Lecture 5 - The Universality And Normativity Hypotheses

Question 1

What is secure attachment?

Answer 1

The infant is confident about the parents availability, responsiveness and reliability to serve as a secure base

Question 2

What is involved in the dance of attachment?

Answer 2

Infants indicate their needs using attachment behaviours, caregivers respond in different ways, infants find behaviours that increase positive and decrease negative responses in caregivers

Question 3

Based on the dance of attachment, what do infants develop?

Answer 3

An internal working model of the self, others and the world

Question 4

What is the goal of the attachment behavioural system?

Answer 4

To protect infants by maintaining proximity to a caregiver

Question 5

In the event of a child feeling fearful or anxious, what behaviours do they exhibit?

Answer 5

They engage in visual checking, signalling and moving to reestablish contact and calling

Question 6

Parents attending to the child’s needs provides a circle of security. What does this comprise of?

Answer 6

A secure base and a safe haven

Question 7

What is Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment?

Answer 7

He suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others because this will help them to survive and they will be activated by any conditions that appear to threaten the achievement of proximity such as separation and insecurity

Question 8

What does the fear of strangers represent?

Answer 8

An important survival mechanism

Question 9

What are social releases behaviours?

Answer 9

Innate behaviours such as crying and smiling that stimulate caregiving from adults

Question 10

Infants show monotropy, what is this?

Answer 10

An innate need to attach to one main attachment figure

Question 11

What are some of the long term consequences of maternal deprivation suggested by Bowlby?

Answer 11

Delinquency, reduced intelligence, increased aggression, depression and affection less psychopathy

Question 12

According to Bowlby, what does the development of an attachment with their primary caregiver lead to the development of?

Answer 12

An internal working model

Question 13

Outline the strange situation procedure

Answer 13

The mother leaves the baby in an unfamiliar room, first with a stranger and then alone. The infants behaviour when the mother returns to the room is coded to reflect the nature of their relationship

Question 14

About 20% of the children studied in the strange situation task showed what type of attachment?

Answer 14

Insecure avoidant attachment

Question 15

What are Ainsworth’s 4 classification of attachment based on the strange situation task?

Answer 15

Insecure avoidant, secure, insecure ambivalent and insecure disorganised

Question 16

What is insecure avoidant attachment?

Answer 16

Children actively ignores the parent, looking away and remaining occupied with toys. They may also move away from the parent and ignore their efforts to communicate

Question 17

What is secure attachment?

Answer 17

Children seek physical contact, proximity, interaction and they are easily soothed by parents before returning to explore and play

Question 18

What is insecure ambivalent attachment?

Answer 18

These children seek closeness and contact but the parent is not able to effectively alleviate the infants distress

Question 19

What is insecure disorganised attachment?

Answer 19

These children show signs of disorganisation or disorientation

Question 20

Another method for assessing attachment is the Attachment Q-set. What does this involve?

Answer 20

It is based on lengthy observations of the child, in addition the caregiver sorts a set of 90 cards containing phrases that describe a child’s behaviour into sets ranging from those that are most descriptive of the child to those that are least descriptive

Question 21

What two types of children does the Attachment Q-set distinguish between?

Answer 21

Normal children and children with clinical problems

Question 22

What is the premise of the California Attachment procedure?

Answer 22

It focuses on how children use the mother as a secure base when they experience stressful events such as a loud noise instead of being separated from a caregiver

Question 23

What is the benefit of the CAP over the strange situation task?

Answer 23

It provides a more valid measure of attachment such as for those involved in childcare who are routinely separated from their mothers

Question 24

Why does avoidant attachment occur?

Answer 24

The child has already developed sufficient cognitive skills to explore a particular environment and therefore no longer needs to use their parent as a secure base

Question 25

What pattern of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex is observed in children who are insecurely attached?

Answer 25

There is less activity in the left side of the prefrontal cortex and relatively more activity in the right

Question 26

What are some of the biological preparations that women make when preparing for childbirth?

Answer 26

Estrogen levels in young women of childbearing age increase to make them responsive to cuteness in infants and mothers undergo hormonal changes during pregnancy and childbirth that make them sensitive to infants cries

Question 27

What biological changes do males experience when entering into fatherhood?

Answer 27

Testosterone levels are lowered to stimulate feelings of sympathy and to make them more responsive to infants cues such as crying

Question 28

How does a happy marriage between the mother and the father affect attachment?

Answer 28

It is more likely to produce secure attachments between the children and the parents

Question 29

How does the socioeconomic status of the family affect attachment?

Answer 29

In low-income families, attachment relationships are more likely to be insecure because of the economic and emotional risks associated with poverty

Question 30

What is one affect of children being in childcare?

Answer 30

Good quality childcare can compensate for poor care at home by giving children an opportunity to form secure attachments outside of the family

Question 31

Identify one reason why attachment quality can deteriorate

Answer 31

If the family’s life circumstances deteriorate as a result of job loss, illness, death or divorce

Question 32

How can attachment affect IQ?

Answer 32

Children who are securely attached generally have higher IQ’s

Question 33

How does attachment affect self esteem?

Answer 33

Children who were securely attached viewed themselves more positively and were able to accept their imperfections, whereas children who were insecurely attached tended to view themselves as perfect

Question 34

What does the universality hypothesis state?

Answer 34

All children come into the world with the skills to form attachment and all infants will form attachment to one or more specific caregiver

Question 35

In what exception does attachment style differ according to Williemsen-Swinkels (2000)?

Answer 35

Attachment style only differs when there is a learning disability in which the child doesn’t have a consistent way of attaching with the caregiver

Question 36

What is the normativity hypothesis?

Answer 36

The majority of attachment relationships will be secure

Question 37

Give an example of how caregiving practices in another culture can affect attachment

Answer 37

In Japan, infants are picked up immediately on reunion which results in fewer secure attachments but no avoidant attachments

Question 38

Name three factors that affect the validity of the strange situations task

Answer 38

The situation is not equally stressful to all children, observers will be biased by their own knowledge of the procedure and there are a limited range of activities to activate the attachment system