Paper 1- Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment
An emotional bond between two people that endured over time. Leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity seeking. Serves the function of protecting an infant
What are the components of care-giver infant interaction
Babies have alert phases.
Interactional synchrony which is important for the development of attachment.
Reciprocity.
Baby takes an active role in attachment.
Who found that babies have periodic ‘alert phases’
FELDMAN and EIDLEMAN
What did FELDMAN and EIDLEMAN find
That from birth, babies and their careers spend a lot of time in intense and pleasurable interactions. Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ to signal they are ready for interaction which mothers respond to around two-thirds of the time
What is interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.
‘The coordination of micro-level behaviour’ - FELDMAN
Who studied into care-giver infant interactions
MELTZOF and MOORE.
What did MELTZOFF and MOORE find
They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old.
An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or distinctive gestures, the child’s response was filmed. An association was found between the expression/gesture and the action of the child
Why is interactional synchrony believed to be important for the development of mother-infant attachment
Because it provides the necessary foundation for the mother and infant connection which can be built upon in subsequent years
What did ISABELLA observe
20 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-infant attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment (e.g the emotional intensity of the relationship)
What is reciprocity
Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s verbal signals and facial expression and each elicits a response from the other
When does reciprocity in mother infant interaction become increasingly frequent
from around 3 months
How is the baby seen as active in care giver infant interactions
Traditionally views of childhood have seen the baby in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems that the baby takes an active role as both mother and child can initiate interactions and they appear to take turn doing so.
3 limitations of care-giver infant interactions
Hard to know what’s happening when observing infants. MELTZOFF and MOORE are just observing facial expressions so it’s extremely difficult based on the observations what’s taking place from the infants perspective. Means we cannot really know if behaviours in interactions have special meaning.
Interactional synchrony and reciprocity simply describes behaviours that occur at the same time. These are robust phenomena in the sense they can be reliably observed but may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us what their value is or what the infant is learning.
Socially sensitive because it suggests that mothers who return to work shortly after the child is born restrict opportunities for achieving interactional synchrony which is important for caregiver-infant attachment. Suggests mothers should not return to work so soon and that it has socially sensitive implications
2 strengths of care-giver infant interactions
Evidence that reciprocity and synchrony are helpful in the development of mother-infant attachment, stress responses, empathy, languages and moral development.
Research involves well-controlled procedures. Observations are usually filmed ensuring fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed. Furthermore babies don’t know or care they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation, which is generally the problem for observation research. Means there’s good validity.
Who found that babies mainly form primary attachments with their mothers
SCAFFER and EMERSON
What is a controlled observation
Watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment I.e one where some variables are managed
What is primary attachment
The person who has formed the closest bond with a child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship. This is usually a child’s biological mother but other people can fulfill the role
Briefly, did SCAFFER and EMERSON find about babies attachment
The majority of babies became attached to their mothers first and this happens around the age of seven months.
In only 3% of cases the fathers was the first sole object of attached, but 27% of them were the joint first object.
75% or infants formed a secondary attachment with fathers by the age of 18 months.
An example of a sign of attachment
Infants protesting when someone walks away
What a secondary attachment figure
The closest emotional bond is with the primary attachment figure; additional support is available from secondary attachment figures who provide an emotional safety net
What was GROSSMANNs study into attachment figures
Carried out a longitudinal study looking at parents behaviour and it’s relationships to the quality of children’s attachment into their teens. This research suggested that the father attachment was less important to the attachment type of teenagers.
However, the quality of fathers’ play with infants was related to children’s attachments. Suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment, one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.
What is a longitudinal study
A research study that takes place over an extended period of time to study the effects of time and or/ageing
When fathers take on the role of main caregiver, what do they adopt
Behaviours more typical of mothers.
Research into primary caregiver fathers
FIELD filmed 4 month old babies and found that primary caregiver fathers, like mother, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers.
Why is the key to attachment the level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent
Smiling, imitating and holding infants are behaviours that appear to be important in building an attachment with an infant. These can be performed by men and woman so it seems fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure
One strength of the findings of attachment figures (primary and secondary)
Important economic implications. Mothers feel pressured to stay at home because of research that says mothers are vital for healthy development. In some families, this may not be economically the best solution. The research into attachment figures may be of comfort to mothers who feel they have to make hard choices about not returning to work. Research implies they are more free to make choices about their careers than restful previously suggested which may benefit the economy.
2 limitations of the findings of attachment figures (primary and secondary)
Idea that fathers have distinct roles is undermined by the evidence. GROSSMANN found that fathers’ play as a secondary attachment figure had an important role in children’s developed. However other studies have found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently. This suggest that fathers roles as a secondary attachment figure is not important.
Although they can, the question of why fathers don’t generally become the primary attachment figure remains unanswered. It could be the result of traditional gender roles, in which woman are expected to be nurturing. Therefore, fathers may not feel they should act in that way. Or it could be that female hormones like oestrogen create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure.
What is secure-base behaviour
Secure attachment provides a sense of safety to enable exploration and independence
What are SCAFFERS stages of attachment
Asocial stage
Indiscriminate attachment
Specific attachment
Multiple attachment
What are the stages of attachment
Many developmental theories identity a sequence of qualitative different behaviours linked to specific ages. In stages of attachment, some characteristics of the infants behaviour towards others change as the infant gets older
How long is the asocial stage according to SCAFFER
First few weeks
How long is the indiscriminate attachment stage according to SCAFFER
2-7 months
How long is the specific attachment stage according to SCAFFER
From around 7 months
How long is the multiple attachments stage according to SCAFFER
By one year
What is involved in the asocial stage
The baby’s behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is quite similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals find it easier to calm them. Babies are also happier in the presence of other humans
What is involved in the indiscriminate attachment stage
Babies display more observable social behaviour. They show a preference for people rather than objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults. At this stage babies usually accept comfort from any adult and do not show stranger anxiety or separation anxiety. Attachment behaviour is said to be indiscriminate because it is not different towards any person
What is stranger anxiety
Distress shown by an infant when approached by an unfamiliar person
What is separation anxiety
Distress shown by an infant when separated from an attachment figure
What is involved in the specific attachment stage
The majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when separated from one particular adult (the mother in 65% of cases). At this point the baby is said to have formed a specific attachment with the primary attachment figure. This in most cases is the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s ‘signals’.
What is involved in the multiple attachment stages
Multiple attachments with other adults with whom they spend time with form shortly after specific attachments these relationships are called secondary attachments: in SCAFFER and EMERSONs study 29% had secondary attachments within a month or forming primary attachments. By the age of one, the majority of infants had developed multiple attachments
What is multiple attachments
Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one true attachment to a main care
Procedure of SCAFFER and EMERSONS study
60 Glaswegian babies - 31 Male and 29 female, all from skilled, working class families.
Babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for a year and again at 18 months.
Separation anxiety measured by asking mothers questions about their children’s behaviours during everyday separation (e.g adult leaving the room)
Stranger anxiety measured by observing the infants response to unfamiliar adults (the researcher)
What were the findings of SCAFFER and EMESONS study
Between 25-32 weeks, about 50% it the babies showed signs of separation. Anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother.
Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (reciprocity). This was not necessarily the person with whom the infant spent the most time with
2 strengths of SCAFFER and EMERSONS study
Good external validity. Carried out in the families own homes and more of the observations were actually done by the parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researcher later. Means behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observed. Therefore there’s an excellent chance that participants behaved naturally while being observed increasing the validity of the data.
Carried out longitudinally. Means same children were followed up and observed regularly. The quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at each age (cross-sectional design). However, longitudinal designs have better internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants (participant variables)
Limitation of SCAFFER and EMERSONs study
Ask Bellamy about what it’s called when they don’t put the baby down.
Problem studying the asocial year. SCAFFER and EMERSON describe the first few weeks as the ‘asocial’ stage, although important interactions take place in those weeks. The problem here is that babies that are young have poor coordination and are generally immobile. Therefore difficult to make any judgments about them based on observations of their behaviour. May be that babies are asocial but we can’t be sure of this because the method of measurement lacks validity.
What is collectivist/ collectivist culture
An approach/ group of people which places more value on the ‘collective’ rather than on the individual, and on interdependence rather than on independence. Opposite is true of an individualist culture
What is a cross-sectional design
One group of participants representing one section of specify (young people or working class people) is compared with participants from another group (old people or middle class)
What is oestrogen
The primary female hormone, though also present in males in small amounts. Regulates the menstrual cycle and female development in puberty
Two key animal studies of attachment
Lorenz
Harlow
What was the aim of LORENZ study
He first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling which followed him around. As an adult, Lorenz set up a classic experiment to demonstrate and provide evidence for the idea of an innate imprinting mechanism
What is imprinting
An innate readiness to acquire certain behaviours during a critical or sensitive period of development
What does innate mean
Behaviours that are a product of genetic factors. These may be apparent at birth or appear later through the process of maturation (for example baldness is lately innate but not present at birth). Some behaviours present at birth are not innate but occurred during development in the egg or the womb
What was the procedure of LORENZ study
Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment. The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. In order to investigate the relationship between imprinting and adult male preferences, LORENZ also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour
What were the findings of LORENZ study
The incubator group followed LORENZ while the control group followed the mother. When the two groups were mixed, the experimental group continued to follow LORENZ.
He identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. Depending on the species, this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching. It imprinting does not occur within that time, LORENZ found that chicks did not attach themselves to mother figures.
Sexual imprinting also occurred: the birds that had imprinted on a human would display courtship behaviours towards humans.
What is sexual imprinting
Acquiring a template of the characteristics of a desirable mate
2 limitations of LORENZ study
Problem generalising from findings on birds to humans. Seems that the mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds: mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young that birds do, and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time, albeit less easy than in infancy. Means it’s not appropriate to generalise.
some of his observations and conclusions have been questioned. GUITON found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults but they could learn to prefer mating with other chickens. Undermined LORENZs sexual imprinting prediction: the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect. This study suggest the effects are not as permanent as LORENZ beloved.
Strength of LORENZs study
Further research support the concept of imprinting. GUITON found chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as adults. Supports the view that the hunt animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on some sort of moving object that is present in the critical period of development. Supports LORENZ conclusion.
What does generalise mean
In relation to resech findigns, the extent to which findings and conclusions from a particicular investigation can be broadly applied to the population: this is made possible if the sample of participants is representative of the populations
WhT is the critical period
The time within which an attachment must form it it is to form at all
What is an animal study
Study carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reason - practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals
What is an experimental group
The group in an independent groups design containing the independent variable as distinct from the control
What is an ethologist
Resrchers who promote the use of naturalistic observation to study animal behaviour. They focus on the importance of innate capacities and the adaptivness of behaviour
Procedure of HARLOWS study
16 rhesus monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire monkey whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered monkey. Monkeys preferences were measured. As a further measure of attachment, more frightening situations were introduced and the reactions of the monkeys observed, he added a noise making teddy bear to the environment. He also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of their ‘real’ mother into adulthood.
Findings of HARLOWS study
Baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort firm the cloth one when frightened, regardless of which one dispensed milk. Suggests contact comfort is of more importance than food when it comes to attachment.
He followed them into adulthood and discovered severe consequences from maternal deprivation: the monkeys were more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in mating. They also neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring
Conclusions of HARLOWs study
Concluded there was a critical period - a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time, attachment was impossible and the damage done by deprivation was irreversible.
What is maternal deprivation
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute. BOWLBY proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development
What is contact comfort
Comfort derived from an infant being able to touch something soft, similar to the mothers body
Strength of HARLOWS study
Important practical applications. Helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and intervene to prevent it. We also now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programs. Usefulness of HARLOWS research increases its value, and is important when considering ethical costs versus benefits.