Development Flashcards
What is attachment?
An emotional tie or relationship between two people shown in their behaviour
What is a bond?
a set of feelings that ties one person to another
What four ways did Maccoby (1980) argue we could see that two people had an attachment?
- Seeking proximity
- Distress on separation
- Joy on reunion
- General orientation of behaviour towards the other person
How can we observe seeking proximity in babies?
. A young baby will try to maintain proximity to the caregiver by watching them carefully, and howling when they go too far away. An older, more mobile baby will crawl after their attachment figure.
How can be observe distress on separation in babies?
The young infant will show distress when the caregiver leaves even for a short period of time. The older child may miss their parents and feel homesick on a school trip.
How can we observe joy on reunion in babies?
The baby will welcome back their attachment figure often by clinging to them and hugging them even when they have only been gone for five minutes.
How can we observe general orientation towards the other person in babies?
Both the baby and caregiver direct their attention to each other and try to engage each other in activities and interaction.
What is ethology?
The study of animal behaviour. Ethologists observe how animals act and identify the purpose the behaviour is likely to have served in helping survival in the evolutionary past.
How did Lorenz study the rapid formation of attachment in animals?
In a piece of research in 1935, he divided a number of fertile goose eggs randomly into two groups. Half were replaced under their mother and the remaining eggs were kept in an incubator. Lorenz ensured that he was the first, large moving object seen by the incubator group. He found that the goslings formed a rapid attachment to him and would follow him around. A short time after they hatched, he put all the goslings together in a container and released them. They separated rapidly into the two initial groups.
What did Lorenz call the formation of rapid attachments?
Imprinting
What is imprinting?
The tendency to form an attachment to the first large moving object seen after birth.
When did Lorenz say imprinting had to happen?
Within the ‘window of development’ which he called a critical period,. The strongest tendency to imprint is 13-16 hours after ducklings are hatched, and after 32 hours the tendency to imprint has virtually passed and attachment will not form.
What is a critical period?
A specific period of time in which something has to develop.
What did Klaus and Kennel (1976) test about attachment, and what was the usual practice before them?
They tested the hypothesis that early skin to skin contact led to closer bonds being formed between new mothers and their babies. The usual practice before this experiment was that babies would be removed from their mothers shortly after delivery and kept in a nursery unit to allow their mothers to rest and recover from the birth.
What study did Klaus and Kennel (1976) do on attachment?
They took two groups of young mothers in a North American maternity hospital and followed them from birth until their babies were a year old. The control group had routine contact: they saw their baby after delivery and when they were brought in for feeds. The experimental group had extended contact: they had one extra hour of ‘skin to skin contact’ after the birth and then an extra five hours of contact over the next three days. THey visited the moths and babies after one month and again after one year.
What were the results of Klaus and Kennel’s (1976) study on attachment?
They found a variety of differences in the behaviour of the routine and extended contact moths. The extended contact mothers showed more soothing behaviour such as cuddling their babies when they were given a routine medical examination and maintained closer proximity to their babies and gazes at their babies more than the routine group.
What was the conclusion of Klaus and Kennel’s (1976) study on attachment?
That these behaviours seemed to indicate that mothers had formed closer bonds with their babies in the extended contact group and indicated that there may be a special time or sensitive period immediately after birth that may be important for bonding to take place.
What is a sensitive period?
A period of time in which something is likely to occur. However, development can take place outside the sensitive period as we can see in studies of older children who have been brought up in isolation but develop language later in children.
What did the findings of Klaus and Kennel’s (1976) study on attachment lead to?
Most hospitals adopted the practice of ‘rooming in’ or keeping babies and their mother together while in hospital. It also implied it would be beneficial for fathers to be present at the birth to give them the chance to form early bonds.
Why has Klaus and Kennel’s (1976) study on attachment been criticsed?
It may have lacked validity as the mothers were young, unmarried and came from a disadvantaged North American inner city area. This may have meant that the closer bonds shown by the mothers may have been due insteadto extra attention given to them in the experiment.
Why study did De Chateau et al (1987) do on attachment?
