A level psychology Attachment

What is the indiscriminate stage?

(6 weeks to 7 months) Infants indiscriminately enjoy human company and most babies respond equally to any caregiver, they get upset when an individual ceases to interact with them. From 3 months infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by regular caregiver

What is the specific attachment stage?

(7-9 months) Special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection. It shows fear of stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety Evidence that baby has formed one attachment

What is monotropy?

A child has an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure- known as monotropy. This concept suggests that there is one relationship which is more important than all the rest- should be a primary bond which was much more important than any other (usually the mother). Other attachments will form in the hierarchy below this.

What is interactional synchrony?

A form of rhythmic interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual focus, reciprocity and mirroring of emotion or behaviour. Infant and caregiver are able to anticipate how each other will behave and can elicit a particular response from the other. For example, a caregiver who laughs in response to their infants giggling sound is experiencing synchronised interaction.

Classical conditioning of attachemnt

According to classical conditioning food (UCS) produces pleasure (UCR), the child associates food and mother together. The mother becomes the conditioned stimulus and happiness becomes the conditioned response, therefore attachment has formed.

What did Schaffer and Emerson discover about multiple attachments?

By 18 months 31% had 5 or more attachments. The mother was the main attachment figure for about half of the children at 18 months and father for most of the others.

What can be concluded about the experiment?

Contact comfort was more important in the formation of attachment than food. Also concluded that maternal deprivation led to emotional damage.

What did Schaffer and Emerson discover about the different stages of a baby's attachment?

Discovered 4 stages of attachment: 1.Asocial 2.Indiscriminate attachment 3.specific attachment 4.multiple attachment

What is Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation?

Hypothesis suggests that continual disruption of the attachment between infant and primary caregiver could result in long term cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties for that infant. Emphasised the importance of the critical period and that if the child was separated from their primary attachment figure for an extended period of time and in the absence of substitute care damage was inevitable.

What is affectionless psychopathy?

Inability to show affection or concern for others, lack of shame or sense of responsibility. Such individuals act on impulse with little regard for the consequences of their actions.

What is the asocial stage?

(0-6 weeks) Very young infants are asocial in that many kinds of stimuli produced a favourite reaction

What is the multiple attachment stage?

(10 months and onwards) Baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments. By 18 months the majority of infants have formed multiple attachments

What is reciprocity?

A form of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness, with both parties being able to produce response from each other. Smile is an example of reciprocity as when a smile occurs from the infant it triggers a smile in the caregiver, and vice versa

What is the evaluation of Harlow's study?

-unethical as monkeys suffered emotional harm, species considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise the findings -however, argued that the benefits of the research outweigh the ethical costs. Harlow's work helped to influence Bowlby's work on attachment. -research seen as vital in convincing people about the importance of emotional care in hospitals, children's home and day care

Evaluation of caregiver- infant interactions

1. Hermann showed that infants who demonstrate al lot of imitation from birth onwards have been found to have a better quality of relationship at 3 moths. However, it isn't clear whether the imitation is a cause or an effect of this early synchrony. 2. Many studies involving observation have shown the same patterns of interaction, however the observations are only small actions. Therefore it is extremely difficult to be certain what is taking place from the infant's perspective, cannot be sure that certain behaviours seen in mother-infant interaction have a special meaning 3. Babies don't know or care that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation which is generally a problem for observational research. This is a strength of this line of research because it means the research has good validity.

What measures did the mother record?

1. stranger anxiety- response to arrival of a stranger 2. seperation anxiety- distress level when separated from carer, degree of comfort needed on return 3. social referencing- degree that child looks at carer to check how they should respond to something new (secure base)

What is Bowlby's theory of attachment?

Suggests attachment is important for a child's survival. Attachment behaviours in both babies and their caregivers have evolved through natural selection, this means infants are biologically programmed with innate behaviours that ensure that attachment occurs

What conclusions did Rutter find?

Suggests long term consequences may be less severe than was once thought if children have the opportunity to form attachments. When children don't form attachments, the consequences are likely to be severe.

What is the Internal Working Model?

The child's relationship with a primary caregiver provides an internal working model which influences later relationships. This internal working model is a cognitive framework comprising mental representations for understanding the world, self and others. A person'd interaction with others is guided by memories and expectations from their IWM which influence and help evaluate their contact with others.

operant conditioning of attachment

The presence of the caregiver in reinforcing for the infant. The infant gians pleasure/ reward as they are being fed. The behaviour of the baby is reinforcing for the caregiver . The reinforcment is reciporical and strengthens the emotional bond/attachment between the two.

