Biology of human relationships Flashcards
What did H Harlow prove with his experiments? How did He conduct them?
He did experiments on baby monkeys proving that they will cling to soft mum looking mothers.
What did Lorenz prove with his experiments, how did he conduct them?
He did experiments with ducklings proving that they instinctively follow a mother-figure.
What did Mary Ainsworth research investigate?
Investigated how kids responded to ‘the strange situation’ test. Identified the children that are ‘healthy’ will protest on the mother leaving and be comforted with her return. kids that did not protest or were not comforted were classified as ‘insecure’, if the pattern had no organisation it was disorganised.
Found that both secure and insecure did not predict mental health issues (did predict some divorce patterns) but disorganised predicted mental health.
What were the three outcome patterns of the adult attachment interview?
Coherent and collaborative (clear response and moves on) = autonomous
Minimal explanation = Dismissive
memories drive discourse (will not move on) = preoccupied
Unclassifiable = Unresolved
Definition of Attachment behaviour?
Behaviour with the predictable outcome of increasing proximity to the attachment figure (so a behaviour that will bring the mother - crying, smiling even running away if teh mother follows)
What is the attachment behavioural system?
The interaction between mother and child that determines which behaviour becomes an attachment behaviour and which does not.
Who is the attachment figure of a child?
The person the child will go to for comfort when she is in need of security.
What are the three key components of the attachment figure that produce a secure secure attachment in the child?
Availability
Sensitivity
Responsiveness
Sensitivity in mothers predicts what four outcomes in later life?
Quality of attachment relationships
Self-regulation
Social functioning
Cognitive functioning
What was found in the Romanian orphanages study?
3 years - no attachment can be formed
How does attachment theory function in abuse?
Even when being abused attachment theory functions as normal (if the attachment if formed with the abuser) so people go to the abuser for security.
Whats Shore’s hypothesis?
the hypothesis that the baby cannot regulate its own emotions using its orbito-frontal brain so instead it will pick up on social cues from the mother to regulate its own emotions (limbic system) essentially borrowing it’s mothers cingulate gyrus.
for synchronous mothers and non-synchronous mothers what parts of the brain were activated in an fMRI?
Synchronous - dopamine structures
Non-synchronous - Amygdala structures
Oxytocin findings in rats?
Found that rats with low oxytocin will ignore baby rats and high oxytocin will care for babies (even if they are not their babies)
Oxytocin findings in humans? (4)
- Men who inhale oxytocin and have secure relationships with their mothers will remember their mothers more positively and vice versa
- Babies with synchronous oxytocin levels with their mothers at birth and at three months had better behavioural adaptations than babies who did not.
- The effects of Oxytocin changes whether you are in positve/negative relationships.
- Parents with higher oxytocin levels will more effectively play with their children. (it is also synchronised with the child)
