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Need To Know Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

Privation

A

-child has never had an attachment to a caregiver

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2
Q

Deprivation

A
  • an attachement between the child and the caregiver is broken
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3
Q

What is a secure base

A
  • A place where a child can explore world

- have a safe haven to return when threatened

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4
Q

Monotropy

A

-idea that one relationship that the infant has with their primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development

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5
Q

Bowlbys monotropic theory

A
  • theory suggests attachment is important for a childs survival
  • attchment behaviours in both babies and caregivers have evolved through natural selection
  • means infants are biologically programmed with innate behaviours that ensure that attachment occurs.
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6
Q

Bowlby’s evolutionary theory

A

-suggests children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive.

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7
Q

Evaluation

evidence for monotropy is mixed

A
  • shaffer and Emerson:
  • babies didnt attach to one person at first but significant minority formed attachments at the same time.
  • Contradictory of bowlbys assertion that babies only form one attachment to a primary caregiver and this attachment is unique
  • Attachment to mothers predicts later behaviour
  • this could be because mother is primary attachment not the different attachment quality
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8
Q

Evaluation - monotropy

Monotropy is socially sensitive

A
  • law of accumulated separation:
  • having substantial time away from primary carer risks poor quality attachment that will disadvantage child in range of ways
  • Feminists argue mothers are blamed for everything that goes wrong in child’s life
  • this law pushes mothers into making lifestyle choices
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9
Q

Evaluating bowlbys theory

Attachment is innate

A
  • Lorenz

- Newly attached goslings imprint and follow the first moving thing they see

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10
Q

Evaluation of Bowlby as theory - There is a critical period for attachment formations

A
  • Rutter et al
  • Romanian orphans form attachments to adopted parents in first year of life
  • Older children form attachments more slowly but are still able to form them
  • probably a sensitive period for attachment formation rather than a critical period.
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11
Q

Evaluating Bowlbys theory

Attachments form as monotropy and hierarchy

A
  • Efe Tribe of Congo are breastfed by many women in village but form stable attachment to their natural mother.
  • Fox
  • Infants in Israeli kibbutzim are cared for by a metaplet but return to their natural mother at night
  • strongest attachment is mother despite most care being provided by a substitute carer.
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12
Q

Evaluating bowlbys theory

There is a continuity between infant, childhood and adult attachments

A
  • hazan and shaffer
  • used love quiz
  • found continuity between childhood attachment styles and later adult relationships
  • Securely attached children had close and loving adult relationships
  • Insecure avoidant children had insecure adult relationships with jealousy and lots of rejection.
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13
Q

Shaffer & emerson Glasgow babies

Advantages

A
  • Gives mothers pov of child’s progress in attachment
  • longitudinal study so has wide range of results and findings
  • field study so was quite high in ecological validity and mundane realism
  • Gives other factors other than food being main source of attachment
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14
Q

Shaffer & emerson Glasgow babies

Disadvantages

A
  • mothers reported back to researchers so may not have been truthful of babies progress
  • Social desirability bias is risk factor of study
  • Cant be generalised to all infants
  • Doesn’t support role of food coming into attachment
  • Unreliable as mothers may have lied and didn’t want to accept that their baby may have only been attached to them because of food.
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15
Q

Shaffer & emerson Glasgow babies

Evaluation

A
  • study is unreliable as its not performed in controlled environment but conducted in child’s home
  • shows lack of control and cant be generalised to all children as babies used came from same working class home
  • mothers may have lied to achieve social desirability bias among others
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16
Q

The strengths of learning theory

A
  • Classical conditioning can be done with humans and animals
  • Pavlov provides evidence to suggest that we learn to attach
  • Skinner proved operant conditioning
  • Adequate explanation of learning to attach
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17
Q

