new attachment Flashcards
Talk about Caregiver-Infant Interactions
the communication between a caregiver and infant. It is believed that these interactions have important functions for the Childs social development and form the basis of attachment between the two,
Define Attachment
2 way, emotional bond where each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
How can we recognise attachment
- Proximity, physically close
- Separation Distress.
- Secure based behavior’s, tend to make regular contact and regularly return to them
- Joy on reunion
Define Reciprocity
A two-way or mutual process where each party responds to the others signals to continue the interaction (turn- taking).
As an infant, the signals are regular, this enables the caregiver to anticipate the behavior and respond appropriately, this sensitivity lays the foundation for later attachment.
Talk about Tronik and Brazelton- still face experiment.
A baby was places Infront of its mother, when the mother was interacting with her child, the child was reciprocating and being visually active and responsive and all around happy. Once the mother denies her child for 2 mins, the baby shows emotional distress, this show’s the need for reciprocity. It gives an incite into how a parents reaction can effect emotional development.
Define Interactional Synchrony
When a caregiver and infants reflect the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way. They mirror each other.
What is the difference between reciprocity and interactional synchrony?
In Interactional Synchrony, the responses can be different whereas in reciprocity they are mirrored and copied.
Talk about Meltzoff and Moore’s Experiment
An adult displays a facial expression Infront of a two week old baby, the response was identified by observers. They proposed that the infants imitations were intentional. Through interactional synchrony, infants begin to acquire an understanding of what people are thinking or feeling which is fundamental for social relationships.
Evaluate the research into caregiver-infant interactions
High internal Validity- both experiments were done in lab conditions therefore variables are controlled like things that may distract babies.
Filmed therefore they can be analyzed later and the observers dont miss anything, therefore high reliabilty by reducing the likelyhood of human error.
Simply observing behaviour dosent tell us about future development, only patterns of behaviour so we cant draw accurate conclusions
Hard to interpret babies behaviour as they lack coordination or could be called immobilee, therefore its hard to be sure
Talk about the Procedure and Aim of Schaffer and Emersons Research into attachment.
Aim- To assess whether there was a pattern of attachment formation common to all infants. To identify the distinct stages by which attachment develops.
Procedure- Conducted a longitudinal study on 60 new born babies and their mothers from a working-class area of Glasgow. They were studied at monthly intervals for the first year and again at 18 months.
Babies were studied in their own homes, interactions with carers were observed, and the carers were interviewed about responses.
Talk about the results to Schaffer and Emersons Study.
Results- 65% had Mum as the first attachment, 3% had the Dad, 30% had a joint first attachment. Strongly attached Infants had mothers who responded to their needs quickly and gave more opportunities for interaction.
This catalysed the idea of Schaffers stages of attachment
What are the Stages of Attachment?
ASOCIAL- 0-3 months- begin to respond equally to any caregiver ie smiling or gurgling
INDISCRIMINATE- 4 months- Infants can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people but is happy with anyone
SPECIFIC- 7 months- exhibits distress or anxiety when left alone or without single attachment figure (first emotional bond between a specific person) and looks at that person for comfort or security
MULTIPLE- after 9 months- develop attachments with others, and becomes increasingly independents
Evaluate Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment
Good external validity- as the study was carried out in the families own homes and most of the observations was done by parents, so the children behaved naturally while being observed.
Longitudinal Study- studied the same baby overtime rather than different children at the same time, so there is no confounding variables which increases accuracy.
Limited Sample- 60 babies was good as its a large volume of data, however, the fact that all the families were from the same district and social class, and the experiment took place 50 years ago is a limitation as childcare changes between cultures, historical periods ect. so these practices dont necessarily generalize well.
Asocial- Its hard to measure this time as infants are immobile, so observations may be hard to make.
