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
What did ainsworth do?
Conducted an experiment in which there was a mother, stranger and baby. Overt for the mother and stranger because they were following a script and covert for baby. Baby was left by the mother to see the babies reaction and a stranger entered.
What did Fox (1997) find when doing the strange situation test
- studied infants in Israel who spent most their time being cared for by nurses in a communal children’s home
- conducted the strange situation test with mother or nurse
- infant was equally attached
- however when the mother returned they showed greater attachment to mother (still primary attachment figure despite the shared care)
- this study therefore demonstrates the cultural similarity in attachment types
What did Takashi (1990) find when doing the strange situation test
- In Japan on 60 middle-class Japanese infants and their mothers
- similar rates secure attachments as Ainsowrth
- no evidence of insecure-avoidant atta
- high rates of insecure-resistant att(32)
- 90% distressed on being left alone study had to be stopped
- japan infants rarely experience separation from their mothers
What Ijzendoorn&Kroonenberg (1988) do?
- Carried out a meta-analysis where they analysed the results of 32 separate studies
- carried out in 8 different countries using the SST.
- looked at differences in attachment types both between and within cultures
- studied 2000 babies in total
- divided into collectivist culture: dependence(value corporation with each other
- and individualist culture: independence
Imposed etic
Using techniques relevant to one culture to study another e.g using the strange situation developed in 1 culture to measure attachment type in other cultures
What is one problem with cross-cultural research on attachment types?(dialect of researchers)
- many of the researchers belonged to different cultures
- problem because different regions have different dialects making it difficult for participants to understand the researcher&vice versa>effects validity of findings
What is one problem with cross-cultural research on attachment types?(imposed etic)
- argued that it suffers from impose etic
- e.g assumed that willingness to explore is a sign of secure attachment whilst in Japan dependance rather than independence is a sign of secure attachment.
- problem because it shows that there is variation between cultures>people have different views on what makes an infant securely attached
What is one problem with cross-cultural research on attachment types?
(Rogoff 2003)
- found that black american children have many caregivers&are encouraged to be friendly with strangers>sst activates their interest to explore.
- shows sst has different cultures>upbringing should be considered before carrying out sst
Maternal deprivation hypothesis
According to Bowlby attachments are vital for healthy psychological development>if attachments are disturbed it can lead to negative outcomes
Deprivation
Distuption of attachment refers to an attachment being disrupted after it has been formed
Distress caused by deprivation: PPD model (stage 1)
Protest- immediate reaction to separation involves: crying, screaming, kicking, struggling to escape or clinging to mother.
-expression of the child’s anger,fear and confusion
Distress caused by deprivation: PPD model (stage 2)
Despair- protest is replaces by calmer&apathetic behaviour
- anger&fear are felt inwardly
- little response to offers of comfort
- child comforts itself e.g thumbsucking
Distress caused by deprivation: PPD model (stage 3)
Detachment- child responds to people again
- treats everyone warily
- rejection of the care-giver &anger on their return is common
Czech twins study (privation) how they were raised until discovered
-lost their mother shortly after birth
-cared for by a social agency for a year
and fostered by a maternal aunt for a further 6 months
-father remarried>new wife was abusive and cruel as she locked them in a cellar(isolation)&beat them for 5years
-father was never home due to work
Czech twins study (privation) what happened after they were discovered
- age 7 the Czech twins were dwarfed in stature,lacking speech, suffering from rickets
- doctors predicted permanent physical mental handicap
- adopted by women and achieved emotional and intellectual normality
Privation
Failure to form an attacment
Genie case study (privation) before she was found and cared for (AO1)
- was raised in social isolation
- found at the age of 13&spent most of her life confined in a bedroom strapped to a potty chair.
