psychology stages of attachment and role of father Flashcards
what is the asocial stage
first few weeks of life observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects fairly similar
babies show signs that they prefer to be with other people, babies tend to show prefernece for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them, baby is forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachments
what is the indiscriminate attachment stage
from 2 to 7months babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours, show clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate objects, recognise and prefer the comapny of familiar people, babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person, dont show seperation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in presence of unfamiliar people
what is the specific attachment stage
from around 7months start to display classic signs of attachment towards one particular person-include anxiety directed towards strangers especially when their attachment figure is absent and anxiety when seperated from their attachment figure, baby formed primary attachment figure but not necessarily the person the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the babys signals with the most skill, this is the babys mother in 65%
what is multiple attachments stage
start to show attachment behaviour towards one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom they spend time with-secondary attachments, 29% of children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming primary attachment, by the age of one majority of babies developed multiple attachments
what was schaffer and emersons research
observational study of formation of early infant adult attachments, study involves 60babies 31boys and 29girls all from glasgow and majority from skilled working class families, researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18months, researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven day seperations, designed to measure babies attachment, researchers assessed stranger anxiey babies anxiety response to unfamiliar people, identified four distinct stages in development of infant attachment behaviour
what is the good external validity evaluation points
good external validity
most observations made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers
alternative would have been to have researchers present to record observations might have distracted babies or made them feel more anxious
highly likely that pps behaved naturally while being observed
issues with asking mothers to be observers
unlikely to be objective observers might have been biased in terms of what tbey noticed and what they reported- may not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or they may have misremembered it
even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded
what is poor evidence for asocial stage evaluation points
validity of the measures used to assess attachment in asocial stage
young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile, babies less than 2months felt anxiety in everyday situations might have displayed this subtle hard to observe ways
difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers signs of anxiety and attachment of the age group
babies may actually be quite social but because of flawed methods they appear to be asocial
what is the real world application evaluation points
practical application in day care
asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages day care likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult
research tells us that daycare especially starting day care with unfamiliar adult may be problematic during specific attachment stage, parents use of day care can be planned using their stages
what is the attachment to fathers
schaffer and emerson-majority of babies first became attached to mothers at around 7months, only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment, 27% cases father was joint in first object of attachment with the mother
most fathers go on to become important attachment figures
75% of babies studied formed attachment with father by the age of 18months, determined yb the fact that babies protested when their father walked away which was a sign of attachment
what is the distinctive role for fathers
grossmann-longitudinal study where babies attachments studied until they were into their teens, researchers looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to wuality of babies later attachments to other people, quality of babys attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence, attachment to fathers less important than attachment to mothers
also found quality of fathers play with babies was related to quality of adolescnet attachments, fathers have different role from mothers (play and stimulation and less to do with emotional development)
what is the fathers as primary attachment figures
when fathers take on role of primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role
field=filmed 4month old babies in face to face interaction with paimry caregiver mothers,secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers, primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers-all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony as part of process of attachment formation
fathers have potential to be more emtoion focused primary attachment figure, can provide responsiveness required for close emotional attachment but perhaps on express this when given the role of primary caregiver
