Developmental Psychology

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology concerned with the progressive behaviours changes that occur in individuals across their lifespan

Question 2

What is attachment?

Answer 2

Attachment is an emotional bond between two ppl = two way process that endures over time

Question 3

What is reciprocity?

Answer 3

• Aka turn-taking
• two way Mutual process where each party responds to the others’ signals to sustain interaction
• the behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other

Question 4

What is Interactional synchrony?

Answer 4

• when adults + babies respond in time to sustain communication
• interactions mirror actions and emotions from each other
• infants as young as 2/3 weeks old imitated specific facial expressions + hand gestures

Question 5

What are the ads of caregiver-infant reactions?

Answer 5

• interactional synchrony has been demonstrated in several studies = Meltzoff + Moore (1983) found that infants as young as three days old were displaying this behaviour, which seems to suggest that the imitation behavioursare not learned and are innate
• Murray and Trevarthen (1985) got mothers to interact with their babies over a video monitor. In the next part of the study the babies were played a tape of their mother so she was not responding to them. The babies tried to attract their mother’s attention but when this failed they gave up responding. This shows that babies want their mothers to reciprocate
• Abravanal and DeYong (1991) observed infant behaviour when interacting with a puppet that looked like a human mouth opening and closing. Infant’s made little response to this, which shows they are not just imitating what they see; interactional synchronyis a specific social response

Question 6

What are the disads of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 6

• Babies cannot communicate so psychologists are relying on their inferences.They cannot be sure that infants are actually trying to communicate
• The expressions tested (tongue sticking out, yawning, and smiling) are ones that infants frequently make so they may not have been deliberately imitating what they saw

Question 7

What are the two types of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 7

• reciprocity

- interactional synchrony

Question 8

What were the limitations of investigation caregiver-infant reactions?

Answer 8

1. Studies have found that babies’ attachment behaviours are much stronger in laboratory settings than they are in their home environment. Therefore, studies should take place in a natural setting (e.g. the child’s home) to increase validity.
2. Most studies into caregiver-infant interactions are observational so there may be bias in the observer’s interpretation of what they see (observer bias). This can be countered by using more than one observer (inter-rater reliability).
3. There are practical issues when investigating caregiver-infant interactions. Infants are often asleep or feeding when psychologists want to observe them. Researchers need to use fewer but shorter observation periods because of babies limited waking periods.
4. Extra care needs to be taken is relation to ethics when investigating caregiver-infant interactions so as not to affect the child or parent in any way e.g. protection from harm, confidentiality etc..

Question 9

What are the 4 stages of attachment?

Give a bit of an intro to the study

Answer 9

Shaffer and Emerson (1964) investigated development of attachment in infants using a longitudinal study - followed 60 infants + their mothers for two years

1) pre-attachment (0-3 months)
2) indiscriminate attachment (3-7 months)
3) discriminate attachment (7+ months)
4) multiple attachments (7+ months)

Question 10

What are the disads for the stages of attachment?

Answer 10

• The data collected by Shaffer and Emerson (1964) may be unreliable because it was based on mothers’ reports of their infants. Some mothers might have been less sensitive to their infant’s protests and therefore been less likely to report them.
• The sample was biased because it only included infants from a working-class population and thus the findings might not apply to other social groups.
• The sample was also biased because it only included infants from individualist cultures, infantsfrom collectivist culturescould form attachments in a different way
• The study does not have temporal validity, it was conducted in the 1960s and parental care of children has changed considerably since then. More women go out to work and more men stay at home.
• Stage theories such as this one are inflexibleand do not take account of individual differences, some infants might form multiple attachment first, rather than starting with a single attachment

Question 11

Describe pre-attachment

Answer 11

(0-3 months):

• From six weeks of age
• infants become attracted to other humans
• preferring them to objects and events
• preference is demonstrated by their smiling at people’s faces.

Question 12

Describe indiscriminate attachment

Answer 12

(3-7 months):

• Infants begin to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people
• smiling more at people they know
• They will still allow strangers to handle them

Question 13

Describe discriminate attachment

Answer 13

(7+ months):

• Infants develop a specific attachment to their primary attachment figure(usually the mother) staying close to that person
• They show separation protest (the distress an infant shows when their primary attachment figureleaves them)and display stranger anxiety(the distress an infant shows when approached by someone they do not know)
• quality of relationship matters most in formation of attachment, not quantity if whoever spends the most times

Question 14

Describe multiple attachments

Answer 14

(7+ months):

• Very soon after developing their first attachment infants develop strong emotional ties with other major caregivers, such asthe father andgrandparents, and non-caregivers, such as siblings = secondary attachments.
• The fear of strangers weakens but their attachment to their primary attachment figureremains the strongest.

Question 15

What is the role of the father?

Answer 15

Shaffer and Emerson (1964):

• found that 75% of infants had formed an attachment w/ their father a 18 months
• can even be their primary attachment figure
• role of father in single-parent family is more likely to adopt traditional maternal role = primary caregiver + nurturing attachment figure
• found fathers were less likely to be a primary attachment figure than mothers = may spend less time with their infants
• men may be less equipped to form an intense attachment = lack emotional sensitivity unlike women
• could be due to biological factors (female hormone oxytocin underlies caring behaviour)
• could be due to social norms = stereotype that it is feminine to be sensitive

Question 16

What are the 3 types of attachment?

Answer 16

Type A - Insecure-avoidant

Type B - Secure attachment

Type C - insecure-resistant

Question 17

Describe the strange situation?

