Wk8 Pre-recorded

Question 1

What theory did Bowlby proposed?

Answer 1

Attachment theory

Question 2

What does attachment theory say about evolution/biology?

Answer 2

Attachment is evolutionary. There is a biological drive for infants to form attachments.

Infant’s emotional bond to the primary caregiver promotes protection and survival from threats and close contact provides food and warmth.

Question 3

What did Lorenz investigate?

Answer 3

Parent-infant attachment in geese.

Question 4

What did Lorenz find?

Answer 4

Geese became attached to the first moving object they saw in a critical period after birth. They imprinted on a parent, person, object etc. It didn’t matter if the object fed them or not.

Question 5

What did Harlow’s monkey studies find?

Answer 5

Infant monkeys who were removed from their mothers preferred to cling to a cloth mother substitute with no food, rather than to a wired substitute mother with food. This indicated the infants desire for comfort over food.

Question 6

What does attachment theory propose about innateness of attachment?

Answer 6

Infants have an innate capacity to emit signals to which adults are biologically predisposed to respond.

These signals include cries of distress, smiling, cooing etc. and their purpose is to bring primary attention to the child and increase the caregiver’s proximity, thus having protective/survival benefits.

Question 7

What is Bowlby’s concept of an internal working model of attachment?

Answer 7

Children have mental representations about how they expect the primary carer to respond. These expectations can be generalised to other relationships.

Question 8

What did Bowlby suggest would happen if the primary attachment relationship was disrupted?

Answer 8

There would be negative long-term consequences.

Question 9

What method did Bowlby used to develop attachment theory?

Answer 9

Clinical observations

Question 10

What are Bowlby’s 4 phases of attachment?

Answer 10

Pre-attachment phase (Birth-2 months)

Attachment in making phase (2-6 months)

Attachment phase (7 months - 2 years)

Goal-corrected partnerships (2 years onwards)

Question 11

What happens during the pre-attachment phase (0-2 months)

Answer 11

Infants produce signals and bring the caregiver’s close. There is indiscriminate social responsiveness - the child is comforted by any caregiver who responds.

Question 12

What happens during the attachment in making phase? (2-6 months)

Answer 12

Children will discriminate between caregivers and show preferences for familiar caregivers. They will engage in social interactions and demonstrate sense of trust, agency, and turn-taking.

Question 13

What does sense of agency mean?

Answer 13

A sense of having control over the world

Question 14

What happens during the attachment phase? (7 months - 2 years)

Answer 14

Infants actively seek contact with primary caregiver.

Separation anxiety and stranger anxiety come about.

Mother is a secure base.

Question 15

What happens during the goal-corrected partnerships phase? (2 years +)

Answer 15

Parent’s needs are considered. Expectations are created and an internal working model of attachment forms.

Question 16

What did Mary Ainsworth say 2 key factors were in attachment relationship quality?

Answer 16

The extent to which the infant can use their primary caregiver as a secure base.

How children react to brief separation from and reunion with a caregiver.

Question 17

What categories of attachment did Ainsworth develop?

Answer 17

Secure attachment
Insecure-Avoidant
Insecure-Resistant
Disorganised/Disorientated

Question 18

What did Ainsworth do?

Answer 18

Conducted observations of infants and caregivers in Uganda and US

Question 19

What happens in the strange situation?

Answer 19

The mother briefly leaves her infant in a room with a stranger. The infants responses are observed before separation, during separation, and upon reunion.

Question 20

What is the most common attachment type?

Answer 20

Secure attachment

Question 21

What indicates secure attachment? (50-60% of infants)

Answer 21

The caregiver is used as a secure base to explore. The child plays happily when the caregiver is there and they interact with them.

Child becomes upset when the caregiver leaves but is readily comforted by the caregiver when they return.

Question 22

What are characteristics of insecure-avoidant attachment? (15% of children)

Answer 22

Infants are indifferent to the caregiver when playing, they might even ignore them.

Not bothered when caregiver leaves. Ignore the caregiver when they return.

Question 23

What are characteristics of insecure-resistant attachment? (9% in children)

Answer 23

Clingy infants. They don’t want to explore.

Very distressed when caregiver leaves. Resist comfort when they return.

Question 24

What are characteristics of disorganised/disoriented attachment?

