Unit 1- Developmental Psychology: Attachments Flashcards
2.)What is Bowlbys theory of attachment? (Social releasers)
Care giving is Innate because of the certain characteristics they are born with(social releasers) and results in care giving from their care give (increases survival)
1.)What is Bowlbys theory of attachment? (Innate)
Babies have an innate drive to become attached to a caregiver because when humans faced predators Offspring had to stay close to their care-givers to survive
3.)What is Bowlbys theory of attachment? (Critical/sensitive period)
Bowlby argued that there is a critical/sensitive period for the formation of attachments and if attachments were delayed until after 12/6 months. Then it would be difficult to form infant-caregiver attachments
4.)What is Bowlbys theory of attachment? (Monotropy)
- Believed babies show monotropy(more attached to one adult).
- believed this was most important attachment as its the first to develop
- believed in what is known as the internal working model
Who is bowlby’s theory contradicted by? and how?
- lamb (1982)
- had many attachments with many people e.g fathers, grandparents
- contradicts bowbly’s theory
Who is bowlby’s theory supported by? (Monotropy) and how?
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
- had many attachments but only had one main attachment usually biological mother
Who is bowlby’s theory supported by? (Critical/sensitive period) and how?
- Hodges and tizard (1989)
- children that had been placed in an institution at a few months old were less likely to form an attachment with their mother/family years later
Monotropy
An innate tendency to become attached to one particular adult, who interacts with them the most sensitively with the baby, usually the biological mother.
Internal working model
Creates an expectation of what later relationships should be like as it creates consistency between early emotional experiences and later relationships
Explanation of learning theory (Classical conditioning)
- pleasure
- stimulation
- conditioned stimulus
- conditioned response
- because the primary caregiver feeds the infant many times, the baby experiences pleasure
- the feeder then becomes associated with the stimulation and becomes the condition stimulus
- therefore the infant experiencing pleasure becomes a conditioned response
Explanation of learning theory (operant conditioning)
- Dollard and Miller
- uncomfortable
- pleasure
- rewarding
Comes from Dollard and Miller
- suggested that when an infant is hungry they feel uncomfortable which creates a drive to reduce discomfort
- when infant is fed drive is reduced and produces pleasure which is rewarding for the infant
- care-giver then becomes associated with reducing the unpleasant feeling and becomes a reward
- attachment occurs because infant seeks the person who can supply the reward
Evaluation of theory that supports learning theory
Learning theory is supported by Dollard and Miller (1950) who calculated that in their first year, babies are fed aprox 2000 times by their main carer. Which makes the mother become associated with the unpleasant feeling of hunger
-supports attachments are learned through operant conditioning Of hunger
Evaluation of theory that contradicts learning theory
Harlow (1959)
- found that young monkeys did not become attached to a wire mother that had a feeding bottle but to the mother that was wrapped in a comforting towel.
- contradicts because shows that food is not the most important factor
Evaluation of theory that contradicts learning theory (AO3)
-lacks external validity cannot be generalised to humans as the study was conducted using animals
Ainsworth study Securely attached (type B)
- willing to explore
- high stranger anxiety
- easy to soothe
- enthusiastic at return of their carer
- care-givers were sensitive to their change
Ainsworth study:
15 % insecure-avoidant (type A)
- willing to explore
- low stranger anxiety
- small response to separation from their caregiver
- avoided contact at the return of their care-giver
- caregivers tended to ignore their change
Ainsworth study:
15% insecure resistant (type C)
- unwilling to explore
- high stranger anxiety
- distressed at separation
- rejected contact at return of caregiver
3 different types of attachments and percentage of them
70% were securely attached (type B)
15% were insecure-avoidant(Type A)
15% were insecure-resistant(type C)
What was ainsworths experiment called?
Strange situation test
2 Strengths of the strange situation test
- attained an established methodology becoming the accepted method of assessing attachments
- high inter-rater reliability
- found almost perfect agreement (0.94) between her observers
Inter-reliability
The correlation between 2 or more observers
Closer to 1 the more accurate
2 limitations of the strange situation test
- laboratory experiment as mother and stranger are acting to a script> reduces mudane realism
- raises ethical issues
How ainsowrth studied attachments
- overt non- participant
- laboratory (controlled environment)
- using a coding scheme