their contact comfort was more important than the supply of milk
- and the importance of early relationships on later relationships including child rearing
What is a weakness of Harlow’s animal study of attachment?
- The ethics of Harlow’s work can be criticised
- as monkeys are seen as being similar enough to humans to be generalised to humans
- it is surmised that their suffering was human life
- Harlow referred to the wire monkeys as ‘iron maidens’ after a medieval torture device
- Harlow’s studies made monkeys suffer greatly
What does the learning theory of attachment suggest?
- according to the learning theory infants become attached to the person who feeds them
- this is because attachments are based on the principles of classical and operant conditioning
How does classical conditioning link to the learning theory of attachment?
- in terms of classical conditioning, the attachment bond is the product of an association between the pleasure of food and the feeder
- according to classical conditioning, the food is the unconditional stimulus) produces pleasure (unconditioned stimulus)
- the mother who feeds them, becomes associated with pleasure and becomes a conditioned stimulus
How does operant conditioning link to the learning theory of attachment?
- according to operant conditioning, as proposed by Sears et al. (1957)
- food satisfies the infant’s hunger and makes it feel comfortable again (drive reduction)
- food is therefore a primary reinforcer
- the mother is associated with food and becomes a secondary reinforcer
- the infant becomes attached to the mother because she is a source of reward
Who proposed the learning theory?
- proposed by Dollard and Miller (1950)
- and is sometimes referred to as the cupboard love explanation due to it emphasising the caregiver’s role by providing food
What else can operant conditioning explain about babies?
- can also explain why babies cry for comfort
- if the caregiver responds correctly e.g. feeding, the crying is reinforced which leads to the baby directing crying for comfort towards the caregiver
- and the caregiver responding with what’s known as comforting ‘social suppressor’ behaviour
What is a weakness of the learning theory?
- has been criticised by Schaffer and Emerson’s study who found that even when not fed predominantly by the mother, the infant still became attached to the mother
- Schaffer and Emerson found less than half off infants had a primary attachment to the person who usually fed them
- contrasts with the leaning theory because it argues that the infant will become attached to whoever feeds them
What is a strength of the learning theory?
- although the learning theory as a whole is not thought to be a good explanation of attachment
- it is plausible that classical conditioning plays some role in the formation of attachments
What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
- Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment is an evolutionary explanation of attachment
- and suggests that one particular attachment (monotropy) is different and more important than all others in the child’s development
What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment based on?
the theory is based on:
- survival, innate programming
- a biological process taking place during a critical period
- social releasers
- monotropy
- internal working model
- continuity hypothesis
What does Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment suggest?
- suggests that attachment is important for survival and so attachments are too important to be left to chance learning as learning theory Would suggest
- infants are innately programmed to form an attachment according to Bowlby this means that they are born ready to form attachments
What does Bowlby argue about forming attachments?
- Bowlby argues the forming of attachments is a biological process and takes place during a critical period
i.e. the infants first two and a half years, or not at all - the role of social releasers is emphasised
What does Bowlby say helps infants form attachments?
- according to Bowlby to help them form attachments, infants are born with innate social releasers such as cooing, crying, smiling or simply looking attractive
- the mother responds to these releasers and this helps form the attachment
What does Bowlby’s theory claim?
- Bowlby’s theory claims that the child’s relationship with a primary caregiver (monotropy) 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 vice versa
What is a strength of Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
- Bowlby’s theory has research evidence to support it
- Brazelton et al’s (1975) research strongly supports Bowlby’s notion of the importance of infant’s social behaviour in eliciting caregiving
- in this research primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore babies’ social releasers and it was found that some babies after showing distress latterly curled up and remained motionless - reinforces the importance of responsive mothers in the formation of attachment
What is a weakness of Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
- the evolutionary theory can be criticised as it believes that having a secure bond to a special person enables children to go on and become emotionally secure adults
- however, the temperament hypothesis suggests that some babies are just born secure and friendly and that’s why they have secure attachments and go on to be secure adults
What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
- Bowlby believed that maternal care was necessary for the emotional development of children as vitamins were to physical development
- he suggested that there was a critical period for attachment formation and that if a prolonged separation occurs between mother and infant within the first few years of the child’s life, the bond would be irreversibly broken
- leading to severe emotional consequences for the infant in later life
What are the following consequences of maternal deprivation?