Answer 24

These infants struggle to cope with the strange situation. They display confused or contradictory behaviour and a range of emotions including fear/anger. They may also be dazed or disorientated.

Question 25

What could cause a disorganised attachment?

Answer 25

Living in a chaotic household.

Parents with mental health problems/relationship issues.

Question 26

What are 2 strengths of The Strange Situation?

Answer 26

Very widely used.

Patterns have been supported by extensive observations conducted in the home environment.

Question 27

What are 3 criticisms of The Strange Situation?

Answer 27

Lab-based - lacks ecological validity

Culturally specific - in some cultures a caregiver would never leave an infant alone with a stranger

Narrow measure of attachment - specifically focuses on separation behaviour, rather than other types of attachment behaviours.

Question 28

Explain Bowlby’s 44 thieves study.

Answer 28

Bowlby conducted clinical interviews with children 5-16 years old. 44 of these children had been involved with petty crime (stealing) and another 44 acted as a control group. He wanted to explore how family histories of the children related to their current emotional and behavioural state (their characters).

Question 29

What did Bowlby’s 44 thieves study find?

Answer 29

He found that juvenile delinquents were more likely than a control group to have suffered maternal deprivation during the first 5 years of their life (either through death, prolonged separation).

Question 30

What did Bowlby conclude maternal deprivation was linked to?

Answer 30

Affectionless psychopathology

12/14 (85%) of juvenile delinquents with affectionless characters had experienced maternal deprivation.

Question 31

What % of children experienced maternal deprivation?

Answer 31

40% of the juvenile delinquents

2% of the controls

Question 32

Were Bowlby’s conclusions of links between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy accepted?

Answer 32

No.

It was a controversial conclusion because the explanations for delinquency were originally biological (hereditary, malnutritition).

The idea that lack of parenting could have a big effect wasn’t widely accepted.

Question 33

What have more recent studies said about Bowlby’s 44 thieves findings?

Answer 33

The lack of any good relationship combined with maltreatment can cause delinquency/affectionless psychopathy, not just specific to lack of a mother.

Question 34

What 3 types of sources did Bowlby use to report the fate of children deprived of maternal care?

Answer 34

Direct observations of the behaviours and emotions of children in hospitals, institutions, and foster care.

Retrospective studies of adults and older childlren looking at the childhood histories (and maternal care) of those with psychological illnesses.

Follow-up studies looking at the outcomes of deprived children.

Question 35

What was Bowlby’s conclusion in a WHO report?

Answer 35

The proper care of children deprived of a normal home life was essential for the mental and social wellbeing for society. If this is neglected, deprived children will pass down their problems to the next generation and become a source of social infection.

Question 36

What did Bowlby’s WHO report conclusions lead to?

Answer 36

Prompted changes in the institutional care and led to greater appreciation of the importance of affectionate parental care, as well as physical care.

Question 37

What did Bowlby and colleagues find about the effects of hospitalisation?

Answer 37

Found that if children had stayed in tuberculosis sanitoriums before age 4 they were more withdrawn, less able to concentrate, and more bad-tempered than controls.

Question 38

Why weren’t parents allowed to visit TB sanitoriums?

Answer 38

Infection control

It was thought that parental visits could have adverse effects because it would cause great upset when time to leave.

Question 39

What 3 stage sequence did children in hospitals demonstrate when separated from their parents?

Answer 39

1) Child would protest at the separation and be visibly upset/confused
2) The child was in despair, withdrawn, or apathetic.
3) Denial/detachment. Child appeared happier but were actually suppressing their feelings and ignored parents on their visits.

Question 40

What approach did Bowlby emphasise to study attachments?

Answer 40

Prospective approaches (looking forward form infancy to understand the outcomes)

Question 41

What approach contrasted with prospective approaches and why?

Answer 41

Psychoanalysis. Used retrospective methods (clinical interviews with adults/older children) to conclude about the importance of the mother.

Question 42

What did Bowlby think about Freud’s idea of unconscious drives?

Answer 42

Rejected Freud’s unconscious drives and instead created a more scientific theory of attachment based on biology, cognition, and emotion.

Question 43

Why was Ainsworth’s strange situation a vital contribution to the success of Bowlby’s theory?

Answer 43

The classification of attachment patterns meant that the idea that early attachment with far-reaching effects could be empirically tested with longitudinal studies.