Child Issues and Debates

Question 1

Ethical

Answer 1

Li et al (2013)
did not assign children to different types of daycare arrangement
Parents made choice then Li et al studied consequences
if daycare caused problems Li et al was not responsible

Question 2

Unethical

Answer 2

Genie
Over-tested and abandoned when research funding ran out
Some researchers said they put their career ambitions before the welfare of the child, bringing their integrity into question and caused damage to the reputation of Psychology as a subject

Question 3

Classical study of ethics

Answer 3

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
Had no direct contact with participants
Normal issues don’t apply (consent, right to withdraw etc)
Strange situation test, caregivers are not deceived and gave their informed consent.
Babies are only temporarily upset from procedure

Question 4

Reductionistic

Answer 4

Ainsworth
Claimed maternal sensitivity was the sole reason of attachment type
which was an over-simplification
Infant temperament and maternal sensitivity interact to produce attachment (Fuertes et al, 2006)

Question 5

Holistic

Answer 5

Research into the effectiveness of daycare
considers a wide range of complex mediational factors including quality of daycare, family background, disposition of the child, etc
Li et al (2013) example

Question 6

Classic study of reductionism

Answer 6

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
many different types of attachment as there are mothers and babies yet Ainsworth’s strange situation test reduces attachment down to one of three types.
Comparing whole cultures is also reductionistic once you realise that within culture variations are 1.5x as big as between culture variations.

Question 7

Nature

Answer 7

Bowlby’s theory of attachment
claimed we have evolved to want to stay close to our mothers so we can learn from them and so they can keep us safe.
His theory refutes the cupboard love hypothesis (we love food and we learn to associate mum with food).
BUT
Harlow & Zimmerman (1959) proved the cupboard love hypothesis wrong.

Question 8

Nurture

Answer 8

Cross-cultural research into attachment shows that secure attachment is the most common in all cultures (nature)
However, there are significant variations between (and within!) cultures in terms of the proportion of different attachment types.
This suggests child-rearing practices in different (sub)cultures make a difference (nurture).
BUT
Fuertes at al (2006) would disagree

Question 9

Nature vs Nurture classic study

Answer 9

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
secure attachments were the most popular in all cultures.
universality suggests nature is at work. Nurture only seems to play a role in how it goes wrong when it goes wrong.
Some cultures seem to mess up attachments primarily by making their children anxious avoidant. Some do it by primarily making their children anxious resistant.

Question 10

Use of Psychology in social control (example 1)

Answer 10

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis was used by the British government to “guilt-trip” thousands of women back into their homes once they were no longer needed in the fields / factories after WW2.

Question 11

Use of Psychology in social control (example 2)

Answer 11

Applied Behavioural Analysis uses the principles of operant conditioning to force children with autism to behave in what we deem to be socially acceptable ways. Is this for their benefit or our benefit?

Question 12

Classic study of Use of Psychology in social control

Answer 12

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
Ainsworth claimed that the mother was wholly responsible for the attachment type between her and her child
van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s research could be used to pressure mothers from certain cultures to raise their children differently.

Question 13

Use of Psychological Knowledge in Society (example 1) - strength

Answer 13

Research into the short-term effects of deprivation (e.g. James and Joyce Robertson) resulted in changes to hospital visiting practices in the 1950’s.
there are strict staff-to-child ratios in nurseries and guidance in place re; “key-workers” to make sure all children have a substitute primary caregiver.
Reducing any effect of short-term deprivation brought on by day care.

Question 14

Use of Psychological Knowledge in Society (example 2) - weakness

Answer 14

Understanding autism has helped us to develop treatments.
Children with autism are able to distinguish thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and to work on altering their thoughts, which are all skills required within CBT.
However, they often have difficulty in recognising emotions and working with hypothetical or abstract thoughts.
CBT for those with autism places greater emphasis on repetition and visual cues.

Question 15

Classic study for Use of Psychological Knowledge in Society

Answer 15

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
research indicated that there was greater variance in attachment types WITHIN countries than between them
When this happens it is socioeconomic status (i.e. poverty) that is driving it. As such, governments should help accordingly (e.g. set up / fund “Sure Start Centres”).

Question 16

Scientific

Answer 16

Baron-Cohen et al’s (1985)
research into autism (Sally-Anne test) is highly scientific
Has a specific testable hypothesis that is falsifiable and the study gathers empirical data
has great control over extraneous variables (e.g. the use of children with Down’s Syndrome as a control group to rule out differences in ToM just being down to intellectual disabilities).

Question 17

Unscientific

Answer 17

Research into the effects of institutional care (e.g Hodges & Tizard, 1989) have poor internal validity because of a lack of control over EVs.
Comparing outcomes for adopted children vs those left behind in institutions fails to recognise that the children who were chosen
for adoption may have been more socially adept and emotionally stable to begin with.

Question 18

Psychology as a science classic study

Answer 18

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
SSP is highly standardised and controlled and the study analysed quantitative data BUT the overall conclusions are really quite subjective
(e.g. the media has spread Western values about raising children which is why secure attachment is the most prevalent in the world!).
No control over the way the original studies were conducted. More inductive than deductive (no specific, testable hypothesis).

Question 19

Practical issues research method

Answer 19

The observational research method is used extensively in child psych (usually because it would be unethical to perform a laboratory experiment; e.g. on neglect).
Naturalistic (high EV, low R) vs structured (vice versa). Overt (ethical) vs covert (no demand characteristics). Participant (depth but no breadth) vs non-participant (vice versa).

Question 20

Practical issues piece of research

Answer 20

Ainsworth’s “strange situation test” is the most famous example of a structured observation.
Extremely reliable because extraneous variables are well controlled (always the same 8 stages in the same order).
However, lacks EV because the artificial environment may upset the child and make them unusually tearful / clingy.

