topic 3 - attachments

Question 1

what is attachment?

Answer 1

a close two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individuals see the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 2

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 2

caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way

Question 3

what is reprocity?

Answer 3

a description of how 2 people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signal and each elicit a response from the other side

Question 4

what does it mean if a study has individual differences?

Answer 4

it can’t be generalized

Question 5

what is limited hawthorne effect?

Answer 5

when people aren’t susceptible to conformity (babies)

Question 6

what are the 4 features that identify if a baby has formed an attachment?

Answer 6

separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, secure base behaviour, reunion behaviour

Question 7

what are the 4 stage of attachment?

Answer 7

asocial, indiscriminate, specific attachments, multiple attachments

Question 8

what is the asocial stage of attachment?

Answer 8

it lasts until 6 weeks after birth, no discrimination between humans

Question 9

what is the indiscriminate stage of attachment?

Answer 9

6 weeks to 6 months old, can tell people apart, still no fear of strangers

Question 10

what is the specific attachment stage of attachment?

Answer 10

7 months old, separation anxiety from their caregiver, stranger anxiety, can recognize faces

Question 11

what is the multiple attachment stage of attachment?

Answer 11

10 months old, attachment grows with caregiver, the child form attachments with more adults

Question 12

what was the aim of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 12

to investigate the development of infant attachments

Question 13

what was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 13

a longitudinal study of 6o babies from a working class area of Glasgow. At the start of the investigation, infants ranged from 5 to 23 weeks old, and they were studied until they turned 1. Mothers were visited every 4 weeks and they would report their infant’s response to separation in seven everyday situations. The mother was asked to describe the intensity of any protest, which was then rated on a four point scale. The mother was asked to say at whom the protest was directed. Stranger anxiety was also measured by assessing the infant’s response to the interviewer at each visit.

Question 14

what were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 14

between 25 and 32 weeks of age, about 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult (usually the mother). Attachment tended to be towards the caregiver who was the most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions. By the age of 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed the multiple attachments.

Question 15

what was the conclusion of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 15

attachment develops in stages.

Question 16

what are the 4 attachment styles?

Answer 16

secure, avoidant, resistant, and disorganized

Question 17

what was the aim of mary Aisnsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 17

to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of attachment

Question 18

what was the procedure of of Mary ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 18

baby and their mother are placed in a room with a two way mirror. Psychologists test secure base behaviour, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, and reunion behaviour

Question 19

what were the findings of mary Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 19

she identified 3 types of attachment

Question 20

what is a secure attachment?

Answer 20

regularly explore but return to their caregiver, stranger anxiety, upset when the mother leaves but happy when she returns. The most common attachment type

Question 21

what is insecure -avoidant attachment?

Answer 21

explore frequently but don’t show secure base behaviour, little reaction when the mother leaves and returns, little stranger anxiety

Question 22

what is insecure-resistant?

Answer 22

don’t explore much, high levels of stranger and separation anxiety, resist comfort when caregiver returns. Rarest attachment type

Question 23

what is the evaluation of Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation?

Answer 23

may be culture bound as a child in the USA may be different from children in other cultures. Good reliability as it was filmed and watched by observers. It only had 3 attachment styles.

Question 24

what was the procedure of Harlow’s comfort and love?

Answer 24

16 monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth. They were placed in cages with 2 surrogate mothers - wire and cloth. 8 of the monkeys were weaned on the wire mother, and the others by the cloth mother. They were studied for various lengths of time

Question 25

what were the results of Harlow’s comfort and love?

Answer 25

both groups of monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother. The second group only went to the wire mother for food. In scary situations, they sought comfort with the cloth mother. The infant explored more when the cloth mother was there

Question 26

what is the learning theory?

Answer 26

an explanation for attatchment that emphasizes the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food

Question 27

what is bowlby’s monotropic study?

Answer 27

emphasis on an attachment to ONE caregiver, usually the mother. A child’s attachement to this one caregiver is different and more important

Question 28

what is the critical period?

