attatchment

Question 1

what is attatchment

Answer 1

the stong long lasting and close emotional bond to a particular individual

Question 2

what are social releasers

Answer 2

behaviours or characteristics that trigger a caregiving response

Question 3

what is reciprocity

Answer 3

a reciprocal process which a caregiver and an infant make an emotional connection

Question 4

what is interactional synchrony

Answer 4

behaviours of one or more individuals become synchronised

Question 5

what is the earliest example of interactional synchrony

Answer 5

biological rythms during pregancy

Question 6

what is a dyad

Answer 6

individuals regarded as a pair like mother and infant

Question 7

when do Meltzoff and Moore say interactional synchrony begins

Answer 7

as early as 2 weeks old

Question 8

outline research into reciprocity and findings

Answer 8

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

Question 9

what characteristics do attatchments in infants have

Answer 9

1. they are selective
2. they proximity seek
3. they want the parent that provides comfort and security
4. they have seperation anxiety and distress

Question 10

what do Schaffer and Emerson suggest about stages of attachment

Answer 10

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

Question 11

outline research to oppose Bowlbys idea of monotropy

Answer 11

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

Question 12

what did Bolwby deem the role of the father to be

Answer 12

Support the mother financially and offer emotional support to the mother so she could care for the infant

Question 13

what did Christianssen find

Answer 13

fathers were consistently more involved in play then caretaking activites

Question 14

what did Verissimo find

Answer 14

a correlation between the qualilty of the relationship between the infant and their father and children being prepared for making friends at preschool

Question 15

what is monotropy

Answer 15

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

Question 16

what did Bolwby believe was the critical period and why is it so important

Answer 16

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

Question 17

what is the internal working model

Answer 17

according to Bolwby the first relationship provides a template for all later realtionships

Question 18

outline gosling attatchment research

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

outline monkey attatchment research

Answer 19

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

Question 20

evauluate animal studies

Answer 20

+ 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

Question 21

what is the cupboard love theory

Answer 21

food is seen as central to attatchemnt and sees attatchment as a evolutionary behaviour that is learnt

Question 22

explain cupboard love theory (behaviourism)

Answer 22

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

Question 23

evaluate the learning theory approach for an explanation of attatchment

Answer 23

-ignores biology
-theory is based on animal studies and therefore reductionist
-ignores other factors such as personality , culture and social factors

Question 24

what does the cognitive theory suggest about attatchments

Answer 24

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

Question 25

what was the procedure in the Strange situation

Answer 25

1. infant, caregiver and stranger
   2.caregiver and infant
2. stranger caregiver and infant
3. stranger and infant
4. caregiver and infant
5. infant alone
6. stranger and infant
7. infant and caregiver

Question 26

Outline the research into types of attatchment

Answer 26

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

Question 27

what are Ainsworths 3 attatchment types

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

what is the 4th attatchment type

Answer 28

D- insecure diagnosed. inoncistent and hard to predict as its a mix of A,B and C.

Question 29

what 3 things does Ainsworth suggest explains different attatchments

Answer 29

1. 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
2. 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
3. Family circumstances: social culture and environmental factors will all play a part

Question 30

evaluation of Ainsworths study

Answer 30

-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

Question 31

what did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenburg do and what did they find in terms of attatchment types

Answer 31

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

Question 32

evalaute Ijzendoor and Kroonenburgs study

Answer 32

-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

Question 33

what is maternal deprivation

Answer 33

the absence of a loving mother due to wither a failure to form an attatchment or the loss of one

Question 34

what is Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 34

that if an infant experices maternal deprivation during the critical period that there could be serioud permanent consequences

Question 35

what does Bowlby beleive the consequences of maternal deprivation during the critical period include

Answer 35

1. Mental abnormalities
2. Delinquency
3. Depression
4. Affectionless psychopathy
5. even dwarfism

Question 36

what is affectionless psychopathy

Answer 36

the lack of affection and concern for others, an inability to form close relationships and lack of guilt and remorse for antisocial behaviour

Question 37

Outline research into maternal deprivation

Answer 37

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.

Question 38

evaluate Bolwybs research into maternal deprivation

Answer 38

-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

Question 39

what are the 3 things that mitigate the effects of disruptions to attatchment

Answer 39

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

Question 40

Outline research into Romainian Orphans

Answer 40

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

Question 41

what is disinhibited attatchment disorder

Answer 41

a particular pattern of abnormal social functioning that arises during the first 5 years of like and tends to persist

Question 42

outline research into attatchment types in institutions

Answer 42

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.