Attatchment Flashcards
A01-monotropic theory of attachment - internal working model
-the idea that there is only one significant primary attachment being the primary caregiver and its one special attachment which bowlby called monotropy
- suggested that a child’s monotropic attachment to the caregiver acts as a model for future relationships and referred to this as the internal working model which is known as a continuity hypothesis
-if a child has a strong attachment with their mother they are more likely to go on and have strong and healthy adult relationships
- however a child whos relationship is poor will tend to form pooor future relationships
-the internal working model may also affect the child’s later ability to be a parent themselves
A01-monotropic theory of attachment-social releases
-bowlby proposed social releases which suggests that infants have innate ‘cute’ actions such as crying, smiling etc which gives a survival advantage in turn prompting the caregiver to care for them and make the adult feel love towards the baby.
-bowlby recognised this attachment as reciprocal as both baby and mother have innate predisposition to become attached and social releases trigger that response in the caregiver
A01- bowlby theory of attachment - critical period
-according to bowlby babies have to form an attachment in the critical period
-the critical period of 2 years suggest that an infant has to form an attachment within 2 years with the mother or caregiver known as monotropic attachment or they won’t be able to form one at all
-this will cause damage for life physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially.
-also cause problems in forming attachments later in life
A03- bowlby theory of attachment— strength, Lorenz research
-strength comes from research by Lorenz
-loren found that baby geese imprinted onto the first moving object they see within a critical period (12-17) hours
-this hiloghts that animals form attachments really quickly
-also suggests that attachments are innate as they baby geese are biologically pre-programmes to form attachments
-therefore this matters as it supports bowlby monotropic theory in particular the idea of a critical period suggesting that animals form attachment within a short period of time for adaptive reasons as following a moving object provides safety from predators
-however this study was done on animals and they have different physiology to humans
-this means this study cannot be accurately related to humans making them invalid
-for example humans do not imprint on the first person they see
-therefore a weakness of this is you can’t generalise it to humans as we are more complex
A03- bowlby theory of attachment limitation— sensitive rather than critical
-critics argue that the critical period isn’t supported by any evidence
-most psychologists suggest there’s a sensitive period where attachments are most likely to be developed but argue that they could be formed at other times too
-research has shown even children raised in isolation can. Go on to form attachments woth care givers e,g th Czech twins
-this is a weakness because bolwby fails to explain how attachments are able to form after critical periods reducing validity of his theory
A03- bowlby theory of attachment limitation—Monotrpy not supported by evidence
-bowlbys claim that children form specific attachments is not supported by evidence
-instead Schaffer and Emerson found by 1 month of age most babies had formed multiple atachm4nts tho parents grandparents etc
-this is important because bowlbys theory, the monotropic bond is seen as most important yet research shows it lacks importance
- limitation because research suggest explanation of monotropy lacks validity
A01- bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation- separation
-suggests that been separated from mother in early childhood has serious consequences
-states separation itself will not caused a problem unless its repeated and frequent for long periods of time
-separation may also be a problem if held is deprives of emotional care e,g present but depressed mother may not be able to provide substantial emotional care
A01- bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation- critical period
- refers to critical period which is first two and a half years of a child’s life
-depravation during this period will cause inevitable psychological harm with irreversible consequences in the child’s intellectual social and emotional development and there is no adequate substitute emotional care
-bowlby later proposed a sensitive period of up to 5 years
A01- bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation- 44 theives
- argues that the lack of care could lead to affection less psychopathology
-AP is characterised by a lack of of concern for others, a lack of guilt and inability to form meaningful relationships, such individuals act on impulse woth little regard for the consequence of their actions
-to test this hypothesis he studies 44 adolescent juvenile delinquents in a child guidance clinic
-he conducted interviews wtih them to assess for signs of AP
-he also interviewd the failed to establish of they experienced prolonged separation
-compared findings to a control group of 44 non criminals but emotionally disturbed teenagers
-found 14/44 thieves fit the description of AP 12/14 had experienced maternal deprivation in first 2 yrs of life
-2/44 control group had experimented maternal deprivation and none were AP
A03- bowlby theory of depravation—limitation bias and flawed evidence
-may be strong experimenter bias in his study a he himself conducted the interviews
-Bowlby knew in advance who he expected to shoe signs of AP which may have caused him to overstate the severity of symptoms presented by the ps
-And probably vested intrest in proving the accuracy of his theory
Therefore lacks validity.
