Topic 3 - Attachment Flashcards
Define Attachment.
Infants and caregivers development of deep and lasting emotional bonds. Both members seek closeness and feel more secure when close to their attachment figure.
Define Reciprocity.
A mutual turn-taking form of interaction when both caregiver and infant respond to each others signals and cues.
Define interactional synchrony.
A simultaneous interaction between infant and caregiver when they mirror each others behaviour.
Define Imitation.
The infant directly copies the caregivers expression.
Define sensitive responsiveness.
The caregiver correctly interpreting the meaning of infant communication and responds appropriately.
What is CDS (Child-directed speech)?
The caregiver talking in a high pitched, baby voice to keep the infants attention.
What did Meltzoff and Moore (1997) do?
An experimental displayed facial gesture such as sticking out a tongue and opening their mouth to 12-21 day year old in infants. Recording the infant responses were rated by people blind to the experiment. It was found in infant responses match the experimental special expressions. These results suggest the ability to observe and reciprocate through imitation is present from a very early age.
What did Codon and Sander (1974) do?
The videotaped interactions between adults and babies focusing on movements of the baby in response to adult speech. Using a detailed frame by frame analysis of the video they found evidence of interactional synchrony. These results suggest even from birth humans have an innate ability for social interaction.
Schaffer identified 4 stages of attachment. What are they?
Asocial, Indiscriminate, specific and multiple.
In Schaffers stages of attachment, what is the asocial stage?
This stage occurs from 0 to 6 weeks when babies display and night behaviours that ensure proximity to any potential caregiver. Anyone can comfort them as they do not prefer a single individual caregiver.
In Schaffers stages of attachment, what is the Indiscriminate stage?
This stage occurs between six weeks to 7 months of life where infants develop the ability to tell the difference between humans and objects and between familiar and unfamiliar adults. They smile frequently when they see people that they see more frequently however they do not yet show stranger anxiety or separation anxiety.
In Schaffers stages of attachment, what is the specific stage?
This stage occurs between seven and nine months where babies formed a strong attachment to a primary caregiver most often their mother. It is in this stage of separation anxiety and anxiety begins to develop.
In Schaffers stages of attachment, what is the multiple stage?
This occurs around 9 to 10 months plus, where the infant starts to form attachments with other regular caregivers and stranger anxiety starts to decrease.
Describe and explain Schaffer and Emersons (1964) research.
60 working class babies and their families from Glasgow were study. In the first year data was collected through monthly observations and interviews with an additional follow-up visit at 18 months. Two types of behaviour were assessed stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. It was found that separation anxiety occurred in most babies by 25 to 32 weeks with strange distress occurring in most babies approximately one month later. In the 18 month follow-up 87% had developed from multiple attachments. The strongest attachment was to the mothers with consistent caregiver interaction. These results suggest that development occurs in the stages outlined by Schaffer.
A03 of the Glasgow baby study.
❌ the sample in Shaffers study may not be generalised but is it only included a group of working class mothers in 1960s Glasgow which is not a representative culture of the rest of the world. Therefore the study lacks temporal validity.
✔️ as infants and their families were observed in their own home the study had high levels of mundane realism as the experience for the influence was normal. This suggests the behaviour recorded was valid.
Describe the role of the father: the importance of active play.
Fathers are seen to engage with babies in active play more consistently than mothers. Fathers interactions emphasise stimulation and so it thought the role is to encourage risk taking behaviour compared to the comforting style of mothers.
Describe the role of the father as a primary caregiver.
Those evidence to suggest that men take on the role of primary care caregivers that interaction style changes to be more like mothers increasing the capacity for sensitive responsiveness.
A03- Research to support the role of the father.
✔️Field (1978) observed primary caretaker, mothers primary caretaker, fathers and secondary caretaker fathers interacting with their four month old infants. He found that fathers in general focus more in gameplay and less on holding. The primary caretaker father showed more sensitively responsive behaviour similar to mothers.
✔️ Verissimo (2011) observed preschool children’s relationships with their mothers and fathers and then conducted a follow-up assessment of social interactions when the child started nursery. A strong attachment to their father was the best predictor of ability to make friends in school suggesting an important role for fathers in socialisation.
What concept did Lorenz aim to invesigate?
Imprinting.
Describe Lorenz (1935) procedure.
Goose eggs were randomly divided half were taken to be hatched by Lorenz using an incubator and the other half one hatched naturally in their environment with their biological mother. The goslings who Lauren hatched and printed on him following him rather than their mother goose. The goslings hatched in a natural environment imported on their mother goose and followed her. Lorenz placed all of the goslings in the box when they were released the goslings who had put it on Lorenz still continue to follow him he found that goslings had a critical period around 32 hours and if the googling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first hours, they would lose the ability to imprint.
What concept did Harlow want to investigate?
Cupboard love.
Describe Harlow (1958) Procedure.