Multiple- Its not entirely clear when a child starts to make multiple attachments, like other cultures where its common to have 2 caregivers. Its also hard to measure as just because a baby shows distress when someone leaves a room, doesn’t necessarily mean they have formed an attachment, for example Bowlby pointed out children also have playmates
Talk about attchment to fathers
Available evidence shows that fathers are less likely able to become the babies first attachment figure in comparison to a mother. For example, in Schaffer and Emersons research, they found that the majority of babies first became attached to their mothers around 7 months while in only 3% of cases the father was the first attachment. However, it appears that most fathers go on to become important attachment figures with 75% of babies forming an attachment to their father by 18 months.
Talk about research into the role of the father
Grossman et al. carried out a longitudinal study where babies attachments were studied until they were into their teens by looking at their parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of their babies later attachment. They found only mothers attachment rekated to attachment in adolescents, however, they found that a Fathers play related to the quality of adolescense. This suggests fathers have a different role from mothers- one of play and stimulation.
Talk about Fathers as Primary Attachment Figures
There is evidence to suggest that when fathers do take on the role of a primary attachment figure, they are able to adopt the emotional role typically assosiated with women.
For example, an experiment was done filming a 4 month old babies interaction with their primary caregiver mother, secondary fathers and primary mothers. Both primary role models spent more time smiling and imitating than secondary fathers.
Evaluate the role of the Father
Conflicting Evidence- Grossman et al. concluded that fathers have distinct roles in development for play and stimulation. However, McCallum found that children without a father didnt develop any differently. - VALIDITY
Talk about how Harry Harlow Investigated Attachment?
THE NATURE OF LOVE EXPERIMENT:
Aim- To test the theory that food is dominant to comfort in the formation of attachment between animals.
Method- Two types of surrogate mother was constructed, A harsh wire mothers and a soft toweling mother and was tested under 4 conditions with 16 monkeys, one condition being A cage with a wire monkey with milk and a toweling mother without milk. The monkeys were frightened to see who they ran too, measured on the amount of time spent with each mother, and a larger cage with exploration.
Talk about Harlows Results.
Findings- Monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother when given a choice regardless of weather she produced milk or not. Monkeys with only a wire mother had diarrhoea, a sigh of stress. When frightened, monkeys clung to the towelling monkey. In larger cages, monkeys with towelling mothers explored more and visited the surrogate mother more.
Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour- a mother figure had to be introduced to an infamant monkey within 90 days for attachment to form. after this it’s impossible and the damage done became irreversible
Talk about Harlows Conclusions on the long-lasting effects.
The long- lasting effects
Harlow continued to study the monkey who had been deprived of a real mother into adulthood to see if this early deprivation had a permanent effect. He reported that the motherless monkeys, even those who did have comfort, developed abnormally, they were socially abnormal i.e they froze or fled around other animals, less social and more aggressive and sexually abnormal. Some deprived monkeys also neglected their young.
Evaluate Harlows Monkey Study.
reliability- Schaffer and Emerson found that young children formed an attachment with a person who was most sensitively responsive. This supports the evidence that animals prefer comfort over food
ethical- This study has been criticised ethically as the monkeys suffered greatly as a result of the procedures
Validity- The two mothers differed in ways other than being soft i.e the heads are very different which can be a confounding variable. meaning the monkeys could be more attracted to her head therefore lacks validity
Real world applications- The insight into attachment from the research has had important applications in numerous contexts. For example, it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse, and to intervene to prevent it. The research is also important for the care of captive monkeys - we now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos, and in breeding programmes in the wild.This supports the external validity of Harlow’s conclusions as they can be applied to different practical settings to improve the quality of life for infants.
Talk about how Lorenz investigated Attachment.
Aim- To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first moving object they meet.
Method- Lorenz split a large clutch of graylag goose eggs into two batches, one of which was hatched naturally by the mother and the other half in an incubator. Lorenz then marked all the goslings so he could determine weather they were natural or incubated, and placed them in an upturned box and removed to see who they would run to.
Talk about what Lorenz found?
When released from the box, the natural goslings ran to the mother while the incubated ran to Lorenz, showing no bond with their natural Mother, these bonds showed to be irreversible. Lorenz noticed how there was a critical period of when birds would imprint, being 4→25 hours after birth. He also reported that birds who imprint on humans would attempt to mate with humans as adults
Evaluate Lorenz’ research
Reliability- Later experiments replicated Lorenz’s findings i.e. the experiment where a rubber glove was imprinted on by chickens and was seen as an object of sexual interest once mature. It also supports Lorenz’s findings that imprinting is long lasting.