Answer 17

• Methodology used by Ainsworth et al. (1970) to investigate differences in attachments between infants + their caregivers
• controlled observation in a room w/ some toys
• investigated infants in 3 minute episodes:
• mother + baby
• stranger enters
• mother leaves
• mother enters etc..

Recorded on infant’s:

• proximity seeking
• stranger anxiety
• separation protest
• reunion joy

Question 18

Describe Type A - Insecure Avoidant

Answer 18

Insecure avoidant = 20% of babies classified as this from study:

• Babies will largely ignore their caregiver and play independently
• They show no signs of distress when the caregiver is absent (no separation protest) and continue to ignore them when they return (no reunion joy).
• The baby is distressed when left completely alone but (no stranger anxiety).
• The caregiver and the stranger are treated in much the same way.

Question 19

Describe Type B - secure attachment

Answer 19

70% of babies were classified as this:

• Securely attached babies play happily while the caregiver is present and use them as a safe basewhile they explore the roomand play with the toys.
• The baby is clearly distressed when the caregiver leaves (separation protest), even if they are not left completely alone, and seeks immediate contact with their caregiver when they return (reunion joy).
• Their caregiver easily comforts them.

Question 20

Describe Type C - Insecure-resistant

Answer 20

10% of babies were classified as this:

• Babies who have an insecure-resistant attachment to their caregivers are fussy and cry more than other babies.
• They will not explorethe room or play with the toys very much, instead they are clingy.
• The baby is distressed when the caregiver leaves (extreme separation protest), however they resist comfort from the caregiver on reunion(no reunion joy).
• They strongly resist the stranger’s attempts to make contact (extreme stranger anxiety).

Question 21

What is an ad of the Strange Situation?

Answer 21

The Strange Situation has been replicatedmany times over the years.

• It is easy to replicate this study
• it had a high level of control and standardised procedures.
• It has been carried out successfully in many different cultures

Question 22

What are the disads of The Strange Situation?

Answer 22

• methodology was developed in the US = culturally biased. Attachment behaviour that is seen as healthy in the United States may not be seen as such in all cultures. In Germany at this time very few mothers worked (less than 1 in 5) but children were encouraged to be independent and self-reliant. German parents view some of the behaviour exhibited by securely attached infants, such as crying when their mothers leave the room, as being spoilt and so do not reward this behaviour. This is why these children may have shown less anxiety when separated from their mothers and been classed as avoidant.
• The validity of some measures has been questioned, for instance, it could be argued that proximity seeking could be a measure of insecurity rather than security.
• The strange situation is gender biased as it has only ever been carried out using mothers as the caregiver. Children might be insecurely attached to their mothers but securely attached to their fathers. They strange situation is therefore not measuring a child’s overall attachment style but their attachment to one individual. Main and Weston (1981) found that children behave differently depending on which parent they are with.
• TheStrange Situation being artificial is that it may not reflect the infant’s real world behaviour(lacks ecological validity). Studies have found that babies’ attachment behaviours are much stronger in laboratory settings than they are in their home environment

Question 23

Describe the experiment conducted to find cross cultural variations in attachment

Answer 23

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a meta-analysisof 32 studies into attachment to see if attachment occurs in the same way across all cultures. All of the studies they included had:

• used the strange situation to measure attachment.
• studies looked at the relationships between mothers and their babies (under 24 months)
• studies were conducted in eight countries, some individualistic cultures (USA, UK, and Germany) and some collectivist cultures (Japan, China, and Israel)

Question 24

What were the findings of the Cross Cultural Variations in Attachment study?

Answer 24

The main findings were:

• secure attachment was the most common attachment style in all of the eight countries studied
• the second most common attachment style was insecure-avoidant, except in Israel and Japan where avoidant was rare but resistant was common.
• the lowest percentage of secure attachments was in China.
• the highest percentage of secure attachments was in Great Britain.
• the highest percentage of insecure-avoidant attachments was in West Germany.
• overall variations within cultures were 1.5 times greaterthan the variation between cultures.

The similarities between cultures suggest that caregiver and infant interactions have universal characteristics and so may be partly instinctive. However, the variations between cultures show that the cultural differences in child rearing practices also play an important role in attachment styles. The variations within cultures indicate that sub-cultural differences, such as social class, play an important role in an infant’s attachment style. These factors are possibly more important than culture

Question 25

What is an ad of the Cultural Variation in Attachment study?

Answer 25

This study is a meta-analysis, which includes a very large sample. This increases the validity of the findings.

Question 26

What are the disads of the Cultural Variation in Attachment?

Answer 26

• The strange situation methodology was developed in the United States and it may not be valid in other cultures. For instance, Ainsworth assumed that a willingness to explore means a child is securely attached but this may not be the case in other cultures. This means the methodology is culturally biased.
• The infants from Israel in this study lived on a Kibbutz(closed community) and did not come into contact with strangers. This could be the reason why these children showed severe distress when confronted with strangers and so were classed as resistant.
• This study was not actually comparing cultures but countries. For instance, they compared the USA with Japan. Both of these countries have many different sub-cultures and that have different child rearing practices. One study of attachment in Tokyo found similar attachment style distributions to the USA, whereas studies in more rural areas of Japan found many more insecure-resistant infants.
• All of the studies used in this meta-analysis looked at infants’ attachments to their mothers. Children might be insecurely attached to their mothers but securely attached to their fathers. They strange situation is therefore not measuring a child’s attachment style but their attachment to one individual. Main and Weston (1981) found that children behave differently depending on which parent they are with.