Attatchment Flashcards
Attachment definition
The formation of a strong reciprocal emotional bond between and infant and a primary caregiver
What is reciprocity in attachment?
That a caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal ie each persons interactions affect the other
What is the alert phase
When babies signal they’re ready to interact
How many mothers can pick up on the alert phase?
Two thirds
What is interactional synchrony
Caregiver and infants emotions and actions start to sync up and mirror one another
How long does attatchment in humans take
A couple months
What are the 3 main signs an infant has made an attatchment
- Proximity (stays physically close top caregiver)
- Separation distress
- Secure base behaviour (independent but frequently make contact with caregiver)
Why is observational research a good method to use?
Because babies behaviour doesn’t change when being observed which means better validity
Name the four stages of attatchment in order
Asocial, indiscriminate, specific, multiple
Typical behaviours of the asocial stage
Not much difference in behaviour with adults than with objects, but do show preference to familiar adults.
Typical behaviours of indiscriminate stage
Prefer people to objects, recognise familiar adults but same towards all
Typical behaviour in the specific stage
Form primary attatchment with caregiver that’s most sensitive to their needs, show distress when seperated from primary caregiver
Typical behaviour in multiple stage
Form secondary attatchment s with dad and grandparents
At what stage does the asocial stage develeop[
First few weeks
At what points does the indiscriminate stage develop
6weeks - 7 months
At what point does the specific stage develop
7-9 months
At what point does the multiple stage develop
10months onwards
Strength of research into caregiver infant interaction
- videoed to capture subtle behaviour can check the inter reliability and can rewatch multiple times, own homes (good ecological validity)
Weakness of research into caregiver infant interaction
- don’t know the purpose of behaviour
- limited sample characteristic
What city was Schaffer and Emerson study carried out in?
Glasgow
Strength of Schaffer and Emerson study
- good external validity as research carried out in own homes by parents so behaviour unaffected by investigators (reduce investigator effects)
- longitudinal design removes confounding variable of individual differences
Weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- limited sample characteristics as observed all infants of working class and in same region (Glasgow) = harder to generalise (limited population validity)
- social desirability may affect parents responses
Give a strength of Schaffer and Emerson RESEARCH
Good external validity as carried out in babies own homes gave study more realism’s and longitudinal design removes individual differences
Weakness of Schaffer and Emerson RESAERCH
- asocial stage difficult to study as babies don’t really do much else than sleep so limited things to observe and study
- conflicting research and evidence on when the child becomes capable of multiple attatchments
- measuring multiple attatchment, just because a baby cries when seperated from an adult doesn’t mean they are attached the same way they might cry when seperated from a classmate (has not formed a attatchment with them)
