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