Stages of Attachment ages

A
  • Asocial 0 - 6 wks
  • Indiscriminate Attachments 6 wks to 7 mths
  • discriminate Attachments 7 - 9 mths
  • Multiple Attachment 10 mths and onwards
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18
Q

three main attachment styles

A
  • secure (type B)
  • insecure avoidant (type A)
  • insecure resistant (type C)
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19
Q

Separation Anxiety experience for secure attachment type

A
  • Distressed when mother leaves
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20
Q

Separation Anxiety experience for insecure resistant attachment type

A
  • Intense distress when mother leaves
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21
Q

Separation Anxiety experience for insecure avoidant attachment type

A
  • No sign of distress when the mother leaves
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22
Q

Attachment definition

A
  • An emotional bond between two people
  • two way process that endures over time
  • leads to certain behaviours like clinging and proximity seeking
  • serves function of protecting an infant
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23
Q

Caregiver definition

A

-Any person who is providing care for a child like a parent

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24
Q

Interactional synchrony definition

A

-Takes place when infants mirror actions or emotions of another person eg facial expressions

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25
Q

Reciprocity definition

A
  • infant responds to actions of another person in a form of turn taking
  • actions of one person so primary caregiver elicits a response from the other being the infant
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26
Q

Interactional synchrony klaus and kennel

A
  • comparison of:
  • mums who had extended physical contact with their babies lasting several hours a day
  • mums who only had physical contact with their babies during feeding in three days after birth
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27
Q

Interactional synchrony the research meltzoff and Moore

A
  • conducted first systematic study of interactional synchrony
  • found infants as young as 2 or 3 wks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures
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28
Q

Interactional synchrony support research by meltzoff and Moore

A
  • association found between expression or gesture adult had displayed and the action of the babies
  • observational research
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29
Q

Research to support Reciprocity jaffe et al

A
  • demonstrates infants coordinated their actions with caregiver which can be described as a non verbal conversation
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30
Q

Research to support reciprocity brezelton

A
  • thought basic rhythm is important precursor to later communications
  • regularity of infants signals allows carer to anticipate infants behaviour and respond accordingly
  • lays foundations for attachments between infants and caregivers
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31
Q

Caregiver infant interactions evaluation 1 limitation

A
  • questionable reliability of testing children:
  • infants move their mouths and wave their arms constantly
  • issue for researchers investigate intentional behaviour
  • can’t be certain infants were actually engaging in synchrony or reciprocity as some behaviour may have occurred by chance
  • methodical problems with studying interactional synchrony using observational methods
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32
Q

Caregiver and infant interactions evaluation 2 limitation koepke et al

A
  • observer bias where researchers consciously of unconsciously interpret behaviour to support findings
  • to address this more than one observer should be used to examine inter observer reliability of observations
  • kopeke et al failed to replicate findings of meltzoff and Moore
  • lack of research suggests M&M results are unreliable
  • more research is required to validate findings
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33
Q

Caregiver and infant interactions evaluation 3 criticism of meltzoff and Moore

A
  • recent research found only securely attached infants engage in interactional synchrony
  • Isabella et al found more securely attached the infant the greater level of interactional synchrony
  • suggests not all children engage in interactional synchrony
  • meltzoff and Moore original findings may have overlooked individual differences which could be a mediating factor
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34
Q

What did Schaffer and Emerson aim to investigate

A

-formation of early attachment particular age which they developed their emotional
intensity and to whom they were directed

  • longitudinal study where babies and mothers were studied every month for first year and then again at 18 mths
  • used observations and interviews with mothers and assessed separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
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35
Q

Schaffer and Emerson findings

A
  • found 25-32 weeks about 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards their caregiver
  • attachement tended to be caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infants signals and facial expression
  • wasn’t necessarily person with whom infant spend most time
  • by 40 weeks 80% of babies had specific attachment to primary caregiver
  • almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
  • suggests there’s a pattern of attachment common to all infants which is biologically controlled
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36
Q

List stages of attachment

A
  • asocial
  • discriminate
  • indiscriminate
  • multiple
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37
Q

First stage of attachment

A
  • asocial:
  • infant shows similar responses to objects and people
  • the end of stage they display preference for faces and eyes
38
Q

Second stage of attachment definition

A
  • Indiscriminate:
  • Infant prefers human company over non human
  • can distinguish between different people but comforted by anyone
  • don’t show stranger anxiety yet
39
Q

Third stage of attachment definition

A
  • Discriminate:
  • infant shows preference for one caregiver displaying separation and stranger anxiety
  • infant looks to particular person for security and protection
40
Q

Fourth stage of attachment definition

A
  • Multiple:

- attachments are displayed towards several people like parents, grand parents etc

41
Q

Primary attachment figure definition

A
  • person who has formed closest bond with child, demonstrated by intensity of relationship
  • usually child’s biological mother but other people can fulfill role
42
Q

Learning theory definition

A
  • name given to group of exploration (classical and opérant conditioning)
  • which explain behaviour in terms of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher order thinking
43
Q

Internal working model definition

A
  • internal template for future relationship expectations
  • If child has strong and healthy attachment with primary attachment figure then they’ll develop strong and healthy relationships later in life
  • if child has negative relationship with primary attachment figure they’ll have negative social and romantic relationships in their later life
44
Q

Critical period definition

A
  • infants must form attachment with caregiver during this time between 3 and 6 months of age
  • bowlby later acknowledged infants could form an attachment after this period up to 3yrs if age
  • bowlby said that if attachment didn’t form during this time frame child would be damaged for life:
  • socially
  • emotionally
  • intellectually
  • physically
45
Q

List effects of institutionalisation

A
  • underdevelopment of:
  • social
  • mental
  • physical

-some of these effects may be irreversible

46
Q

Effects of institutionalisation physical underdevelopment

A
  • children in institutional care are usually physically small
  • research shown lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment is cause of what has been called deprivation dwarfism
47
Q

Effects of institutionalisation intellectual underfunctioning

A
  • cognitive development is also affected by emotional deprivation
48
Q

Effects of institutionalisation disinhibted attachment

A
  • form of insecure attachment where children don’t discriminate between people they choose as attachment figures
  • Such children will treat near strangers with inappropriate familiarity and may be attention seeking
49
Q

Animal studies of attachment Lorenz

A
  • goose eggs incubated so first living thing they saw was their natural mother or Lorenz
  • findings goslings imprinted on Lorenz and followed him
  • critical period- imprinting doesn’t happen later
  • long lasting effects - irreversible and related to mate choice (sexual imprinting)
50
Q

Animal studies of attachment evaluation research support Guiton

A
  • imprinting issues may not be irreversible and may be little more than just learning
51
Q

Anima studies of attachment - Harlow procédure and findings

A
  • Procédure:
  • wire mothers one cloth covered feeding bottle attached to one of other
  • Findings:
  • monkeys spent most time with cloth covered mothers whether or not feeding bottle attached
  • Critical period - attachments must be formed before 6 months
  • Long lasting effects all motherless monkeys were abnormal socially and sexually
52
Q

Animal studies of attachment evaluation list

A
  • confounding variable:
  • wire mother faces different varied systematically with independent variable
  • generalising to humans may not be justified but findings confirmed
  • ethics - benefits may outweigh costs but doesn’t challenge findings
53
Q

Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation key study :44 juvenille thieves findings

A
  • 86% of affectionless thieves had frequent separations before 2
  • compared with 17% of other thieves and just 2% of control group
54
Q

Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation definition

A
  • Value of maternal care:
  • children need warm intimate and continuous relationship with mother of mother substitute
  • Critical period:
  • frequent and prolonged separations from mother will have negative effects if they occur before age of 2 1/2 or up to age 5 if no mother substitute
  • Long term consequences:
  • include emotional maladjustment or mental disorder like depression
55
Q

Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation evaluation list

A
  • emotional rather than physical separation is harmful
  • support for long term effects
  • real world application:
  • films of Laura brought social change bowlby and Robertson
56
Q