-study also had a limited sample of only 44 ps of a similar age
-weakness limits the generalisability of the study and doesn’t provide evidence for lasting impact of maternal deprivation or example how it displays throughout adulthood.
A03- bowlby theory of depravation limitation—sensitive period
-some critique saying th critcal period is more of a sensitive period
-e.g the case of the Czech twins
-they were discovered at the age of 7 and had been locked in a cellar with only each other for company amid had not formed any attachment to any adult caregiver
-when discovered had vey little speech and communicated in gestures
- they ere fostered and given love abd care
-at the age of 14 they had caught up to th extent that they were basically the same as any other 14yr olds and at the age of 20 had above average intelligence and were able to develop good relationships with others
- weakness as it shows its more of a sentiment than critical period so decreases the accuracy and reliability of the study.
A03- bowlby theory of depravation- strength — impacted post war thinking
-impacted post war thinking of child rearing and child care in hospitals
-before his theory, chosen were separated from parents when in hospitals
-Robertson films two year old Laura eight days in hospital
-she was frequently distressed and begged to go home
-strength as it led to social change in hospitals meaning parents were allowed to stay with they child in hospital.
A01- influence of early attachment on adult relationships— template
-research on influence of attachment suggests the first attachment made is a template for future relationships
-quantity of child’s first attachment is crucial as it provides template that will affect the nature of future relationships
-this is due to the internal working model created by bowlby
-if a child’s first attachment is a good experience they will have the assumption of how all relationships are meant to be and are more likely to have succesful relationships later in life
-however if it’s bad experience they may struggle to form relationships and not know how to act within them
-securely attached infants are more likely to or the best childhood friendships however insecure avoidant children are more likely to be victims of bullying and insecure resistant are more likely to become bullies.
A01- influence of early attachment on adult relationships Hazan and Schaffer bailey and Harlow
- researchers who analysed 650 replies to a love quiz printed on newspaper
-quiz asses there’s aspects of a relationship which were the reposndents current and most important relationship, general love experiences and attachment type - they found 56% of the ps we’re securely attached, 25% were insecure avoidant and 19% insecure resistant
-this showed secure were more likely to have longer lasting romatic relationships but avoidant tended to me jealous
-research done by bailey found that most women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers
-harlows monkeys showed a link between poor attachment and later difficulties with parenting because they had a lack of internal working model
A03- influence of early attachment on adult relationships weakness— validity lacks
-most studies don’t use Ainsworths storage situation nut asses infant parent attachment interviews or questionnaire and follow up years after infancy
-in order for questionares to be valid they rely on ps responding honestly an they may not be aware of how their relationship actually is and may have a enter view of it than actuality
-they may also not be able to have accurate recollections of their early attachments
-therefore a weakness as it lack validity
A03- influence of early attachment on adult relationships strength— supporting evidence
- supporting evidence from Gerad Mcarthys study
- he studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type
-he found that those who were securely attached had the best adult relationships and romatic relationships
-adults classes as insecure resistant as infants had issues maintaining friendships
-those who were avoidant had sstuggles with. Intimacy in romantic relationships
-therefore strength as it suggest the internal working model is correct and increases its reliability
A03- influence of early attachment on adult relationships limitation — deterministic view
-has a deterministic view on behaviour as it suggests that very early experiences have a fixed effect on behaviour
- however Anne Clarke and Alan Clarke proposed that the influence of early attachment is probabilistic which suggests that people with a bad quality early attachment are not done d but have a higher risk of problems
-therefore they believe early attachment does nit determine adult relationships it makes it certain behaviour is more likely
A03- influence of early attachment on adult relationships - weakness— correlation
-Relatioshisps of early attachment and adult relationships are correaltional rather than experimental
-there’re cause and effect are not established between attachment type and later adult relationships -
-an alternative explanation of relationship between weak attachment and later adult relationshps is Megan’s temperament hypothesis
-the idea that an infants temperament explains their attachment behaviour as infants with an easy temperament are easier to interact with and form secure attachments
-whereas infants with a difficult temperament tend to be insecurely attached to
-therefore it may be the individuals temperament that explains the nature of their adult relationships.
A01- Romanian orphans- rutter
-Rutter used a Longitudinal study and examined 165 Romanian orphans who spent their early lives in a Romanian institute
-111/165 were adopted before the age off two
-54 by the age of four
-were tested at ages 4,6,11,15 to assess their physical, cognitive and social development
-parents and teachers were interviewd to see their progress and was compare to a control group of 52 British children adopted before 6 months
-when adopted they were behind the British children, they were smaller, weighed less and were not as intellectual
- those adopted before six months=iq of 102
-after 6 months IQ= 86+ disinhibbeted attachment
-after 2 years IQ= 77 + disinhibeted attachment
A01- Romanian orphans - institutionalisation
-the effects of institutionalisation was shown through the Romanian orphans in the 1990s
- due to the governments requirement’s for women to have large family’s parents could not afford to keep their children and many ended up in huge orhpahanges in very poor conditions
- in 1989 the gov was overthrown and the world became aware of the state of these orphanages
-institutionalisation is a place where someone lives out of the home e.g hospital or children’s home
-institutionalisation can cause harmful effects such as apathy, loss of personal identity and independence
A01-Romanian orphans- effects
-institutional care does not adequately proved the level of positive individual attention and emotional care from constant care givers which is essential for the success of emotional, physical and social development of children
-profoundly relevant for children under 3 years if age for whom institutionalised care has been shown to be especially damaging
-disinhibited attachment- form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between people thy house as attachment figures
A03-Romanian orphans strength —application
- application if it improving children’s care in institutions
-e.g orphanages ans children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregiver (1-2) people for each child and each child has a key worker who plays a central role for the child - key worker means children have a chance to develop normal attachments and help avoid disinhibited attachments
-strength as research has been valuable in practical terms .
A03-Romanian orphans limitions — correlational
One weakness is that fact his results were correlational and does not tell us causation
-e.g low IQ may not have been caused because children did not have a primary caregiver
-but because the orphanages in Romania lacked mental stimulation
-weakness as it means means the study has lower face validity as it may not be studying what it has set out too
-and also that we can not establish that institutionalisation causes low IQ but is only correlated with it
A03 -Romanian orphans— weakness generalisability
-weakness it it has low genralisability
- these were exceptional circumstances in the Romanian. Orphanages including poor care quality and low intellectual sitimulaton levels
-therefore it is difficult to generalise these results to other cases of adopted children because of the unusual situational variables.
A03-Romanian orphans— strength, internal validity
- allowed psychologists to have a unique opportunity to study the effects of institutionalisation
-due to i having less extraneous variables than previous orphan studies which had used samples of children who were neglected, abused or suffered loss of parents - was therefore hard to identify which specific factors were effecting their emotional and intellectual develpoments
- in the case of the Romanian orphans there weren’t any confounding variables so the research has higher internal validity
Care giver infant interactions AO1- reciprocity
-an attachment is a close two way emotional bond between two individuals where they see the other person as essential for emotional security
-Babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers and these interactions are important for child’s social development and the development of the caregiver- infant interactions
-One type of caregiver infant interaction is reciprocity
-This is a way in which two people interact
- a mother and infant respond to each others signals and illicit a response from the other
-This is called turn taking
-babies have periodic alert phases to signal they are ready for a spell of interaction such as making eye contact
-an example would be an infant cries and the caregiver response by feeding or cuddling the baby
-The baby bubbles words and the caregiver talks back
-research by Feldman and Eidleman
- Found that mother’s pick up and respond to babies alertness 2/3 of the time
-However finegood et al
- Argues this varies according to the skills of the mother
- Feldman found this interaction increases from about three months old and involves both mother and infant paying attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions
-Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and take turns in doing so, both taking an active role
-Another researcher described this interaction as a dance where each partner responds to the others moves
Care giver infant interactions A01
-another type of caregiver infant interaction is interactional synchrony
-This is where caregiver and baby reflects both on the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way
-It takes place where caregiver and baby interacting away that their actions mirror each other
-Isabella observed 30 mother and infants and found that high levels of interactional synchrony were associated with better quality mother- infant attachment