Carried out a similiar study to Klaus and Kennel’s, with 42 middle class Swedish mothers and their babies. 20 were given routine contact and 22 extended contact. They found that the extended group held their babies more, gazed at them 36 hours after birth and at 3 months the babies showed more laughing and smiling and less crying.
What study did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) carry out on the development of attachments?
Studied 60 babies in Glasgow, visiting them monthly for the first year of their life and returning again at 18 months. They collected data on attachment by considering separation anxiety and stranger distress, using a variety of methods, including observation and interviewing. At each visit they interviewed the moths, asking them about the baby’s response to various situations, and asked them to rate the baby’s behaviour in each of these situations using a four point scale, from zero ‘no protest’ to three ‘cries loudly every time.’ They also would approach the baby and see if they cried, whimpered or showed signs of distress at a strange face.
What is separation anxiety?
If the baby showed anxiety or distress when the caregiver left them, Separation anxiety indicated that the baby has formed an attachment to the person.
What is stranger distress?
If the baby showed signs of distress when approached by someone they did not know. Distress at strangers shows that the baby can recognise familiar people and feels anxious with those who are unfamiliar.
What did Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study suggest attachment took place?
Found that attachment behaviours develop in stages loosely linked to age Most babies started to show separation anxiety at 6-8 months, indicating an attachment had been formed. Fear of strangers tended to follow a month. After the first attachment was formed, most babies went on to form multiple attachments with a variety of people.
What did Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study suggest babies form their first attachment do?
Majority (65%) the first attachment figure with their mother, Fathers were the first attachment figure with only 3% of babies and just over a quarter of babies (27%) formed ‘joint attachments’ at the same time. They did not necessarily form attachments to the person who carried out most of the physical care, as in almost 40% the person who cared for the child was not the first attachment figure.
What were the strengths of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study on the development of attachment?
- Used a variety of methods of data, including observation and interview which is very rich in detail.
- Babies were observed by the researchers in their own homes, and mothers were asked to rate their babies’ response to separation in a wide range of everyday situation so high ecological validity.
What were the weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study on the development of attachment?
The findings reflect the child-rearing practices of the mid 1960’s where most childcare was carried out by mothers who were less likely to work outside the home. Today, fathers may be far more likely to be first attachment figures given their greater role today in child-rearing.
What are the four stages that Schaffer and Emerson identified in their study on attachment?
- Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)
- Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks-6 months)
- Specific attachments (7 months onwards)
- Multiple attachments (10/11 months onwards)
What is the asocial stage (0-6 weeks)?
Babies produce similar responses to objects and people and do not prefer specific people to others. They have a bias towards human-like stimuli and prefer to look at faces and eyes. They rapidly learn to discriminate familiar people from unfamiliar by their smell and voice.
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage (6 weeks-6 months)?
Babies become more sociable. They can tell people apart and prefer to be in human company. They are relatively easily comforted by anyone and do not prefer specific individuals yet. They do not show fear of strangers.
What is the specific attachments stage (7 months onwards)
Two changes take place around seven months. The baby beings to show separation anxiety, protesting when their primary attachment figure leaves them. They also show fear of strangers.
What is the multiple attachment stage (10/11 months onwards)
Multiple attachments follow soon after the first attachment is made. The baby shows attachment behaviours towards several different people such as siblings, grandparents and childminders.
What is positive reinforcement?
Something which increases the likelihood that the behaviour before it will be repeated.
What is negative reinforcement?
When a behaviour or response switches off something unpleasant. Taking a painkiller switches off the pain of a headache, so the behaviour- pill taking- is likely to be repeated
What are unconditioned stimulus?
An aspect of the environment which produces an automatic, unlearned response.
What is an unconditioned response?
An unlearned, reflex response to an unconditioned stimulus.
What is the learning theory of attachment?
Learning theory argues that attachments are based on the principles of operent and classical conditioning.
What did Skinner discover about operant conditioning?
He placed hungry animals in cages and found that they would explore. Then they accidentally pressed a lever that supplied a pelet of good, it quickly learned to repeat the behaviour in order to gain the food reward.
What does the principle of operant conditioning say?
That any behaviour that produces a reward (or positive reinforcement) such as food will be repeated. Behaviours that ‘switch off’ something unpleasant are also likely be be repeated )negative reinforcement.) Behaviours that lead to an unpleasant outcome (or punishment) are less likely to be repeated.
