Child topic 5 - Development of attachment

Question 1

What were the aims of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 1

To observe the extent to which infants would use their mother as a secure base from which to explore a strange environment
To Observe the extent to which attachment behaviour might gain the ascendancy over contact behaviour under conditions of alarm introduced by the entrance of a Stranger

Question 2

What was the sample for Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 2

56 children from white middle class families
All either 51 weeks old or 49 weeks old

Question 3

How was the sample collected in Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 3

Contacted through private practice

Question 4

What were the two types of measure taken in Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 4

Frequency and Intensity

Question 5

What behaviours were frequency measures taken for?

Answer 5

Locomotor
Manipulatory
Visual
crying

Question 6

What was the procedure of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 6

There were 8 episodes with different coming and goings of the mother and stranger - the baby was observed

Question 7

What happened in each of the stages in Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 7

1 = M carried the B into room
2 = M put B down in specified place and sat quietly in chair - participating only if B sought her attention
3 = Stranger entered, sat quietly for 1 min, conversed with M for 1 min, gradually approached B, showing him a toy - M left room subtly
4 = baby left with stranger - if B happily engaged in play, s non-participant, if b inactive, S tried to interest him in the toys
If B was distressed, S tried to distract him or comfort him
If B could not be comforted, the episod was ended
5 = M entered and paused in doorway to give b chance to mobilise spontaneously response to her
S left subtly
what M did next not specified , but left again when b was pacified
6 = B left alone unless so distressed episode needs to be curtailed
7 = S entered and behaved as in episode 4
8 = M returned, S left and after the reunion had been observed the situation was terminated

Question 8

What were the conclusions of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 8

Exploratory behaviours are encouraged by the presence of a mother and depressed by the absence of a mother
Search behaviours are heightened by the absence of a mother

Question 9

How was inter rater reliability confirmed in Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 9

Frequency measures = 8 randomly selected cases were observed by two researchers
For coding of baby’s behaviour = 14 randomly selected cases were observed by two independent scorers. In ln cases the correlation coefficients were in the +0.9 for each behaviour

Question 10

What were the 5 classes of behaviour scored for intensity of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 10

Proximity and contact seeking behaviours
Contact-maintaining behaviours
proximity and interaction avoiding behaviours
Contact and interaction resisting behaviours
Search behaviour

Question 11

What were the crying results of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 11

Was minimal in episode 2 and did did not increase significantly in episode 3. Crying rose in episode 4 with the mother’s first departure - declined upon her return in episode 5 and then increasing sharply in episode 6 when she departed a second time. did not decrease significantly when the stranger returned in episode 7

Question 12

What were the search seeking behaviour during separation results of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 12

Mean strength of search behaviour was moderate in episode 4, significantly stronger in episode 6 and moderate again in episode 7

Question 13

What were the Exploratory behaviour results of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 13

From episode 2 - sharp decrease (when stranger was present too)
Episode 4 - remained depressed
Episode 5 - Visual and manipulatory exploration recovered
Episode 6 - declined again
Episode 7 - lowest point (when stranger present but mother absent)

Question 14

What were the Proximity seeking and contact maintaining results of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 14

Efforts to regain contact, proximity or interaction with the mother greatly intensified by brief separation experiences
Displayed much less frequently and less strongly to the stranger than the mother.

Question 15

What were the Contact-resisting and proximity-avoiding results of Ainsworth and Bell’s study?

Answer 15

Contact resisting behaviour occurred rarely in episodes 2 and 3
1/3 sample showed contact resisting after episode 5 and 1/2 showed it in episode 8

Question 16

What were Ainsworth’s three proposed types of attachment?

Answer 16

Secure attachment - 70%
Insecure attachment - 15%
insecure resistant attachment - 15%

Question 17

According to Ainsworth, what was the crucial feature which determined the attachment type in a child?

Answer 17

The sensitivity of the mother
Sensitive mothers tend to have babies who are securely attached

Question 18

What were the high quality features of a nursery?

Answer 18

Lower number of children for caregiver (3 at most)
should be well-qualified, well-trained, experienced and knowledgeable about child development and the importance of emotional care
Staff turnover should be as low as possible
Staff should be responsive and sensitive to children’s emotional needs

Question 19

What did Melhuish identify in terms of nurseries?

Answer 19

several features of high quality day nurseries that had positive effects on children up to 3 years old
E.g consistency, supervision and development which ensures continuity and stability

Question 20

Outline the procedure of Harlow’s study

Answer 20

8 Monkeys separated from their mothers immediately after birth - placed in cages with two surrogate mothers - one wire and one cloth - 4 got milk from wire mother and 4 from cloth
Studied for 165 days

Question 21

What were the results of Harlow’s study?

Answer 21

Both groups spent more time with cloth mother
Monkeys brought up with surrogate mother were:
More timid
unsociable with other monkeys
easily bullied and wouldn’t stand up for themselves
had difficulty with mating
females were inadequate mothers

Question 22

What did Hodges and Tizard do?

Answer 22

Studied children who were either adopted or returned to their own families

Question 23

What did Hodges and Tizard find about institutions?

Answer 23

They provided good physical care and appeared to provide adequate intellectual stimulation, but staff turnover was high and they operated on a policy against allowing strong attachments to develop between staff and children.
By age 4 they had been looked after by 50 carers

Question 24

What did Hodges and Tizard find had happened to the children by age 8?

Answer 24

The majority of adopted children had formed close attachments. However, only some of those children returned to their own families formed close attachments

Question 25

What did Hodges and Tizard find had happened to the children by age 16?

Answer 25

Family relationships of most of the adopted children seemed satisfactory, both for them and their parents. However, those returned to their parents suffered difficulties such as a mutual difficulty in showing affection

Question 26

What did Hudson and Tizard find were the effects on the children outside the family?

Answer 26

Both showed similar relationships with peers and adults. Compared with a control group, they were;
Still more likely t seek adult affection
More likely to have a special friend or see peers as sources of emotional support
more likely to be friendly to any peer rather than choosing their friends.