Has some or all of the following consequences:
- aggressiveness, Depression, delinquency, intellectual retardation
- dwarfism, dependency, anxiety
- affectionless psychopathology, social maladjustment
What is a one source of evidence of Bowlby’s theory on maternal deprivation?
- theory is supported by evidence
- one source of evidence for his study was Bowlby’s own research, a study of 44 juvenile thieves
- Bowlby found that 86% of the ‘affectionless psychopath’ thieves had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers
- only 17% of the other thieves had experienced the same and only 4% of the none thieves had
What is a weakness of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
- criticisms of the research are that the findings only state that there is a link between the deprivation of social and emotional maladjustment not that one causes the other
What is a strength of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
- a positive of the theory is the key contribution it has made to establish the importance of emotional care for psychological development
- and Bowlby’s hypothesis changed the way children were treated in hospital
What has research into the effects of maternal deprivation focused on?
- Research into the effects of maternal deprivation has focused on the effects of institutionalisation as this often leads to deprivation
What do Romanian orphan studies include?
- Romanian orphan studies include Rutter et al’s study which showed the recovery from institutionalisation is possible
- but that the longer a child experiences institutionalisation for, the longer the recovery takes
What did Rutter find on the effects of institutionalisation?
- Rutter (2011) found that children adopted after the age of 6 months had lower IQ’s
- than those adopted before 6 months
- and also showed disinhibited attachment with symptoms including attention seeking and clinginess
What is a strength on the Romanian orphan studies of the effects of institutionalisation?
- studies on Romanian orphans into the effects of institutionalisation had led to real life applications
- Rather than having large numbers of caregivers for each child, institutions now employ a key worker system
- whereby each child is allocated one or two people to play a central role in the child’s development
What is a weakness in Romanian orphan studies on the effects of institutionalisation?
- such studies are criticised in that Romanian orphanages are not typical
- the conditions within institutions were so bad that it is possible that findings cannot be generalised to either understanding the impact of institutional care or indeed deprivation
What does the internal working model claim?
- the IWM claims that the relationship with their primary caregiver provides the child with views about themselves as being loveable or not
- whether other people are trustworthy or not, and on relationships in general
What does the continuity hypothesis on the IWM predict?
- the continuity hypothesis predicts early relationship experiences continue into later adult experiences
- as the adult develops an IWM from their relationship with their primary caregiver
What is Hazan and Shaver’s study on the influence of early attachments on childhood and adult relationships?
- Hazan and Shaver used a Love Quiz in their local paper and asked readers to pick a descriptor which best fitted their feelings about romantic relationships with each descriptor relating to one of Ainsworth’s attachment types
What was ffound in Hazan and Shaver’s study on the influence of early attachments on childhood and adult relationships?
- It was found that people who were securely attached as infants had relationships that last twice as long as who were insecurely attached
- the research therefore supported Bowlby’s IWM
What is a weakness of the influence of early attachments on childhood and adult relationships?
- Zimmerman’s research of children growing up in Germany showed that life events such as the divorce of parents had much more effect on the children’s later relationships
- than their childhood attachment stereotype
- Such contradictory findings would appear to show that early relationships do influence later relationships
- but they are not necessarily as influential as the IWM theory would suggest
What did Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study?
- Ainsworth’s Strange Situation (1970) studied individual differences in attachment by using controlled observation
- about 100 middle-class American infants and their mothers took part
What were the results of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study?
- 70% of the infants were classed as securely attached
- 15% as insecure avoidant
- 15% as insecure-resistant
Describe what happens in secure attachment according to Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study
- in secure attachment, the infant will use the caregiver as a safe base to explore strange environments and shows pleasure on reunion
Describe what happens in insecure-resistant attachments according to Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study
- in insecure-resistant attachments, the infant is not willing to explore and will seek and reject the contact at the return of their caregiver
Describe what happens in insecure avoidant attachment according to Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study
- in insecure avoidant attachments, the infant is willing to explore but will avoid contact at the return of their caregiver
What is a strength of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study?
- in evaluation, one of the most important theories to come from Ainsworth’s work was the reason why infants become either securely or insecurely attached
- Ainsworth explained these differences in terms of caregiver sensitivity
What is a weakness of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation study?
- the research is criticised in terms of population validity and ecological validity