-meltzoff and Moore
-Observed the beginning of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old
-An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or distinctive gestures
-And babies responses were filmed and labelled by independent observers
-A significant association was found between the babies expressions mirroring those of the adults, more than chance could predict
Care giver infant interactions AO3 - strength lab
-A strength of research into caregiver infant interactions is often filmed observations in a lab
-This control minimise distractions and allows for meticulous observation
-Reducing the likelihood of missing any crucial details
-Multiple observers can also record data in showing the studies inter-rater reliability and mitigating
- Moreover since babies are unaware of being observed their behaviour remains unaffected
-Eliminating concerns regarding over observation
-Consequently this methodology insures high internal validity and reliable data collection in such research
Care giver infant interactions AO3 -weakness, wrong interpretation
-however a challenge in studying caregiver infant interactions is interpreting a babies behaviour accurately
-Infants have limited coordination and mobility
-Often displaying subtle movements or minor changes an expression
-This means it’s difficult to be sure what is taking place from the infant perspective
-For example, whether a baby is smiling or just passing wind
-Moreover differentiating between random movements and those prompted by the caregiver remains uncertain
-This is a limitation as it means we cannot be certain if behaviour is observed in caregiver infant interactions have special meaning
Care giver infant interactions AO3 - weakness expanation
-observing behaviours like synchrony, only labels observable caregiver and infinite patterns without explaining their developmental significance
-As Feldman highlights
-While these patterns are reliably observed, they might not offer insights into child development’s purpose
-This limitation implies uncertainty about the importance of reciprocity and synchrony solely from observable research
-However evidence does suggest the significance of early interactions
-For example, Isabella et al discovered that achieving interactional synchrony predicted the development of high-quality attachment
-Meaning caregiver interactions are likely to be important in development.
Schafer and Emerson stages A01
They studied 60 babies from skills working class Glasgow homes
-The babies were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
-The mothers questioned about how their child behaved when they were separated and how they behaved with unfamiliar adults
-The findings were between 25 and 32 weeks of age about 50% of the baby showed sign of separation anxiety towards a particular adult usually the mother
-By 40 weeks 80% of the babies had specific attachments and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
Schafer and Emerson stages A01
-They identified full key stages of attachment
-1 the first stage was the a social stage:
This is the baby’s first weeks of life about first three months
-During this period the babies observable behaviour towards human and inanimate objects is quite similar
-However they didn’t believe this is entirely a social because even at this stage babies did show science they prefer to be with other people.
2. Stage two is the indiscriminate attachment:
-This is from 3 to 7 months
-Baby start to display more observable social behaviours
-They show clear preference for being with people rather than an objects
-And they start to remember familiar faces and will accept comfort from any adult however
-They don’t tend to show separation anxiety when attachment figures leave them or stranger anxiety
-They treat all adults the same
3. Specific attachment:
-This is from 7 to 8 months
-They start to show signs attachments towards one person
-These signs include stranger and separation anxiety
-And become distressed if separated from one specific adult and 65% of cases that’s the mother
-This is known as their primary attachment figure
4. Multiple attachments:
-This is what babies start to show attachment behaviour to more people other than just their primary attachment figure
-These relationships are called secondary attachments
-They observed that 29% of these children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment
-By the age of one most babies had developed multiple attachments
Schafer and Emerson stages A03
-One strength is that research has good external validity
-The majority of observations used in the research except stranger anxiety were made by the parents when they did activities and reported it to the researchers
-If the research is a present and recorded observation themselves, it may have distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious
-This means that it’s most likely that the participants behaves naturally or being observed and did not display demands characteristics
Schafer and Emerson stages A03
-however there are some issues of asking the mother to take on the role of being the observer
-It was highly likely that they were subjective in their observations
-They may not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or they may not have reported it to the researcher intentionally
-This shows that even if babies did behave naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded by the mother
-Additionally it was a very limited sample
-. There was only 60 babies involved and they were all from Glasgow and working class families
-Therefore it has a low generalisability those can only be applied to a limited amount of people
-Thus lacking university
Schafer and Emerson stages A03
-also many researchers believe that infants must establish one primary attachment before they develop further multiple attachments
-However there is evidence from cross cultural research to show their babies are capable of developing multiple attachments from birth
-For example cultures where this is more likely to occur is called collectivist cultures because families work together jointly in everything
-Therefore there is no agreement within psychology about when multiple attachments are formed
Schafer and Emerson stages A03
-furthermore the street does lack validity
-As all the infants involved in the study came from Glasgow and we’re working class families
Animal study’s A01
Lots of early research on attachment was conducted on animals to better understand human attachment
-One of the pioneers in this field was Lorenz
-He investigated the concept of imprinting
-This was the innate tendency to form a strong bond with the first moving object observed after birth
-he divided goose eggs into two groups one who hatched with their mother and one who hatched, in an incubator ensuring Lorenz was the first large moving object they saw
-Lorenz discovered that naturally hatched goslings followed their mother, while those who hatched an incubator followed Lorenz
-Upon release from an upturned box the naturally hatched goslings immediately sort out their mother
-Whereas the incubator hatched ones followed Lorenz
-Based on these findings, Loren’s concluded the attachment is an instinctive behaviour in animals
-and the imprinting is a specific form of attachment that involves close contact with the first moving object encountered
Animal study’s A01
Another researcher was Harlow
- And his study was the focus on examining the significance of comfort and security in the development of attachment
-In his study to test this, he conducted an experiment using 16 newborn rhesus monkeys
-He placed two surrogate mothers in the area where the newborn monkeys were
-One wire mother which produced milk
-The other a cloth mother that provided comfort
He observed that the infants spent the major majority of their time clinging to a surrogate mother made of cloth
-sometimes spending up to 23 hours a day with it
-Additionally when they were frightened, they saw comfort from the cloth mother while they only approached the wire surrogate mother when they required milk
-His findings lead him to conclude the attachment is formed on the basis of emotional needs such as comfort and safety rather than just physical needs like food
Animal study’s A03 - weakness Lorenz
-One weakness of both of these studies is that they were only studied on animals
-Therefore we cannot generalise these results to humans as we are unable to conclude they would behave the same way
-for example attachment formation in mammals appears to be very different to that of bird species.
-human parents specifically mothers show more emotional reactions to their offspring and conform attachments beyond the first few hours after birth
-So whilst some of Lorenzo’s findings have influenced our understanding of development and attachment formation
-Caution must be applied when drawing wider conclusions about the results
Animal study’s A03 weakness Lorenz
-additionally later research has passed out on some of the conclusions which Lorenz drew
- For example Guiton et al, found that chickens would imprint on a yellow washing up glove if that was the largest moving object they first saw after birth
-Later they would even try and meet with the object in adulthood
-However they disagree with Lorenzo’s predictions that this relationship persists and is irreversible
-This is because with experience the chickens could eventually learn to prefer meeting with other chickens instead suggesting that effective imprinting may not be as permanent as initially thought
Animal study’s A03 -strength Harlow
-The results from hollow study are of a large practical value since they provide insight into attachment formation which has had real world important applications that can be useful in a range of practical situations
-For example, Howe reports that the knowledge gained from hollows research has helped social workers to understand risk factors in neglect and abuse case cases with human children who can then serve to prevent it occurring or at the very least recognise went to intervene
-In addition there are practical applications which are used in the care of captive wild monkeys in zoos or breeding programs to ensure that they have adequate attachment figures as part of their care
Animal study’s A03 - weakness Harlow
-however a weakness of hollows research is he was heavily criticised for the ethics of his research on animals
-The baby rhesus suffered greatly in terms of emotional separation from their biological mother at such an early age due to the procedure Harlow used
- if the species of primates are considered sufficiently human like to generalise these results then it stands to reason that the effects of psychological harm that they will have endured are similar of that of a human baby
-There is however the question of whether the insight obtained was sufficiently important to psychologist understanding of attachment and that Harlow was justified in his approach.