Infant monkeys were removed from their biological mothers and placed into cages with surrogate mothers. One surrogate mother provided milk but not comfort as it was constructed of a wire. The others mother was provided as comfort as the wire was covered in cloth however the cloth monkey mother did not provide food. Time spent with the mother was recorded as well as which surrogate the infant round two and frightened by a mechanical monkey. The infant monkey spent most of the time with the comfort providing cloth mother and only visiting the food mother when they needed to eat and then quickly return to the cloth for comfort. The infant monkeys return to the cloth mother when frightened and without access to the cloth monkey mother showed signs of stress. His research suggests that baby monkeys need physical contact and will attach to provides comfort rather than food providing evidence against cupboard love.
A03 of Harlow and Lorenz study.
❌ the generalisation of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic as humans and animals are very different and have different experiences culture and socially that informed their behaviour. Even Harlow’s findings on primates who are closely genetically similar to humans than Lorenzo’s birds should not be automatically thought to apply to humans.
✔️ hollow findings on contact comfort have been highly influential, with Bowlby arguing similar that infants crave contact and comfort from their others attempting to form a mono tropic relationship. If this fails then Bowlby claims that human influences will grow into adult adults with poor socialisation similar to monkeys without a cloth mother.
❌ there are ethical issues with the grounds of using animals and putting them under high stress levels causing harm. The suffering was real and public knowledge of these studies his harm psychology reputation. However, it could be argued that has long-term benefits to millions of human influence resulting from Harlows research.
What is cupboard love and who proposed this theory?
Dollard and Miller in 1950, proposed cupboard love theory which is based upon principles of the learning theory arguing the infants become a touch their caregiver because the caregiver provides food.
Describe an explain classical conditioning in the learning theory.
Classical conditioning is learning due to association. The food initially is an unconditional stimulus in distinctively providing pleasure as an unconditional response. As the mother is present every time the babies fed the mother becomes associated with the pleasure of being fed and she changes from being a neutral stimulus to the condition stimulus therefore meaning the pleasure is the conditioned response forming the attachment between the mother and the baby.
Describe and explain operating conditioning in the learning theory.
Open conditioning is learning due to patterns of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is when a behaviour is made more likely when receiving pleasurable stimulus. In attachment when a parent feeds a crying baby the baby is more likely to repeat the crying behaviour to get more food the parent is negatively reinforced as they are removing the unpleasant stimulus of the baby crying by giving the baby food.
Attachment is a secondary drive. Explain this statement.
Drives of the desire to complete an action. Primary drives are instinctive secondary drives alert for example infants want an attachment to satisfy the primary drive such as hunger.
A03 or the learning theory.
❌ to learning theory is applied to human attachment behaviour as environmentally reductionist. Behaviours argue a complex interactions between caregivers and their efforts are just the result of simplistic stimulus associations learn responses in patterns of reinforcement. Most parents say the relationship with their children much more complicated and they consciously choose to care for their infant.
❌ there is evidence to reject the cupboard love theory with the contact theory proposed by Harlow’s research.
❌ there are ultimate theories of attachment which don’t depend on the land theory for example the one tropic theory which gives an evolutionary explanation for caregiver in interactions arguing that babies having instinct attach their primary caregiver.
✔️ the learning theory has face validity. It makes intuitive sense that babies cry more when they learn crime games the more attention so food.
Explain Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment in full detail.
It is an evolutionary explanation of attachment arguing. The infants have an innate drive to form a strong attachment with their mother and staying close proximity. He argues this drive is instinctual as forming a strong attachment is vital to infant survival as the mother provides food and security. To help develop the relationship babies use signals such as social releases. The monotropic theory suggests that attachment must form within the first 30 months after birth. And stronger relationships will form if care is consistent and weaker ones if there are long separations.
What are social releasers?
Crying, smiling and vocalisations that the baby does to attract the caregivers attention.
A03 for Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
❌ there are convincing alternative explanations for attachment such as the learning theory which suggest it’s based on food which opposes the mono tropic theory.
✔️ his work has been impactful, inspiring later research as such as Mary Ainsworth and his ideas have been developed and apply to early childcare.
❌ Bowlby’s work is based on Lorenzo’s findings of the critical period in geese however both we argued that there is a similar critical period for humans but more sensitive not critical as suitable care can lead to recovery.
What are the three types of attachment that Mary Ainsworth proposed?
Insecure avoidant, secure, insecure resistant.
Describe the insecure avoidant attachment type.
Infants keep a distance from their mother not using her as a secure base but exploring freely. The infant displays low stranger anxiety and if their mother leaves the room they have low separation anxiety, when their mom returns they are indifferent not attempting to get comfort with her. Their mother seemed to show little sense to responsiveness to the infants need.
Describe the secure attachment type.