Regolin and Vallotigara exposed chicks to similar size and shaped things that moved. The chicjs followed them in preference to shape. This proves the idea that young animals are born with innate mechanisms to imprint of moving objects.
Generalizability- To humans (extrapolation), as the attachment systems of mammals is different from birds. its in a birds nature to imprint whereas humans take 7 months and is based on sensitive responsiveness.
Also: the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour has been questioned i.e. Guiton (1966)-found the chickens who imprinted on gloves would try to mate with the gloves but eventually learned to prefer other chickens.
Define Learning Theory
According to the learning approach, attachment like any other behaviour is learnt from the environment through conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is learning through association.
Define Operant Conditioning
Type of learning that takes place because of actions and consequences
Action -> Reward
The reward reinforces action so the infant reinforces it. The reinforcer can be positive (a good reward) or negative (which takes away an unpleasant situation)
An infant learns that crying and smiling brings a positive response from adults ie. recieves food
An Adult learns that responding to cries brings relief from noise
What is the secondary drive hypothesis?
DOLLARD AND MILLER
Combination of both . It uses both primary and secondary drives. For example primary drives are essential for survival for example, eating and get associated with secondary drives like emotional closeness.
Evaluate Learning Theory.
Counter-Evidence from animal research- A range of animal studies has shown that young animals do not necessarily attach to those who feed them. For example Lorenz’s geese imprinted on him before he was fed and maintained it regardless of who fed them. And in Harlow’s monkey study, they clung to the soft mother even if the wired mother was the one baring the food. In both these studies, attachment doesnt evolve due to feeding meaning no unconditioned stimulus was involved.
Counter-Evidence from human research- Schaffer and Emersons study shows that feeding doesnt appear to be an important factor for humans. Many babies formed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers fed them.
Ignores other factors associated with forming attachments- research suggests that the quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and interactional synchrony. And the best quality attachment is developed when carers are sensitive.
What is Bowlbys Monotropic Theory?
The idea we have innate tendency’s to form attachments because they give a survival advantage.
- The attachments are two-way, parents must also be attached to the infant to ensure theyre survived and cared for
- Therefore attachment is a biological process developed through natural selection
What are social releases?
- Bowlby suggests that babies are born with innate, ‘cute’ features which encourage attention from adults
- These activate the innate adult attachment system- tendency to care.
- They can be PHYSICAL- baby face, big eyes small chin, BEHAVIOURAL- crying, cooing
- Reciprocal process, both want to attach.
What is the critical period for humans?
3 years
Talk about monotropy.
1st attachment is monotropic so it has special significance in emotional development.
- A child forms a mental representation of their relationship with the primary caregiver which can influence later attchments
Talk about the internal working model
gives a child aa model of what relationships are like:
Individuals who are securely attached continue to be socially and emotionally competent, and gave older secure relationships.
What is the continuity hypothesis?
Individuals who are securely attached continue to be socially and emotionally competent, they are likely to have older secure relationships
Evaluate Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
Supporting Evidence:
Schaffer and Emerson, Lorenz and Harlow all support the idea of the critical period.
Harlow supports the idea of the internal working model and the continuity hypothesis (aggressive mothers)
Schaffer and Emerson, Lorenz support the idea of monotropy
Harlow and Lorenz support the idea of the adaptive, innate tendency’s to form attachments
Tronik and Brazelton, Social releasers
Opposing Evidence:
Schaffer and Emerson, Tronik and Brazelton opposes as its based on sensitive responsiveness and there is not only one attachment, joint for some.