How can operant conditioning be applied to attachment?
A baby will cry in response to feelings of discomfort (hungry or cold). This sound is uncomfortable to the caregiver who will attempt to console the child by feeding and cuddling them. These behavious are rewarding for the baby who is likely to stop crying, which acts as a negative reinforcement for the parent, so they are likely to repeat this action when the baby cries next time. At the crying produced positive reinforcement the baby is likely to repeat the crying behaviour.
What did Pavlov notice about classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is based on learning through association; dogs salivate on hearing the bell etc.
How can classical conditioning be applied to attachment?
Milk is an unconditioned stimulus, which provides an unconditioned response in the baby of pleasure. The baby associates the person who feeds them (the neutral stimulus) with the food and soon the person on their own comes to produce a learned or conditioned response of pleasure and relief.
What is the evidence against the learning account of attachment?
- Schaffer an Emerson’s 1964 study showed that primary attachments are not necessarily formed to the person carrying out physical care
- Primate studies have also shown that attachment appears to be based on the need for comfort more than feeding.
- This explanation ignores considerably evidence pointing to the importance of evolutionary aspects of attachment that are considered by Bowlby’s theory.
What experiments did Harlow conduct using monkeys on attachment?
He studied 8 infant monkeys who were reared in isolation and deprived of their real mothers until the were 8 months old. In each cage, there were 2 ‘surrogate’ mothers; one made of wire with a monkey like face with a feeding bottle supplying milk, and an identical mother with no mil covered with a soft towelling fabric. They checked to see if an attachment had been formed by putting a noisy mechanical toy in the cage to frighten the monkeys, and found that they used the soft mother as their base, returning to her for comfort when frightened.
What is monotropy?
The tendency of babies to form a primary attachment to one caregiver.
Who proposed the social learning explanation?
Hay and Vespo (1988)
What does the social learning theory argue?
That children (and indeed adults) learn many of their behaviours through observation and imitation of the behaviour of other people who act as role models Hay and Vespo (1988) argue that parents act as role models for their infants and teach them how to understand and carry out relationships by their own actions of looking after the child.
What components does the social learning theory involve?
- Role modelling: the parents show the child a range of affectionate behaviours such as holding and cuddling, which the child imitates
- Direct instruction: The parents teach the child to reciprocate affection (e.g. give me a kiss goodbye)
- Social facilitation: parents watch and help the child to carry out attachment behaviours
What are the strengths of the social learning explanation?
- Takes into account the importance of parents as role models for their children.
- Hay and Vespo do not deny the importance of innate influences to attachment but draw attention instead to the importance of social influences on the development of attachment behaviours
What are the weaknesses of the social learning explanation?
Hay and Vespo’s theory does not explain why attachments are so emotionally intense for both people involved in them.
What is the social learning explanation?
Rather than being a separate theory, the social learning explanation aims to develop the learning explanation to include an element of social learning in attachment.
What did Bowlby argue that attachment was?
An evolved mechanism that ensured the survival of the child.
What is the underlying basis of Bowlby’s theory?
The innate or instinctive nature of attachment. He argued that attachment behaviours in both babies and their caregivers have evolved through natural selection to ensure the baby survives to reach maturity and to reporduce.
What was Bowlby’s concept of monotropy?
An important concept in his theory was the idea of a single attachment to one person who is more important to the baby He did not deny that babies form various attachments, but he believed that one relationship is more important than the rest.
What is an internal working model?
A template for future relationships including a model of how you and other people are likely to behave.
What did Bowlby argue was the importance of the mother-child relationship?
He argued that the first attachment between the baby and their caregiver provided the child with an internal working model for their future relationships. He argued that the internal working model begun in early childhood, influenced the child’s later relationships through to adulthood. This is referred to as the continuity hypothesis. He also drew on Harlows’ monkeys, and the importance of the moth figure for a ‘safe base’.
When did Bowlby think that attachment took place?
He thought the process of attachment took place within a sensitive period, during the first 3 years of the child’s lief. From his research with troubled adolescents he believed that the attachment between caregiver and child should not be disrupted or broken for any reason before the age of three or there would be serious consequences.
