Attachment Studies

Question 1

Interactional Synchrony-Meltzoff and Moore-Method

Answer 1

They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants. An adult displayed one of three facial expression or one of three distinctive gestures. The child’s response was recorded and analysed by experts

Question 2

Interactional Synchrony-Meltzoff and Moore-Results

Answer 2

An association was found between the adults expression or gesture and the babies action

Question 3

Interactional Synchrony-Isabella-Method

Answer 3

They observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed a degree of synchronicity

Question 4

Interactional Synchrony-Isabella-Results

Answer 4

They found high levels of synchrony were associated with a better mother-infant attachment

Question 5

Parent-Infant Attachment- Schaffer and Emerson-Results

Answer 5

The majority of babies became attached to their mother first, and then in a few weeks or months became attached to other family members. At 18 months, 75% of the infants studied became attached to their fathers

Question 6

The role of the Father-Grossman-Method

Answer 6

He carried out a longitudinal study looking at parents behaviour and its relationship into adolescent

Question 7

The role of the Father-Grossman-Results

Answer 7

He found out that the role of the father’s play with the infants was related to the quality of attachment between the child and its parents

Question 8

Fathers and Primary Care Givers-Field-Method

Answer 8

She filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers

Question 9

Fathers and Primary Care Givers-Field-Results

Answer 9

She found out that primary caregiving fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants that secondary caregiving fathers

Question 10

Stages of Attachment-Schaffer and Emerson-Method

Answer 10

60 babies from Glasgow and the majority where from skilled working class families. The babies and mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and then again when they were 18 months. The researcher asked questions to the mother about the kind of protest their child showed in 7 everyday situations

Question 11

Stages of Attachment-Schaffer and Emerson-Results

Answer 11

Between 25 and 32 weeks, about 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother. By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% had multiple attachments

Question 12

Stages of Attachment-Schaffer and Emerson-Evaluation

Answer 12

+Good External Validity
+Longitudinal Design
-Limited Sample Characteristics

Question 13

Animal Studies of Attachment-Lorenz-Method

Answer 13

He randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in the natural environment. The other half hatched in an incubator, where the first thing they saw was Lorenz

Question 14

Animal Studies of Attachment-Lorenz-Results

Answer 14

The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, whereas the control group followed her. Where the two groups were mixed, the control group still followed their mother, while the experimental group followed Lorenz

Question 15

Animal Studies of Attachment-Lorenz-Evaluation

Answer 15

• Cannot Generalise to Humans

- Some the results have been questioned

Question 16

Animal Studies of Attachment-Harlow-Method

Answer 16

He reared 16 monkeys with two wire model “mothers”. In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother

Question 17

Animal Studies of Attachment-Harlow-Results

Answer 17

The baby monkeys cuddled the soft object rather than the wire one, and sought comfort in the soft one regardless on which one gave them milk. It showed that “comfort contact” was more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment

Question 18

Animal Studies of Attachment-Harlow-Evaluation

Answer 18

+Theoretical Value
+Practical Value
-Ethical Issues

Question 19

The Strange Situation-Ainsworth-Method

Answer 19

The strange situation was composed of 7 episodes, each of which lasted 3 minutes. It begins with a child and caregiver entering a unfamiliar playroom. Then the episodes begin.
1-The child is encouraged to explore
2-A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child
3- The caregiver leaves the stranger and child together
4- Caregiver returns, Stranger leaves
5- The caregiver leaves the child alone
6- The stranger returns
7- Caregiver returns, and is reunited with child
The child were observed via a two way mirror.

Question 20

The Strange Situation-Ainsworth-Results

Answer 20

Ainsworth found out that there were 3 distinct patterns in infant behaviour

• Secure Attachment
• Insecure-Avoidant Attachment
• Insecure-Resistant Attachment

Question 21

The Strange Situation-Ainsworth-Evaluation

Answer 21

+Valid Research
+Good Reliability
-Test may be culture biased

Question 22

Cultural Variations-Van Ijzendoorn-Method

Answer 22

32 studies using the Strange Situation were done in 8 different countries. The data was meta-analysed.

