Background

Question 1

What is a given definition in what attachment in babies is? What does this suggest?

Answer 1

As an affectional tie that one person or animal forms between himself and another specific one.

This suggests that any relationship whether reciprocated or not could be considered an attachment.

Question 2

State the main two theories of attachment?

Answer 2

Behaviourist and evolutionary theories

Question 3

What would a behavioural psychologist say about how attachments are formed?

Answer 3

A behavioural psychologist would assume all behaviour is learned through operant or classical conditioning, or social learning theory and therefore the logic is that attachments are learned.

Question 4

What would a evolutions psychologist say about how attachments are formed?

Answer 4

An evolutionary psychologists would suggest that attachment behaviour has evolved over time to ensure the survival of the species

Question 5

Describe the cupboard love theory?

Answer 5

A baby will cry when it’s uncomfortable

A main carer will respond to this and remove what it making the baby uncomfortable.

The child then associates the carer with feeling good and eventually the carer produces a feel good response even when not providing comfort (classical conditioning).

The child is reinforced by crying to remove the unpleasant thing causing the baby to learn to produce this behaviour again to get a positive response (negative reinforcement)

Question 6

What research contradicts the cupboard love theory?

Answer 6

Harlow found that baby monkeys will choose to spend more time with a cuddly surrogate mother rather than one made of wire but fed them. Also when they were scared, they would run to the cuddly mother, not the feeding one.

Question 7

Summarise Lorenz’s study on attachment and what theory does this support?

Answer 7

Lorenz found that the attachment behaviour of Geese is that the birds would imprint on the first living they saw after hatching and, by ensuring he was it, he became their attachment figure.

Question 8

State the ‘drive theory’ as a psychosexual explanation of attachment.

Answer 8

The theory that attachment is a result of a driving force that derives from gratification of hunger and libidinal drives in the first of the psychosexual stages of development, the oral stage

Question 9

What is Bowlby’s theory of attachment?

Answer 9

Bowlby’s theory was that attachment was an innate behaviour used to ensure the survival of the baby.

Question 10

What research shows that babies are innately attached to their mothers?

Answer 10

Research had shown that babies were able to differentiate their mothers face and voice from other people.

This supports Bowlby’s view that babies have some innate ability as a the basis for baby-carer attachment.

Question 11

What behaviour has Bowlby said ensures the mother-baby bond?

Answer 11

The human baby will innately show behaviours such as smiling and crying and are designed to make its carers bond with it. A

Also Bowlby felt that mothers were innately programmed to respond to this.

MRI scans of mothers’ brains show that certain areas of the mothers brain responds the their baby but not to other babies.

Question 12

What does research show about the effects of early skin to skin contact for babies?

Answer 12

It could influence breastfeeding duration.
Babies who had skin-to-skin contact with their mother for two hours directly after birth showed higher levels of breast feeding

Question 13

State the 4 types of attachment.

Answer 13

Secure
Insecure avoidant
Insecure resistant
Insecure disorganised.

Question 14

State the 4 types of attachment, the child’s key behaviour, and the carers response to the child’s needs to cause this type of attachment?

Answer 14

Secure
Seeks proximity of caregiver
Sensitive and loving, such as picking up and reassuring a child

Insecure avoidant
Avoids caregiver in times of need
Insensitive and rejecting, such as becoming annoyed

Insecure resistant
Exaggerates distress and anger to ensure the caregiver notices
Insensitive and inconsistent, such as overreacting or highlighting carer’s own needs

Insecure disorganised
Bizarre and contradictory behaviours, such as freezing or running away from the parent
Insensitive and not normal, such as frightening or frightened

Question 15

What were Emerson and Schaffers stages of attachment and their ages?

Answer 15

Up to 3 months of age - Indiscriminate attachments
Most babies respond equally to any giver

After 4 months - Specific attachments
Infants can distinguish between primary and secondary caregivers but accept care from anyone

After 7 months - Single attachment figure
The baby look to a particular person for care, shows fear of strangers, and unhappiness when seperated from caregiver.

