Attatchment Flashcards
attatchment definition
emotional bond between two people
5 caregiver infant interactions
Reciprocity
Caregieverease ( voice)
interactional synchrony ( mirroring)
bodily contact
mimicking
Schaffer and Emerson
studied 60 babies from Glasgow monthly for a year and then again at 18 months
mothers were asked questions about the babies
produced 4 stages of attatchment
stages of attatchment -Asocial stage
0-6 weeks
attention seeking behaviour ( crying and smiling)
not directed at anyone in particular
stages of attatchment -Indiscriminate
6 weeks - 7 months
seeks attention
preferences to familiar faces
stages of attatchment -specific attatchment
7 -11 months
attactchment to primary caregiver
stranger anxiety
multiple attatchment
after initial attatchment is formed, child can go on to form attatchment with multiple people
Schaffer and Emerson variable finding
primary attatchment was often with the most responsive caregiver
Schaffer and Emerson A03
poor population validity - small sample
demand characteristics from mother
Role of the father
play a more play mate role than mother
prefer contact with father in a positive state but mother when in a negative state
Father as main caregiver
if they are the main caregiver they become more reponsive
2 factors affecting father being caregiver
social policys - paternal leave is a recent thing
biology - oestrogen is what makes women responsive
Harlows monkeys
Monkeys placed in a cage with two models , one with cloth and one with wire that provided milk
time spent with models was recorded and found that most time spent with cloth as provided contact comfort
Ross et al - nappies
positive correlation between nappies changed by father and strength if relationship
Harlow A03
unethical
has given insight of attatchment
emotional care in hospitals
Lorenz
hatched half the geese eggs normally with mother and half in an incubator where he was first moving thing they saw
imprinted to Lorenz , innate
CC and attatchment
infants become attatched due to food as being fed creates happiness so mother is the CS
OC and attachment
infants are positively reinforced when being fed so gain attachment to what feeds them
A03 OC and CC and attatchment
Both Harlow and Schaffer and Emerso found that food wasn’t the cause of primary attatchment
Bowlbys monotropic theory
attatchment is vital for survival and has evolved due to evolution, innate.
One attatchment is more imprtant than any others
Bowlbys critical period
0- 2.5 years , not developed in that time it never will
Bowlbys internal working model
primary attachment creates a prototype for how future relationships work
A03 of Bowlbys monotropic theory
supported by Lorenz
Romanian Orphan studies shows if initial attatchment isn’t made others can be
Strange situation aim
a controlled observation procedure to measure the security of attachment a child displays before a caregiver.
strange situation - insecure avoidant
20-25%
child shows little seperation protest
child avoids contact upon reunion
child treats stranger same way as parent
strange situation - insecure resistant
3%
shows lots of seperation protest
resists contact upon reunion
lots of stranger anxiety
strange situation - secure
60-75%
child shows separation protest
child seeks contact on reunion with caregiver
child wary of stranger
strange situation proc
a series of interactions between caregiver, child and stranger. Baby was left alone with the stranger and alone by itself.
4 Behaviours being looked for in strange situation
proximity seeking
exploration
stranger anxiety
response to reunion
A03 - strange situation positives
high internal validity
replicable
cause and effect established
A03 - strange situation negatives
lacks mundane realism
culturally biased ( ethnocentrism)
ethical implications
Lizenberg and Kroonberg variations in attatchement
meta analysis study of 32 studies in 8 countries looking at attatchment types
lizenborg - Secure attatchment results
lowest in China , highest in GB
Germany attatchment
insecure avoidant
Differences in culture
more intracultrural differences than intercultural
A03 of Lizenberg and Kroonberg- sample
large amount of studies were from USA
Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
if a child was away from primary attatchment for prolonged period during first 2.5 years would cause damage
consequences of maternal deprivation
low IQ - supported by Goldfarb who found lower IQ in care kids
emotionally affectionless and pyschopathic tendencies
Romanian orphan study method
studied 111 Romanian orphans adopted by British families before 2 years old, he looked at the effect of age and split them into 3 groups
- adopted before 6 months
- adopted between 6months-2years
- after age of two
Romanian orphan study results
adopted after 6 months - disinhibited attachment
adopted before 6 months - didn’t display disinhibited
effect on attatchment in future
poor attatchment leads to poor relationships , poor parenting , and either being bullied or being a bully
Romanian orphan studies - A03
Real life application - has led to improvements in child care
No confounding variable
Can’t generalise findings to everyone that’s been adopted as this was particularly bed
4 stages of attatchment
asocial , indiscrimnate , specific, multiple
meltzoff and Moore - interactional synchrony
an adult displayed one of three facial expressions or gestures , the response was filmed and inter observed and a link was found between what the adult had displayed and what the child had displayed
Isabella et al - interactional synchrony
found after observation of 30 mothers that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother infant attachment
issues on role of father research
- inconsistent research findings as some research is looking at father as primary attachment and some as secondary attachment so the question of what is the role of the father can’t be answered
Schaffer and Emerson - issue with studying asocial stage
babies are immobile during this stage so difficult to make judgements about them based on their behaviour
A03 of learning theory of attachment - animal studies
Lorenz showed imprinting happened before food was given
Harlow’s monkeys show food isn’t important