Question 23

Cultural Variations-Van Ijzendoorn-Results

Answer 23

In all countries, secure attachment was the most common type, but the proportions varied. Insecure resistant attachment was the least common, by 30% of Israeli babies had that type. Insecure avoidant attachment were observed most commonly in Germany and least in Japan. The variations between results in the same country were 150% greater than those in different countries.

Question 24

Cultural Variations-Simonella-Method

Answer 24

76 12 month old Italians were assessed used the strange situation

Question 25

Cultural Variations-Simonella-Results

Answer 25

50% were securely attached, while 36% were insecure avoidant. Simonella said that is might be because of young mothers use of childcare

Question 26

Cultural Variations-Jin-Method

Answer 26

The strange situation was used to assess Korean children

Question 27

Cultural Variations-Jin-Results

Answer 27

The overall proportion of secure and insecure babies were in line with other countries. The majority were secure, but all bar one were insecure attached. This study has similar results in Japan as well, due to similar child rearing styles

Question 28

Maternal Deprivation-Bowlby-Method

Answer 28

44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the thieves had a prolonged history of separation from their mothers. A control group of non criminals but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal deprivation occurred in the children who were not thieves

Question 29

Maternal Deprivation-Bowlby-Results

Answer 29

14 of 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this, 12 of 14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. Only 5 of the 30 non A.P thieves had experienced separations. 2 of 44 had experienced long separations in the control group

Question 30

Counter evidence to Bowlby’s-Lewis-Method

Answer 30

Bowlby’s thieve study was recreated looking at a larger sample size of 500

Question 31

Counter evidence to Bowlby’s-Lewis-Result

Answer 31

A history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or a difficulty in forming relationships

Question 32

Critical period is a sensitive period- Koluchova-Case Study

Answer 32

She looked at 2 boys who were isolated from their mother from 18 months. Their mother locked them in a cupboard until they were 7 years old. After this, they were looked after by two loving adults, and appeared to recover fully

Question 33

English and Romanian Adoptee Study-Rutter-Method

Answer 33

Rutter followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in the UK to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in orphanages. Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at age of 4,6,11 and 15 years. A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time were the control group

Question 34

English and Romanian Adoptee Study-Rutter-Results

Answer 34

When they first arrived in the UK, half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were seriously undernourished. At 11, the adopted children showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption. The mean IQ of those children adopted before 6 months was 102, compared to 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years, and 77 for those adopted after 2 years. These differences remained at age 16

Question 35

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project-Zeanah-Method

Answer 35

Zeanah assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an orphanage. Their attachment type was measured using the strange situation

Question 36

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project-Zeanah-Results

Answer 36

74% of the control group were securely attached. Only 19% of the institution group were securely attached, with 65% had disorganised attachment. 44% of the institution group and 20% of the control group were disinhibitely attached

Question 37

Relationships in later childhood-Myron-Wilson and Smith-Method

Answer 37

They assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London

Question 38

Relationships in later childhood-Myron-Wilson and Smith-Results

Answer 38

Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure-avoidant children were most likely to be victims, while Insecure-resistant children were more likely to be bullies

Question 39

Relationships with Adult partners-McCarthy-Method

Answer 39

40 adult women were studied who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type

Question 40

Relationships with Adult partners-McCarthy-Result

Answer 40

Adults classed as insecure-resistant as infants had particular problems maintaining friendships whist those classified as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in relationships

Question 41

Adult Relationships-Hazan and Shaver-Method

Answer 41

They analysed 620 replies to a “love quiz” printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had three sections. The first assessed respondent’s current or most important relationship. The second part assessed general love experiences such as number of partners. The third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which statements best described their feelings

Question 42

Adult Relationships-Hazan and Shaver-Result

Answer 42

56% of respondents were identified as securely attached with 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant. Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences. The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealously and fear of intimacy.

Question 43

Mixed evidence on continuity of attachment type-Zimmerman-Method

Answer 43

He assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents

Question 44

Mixed evidence on continuity of attachment type-Zimmerman-Results

Answer 44

There was very little relationships between quality of infants and adolescent attachment