theories of attachment Flashcards
AIM - O’Connor et al. (2013) – Social learning, parenting and attachment
to investigate whether or not beneficial parenting styles can improve the quality of
parent-child attachment relationship
What did O’Connor et al examine?
O’Connor et al. examined changes in parental behaviours and assessed the security of children’s internal working model (children who experience sensitive/responsive care can regulate their emotions and show greater social competence).
The study set out to determine whether a child’s internal working model was altered by a social learning theory-based parent training program
However, the study did not target the internal working model, and the child was not included in the treatment setting (only the parents).
sample of O’Connor et al (2013)
● 672 children (in kindergarten and year 1) from the most disadvantaged district of a
deprived inner-city London borough. All showed emotional and behavioural difficulties
(antisocial behaviours).
● Informed consent was given by the parents and the study was approved by the local
research ethics committee.
● Randomised clinical trial - random allocation of children by class at school to either
the intervention group or control group was carried out by an independent statistician.
Observation was carried out in homes.
● Intervention Group - several parenting programs. Control Group - not offered any
intervention programs.
O’ Connor et al procedure
(18 weeks)
A Twelve-week parenting program
1. Observe videotapes showing screens of parent and child in variety of common situations.
2. Group discussion (about different types of parenting style)
3. Practice in role-play (practice new parenting style to a child actor)
B Six-week Literacy program (the pause-prompt-praise technique used to teach children how to read)
1. When a child encounters a new unknown word, the parent pauses for 5s and lets the
child figure out the definition of the word.
2. When a child does not succeed, the parent will give a specific prompt (hint).
3. If the child gets the correct definition of the word, praise is given.
● Group treatment model- each group had one leader (with professional child
developmental psychology qualifications) and one co-leader (child mental health trainees
without qualification) to supervise the interventions.
●Measurement- Pre- and post-treatment (6 month after intervention) home visits – observational method:
1. 10 min free play during which no specific instructions were given to the parent and child.
2. 10 min highly instructed play where parent and child were instructed to build a difficult LEGO object from a picture (parents were not allowed to touch the LEGO bricks).
3. 5 min clean-up session. Minimal instructions were given to the parent, e.g. We’d like to you to get your children to tidy up the toys before we move on to the next thing.’
Findings - O’ connor et al
Parenting behaviour was coded using standard count measures of positive and negative
parenting, and for attachment theory using measures of sensitive responses; children’s
attachment narratives were also assessed.
Compared to the parents in the non-intervention group, parents allocated to the intervention showed increases in the positive behavioural counts and sensitive responding; change in behavioural count measures over-lapped modestly with change in attachment-
based changes. There was no reliable change in children’s attachment narratives associated
with the intervention.
Conclusion - O’connor et al
Standard social learning theory-based parenting interventions can improve the quality of
parent-child attachment relationship.
Evidence - O’connor et al
Randomised clinical trials show that parenting interventions can reduce child negative
behaviour (Scott et al., 2010).
● Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., (2003) conducted a meta-analysis and found the most positive attachment outcomes were the result of using specific behavioural techniques.
O’Connor et al (2013) findings (results)
mean results
mutuality positive parenting:
-Free playing session (FP) - 3.25 pretreatment to 3.68 post treatment
-structured Lego task - 3.39 pre treatment to 3.57 post-treatment
**child centred.
**FP - 0.45 pre-treatmnt FP-0.51 post treatment
LEGO- 0.34 pre-treatment to 0.40 post-treatment
O’Connor - Ethics
-Informed consent was given by the parents and the study was approved by the local
research ethics committee.
- The study helps improve the quality of parent-child attachment relationships, the
parents learn how to more accurately identify and satisfy a child’s needs, this can
help reduce child emotional and behavioural difficulties, therefore the study is very ethical and beneficial.
O’Connor Generalisability
The research used a large sample of 672 children. However, the children were all in
kindergarten or year 1, which is not a representative stratified sample of the total population, as the results cannot be generalised to children who are younger (babies) or older (elementary schoolers), therefore it has low generalisability.
O’Connor - High internal validity
For each intervention group, a group leader with professional child developmental
psychology qualifications is provided to guide the parents, to explain any misunderstandings and to make sure the parents know how to correctly use the new techniques, therefore the results are not affected by extraneous variables such as
misuse of parenting techniques, ensuring the internal validity of the results.
Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis. What did he propose?
Bowlby (1958) proposed that attachment can be understood
within an evolutionary context in that the caregiver provides safety and security for the infant. Attachment is adaptive as it enhances the infant’s chance of
survival.
What did Bowlby (1969) defined attachment as?
a ‘lasting psychological connectedness between human
beings.’
Attachment is characterized by specific behaviours in children, such as seeking proximity to the attachment figure when upset or threatened.
what did Bowlby used the term maternal deprivation to refer to ?
● Failure of the child to develop an attachment to a mother figure.
● Significant separation from the mother during the first five years of life.
