attatchment Flashcards
what is attatchment
the stong long lasting and close emotional bond to a particular individual
what are social releasers
behaviours or characteristics that trigger a caregiving response
what is reciprocity
a reciprocal process which a caregiver and an infant make an emotional connection
what is interactional synchrony
behaviours of one or more individuals become synchronised
what is the earliest example of interactional synchrony
biological rythms during pregancy
what is a dyad
individuals regarded as a pair like mother and infant
when do Meltzoff and Moore say interactional synchrony begins
as early as 2 weeks old
outline research into reciprocity and findings
Belsky and Russel 1998
investiagted interactions between dyads at 3 and 9 months and reciprocity was seen in secure attatchemnts between diads
however in insecure attatchemnts between diads there were disproportionately less interactions with reciprocity
what characteristics do attatchments in infants have
- they are selective
- they proximity seek
- they want the parent that provides comfort and security
- they have seperation anxiety and distress
what do Schaffer and Emerson suggest about stages of attachment
there are 4 stages of attatchment
asocial: birth-6 weeks infant doesnt recognise individuals and reacts to object the same way as people
indiscriminate attachments: 6 weeks- 7 months baby begins to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar people
specific attachment from 7 months : shows clear preferences for attatchment figure
multiple attachments: from one year the infant has multiple attatchments
outline research to oppose Bowlbys idea of monotropy
Shaffer and Emerson
sample: 60 babies
procedure: children were studied in their own homes monthly for a year and their interactions with their career were observed and the carers were interviewed.
findings: attachment will most likely form with those who reponded accurately to the babies signals. By ten months old the mother was the main attachment figure for about half and the father for most of the others
what did Bolwby deem the role of the father to be
Support the mother financially and offer emotional support to the mother so she could care for the infant
what did Christianssen find
fathers were consistently more involved in play then caretaking activites
what did Verissimo find
a correlation between the qualilty of the relationship between the infant and their father and children being prepared for making friends at preschool
what is monotropy
the idea of that one very special relationship and that infants have an innate tendency to from a single primary attatchment to their mother or mother figure
what did Bolwby believe was the critical period and why is it so important
the first 24 months of a childs life
that failure to from an attatchment in the first 24 months can have serious implications for psycholoigcal health throughout life
what is the internal working model
according to Bolwby the first relationship provides a template for all later realtionships
outline gosling attatchment research
Lorenz ( 1935)
Aim- investigate attatchment after birth for goslings
Procedure- Lorenz got 12 goslings and kept 6 with thier mother and 6 with him. he spoke to them in the eggs and was the first person they saw when they hatched.
Findings: the goslings imprinted on him and followed him around everywhere and from this he could conclude that Goslings imprint of the first person they see and that it isnt just with biological parents.
outline monkey attatchment research
Harry Harlow (1958)
aim: find out what the primary driver for attatchment with animals is
procedure: seperated rhesus monkeys from their mothers soon after birth and reared them into cages with 2 surrogate mothers. One was covered with a soft towel and had a monkey like face. the other was wire and had a feeding bottle and a scary face. Then he scared the monkeys to see who they would go to for safety the food or comfort
Findings: when he scared the monkeys they ran to the cloth mother for comfort and spent 17-18 hours of the time on them compared to 1 hour on teh feeding monkey, from this he could conclude that baby monkeys primary driver for attatchment was comfort and security over food
evauluate animal studies
+ more ethical than using Humans
+ show the importance of imprinting and critical time periods
+ evidence against Freud on the cupboard love theory
-cant generalise to humans as they are studies on animals
- bad ethics using monkeys as the consequences were servere
what is the cupboard love theory
food is seen as central to attatchemnt and sees attatchment as a evolutionary behaviour that is learnt
explain cupboard love theory (behaviourism)
classical conditioning- learning takes place through association as the child begins to associate the primary care giver to food and comfort
operant conditioning- parents learn that by attending to their childs needs and being responsive they can stop the bad feeling of hearing their child cry and are therefore negatively reinforced by the redution of the unpleasent infant crying and positively reinforced by the baby smiling and interacting with them
evaluate the learning theory approach for an explanation of attatchment
-ignores biology
-theory is based on animal studies and therefore reductionist
-ignores other factors such as personality , culture and social factors
what does the cognitive theory suggest about attatchments
infabts form attatchments once they can distinguish between caregivers and who interacts with them.
the infants have a congnitive process of what primary caregiver gives them the response they want
what was the procedure in the Strange situation
- infant, caregiver and stranger
2.caregiver and infant - stranger caregiver and infant
- stranger and infant
- caregiver and infant
- infant alone
- stranger and infant
- infant and caregiver
Outline the research into types of attatchment
Mary Ainsworth (1970)
Aim: testing for different types of attatchments, reunion behaviour, seperation anxiety and stranger anxiety
procedure: babies tested between 12 and 18 months. Took the child and their carer into an unfamliliar room and subjected the infant to a series of conditions. If the infant gets very stressed in episodes 4, 6 and 7 they are cut short.
findings: 3 different types of attatchment
what are Ainsworths 3 attatchment types
A-anxious avoidant 20%. The infant ignores the mother and is not affected by her leaving or returning.
B- securely attatched 70%. The infant contently in their mothers presence and is distressed when she leaves and happy on her return. Not completely adverse to the stranger but clearly prefers their mother and shows moderate seperation and stranger anxiety.
C - anxious resistant 10%. The infant does not play contently in the mothers presence is distressed by her leaving and not easily comforted on her return and avoides contact with her. Has high levels of stranger and seperation anxiety.
what is the 4th attatchment type
D- insecure diagnosed. inoncistent and hard to predict as its a mix of A,B and C.
what 3 things does Ainsworth suggest explains different attatchments
- Parental sensitivity: when the mother is emotionally sensitive it will leads to a secure attatchment, when the mothers are slow to react it leads to type A attatchment and if the mother is overly sensitive then type C attatchment
- Infant temperament: Kagan suggests that there are innate differences in infants. If an infant is constantly crying and rarely sleep it will leads to an exhausted mother who is less responsive. If the child sleeps through the night the mother will be less tired and more liekly to respond correctly to the child
- Family circumstances: social culture and environmental factors will all play a part
evaluation of Ainsworths study
-reductionist as it reduces complex attatchments into categories
- ethnocentric as it only uses americans
+ good ethics as if it gets too stressful on the child it stops
- there is a suggested 4th type that Ainsworth didnt find in the study
+ reliable
- lacks ecological validity
what did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenburg do and what did they find in terms of attatchment types
compared the results of 32 cross sultural studies of attatchment using the strange situation
secure attatchment: GBR had the higest % and China had the lowest
anxious avoidant: West germany had the highest and Japan had the lowest
anxious resistant: Isreal had the highest percent and GBR had the lowest percent
evalaute Ijzendoor and Kroonenburgs study
-most of the countries data was based off of one study so not representative
- there is bigger variation in cultures then between them
+ useful tool for picking up problems early and overcoming them in parenting classes and therapet
- low ecological validity
+ reliable
what is maternal deprivation
the absence of a loving mother due to wither a failure to form an attatchment or the loss of one
what is Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis
that if an infant experices maternal deprivation during the critical period that there could be serioud permanent consequences
what does Bowlby beleive the consequences of maternal deprivation during the critical period include
- Mental abnormalities
- Delinquency
- Depression
- Affectionless psychopathy
- even dwarfism
what is affectionless psychopathy
the lack of affection and concern for others, an inability to form close relationships and lack of guilt and remorse for antisocial behaviour
Outline research into maternal deprivation
Bowlby
procedure: 44 juvenile thieves and compared them with another 44 boys who also attented the clinic but had no criminal record.
findings: he found that 14 of the thieves were afectionless psychopaths and that 12 of them suffered early prolonged seperations from their mothers.
evaluate Bolwybs research into maternal deprivation
-the sample is biased as Bowlby picked them himself
- the evidence is retrosoective and therfore relies on accurate recall of the past
- bowlby diagnosed affectionless psychopathy himself
- it ignores other factors like family problems and culture
+ high ecological validity
+ reliable
+ his theory changed the UK social policy
+ supporting research: Goldfarb found that children raised in institutions for the first 3 years of their lives had lower IQ’s then those adopted early
+ supporting research: Spitz and Wolf studied ifnant in South American orphanages and found evidence of servere depression
what are the 3 things that mitigate the effects of disruptions to attatchment
Environment: Henicke and Westheimer found that seperation distress can be minimised if the infant is in a familiar house with familiar people
Age: Maccoby found that seperation is more likely to be the most distressing between the ages of 6 months to 3 years so we know to avoid it at all cost during these years
Security and attatchment: when children have a secure attatchment they are less likely to feel distress and seperation than children who are insecurely attatched
Outline research into Romainian Orphans
Rutter
Aim: examine the extent to which good care can make up for poor experiences in institutions
Sample: 165 romanian orphans who were adopted in britain and 52 British children adopted at the same time as the control group
Procedure: children were assessed on physical, cognitive and emotional development from the ages of 4 to 15
Findings:
- The mean IQ was lower in those adopted after 2 years then those adopted before (102 vs 77)
- Half of the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development
- Majority were malnourished
- Those adopted after 6 months were more likely to show signs of disinhibited attachment
what is disinhibited attatchment disorder
a persistant pattern of abnormal social functioning that arises during the first 5 years of life
outline research into attatchment types in institutions
Zeanach et al- Early Intervention Project
Aim: assess attatchment types of children raised in institutions
Sample: 95 children 12-31 months who spent most of their lives in institutional care and compared them to a control group of 50 children who had never been in institutional care
Procedure: compared the two groups and asked carers about unusual social behaviour, including clingyness and attention seeking bahaviour
Findings:
securely attatched- 74% of control group and 19% of institution group’
disorganised attatchment- 65% of institution group
disinhibited attatchment- 44% of institutional group and 20% of control group.
conclusions: children raised in institutions were much less likely to be classified as having secure attatchment than control group.
what did Spitz and wolf find
supporting research: Spitz and Wolf studied infant in South American orphanages and found evidence of severe depression
what did Goldfarb found
Goldfarb found that children raised in institutions for the first 3 years of their lives had lower IQ’s then those adopted early
