Attachment 1 Flashcards
Caregiver infant interactions
Reciprocity
Interactional synchrony
Reciprocity
Both caregiver and infant respond to each others signals and elicits a response from the other
Alert phases - babies ready for interaction mother pick up 2/3 time
Active involvement- babies and caregiver active role initiating interactions - like a dance
Interactional synchrony
When caregiver and baby interact their actions and emotions are mirrored by the other
Meltzoff and Moore begin in babies of 2 weeks old babies response was filmed and labelled
Isabella et al high levels of synchrony = better quality mother baby attachment
Stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson identify a sequence of different behaviours linked to ages
Stage 1- Asocial
Stage 2- Indiscriminate
Stage 3- specific
Stage 4- multiple
Schaffer and Emerson procedure
60 babies 31 boys 29 girls Glaswegian working class families
Researchers visited after 1 year and 18 months
Mothers questioned about protest of their babies after leaving room for example designed to measure attachment
Also assessed stranger anxiety
Stage 1 asocial
First few weeks
Behaviour towards humans and objects fairly similar
Prefer to be w people- familiar ones easily comfort
Stage 2 - indiscriminate
2-7 months
Clear preference of humans and prefer familiar ones
Accept comfort from anyone
Don’t show stranger or separation anxiety
Stage 3- Specific
7 months
Baby displays stranger and separation anxiety when attachment figure is absent ( primary af)
mother 65% of time
Stage 4- multiple
Show attachment behaviour towards multiple strong attachments whom spend time w
30% within a month of forming primary af
At 1 yr majority developed attachments
Role of father
Anyone who take on the role of main male caregiver
Attachment to fathers
Fathers less likely to become first attachment figure compared to mothers
Schaffer Emerson at 7 months 3% primary af and 27% joint af
Babies form attachment within 18 months - protest when walked away
Distinctive role for fathers
Grossmann et al - attachment studies until teens
quality of attachment w mothers and not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence - less important
Quality of fathers play was related to attachments made - father to play and stimulate less emotions involved
Fathers as primary attachment figures
Tiffany field et al - 4 month interactions between primary caregiver father/ mother and secondary caregiver fathers
Primary caregiver fathers showed reciprocity and interactional synchrony like mothers
Fathers have the potential to be more emotionally focussed primary caregiver
Lorenz research
Imprinting - infant follows around first moving thing they see
1/2 hatch w mother 1/2 hatch w Lorenz
If imprinting doesn’t occur within critical period chicks didn’t attach to mother figure
Sexual imprint- courtship towards imprinted adult species peacock and tortoises
Hallows research
2 wire mothers 16 baby monkeys milk dispensed from one plain wire other cloth covered
Monkeys seek comfort from cloth when frightened regardless of milk - contact comfort > important than food
90 day critical period
Maternal deprivation Harlows monkeys
Followed monkeys who never had a real mother
Found severe consequences- reared with plain wire mothers most dysfunctional
More aggressive and antisocial less skilled at mating and some neglected and killed offspring
Learning theory attachment - classical conditioning
Food =unconditioned stim
Caregiver = neutral
Associate w food
Caregiver => conditioned stim
Conditioned response from child this is love
Operant conditioning attachment
Crying for comfort
Baby is positively reinforced as caregiver responds w food for example
Caregiver negative reinforced baby stops crying
interplay strengthens attachment
Attachment as a secondary drive
Hunger- primary drive
As caregivers provide food primary drive generalised to them this secondary drive learned by association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive
Bowlbys mono-tropic theory
Evolutionary theory that attachment was an innate system to give a survival advantage