Support- internal working model:
Researchers assessed 99 mothers with one year old’s on the quality of attachment to their own mothers. They found that mothers who reported poor attachments with their own mothers, were likely to have children with poor attachment
Opposing- Ethical:
Monotropy is controversial as it has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young, Time apart risks poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in ways later. This places a burden of responsibility on mothers like going back to work after birth
→ Wasn’t Bowlby’s intention
Talk about the Strange Situation
Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation was a controlled observation using 12 → 18 month old’s and their Mothers. They were observed in a purpose built labatory playroom. She studied insecure and secure attachments in Infants.
What happened in each episode and what was she testing?
- Caregiver and Child enter room-None
- Caregiver and Child alone- Secure based and exploration
- Stranger enters, talks to parents, interacts with infant- Stranger Anxiety
- Caregiver leaves and stranger interacts with infant- Separation and Stranger anxiety
- Caregiver returns and stranger leaves-Reunion behaviour
- Caregiver leaves-Separation Anxiety
- Stranger enters- Stranger anxiety
- Stranger leaves and Caregiver enters-Reunion Behaviour
What were her findings?
Ainsworth found there were three distinct patterns in the way infants behave
TYPE A- Insecure Avoidant Attachment: These children explore freely but dont seek proximity or show secure based behaviour. They show little to no reaction and make little effort to make contact. Dont require comfort at reunion.
TYPE B- Secure Attachment: These children explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver. They usually show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety. They require and accept comfort at reunion
TYPE C- Insecure Resistant Attachment: These children seek greater proximity than others and so explore less. They show huge stranger anxiety and separation distress but resist comfort when united
Evaluate the strange situation.
Temperment Hypothesis- Ainsworth has been criticized for concluding that the Childs attachment type is due to maternal sensitivity. The temperament hypothesis states that a Childs innate personality accounts for their behaviour in the strange situation rather than sensitivity- low validity
Very Good inter rater reliability, as the observers who watched the same children agreed with the attachment type labelled. This could be because the experiment took place under lab conditions so its easy to observe. 94% accuracy
Culture- bound test, meaning the cultural differences between countries may mean children respond differently.
There is also a fourth type of attachment (type D), This challenges Ainsworth’s idea as she didnt predict the evidence of the fourth type
Define culture and its two types.
Culture- Set of norms, traditions, beliefs and values shared by a group of people.
Individualistic Cultures- Emphasise independance and individuality at the expense of group goals, resulting in a strong sense of competition. Typically Western.
Collectivist Cultures- Emphasise group members interdependance and cooperation, typically eastern.
Talk about Van Ijzendoorm and Kroonenberg’s procedure.
AIM- Their main aim was to discover whether there were differences in attachment types between cultures.
PROCEDURE- Meta-analysis, where a variety of studies are drawn together and analysed to draw conclusions. They used 2,000 strange situation classifications from 32 studies and 8 countries.
Talk about Van Ijzendoorm and Kroonenberg’s findings and conclusions
FINDINGS- Secure attachment was the most common accross all nations, Western- dominat type was avoidance with Germany having the most (35), Non-Western- dominat type was resistant with Japan having the most (27). The Uk had the most secure attachment with 75. China had a split of 50,50.
CONCLUSIONS- The global pattern is similar to that in the US, secure attachment is the norm and best for healthy social and emotional development. They suggested that cross-cultural similarities may be because of the effects of mass media which spreads ideas arouond.
Talk about attachment accross cultures
Great Britain and the US are individualistic they encourage independance and not being reliant on others, hence the exploration behaviour. Many children are in day care but not used to strangers
Japan is a collectivist Children are never left alone so the distress they show when she leaves is probably more due to shock than insecure attachment.
Evaluate research into cultural variations.
Jin et al.- Reliability:
They conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies. They found that the overall proportions of secure and insecure babies were similar to those in most countries, most secure attachment. More were insecurley attached resistant with only one being avoidant. This distrubution is similar to Japan. Japan and Korea have similar childrearing styles and physical geography. As the results are similar, this makes it reliable.
