Relational Influences: Attachment Flashcards
What is socialisation?
Process of acquiring the beliefs, values and behaviours that are thought to be important and appropriate to function effectively as members of society.
What are agents of socialisation? (w/examples)
Factors that affect our socialisation
- Factors that have been studied: families, schools, mass media, religious institutions and clubs.
What does attachment refer to?
The formation of a strong emotional tie between a primary caregiver and their baby.
Why is the formation of a strong emotion tie between parent & infant important?
Important in the development of later socialisation of the infant.
What is the sensitive period?
Period of which bonding (attachment) can occur
How long is the sensitive period?
About 12 months, but can be 2 years
What happens if there is a failure to establish the attachment?
Can lead to harmful effects in later life
- Poor social and emotional development
Harry Harlow (1905-1981) & his contribution
Attachment as contact comfort to a terry-towelling surrogate mother in rhesus monkeys.
John Bowlby (1907-1990) & his contribution
Attachment as comfort for infants from their mothers.
Failure to form attachment leads to maternal deprivation.
1st theory of attachment to consider both mother and infant.
Mary Ainsworth (1913-1999) & her contribution
Measurement of attachment by the ‘Strange Situation’ and classification of types of infant attachment.
Micheal Rutte (1933-)
Indicators of attachment shown for fathers, siblings, peers and even inanimate objects as well as mothers.
The quality of the attachment bond is the most important factor, rather than just deprivation in the critical period.
What did Harry Harlow do? (Basic explanation)
Conducted some experiments to measure the development of attachment of infant rhesus monkeys to their mothers.
Believed that such emotional bonds were important for subsequent healthy development.
What did Harry Harlow conclude from his study?
‘Contact comfort’ (provided by cloth surrogate) was more important in the formation of the mother-infant attachment than feeding.
This was generalised to the human mother-infant bond.
What did John Bowlby (1907-1990) do? (Basic explanation)
Studied the predisposition of infants for contact with their mothers.
His theory was that mothers have a biological need to be close to their child.
If Bowlby wasn’t a researcher and didn’t conduct experiments how did he get his information?
Drew on various strands of theoretical thinking and clinical experience when developing his theory of attachment as a system that have evolved to increase the infant’s chances of survival.
What was Bowlby’s evolutionary perspective?
Children who were always close to their mothers would’ve avoided predators and grown up to have children of their own.
What was Bowlby’s theory the first to do?
Consider the pair (mother & infant) - not jsut infat
Primary bond
Different from other attachments - between primary caregiver and infant
Nature of monotropy
Attachment as a close bond w/just 1 attachment figure (primary bond)
Maternal deprivation
Separation/loss of the mother as well as the failure to develop an attachment.
How is the internal working model/cognitive framework developed?
Child’s attacment w/their primary caregiver leads it it’s development
What is the internal working model / cognitive framework
Compromised of mental representations for understandings the world, the self and others.
Conceptual model - doesn’t exist as an entity.
People’s interaction w/others is guided by memories and expectations from their internal model that influence and help to evaluate their contact with others.
According to Bowlby, the primary caregiver acts as a…
prototype for future relationships via. internal working model.
3 main features of the internal working model:
- A model of others such as the mother being experienced as trustworthy
- A model of the self as being valuable and important to others.
- A model of the self as having been effective when interacting with others, such as w/th3eir mothers.
The Long-term consequences of maternal deprivation might include the following for the child:
Delinquency
Reduced intelligence
Increased aggression
Depression
An inability to show affection or concern for others (affectionless psychopathy)
Where did Bowlby get criticised?
Didn’t dispute that young children form multiple attachments along with the attachment to the mother is unique: it is the first to appear and remains the strongest of all.
Besides other attachments, what else did Rutter (1972) accuse Bowlby of?
Accuse him of not distinguishing between deprivation & privation.
- The complete lack of an attachment bond rather than its loss.
- Stressed that the quality of the attachment bond is the most important factor, rather than just deprivation in the critical period.
Rutter’s 1972 book suggested that Bowlby oversimplified…
the concept of maternal deprivation.
- Bowlby used ‘maternal deprivation’ to refer to separation from an attached figure, loss of an attached figure and failure to develop an attachment o any figure.
Rutter argued that…
if a child fails to develop an emotional bond, this is privation vs. deprivation refers to the loss of, or damage to, an attachment.
How does Harlow’s research support Rutter’s notion of privation?
Harlow showed that monkeys reared in isolation from their mother suffered emotional and social problems in older age.
The monkeys never formed an attachment (privation) and grew up to be aggressive and had problems interacting with other monkeys.
For Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, what was the marker of attachment in an infant?
The behaviour designed to gain and maintain closeness with the parent.
What did Ainsworth & Bell (1970) develop and the results?
Developed a way to measure attachment.
Resulted in 3 types of attachment in infants
What are the 3 types of attachment in infants?
Type A: Insecure-avoidant
Type B: Secure
Type C: Insecure-ambivalent/resistant
Intensity of attachment behaviour can be heightened or reduced by changing…
Environmental conditions
Attachment behaviour was considered to be of importance for…
the survival of the infant
Sagi & colleagues (1994) study suggests what?
that early child-rearing practices can lead to difference in proportion of each attachment type.
What were Sagi & colleagues interested in?
That a high proportion of children raised in traditional Israeli kibbutzim had in past research demonstrated Type C (anxious resistant) attachment to their mothers
Kibbutzism
Israeli practice of collective community characterised by mutual aid, social justice and equality.
Considered that the predominant type of attachment (C in traditional kibbutzism) was likely due to the infants’
sleeping arrangements
During nighttime there are 2 watchwomen in kibbutzim to care for all the children in the kibbutz on a rotational basis, this means that..
there may be a delay in attending to the infants’ needs during the night and there isn’t a stable relationship w/an adult available to them at night.
Considering this - it would likely lead to insecure attachments.
