Attatchment

Question 1

what is reciprocity?

Answer 1

when infant or caregiver responds to the other eliciting a response from them e.g a caregiver says something causing the infant to smile causing the parent to laugh.

Question 2

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

when caregiver and infants actions or emotions mirror each other

Question 3

what are ‘alert phases’

Answer 3

Phases where the infant signals it is ready for interaction. Mothers pick up and act on this 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman) but it can vary based on skill of the mother and external factors like stress (finegood et al)

Question 4

what was Meltzoff and Moore’s research into interactional synchrony?

Answer 4

• observed mothers and babies as young as two weeks when mothers would display one of three distinctive facial expressions.
• babies mirrored it more times than chance would predict

Question 5

What was Isabella’s research into interactional synchrony?

Answer 5

• observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed there level of synchrony and the quality of mother- infant attachment
• they found higher levels of synchrony were associated with higher quality of infant-caregiver attachment.

Question 6

Evaluate caregiver infant interactions

Answer 6

+ use of recording in a lab
> confounding variables can be controlled
> video can be replayed and analysed later
> infants don’t know they’re being recorded so won’t change their behaviour.
- difficult to interpret infant behaviour
> we don’t know what they’re thinking
- low explanatory power
> Feldman - we don’t know that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are important to development
CA Isabelle et al found interactional synchrony predicted development of good attachments

Question 7

Who came up with the four stages of attachment?

Answer 7

Schaffer and Emerson

Question 8

what are the four stages of attachment?

Answer 8

stage 1: Asocial stage
- babies have similar attitudes towards objects and humans
- show a preference for familiar people
stage 2: indiscriminate attachment
- 2-7 months
- show a definite preference for humans
- prefer familiar people but accept comfort from anyone
stage 3: specific attachment
- around 7 months
show preference for one person
- show signs of separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
stage 4: multiple attachments
- shortly after stage 3
- form attachments with more people who they spend a lot of time with
- 29% of children form multiple attachments within 1 month of stage 3

Question 9

what was Schaffer and Emerson’s research into the four stages of attachments?

Answer 9

• visit 60 infants (31 boys, 29 girls) every month for 12 months then again at 18 months.
• they asked the mother about the kinds of protest the child shows in every day separations and assessed their stranger anxiety
  - findings match with the four stages of attachment

Question 10

evaluate the four stages of attachment

Answer 10

+participant researcher
> most observations were done in everyday situations during ordinary activities
> high external validity
CA: > mothers may be biased about their children or may not notice some behaviours
- we may not see signs of anxiety in young infants
> because infants can’t communicate or really move so may be anxious but we can’t tell
+ practical application
>the research can help parents make informed decisions about how to comfort their infant and when to make some bigger decisions like when to send them to nursery

Question 11

what did schaffer and Emerson find about attachment to fathers in their longitudinal study?

Answer 11

> Father was the sole first object of attachment 3% of the time
Father was joint first object of attachment 27% of the time
75% of cases an attachment has been formed with the father by 18 months

Question 12

what was Grossman et al’s research into the role of the father and findings?

Answer 12

• carried out a longitudinal study of infants into their teens looking at the parents behaviour and its relation to the child’s later attachments
  *- They found the quality of attachment with the mother and not the father was related to the quality of later attachments
• They found the quality of play with the father was related to the quality of attachments in adolescence suggesting they have an important but different role to the mother*

Question 13

what was Field’s research into the role of the father and findings?

Answer 13

• Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, primary caregiver fathers and secondary caregiver fathers
  - primary caregiver fathers showed more reciprocity and interactional synchrony, like primary caregiver mothers, than secondary caregiver fathers

Question 14

evaluate the role of the father

Answer 14

• confusion over the question
  >some researchers are looking into them as primary caregivers, others as secondary
• conflicting evidence
  > longitudinal studies like Grossman’s have shown that fathers play an important role in the development of their child but children who don’t have fathers don’t develop differently.
  CA: Parents where there isn’t a father may simply adapt to take on this role
  + real world application
  > can help parents make informed decisions about who should take care of the child
• there may be bias from the traditional role of mothers and fathers

Question 15

what was Lorenzo’s research into imprinting and findings?