How did Hazan and Shaver (1987) set out to address ‘Is love in adulthood directly related to the attachment type as a child?’
They used a ‘Love quiz’ in their local North American Paper, the Rocky Mountain News, which asked people to write into the paper reporting their experiences of two things:
1. which of three descriptions best applied to their feelings/experiences about romantic relationships
2. A simple adjective checklist which described their childhood relationship with their parents.
They tested two separate groups of people, the first randomly selected from the responses to the paper advert, and the second 108 undergraduate students at their university.
What were the results of Hazan and Shaver’s (1987) study on attachment?
They found there was a strong relationship between childhood attachment type and adulthood attachment type. ‘secure’ types expressed a believe in lasting love, were confident they were lovable, and found others trustworthy. ‘Anxious avoidant’ types were doubtful about the existence of love, whilst anxious ambivalent types fell in love easily and often but rarely found ‘true love’. They felt insecure and experienced self doubt in love.
What study did Black and Schutte (2006) carry out on attachment?
They asked 205 young adults to complete three measures to assess childhood and adult attachment types:
- An adult attachment interview, which measured their feelings about current and previous adult relationships
- A list of adjectives that described their childhood relationships with both parents.
- A description of childhood events and incidents such as birthday parties or Christmas that illustrated their relationship with their parents.
What were the results of Black and Schutte’s (2005) study on attachment?
They found a link between the types of childhood and adult relationships. Those who recalled positive and loving relationships with their mothers were more trusting and more likely to open up to their partners and seek comfort from therm. Those who had positive relationships with their fathers were more likely to rely on their patterns.
What study did Zinnerman et al (2000) carry out on attachments?
They carried out a longitudinal study on 44 children in Germany. Their attachment type as children was initially assessed between 12-18 months of age by seeing how they responded to separation and to strangers, and they were reassessed at the age of 16 ears using interviews focusing on their relationship with their parents. They also recorded the life events such as parental divorce or death that occured to the young people as they were growing up.
What were the results of Zinnerman et al’s (2000) study on attachment?
They found that childhood attachment type was not a good predictor of attachment in adolescence. More important was the impact of serious life events such as parental divorce.
What did Rutter and Quinton (1988) discover?
They found that women who had had a range of difficult early experiences developed security if they had positive school experiences and strong adult relationships in later life.
What relationships did Schaffer (1996) distinguish between?
Vertical relationships the child has with those who are older and more powerful; and horizontal relationships which are attachments to someone with a similar level of power, usually a sibling or peer. Relationships with siblings are very long lasting and often very important in our lives.
What was the standardised procedure for Ainsworth strange situation?
- Mother and infant enter the room. Mother sits in one of the chair and reads a magazine. Child is placed on the floor and is free to explore the toys.
- After about 3 minutes, a stranger enters, sits on the 2nd chair and talks briefly with the mother
- The stranger approaches the infant and attempts to interact and play with them.
- Mother leaves the room so the infant is alone with the stranger. The stranger comforts the baby if they are upset and offers to play with them.
- After around 3 minutes mother returns and the stranger leaves.
- 3 minutes later mother departs again leaving the baby alone in the room.
- The stranger re-enters and offers to comfort and play with the baby
- Mother returns and the stranger leaves.
What is the purpose of Ainsworth’s strange situation?
This study looked at individual differences in attachment.
How did the strange situation procedure allow Ainsworth to observe attachment?
THe departure of the mother allowed her to assess separation anxiety, and the introduction of a stranger allowed her to measure stranger anxiety. She also examined the baby’s behaviour towards the mother in a strange environment to assess whether or not the baby used her as a safe base to explore the room.
What were the three broad types of attachment behaviour Ainsworth identified in infants?
Secure infants ( Type B attachment) Insecure-avoidant attachment (Type A) Insecure-ambivalent attachment (Type C)
What is Type B attachment/ secure infants?
These babies used their mother as a safe base and were happy to explore the room when she was present. They showed distress by crying when she left, and welcomed her back on her return, settling back down to play fairly question. They were wary of the stranger and treated them very differently to their mother. 70% of babies fell into this category.
What is type A attachment/ insecure-avoidant attachment?