After 9 months - Multiple attachments
The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments to adults with whom the child has significant contact

Question 16

What are Bowlby’s four stages of attachment, the age they occur and typical behaviours of children in these stages?

Answer 16

Pre-attachment - Birth to 6 weeks
The babys is comfortable being left with an unfamiliar person

Attachment in the making - 6 weeks to 8 months
Attachment is beginning to get stronger during this stage, infants respond differently to familiar people than they do to strangers

Clear-cut attachment - 8 months to 18 months
Attachment to trusted caregivers continues to strengthen in this stage; separating anxiety is likely in a caregiver’s absence

Formation of reciprocal attachment - 18 months to 2 years
Children can now understand that a parent returns home from work at a certain time each day, so separation anxiety lessens.

Question 17

How do theories of attachment link to cognitive development?

Answer 17

Object permanence develops in children at around 9 months and this is the time at which an attachment is formed with a specific person, as the child now understands that his caregiver still exists when not in vision.

Question 18

What classroom behaviours does disorganised attachment lead to?

Answer 18

Poor peer relationships - children with disorganised attachment were more often rejected by peers at the age 9

More aggressive behaviours in the classroom

Typically had lower than the average maths skills at the age of 8

Low self-esteem

Question 19

State the study showing that what having disorganised attachment in infancy lead to at 17?

Answer 19

They showed higher levels overall levels psychopathy at 17 years of age

Tended to exhibit weaker cognitive skills and self-regulation

They were also more vulnerable to psychotic disorders in early child hood

Question 20

What did Bowlby’s research find when investigating into 44 juvenile thieves?

Answer 20

He found that they displayed ‘affectionless psychopathy’

These were people who showed s lack of affection for others, lack of guilt or shame and lacked empathy for their victims.

Question 21

What did Bowlby find out about children with emotional problems?

Answer 21

He found that teenagers who had been separated from their mothers in the first 2 years of their life were much more likely to show affectionless psychopathy.

Question 22

What was Bowlby’s critical period for attachment?

Answer 22

Bowlby suggested a critical period when attachments had to be formed or it would be too late to prevent later problems.

This being the first 2 years.

Question 23

What research supports Bowlby’s theory of a critical period?

Answer 23

Research found that children whom were raised in orphanages and hospitals were less likely to survive beyond 1 year and those who did showed more symptoms of depression compared to children who lived in prison but were cared for by their mothers.

Question 24

What research showed that bonding after the critical period was still effective?

Answer 24

A piece of research showed that children who were admitted into a children’s home who were later adopted at 4 showed less of the effects of maternal deprivation.

Question 25

Suggest why attachment was more likely when the children were taken in by adoptive parents rather than their biological ones.

Answer 25

Adoptive parents were more likely to work hard to form relationships with the children.

Question 26

What were still the long term negative affects of bonding after the critical period?

Answer 26

Ex-institutionalised children at the age of 15 showed to have few friends, being more likely to bully, and having less-positive relationships with children compared to normal children

Question 27

What is privation and deprivation and give examples of how privation can occur?

Answer 27

Deprivation is where a bond had been formed but then broken due to separation, and privation is where no bond had been formed.

Privation could occur because the child has a series of different carers or family discord that prevented the development of attachment to any figure.

Question 28

What are some of the negative affects of deprivation?

Answer 28

Deprivation due to separation or death show the negative effects of low academic and socio-economic achievement.

Question 29

What research shows that privation leads more negative affects than deprivation?

Answer 29

Research had found that higher rates of depression were found in women whose mothers died in the first 6 years of life than those who lost their mother through divorce.

Question 30

What has been found out about intact families with high levels of discord compared to reordered families?

Answer 30

Intact families with high levels of discord showed higher levels of negative outcomes than reordered families without discord.

Question 31

State Robertson’s 3 stages of behaviour when a child was seperated from their carer.

Answer 31

Th first stage as ‘distress’ with the child protesting, crying and becoming angry.

Eventually realising that the carer was not going to come back, the child would subside into ‘despair’. The child would often just be quiet and often just sitting.

The final stage was ‘detachment’. This showed when the child was reunited with the carer. The child would ignore the carer and try to get away, while being upset.