evidence against Bowlby’s monotropic theory- Koluchova
studied 2 twins who were isolated from the age of 18months to seven years old in a cupboard but after being adopted were okay
Grossman et al - role of father
longitudinal study on roles of fathers and found that quality of infant attachment with mothers was related to attatchments in adolescent but not the same with fathers showing they play a less important role
Schaffer and Emerson - role of the father
75% of secondary attachments were with the father
Tiffany - father as primary caregiver
if a father takes on role of primary caregiver they can be nurtruing , she studied this by looking at videos with primary caregivers and found similar interactions between mother and fathers
A03 - observing interactions
observing infants is hand movements and facial expressions , its very difficult to actually know what they mean and what is taking place from the infants perspective
A03 - observations don’t tell us the purpose
they are descriptions of behaviours that are being shown but doesn’t actually tell us the purpose
A03 - role of father and absence
if fathers are so important why are children without one not any different , McCallum studied children without fathers and found children don’t develop any differently
A03 - Schaffer and Emerson - cultural differnces
in collectivist cultures its believed babies form multiple attachments first as families jointly work together to care for the child
A03 - Lorenz - contradicting research
Guiton imprinted chicks with a yellow glove and they would try to mate with it however did eventually realise they had to mate with other chickens , showing Lorenz’s imprinting effects weren’t so permanent
Harlow - monkey maternal deprivation
he also stduied babies who had been raised with the wire model and found them to be much more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys
Harlow - crictical period
he found monkeys had 90 days for an attatchment to form and if it didn’t then it never would
A03 - Learning theory of attachment - Scahffer and Emersons findings
found that infants developed primary attatchemnet to mother even when other caregiver did most of the feeding
A03 - Learninig theory - too simplistic
ignores other factors such as interactional synchrony which have been proved by research to effect the quality of attachment
Bowlbys monotropic theory - law of continuity
the more constant and predictable the child care is , the stronger the attachment
Bowlbys maternal deprivation theory - law of accumulated seperation
the effects of every seperation from the mother add up
Bowlbys monotropic theory - critical period
if attatchment isnt formed by first wo years it never will be
Bowlbys monotropic theory - social releasers
babies are born with innate and cute behaviours that encourage attention from adults
A03 - Bowlbys MO theory - schaffer and emerson - against
Schaffer and Emerson showed multiple attachments could be formed at the same time
A03 - Bowlbys MO theory - support for internal working model - Brazzleton
Brazleton assessed 99 mothers on the quality of attachment using standard interview and observation, then they asked them what their attachment was like with their own parents and found those who said they were poor were classified as poor during the observation
A03 - Bowlbys MO- Socially sensitive
puts the idea that mothers are responsible for everything that goes wrong for a child
A03 - Strange situation - more types of attatchment
ainsworth only measured the three types of attachment however not all children fall into these , there is a 4th one known as a disorganised
IJzendoorn - findings on secure
secure was most common in all countries
50% in China
75% in UK
IJzendoorn - findings on insecure resistant
least common in all countries
3% in Britain
30% in Israel
IJzendoorn - findings on insecure avoidant
most common in Germany
least common in Japan
Bowlbys Theory of maternal deprivation- Theives study
interviewed 44 teenage thieves and found 14 to have pyschopathic tendencies, 12 out of 14 of these had suffered from maternal deprivation
A03 - Golfarb - Bowlbys Theory of maternal deprivation
these orphans were from orphanages in ww2 which were particularly extreme as they were often traumatised and had poor after care
A03 - Thieves study
- carried out by Bowlby himself which is research bias
- Replicated by Lewis but using 500 ps and found no link between psychopathic tendancies and maternal deprivation
A03-Bowlbys Theory of maternal deprivation- Research support- Levy
Levy et al showed separating baby rats from mothers for as little as a day had a permanent effect on social development
Romanian Orphan studies procedure
studied 165 Romanian orphans and assessed them at the ages 4,6,11,15 and compared with 52 British orphans
Romanian OS - findings
when they first adopted they had delayed intellectual development
by 11 they had showed differing rates of recovery depending on the age they were adopted
adopted before 6 months - IQ was 102
adopted after 6 months - IQ was 86
A03 - Romanian OS - allocation
they weren’t randomly assigned as groups were pre existing, meaning some children may have been more sociable than others which becomes a confounding variable
Hazan - love quiz - procedure
- love quiz put in an American Newspaper with 3 sections
- first section was about current or most important relationship
- second section was no of partners and general love experience
- third section asked them to describe feelings on childhood
Hazan - love quiz results
those who were securely attached tended to have good long lasting relationship’s whereas avoidants tended to fear intimacy and show jealousy
A03 - influence of childhood on future relationships - Zimmerman
found little association between quality of infant and adult attachment showing internal working model may not exist
A03 - influence of childhood on future relationships - alternative explanations
other factors such as parenting style and temprament may have an effect on how a child forms relationships
A03-influence of childhood on future relationships - probalistic
Clarke et al describes the infleunce as probablistic , people are not doomed they just have a greater risk