These babies did not orient their behaviour towards their mother in the same way. They showed some distress at her departure but did not seek comfort from her when she returned. They also rejected the stranger’s attempts to comfort them. The relationship style of these babies involved keeping a distance and avoiding closeness. 15% of babies fell into this category.
What is type C attachment/ insecure-ambivalent attachment?
These babies were very upset at separation but were not easily comforted when the mother returned. They appeared to be angry and rejected her attempts to comfort them. These babies seemed to expect the relationship to be difficult and they alternated between seeking closeness and wanting distance. 15% of babies fell into this category.
What are the strengths of the strange situation?
very replicable so very reliable
Method may provide a valid measure of the child’s response to separation
What does Ainsworth claim caused the differences in attachment?
The sensitivity of the mother
What did Fox (1991) find?
That there was a strong relationship between the attachment types to both parents which supports the idea that attachments may relate to inbuilt temperaments.
What study did Van Ijrnzendorn and Kroonenberg (1988) do on variations of attachments?
Carried out a meta-analysis on the results of 32 separate studies carried out in 8 different countries using the strange situation. They found secure attachment was most common but the lowest proportion was found in China and the highest in Britain and Sweden. Avoidant attachments were more common in West Germany, and very rare in Israel and Japan. Ambivalent attachments were more common in Israel, China and Japan and rare in Scandinavian countries.
What are individualist cultures?
Those where person independence and achievement are valued. Such as North America and Getmany.
What are collectivist cultures?
Those where there is a high degree of interdependence between people, such as Japan, China and Israel.
What are the short term behaviour pattern of attachment?
Protest
Despair
Detachment
What case study did Kolichova do on privation?
Two twin boys born in 1960 in Czechoslovabia locked in an I heated cella until they were seven. They managed to recover despite this.
What study did Quinton and Rutter do on privation?
Two group of women; one in care the other matched for age and location. Care group more likely to have problems, but vast differences amongst the care group in relation to experiences in school and later good relationships.
What did Anderson find on daycare?
Children who attended day care were able to get along with other children better, were more sociable, outgoing, and had better abilities to play with their peers.
What did Clarke-Stewart (1991) find out bout daycare?
Compared the progress of 150 children and found that those who attended nurseries has better social development than those looked after in family settings
What did field et al discover about daycare?
Argued that children who attend full time day care take part in more cooperative play than those who only attend part time.
What did Dilalla find out about day care?
Found a negative correlation between the amount of time children spend in care and their amount of pro-social behavior.
What study did Campbell et also on daycare?
Assessed standard of care. Longitudinal. Children spending long hours I’m daycare less socially competent, more days but shorter hours were more socially competent.
What did Belsky find about day care?
Day care led to advanced cognitive and language development but also higher level of problem behaviour.
What did Maccoby and Lewis (2003) argue about daycare?
More hours spent in daycare before the child was 4 and a half correlated with a range if negative social outcomes.
What did Campbell et al argue was important for daycare?
A low adult to high child ratio
A small sized crowd
A mixed age group
Well trained staff and low staff turnovers
What are the methodological issues of Ainsworth strange situation?
Some critics have argued that Ainsworth’s research lacks validity because of the strange and unfamiliar nature of the playroom which was not the children’s home. However, the situation itself is similar to many that children may experience such as being left with a baby sitter or at a playgroup, suggesting that the method may provide a valid measure of the child’s response to separations.
What are the strengths of Ainsworth strange situation?
An extremely useful tool, that gives a great deal of information in a relatively short space of time.
It is very easy to replicate which has led to research carried out into variations of attachment across different cultures.
Reliable as many studies have found similar results
What are the possible ethical issues with Ainsworth’ strange situation?
It took place in an unfamiliar environment and the departure of the method in a strange place and the interaction with the strange are likely to be stressful, however both the mother and research were instructed to stop the experiment and respond to the baby if they felt they were becoming very distressed.
What did Ainsworth argue caused the differences in attachment type?
The sensitivity of the mother. .
What did Ainsworth believe would cause an infant to be securely attached?
She argued that mothers who were sensitive to their infants’ needs, who read their moods and feelings correctly, were more likely to produce babies who were securely attached