Question 21

Practical issues classic study

Answer 21

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
Meta-analysis => File-drawer effect
unpublished findings may have altered the results / conclusions of the study.
Population validity should have been high as they looked at a wide range of countries but in truth it was skewed
18 of the studies were from the USA and only 1 study was from China (featuring 36 children).

Question 22

Culture issue weakness (example 1)

Answer 22

Li et al (2013)
only interested in American daycare and looked at 1364 families from 10 sample sites around North America.
teenage mothers (an important sub-cultural group) and low birth weight babies were excluded from the study
the response rate for the 6 month interview was only 50% and biased towards economically advantaged white families.

Question 23

Culture issue - strength (example 2)

Answer 23

Cross-cultural research into attachment can lead to ethnocentric conclusions
German mums neglect their children; Japanese mums are relatively inconsistently emotionally available, etc). This is because the SST doesn’t always travel well.
However, the SST does travel well in Sagi et al (1984)
there really are more anxious-resistant attachments in Israel because of the strange childcare arrangements in a kibbutzim.

Question 24

Culture issues classic study

Answer 24

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
should be the least culturally biased and ethnocentric of all the classic studies, because it was a cross-cultural study that examined a broad range of cultures.
BUT
there was a bias in the cultures sampled; 18 of 32 studies were from the USA and only 1 study was from China (36 children)
More urban than rural. Biased towards middle-class families.

Question 25

Gender issues - weakness (example 1)

Answer 25

Attachment theory and research tends to emphasise the role of the mother.
Bowlby claimed that the principal attachment figure was most likely to be the mother and Ainsworth spoke about maternal sensitivity and how that influenced attachment type.
This is alpha biased (emphasising differences between men and women; in this case, in favour of women).

Question 26

Gender issues - strength (example 2)

Answer 26

Li et al (2013) looked at a sample of 1364 families
equal split of male and female children, and specifically considered gender as an extraneous variable that resulted in not affecting resulting
Sample is not gender biased and research is not beta-biased (it doesn’t minimise differences between the genders it just doesn’t find any).

Question 27

Gender issues classic study

Answer 27

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
words “male”, “female” and “gender” do not appear in the paper. As such, it is impossible to say with any certainty whether the study was gender biased.
We have to assume that there was a roughly equal split of male and female infants in the 1,990 attachments that were studied.
However, the attachment figure in the SSP is usually Female

Question 28

How Psychological understanding has developed over time - weakness (example 1)

Answer 28

Autism research has developed a great deal in the last 25 years.
In 1998 a paper was published in The Lancet that claimed there was a link between autism and the MMR vaccine (this was subsequently debunked).
In 1997, Simon-Baron Cohen proposed the Theory of Mind Explanation of autism. He built on this in 2005 when he proposed the extreme male brain explanation.

Question 29

How Psychological understanding has developed over time - strength (example 2)

Answer 29

Prior to Freud, children were just assumed to be “miniature adults”. Freud emphasised the importance of the first 6 years to the development of the personality.
Bowlby was trained in the psychodynamic tradition and his theory of attachment built on Freud’s ideas. Ainsworth was a student of Bowlby’s and she developed the SST, which has subsequently been used to study the impact of day care.

Question 30

Psychological understanding’s development over time - classic study

Answer 30

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
study was supposed to illuminate cross-cultural differences in attachment
Instead, it shone a light on the ethnocentric nature of the strange situation test. This has led to some tentative changes in how attachment is classified (there is now a type D attachment) and how the SST is conducted (cf. True et al (2001); Dogon people of Mali in West Africa).

Question 31

Socially-sensitive research - weakness !example 1)

Answer 31

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis is a socially sensitive concept because it stigmatises mothers who go out to work
By working it can be claimed that they are depriving their child and causing damage to their future mental health.
Indeed, the British government used Bowlby’s research to guilt mothers out of the fields / factories and back into their homes after WW2.

Question 32

Socially-sensitive research - weakness (example 2)

Answer 32

Research into day care can be socially-sensitive when looking at negative effects
Belsky and Rovine (1988)
Found children who spent longer hours in day care had more insecure attachments with parents
This is stigmatising for those parent who choose to put their children into nurseries so they can go back to work

Question 33

Socially-sensitive research classic study

Answer 33

Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
Mary Ainsworth claimed maternal sensitivity was deciding factor in terms of the attachment type between mother and baby
Cultures in the study had high proportions of insecure attachment type, which could be stigmatised
E.g. Germany had high anxious-avoidant which implies german mums are more “consistently emotionally unavailable”

Question 34

Comparisons of Ways of Explaining Behaviour using Different Themes - example one weakness

Answer 34

Bowlby’s theory of attachment
Suggested that attachment was a complex emotional bond necessary for the wellbeing of the infant
This contrasted with previous theories that suggested that the only reason a child loved its mother was because they associated her with food (cupboard love hypothesis)

Question 35

Comparisons of ways of explaining behaviour using different themes - example two strength

Answer 35

Explanations of autism (theory of mind vs amygdala dysfunction)
These explanations are not mutually exclusive, they exist t different levels of explanation
Theory of mind = cognitive explanation
Amygdala dysfunction = biological
So a autistic child may have ToM because of dysfunctional amygdala

Question 36

Comparisons of ways of explaining behaviour using different themes classic study

Answer 36

Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
Ainsworth’s strange situation test
Her research suggested that maternal sensitivity was the root cause of attachment types
BUT
Fuertes (2006)
Claimed although maternal sensitivity played a role, it was the temperament of the child that most influenced attachment type