Answer 28

Bowlby proposed there’s a critical period around 6 months-2 years. If an attachment is not formed during this time, a child will find it much harderr to form one later/

Question 29

what is the internal working model?

Answer 29

a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure, which serves as a model for their future relationships

Question 30

what is the evaluation for the learning theory?

Answer 30

counter evidence - animal (harlow’s monkeys) & human research (usually mother anyway, interactional synchrony)
conditioning - feel warm and comfortable with particular adult

Question 31

what did Lorenz research?

Answer 31

imprinting

Question 32

what was the procedure of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 32

he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment. Half of them hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw as Lorenz

Question 33

what were the findings of Lorenz’s experiment?

Answer 33

the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, whereas the control group followed their mother goose. When the two groups were mixed, they continued to follow the same person

Question 34

what is imprinting?

Answer 34

when bird species that are mobile from birth attach and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz also found that this is a critical period (usually the first few hours)

Question 35

what is research support for Lorenz?

Answer 35

Regolin and Vallortigara exposed chicks to simple shape combinations that moved. A range of shapes were moved in-front them and they followed the original most closely.

Question 36

what is a limitation of Lorenz’s experiment?

Answer 36

the human attachment system is quite different to that of birds e.g. for humans it’s a two-way system. This means it’s probably not appropriate to generalize Lorenz’s ideas to humans

Question 37

What was a strength for Harlow’s research?

Answer 37

it’s important to real-world applications e.g. it’s helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes

Question 38

what is a limitation of Harlow’s research?

Answer 38

it lacks an ability to be generalized to findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans. Monkeys are more similar to humans then birds are m, but the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex then that of monkeys

Question 39

what are the ethical issues of Harlow’s research?

Answer 39

it caused severe and long-term distress to the monkeys. However, his findings and conclusions have important theoretical and practical applications

Question 40

what did Schaffer and Emerson find out in their study on the role of the father?

Answer 40

3% of fathers are the primary attachment, 75% of fathers are the secondary attachment by 18 months

Question 41

what was Grossman’s study on Fathers?

Answer 41

longitudinal study on babies until they were teenagers, Researchers looked at parent’s behaviour and it’s relationship to their baby’s later attachments. Baby’s attachment o mother but not father was related to attachments in adolescence. Suggests that the attachment. to the father is less important. However he also found that the quality of the father’s play with the baby was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. Fathers are more related to play and stimulation - not emotional development

Question 42

what was Field’s study on the role of the father?

Answer 42

film a baby’s interactions to a primary caregiver mum, secondary caregiver dad, and primary caregiver dad. Primary caregiver dads spent more time interacting with the child then secodary caregiver dads. Fathers who engaged in reciprocity and interactions synchrony were just as likely as mothers to be the primary attachment figure

Question 43

what is an evaluation for the role of the father?

Answer 43

confusion over the research question as some want to understand it it as SAF but others as PAF, conflicting evidence as children without fathers develop fine, real world application as it can offer advice to parents, bias due to stereotypes about the father’s role causing unintentional observer bias

Question 44

why couldn’t you apply the findings of SSP to other cultures?

Answer 44

it’s ethnocentric, it’s a lab study, it’s androcentric (only with mothers)

Question 45

why could you apply the findings of SSP to other cultures?

Answer 45

it has a standardized procedure, you can change the context to match the environment

Question 46

what are cultural variation?

Answer 46

the differences between people or different groups

Question 47

what was the aim of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study on cultural differences?

Answer 47

to investigate the types of attachment across cultures and if the 3 attachments styles applied, and to investigate if attachment styles are universal across cultures or culturally specific

Question 48

what was the procedure of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 48

data from 32 studies across 8 countries. All 32 studies used the strange situation procedure. They calculated the average percentage for the different attachment styles in each country.

Question 49

what were the findings of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 49

secure attachment was the most common in all cultures. The lowest percentage of secure attachments was shown in China, and the highest in Great Britain.

Question 50

what was the conclusion of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 50

It supports Ainsworth’s study but we have to take into account cultural variations.