- he beat her every time she made a sound
- physical and mental development was stunted and never learned how to speak of walk properly
Genie case study (privation) after she was found and cared for (AO1)
- Genue progressed, learning to communicate non-verbally with caretakers
- socially she never fully recovered
- study suggest that it is difficult to recover from extreme early emotional privation
Genie case study (privation) strength (AO2/3)
- has contributed significantly to psychological and linguistic theory
- showed the significance of socialisation in acquiring social skills
- mental stimulation is needed for motor and sensory development
Genie case study (privation) weakness (AO2/3)
Two ethical issues
- one is that genie was not able to give conformed consent
- another psychological garm because she was exposed to excessive testinh
Czech twins (AO1)
They were dwarfed in stature, lacking speech and suffering from rickets (age of 7)
Positive effects of day care on aggression (Hagekull and Bohlin) (1995)
Found that swedish children from disadvantaged families who experienced high-quality group day care had lower aggression levels than other children
-suggesting that the quality of day care is important in determining aggression levels
Positive effects of day care on aggression (Doherty) (1996)
-found that aggression levels were lower in children who attended regular day care that had low staff to children ratios, trained staff and stimulating activities for children to take part in, - -suggesting that the quality of day care is important when determining its effectiveness
Attachment
Is an emotional relationship between two people in which each weeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure
Evaluation of day research (AO2/3) (strength)
A strength of day care research is that it demonstrates the importance of providing high quality care. This is useful because it enables the government to enforce Laws on how day care nurseries should be run
Evaluation of day research (AO2/3) (weakness)
Is that the majority of data is obtained using teacher and parental ratings.
Problem because social desirability occurs as parents and teachers want to present themselves in a positive light
For example parents might not want to admit their child is unsociable as this could reflect negatively on them
How research into daycare has influenced child-care practices
Research shows that high quality daycare is beneficial
How it’s affected child-care practices
- )E.g the NICHD study found that day care staff could only provide sensitive care if the staff rations were as low as 3:1
- )affected child-care practices as the quality of day care practices as quality of day are is measured in many ways. E.g
- there are legal standards about issues such as minimum staffing ratio
- secondly day care nurseries are inspected by OFSTED to ensure high quality care
Findings of ijzendoorn and kroonenberg
- secure attachment most common type of attachment in all cultures
- the lowest percentage of secure attachment was in China and highest in UK
- I individualist culture e.g Germany had high levels of insecure avoidant
- collectivist culture: e.g Japan high levels of insecure resistant
How research into daycare has influenced child-care practices
Research indicates that young children attending day care are at risk of having attachments affected
How it’s affected child-care practices
E.g violets and Russell (1994) found that children with over 20 hours of daycare a week suffered negative effects on social development
Implies that young children should only attend day care for short periods and that policy makers and employers should consider this when formulating the workloads of mothers returning to work
What makes a good day care
Description of component and why it is important:
Low staff-children ratio
- Staff to children ratio of about 1:3 is ideal as smaller groups are easier for younger children to deal with
- important because research by Robertson and Robertson has shown that high child to staff ratio is associated with negative effects
What makes a good day care
Description of component and why it is important:
Low staff turnover
- achieved by providing a good working environment,training and financial rewards for staff
- important because having the same carer allows attachments to form
What makes a good day care
Description of component and why it is important:
Consistency of care
Having the same carers tending a child allows secure attachments to form
Positive effects of day care on peer relations
Clarke-Stewart et al (1994)
Found that children with the greatest ability to negotiate with peers were those who experienced group-based day care rather than home care
Suggesting that day care is superior in fostering good relations
Positive effects of day care on peer relations
Hartup and moore
Found that from the age of two, day care helps children interact more extensively with peers, learn the rules of social interaction and resolve disputes with peers more constructively.
This suggests that day car is useful for achieving positive relationships with peers
Negative effects of day care on peer relations
Vliestra
Used teacher ratings of new zeleand children aged 2 and half to 4 and half years and found that those attending half day care got on better with peers than those attending full day care
Suggests that spending too much time in day care has a negative effect on peer relations
