Chapter 3 - Attachment Flashcards
What did Bowlby suggest about attachment?
Bowlby suggested that early attachment are a basis for our future relationships
And that we view our future relationships on our early relationships because that all we have to base it on.
What is the definition of attachment?
An emotional relationship between to people characterised by proximity seeking and resulting in the feeling of security when in teh presence of each other
What is proximity?
Physical closeness
What is secure base behaviour?
Even when independent infants will regularly return to their attachment figure
What is separation anxiety?
Visible distress when an attachment figure leaves
What are the 2 types of caregiver-infant interactions?
Reciprocity
Interactional Synchrony
What is reciprocity?
If baby and mum spend a lot of time reacting then they will develop a reciprocal interaction by 3 months and means they elicit a response from them
‘Turn-taking’
What is Interactional synchrony?
A simultaneous action
It’s a rhythmic interaction that both teh caregiver and infant mirror each other in a synchronised way.
‘Simultaneous action’
Summaries the study carried out by Metzoff and Moore?
1983
- conducted the first research into Interactional synchrony.In infants as young as 2 weeks were able to imitate facial expressions of adult, which shows their ability to mirror is innate behaviour
Summaries the study carried out by Isabella et al?
1991
- observing 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony.They found higher levels of synchrony associated with better quality mother-infant attachment
What is the evaluation for the introduction of attachement?
- we don’t know hat is happening when observing the infants
+ controlled observations capture the fine details
- observations dont tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
What are the stages of attachment?
Stage 1 - Asocial stage - 0 to 6 weeks - babies are beginning to see the differences between humans and non humans, they start to prefer familiar people and objects
Stage 2 - Indiscriminate stage - 2 to 7 months - babies become more sociable and prefer human company. They can be comforted by anyone
Stage 3 - Specific attachments - 7 to 11 months - babies form a main attachment and they start to show separation and stranger anxiety
Stage 4 - Multiple attachments - 12 months onwards - babies can form multiple attachments these can all serve different purposes
Evaluation of Schaffer and Emersons stages of attachments?
+ high ecological validity
-observer bias
-lacks temporal validity
- culture bias so can’t be generalised
What is the difference between caregivers and attachment figure?
A primary caregiver is the person who spends the most time with the baby and caring for its needs
A primary attachment figure is teh person who the baby has teh strongest attachment to
Not always the same person but can be
Who is the father to the baby?
The closet male caregiver (if their isn’t a father present)
What are the statistics for Schaffer and Emersons study?
Schaffer and Emerson found that babies became attached to mum at 7 months
3% the father was the sole object
27% found mother and father were joint attachment
75% studied babies made an attachment with the father at 18 months
What is Grossman (2002) find?
By using a longitudinal study that researched into the relationship of both parents realtionship form child to teen, he found that the quality of infant attachment with the mother was stronger than the fathers suggesting it was less important but the quality of time dads spent playing with their infant strengthened their adolescent attachments, this concluded that they are better at play than nurturing
What did Field (1978) find?
After filming 4 month year old babies’ face to face interactions with their primary caregiver mothers or fathers and secondary fathers.
She found that just like primary mothers the primary fathers they spent more time smiling and holding the baby than the secondary fathers
What is the evaluation for the role of the father?
- Confusion over the research question - lacks clarity, we are unaware of what the question actually means and it can be interpreted differently, needs to be more specific
- conflicting evidence - findings may vary depending on the methodology, some evidence show they have a distinct role where as people who grow up without a father present are the same
+ real-world application - can be used to offer advice to parents, shows its the quality of the time spent that is important
What did Lorenz discover by using geese?
Developed imprinting by splitting goose eggs into two groups one with a mother other in incubator. When mixed together the first group went back to their mother and he second group to Lorenz .
This shows imprinting and the critical period
What did Harlow find?
Harlow studied monkey who has recently been separated from their mothers, he split them into 2 groups and gave them each a mother.
Group 1 had a cloth mother that was warm and Group 2 had a wire mother that provided food.
Results showed that the monkey spent more time with cloth mother to keep warm suggesting warmth and comfort is more important to them than food.
Later they were socialised and Harlow found that they couldn’t make proper attachments. Like to their off spring
Why are animal studies useful?
It increases our understanding of basic brain principles
Helps us to develop neurological theories
Explain the real life example of animal testing?
(coronavirus)
They originally tested on mice then, humans in clinical trials
In the example video watched they rushed it through in 14 days which is not long enough to test.
What are the problems with animal studies?
Extrapolation - what happens to other species infants may not be the same as humans, there is a difference between nature and nurture too.
Ethical considerations - depending on the location, animals and humans have rights and responsibilities.Law protects us and animals
Animal Rights - Tom Reagan in 1984 argued that there were no circumstances that animal research is acceptable and all animals are subject of a life
What are the 3R’s?
Replacement - should be replaced by a suitable alternative
Reduction - reduce number down to a minimum
Refinement - reduce the pain and harm
What is the evaluation for the imprinting theory?
Limitation - Guiton found partial support for the theory, with leghorn chicks but he found that the process was reversible, this disproves the critical period
Further limitation - If the first thing a baby sees is what it attaches to then it would be the midwife
Evaluation of Harlow Research
Strength - influential to help us understand the importance of comfort
Limitation - The way Harlow set up his set was different, there was no faces only cloth mother and food mother.
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association
What is operant conditioning?
Learning through consequences
What are the assumptions based off Learning theory?
- we are born a blank slate
- we are born with the capacity to learn
- behaviourists
- behaviour is learnt form the Environment
- focuses on the observable behaviour
What is Pavlovs conditioning using mum, baby and food?
Before conditioning:
Food(UCS) = baby feels pleasure(UCR)
Mum(NS) + food(UCS) = baby feels pleasure(UCR)
After conditioning:
Mum(CS) = baby feels pleasure(UCR)
What is reinforcement?
Anything that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated
What is positive reinforcement?
Anything that increases the effect of likelihood of that behaviour being repeated by using pleasant consequences
What is negative reinforcement?
Anything that increases the likelihood of those actions being repeated by using a pleasant consequence after they stop
What is punishment?
Anything that decreases the likelihood of behaviour being repeated by using unpleasant consequences
What did Dollard and Miller say?
That babies are hungry so they are uncomfortable, they then reduce it - so drive state, when they are fed the drive i s reduced and they feel pleasure, food = primary reinforcer, this is a reinforcer because its taking away something unpleasant, so person becomes secondary reinforcer.
What are the first and secondary drives?
First - hunger, an innate desire/ biological motivator
Secondary - learned by an association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive
What is the evaluation of the learning theory?
+ its perfectly clear to see that there are plenty of opportunities to associate the caregiver with food, eg Dollard and Miller
- doesn’t account for if anyone other than the parent is feeding the child
- Harlows research suggested that monkeys clearly prefer comfort over food
- doesn’t explain why those in poverty are still attached to parents
What is Bowlby’s second theory of attachment?
Evolution
The process of useful features being introduced into a species so that the animal can survive long enough to successful reproduce, so they need to be well adapted.
Bowlby proposed that human infants have an innate tendency to form attachments to their primary caregiver ( usually the mother)
attachment = imprinting means that the young animal is most likely to be kept safe, if not the infants may not survive.
What can Bowlby’s theory be broken down into?
attachment is innate
critical period
caregiving is adaptive
secure base
monotropy and hierarchy
internal working model
continuity hypothesis
What is rooting?
a infants head turning toward their cheek when stroked and swallowing reflexes follow, which allows the infant to take in nourishment
What is social releasers?
Something that babies have that unlocks an innate tendency of adults to care for them
can be :
physical - baby face
behavioural - crying or cooing
What is the critical period?
birth - 2 1/2 years old, it starts about 7 months, if it doesn’t happen the child could be socially, emotionally and intellectually damaged.
What is monotropy?
he suggested that infants form one very special attachment
so if mum isn’t available then the infant may bond with another ever-present adult or primary attachment figure
failure to form this bond could lead to insecure attachment and avoidant, mistrustful behaviour in childhood and adulthood.
What is internal working model?
The monotropic attachment forms a internal working model which is a model for relationships what to expect from all future relationships based on mother-child relationship.
What is the law of accumulated seperation?
each time a child is left it has a negative consequence it accumulates.
Evaluate Bowlby’s theory
+ Hazen and Shavers love quiz - supports the internal working model, the continuity hypothesis, that the stronger the relationship with caregiver the better relationships in the future.
- Kagans temperament - opposing theory, its a weakness because Kagan says that babies are born with an innate personality that makes them more friendly and easier to care for.
Who proposed the strange situation?
Mary Ainsworth
What is the strange situation?
A technique that places the infant in different situations in order to research the quality of attachment to caregiver
What did the strange situation observe?
- stranger anxiety
- exploration and secure base behaviour
- proximity seeking
- separation anxiety
- reunion behaviour
What was the group assessed?
100 North american infants with the mum from middle class families.
They were 1 to 2 years old
What are the stages of the procedure?
Stage 1 - mother takes infant into the lab and puts the baby on the floor so it can explore.
Stage 2 - stranger enters and talks to mum then approaches the child.
Stage 3 - mum leaves, if the child is playing the stranger watches, if they are passive the stranger tries to get their interest, if the child is upset the stranger attempts to comfort them.
Stage 4 - mum returns and the stranger leaves
Stage 5 - infants play and mum leaves
Stage 6 - stranger enters and approaches child doing the same as stage 3
Stage 7 - stranger leaves and the caregiver greets the child.
What are the 3 types of attachment according to Mary Ainsworth?
Avoidant insecure
secure
resistant insecure
What did Solomon and Main find?
That there was a fourth attachment type - disorganised.
Disorganised is usually developed when infants found their parents scary, it is a combination of both resistant and avoidant attachment types
They used the strange situation procedure
And they offered an alternative theory which led to the validity of Ainsworth’s research
What are the strengths of Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Efficient - measure a nay behavioural effects quickly and effectively
Easy to replicate - easy to repeat and can be done worldwide
What are the weaknesses of Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Validity - location differs from the infants normal environment
Main caregiver - may not be mum who is the primary caregiver
Artificial environment - reducing the ecological validity ( but a counter point is that infants usually experience a lot of new places
Generalisation - sample type means that it cannot be generalised
Ethics - distress caused to the infants, no consent
What is a culture?
People who live by a shared set of morals and believes
What was an individualistic and collectivist cultures?
Individualistic - a culture that emphasises independence and achievement, these people tend to be more competitive
Collectivistic - a culture that emphasises family and work goals
What is ethnocentric?
Biased to one culture
What did Izendoorn and Kroonenberg find with their meta-analysis?
They researched ratios of attachment types across different countries and cultures, they reviewed 32 different studies and collected results from 1900 children
They found some variation but similar
Van Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg statistics?
Secure - highest in the UK
Insecure resistant - highest Israel and lowest Uk
Insecure avoidant - highest Germany and lowest Japan
They found that results within the same culture were 150% greater than between cultures
What did Takahashi research?
Used the strange situation with 60 middle class Japanese
Found - 0% insecure avoidant - due to the study being stopped because the infants were too distressed
- 32% insecure resistant
-68% secure
-90% of baby alone steps stopped
What did Simonelle et al research?
Conducted the strange situation in Italy of 76, 1 year olds
Found 50% secure and 36% insecure avoidant
They believed that it was to do with the daycare
What did Jin et al research?
Used the strange situation on 87 Korean children
They found that most children were secure and any children that were insecure were insecure ressistant with one exception
What are the conclusions of the research evidence ?
Secure is the most common
Attachment is innate
Culture has an impact
What is Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation theory?
Looks at the effect of childhood experiences can have on the process of forming an attachment
They focus on the impact of separation, deprivation and privation
Bowlby said that ‘ if a child is deprived of appropriate maternal care during the critical period emotional problems will develop later in life’
What was Bowlby’s 44 Juvenile thieves?
Bowlby aimed to investigate the realtionship between affectionless psychopaths and maternal deprivation
He looked at the children in the guidance clinic he worked at and recorded which had experienced prolonged separation and interviewed them to class them into groups
He found
17/44 deprivation
15/17 classed as psychopaths
2/44 non- criminals experience separation
Concluded that affectionless psychopaths are more likely to have experienced maternal deprivation
What are the effects of deprivation?
Intellectual - they can be characteristed by low IQ and mental retardation (support Goldfarb)
Emotional - would become affectionless psychopaths and have criminal tendencies, lack guilt, emotions and empathy
Evaluate Bowlby’s Maternal deprivation theory?
- alternative theory - Rutter suggested that children may of been proved not deprived
- opposing research - Freud and Dann studied orphans from a concentration camp and found that they had bonded to each other suggesting that they could connect to other
+ Practical application - due to the theory we now use it in hospitals today
What are the effects of institutionalisation?
Rocking
Aggressive
What is the Bucharest Early Intervention project?
Procedure - 95 children (12-31 months) who had spent most of their lives in instituatonal care were compared to 50 kids who had using teh strange situation
They found
74% secure (control)
19% secure (institutional)
65% disorganised ( institutional)
44% disinhibited (institutional ) 20% control
What is Rutters English and Romanian adoptee study?
Procedure - 165 Romanian orphans were checked upon at ages 4,6,11 and 15 to see there physical,mental and emotional intelligence
Found - rates of development differed depending on the time that they were adopted
Less than 6 months - IQ = 102
More than 6 months to 2 years - IQ =86
2 years onwards - IQ = 72
According to Bowlby’s Internal working model theory, what is an insecure resistant infant most likely to grow up like?
Later relationships would be clingy and too trusting
Myron-Wilson and smith said they were more likely to be bullied
What did the IWM mean for insecure aviodant infants later on?
They would struggle to be affectionate
They would most likely be bullied
What happens to secure infants according to the IWM?
Strong relationships and most likely to have healthy relationships
What did Bailey et al find?
That mothers had the same type of attachment with their mothers as they did with their infants
What do you need to include in a 16 marker about relationships in later life?
Internal working model
Continuity hypothesis
Bailey et al
Myron-Wilson and smith
Kerns
What did Kerns research?
Said that securely attached infants have better relationships in later childhood than insecurely attached.
