psychology - attachment

Question 1

what is an attachemnt?

Answer 1

A close 2 way emotional bond between 2 individuals

Question 2

what are the 2 types of caregiver infant interactions?

Answer 2

reciprocity : when each person respond to the other an elicits a response from them, take turns initiating interactions

interactional synchrony: mirroring as the infant and caregiver match one another

Question 3

what does reciprocity and interactional synchrony mean for the babies’ future?

Answer 3

increased levels of reciprocity in infancy leads to better social behaviours in adulthood

increased levls of interactional synchrony increases empathy in adulthood, to mirror someone the child must understand the adults behaviours and emotions which continues in adulthood

Question 4

explain meltzoff et al conrollled observation to examine interactional synchrony

Answer 4

an adult displayed one of 3 hand gestures or facial expressions.

at first the child had a dummy in their mouth to prevent a facial response then they removed it and filmed the child’s facial expression.

there was a clear association between adult and infant behaviour and they later found the same on 3 day old babies

this suggests interactional synchrrony is innate and not learnt

Question 5

isabella et al observation of mothers

Answer 5

they observed 30 mothers and infants together to assess the degree of synchrony and quality of their attachments

looking at individual differences they found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachments

Question 6

Ao3 evaluations of caregiver infant interactions

Answer 6

strength, c-i interactions are usually filmed in a lab. controls for activity that may distract the baby. the interactions are filmed so more than one observer can record data establishing inter observer reliabilty increasing this and validity.

limitation - its hard to interpret babies behaviour. babies are immobile and lack co-ordination. the observed movements are small changes and its hard to establish if they were just twitching or triggered by something else.

the purpose of reciprocity and interactional synchrony are unknown. observations dont tell us the developmental importance. feldman tells us ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns but arent actuall useful.

Question 7

explain stage 1 of schaffers stages of attachment (first few weeks)

Answer 7

stage 1 : asocial stage

babies form bonds and recognise their carers

behave the same to human and non human objects

happy around others and prefer familiar adults

Question 8

stage 2 of schaffers attachment stages(2-7 months)

Answer 8

indiscriminate stage :
prefer people over non humans

accept cuddles and comfort from any adults

no separation or stranger anxiety

Question 9

stage 3 of schaffers attachment stages (7 months)

Answer 9

specific stage attachment:

stranger and separation anxiety

develop a primary attachment figure : a specific attachment who responds to the baby the most

Question 10

stage 4 of schaffers stages of attachment

Answer 10

multiple attachment

extend attachment behaviour to multiple attachments that the regularly spend time with - secondary attachment

by age 1 babies have multiple attachments

Question 11

A03 evaluations of Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 11

strength- good external validity, observations were made by parents doing normal activities and reporting back to researcher. if the researcher was present it may have distracted the baby producing unnatural behaviuour. however mothers are not unbised observers and may not have noticed and reported everything.

schaffer and emersons theory of attachment have been applied to daycare. daycare will be straight forward in the asocial and indiscriminate stage because babies can be comforted by anyone but in specific attachment babies will have stranger and separation anxiety from the primary care giver. parents know when to start using daycare.

problems studying the asocial stage. in the first few weeks babies are immobile and lack coordination. if these young babies had anxiety it would be displayed subtly and hard to observe. its difficult to make judgements about them based on their behaviour.

Question 12

what did schaffer and emerson find about fathers

Answer 12

in only 3% of cases was the father the sole attachment at 7 months

at 7 months most babies become attached to the monther and then the father by 18 months.

Question 13

what did field find about a fathers potential

Answer 13

fathers have the potential to be more emotion focused like mothers when given and forced into the role of the primary caregiver they are able to provide the responsiveness needed for a close emotionless attachment

Question 14

what is the role of the father

Answer 14

fathers are more involved in play and stimulation rather than emotional development

quality of fathers play was related to quality of adolescent attachment

Question 15

A03 evalutations of the role of the father

Answer 15

Limitation there is a lack of clarity over the questions that are being asked. some researchers attempt to understand the father as a secondary attachment and some as a primary attachment. secondary fathers behave differently from mothers and primary found fathers take on the maternal role so its hard to draw conclusions.

limitation - doesnt explain why children without dads aren’t different. grossman found fathers, the secondary attachment figure were important for play stimulation. if this role is so distinctive we would expect children in single mum or lesbian families to be different than straight families. since children arent different fathers dont have a distinctive role.

strength - can offer advice to parents worrying who should take on primary cg role. mothers may feel pressured to stay at home and fathers to go to work due to stereotypes. research into the role of the father can be used to give reassuring advice. e.g lesbian parents can be sure their child wont be negatively affected

Question 16

explain lorenz’ study investigating animals and their mothers

Answer 16

lorenz randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs.

Half were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment and the other half were in an incubator where the first moving object that they saw was lorenz.

he found the incubator group followed lorenz everywhere and the control group followed the mother everywhere.

he found a critical period of a few hours that attachment must take place or there would be no attachment formed.

attachment is innate as babies are born with the ability to attach

Question 17

A03 evaluation of lorenz’animal study

Answer 17

lacks generalisability as the study was done on geese. mammal attachment system is quite different from birds. for example mammal mothers show more attachement to their young than birds. his findings cant be generalised to humans.

theres research to support lorenz’ concept of imprinting. regolin and vallor exposed chicks to simple shape combinations. a range of shape combinations were moved infront of them and they followed the original more closely. young animals are born with the ability to imprint

Question 18

Explain harlows monkey study animal
what 2 reactions did he test to see

Answer 18

observed 16 new born monkeys kept alone in a cage. reared by 2 wire monkeys
1. wire mother who dispensed milk
2. mother covered in cloth

harlow scared them by introducing a mechanical teddy bear to know who they would go to when scared

when frightened they sought comfort from the cloth mother and not the food mother.

he also wanted to test who they would explore an unfamiliar environment with

the monkeys would explore a room full of toys with the cloth mother present

Question 19

what did they discover about the monkeys after

Answer 19

monkeys deprived of a real mother and reared by a cloth mother were the most dysfunctional.

they were timid, unpredictable with other monkeys, had trouble mating and killed their young

Question 20

A03 evaluation of harlows research

Answer 20

Strength - real world application. harlow found a critical period to form attachment or it wont happen and development will be negative. this can help social workers understand the cause of bad bonding may be due to childhood. we can improve how zoos operate by making sure they have a mother to develop normally.

harlows study is unethical. monkeys were physically and psychologically harmed by being separated from their mother and scared intentionally. weakness as this species is similar enough to humans to generalise findings so their suffering may also be human like. Harlow suggests the research was vital and the benefits outweigh the harm caused

Question 21

A01 explain bowlbys monotropic theory

Answer 21

bowlby rejects learning theory.

he believes attachments are innate systems that improve survival advantage. Attachment evolved as a mechanism to keep young animals safe by ensuring that they stay close to caregivers.

a childs primary care giver is usually the mother but it doesnt have to be biological

this attachment was different and more important than all others.

law of accumulated separation : the effects of every separation from the mother add up negatively

social releasers : innate cute behaviours to get the attentoin of adults.

if a child doesnt form an attachment by 2 they wont form one at all

Question 22

internal working model and the benefits of having a good primary relationship in the future

Answer 22

A child forms a mental representation of their first relationship with their primary caregiver that serves as a model for what a relationship should be like

baby with a loving primary relationship will seek out functional realationships and not be too close or emotionally controlling

Question 23

A03 evaluation of bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 23

theres mixed evidence. theory suggest babies generally form one attachment at a time to primary caregiver but schaffer and emerson found a minority form an attachment to multiple at once. this may mean a babies first attachment is just stronger not different in quality

theres support for the internal working model. this theory suggests {definition}.
this is tested by bailey et al standard interview on 99 mothers with 1 y/o babies. they used observations to assess attachment to their babies.they found those who reported poor attachment to their own mothers were more likely to be poorly attached to their baby.

theres research to support sociat releasers cute innate behaviours that initiate social interactions. this is supported by brazelton et al who observed mother in interactional synchrony. They did an expriment where the primary attachment figure ignored the social released and the babies showed distress and lie their motionless

Question 24

How is attachment formed through operant conditioning

Answer 24

Baby shows positive reinforcement because they repeat the behaviour of crying in order to get the positive outcome of the caregiver feeding them. crying is reinforced.

the mum shows negative reinforcement because she repeats the behaviour of feeding in order to avoid the unpleasant consequence of the baby crying. feeding is negatively reinforced

Question 24

how is attachment formed through classical conditioning

Answer 24

babies associate mother (NS) with food (UCS) that generates the unconditioned response of pleasure.

the mother becomes a conditioned stimulus producing the conditioned response of pleasure and love

Question 25

what is drive reduction theory

Answer 25

When an animal or human is uncomfortable this creates a drive to reduce discomfort. Hunger is a primary drive

Question 26

A03 evaluation of learning theory as an explanation of attachment

Answer 26

theres evidence from animal studies to contradict learning theory. Lorenz found attachment isnt just based on feeding as the geese imprinted before they were fed and maintained these attachments. Attachment is innate and not learnt. Similarly harlow found that they attach based on contact comfort not food.

limitation - lack of support from studies with human babies schaffer and emerson found babies main attachment was their mother whether she was feeding them or not. Isabella et al found high levels of interactional synchrony predicted quality of attachment. this isnt related to feeding showing food is not the main factor in human attachment

a strength of learning theory is conditioning is involved in attachement. It seems unlikely conditing with food is a central aspect however conditioning may still play a role. Baby associates feeling warm and comfy with being with a particular adult which influences choice of main attachment figure.

Question 27

what 5 behaviours are tested for in the strange situation?

Answer 27

proximity seeking - infant with good attachment will stay fairly close to the caregiver

exploration and secure base behaviour - a good attachment means the child will feel confident to explore using the adult as a secure base

stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

response to reunion - with caregiver after a short period of time under controlled conditions

Question 28

what does a securely attached child look like

Answer 28

uses mother as a safe base

happily explores when mum is present

moderate distress when mother leaves and in the presence of strangers

welcomes mother back upon return

Question 29

what does an insecure avoidant baby look like (nonchalant)

Answer 29

do not seek proximity or secure base

do not react when caregiver leaves or seek comfort from them upon return

little stranger anxiety

Question 30

what does an Insecure resistant baby look like?

Answer 30

no exploration behaviour and seek closeness at all times

very upset when mum leaves and reject mothers attempts to comfort them

huge stranger anxiety

Question 31

outline ainsworth strange situation

Answer 31

child is encouraged to explore

stranger enters and tries to interact with child

caregiver leaves stranger and child alone

caregiver returns and starnger leaves

caregiver leaves child alone

stranger returns

reunion behaviour

Question 32

A03 evaluation of ainsworth strange situation

Answer 32

The outcome predicts the babies development later on. babies assessed as securely attached have better outcomes than others in childhood and adulthood.
measures something meaningful in a babies development.

good inter-observer reliability. observers watching the same children can agree on what attachment type. takes place in controlled conditions and behavioural categories provide an easy objective measure. we can be confident that there is no subjectivity

culturally biased. designed by an american so the criteria is based on us values of child parent relationships providing an ethnocentric view. e.g german babies were classified as insecure avoidant for not showing distress in separation but german parents percieve this as a good thing as it means independence

Question 33

outline van ljenzdorn study into attachment types in different cultures

Answer 33

in a meta analysis, 32 studies were compared from 8 different countries with over 1990 infants

findings : secure is the most common in all countries
insecure resistant is the least common.

israel had the most insecure resistant at 29%

germany had the most insecure avoidant at 35%

secure was most common in britain at 75%

more variation withing countries than between

Question 34

outline jin et al comparison of attachment types in korea

Answer 34

The strange situation was used to assess 87 infants.

proportions were similare to other countries with most infants being secure.

however there were more insecure resistant children with only on child classified as insecure anxious. this is a similar distribution to japan.

findings indicate similar results to japan due to similar child rearing practices.

Question 35

A03 evaluation of cultural variations of ainsworths strange situation

Answer 35

The strange situation is biased. designed by an american researcher based on a british theory (bowlby). this technique shouldnt be applied to other cultures. e.g a lack of separation anxiety and pleasure upon reunion is seen as bad and insecure but german parents see this as good as their child is independent not insecurity. behaviours dont have the same meaning in different cultures

weakness on cross cultural research is impact of confounding variables in findings. studies in different countries aren’t matched for meta analysis. factors like social class, poverty and age can confound results. e.g environmental factors like room size. babies may be willing to explore small rooms with nice toys than large empty rooms leading to wrong classification.

strength - studies conducted by indigeous psychologists from the same cultural background like german team this avoids cross cultural research problems like misunderstanding language and difficulty communicating instructions increasing the validity of results.

Question 36

aol outline bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 36

the continual presence of nurture from a mother is essential for normal development

being separated from a mother in early childhood is bad for development

bowlby saw the first 2 and a half years of life as essential for psychological development. if a child is separated from its mother for a long time in this period they will experience maternal deprivation

it will lead to affectionless psychopathy : doesnt experience guild no normal relationships

low iq

Question 37

outline Bowblys’s 44 theives study

Answer 37

B investigate 44 juvenile thieves and 44 controls with emotional problems but not criminals. thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy.
they interviewed families to assess prolong separation from mums

14/44 theives had affectionless psychopathy. 12/14 had prolonged separation in the critical period.

in control group 2/44 had prolonged separation

Question 38

A03 evaluation of bowlbys maternal deprivation theory

Answer 38

Supporting evidence is flawed. the 44 theives were orphaned during the second world war and found negative consequences. war orphans were traumatised and had poor after care these factors couldve caused poor development. growing up in institiutions they were deprived of all care not just maternal. cannot conclude maternal deprivation was the cause couldve been third variable.

Bowlbys theory is over simplified. says maternal deprivation can have negative long term effects. rotter claims he has muddled deprivation : loss of primary attachment after bond has formed with privation : failure to form any attachment in the first place. rotter says the lt damaged bowbly said was due to deprivation was privation.

A limitation is bowlbys idea of a critical period. he said the damage was inevitable if the child hadnt formed attachment in first 2 and a half critical years. research into czech twins who experienced bad emotional/physical abuse from 18 months - 7 shows by their teens they fully recovered due to good aftercare. more of a sensitive period

Question 39

A01 outline rutter et als research into romanian kids

Answer 39

rutter followed 165 romanian kids adopeted by uk families and assessed them at 4,6,11,15,25
a group of 52 uk children

they had delayed intellectual development and the rest were severly malnourished
iq of those
adopted before 6 months: 102
adopeted between 6 months and 2 yrs : 86
after 2 years 77
remained at 16

he found disinhibited attachment : equally affectionate and friendly towards strangers and friends. due to living with multiple attachment figures