Strength- Combining the results of attachment studies carried out in different countries means you end up with a large sample size. This increases the validity by reducing the impact of anomalies. Plus its likely to be generisable as they apply to many children around the world
Weakness- Ethosentrically Bias, Made by someone from Canada so she percieves the world from her own cultural group. Van Ijzendoorm and kroonenberg claimed to study cultural variation but they compare countries not cultures. Within any country, there is many different childrearing practices so studies have little meaming
What is the Maternal Deprivation Theory
Maternal Deprivation is the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or caregiver over an extended period of time. significant for development
The theory is that the continued separations during the critical period (2 years) between the mother or without maternal care then the child would experience delayed interlectual developmet and permanent damage emotionally and interlectually.
How does it effect development
Intellectual development- Characterized as abnormally low IQ.
Emotional Development- Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion toward others. This prevents a person developing normal relationships and is associated with juvenile delinquency (criminals). This causes increased aggression and a lack of empathy
Talk about Bowlbys research
AIM: To examine the links between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
PROCEDURE: He used a sample of 44 criminal teenagers who were acused of stealing. The PP’s were interviewed for soghns of affectionless psychopathy like a lack of affection and guilt and empathy toward their victims. Their families were also interviewed to see if there was prolonged deprivation. A control group of 44 non-criminal teens with emotional problems were also assesed.
Talk about the results and conclusions of his research.
RESULTS: 14 out of the 44 theives were affetionless psychopaths and 17 had maternal deprivation. of the 14, 12 had deprivation during the critical period. In the control group, 2 had maternal separation and none were psychopaths.
CONCLUSION: Maternal deprivation in the critical period is more likely to lead to affectionless psychopathy.
Evaluate Bowlbys Maternal deprivation theory
what institutionalization?
The effects of living in an institutional setting, for examples, a hospital or orphanage, where children live for long periods of time with little emotional or maternal care. Psychologists research the effect of institutional care on childrens attachment and subsequent development.
What are the effects of institutionslisation?
- Physical Underdevelopment
- Intellectual underfunctioning (IQ)
- Poor Parenting (when older)
- Disinhibited attachment
- Lack of healthy internal working model
- Poor emotional functioning
- Quasi-Autism- show autistic traits
Background to the Romanian orphan studies
In Romania during the 1990’s, the president required Romanian females to have 5 or more babies’, many families couldn’t afford to keep their children therefore many ended up in poor institutionalizations. However, they were able to be adopted in 1998!
Talk about the aim and procedure of Rutter et al.
AIM- To see the effect of institutionalization on the attachment and development of adopted infants.
PROCEDURE- They followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions. The orphans had been adopted at different ages, before 6 months, between 6 months and 2 years and over 2 years. A group of control, british kids adopted at roughly the same time were also used.
Talk about the results and conclusions of the study.
RESULTS- At the time of adoption: The Romanian orphans lagged behind the control group in all aspects, smaller, lighter, lower IQ. By the age of 4, some children cough up with their British counterparts, this is true for almost all that was adopted before 6 months.
At the age of 11, the adopted children showed different rates of recovery related to the age of adoption, ie. The mean IQ: before 6 months = 102, 6 → 2 = 86, 2+ =77.
In terms of attachment, there is a different outcome related to whether the adoption took place before or after six moths. After 6 months showed sighs of disinhibited attachment, symptoms include attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour toward all adults. However before six moths rarely displayed this
- The study suggests that the long-term consequences may be less severe than was once thought, if children have the opportunity yo form attachments. However, when children dont form attachments then the consequences are likely to be severe
- It appears that children can recover, it may just slow the attachment rather than be irreversible damage.
Evaluate the Romanian orphan study.
Real-World Population- Application to improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home. Studying the Romanian orphans has improved psychologists understanding the effects of early institutional care so they can improve their care.
Fewer Confounding Variables- There were many orphan studies before the romanian orphans became available to study. Many of the children studies had varying degrees of trauma and it’s difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect. However, the children from Romanian orphanages had been handed over by loving parents. This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences so has higher internal validity.
Lack of Adult Data- The latest data from the ERA study looked at the children in their early 20’s. This means that we do not currently have data to answer some quesions about long-term effects. Therefore we don’t know weather they catch up or not.