What were the reuslts of the study?

The results of the study indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent more time with- Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness. The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with him or her. Therefore, responsiveness appeared to be the key to attachment

What were the results of the study?

indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurat

What did Bowlby find?

-14 from the theft group were identified as affectionless psychopath, with 12 or those having experienced prolonged separation of more than 6 months from their mother -control group, only 2 had experienced prolonged seperations and 0 were affectionless psychopaths

What was Harlow's study of animal attachment?

-16 monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth and placed in cages with access to 2 surrogate mothers, one made of wire and one covered in cloth -the wire monkey provided food whereas the cloth provided no food

What has Lorenz's study on imprinting?

-1935, took a large clutch of goose eggs and split them: half the chicks were placed with goose mother and half were hatched in a incubator where the first thing they saw was Lorenz

What was Rutter's study on the effects of institutionalism?

-1998 studied Romanian orphans who had been placed in orphanages, aged 1-2 weeks old, with minimal adult contact -this was a longitudinal study and a natural experiment, using a group of around 100 orphans and assessed at ages 4, 6 and 11, then reassessed 21 years later -58 babies were adopted before 6 months -59 between the ages of 6-24 months -48 babies were adopted between 2-4 years old

What were the findings?

-70% showed secure -15% showed resistant -15% showed avoidant

What were the findings?

-75% of the control group was found to be securely attached -19% of institutionalised group only 19% were securely attached _65% of Institutionalised group classified as disorganised attachment (a type of insecure attachment where the children display an inconsistant pattern of behaviour)

What was Ainsworth's Strange Situation?

-Ainsworth conducted a controlled observation recording the reactions of a child and caregiver who were introduced to a strange room with toys -100 middle class American infants and their mother took part -the child was observed playing for 20 minutes while caregivers and strangers enter and leave the room, recreating the flow of the familiar and unfamiliar presence in most children's lives. -observers noted the child's willingness to explore, seperation anxiety, stranger anxiety and reunion behaviour

What was the 44 juvenile thieves experiment?

-Bowlby wanted to investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation -He selected an opportunity sample of 88 children attending his Child Guidance Clinic -group 1: thief group with 31 boys and 13 girls who stole -group 2: control group with 34 boys and 10 girls who had emotional problems -The two groups were matched for IQ and age -the children and their parents were interviewed and tested by Bowlby who focused on their early life experiences

What conclusions can be amde?

-Found that geese follow the first moving thing they see, during a 12-17 hour critical period after hatching- process known as imprinting, suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically -imprinting lets young animals recognise their mother from a young age age which is used for short term survival

What is the evaluation of Bowlby's theory?

-Lorenz supports theory as the attachment process of imprinting is an innate process which has a critical p[period. in addition the geese imprinting on one person which gives strength to monotropy. -Rutter's Romanian Orphan study showed that attachments can form after the critical period- goes against theory -Strange Situation provides evidence for the existence of internal working model. A secure child will develop a positive IWM of itself because it has received sensitive emotional care from its primary attachment figure. An insecure avoidant child will develop an IWM in which it sees itself as unworthy because its primary attachment figure has reacted negatively to it during the sensitive period for attachment formation.

What theories goes against the social learning theory?

-Schaffer and Emerson found less than half of infants had a primary attachment to the person who usually fed them -harlow's research suggested monkeys became attached to the doft surrogate mother rather than the one who fed it- this goes against SLT -Lorenz found goslings imprinting on the first moving object they saw which suggest attachment is innate and not learnt

What is the evaluation for Bowlby's experiment?

-Supported by Harlow's research with monkeys- showed that monkeys reared in isolation from their mother suffered emotional and social problems in older age. The monkeys never formed an attachment and as grew up to be aggressive and had problems interacting with other monkeys. -Real life applications: orphanages now have to take account of emotional needs, fostered children have to be kept in one stable home -Study uses retrospective self-report data therefore may result in inaccuracies which reduces internal validity -the study suffered from researcher bias as because Bowlby conducted the interviews, he knew what he was looking for therefore would have impacted results

What were the results?

-The monkeys spent the majority of time (17:1) with the cloth mother, they would go to the wire mother for food then return to the cloth mother for comfort -If a frightening object was placed in the cage, the monkey took refuge with the cloth mother -the monkey would explore more when the cloth mother was present -in later he found that the monkeys grown up with surrogate mothers were: 1. much more timid 2. difficulty mating 3.more aggressive snd less sociable

What were the findings?

-Those who were adopted by British families before 6 months old showed normal emotional development compared with UK children adopted at the same age -Many adopted after 6 months old showed disinhibited attachments (attention seeking behaviour towards all adults, lack of fear of strangers, inappropriate physical contact) and had problems with peers

What are cultural variations in attachment?

-Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenburg 1988 wanted to investigate if attachment styles are universal across cultures or culturally specific -used meta-analysis from 32 studies in 8 different countries which all carried out the strange situation

What was the Bucharest Early Intervention Project?

-Zeanah et al 2005 assessed the attachment in 95 children aged between 12-31 months who had spent an average of 90% of their life in an institution and compared them o a control group who spend their life in a normal family. The attachment type was measured used the Strange Situation.

What were the findings?

-incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas control group followed their mother -when two groups were mixed, control group continued to follow mother and experimental group continued to follow Lorenz

What are insecure resistant attachments?

-infants are clingy to their mother in a new situation and are not willing to explore -extremely distressed when left alone by their mother -cannot be comforted by a stranger and will not interact with them, they treat the stranger and the mother very differently -when the mother returns they cannot be comforted

What are insecure avoidant attachments?

-infants are unconcerned by mother's absence when she leaves the room infants show little interest when they are reunited with the mother -infants are strongly avoidant of mother and stranger, showing no motivation to interact with wither adult and the stranger is treated similar to the mother

What are secure attachments?

-infants are upset when left alone by the mother -infants are happy when mother returns and seek contact with the mother -infants avoid the stranger when alone, but friendly when mother is present -infant sues mother as a safe base to explore their environment

What is the evaluation of the Strange Situation?

-lacks population validity as original study used American infants therefore cannot be generalised to the wider population and other cultures -low ecological validity and results may not be applicable outside of the lab- the environment was controlled and the 8 scripted stages would be unlikely to happen in real life -strength: easy is replicate as it follows a standardised procedure involving 8 stages

What is the evaluation of cultural variations of attachment?

-many of the studies used in the meta analysis had biased samples which cannot claim to be representative of each culture- only 36 infants where used in the Chinese study which is a small sample size for such a populated country. -Most of the studies analysed where from Western cultures -Strange situation was American therefore may be ethnocentric/culturally biased, as it will reflect the norms and values of American culture. Problem as it assumes that attachment behaviour has the same meaning in all cultures, when in reality cultural perception and understanding of behaviour differ greatly -Significant variation of attachment within cultures: every study produced different levels of each attachment class. This intra-cultural variation suggests that it is an over simplification to assume all children are brought up in the same way in particular country.

What is the evalauation of this study?

-problem of generalising from findings on birds to humans to look in human development as the mammalism attachment system is different from that in birds

What is the evaluation of Rutter's study?

-provided detailed measurements through the use of interviews and observations of the children's behaviours. However it is difficult to know the extent of early privation experienced by these children. -once children were adopted they may not wish to take part in the study anymore so the results would not be representative

What did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg find?

-secure attachment was the majority of infants of 70% -lowest percentage of secure was in China and the highest in Great Britain -Western countries that support independence like Germany had high levels of insecure avoidant -Collectivist cultures like japan and Israel had quite high levels of insecure resistant

What was Schaffer and Emerson (1964) research?

-studied 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life, a longitudinal study -the children were all studied in their own home and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment -the babies were visited monthly for approximately on year, their interactions with their carers were observed

What is the learning theory?

Dollard and miller 1950 state attachment is a learned behaviour that is acquired through both classical and operant conditioning- nurture theory.

What was Goldfarb's research and how does it support bowlby's theory?

Goldfarb found that there was lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions (IQ 68)as opposed to those who were fostered ( IQ 96) therefore had a higher standard of emotional care. This research supports Bowlby's theory as because the orphaned children were deprived in maternal care for too long, they as a result had reduced intelligence as the deprivation happened in the critical period.

What is the evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson's study?

Has low population validity as infants all came from working class Glasgow houses, and the small sample size of 60 families reduces the strength of the conclusion we can draw from the study In addition, diary taking may not be completely reliable with demand characteristics and social desirability being major issues- less likely to report negative experiences

What is the critical period?

Theory also suggests that there is a critical period for developing attachment of 0-2.5 years. If an attachment has not developed during this time period then it may not happen at all.