Attatchments Flashcards
Evaluate the learning theory and attachment
- animal research
> Lorenz + Harlow both found it didn’t matter and it was to do with who provided comfort not food - human research
> Schaffer and Emerson found most babies formed a primary attachment to their biological mothers regardless of feeding (Most sensitive to needs)
Evaluation of van izjendoorn
+ representative
> large samples used reduced impact of anomalous results caused by bad methodology
- assessment is biased
> based on western culture
> eg Germany see actions as good that is seen as bad, secure is seen as the only good attachment type
Evaluation of attachment on later relationships
- mixed research
> Zimmerman assessed adolescent attachment to parents and found little relationship between it. - issues of validity
> most don’t use strange situation and use interviews - correlation, not causation
> eg parenting style or genetics may affect a child’s ability to form later relationships
Explain Harlows research
- observed new born rhesus monkey
- 16 monkeys with 2 wire model mothers one of which was plain wire which dispensed milk and the other was a cloth mother
- found monkeys cuddles the cloth mother regardless of food when frightened ‘contact comfort’
- also observed monkeys without mothers (maternal deprivation)
- found they became aggressive and less sociable
- as mothers themselves, the lacked care and sometimes killed their infants
Who came up with the stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson
Explain attachment and it’s effects on later relationships
Later childhood
- secure = best friendships
- insecure = friendship difficulties
- avoidant- bullied, resistant- bullies
Romantic (adult)
- Hazan and Shaver = analysed 620 love quizzes with 3 parts - current relationships, general love experiences, attachment type.
- secure = good, long lasting relationships
- insecure = jealousy, fear of intimacy
Parents
- internal working model means whatever attachment type a parent is, their own child is attached to them in the same way.
What is interactional synchrony
Care-giver and infant reflect the actions of each-other in a synchronised way
Explain the learning theory and attachment
Classical conditioning
- person who provides food over time becomes associated with food
- this creates the response of pleasure which is then associated with the care-giver themselves
Operant conditioning
- babies cry to be given food and when they are given food they continue to do this
- two-way process as baby is reinforced for crying and caregiver receives negative reinforcement as the crying stops
What are the two care-giver interactions and evaluation of this
Reciprocity and interactional synchrony
+ controlled
> fine details of interaction can be recorded
> babies don’t change their actions in a study
- hard to know
> only observing gestures and this is very to know what is intentional or not
Evaluation of animal research
+ application
> helps social workers understand problems children may be going through
> allows them to make sure children get a quality early attachment
- generalisability to humans
> extrapolation cannot occur as humans act very different to animals - especially birds. We are much more advanced
> for example human mothers show much more emotional attachment
- ethical issues
> animals harmed and tortured and resulted in some being killed raises ethical issues
Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- studied 60 babies from Glasgow m/c families
- visited babies and mothers every month for a year and then again at 18 months
- they interviewed about attachment between them
- Asocial (first few weeks)
- behaviour toward humans and non-human objects is the same - Indiscriminate (2-7 months)
- prefer familiar adults but not different towards different people (no stranger anxiety) - Specific (7 months)
- stranger anxiety develops and baby has made a primary attachment figure - Multiple attachment (1 year)
- shows attachment to extended people with who they spend time
What is reciprocity
Where the care-giver and the infant respond to each others signals
Who conducted research into Romanian orphans
Rutter
Evaluation of the stages of attachment
+ external validity
> carried out in the families own homes so real behaviour of babies
- low population validity
> used m/c children from Glasgow so not a representative sample at all
> cannot therefore generalise to everyone
- knowing multiple attachments
> just because the baby gets anxious when someone leaves the room that does mean they’re a secondary attachment figure as adults have roles as ‘playmates’ for example
Describe Rutter’s ERA study
- followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain
- they tested physical, cognitive and emotional development at 4,6,11 and 15 years
- a group of 52 British orphans were tested at the same time as a control group
- when they first arrived, half showed signs of delayed intellectual development
- the majority were severely malnourished
- at 11, they showed differential rates of recovery related to their age of adoption
- av. IQ of those adopted before 6 months was 102, av. of those between 6 months and 2 years was 86, av. of those after 2 years was 77.