Ainsworths strange situation type of attachment and findings

A
  • ainsworth et al:
  • systematic test of attachment to one caregiver, situation of mild stress and novelty
  • behaviours assessed separation anxiety, reunion behaviour,stranger anxiety, secure base
  • findings
  • secure attachment - 65% type B
  • insecure avoidant 22% type A
  • insecure resistant 12% type C
57
Q

Ainsworths strange situation evaluation list

A
  • other types of attachment:
  • disorganised type D
  • high reliability
  • real world application
  • low internal validity
  • maternal reflexive functioning
58
Q

Insecure avoidant definition

A

-type of attachment describes those children who tend to avoid social interaction and intimacy with others

59
Q

Insecure resistant definition

A

-type of attachment which describes those infants who both seek and reject intimacy and social interaction ie resist

60
Q

Secure attachment definition

A
  • strong and contented attachment of infant to his or her caregiver
  • develops as result of sensitive responding by caregiver to infant needs
  • Secure attachment is related to healthy subsequent cognitive and emotional development
61
Q

Strange situation definition

A

-controlled observation designed to test attachment security

62
Q

Cultural variations definition

A

-ways that different groups of people vary in terms of their social practices and effects these practises have on development and behaviour

63
Q

Adaptive definition

A
  • Attachments in humans are an advantage making them more likely to survive
  • If infant has an attachment they’re kept safe given food and kept warm by caregiver
64
Q

Social releases définition

A

-are inborn and unlock an innate tendency in adults to care for them they’re physical and behavioural

65
Q

Separation anxiety definition

A
  • distress shown by infant when separated form his/her caregiver.
  • isn’t necessarily child’s biological mother
66
Q

Stranger anxiety definition

A

-distress shown by infant when approached or picked up by someone who is unfamiliar

67
Q

Imprinting definition

A
  • innate readiness to develop a strong bond with mother
  • takes place during specific time in development probably first few hours after birth/hatching if it doesn’t happen at this time it probably will not happen
68
Q

Classical conditioning definition

A
  • Learning through association
  • A neural stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so it eventually takes on properties of this stimulus
  • able to produce conditioned response
69
Q

Opérant conditioning définition

A

-Leaning through reinforcement

70
Q

Social learning theory proposed by bandura

A

-Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded

71
Q

Continuity hypothesis définition

A

-idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure trust and socially confident adults

72
Q

What did dollard and miller suggest

A
  • hungry infant feels uncomfortable and creates drive to reduce discomfort
  • only behaviour resulting in rewards is reinforced
  • any behaviour resulting in punishments isn’t repeated
  • hungry infant feels uncomfortable and is driven to reduce a discomfort when fed it feels pleasure
  • food is primary reinforcer as it directly satisfies hunger
  • caregiver is secondary reinforcer as he/she is associated with primary reinforcer
  • so attachment occurs because child seeks person who can supply reward (food)
73
Q

Evaluation based on animals - behaviourists

A
  • Behaviourists believe humans are no different from animals in terms of how they learn
  • believe that our behaviour patterns are constructed form same building blocks of stimulus and response
  • legitimate to generalise from animals studies
74
Q

Évaluation based on animals non behaviourists

A
  • non behaviourists argue attachment involves innate prédispositions and mental activity that could be explained in terms of conditioning
  • behaviourists explanations may lack validity because they present an oversimplified version of human behaviour
75
Q

Cupboard love theory

A
  • strongest attachment will be with those who provide most primary care
  • child loves the hand that feeds them being the mom
76
Q

Learning theory explanation of attachment

A
  • main assumption behind learning theory explanation of attachment:
  • children learn to become attached to their caregiver because they give them food
  • referred to as cupboard love
  • Learning can be due to associations being made between different stimuli or behaviour
  • can be altered by patterns of reinforcement and punishment
77
Q

