WEEK 4 Flashcards
ATTACHMENT AND DEPRIVATION
Why is attachment important?
- Security (Ainsworth and Bowlby)
-Protection (Bowlby)
Four Signs of Infant Attachment:
- Proximity to caregiver
- Distress on separation
- Happy on reunion
- Orient actions to caregiver
7-9months old; fear of strangers
Assumptions of attachment theory:
- Parent plays a central role in child’s development
- Cognitive sensori-motor skills necessary for attachment
-Learning in social interactions
Bowlby
- Biological basis
-Studied in evolutionary context - Need for proximity seen across species
- Children actively involved in attachment relationship
-Secure base
4/5 stages of attachment, Bowlby 1969
- No discrimination in orientation
- Preferential people- smile, comforted by caregiver (5-7mo)
- Preferential proximity to discriminated person by signals (7-9mo)
- Goal-corrected partnership- caregiver’s and child’s needs from (2/3 years of age)
- Lessening attachment (proximity) from school age onwards
Attachments
- Multiple attachments
-Qualities of caregiver is important
-7/9 months: 29% infants +1 attachment figure
-18months: 87% infants +1 attachment figure
33% of infants had a stronger attachment to someone other than mother
Fox (1977) Cross-Cultural
- Israeli Kibbutzim
- Children in nursery with a nurse
-1/2 year old children strongly attached to both nurse and mother
Mary Ainsworth (1978) SS
Measure for assessing how ‘well’ attached infant
is to mother/caregiver
* 12 to 24 month old infants
* Premise: caregiver as ‘safe base’, comforter
* 7 short episodes of study
* A well attached child should:
* explore when caregiver present
* be stressed by caregiver’s absence
* be comforted by caregiver’s return
SS Procedure
- M and I in room, I explores for 3 mins
- S enters, sits 1 min, talks to M 1 min, plays
with I 1 min - M leaves, S plays with I then withdraws, up
to 3 mins - M returns, S leaves discreetly, M settles I and
sits for 3 mins - M leaves, I alone for up to 3 mins
- S enters, attempts to settle I then withdraws
if can, up to 3 mins - M returns, S leaves discreetly, M settles I and
sits down (session ends ~ 21 mins)
Classifications
Infant rated on:
1. Behaviour directed at caregiver
2. Proximity seeking
3. Response to stranger
3 types of attachment
- Type A: Avoidant* – child avoids caregiver
(insecure) - Type B: Secure – actively seeks contact with
caregiver - Type C: Insecure Resistant – some contact / some
resistance (insecure)
Ainsworth Results
-65% secure attachment
-21% avoidant
-14% Resistant
Cross- Cultural Findings:
- America: 70%type B
-Japan: 30% resistant - Japanese infants excessively distressed when left alone
Simonelli et al, Takahashi
4th Attachment type
- Insecure disorganised
- common in abused infants/ depressed mothers etc
Issues raised by attachment theory:
- Role of the mother or other caregivers
- Childcare and attachment
- Attachment beyond infancy
Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis
- Critical period for attachment formation
- Observable distress when child separated from mother
- Developmental delays in institutionalised children
- Harlow’s rhesus monkeys
- Delinquency in children who had undergone a ‘separation experience’
Harlow’s Monkeys (1959)
- 8 isolated newborn monkeys
- put in a cage with a cloth mother and wire mother
- all monkeys clung to the cloth mother for comfort, and only went to the wire monkey for food
Bowlby’s hypothesis pros/cons
- Induced guilt in working mothers
-generally disputed - improvements in institutional care
-increase in fostering of children
-easier parent access to children in hospital
Koluchova (1972) Deprivation
- Twins in Czech reared from 1-7 by psychopathic stepmother and inadequate father
-mother died, 1 yr in foster
-no school
-7yo could not walk, limited speech
Genie Wiley (Curtiss 1977)
- Severely neglected until 13yo
- chained to a potty, tied in a sleeping bag, nobody spoke to her
- extremely underweight and short
- could not walk
-no development of language skills
Tizard et al
-65 English children raised in residential nurseries from birth to 2
- high quality well trained staff, plenty of toys, however high staff turnover
1. returned to family aged 2
2. adopted between 2/8 yrs
3. remained in nursery
