Attatchment

Question 1

Attachment

Answer 1

close two-way emotional bond between 2 individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 2

Reciprocity

Answer 2

How 2 people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other

Question 3

Reciprocity Example

Answer 3

a caregiver may respond to their baby’s smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from the baby

Question 4

Alert Phases

Answer 4

babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ in which they signal (e.g. by making eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction

Question 5

Research into Alert Phases

Answer 5

Feldman and Eidelman (2007) - mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time

Finegood et al. (2016) - response varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress

Feldman (2007) - from around 3 moths this interaction tends to become increasingly frequent and involves both mother and baby paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 6

Active Involvement

Answer 6

Traditional views of childhood have portrayed babies in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However it seems that babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so.

Question 7

Interactional Synchrony

Answer 7

caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way

Question 8

Synchrony Begins

Answer 8

Meltzoff and Moore (1977) - observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old
An adult displayed one of three distinctive gestures
The baby’s response was filmed an labelled by independent observers
Babies’ expressions and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict

Question 9

Interactional Synchrony Importance for Attachment

Answer 9

Russell Isabella et al. (1989) - observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment

Question 10

Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment

Answer 10

In the case of ‘stages of attachment’ qualitatively different infant behaviours are linked to specific ages and all babies go through them in the same order

Question 11

Multiple Attachments

Answer 11

Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one strong attachment to one of their carers

Question 12

Stage 1: Asocial Stage

Answer 12

Babies first few weeks of life - observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar
Schaffer and Emerson don’t believe they are entirely asocial as babies still show signs that they prefer to be with other people
Babies also show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them
At this stage the baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachments

Question 13

Stage 2: Indiscriminate Attachment

Answer 13

2-7 months - babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours
They now show a clear preference to being with other people
They also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people
At this stage babies to usually accept comfort from anyone
Do not usually show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety

Question 14

Stage 3: Specific Attachment

Answer 14

From around 7 moths - majority of babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one particular person:
- stranger anxiety
- separation anxiety
The person who the attachment has formed with is said to be the primary attachment figure
Not necessarily who the baby spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most still
This is the mother 65% of the time

Question 15

Stage 4: Multiple Attachment

Answer 15

Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one person they start to extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom they regularly spend time
These are called secondary attachments
Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary within a month of forming a primary one
By 1 year the majority of babies have formed multiple attachments

Question 16

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - Procedure

Answer 16

Study involved 60 babies from Glasgow and majority from skilled working class families (31 male, 29 female)
Researchers visited babies and mothers in their home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
Researchers measured separation and stranger anxiety to measure their attachment

Question 17

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - Findings

Answer 17

Schaffer and Emerson identified 4 distinct stages in the development of infant attachment

Question 18

Father

Answer 18

In attachment research the father is anyone who takes on the role of the main male caregiver. This can be but not necessarily the biological father

Question 19

Attachment to Fathers

Answer 19

Evidence suggests that fathers are much less likely to become the primary attachment figure than mothers

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - 3% of cases the father was the sole object of attachment. 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother
Most fathers go on to be important attachment figures
75% of the Glasgow babies formed an attachment with their father by 18 months

Question 20

Distinctive Role for Fathers

Answer 20

Klaus Grossmann et al. (2002) - carried out a longitudinal study where babies’ attachments were studied until they were teenagers
Researchers looked at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of their baby’s later attachments to other people
Quality of a mother’s attachment but not the father’s was related to attachments in adolescence
Attachments to fathers are less important
Also found that the quality of fathers’ play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments
Suggests that fathers have a different role - one of play and stimulation - and less to do with emotional development

Question 21

Fathers as Primary Attachment Figures

Answer 21

A baby’s relationship with their primary attachment figure forms the basis of all later close emotional relationships
There is some evidence to suggest that when fathers do take on the role of primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers

Question 22

Tiffany Field (1978)

Answer 22

Filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
Primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers
Smiling, imitating and holding are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony which are part of the process of attachment formation

Question 23

Animal Studies

Answer 23

In psychology these are studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons

Question 24

Imprinting

Answer 24

Lorenz (1952) first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that followed him around

Question 25

Lorenz (1952) - Procedure

Answer 25

Set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs Half of the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Question 26

Lorenz (1952) - Findings

Answer 26

The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed the mother goose When the two groups were mixed the control group continued to follow the mother goose and the experimental group followed Lorenz Lorenz identified a critical period where imprinting needed to take place (can be as brief as a few hours) If imprinting doesn’t happen within that time the chicks didn’t attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 27

Sexual Imprinting

Answer 27

Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult male preferences In a case study Lorenz described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises As an adult the bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises Lorenz concluded that the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting

Question 28

Harlow (1958) - Procedure

Answer 28

Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother In one experiment he reared 16 baby rhesus monkeys with two wire model mothers In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother and whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother

Question 29

Harlow (1958) - Findings

Answer 29

The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth covered mother in preference to the plain wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour

Question 30

Maternally Deprived Monkeys as Adults

Answer 30

Harlow and colleagues also followed who had been deprived of a real mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had permanent effects The researchers found severe consequences The monkeys reared with the plain wire mother were the most dysfunctional However even those reared with the cloth covered mother did not develop normal social behaviour The deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable and bred less often than is typical for monkeys

Question 31

Maternally Deprived Monkeys as Mothers

Answer 31

Some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases