caregiver-infant interactions, stages of attachment and role of father

Question 1

definition of attachment

Answer 1

an emotional bond between 2 people, endures over time, leads to behaviour such as proximity seeking

Question 2

reciprocity definition and from what age do infants show this

Answer 2

the process in which behaviour is matched during an interaction, when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them - infants as young as 2-3 weeks will attempt to imitate specific gestures

Question 3

reciprocity evidence

Answer 3

Tropic et al ‘still-face’ experiment - put the baby in a high chair and mother face to face with baby, greeted, laughed and interacted with the baby then stayed still for 2 minutes and the researcher recorded the baby’s emotions and reactions
-found it causes babies distress
meaning reciprocity is n interactional behaviour and innate

Question 4

interactional synchrony definition

Answer 4

mother and baby reflect both actions and emotions of the other and do this co-ordinated
move their bodies in tune with each other - serves the sustain communication between the 2

Question 5

interactional synchrony research evidence

Answer 5

Meltzoff and Moore observational study - recorded infants reaction to 4 different stimuli (3 facial expressions and 1 hand gesture) - adult placed a dummy in the infants mouth and rated the infants behaviour - used behavioural categories e.g mouth opening - observers scored tapes twice to achieve inter-rater reliability
-found an association between behaviour of adult and infant
–in conclusion they believe the response was intentional so the behavioural response is innate

Question 6

other research evidence for interactional synchrony

Answer 6

-Condor and Sander noticed infants seem to coordinate their movement and gestures in time with adult speech and they move with the rhythm of the interaction
-Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and infants together and found an association between secure attachment and examples of interactional synchrony

Question 7

methodological strengths of studies of infants

Answer 7

-real life application, made important contributions to the knowledge and understanding of parent-infant interactions e.g Meltzoff’s ‘like me’ hypothesis

Question 8

methodological weaknesses of studies of infants

Answer 8

-babies mouths are constantly moving = difficult to distinguish between general movements and specific imitated behaviours so low experimental validity however Abranavel and DeYong found 5-12 week olds showed little response to inanimate objects = so show a preference for humans
-individual differences in infants e.g Isabella found more strongly attached caregiver-infants showed greater IS however only correlation

Question 9

development of attachment procedure

Answer 9

Schaffer and Emerson - infants studied at monthly intervals for the first 18 months (longitudinal study) - 60 mothers/infant pairs, w/c, glasgow - children studied in their homes - their interactions with their mothers were observed and mothers were interviewed and they kept a diary to examine evidence for attachment

Question 10

evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson development of attachment research methodology

Answer 10

+external validity - study carried out in own home and most observations were done by parents so unlikely to be affected by others
+longitudinal design - same children were followed over 18 months and observed regularly = better internal validity
-limited sample, same class and from Glasgow = less generalisable

Question 11

Schaffer and Emersons development of attachment 4 stages, ages and descriptions

Answer 11

• asocial stage - lasts up to 6 weeks - babies are attracted to other humans and show a preference for faces and interaction demonstrated by the ‘social smile’
• indiscriminate stage - 6 weeks to 6 months - can tell different people apart and no fear of strangers
• specific stage - 7 months - begin to develop specific attachments, tey stay close to primary attachment figure and distressed when seperated and avoid strangers
• multiple attachments - from 10 months - interest in developing bonds with others

Question 12

Schaffer and Emerson development of attachment findings

Answer 12

a regular pattern was identified
* by 9 months most babies had an initial attachment to their mother
* by 10 months many babies had multiple attachments including mothers, fathers grandparents
* by 18 months 31% had 5 or more attachments - mother was main attachment figure for about half and others was mostly the father
* the multiple attachments formed varied in their strengh

Question 13

Schaffer and Emerson development of attachment overall evaluations

Answer 13

1. problem studying the asocial stage, babies that are that young have poor coordination and immobile so difficult to make judgements = evidence cant be relied on
2. conflicting evidence, not clear when children develop multiple attachments, other psychologists in cultural contexts believe babies form multiple attachments from the outset (collectivist cultures)
3. may be a problem measuring multiple attachments, just because an infant gets distressed when an individual leaves a room doesnt make them then an attachment figure, Bowlby says how infants get distressed when a ‘playmate’ leaves the room