Classical conditioning learning by association

A
  • food is an unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned réponse
  • caregiver is neutral stimulus who produces no response
  • because they’re continually paired with unconditioned stimulus she slowly becomes associated with it until eventually mother alone can produce pleasure
  • mother has now become conditioned stimulus and pleasure she brings is conditioned response
78
Q

Opérant conditioning learning theory

A
  • baby has to learn to form an attachment with its caregiver
  • process of opérant conditioning caregiver rewards baby by feeding him so he associates caregiver with reward and repeats any action that brings her close
  • happens because food brings feeling pleasure to baby food is primary reinforcer
  • By removing discomfort it reinforces behaviour that led to its arrival
  • But food doesn’t come without caregiver brining it, so caregiver becomes secondary reinforcer even without bringing food presence of mother reduces discomfort and brings feeling of pleasure
79
Q

Drive reduction theory

A
  • When animal is uncomfortable this creates drive to reduce this discomfort
  • eg a hungry infant has drive to reduce accompanying discomfort
80
Q

Schéma définition

A
  • cognitive framework that helps organise and interpret info in brain
  • A schema helps an individual to make sense of new info
81
Q

The continuity hypothesis

A

-idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure trusting and socially confident adults

82
Q

Critical period definition

A
  • biologically determined period of time during which certain characteristics can develop
  • outside of this time window such development will not be possible
83
Q

Classical conditioning key terms

Cr etc

A
  • conditioned response - réponse to CS once classical conditioning has been established
  • conditioned stimulus - initially neutral with respect to UR which is by conditioning associated with US
  • unconditioned réponse - an automatic or inherent response to US
84
Q

Stimulus generalisation

A

-tendency for conditioned stimulus to evoke similar réponses after response has been conditioned

85
Q

Role of the father part 1

  • Schaffer and Emerson
  • lamb
  • biology
A
  • Schaffer and Emerson found fathers are less likely to be primary attachment figures than mothers
  • lamb reported little relationship between amount of time fathers spend with their infants and infant - father attachment
  • biological reasons why fathers are less likely to be primary attachment figures: female hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour
86
Q

Role of the father part 2

  • Cultural expectations
  • research heermann et al
  • research Frank et al
A
  • cultural expectations and sex stereotypes that affect male behaviour
  • include belief that it’s ‘feminine’ to be sensitive to others needs
  • heermann found men are less sensitive to infant cues
  • Frodi et al shown there’s no difference in physiological responses of males and females to an infant crying
  • evidence of males forming secure attachments with children or sharing role of primary attachment
  • Frank et al although biological and cultural factors may make this less likely
87
Q

Cultural variations in attachment van ijzendoorn and kroonenburg
Procedure

A
  • conducted meta analysis of findings from 32 studies of attachment behaviour
  • involved over 2000 strange situation classifications in 8 different countries
88
Q

Cultural variations in attachment van ijzendoorn and kroonenburg
Findings

A
  • differences were small
  • secure attachment most common classification in every country
  • insecure avoidant attachment was next most common except in Israel and Japan
  • insecure resistant attachent was next most common variation within cultures was 1.5 times greater than variation between cultures
89
Q

Cultural variations in attachment van ijzendoorn and kroonenburg
Conclusion

A
  • global pattern across cultures appears to be similar to that found in US ie secure attachment is ‘norm’
  • presence of these cultural similarities supports idea that secure attachment is ‘best’ for healthy social and emotional development
90
Q

Cultural variations in attachment van ijzendoorn and kroonenburg
Évaluation
Research focuses on ‘countries rather than ‘cultures’

A
  • an issue with van ijzendoorn and kroonenburg research is:
  • studying differences in countries rather than cultures.
  • eg Japanese study found similar distribution of attachment types to western studies in Tokyo but increase in insecure resistant individuals in a rural sample
  • results demonstrate that ‘country’ and ‘culture’ aren’t same thing
  • provide support to claim there’s more variation within that between cultures

psychology revision (21 decks)

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