Question 51

what is the evaluation fo Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 51

-large sample size of 1,990 children across 8 countries
-samples are unrepresentative of the culture (15 studies in America but only 1 in China)
-

Question 52

what is another study that supports cultural differences?

Answer 52

In Italy, 76 12 month old babies were assessed using the strange situation. 50% were secure, 36% were resistant. This is a higher level of Secure, and lower level of resistant then usual. This could be because more mothers are working and using childcare. This shows that patterns of attachment vary in line with cultural change

Question 53

what is Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 53

the continual Prescence of care from a mother or mother substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies and toddlers, both emotionally and intellectually. Being separated from their mothers in early childhood has serious consequences.

Question 54

what is separation vs deprivation?

Answer 54

separation means not being in the presence of their primary attachment figure. Brief separations aren’t significant for development, but extended separation can lead to deprivation. Separation only becomes a problem when the child is deprived from emotional care.

Question 55

what effects does maternal deprivation have on development?

Answer 55

intellectual development: delayed intellectual development, characterised by low IQ, children who remained in institutions had lower IQ’s then those who were fostered
Emotional development: affectionless psychopathy is the inability to experience strong emotions to others, prevents people from developing fulfilling relationships, associated with criminality

Question 56

what was the aim of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

Answer 56

to examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation

Question 57

what was the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

Answer 57

44 criminal teenagers, all interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy, families were interviewd to identify whether the thieves had prolonged early separation, compared to 44 non-criminals but emotionally disturbed young people

Question 58

what were the findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

Answer 58

14 of the 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths, 12 had experienced prolonged separation in their first 2 years, only 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separation, only 2 of the control group had experienced separation

Question 59

what was the conclusion of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

Answer 59

prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy

Question 60

evaluation of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

Answer 60

flawed evidence because Bowlby conducted the study himself, biased because he knew in advance which teens expected to show signs of AP, Bowlby was also influenced by the findings of Goldfarb’s which had problems of confounding variables

Question 61

what was the aim of Rutter’s study?

Answer 61

to examine the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

Question 62

what was the procedure of Rutter’s study?

Answer 62

165 adopted Romanian orphans in the UK, assessed physical, cognitive, and emotional development at different ages, compared to a control group of 52 adopted children in the uk

Question 63

what were the findings of Rutter’s study?

Answer 63

half the children showed delayed intellectual development when they first arrived, at 11 they showed differential rates of recovery which were related to their age of adoption, mean iq of those adopted before six months was 102, 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years, 77 for those adopted after 2 years, differences remained at 16 years old, children adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment

Question 64

what are the symptoms of disinhibited attachment?

Answer 64

attention seeking, clinginess, social behaviour directed towards all adults

Question 65

what was the aim of the Bucharest early intervention study?

Answer 65

to investigate the attachment types of institutionalised children

Question 66

what was the procedure of the Bucharest early intervention study?

Answer 66

95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care, compared to a control group of 50 children who’d never lived in an institution, attachment type measured using the strange situation, carers were asked about unusual social behaviour (a measure of disinhibited attachment)

Question 67

what were the findings of the Bucharest early intervention study?

Answer 67

74% of the control group were securely attached, only 19% in the institutional group but 44% had disinhibited attachment, less then 20% in the control group

Question 68

what are 2 effects on institutionalisation?

Answer 68

disinhibited attachment and intellectual disability (those adopted before 6 months caught up to the control group by 4)

Question 69

what is the aim of Hazen & Schaffer’s study?

Answer 69

to investigate the association between attachment and adult relationships

Question 70

what was the procedure of Hazen & Schaffer’s study?

Answer 70

analysed 620 replies to a love quiz in a local paper, 3 sections, assessed cuurent and most important relationships, assessed general love experiences such as number of partners, assessed attachment type

Question 71

what were the findings of Hazen & Shaffer’s study?

Answer 71

56% securely attached, 25% avoidant, 19% resistant, securely attached were most likely to have good long lasting relationships, avoidant revealed jealousy and fear of intimacy,

Question 72

what was the conclusions of Hazen & Schaffer’s study?

Answer 72

that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships