Psychology Paper 1 - Attachment

Question 1

What is reciprocity?

Answer 1

A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.

Question 2

What are the two ways of reciprocity?

Answer 2

Alert phases:
-They signal that they’re ready for a spell of interaction
-2/3 mothers pick up and respond to their babies alertness (Feldman and Eidelman 2007)
-Around 3 months interaction becomes increasingly frequent (Feldman 2007)

Active involvement:
-Both caregiver and baby intiate interactions and take turns
-Interaction described as a dance (Brazelton 1975)

Question 3

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 3

Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated/synchronised way.

Question 4

What are the two studies done on interactional synchrony?

Answer 4

Synchrony begins:
-Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed babies as young as 2 weeks
-Adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or 1 of 3 distinctive gestures
-Baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers
-Babies expression and gestures mirrored adults
-Significant association

Importnce for attachment:
-Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies to assess degree of synchrony
-Also assessed quality of mother-baby attachment
-High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother baby attachment

Question 5

What is a strength of caregiver interactions?

Answer 5

Filmed observations:

-Filmed in a laboratory
-Controlled observation
-Observations can be recorded and analysed later
-Wont miss seeing key behaviours
-Can establish inter rater reliability of observation
-Babies dont know theyre being observed so behaviour doesnt change
-Good reliabilty and validity

Question 6

Whats a weakness of caregiver interactions?

Answer 6

Difficulty observing babies:

-Hard to interpret baby’s behaviour
-Babies lack coordination and much of ther body is immobile
-Movements being observed are small hand movements or subtle changes in expression
-Difficult to determine whats taking place from baby’s perspective
- E.g. Hand twitch by caregiver or random
-Cant be certain that behaviours seen have a special meaning

Question 7

Whats another weakness of caregiver interaction?

Answer 7

Developmental importance:

-Feldman points out ideas like synchrony simply gives names to patterns of observable behaviours
-Not useful in understanding child development as doesnt tell purpose
-Cannot be certain observational research is important for a child development

Question 8

What are Schaffer’s stages of attachment?

Answer 8

1.) Asocial stage
2.) Indiscriminant stage
3.) Specific attachment
4.) Multiple attachment

Question 9

What is the Asocial stage?

Answer 9

-0 to 2 months
-Cannot differientate between objects and humans
-Starting to form bonds with certain people whom form the basis of later attachments

Question 10

Whats the Indiscriminate attachment stage?

Answer 10

-2 to 7 months
-Recognise and prefer company of familiar people
-Dont show any separation or stranger anxiety

Question 11

Whats the Specific attachment stage?

Answer 11

-7 months
-Display classic sighs of attachment towards one particular person
-Stranger anxiety
-Separation anxiety
-Attachment formed is called primary attachment figure
-Person who offers most interactiona dn respond to baby’s signals with most skill
-Its baby’s mother in 65% of cases

Question 12

Whats the Multiple attachment stage?

Answer 12

-Secondary attachments
-Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of children formed secondary attachment within a month of forming specific
-Majority of babies by 1 years old had developed multiple attachement

Question 13

What was Schaffer and Emerson’s research?

Answer 13

-Observational study of formation of early infant adult attachments
-60 babies, 31 boys and 29 girls
-From Glasgow, majority skilled working class families
-Researchers visited babies and mothers in their homes every month for a year and at 18 months
-Asked mothers questions about anxiety
-Identified 4 distinct stages in development

Question 14

Whats a strength of Schaffers stages of attachment?

Answer 14

Good external validity:

-Observations made by parents during everyday life and reported to researchers
-Researchers may have distracted babies or made them feel anxious
-Participants behaved naturally while being observed

Question 15

Whats a counterpoint of Schaffers stages of attachment having good external validity?

Answer 15

Social desirability bias:

-Unlikely to be objective observers
-Biased in terms of what they noticed and what happened
-Behaviour may have not been accurately recorded

Question 16

Whats a weakness of Schaffers stages of attachement?

Answer 16

Poor evidence for the asocial stage:

-Validity of measures used to assess attachment in asocial stage
-Young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immoblie
-Difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachement
-Babies may be social but due to flawed methods, they appear to be asocial

Question 17

Whats another strength of Schaffers stages of attachment?

Answer 17

Real world application:

-Practical application in day care
-In asocial and discriminate stage day care is more straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult
-Research says starting day care with an unfmailiar adult may be problematic during specific stage
-Use of daycare can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages

Question 18

What did Schaffer and Emerson find about the rold of the father?

Answer 18

-Only 3% of the cases the father was the first sole object of attachment
-In 27% of the cases the father was th ejoint first object of attachment with the mother
-They become important attachment figures
-75% of babies studied by Schaffer and Emerson formed an attachment by 18 months

Question 19

What did Grossmann find about the role for fathers?

Answer 19

-Carried out a longitudinal study where babies attachment was studied until they were teens
-Looked at both parents behaviour and relationship to quality of baby’s later attachment to other people
-Attachment to fathers is less important than attachment to mothers
-Grossmann found quality of fathers play with babies is related to quality adolescent
-Fathers have a play and stimulation role, less to do with emotional development

Question 20

What did Tiffany Fiend find out about the role of the father?

Answer 20

-Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers/fathers and secondary caregiver fathers
-PC fathers like PC mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies then SC fathers
-Those are part of reciprocity and interactional sychrony which are apart of process of attachment
-Fathers have potential to be more emotional focused primary attachments

Question 21

Whats a weakness of the role of the father?

Answer 21

Confusion over research questions:

-Lack of clarity over the question asked
-Some researchers want to understand the role of fathers as secondary caregivers
-Some on primary caregivers
-Former have tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers and havign distinct roles
-Latter found fathers can take ‘maternal’ role
-Difficult to answer simple question
-Depends which role is being discussed

Question 22

What is another weakness of the role of the father?

Answer 22

Conflicting evidence:

-Findings vary according to methodology used
-Longitudinal studies say fathers as secondary attachments are more for play and stimulation
-But if they have an impotant role we would expect children with single mothers or lesbian parents to turn out differently
-Studies show they dont turn out differently
-Question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered

Question 23

What is a strength of the role of the father?

Answer 23

Real world application:

-Offer advice to parents
-Parents agonise who should be PC
-Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home due to stereotypes
-Fathers may be pressured to work
-Could be ressuring to parents that fathers can be PC
-Single mothers and lesbian couples can be informed child development wont be different due to a lack of father
-Parental anxiety about role is reduced

Question 24

Whats was Lorenz research about animal studies?

Answer 24

-Observed phenomenon of imprinting
-Divided goose eggs, half hatched in incubator where first moving object they saw was him
-Other half hatched with the mother goose
-Incubator group followed Lorenz whereas control group followed mother even when mixed
-Identified a critical period of a few hours after birth
-If imprinting didnt happen, chicks didnt attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 25

What did Lorenz find out about sexual imprinting?

Answer 25

-Investigated relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences -Birds imprinted on humans would display courtship behaciour towards humans -Case study of a peacock had reared in reptile house of a zoo where peacock saw tortoises after hatching -As an adult the bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards tortoises -This meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting

Question 26

What was Harlows research about animal studies?

Answer 26

-Observed newborns kept alone in a bare cage often died unless with cloth to cuddle -Reared 16 baby monkeys with two wired mothers -One with milk by a plain wire mother other with a cloth mother -Monkeys preferred cloth mother rather than plain mother with food -Sought comfort from cloth one when frightened -Showed 'contact comfort' more important

Question 27

What was Harlows research on maternally deprived monkeys as adults?

Answer 27

-Followed monkeys who had be deprived of 'real' mother to see early maternal deprivation had permanent effect -Monkeys reared with only plain mothers were most dysfunctional -Deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable and bred less often -When became mothers they neglected and others attacked their children maybe killing -Critical period was within 90 days

Question 28

What is a strength of Lorenz research about animal studies?

Answer 28

Research support: -Support of concept of imprinting -Research on chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved -Range of shape combinations were moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely -Supports view that young animals with innate mechanism to imprint on moving object present in critival window of development

Question 29

What is a weakness of Lorenz research about animal studies?

Answer 29

Generalisability to humans: -Unable to extrapolate to humans -Mammalian attachment is different and more complex than birds -For mammals its a two way process so its not just the young who become attached -Mothers show emotional bond -Not appropriate to generalise to Lorenz ideas to humans

Question 30

What is a strength of Harlows research about animal studies?

Answer 30

Real world value: -Important to real world applications -Helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand lack of bonding experiences -May be a risk factor in child development -Can understand importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoo and breeding programmes in wild -Not just theoretical but also practical

Question 31

What is a weakness of Harlows research about animal studies?

Answer 31

Generalisabilty to humans: -Cannot extrapolate to humans -Rhesus monkeys are more similar to humans than birds and mammals share common attachment behaviours - But human brain and behavious is more complex than monkeys -Cannot be appropriate to generalise to humans

Question 32

What is the Learning theory?

Answer 32

A set of theories from the behaviourist approach, that emphasies the role of the learning in the acquisition of behaviour. Explanations for learning of bahviour include classical and operant conditioning. Researched by John Dollard and Neal Miller.

Question 33

How is classical conditioning used in attachment?

Answer 33

-Food serves as unconditioned stimulus and being fed gives us pleasure (UCR) -Caregiver starts as neutral stimulus -Overtime they provide food and become associated to food -When baby sees this person there is expectation of food -NS becomes CS which gives CR of pleasure -CR is love and attachment is formed

Question 34

How is operant conditioning used in attachment?

Answer 34

-Crying leads to a response from cargiver, e.g. feeding -As long as caregiver provides with correct response, crying is reinforced -Baby directs crying for comfort towards caregiver who responds with comfort -Caregiver recieves negative reinforcement as crying stops, escaping from something unpleasant -Interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens attachment

Question 35

What is research is found to do with attachment being a secondary drive?

Answer 35

-Learning theory draws concept of drive reduction -Hunger is thought as primary drive as its innate, and a biological motiviator -We are motivated to eat in order to reduce hunger drive -Sears (1957) suggested cargivers provide food, primary dive of hunger become generalised to them -Attachment is thus a secondary drive learned by an association between carrgiver and satisfaction of primary drive

Question 36

What is a weakness of the learning theory?

Answer 36

Counter evidence from animal studies: -Lack of support from studies conducted on animals -Lorenz geese imprinted on first moving object regardless of association of food -Harlow's monkets displayed attachment to cloth mother rather than plain mother with food -Shows factors other than association with food are important in formation of attachments

Question 37

What is another weakness of the learning theory?

Answer 37

Counter evidence from studies on humans: -Lack of support from studies of human babies -Schaffer and Emerson found that babies tend to form main attachment to mother regardless of if she fed them or not -Isabella found high levels of sychrony predicted quality of attachment -Factors not relatinf to food -Suggest food is not main factor in formation of human attachments

Question 38

What is a strength of the learning theory?

Answer 38

Some conditioning may be involved: -Could be involved in some aspects of attachemnt -E.g. baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with presence of a particular adult -May influence baby's choice of main attachment figure -Be useful in understanding development of attachments

Question 39

What is Monotropy?

Answer 39

-Bowlbys theory -This indicates one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to a child's development -Bowlby called this person the 'mother' -Believed that more time a baby spent with this mother figure the better

Question 40

What is the Critcal period?

Answer 40

-Time withing which an attachment must form if is to form at all -Bowlby proposed that human babies have sensitive period after which it will be more difficult to form an attachment -Child is maximally sensitive at six months and this extends to the age of two

Question 41

What are Social releasers?

Answer 41

-Babies are born with a set of innate 'cute' behaviours like smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults -Purpose is to activate adult social interaction and so make and adult attach to baby -Recognised that attachment was a reciprocal process -Both mother and baby are hard wired to become attached

Question 42

What is the Internal working model?

Answer 42

-Child forms mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure -Serves as a model for what relationships are like -Child first experience is of relationship with a caregiver will tend to form expectation of future -Affects child's later ability to be a parent themselves -People tend to base parenting behaviour on their own experiences of being parented explaining generationing trauma

Question 43

What is a weakness of Bowlbys theory of explanation of attachment?

Answer 43

Validity of monotropy challenged: -Lacks validity -Schaffer and Emerson found most babies attach to one person first and a significant minority formed multiple at same time -First attachment does appear particiularly strong on later behaviour but not different -E.g. other attachments to family provide all same key qualities -Bowlby may be incorrect that there is unique quality and importance to child primary attachment

Question 44

What is a strength of Bowlbys theory of explanation of attachment?

Answer 44

Support for social releasers: -Clear evidence cute baby behaviours are deigned to elicit interaction from caregivers -Brazelton (1975) observed babies tigger interaction using social releasers -Babies become increasingly distressed and some curled up and lay motionless -Illustrates role of social releasers in emotional development -Suggest they're important in process of attachment development

Question 45

What is another strength of Bowlbys theory of explanation of attachment

Answer 45

Support for internal working model: -Predicts patterns of attachment will be passed from one generation to next -Bailey et al. assessed attachment relationings in 99 mothers and their 1 year olds -Measured mothers attachment to their own primary attachment figures -Assessed attachment quality of babies -Found mothers with poor attachment with their PC were more likely to have poorly attached babies -Supports ideas that mthers ability to form attachments to their babies is influencd to future

Question 46

What is the Strange situation?

Answer 46

-Developed by Ainsworth and Bell (1970) -Controlled obseration designed to test attachment security -Babies are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room with a two way mirror.

Question 47

What was the Strange situation judging?

Answer 47

-Proximity seeking: will stay close to cargiver -Exploration and secure base behaviour: feel confident to explore, using cargiver as a secure base -Stranger anxiety -Separation anxiety -Response to reunion: greet cargiver's return with pleasure and seek comfort

Question 48

What was the Strange situations 7 episodes?

Answer 48

1.) Baby is encourages to explore 2.) Stranger comes in and talks to caregiver and approaches baby 3.) Caregiver leaves baby and stranger together 4.) Caregiver returns and stranger leaves 5.) Caregiver leaves baby alone 6.) Stranger returns 7.) Caregiver returns and is reunited with baby

Question 49

What was Ainsworths findings of types of attachments?

Answer 49

1.) Secure attachment: -Babies explore happily but regularly go back to caregiver -Usually show moderate separation/stranger anxiety -Require and accept comfort from caregiver in reunion stage -60% to 75% of British babies 2.) Insecure avoidant attachment: -Babies explore freely but dont seek proximity or show secure base behaviour -Little or no separation/stranger anxiety -Little effort to make contact when caregiver returns and may even avoid contact -20 to 25% of British babies 3.) Insecure resistant attachment: -Seek greater proximity than others and explore less -High levels of stranger/separation anxiety -Resist comfort when reunited with caregiver -3% of British babies

Question 50

What is a strength of the Strange situation?

Answer 50

Good preditice validty: -Predicts a number of aspects of baby's later development -Large body of research has shown babies and toddlers assessed as secure have better outcomes than others -In childhood includes better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying -Have better mental health as adults -Insecure resistant assessed to have worst outcomes -Measures somthing real and meaningful in baby's developmen

Question 51

Whats another strength of the Strange situation?

Answer 51

Good reliabilty: -Good inter rater reliabilty -Bick et al tested inter rater reliabilty for a team of trained observers and found agreement on attachment types in 94% of cses -Could be due to contolled conditions and behaviours are easy to observe -E.g. anxious babies crawl away from strangers -Can be confident that attachment types assessed doesnt depend on subjective judgements

Question 52

What is a weakness of the Strange situation?

Answer 52

Test may be culture bound: -May not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts -Developed in Britain and US -Only valid for use in certain cultures -Babies have different experiences in different culturs and these experiences may affect responses -Japanese study, babies displayed high levels of seperation anxiety and so many were classified insecure resistant -Takahashi (1990) suggests anxiety response was due to unusual nature of experience in Japan where mother baby separation is rare -Difficult to know what Strange situation is measuring when used outside Europe and US.

Question 53

What is Cultural variations?

Answer 53

Cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups. In attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of children of different attachment types.

Question 54

What was the procedure on Cultural variations?

Answer 54

-van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg conducted a study to look at the proportions of attachment types across countries -They also looked at differences withing the same countires to get an idea of variation of cultures -32 studies using Strange situation across 8 countries, 15 were in US -Studies yielded results for 1990 children -Studies were meta analysed

Question 55

What was the finding on Cultural variations?

Answer 55

Wide variation between proportion of attachment ypes in different studies. ALL countries has secure most common -However proportion varied from 75% Britain to 50% China -In indiviudalist cultures rates of insecure resistant were similar to Ainsworth -In collectivist samples from China, Japan rates were above 25% -Variavtions between results of studies within same country were 150% greater than those between countries -In US onr study found 46% securely attached compared to as high as 90%

Question 56

What are other studies of Culture variations?

Answer 56

-Italian study, Simonelli (2014) conducted a study in Italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different types still match previous studies -Assessed 76 babies aged 12 months -50% were secure, 36% insecure avoidant -Lower rate of secure and high in insecure avoidant found in many studies -Increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use childcare -Suggests patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change

Question 57

What was the conclusions of Cultural variation?

Answer 57

Secure attachment seems to be norm in wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlbys idea that attachment is innate and universal. However research shows cultural practices have influence on attachment type.

Question 58

What is a strength of Cultural variation?

Answer 58

Indigenous researchers: -Psychologists are those from same cultural background as participants -Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg included research by a German team and Japan -This research means that problems in cross cultural research can be avoided -Such as language bias due to nations stereotypes of another -Excellent chance of good communication enhancing validity of data collected

Question 59

What is a weakness of Cultural variations?

Answer 59

Confounding variables: -Studies in different countries not usually matched for methodology when compared in reviwes or meta analyses -Sample characteristics such as poverty can confound results as can age of participants -Environmental variables might differ -E.g. size of room -Less visible proximity seeking due to size could be classified as avoidant -Looking at attachment behaviour in differenet non matched studies many not tell us much

Question 60

Whats another weakness of Cultural variation?

Answer 60

Imposed etic: -Impose a test designed for one cultural context to another -Assuming an idea or technique that works in one culture to another -In Britain and US lack of affection on reunion indicates avoidant -But in Germany behaviour may indicate independance rather than insecurity -May not work in Germany -Behaviours measured by Strange situation may not have same meanings in different places

Question 61

What is Maternal deprivation?

Answer 61

The emotional and intellectual consequence of separation between a child and their mother or mother substitute. Bowlby propsed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development and that prolonged seperation from this adult causes serious damage to emtional and intellectual development.

Question 62

What is the difference between seperation and deprivation?

Answer 62

-Seperation means the child not being in presence of primary attachment figure -Only becomes problem if child become deprived of emotional care -Brief seperation isnt a problem and not significant

Question 63

How does Maternal deprivation affect the Critical period?

Answer 63

If a child is seperated from their mother in the absence of suitable care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended duration during the first 2 and a half years then psychological damage is inevitable. Theres a continuing risk up to the age of 5.

Question 64

What are the effects on development of Maternal deprivation?

Answer 64

Intellectual development: -Abnormally low IQ -Demonstrated in studies of adoption -Goldfarg (1947) found lower IQ in children who remained in institutions as opposed to those who fostered and higher emotional care Emtional development: -Affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others -Prevents a person developing fulfilling relationships and associated with criminality -Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate feelings of victims and lack remorse of actions

Question 65

What was the 44 thieves study?

Answer 65

-Bowlby examined link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation -44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing -All thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy -Families interviewed in order to establish the if thieves had prolonged early seperations from mothers -Compared to control group of 44 non criminals but emotionally disturbed -14 of 44 thieves were described as affectionless psychopaths -12 of them had experiences seperation in critical period -In contrast to 5 of remaining 30 had experienced seperation -Only 2 participants in control group of 44 had experienced long seperations -Concluded deprivation casue affectionless psychopathy

Question 66

Whats a weakness of Maternal deprivation?

Answer 66

Flawed evidence: -Poor quality of evidence it is based on -Bowlby himself carried out family interviews and assessments -Open to bias because he knew in advance which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy -Bowlby influenced by findings of Goldfarb's (1943) on development of deprived children in wartime orphanages -Problems with confounding variables -Goldfarb's study had experienced early trauma and institutaional care as well -Bowlby's original sources of evidence has flaws and not be taken seriously nowadays

Question 67

Whats another weakness of Maternal deprivation?

Answer 67

Deprivation and privation: -Confusion between different types of early experiences -Rutter (1981) drew an important distinction between two types of early bad experiences -Privation is failure to form any attachment in first place, could be taken to institutions -Bowlby confused deprivation with privation -Goldfarb studied prived children not deprived -Bowlby overestimated seriousness of effects of deprivation in children development

Question 68

Whats a further weakness of Maternal deprivation?

Answer 68

Critical versus sensitive periods: -Bowlby's idea of critical period -Damage is inevitable if child had not formed attachment in first 2 1/2 years of life -There is evidence to suggest that many cases good quality aftercare can prevent it -Koluchova (1976) reported case of Czech twins -They experienced severe physical and emotional abuse from 18 month until age 7 -They recieved excellent care and by teens had recovered fully -Lasting harm is not inevitable even in cases of severe privation -Critical period is better seen as sensitive period

Question 69

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 69

-A term for the effecst of living in an institutional setting -The term 'institution' refers to a place like a hosptial or orphange where people live there for a long periof of time -In such places there is often very little emotional care provided -Mainly interested in institutional care on children's attachment and subsquent development.

Question 70

What was Rutters procedure to study Romanian orphans?

Answer 70

-Followed 165 Romanian orphans for many years -Orphans been adopted by families in UK -Investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions -Physical, cognitive, emotional development had been assessed at ages 4,6,11,15,22-25 -52 children from UK adopted around same time served as a control group

Question 71

What was Rutters findings to study Romanian orphans?

Answer 71

-Half adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and were severly undernourished -At 11, adopted showed differential rates of recovery related to age of adoption -Mean IQ of children adopted before 6 months was 102 -For those adopted between 6 months and 2 years was 86 -After 2 years was 77 -Differences remained at 16 -ADHD was more common in 15 and 22 to 25 year old samples -Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment -Like attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed towards all adults -In contrast those adopted before 6 months rarely showed disinhibited attachment

Question 72

What was Zeanah's research on Romanian orphans?

Answer 72

-Assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months whom spent most of life in institutions -Compared to control group of 50 children who never lived in institutions -Measured with Strange situation -Asked about unusual social behaviours -74% of control group classed as secure -19% of institutional group were secure -Description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutional group opposed to less than 20% of control

Question 73

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 73

Disinhibited attachment: -Being equally friendly and affectionate towards strangers and familiar people -Unusual behaviour -Rutter explained this as an adaption to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive period Intellectual disability: -Can be recovered provided adoption takes place before age of 6 months -During sensitive where attachments can form

Question 74

Whats a strength of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 74

Real world application: -Improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home -Improved psychologists understanding in effects of early institutional care -Helps prevent effects -Led improvement in conditions -Now avoid large number of caregivers for each child -Institutional care is seen as now undesirable for looked after children -Considerable effort made to accommodate children in foster care or adoption -Children in institutional care have chance to develop normal attachment -Disinhibited attachment is avoided

Question 75

What is another strength of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 75

Fewer confounding variables: -Many children studied in orphanages had experienced many traumas -Difficult to disentangle effects of neglect and physical abuse -Children in Romanian orphanges had been handed over by loving parents -Results less likely to be affected by negative early experiences

Question 76

What is a weakness of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 76

Lack of adult data: -ERA study is looked at children in early mid 20s -Dont have data to answer questions about long term effects of early institutional care -Dont know lifetime mental health problems -Dont know participants success in forming and maintaining adult romantic and parental relationships -Possible that late adopted children may catch up later

Question 77

How does influence of early attachment affect relationships in childhood?

Answer 77

-Attachment type is associated with quality of peer relationships in childhood -Secure babies tend to form best quality friendships -Insecure babies have friendship difficulties -Wilson and Smith (1998) assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using questionnares in 196 children aged 7-11 in London -Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying -Insecure avoidant children were most likely to be victims -Insecure resistant were most likely to be bullies

Question 78

How does influence of early attachment affect relationships in adulthood?

Answer 78

-Affects romantic and parental relationships -McCarthy (1999) studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were babies -Secure babies had best adult friendships and relationships -Insecure resistant had problems maintaining friendships -Insecure avoidant had problems with intimacy -Affected child's ability to parent with own children -People base parenting style on IWM -Attachment type could be generational -Bailey et al (2007) considered attachment of 99 mothers with their babies and own mothers -Assessed with Strange Situation and interviews -Majority women had same attachment classification to their babies and mothers

Question 79

Whats is a strength of Influence of early attachment on later relationships?

Answer 79

Research support: -Evidence of early attachment consistently predicts later attachment to own children -Relationship between early attachment type and later development depends on attachment type and later development -Disorganised attachment is strongly associated with mental disorders -Secure babies convey good future development

Question 80

Whats is a weakness of Influence of early attachment on later relationships?

Answer 80

Validity issues with retrospective studies: -Most research between early attachment and later development isnt longitudinal -Mainly do interviews -Causes two validity problems -Social desirabilty bias -Hard to know whats assessed early attachment or adult attachment -May be confounded with other facors making them meaningless

Question 81

Whats is another weakness of Influence of early attachment on later relationships?

Answer 81

Confounding variables: -Associations between attachment quality and later development may be affected with confounding variables -Parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development -Genetically influenced personality may influence both factors -Not be entirely sure that early attachment and other factors influence later development