Introduction To Attachment

Question 1

Attachment definition

Answer 1

Can be defined as a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.

Question 2

How can attachment be recognised

Answer 2

• proximity- people try to stay psychically close to those to whom which they are attacked
• separation distress- people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence

Question 3

Reciprocity definition

Answer 3

A description of how two people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other

Question 4

Research into reciprocity

Answer 4

FELDMAN 2007
found that
From around three months this interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 5

Interactional synchrony definition

Answer 5

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.

Question 6

Research into international synchrony

Answer 6

ISABELLA ET AL 1989
found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment (eg the emotional intensity of the relationship)

Question 7

Evaluation - hard to know what is happening when observing infants

Answer 7

GRATIER 2003
Many studies involving observation of interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same patterns of interaction.
However it is extremely difficult to be certain based on these observation- how can you know if adult signals are conscious or deliberate?
We cannot know if mother infant interaction does have a special meaning for certain

Question 8

Evaluation- controlled observations capture fine detail

Answer 8

Observations of mother infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles. This ensures that very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later Analysed.
Babies don’t know or care for that they are being observed so they behave normally (no demand characteristics)
Good validity

Question 9

Evaluation - observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity

Answer 9

FELDMAN 2012
Points out that synchrony describe behaviours that occur at the same time.
Although they can be observed it doesn’t tell us their purpose