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Psychology > Attachment > Flashcards

Attachment Flashcards

1
Q

Learning theory

A

Infants learn to be attached to their primary care giver

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2
Q

Evolutionary theory

A

Attachment is an innate behaviour that has evolved over millions of years because it increases chance of survival

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3
Q

Attachment

A

An emotional link between the infant and the parent. Takes longer to develop than a bond

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4
Q

Bond

A

A bond is a set of feelings that tie one person or another e.g. parents are very strongly bonded with their newborn babies

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5
Q

Macoby’s 4 characteristics of attachment

A
  • seeking proximity
  • distress on separation
  • joy on reunion
  • orientation of behaviour
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6
Q

Tronick (1977)

A

Asked mothers to stop moving and smiling. Babies would smile at the mother but come increasingly confused and distressed

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7
Q

Meltzoff (1977)

A

An adult would display facial expressions or gestures and often the gesture and the actions would be copied by the baby

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8
Q

Isabella (1989)

A

Found that higher levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother infant attachment

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9
Q

Evaluation of attachment studies

A
  • difficult to observe infants as behaviour is often not deliberate
    + controlled observations capture fine details as babies don’t know they are being observed
  • observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
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10
Q

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

A

Found most babies became attached to their mothers first after 7 months and form secondary attachments within the next weeks and months. Found 75% of infants became attached with the father by 18 months

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11
Q

Field (1948)

A

Filmed 4 month babies with primary mothers, secondary fathers and primary fathers. Primary fathers smiled more and copied the babies actions more

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12
Q

Maccallum and Golombok (2004)

A

Found that children who grew up in same sex families developed the same as other infants

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13
Q

Reasons for mothers becoming primary caregiver

A
  • female biology means that they will instantly attach to their child
  • due to gender roles women often stay at home with the child more than the father
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14
Q

Kassamli and Rattani (2014)

A

Found maternal employment doesn’t enhance or deteriorate attachment with the child

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15
Q

Schaffer and Emerson study

A

Observed 60 babies from skilled working-class families for 18 months. Parents were asked to observe their children’s behaviour in different circumstances and observe stranger anxiety

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16
Q

Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment

A

+ good external validity
+ longitudinal design as it was the same children over a period of time
- limited sample characteristics as it was the same town, social class and was 50 years ago
- difficult to study asocial stage as children are too young
- economic effects on studying father as time may have to be taken off work
- Van ljzendorn found in some cultures multiple attachments happen very quickly
- children will cry upon separation from many so attachment is hard to see

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17
Q

Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment

A
  • asocial stage (0-6 weeks) first forms bonds and recognises carers
  • indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks-6 months) prefers people over objects
  • specific attachments (7 months +) adult becomes primary caregiver and attachment is formed
  • multiple attachments (10-11 months) secondary attachment to those who lots of time has been spent with
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18
Q

Lorenz animal studies

A

Wanted to test if animals showed the same attachment as humans. Therefore he was the first thing the geese saw when they were born for one batch and the geese saw the mother first with another batch of geese.

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19
Q

Imprinting

A

Takes place between 13 and 16 hours after the goose has been hatched it is a rapid formation of attachment. If after 32 hours there is no moving figure the attachment will not take place

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20
Q

Sexual imprinting test

A
  • peacocks who first saw a big tortoise were then attracted to big tortoises when mating
  • Guiton (1966) chickens who were imprinted on yellow washing gloves would try to mate with them
21
Q

Harlow (1959)

A
  • Tested whether monkeys preferred a source of food or source of comfort. Found that most monkeys spent more time on the comfort mother
  • monkeys raised by the cage were often emotionally and socially disturbed and often killed their offspring
22
Q

Addition to Harlows studies

A

+ Zimmerman (1959) added the fearful stimulus

+ sumoi (1970) cloth food and cloth normal, food was preferred

23
Q

Evaluation of Animal studies

A
  • non generalisable to humans as birds attachment may be different to mammals
  • Harlows studies show attachment is formed through comfort rather than being fed
  • shows importance of parents on social development
  • Howe (1998) helped social workers see risk of child neglect and abuse
  • showed zoos the importance of attachment in breeding
  • unethical as monkeys suffered greatly from studies
24
Q

Cupboard love

A

We only love our parents because they provide us food

25
Q

Link to pavlovs conditioning

A

Food - happy baby
Food - mum - happy baby
Mum - happy baby

26
Q

Operant conditioning for infants

A
  • Babies cry for comfort which builds attachment as it leads to caregiver response. If correct response is given crying is reinforced
  • drive reduction theory suggests that hunger makes the infant uncomfortable which results in crying
27
Q

Counter evidence of learning theory

A
  • Lorenz geese imprinted before they were fed
  • Harlows monkeys preferred cloth mother over wire mother with food
  • Schaffer and Emerson found many babies developed primary attachment to their mother even though others feed them
28
Q

Learning theory ignores factors like

A
  • reciprocity and interactional synchrony
  • good attachment was shown when infants were responded to
  • if attachment was only for food why are there play mates ?
  • attention is part of conditioning which is a crucial part in attachment
29
Q

Hay and Vespo (1988)

A

Suggests parents teach children to love the, through imitation of behaviour (social learning theory)

30
Q

Bowlby’s monotrophic attachment theory

A
  • according to bowlby, attachment is a behaviour that has evolved because of its survival value
  • infants form and intense attachment called monotrophy to their mother or mother substitute
  • law of continuity and accumulated separation suggest that mothers should be with their child at all times
  • babies form an attachment after 3-6 months but if they haven’t by 2-2.5 years they may be severely damaged
  • babies have social releasers which allow adults to care for them as it enhances survival (releasers are both behavioural and physical)
  • through monotrophic attachment the infant would form an IWM which enables the child to influence caregiver behaviour and act as a template for future relationships
31
Q

Monotrophy evidence

A
  • doesn’t happen in all infants
  • Schaffer and Emerson found that a minority of infants form multiple attachments at the same time
  • Suess (1992) attachment to the mother is important in predicting larger behaviour
32
Q

Support for social releasers

A
  • Brazelton (1975) observed mothers and babies during their interactions reporting the existence of interactional synchrony
  • when primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore social releasers, babies showed distress and then laid motionless showing the importance of infant social behaviour
33
Q

Problems with monotrophy

A
  • socially sensitive
  • poor quality attachment will disadvantage the child later on in life
  • Burman (1994) says it places a large burden on the mothers setting them up to take the blame
34
Q

Support for the IWM (internal working model)

A

Bailey (2007) 99 mothers and 1 year old children showed poor parent mother relations birthed infants with poor children mother attachments

35
Q

Temperamental hypothesis

A
  • an infants temper men is a result of their genetic makeup and will determine their later social behaviour
  • Kagan (1982) some babies are more anxious and some are more sociable
36
Q

Ainsworth’s strange situation

A
  • Ainsworth was interested in exploring the differences in childhood attachment
  • she would have the children play with the mother, mother and a stranger and then just a stranger and recorded their reactions
  • when the mother left babies showed separation distress and stranger anxiety. 12% of infants were wary even when mother was present
  • babies would want to be picked up but also put down and would fight mothers contact
37
Q

Ainsworth’s conclusion

A
  • differences in attachment depended on the sensitivity of the mother. Sensitive mothers had infants who were securely attached, less responsive mothers had insecurely attached infants
  • infant attachment is affected by the quality and sensitivity of the caregiver
38
Q

Evaluation of Ainsworth

A

+ good validity as babies who were secure were more successful in school and social situations
+ good reliability - Bick (2012) attachment types were agreed on 94% of the time
- ethnocentric as only one ethnicity/culture was involved in the research
- culture bound as different cultures act differently with infants I.e. Japanese mothers spend more time with children
- kagan (1982) suggested that temperament is the most important influence on a child’s behaviour
- Main and Solomon (1986) some children don’t fall into either of the 3 attachment types. Instead show disorganised attachment

39
Q

Cultural variations in attachment

A
  • many cultures bring up children differently e.g. in Germany children were less clingy
  • Simonella (2014) more recent strange situation had less securely attached as mothers now work longer hours (Italy)
  • Jin (2012) Korean study had many more in securely attached like Japan
  • Sagi (1991) high rates of insecure resistant attachment in Israeli children
40
Q

Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis

A
  • Bowlby believe that infants who were deprived of maternal care for too long had worse intelectual development (lower IQ)
  • those who remained in institutions instead of becoming adopted had lower IQ
41
Q

Evaluation of Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis

A
  • Emotional development was worse, Bowlby identified those with poor attachment as affection less psychopaths. This prevents the development of future relationships and has be found to be associated with criminality
  • poor evidence as evidence was from ww2 orphans which was a long time ago and has trauma associated with it. Children in orphanages were deprived of all care
  • counter evidence-a history of early prolonged separation didn’t predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships
  • Kuluchova (1976) critical period is more of a sensitive period as after 6.5 years many children recovered
    + animal studies show MD, levy (2003) showed separating baby rats from mothers had an effect on social development
  • Bowlby was muddles as what he believes is deprivation is different to what Ritter (1981) believed. Believed Bowlby was talking about privation
42
Q

Institutionalisation

A
  • desinhibited attachment is when you are equally friendly with strangers as those you are affectionate with
  • in some institutions you may not make a secure attachment with your carer
  • if adopted before 6 months then you can recover but if not the chances of retardation and dwarfism from lack of care so less production of growth hormones are quite high
  • gardener (1972) however found an 8 month old girl who with hospital attention returned to normal
    + real life application as studies have led to improvement in child care in these situations
  • fewer extraneous variables makes it difficult to effects of institutionalisation in isolation
43
Q

Romanian orphanages

A
  • conditions were far whose so cannot be applied to children who experience deprivation
  • unusual situational variables Lacked generalisability
  • ethical issues as children were not randomly the conditions and consent could not be given
  • can’t show long term affects as it was not done long enough ago
  • validity issues as interviews and questions were done years later
  • Clarke and Clarke (1998) influences on attachment are probabilistic
  • self report is conscious but IWM is not so there is reliance on conscious understanding when completing a self assessment
44
Q

Reciprocity

A

Reciprocity is a form of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness, with both infant and mother responding to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other

45
Q

Secure attachment

A

Children who show some distress when their caregiver leaves but are able to compose themselves quickly when the caregiver returns. Children with secure attachment feel protected by their caregivers, and they know that they can depend on them to return

46
Q

Insecure avoidant attachment

A

Children are willing to explore but do not seek proximity to the caregiver. The infant seems not to care about the caregivers presence

47
Q

Insecure resistant attachment

A

An infants anxiety and uncertainty are evident, as when the infant becomes very upset at separation from the caregiver it both resists and wants the caregivers contact and attention

48
Q

Disorganised attachment

A

A type of attachment that is marked by an infants inconsistent reactions to the caregivers departure and returns

Psychology (11 decks)

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