essay plans Flashcards
caregiver-infant interactions AO1
Attachment - close two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
Reciprocity - caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other
Interactional synchrony - caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way
Alert phases - when babies signal - research shows mothers pick up and respond to baby’s alertness 2/3rd of time - 3 months - interaction tends to become increasingly frequent
Synchrony begins - meltzoff and moore - 2 weeks old - an adult displayed one of three facial expressions - baby’s response was filmed and labelled - expression and gestures more likely to mirror those of adults more than chance would predict - significant association
Importance for attachment - interactional synchrony - isabella et al
30 mothers and babies
assessed the degree of synchrony and quality of attachment
high levels of synchrony associated with better attachment
caregiver-infant interactions AO3
Filmed observation
Difficulty observing babies
Developmental importance
+ counterpoint
Practical value versus ethics
schaffer’s stages of attachment AO1
Schaffer and emerson
Asocial - first few weeks - human and objects the same - preference for company of familiar
Indiscriminate - 2 to 7 months - preference for humans - no sep or stranger anxiety
Specific - 7 months - attachment to one person 65% mother stranger anxiety
Multiple - extend behaviour to multiple people, secondary attachments 29% form within month of specific attachment
Research:
60 babies from glasgow w/c families
visit babies and mothers every month for first year and again at 18 months
asked questions about protests babies showed in seven everyday separations
measure attachment and assess stranger anxiety
stages of attachment AO3
Good external validity
+ counterpoint
Poor evidence of asocial stage
Real world application
role of father AO1
Attachment to fathers -
schaffer and emerson - 3% was sole attachment, 27% father was joint first attachment with mother
75% formed attachment by 18 months
Distinctive role -
grossman et al - longitudinal study
baby until teens
quality of a baby’s attachment with mothers and not fathers related to attachments in adolescence also found quality of father’s play with babies related
fathers have different role - play and stimulation
Father as primary attachment -
Field
- filmed interactions of 4-month babies
primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver
fathers have potential to be more emotion-focused
role of father AO3
Confusion over research question
Conflicting evidence
Real world application
animal studies AO1
Lorenz -
randomly divided a large group of goose eggs
half eggs hatched with the mother good in natural environment
other half hatched in incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
incubator group followed lorenz
control group followed mother
when mixed they followed same as before
imprinting occurred - attach to and follow the first moving object they see
Sexual imprinting - courtship behaviour towards imprinted animal
Critical period - period in which imprinting needs to take place
if imprinting does not occur within time - will not attach to a mother figure
monkeys - 90 days
Harlow -
16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers
one condition - milk was dispensed by plain wire
other - milk from cloth covered
cuddled the cloth mother in preference to plain wire
comfort from cloth when frightened regardless of milk
contact comfort - more important than food
monkeys deprived of real mother
plain wire only - most dysfunctional
aggressive and less sociable
neglected young and attached children
animal studies AO3
Research support
Generalisability to humans
Applications to understanding human behaviour
Real world value
Generalisability to humans
learning theory AO1
Classical conditioning
food (UCS) -> pleasure (UR)
caregiver (NS) -> no response
UCS + NS -> UCR
caregiver (CS) -> pleasure (CR)
Operant conditioning
babies cry for import
crying - reinforced if caregiver provides correct response
two-way process
same time baby is reinforced - caregiver receives negative reinforcement
Dollard and Miller
Cupboard love - emphasises the importance of attachment figure as provider of food
concept of drive reduction
hunger - primary drive - innate, biological motivator
Sears et al - caregiver provides food, primary drive becomes generalised to them
attachment is secondary drive learned by association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive
learning theory AO3
Counter evidence from animal studies
Counter evidence from studies on humans
Conditioning may be involved
+ counterpoint
bowlby’s theory AO1
Monotropy -one particular attachment is different from all others - central importance to a child’s development
mother / primary attachment figure
law of continuity - more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better quality of attachment
law of accumulated separation - effects of every separation from mother add up and safest dose is zero
Attachment is innate
Good care from social releasers - innate cute behaviours - active adult social interaction so adult forms attachment
Internal working model - our mental representations of the world - model affects our future relationships because it carries our perception of what a relationship is like
Maximally sensitive at 6 months until 2 years
Critical period - time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all
bowlby’s theory AO3
Validity of monotropy challenged
Support for social releasers
support for internal working model
types of attachment AO1
Strange situation -
controlled observation designed to test attachment security
