Bowlby Flashcards
Who was Bowlby influenced by?
Lorenz research on imprinting in less cognitively developed animals
Imprinting meaning
The ability to recognise the caregiver and is an innate ability
Imprinting meaning
The ability to recognise the caregiver and is an innate ability
Lorenz (1935)
- allowed goslings to imprint on him
- mixed them with goslings who imprinted on mother and those who hadn’t imprinted at all
- when let loose goslings followed their caregiver and those who didn’t imprint wandered aimlessly
Critical period
Period when an animal imprints/ attaches . After this period if an animal has not imprinted/ attaches it will never do so
Critical period
Period when an animal imprints/ attaches . After this period if an animal has not imprinted/ attaches it will never do so. Humans = first 3 years of life (unbroken)
Monotropy
Special attachment to one person (usually biological mother). The quality of this bond is important for healthy psychological development
Continuity hypothesis
If a relationship doesn’t develop between child and caregiver, it can have negative long term consequences for the child but long term benefits of successful early attachment
Social releasers
Child eliciting behaviours to encourage the caregiver to stay close and form attachment e.g. smiling/crying. Caregiver responds to the baby’s need so baby forms an attachment to caregiver (two way reciprocal process)
Why are parents motivated to care for the child?
They are carrying half of their genetic material
Internal working model
A set of expectations about relationships that will stay with the baby for the rest of its life
Secure base hypothesis
If the infant can rely on their caregiver and feel secure they’re likely to explore their environment and develop more independence
Phase 1 of attachment
- first few months of life
- baby responds indiscriminately towards any adult
- baby elicits social relaxers to promote proximity and closeness to adult
Phase 2 of attachment
- 3 to 6 months
- child will use social releases to promote closeness and proximity but directly at primary caregiver
Phase 3 of attachment
- 6 months to 3 years
- baby shows intense attachment to primary caregiver
- will show distress at separation and joy at reunion
- baby establishes a safe base to explore the world
- treats strangers with fear
Babies also form BLANK to provide an important emotional safety net
Secondary attachments
ASCMI
Adaptive/attachment, Social releasers, Critical period, Monotropy, Internal Working Model
Attachment
An emotional bond between two people leading to promoting psychological wellbeing
Short term consequences of attachment
Gives child insight into the caregivers behaviours and allows child to influence their behaviour so true partnership can be formed
Long term consequences of attachment
Acts as a template for all future relationships as it sets expectations about what loving relationships look like
Links to learning theories?
- children learn through classical conditioning to attach to their parents
- child learns through operant conditioning as positively reinforcement (rewarded) with food from mother
- nurturist argument = attachment is due to associating mother with food
- naturist argument = bowlby suggests evolutionary theory as attachment is an innate process of maturation
AO3- Isabella (1993)
- importance of sensitivity
- strongly attached babies had mothers who were more sensitively responsive
AO3 - Kagan (1984)
- temperament hypothesis
- some babies are emotionally difficult due to their innate personality and this affects the mothers ability to form close relationships
AO3- Ruther (2011)
- critical period
- evidence to show attachments are less likely after 6 months but not impossible
- researchers now use “sensitive period” as developments can happen outside of this period
Application to working mothers
- discourages women from being both a mother and a career woman as separation implied to be harmful for child’s development
- however attachment is not related to quantity but quality time
- Fox (1977) found that babies attachment was almost as strong to their mother as it was to the metapelet (child minder) despite spending less time with mother
Fuertes et al (2006)
- 48 Portuguese babies and observed them regularly until their 1st bday
- 12 months = temperament and personality also determined attachment type (contradicts maternal sensitive, supports role of innate personality of child)
44 Juvenile thieves - AIM
To establish a cause and effect relationship between maternal deprivation and emotional maladjustment (inability to react emotionally successfully to the demand of one’s environment)
Sample of 44 thieves
- opportunity sample selected from child guidance clinic and picked suitable children from consecutive referrals
- 88 children, 44 thieves (referred for stealing), 44 controls (referred for emotional problems with no anti social behaviours)
- half aged 5-11, half ages 12-16
- 2 groups matched for age and IQ
- 31 boys and 13 girls in theft group, 34 boys and 10 girls in control
- 7 cases of stealing lasted more than 3 years, 8 only involved in a few thefts and 4 only did 1
Procedure of 44 thieves
- each child’s has IQ tested
- assessed emotional attitudes towards the test
- social worker interviews a parent to record details of child’s early life
- Bowlby had an interview with child and parent
- compared notes and read reports from school/ court
- further interviews with child and parent
- each child classified into normal, depressed, circular (alternating symptoms of depression and over activity), hyperthynic (symptoms for over activity), affectionless (no shame, guilt or affection for others), schizoid (withdrawn and lacking relationships)
Results of 44 thieves
- 5 diagnosed with mild depression, 2 having very low IQ
- 32% of thieves were “affectionless psychopaths (AP) but no controls were
- 86% of AP thieves experienced a long period of maternal separation before age 5
- 17% of thieves not diagnosed with AP had experienced maternal separation
- 2 controls experienced prolonged separation in 1st 5 years of life
Conclusions of 44 thieves
Maternal separation/ deprivation in child’s early life causes permanent emotional damage such as affectionless psychopathy (lack of concern for others, lack of guilt, inability to form relationships)
Strengths of 44 thieves study
- large sample (88) so low attrition rate
- findings indicate a link between maternal deprivation and criminal behaviour so valid and application to society
Weaknesses of 44 thieves study
- androcentric so not representative of female juvenile thieves so not generalisable
- opportunity sample so not representative of wider population outside the clinic so not generalisable
- doesn’t prove that deprivation is the causal factor of AP, only a correlation so less valid
- ignores other factors e.g social class, sexual abuse, problems in the home etc
- Rutter(1981)= long term effects may be a result of privation rather than deprivation as children were emotionally neglected in institutions and orphanages so less valid