Answer 15

• he had half a clutch of goose eggs raised by their mother and half raised by him. Lorenzo was the first moving thing they saw
• the second group (incubator group) followed him around everywhere.
  *- when the groups were mixed the second group would continue to follow Lorenzo not the biological mother
• there is a critical period (a few hours for geese) in which if imprinting doesn’t take place it never will*
  sexual imprinting: a peacock that imprinted on a giant tortoise showed mating habits only to giant tortoises as an adult

Question 16

What is Harlow’s research into attachment and findings?

Answer 16

• he reared 16 monkeys with wire model ‘mothers’.
• in one condition the plain wire mother had milk and the cloth covered mother did not.
  *- the monkeys cuddled the cloth mother more regardless of which had food and when scared would always go to the cloth- covered mother showing that contact comfort is more important than meeting survival needs
• the maternal deprivation had lasting effects the monkeys were dysfunctional (aggressive, unskilled at mating, likely to neglect their young)*

Question 17

evaluate animal studies

Answer 17

+ research support for lorenzo’s imprinting
> Regolin and Vallortigara did a similar experiment with chicks and shape combinations
+ Harlow’s research has real world application
> helps social workers and clinical psychologists understand the importance of attachment figures and the risks if an infant doesn’t bond with anyone
- both lack generalisability
> humans are not mokey’s or geese so may act differently
- ethical issues
> protection from harm, concent, withdrawal ect

Question 18

Who proposed the learning theory of attachment?

Answer 18

Dollard and Miller

Question 19

what is classical conditioning in attachment?

Answer 19

food (US)= happy baby (UR)
Mother (NS)= neutral baby (UR)
food+mother= happy baby (UR)
Mother(CS)= happy baby (CR)

Question 20

what is operant conditioning in attachment?

Answer 20

Mother and baby reinforce each other:
Baby cries and gets comforted. Baby is positively reinforced to cry for mothers attention for the reward of comfort
Mother is negatively reinforced to comfort the baby to avoid the punishment of it crying

Question 21

what is attachment as a secondary drive?

Answer 21

Children are born with innate biological motivators (primary drives) e.g. the drive to eat when we’re hungry. The mother reduces that drive (e.g. by feeding them) so becomes associated with the reduction of that drive (drive reduction theory). Attachment is therefore a secondary drive as it is secondary to and a result of the biological motivators.

Question 22

Evaluate the learning theory of attachment

Answer 22

-conflicting evidence (animal studies)
> Lorenzo’s research they imprinted regardless of association with food
> Harlow’s research they would go to the cloth mother even if it wasn’t what was feeding them

• conflicting research (human studies)
  > Schaffer and Emerson: infants tend to attach to mothers regardless of feeding
  > Isabella et al: high levels of interactional synchrony predicted quality of attachment not feeding

+ conditioning may play a role
> feeling comfortable and safe in the presence of a particular adult may influence the choice of attachment
CA: Both CC and OC have the baby play a passive role
> Feldman and Eidelman: they play an active role in reciprocity and interactional synchrony

+ social learning theory
> Hay and Vespo: Parents model and reward attachment behaviour

Question 23

what is Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

Answer 23

He put great emphasis on attachment to one caregiver (the mother though not necessarily the bio mother or female). he had two principles:
the law of continuity: the more consistent and predictable the child’s care, the higher the quality of their attachment
The law of accumulated separation: Every little separation and the effects add up and the safest dose is a zero dose

Question 24

what are social releasers?

Answer 24

Innate ‘cute’ behaviour like cooing, smiling, ect. that encourages adult attention and activates adult social interaction
Attachment in reciprocal and hard-wired into mother and infant

Question 25

What is the critical and sensitive period

Answer 25

The critical period is the time in which an attachment must form (up to the age of 2).
The sensitive period is around 6 months when the infant is most sensitive and most likely to form an attachment.

Question 26

what is the internal working model?

Answer 26

the infant has a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver and bases future relationships off of it. If they had a loving reliable relationship, they will expect that from future ones.