babies are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and reunited with caregiver
proximity seeking
exploration behaviour
secure-base behaviour
stranger anxiety
separation anxiety
response to reunion
- baby explores - explore, secure-base
- stranger enters - stranger anxiety
- caregiver leaves - separation, stranger
- caregiver returns, stranger leaves - reunion and secure base
- caregiver leaves - separation
- stranger returns - stranger
- caregiver returns - reunion
Secure - moderate stranger and separation anxiety - require and accept comfort - 60-75%
Avoidant - explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure-base - little to no reaction when caregiver leads and little stranger anxiety - little reunion behaviour
Resistant -greater proximity so explore less - high levels of stranger and separation anxiety - resist comfort 3%
types of attachment AO3
Good predictive validity
+ counterpoint
Good reliability
Culture-bound
cultural variations AO1
Cultural variations -
differences in the norms and values that exist between people in different groups
in attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of children of different attachment types
van ijzendoorn and kronenburg procedure - meta analysis
located 32 studies of attachment where strange situation used
8 different countries - 15 in US
1990 children
Findings -
wide variation
individualistic cultures - insecure-resistant similar to ainsworth - all under 14%
collectivist cultures - all above 25%
Korean replication
jin et al
study to compare proportions of attachment types in korea to other studies
87 babies
proportions of insecure and secure similar to those in most countries with most babies being secure
more found to be insecure resistant and only one baby insecure avoidant
similar to Japan
secure attachment is norm across all cultures
- supports bowlby’s idea attachment is innate and universal and this type is universal norm
cultural practices have an influence on attachment type
cultural variations AO3
Indigenous researchers
+ counterpoint
Confounding variables
Imposed etic
maternal deprivation AO1
Maternal deprivation - emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between child and mother
Separation - child not being in presence of primary attachment figure
Deprivation is when deprived of emotional care
Critical period - 2.5 years is critical period for psychological development - containing risk up to age of 5
Intellectual development - if children deprived of maternal care for too long during critical period they would experience delayed intellectual development
Goldfarb - lower IQ in those in institutions compared to foster families
Emotional development -affectionless psychopathy - inability to experience guilt - prevents fulfilling relationships and associated with criminality
44 criminal teenagers - stealing
interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
- lack of affection, guilty and empathy
control group of 44 non-criminal but emotional disturbed
14 in 44 thieves affectionless psychopathys
12 had prolonged separation from mothers in first 2 years
only 5 of remaining 30 thieves had separations
only 2 of 44 control group
maternal deprivation AO3
Flawed evidence
+ counterpoint
Critical versus sensitive periods
Privation vs deprivation
romanian orphan studies AO1
Institutionalisation - term for effects of living in an institutional setting
Rutter et al -
165 romanian orphans - english and romanian adoptee study
adopted by families in Uk and provided good care
assessed physically, cognitively and emotionally 4,6,11,15 and 22-25 years
52 Uk adoptees as control group
at start half of adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development
mean IQ of those adopted before 6 months was 102 but 86 for those between 6 months and 2 years and 77 for after 2 years
adopted after 6 months - disinhibited attachment
Disinhibited attachment - attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults
Zeanah et al -
bucharest early intervention project
assessing attachment - 95 romanian orphans aged 12-31 months
compared to control of 50 never in institutions
strange situation
74% of control securely attached
19% of institutional group securely attached
44% disinhibited compared to less than 20%
romanian orphan AO3
Real world application
Fewer confounding variables
+ counterpoint
Lack of adult data
influence of early attachment AO1
nternal working model -
template for future childhood and adult relationships
quality of baby’s attachment crucial as powerful affect on nature of future relationships
bad experiences bring bad experiences to later relationships
relationships in childhood -
securely - best quality
insecurely - friendship difficulties
bullying
- securely less likely to be involved
- avoidant bullied
- resistant bullies
Relationship in adulthood
romantic relationship and parental relationship with own child
hazan and Shaver - love quiz
love quiz
- assessed current relationships, general love experiences and choose which three statements described feelings
56% - secure
25% - avoidant
19 - resistant
secure - good and longer-lasting romantic relationships
avoidant - jealousy and fear of intimacy
McCarthy
40 adult women - assessed when babies
secure - best adult relationships
resistant - problems maintaining relationships
avoidant - struggled with intimacy
people tend to base parenting style on internal working model
- Bailey et al
attachments of 99 mothers to babies and their own
strange situation and mother’s using adult attachment interview
majority had same attachment classification
influence of early attachment AO3
Research support
+ counterpoint
Validity issues with retrospective studies
Confounding variables
