How do we form attachments Flashcards
How many stages of attachment are there? and explain each one of them.
stage 1: Asocial stage: 0-3 months, babies show no preference for one adult or stranger, because they haven’t formed an attachment yet. treat all people the same. They may also not distinguish between human and object.
Stage 2: indiscriminate stage: between 3-7 months, babies begin to recognise familiar people. They begin to show preference for familiar people, however they still don’t have a particular attachment to anyone.
stage 3: occurs from 7-9 months discriminate stage: Infants begin to show a clear preference for particular adult.. Infants from attachment to one main attachment figure, they begin to show stranger, separation and safe base behaviour.
stage 4: Multiple attachments: At around 9 months, babies are able to form attachments to more than only one person
Outline Emersons and Schaffers study.
Aim: To investigate how babies form attachments to their parents over time.
It was a longtitudinal, naturalistic observation.
They followed 60 babies, and their families from birth for 18 months.
The strength of the attachment was assessed in the following ways:
Babies were observed in the presence of strangers, in order to assess stranger anxiety.
Babies were also observed when the caregiver was taken away, in order to assess separation anxiety.
In addition, interviews were conducted with family members.
The findings show that 87% of babies, formed attachments with 2 or more caregivers, by 9 months, this therefore proves the stages of attachment.
The findings also show that babies main attachment figure, wasn’t always the main caregiver. but rather the person that shows the most sensitive responsiveness.
What is sensitive responsiveness?
When caregiver is sensitive to infants needs, and responds quickly when babies try to interact with them.
evaluate Schaffers and Emersons study.
strength: Naturalistic observation, therefor more ecological validity, however, less control over extraneous variables.
Weakness: 1. STUDY MIGHT HAVE OBSERVER BIAS , this means that researchers might see what they want to see, and choose to be subjective rather than objective, for example, a researcher may already have a hypothesis about how attachments form, which means that he might include personal bias when interpreting the results.
2.SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS: participants might have lied, in order to avoid negative judgement, or look more socially pleasing.
What are the two main caregiver-infant interactions?
Reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
What is reciprocity?
Reciprocity is when the infant and caregiver, both take turns in an interaction, so that they respond to each others actions.
What is interactional synchrony?
When infant and caregiver, perform similar actions, at the same time.
Outline Isabella et al study.
Isabella et al used frame by frame video analysis, meaning she observed and analysed the fine movements of the babies and mothers.
she measured the amount of stranger anxiety, and separation anxiety, to measure the strength of the bond,
The babies and mothers were observed the first time, and a couple months later, to see how their interactions developed.
In one level of the IV, the mothers were told to perform interactional synchrony, and reciprocity, and in the other levels, the moms weren’t told anything.
when observing them a couple months later, she found out that mothers who had displayed interactional synchrony and reciprocity, had stronger attachments.
This therefore proves that there is a positive correlation between reciprocity plus interactional synchrony, and strength of attachment.
Evaluate Isabella et al study.
STRENGTH: SHE USED FRAME BY FRAME VIDEO ANALYSIS. This means researcher could have analysed the video in high levels of details, and observe the interactions again and again, in order to make sure that observation are accurate. this means researchers can make their observations more reliable.
WEAKNESSES: COREL