Who came up with the strange situation
Ainsworth
What are the effects of institutionalisation
Disinhibited attachment
- a result of having multiple carers and not one primary caregivers
- equally friendly to strangers as people they know
Low IQ
- damages intellectual development
Evaluation of the strange situation
+ predictive validity
> secure babies do better in success at school and relationships
> insecure-resistant leads to bullying and mental health problems
+ good reliability
> inter-observer reliability as multiple observers watched the babies
> controlled conditions using behavioural categories
- culturally relative
> doesn’t have the same meanings in collectivist cultures
> Takahashi said doesn’t work in Japan as mothers are not separated from children and so show high levels of separation anxiety
> some cultures see individualism as positive
Describe the strange situation
- a controlled observation
- behaviours looked at included: proximity, secure-base, stranger/separation anxiety and reunion
- procedure had 7 episodes: encouraged to explore, stranger, caregiver leaves 2 alone, stranger leaves/caregiver returns, child alone, stranger returns, caregiver returns
Evaluation of bowlbys monotropic theory
+ research support
> 44 thieves study = found 14 of 44 could be described as affectionless psychopaths and of these 14, 12 experienced prolonged separation from mothers
- monotropy
> Schaffer and Emerson found after 10 months most babies had formed multiple attachments
> ignores role of the father
What are the roles of the father
Grossman
- longitudinal study
- quality of attachment to mother was greater due to adolescence suggesting fathers aren’t important
- however the quality of play with infants was greater in fathers suggesting they have a different role
Field
- primary care-giver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating interacting etc with the infant than secondary suggesting it works just as well they just adopt the same behaviours as a primary mother
What did ainsworth conclude from the strange situation
- Secure attachment
- explore happily but go back to secure base
- moderate stranger/separation anxiety
- accept comfort at reunion - Insecure-avoidant
- explore happily but do not use secure base
- low stranger/separation anxiety
- no reaction at reunion - Insecure-resistant
- don’t explore
- high stranger/separation anxiety
- resist comfort at reunion
Describe bowlbys monotropic theory
Monotropy
- ONE attachment figure is more important than all others
Social releasers
- babies have innate behaviours which encourage attention from adults
Critical period
- around 2 years and if not attachment formed then they will struggle to later in life
Internal working model
- mental representations of our attachment to our primary caregiver
- they will bring these qualities with them through life and use them in their own attachment
Effects on development
- maternal deprivation in critical period has effects:
- intellectual development = low IQ
- emotional development = affectionless psychopathy
Evaluation of role of the father
- Inconsistent findings
> psychologists look into different things and research fathers as both primary and secondary showing their role is unknown - no father
> children without a father in same-sex families grow up no different and findings show this
Explain Lorenz’s research
- Divided up gosling eggs
- half hatched with the mother
- half hatched in an incubator, the first thing they saw was Lorenz
- he found this group followed Lorenz everywhere even when the two were mixed
- he called this imprinting and found if after the critical period (few hours) no attachment was made, none would be at all
Evaluation of Rutter’s Romanian Orphan Study
+ real life application
> enhanced understanding of effects of institutionalisation
> orphanages now avoid having large number of carers (key worker)
+ few extraneous variables
> orphan studies often involve children who have experienced trauma etc but these didn’t
- not typical
> conditions were so bad that results cannot be generalised to other institutions
Describe Van Ijzendoorn’s study
Did a meta-analysis on 32 studies where the strange situation had been used (just under 2000 children)
Found:
- secure attachment was most common erywhere while insecure-resistant was least common
- insecure-avoidant was most common in Germany
- insecure-resistant was most common in japan
- variation was greater within countries than between countries (USA = one found 46% secure and another found 90%