● Loss of the mother in the first five years of life.
Bowlby’s (1953) maternal deprivation hypothesis
learn word for word
proposed that a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with a mother (figure) is necessary for healthy psychological/
emotional development.
Continual disruption of the attachment between infant and primary caregiver (i.e., mother) could result in long term cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties for that infant.
Bowlby originally believed the effects to be permanent and irreversible.
Consequences of maternal deprivation include?
● An inability to form attachments in the future
● Affectionless psychopathy (inability to feel remorse)
● Delinquency (behavioural problems in adolescence)
● Problems with Cognitive Development
What does Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment suggest?
suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them
to survive.
define monotropy
A child has an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure.
there is one relationship which is more important than all the rest.
What did Bowlby’s suggest that there is a critical period for developing an attachment is?
(2.5 years).
If an attachment has not developed during this time period, then then it may well not
happen at all (Bowlby later proposed a sensitive period of up to 5 years).
According to Bowlby, what is an internal working model?
is a cognitive framework comprising mental representations for understanding the world, self, and others, and is based on the relationship with a primary caregiver. It becomes a prototype for all future social relationships and allows
individuals to predict, control and manipulate interactions with others.
AIM: 44 Thieves Study (Bowlby, 1944)
To test his Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis, Bowlby studied 44 adolescent juvenile delinquents
in a child guidance clinic.
To investigate the long-term effects of maternal
deprivation on people in order to see whether
delinquents have suffered deprivation.
According to the Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis,
breaking the maternal bond with the child during the early
stages of its life is likely to have serious effects on
intellectual, social and emotional development.
Procedure - 44 Thieves Study (Bowlby, 1944)
Between 1936 and 1939 an opportunity sample of 88 children was selected from the
clinic where Bowlby worked.
Of these, 44 were juvenile thieves and had been referred to him
because of their stealing. Bowlby selected another group of 44 children to act as ‘controls
(individuals referred to the clinic because of emotional problems, but not yet committed any
crimes).NATURAL EXPERIMENT.
**
On arrival at the clinic, each** child had their IQ tested tested by a psychologist who also assessed the child’s emotional attitudes towards the tests. At the same time a social worker interviewed a
parent to record details of the child’s early life (e.g., periods of separation). The psychologist and social worker made separate reports.
**A psychiatrist (Bowlby) then conducted an initial interview with the child and accompanying
parent **(e.g., diagnosing affectionless psychopathy).
Findings - 44 Thieves Study (Bowlby, 1944)
- Only 17% of the thieves not
diagnosed as affectionless
psychopaths had experienced
maternal separation. - Only 2/44 of the control group had experienced a prolonged separation in their first 5
years.
Fourteen of the young thieves (32%) showed affectionless psychopathy
Conclusion: 44 Thieves Study (Bowlby, 1944)
Bowlby concluded that maternal separation/deprivation in the child’s early life caused permanent emotional damage.
bowlby 44 thieves evaluation - Limitations
External variables (family conflict, parental income, education, etc.) may have affected the behaviour of the 44 thieves and not the disruption of the attachment bond.
The supporting evidence that Bowlby (1944) provided was in the form of clinical interviews of
retrospective data. This meant that Bowlby was asking the participants to look back and recall
separations. These memories may not be accurate (low validity).
The study concluded affectionless psychopathy was caused by maternal deprivation. This is
correlational data and as such only shows a relationship between these two variables, and not the
cause. As Rutter (1972) pointed out, Bowlby’s conclusions were flawed, mixing up cause and effect
with correlation.
bowlby 44 thieves evaluation -strengths
Greater stability in childcare practice has been developed through daycare centres assigning
caregivers to children and hospital visiting hours have been reviewed so that children can maintain
contact with their parents.
Some national governments offer more financial support for young families in terms of maternity and
paternity leave. For instance, Sweden offers 480 days parental leave, clearly highlighting its
commitment to support children’s early attachment experiences.
rutter (1981)
- argued that if a child fails to develop an emotional bond, this is privation, whereas deprivation refers to the loss of/damage to an attachment.
Mary Ainsworth (1970s) – The Strange Situation
- is a standardized procedure
-devised to observe attachment security in children within the context of caregiver relationships, i.e., called the Strange Situation Classification (SSC).
It is an** assessment technique to investigatehow attachments might vary between children and was applied to infants between the age of nine and 18 months.**
Mary Ainsworth (1970s) – The Strange Situation.
what does the procedure involve?
involves series of eight episodes
lasting approximately 3 minutes each, whereby a mother, child and stranger are introduced, separated and reunited.
Mary Ainsworth (1970s) – The Strange Situation.
How is the experiment set up?
in a small room with one way glass so the behaviour of the infant
can be observed covertly.
Mary Ainsworth (1970s) – The Strange Situation.
what was the ppts ages between and who did the sample comprimise of?
Infants were aged between 12 and 18 months.
The sample comprised of 100 middle-class American families.