Infants use their mother as a safe base as they explore the environment. They show a moderate level of strange anxiety when separated from their mum. They show separation anxiety but a happy reunion response allows them to settle quickly back into exploration. Caregivers show sensitive responsiveness.
Describe the attachment type of insecure resistant.
Infant do not explore the environment and a clingy seeking closeness to their mum. They have high stranger anxiety and separation anxiety when their mothers leave the room. When the mother returns the infant appear mixed emotions seem to crave and reject the attention. Mothers appear to be inconsistent with a responsiveness.
Describe the procedure of the strange situation.
106 infants were used and they were in a controlled lab setting with each stage last three minutes. The stages assessed the infant proximity, their mother willingness to explore and sensitive responsiveness. It started with the mother and baby entering a room. The baby is encouraged to explore and the mother does not interact then a strange enters and begins to talk to the mother shortly after approaching the baby then the mother will leave the room and the stranger will interact with the baby then the mum comes back into the room. The mum leaves again and the stranger leaves as well. The baby is now alone then the stranger enters the room again and the mother comes back then the stranger leaves.
A03 for the strange situation.
✔️ highly controlled observational study with standardised procedures and clear behavioural categories therefore has high control and good replication of the study. It’s also has predictive validity as the strange situation allows for attachment styles to be identified.
❌It was only tested in America, and attachment may be culture bound, therefore cannot be generalised.
❌ the situation lacks ecological validity as it was a lab experience and does not replicate real life also due to the knowing of being watched from the mother they may act in a different way as they know they’re being monitored due to demand characteristics.
Describe and explain Van Ljezendoorn’s research.
There was a large scale of meta analysis of 2000 infants in 32 studies from eight different countries. They identified and classified attachment types of infants and mothers using the strange situation. Secure attachment was the most common in all countries and insecure resistance was the least common. The research suggests that secure attachment was the most common in all countries and suggests that globally preferred attachment style could be linked to biological basis however there are variations that parenting styles could explain for example German families encourage independent behaviour resulting in infant showing little distress and more German children classified as avoidant.
A03 Van Ljezendoorn’s research.
❌ lack temporality due to the changing nature of family life in the modern world. Simonelli (2014) measured attachment using the strange situation in modern Italian society and found that compared to historical Italian families there was a significant low percentage of secure infants and higher of avoidant. This suggests that this change is due to a healthy coping mechanism due to the demands of modern day life.
✔️ it is a meta analysis which included very large sample and therefore there is high strength and validity of the results.
❌ Many of the countries included only had one study which is not representative of the countrys population.
Define Monotropy.
The term Bowlby gives for the unique attachment bond between an infant and its mother when the baby has formed one key attachment.
Describe Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.
Will be argues if a child’s mono tropic attachment is disrupted during the critical period such as prolonged separation from the mother this is deprivation and will result in negative consequences affecting the infant social emotional and intellectual skills.
When is the critical period?
The first 30 months of the infant life.
Define delinquency.
Behaviour outside of acceptable norm such as petty crime.
Define affection psychopathy.
Children are unable to show character behaviour towards others or everything for other peoples feelings or guilt for their own actions.
A03 Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.
✔️Bowlby supported his theory with a study of 44 thieves during the study a control group of 44 emotionally disturbed non thieves were interviewed to assess affection psychopathy and parents were asked about maternal deprivation during the critical period. It was found the 14th thieves match the criteria for affection psychopathy compared to none of the control group. 12 of the thieves had experienced for a long separation compared to only two of the control group. This suggest a link to maternal deprivation delinquency.
❌ there is a very big debate on the difference between deprivation and privation which makes it hard to distinguish whether the effective deprivation truly does have an effect on affection psychopathy or whether it is just privation.
✔️ Bowlby’s work has led to positive changes to policies related to child welfare such as visiting time mothers in hospitals and the length of maternity leave.
❌ Bowlby’s theory may put too much emphasis on the mother’s role and make the mother feel guilty if she returns to work earlier than her husband.
What happened in Romanian orphanages?
they lacked physical and emotional care from staff and many children became malnourished and abused. Many of these children were adopted into loving western families eventually however this allowed for natural experiments to be conducted on the orphans who were adopted into British families which was investigated by ratter in 1998 till 2011. The Romanian children were grouped into those adopted while under six months between six months and two years and those older than two years. A control group of a British adoptee who had not experienced privation were included in the study. At age 6 children adopted six months showed disinhibited attachment and overly friendly behaviour towards strange adults and this was most common in those adopted after two years old at age 11 over half of the children who showed disinhibited attachment at age 6 still displayed this behaviour and showed significant delayed physical emotional and intellectual development. Children after 24 months adoption had an average IQ of 77 compared to 102 for those adopted under six months.
What did Rutters research suggest?
Adoption research suggests that adoption within the first six months is important for the rate of recovery of the effects of privation in institutions as it suggests that the critical period argued by Bowlby’s is a sensitive period.
