caregiver-infant interactions and the stages of attachment Flashcards
Define attachment
an emotional bond between 2 people.
It’s a 2-way process that lasts a long time.
It leads to certain behaviors such as proximity seeking and helps infants survive
What are the 2 main purposes for attachment?
1- survival to protect from danger
2- Provides an internal working model (schema) about relationships which leads to expectations about future relationships
What are the 3 attachment behaviors?
1- Proximity
2- Separation anxiety
3- Secure base behaviour
What is separation anxiety?
Feeling distressed when the attachment figure leaves the presence
What is secure base behavior?
infants return to their attachment figure when playing
What are the 2 caregiver-infant interactions?
Reciprocity (interaction 2 ways)
Interactional synchrony (mirroring)
What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions
Both the mother and infant respond to each other’s signals and each elicit a response from the other
What is interactional synchrony in caregiver-infant interactions?
(the temporal coordination of micro level social behaviour)
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way
Who researched caregiver-infant interactions?
Meltoff and Moore
What was the procedure of Meltoff and Moore’s study?
-Observed interactional synchrony between mothers and 2-week-old infants
-adults displayed 3 facial expressions and 3 gestures
-response of child rated by independent researchers
What was the results of Meltoff and Moore’s study?
-Found an association between the action of the child and the expression/gesture of the adult
Who researched into why high quality interactions are important?
Isabella
What was the procedure of Isabellas study?
-observed 30 mums and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
-also assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment when a bit older
What were the results of Isabellas study?
-high levels of synchrony are associated with higher quality attachments which suggests..
that high-quality interactions help develop high-quality attachments
Who researched what happens without synchrony?
Tronick still faces experiment
Describe the procedure of Tronicks still face experiment
-parent and child interact and respond to each other
-parent stops responding and has a still face
Describe the results of Tronicks still face experiment
-child quickly becomes distressed and tries to get a reaction from parent (scream, points)
This shows synchrony must be important in child emotional development
Give a strength of caregiver-infant interaction research
Most research is done in controlled observations so the studies capture fine details. This also increases the internal validity of the study
Eg meltoff and Moore specifically look at the details of interactions.
Give a limitation of caregiver- infant interaction research
The observations do not tell us the meaning behind the interactions.
This means we don’t know if they’re important for the development of attachment
This reduces the usefulness of the research
Which researcher studied who the child attaches to?
Emerson
What did Emerson find
Most children form a primary attachment to their mum around 7 months old
-they then form a secondary attachment to other family members
What are the 4 stages of attachment
- Associate stage
- Indiscriminate attachment
3 specific attachment - Multiple attachment
Describe the Asocial stage
-Babies are interested in discovering the world around them.
-They have a similar reposted to objects and humans
-Accept comfort from any adult
Describe Indiscriminate attachment (stage 2)
(2-7 month)
-Babies start to recognise and show a preference for people
-Accept comfort from any adult
-don’t have main attachment figure yet
Describe specific attachment (stage 3)
(7 months)
-develop separation anxiety from primary attachment figure
-show anxiety towards strangers
Describe multiple attachments (stage 4)
(7 month onwards)
-children become attached to other people they have regular contact with these are called secondary attachments
-they’re not as important to the child as the primary figure
Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s study
-observed the development of 60 infants Glasgow in their own homes
What were the results of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?
65% attached to mothers only
30% attached to mother and another
3% attached to father only
-Playing and social interaction mattered the most in attachment formation not the person who spent the most time with the child
Give a strength of Schaffers stages and research
The research on the Glasgow babies supports stage 3 that most children had primary attachment at 7 months old
-this increases the reliability of the stages as the same results have been found in another study
What’s a counter to the strength of supporting research on Schaffers stages and research
Some children didn’t have primary attachments, they had multiple
-This causes us to question the accuracy of the stages as this shows that stage 3 of primary attachment may not be necessary before children can reach stage 4 of multiple attachments
Give a limitation of Schaffers stages and research
- difficult to measure the asocial stage
- it suggests that children don’t show a preference between objects and people, this is measured by how long children look at object and people
- we cannot know for sure what the child’s thinking therefore we don’t know if we are measuring the preference correctly
Give another strength of Schaffers stages and research
High external validity- the observations were carried out in the children’s home which is a naturalistic setting
- this proves the children are likely to be showing their real life behaviour therefore the accuracy of the results is likely to be high
