P1 Section C (Attachment) Flashcards
What is attachment
Attachment is when a strong emotional bond is made between two individuals
What is psychosocial development
psychosocial development is when children form relationships, interact with others and learn to understand and manage their feelings
How do infants show attachment
Infants show attachment by desiring to seek proximity with an individual and displaying distress when away from the individual
What is interactional synchrony
International synchrony is when the infant moves their bodies in time with the rhythm of the carers actions or spoken language
What is reciprocity
Reciprocity is when interactions lead to mutual behaviour between carer and infant with both being able to elicit responses from each other
What is mimicking
Mimicking is when infants imitate the facial expressions of their caregiver suggesting an innate biological drive to form an attachment bond
At what age did Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observe reciprocity
Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed reciprocity as young as 2 weeks old where infants would imitate facial expressions and tongue protrusions from adults
What did Klauss and Kennel (1976) find after one month of contact with mothers who displayed greater physical contact
Klauss and Kennel (1976) found out that after one month of contact, mothers who displayed greater physical contact were found to cuddle babies more and make greater eye contact which shows that greater physical contact leads to an attachment bond that is closer and stronger
How did Klauss and Kennels (1976) research impact the real world
Klauss and Kennels (1976) research impacted the real world as it led hospitals to place mothers and babies in the same room in the days following birth to encourage attachment formation
How did Durkin (1995) dispute Klaus and Kennels findings
Durkin (1995) disputed Klauss and Kennels findings by claiming the stronger attachment by greater physical contact is actually due to attention given by the unmarried and poor mothers
When did Condon and Sander (1974) say interactional synchrony begins
Codon and Sander (1974) said interactional synchrony begins during pregnancy when the baby and mother exchange biological rhythms
What was Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) method to find age at which attachment begins
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) method to find age at which attachment begins was observing 60 babies from working class area of Glasgow for a year and a half and asked the mother questions like who the baby smiles at and who causes them distress
How did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) measure strength of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) measured strength of attachment by separation anxiety (how distressed child was when away from main caregiver) and stranger anxiety (how distressed child was when left with unfamiliar person)
What was Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) findings (first, formed, multiple)
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) findings were that first specific attachment was formed by 50% of infants between 25 and 32 weeks and multiple attachments began soon after and by 18 months 31% of babies had five or more attachments
What are Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) four stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) four stages of attachment are asocial, indiscriminate attachment, specific attachment and multiple attachment
What was a weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) attachment study
a weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) attachment study was that the data was collected by direct observation of the mother so it could’ve been prone to bias and inaccuracy
What is Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) asocial attachment
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) asocial attachment is when the baby displays crying and smiling to get attention at the age of 0-6 weeks old
What is Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) indiscriminate attachment
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) indiscriminate attachment is when the baby is happy to receive attention from anyone but preferences are given to familiar faces at the age of 6 weeks to 7 months old
What is Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) specific attachment
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) specific attachment is when the baby is primarily attached to main caregiver and if separated they become distressed at the age of 7-11 months
What is Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) multiple attachment
Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) multiple attachment is when the baby goes on to form many attachments with varying strength
What is seen to be the role of the father
The role of the father is seen to be a playmate who is less nurturing but more playful and stimulating
How does being a single parent affect the fathers attachment
Being single parent affects the fathers role as they tend to form similar attachments with their children as they had with their own parents
How does marital intimacy affect the fathers attachment
Marital intimacy affects the fathers attachment as level of attachment with children is related to level of intimacy with partner
How does level of support to partner affect the fathers attachment
Level of support to partner affects the fathers attachment as helping a partner care for children will affect type of attachment
What did Lamb (1987) find about fathers attachment role with children
Lamb (1987) found about fathers attachment role with children that children would often interact with their fathers when in a positive emotional state to seek stimulation rather than comfort suggesting fathers are more like playmate
What are the positives of children with secure attachment with father (social, able)
the positives of children with secure attachment with father are they go on to have better social relationships and are able to better regulate their emotions
what are the negatives of children without a father attachment figure
the negatives of children with no attachment with father are that they tend do to less well at school and also have higher levels of risk and aggression especially in boys
how does Varissimo support father’s role in attachment
Varissimo support father’s role in attachment by finding correlation between quality of relationship with father and toddler with number of friends at pre-school suggesting fathers teach social skills
What did Tiffany Field (1978) find was the key to attachment
Tiffany Field (1978) found the key to attachment was the level of responsiveness of caregiver, not gender, so a father can play same role
What was Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbergs (1988) procedure to test cultural variations of attachment styles
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbergs (1988) procedure to test cultural variations of attachment styles was doing a meta-analysis of 32 cross-cultural studies of attachment
What did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) find about cultural variations in attachment
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) found about cultural variations in attachment that secure attachment was most common in all countries and insecure attachment was least common
What is a weakness of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbergs (1988) study
A weakness of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbergs (1988) study is that the cross-cultural variations are measured by Western forms of attachment and not fully generalisable as although 2000+ children looked at, only 36 Chinese so doesn’t represent whole country population
What does Mary Ainsworths strange situation method aim to do (respond to)
Mary Ainsworths strange situation method aims to see how infants respond to the separation and reunion with their caregiver
What is Mary ainsworths 3 types of attachment
Mary ainsworths 3 types of attachment are secure, avoidant and resistant
What is a criticism of Mary Ainsworths strange situation (culture)
A criticism of Mary Ainsworths strange situation is that it is culture bound to western ideals.
How did takahashi (1990) criticise Mary Ainsworths strange situation (hardly, reunion)
Takahashi (1990) criticised Mary Ainsworths strange situation by saying it doesn’t work in Japan as Japanese infants and caregivers are hardly separated so suffer high levels of separation anxiety and often during reunion stage the mother would scoop up the baby which led observers unable to note the babies response
What is Mary Ainsworths secure attachment
Mary Ainsworths secure attachment is when the toddler prefers their parent and uses them as a secure base to explore and then return and get moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety
What is Mary Ainsworths insecure avoidant attachment
Mary Ainsworth’s insecure avoidant attachment is when the toddler is unresponsive to the caregiver and freely explores without a secure base and show little stranger anxiety and lack of positive reaction when the caregiver returns
What is Mary Ainsworths resistant attachment (4)
Mary Ainsworths resistant attachment is when the toddler shows clingy behaviour but reject caregivers attempt to interact with them and children don’t explore and show high levels of stranger anxiety and separation distress
What is Dollard and Millers (1950) learning theory explanation to why attachment forms
Dollard and Millers (1950) learning theory explanation to why attachment forms is that infants learn the caregiver will meet physiological needs so becomes attached to whoever feeds them
How does classical conditioning cause attachment according to Dollard and Miller (1950) learning theory
classical conditioning causes attachment according to Dollard and Miller (1950) learning theory by associating the caregiver with food which gives pleasure, and with consistency just results in pleasure at the sight of the caregiver
How does operant conditioning cause attachment according to Dollard and Miller (1950) learning theory
operant conditioning causes attachment according to Dollard and Miller (1950) social learning theory by caregiver reducing hunger (which is negative reinforcement) and the caregiver being a source of reinforcement which makes the baby repeat their behaviour (such as crying for food)
What is a criticism of social learning theory’s explanation for causes of attachment
A criticism of social learning theory’s explanation for causes of attachment is that it cannot explain how attachments form with other people, who do not feed them.
How does Sear et al (1957) support Social learning theory explanation of attachment
Sear et al (1957) supports Social learning theory explanation of attachment as they suggested infants generalise the primary drive of hunger to the caregiver who provides them food so attachment occurs as baby has biological motivation to not be hungry
What is Bowlbys monotropic theory
Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment is that attachments are biologically pre-programmed into both babies and their caregiver and we form one primary attachment to help protect babies from danger and keep them alive
What are Bowlbys social releasers
Bowlbys social releasers are innate behaviours to make sure they’re cared and protected for like smiling, crying and clinging
What is Bowlby’s critical period
Bowlby’s critical period is the time up to 2 and half years when the infancy attachment system is active and the child is very sensitive and if attachment is not formed they will find it difficult to form attachments later
What is Bowlbys internal working model
Bowlbys internal working model is the mental representation of the first attachment an infant formed with primary caregiver which is then used to develop future relationships
How did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) criticise Bowlbys monotropic theory
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) criticised Bowlbys monotropic theory by finding that multiple attachments are the norm and can take place at the same time of the critical period however also said they have one primary attachment figure
How did Bailey et al (2007) support Bowlbys internal working model
Bailey et al (2007) supported Bowlbys internal working model by finding that mothers with poor attachments to their own parents were more likely to have poor attachments with their own children
How did Brazelton et al (1975) support Bowlby social releasers
Brazelton et al (1975) supported Bowlbys social releasers as he found that parents who ignored the babies crying and smiling caused babies to show distress and then eventually just lay motionless
What does cultural variations of child-rearing suggest about attachment types
cultural variations of child-rearing suggests attachment types are learned and not biological since attachment is learnt through exposure to different cultural child rearing practises
how does Grossman support cultural variations in attachment
Grossman supports cultural variations in attachment as he found German children tended to be insecurely attached as child-rearing in Germany promotes interpersonal space between child and parent, but Britain would see this negatively and Germany says it creates independence
What was method for Harlows (1958) monkey experiment
The method for Harlows monkey experiment was separating 16 newborn monkeys from their mother and presenting them with two conditions
What was Harlows (1958) two conditions in monkey study
Harlows (1958) two conditions were one surrogate mother made from wire but could dispense milk and the other was a soft and made from cloth and didn’t dispense milk
What was Harlows (1958) monkey study findings
Harlows (1958) monkey study findings were that the baby preferred the soft cloth mother rather than nourishment of milk mother and only went to the wire mother when needing food
What did Harlows (1958) monkey study prove
Harlows (1958) monkey study proved that contact comfort was more important than food when it came to attachment behaviour suggesting there was more to the mother-child bond than nourishment
What is imprinting
Imprinting is when an animal attaches to a moving thing when they immediately born
What was Lorenz’s method to study geese
Lorenz’s method to study geese was hatching half a dozen geese with their mother and the other half in an incubator
What did Lorenz find about the two groups of geese
Lorenz found that geese hatched in an incubator would imprint on Lorenz and follow him, and the ones who hatched with their mother would follow her
How did Lorenz further test his findings
Lorenz further tested his findings by placing all the geese in an upside-down box and when he removed the box and walked away only his imprinted geese would follow him
What did Lorenz conclude about imprinting
Lorenz concluded about imprinting that the critical period in which imprinting must take place is around 13-16 hours after hatching and if hatchlings didn’t imprint during this period, they would never imprint and if they did imprint, they couldn’t imprint on anything else
What Is a criticism of Lorenz’s geese study
A criticism of Lorenz’s geese study is that it is unethical as separating the geese from their mother may have caused distress but the geese were well cared for during the study
What is Bowlby’s disruption effect
Bowlbys disruption effect is when a child is separated from their caregiver for a short time and display behaviours of protest like crying but the become calm and internalise their anger
What is Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis
Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis is the idea that continual disruption to the attachment bond can cause damage to the child’s development
What are Bowlbys types of maternal deprivation
Bowlbys types of maternal deprivation are short-term separation, long-term deprivation and privation
What is short-term separation
short-term separation is a type of maternal deprivation where a child is separated from their caregiver and so displays protest by crying, then calm down whilst internalising their anger and comfort themselves by sucking their thumb
How did Robertson and Robertson (1971) support Bowlby’s ‘short-term separation’
Robertson and Robertson (1971) supported Bowlby’s ‘short-term separation’ type of maternal deprivation by finding that when a child was separated for 9 days from his mother, he was distressed but then she came back and the child was confused and tried to get away from her showing serious irreversible damage years later
What is long term deprivation
long term deprivation is a type of maternal deprivation whereby a child is lengthily or permanently separated from their caregiver through divorcement or death or imprisonment
How does Furstenberg and Kieran (2001) support Bowlby’s long term deprivation=
Furstenberg and Kieran (2001) support Bowlby’s long term deprivation type of maternal deprivation by finding that children who have experienced divorce suffer emotionally but also in terms of academically and physically
What is privation
Privation is a type of maternal deprivation where a child has never formed an attachment bond which results in more lasting damage than long term deprivation but some children may improve
What did Freud and Dann (1951) find about privation
Freud and Dann (1951) found that privation occurred in 6 refugee children known as the Bulldog Bank Children as they were orphaned at 3 months old and formed no attachments and would be aggressive to adults and had limited language skills but after nurturing and support they were adopted and improved drastically
How were Freud and Dann (1951) against Bowlbys privation
Freud and Dann (1951) were against Bowlbys privation as they found the Bulldog Bank children could recover from their early traumatic experiences
What did Quinton et al (1984) find about women raised in institutional care
Quinton et al (1984) found about women raised in institutional care that women tended to be poorer parents themselves and reported extreme difficulty in parenthood versus a control group but these findings would mitigate with a supportive spouse
What did Quinton et al (1984) study on women in institutional care conclude about privation
Quinton et al (1984) study on women in institutional care concluded that privation can have long term effects and these are often linked to parenting difficulties as the women themselves didn’t have there own attachment figures to follow
What is a strength of Quinton et al (1984) study on women in institutional care
A strength of Quinton et al (1984) study on women in institution care is that he used standardised questionnaires and observations which increase reliability as they can be repeated
how did Skodak and Skeels support Bowlby’s maternal deprivation
Skodak and Skeels support Bowlby’s maternal deprivation by finding children in orphanages who were given emotional affection would see IQ scores improve by at least 30 points
How did Bowlby’s 44 thieves study support Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis
Bowlby’s 44 thieves study support Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis as he categorised a group of adolescent boys into thieves and emotionally disturbed and found 86% of the thieves experienced maternal deprivation and 36% of the thieves showed signs of “affectionless psychopathy” (incapable of forming relationships with others) - therefore supporting idea maternal deprivation has negative affects on psychosocial development
What is disinhibited attachment
disinhibited attachment is the behaviour that institutionalised children have whereby they are socially aberrant (wandering off without secure base) and also show as much affection to strangers as to people they know well
What happened to Romanian orphanages in the mid 1900s
Romanian orphanages in the mid 1900s filled because the government banned abortion and contraception so there was an influx in children and children were split into age groups so had no access to older figures
What was Rutter et al’s (1988) aim of Romanian orphan study
Rutter et al’s (1988) aim of Romanian orphan study was to see if loving and nurturing care could overturn the effects of privation that children suffered in Romanian orphanages
What was Rutters (1998) findings (retarded, were, but)
Rutters (1988) findings were that 50% of Romanian orphans were retarded in cognitive functioning at initial assessment and most were underweight but a control group of 52 british adoptees from Romania didn’t show these deficits
What were the differences between orphans adopted before 6 months age and after 6 months age in Rutter’s Romanian orphan study
The differences between orphans adopted before 6 months age and after 6 months age are that those adopted after 6 months had a lower mean IQ and demonstrated disinhibited attachment
What did Rutter et al (1988) conclude about institutionalisation
Rutter et al (1988) concluded about institutionalisation that its negative effects can be overcome by sensitive nurturing and we can infer that separation from carers will not on its own cause negative developmental effects because children originally separated from their mothers overcame this
What is a strength of Rutter et al (1988) Romanian orphan study
A strength of Rutter et al (1988) Romanian orphan study is that researchers didn’t interfere with the adoption process so removing investigator effects, but this may also be a weakness as the people could’ve chosen the most sociable orphans first which is a confounding variable
What is a weakness of Rutter et al (1988) Romanian orphan study
A weakness of Rutter et al (1988) Romanian orphan study is that there is confounding variables which may effect results as some children experienced trauma before the study and so may not have been caused by institutionalisation
What are Bowlbys (1951) 4 main principles of attachment
Bowlbys (1951) 4 main principles of attachment are attachment has an evolutionary basis, humans create one main attachment, we develop an internal working model of attachment during infancy and there is a critical period of attachment
What is Bowlbys (1951) monotropic attachment
Bowlbys (1951) monotropic attachment is when humans form one primary attachment to a caregiver which is usually their biological mother
What is a humans critical period for attachment
A humans critical period for attachment is 2.5 years
What happens if an attachment does not form in the first 2.5 years of infancy
If an attachment does not form in the first 2.5 years of infancy then child may have social and emotional difficulties in later life and trouble forming and maintaining relationships
What was Hazan and Shavers (1987) quiz to prove Bowlbys internal working model
Hazan and Shavers (1987) quiz to prove Bowlbys internal working model was a love quiz asking about the attachment a person has with their parents and what the persons current thoughts are on romantic love
What were Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz findings
Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz findings were that there was a correlation between attachment and thoughts on love, people with trusting and happy attachments with parents would have secure views on romantic love vice versa so early attachments affect future relationships
What is a weakness of Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz
A weakness of Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz is that it was a self-report study which could be inaccurate and untruthful
What is a strength of Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz
A strength of Hazan and Shaver (1987) love quiz is that it was repeated again in 2003, and results were similar so it has high test-retest reliability.
What are the long term impacts of maternal deprivation on child’s life
the long term impacts of maternal deprivation on child’s life are physical, social, emotional and intellectual damage
What did Hardy say about the fathers role in attachment
Hardy said about the fathers role in attachment that fathers are less able than mothers to detect low levels of infant distress, suggesting males are less suitable as prime attachment figures
How did Belsky support marital intimacy relating to father-infant attachments
Belsky supported marital intimacy relating to father-infant attachments as he found high levels of marital intimacy linked to secure father-infant attachments and vice versa
how does Tronick support cultural variations in attachment and Bowlby monotropic theory
Tronick support cultural variations in attachment and Bowlby monotropic theory as found African ‘Efe’ tribe would collectively have women look after baby and breastfeed it but baby would still have preference to biological mother suggesting innate biological process of attachment with mother
how does Chugani support effects of institutionalisation
Chugani support effects of institutionalisation as used neuroimaging to find damage to brain structure as a result of privation
