Paper 1- Topic 3 Attatchment

Question 1

Define attachment

Answer 1

a close two emotional bond between two people, where both individuals see the other as important for them to be emotionally secure

Question 2

Define reciprocity

Answer 2

attachment is two way

-one of the caregiver of child elicits a response in the other

Question 3

Define interactional synchrony

Answer 3

actions and emotions of the caregiver and the baby are rhythmic, co-ordinated and mirror the other person

Question 4

define a baby’s alert phase

Answer 4

-a time where baby’s signal that they want an interaction

research found mothers pick up on it 2/3 of the time

Question 5

Describe a study on active involvement in reciprocity

Answer 5

Brazelton

• found both caregivers and babies can initiate interactions and they take turns in doing so
• described it like a ‘couples dance’ where each partner respond to the other’s moves

Question 6

Describe a study on when synchrony begins

Answer 6

Meltzoff and Moore

• showed babies of 2 weeks and upwards am adult making one of three facial expressions and gestures
• babies response to the expressions was filmed and observed
• found association between expressions and gestures of the adult and the baby

Question 7

Describe a study about the importance of interactional synchrony on the level of attachment

Answer 7

Isabella et al

• observed 30 mothers and babies and assessed their level of synchrony
• found that there was a link between high levels of synchrony and high quality mother-baby relationships

Question 8

Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s research study

Answer 8

• 60 Glasgow babies in working class families
• interviewed mother every month for a year and again at 18 months about the baby’s behaviour during everyday separations (separation and stranger anxiety)

Question 9

Findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study

Answer 9

• 50% of specific attachments were made by 25-32 weeks
• person who was most interactive and sensitive to baby’s signals formed the primary attachment
• identified the 4 key stages

Question 10

Schaffer’s and Emerson’s stages of attachment

Answer 10

asocial -similar behaviour towards humans and objects
0-2 months

-indiscriminate - prefer familiar people to objects but accept comfort from strangers
2-7 months

-specific - primary attachment forms (separation and stranger anxiety begins) familiar adults used as secure base
7-12 months

-multiple - secondary attachment forms with familiar adults
1+ years

Question 11

Studies that show the role of the father and their conclusions

Answer 11

•Frodi et al
- shows that father can provide the emotional responsiveness needed to be a primary caregiver

•Grossman

• suggests a mother’s attachment is more important than the attachment to the father
• suggests fathers have a different role to mothers - more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with emotional development

•Schaffer and Emerson
- vast majority of mothers form the primary attachment, however fathers do go on to become an important attachment figure (75% of fathers attached to by 18 months)

Question 12

Describe Frodi et al study and findings

Answer 12

Frodi et al

- showed video types to groups of men and women and the physiological responses were the same (e.g. distress)

Question 13

Describe Grossman study and findings

Answer 13

•Grossman

• completely a longitudinal study where he looked at babies attachment until their teens
• looked at relationships behaviour of parents and the quality of baby’s later attachments to others
• found that quality of a baby’s attachment with only mother was related to quality of adolescent attachments
• found that quality of play of father to child related to quality of adolescent attachments too

Question 14

Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s study into role of the father and findings

Answer 14

•Schaffer and Emerson

• although 3% of fathers formed the first primary attachment
• 75% of babies in their study formed an attachment with their father at the age of 18 months (showed separation anxiety)

Question 15

Define imprinting

Answer 15

where mobile bird species attach to and follow the first moving object they see, at birth

Question 16

define critical period in relation to Lorenz’s study

Answer 16

the period of time where imprinting needs to take place otherwise chicks won’t attach themselves to a mother figure

Question 17

describe Lorenz’s sexual imprinting study and findings

Answer 17

found that when a newborn peacock first observed a giant tortoise, as an adult the peacock aimed its courtings at tortoises

-found this whatever object birds were imprinted to would be the subject of their courtship

Question 18

Findings of Harlow’s study on attachment

Answer 18

• found all 16 monkeys spent most time with cloth mother, regardless of which mother had the feeding bottle
• all monkeys sought comfort from cloth mother regardless of where the bottle was, when scared by a mechanical bear
• shows that contact comfort is more important to monkeys than food, in attachment

Question 19

Harlow’s follow up research study on these monkey as adults

Answer 19

These monkeys had maternal deprivation
•the group who had the wire mother with the feeding bottle were the most dysfunctional, but those with the cloth mother did also develop abnormal behaviour
• more aggressive, less social, neglected and attacked their children

Question 20

Suggested critical period for monkeys based on Harlow

Answer 20

90 days otherwise monkey will form no attachment

Question 21

Strength and weakness of Lorenz study

Answer 21

•research support

• Regolin et al showed newborn chicks moving shape and then a different shape was moved infront of it
• chicks followed the original shape most closely

•generalisability
- mammalian attachment system is more complex than birds (in mammals it is two way)

Question 22

Strength and weakness of Harlow’s study

Answer 22

•application

• social workers and psychologists can understand that a lack of bonding with attachment figure can alter a child’s development
• workers can intervene and prevent poor outcomes

•ethical issues

• monkeys had severe long term effects
• lasted into their own parenting (killed and attacked their own babies)
• humans are supposed to have similar genes to monkeys however these behaviours are not seen in humans

Question 23

Describe Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 23

Behaviours used to judge attachment

• baby with mother, free to explore
• stranger enters and tries to interact with baby
• mother leaves, baby alone with stranger
• mother returns to comfort baby while stranger leaves
• mother leaves, baby is alone
• stranger enters and approaches child
• caregiver returns

Question 24

Behaviours used to judge attatchment

Answer 24

• proximity seeking
• exploration and secure base
• separation anxiety
• stranger anxiety
• reunion response

Question 25

Findings of Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 25

identified three main types of attachment based on distinct patterns

• secure : cry when mother leaves and calm when she returns

• insecure avoidant : little effect of mother leaving and returning
-little stranger anxiety, no secure base behaviour but free exploration

• insecure resistant : cry when she leaves, resist comfort when she returns (stays distressed)
- greater proximity seeking (no exploration)

Question 26

% of babies that were insecure avoidant (type … )

Answer 26

20-25%

Type A

Question 27

% of babies that were securely attached (type …)

Answer 27

60-75%

Type B

Question 28

% of babies that were insecure resistant (type….)

Answer 28

3%

Type C

Question 29

Describe Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study

what were they trying to study and the procedure

Answer 29

Studied rue proportion of each attachment type within and across different cultures
-meta analysed 32 Strange Situations for assessing attachment of around 2,000 children

Question 30

define a meta analysis

Answer 30

combination of research and findings from several studies on the same topic
- findings are weighted for its sample size

Question 31

Findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta analysis

Answer 31

•most common attachment type was secure, like Ainsworth
—> although varied (Britain 75% , China 50%)

• least common attachment type was insecure resistant, like Ainsworth
• individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant was same as Ainsworth’s study but not collectivist cultures (China, Japan, Israel) where rates were above 25% (3% in Ainsworth)
• variation within cultures was 150% greater than variation between cultures

Question 32

Describe 2 other studies of Cultural Variation

Answer 32

Italian study - used strange situation
- found 50% secure, 36% insecure avoidant (much higher)

Korean study - used strange situation

• found secure and insecure ratios were similar to most countries
• but most insecure, were insecure resistant (like Japan) due to rare separation anxiety in these cultures

Question 33

Bowlby’s proposed distinction between separation and deprivation

Answer 33

• separation means the child not being in presence of primary attachment figure
• this only becomes harmful to child’s development if separation is prolonged and the child is deprived of emotional care (if separations are brief and substitute care is provided it’s not harmful)

Question 34

Describe Bowlby’s proposed critical period

Answer 34

• if a child is separated from its mother without substitute care for an extended amount of time (and so is deprived of emotional care) within the first 2 and a half years of his life, then psychological damage is inevitable

Question 35

define maternal deprivation

Answer 35

• idea proposed by Bowlby which is where baby is separated from primary caregiver for an extended period of time, without substitute care.
• as a result of this, Bowlby states that emotional and intellectual development of the baby is damaged

Question 36

Describe the effects of maternal deprivation on development

Answer 36

• intellectual development - mental retardation occurs (shown by abnormally low IQ
• emotional development - lead to affectionless psychopathy (inability to experience guilt or strong emotions towards others)

Question 37

Describe a study on intellectual development

Answer 37

GOLDFARB

• followed 30 orphans til they were 12
• half were fostered, half remained in institution
• found that those who remained in institution had a lower average IQ than those who were fostered

Question 38

Describe a study on the effect on emotional development of maternal deprivation

Answer 38

•Bowlbys 44 thieves study

• interviewed 44 teenage thieves for signs of affectionless psychopathy
• interviewed their families to establish whether they had prolonged early separation from mother
• found that 14 were affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these 14 had prolonged early separations
• compared to only 2 of the non criminal but emotionally disturbed control group that had early prolonged separations

Question 39

Define institutionalisation

Answer 39

the effects of living in an institution (hospital or orphanage that children live in for continuous periods of time)

Question 40

Describe the research procedure of a study looking into the effect of institutionalisation

Answer 40

•Rutter’s English and Romanian Adoptee study

• followed 165 Romanian orphans who had been in poorly run institutions and were adopted in Britain
• assessed their physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11,15 and around 24 years old
• compared the results to a a control group of 52 adoptees from the UK

Question 41

Describe the findings of a study assessing the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 41

RUTTER
-found the more time spent in institution before adoption the lower average IQ they had (102 if younger than 6 months when adopted, 86 if older than 6 months)

• found the children who spent more time in an institution before adoption (more than 6 months) were more likely to show signs of disinhibited attachment -(behaviour is indiscriminate, attention seeking)

Question 42

Describe research into the effects of institutionalisation on attachment

Answer 42

Zeanah et al
• used strange situation and asked carers about clingy or attention seeking behaviour
• studies children who spent 90% of life in institutionalisation

Question 43

Describe findings of research into the effects of institutionalisation on attachment

Answer 43

Zeanah et al
•found 20% of institutional group were securely attached (control group was 75%)
•disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institution group and 20% of control group

Question 44

Effects of institutionalisation

Answer 44

• Intellectual disability (abnormally low IQ)
• Disinhibited attachment (Rutter suggests its a adaptation to living with multiple carers so can’t form secure attachment

Question 45

Strengths of Romanian orphan studies into the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 45

Lack of confounding variables

• parents couldn’t afford them there was no trauma involved in their relationship
• so any finding is to do with negative experiences in institution

Key worker

• real application
• assign a child one key worker at nursery or day care so they can form an attachment and prevent disinhibited attachment (substitute care in critical period)

Question 46

Weaknesses of Romanian orphan studies into the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 46

•coming to England the babies may find it hard to adapt so it may not actually be measuring their attachment but actually their ability to adapt to new situations and people
-low internal validity

•socially sensitive study

• shows that late adopted children typically have worse development outcomes
• may mean parents avoid adopting a child who is past the ‘sensitive period’ as they may worry attachment won’t form

Question 47

What aspects of early attachment influence later relationships

Answer 47

Internal working model

attachment type

Question 48

How the internal working model influences later relationships

Answer 48

ADULT RELATIONSHIPS
-if first relationship experience is loving, baby will assume all relationships are like this and will bring this positive experiences to later relationships and behave functionally in them

-if first relationship experience is negative, baby will bring these negative experiences to later relationships so they may struggle to for, relationships and behave functionally in them

ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS

• Hazan and Shaver used the Love quiz on women who as babies had their attachment assessed
• found those who were secure had best romantic relationships
• insecure avoidant struggled maintaining relationships
• insecure resistant struggled being intimate

PARENTING RELATIONSHIPS

• people base their parenting style on their internal working model of how they were parented
• Bailey et al used strange situation on mother-baby attachment and also assessed mother-own mother attachment
• found most mothers had same attachment type to their baby as their own mother

Question 49

How attachment type influences quality of childhood relationships

Answer 49

• secure formed best quality
• insecure struggle forming relationships

Study on bullying found

• insecure avoidant more likely to be bullied (free to explore in SS > lost > pussy)
• insecure resistant more likely to be a bully (cried all time in SS, take rage out on others)

Question 50

Strengths of influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 50

•real world application

• using Hazan and Shavers research of how each attachment style view relationships this can be used in couple therapy to show what each partner expects in the relationship
• this can then be worked on between them

•research support

• there has been metanalyses (e.g. by Fearon) completed that showed that early attachment does consistently predict later attachment
• shows that secure attachment as a baby does convey advantages to future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously advantage children (research has shown leads to mental health)

Question 51

Weaknesses of the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 51

•lack of validity in method of Hazan and Shaver

• used self report techniques and also asked adults to assess their own attachment as a child
• possible social desirability bias
• inaccuracy as adult may not remember and instead recall their schema of other relationships to assume what it must have been like

•there is an association between the attachment type of mother and baby and the mother and her mother, but the cause (being internal working model) is not necessarily effect
-may be other variables that influenced the attachment type other than their internal working model (e.g. genetics)

Question 52

Two explanations of attachment

Answer 52

• Learning theory

- Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Question 53

Describe how attachment forms through classical conditioning

Answer 53

• unconditioned stimulus (the food) creates an unconditioned repsonse (pleasure) is associated with the neutral stimulus (the mother) as she keeps providing food, therefore causing a conditioned response of pleasure when the baby sees the now conditioned stimulus of the mother
• the mother then becomes an attachment figure

Question 54

Describe how attachment is maintained through operant conditioning

Answer 54

Two way process
•Positive reinforcement - baby cries and mother comforts him with social suppressor behaviour. Baby learns to direct crying to caregiver in future as the response was positive (comfort)

•Negative reinforcement - when baby is crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement as the crying stops when she comforts baby so she is more likely to comfort baby to avoid negative consequence

The mutual reinforcement strengthens attachment

Question 55

Describe how attachment is a secondary drive

Answer 55

idea of ‘drive reduction’

• primary drive is hunger and survival
• mother becomes associated to this as she provides food
• baby associates satisfaction of food with mother and so their attachment becomes a learned secondary drive

Question 56

Strengths of the learning theory of attachment

Answer 56

•Counter evidence from Harlow and Lorenz is using animals

• human attachment system is two way (as seen by mutual reinforcement)
• human behaviour incorporates higher power thinking and emotion

•Some conditioning may be involved in attachment

• association with food being central to attachment seems unlikely
• a baby may associate a feeling of warmth and comfort with the presence of a particular parent which can lead to attachments being formed
• so learning theory still is useful in understanding development of attachments

Question 57

Weaknesses of the learning theory of attachment

Answer 57

•Counter evidence from animal studies

• Lorenz geese imprinted on first moving object it saw regardless of food
• Harlow’s monkeys attached more with the cloth mother over the wire mother regardless of who provided the food

•Schaffer and Emerson’s contradictory research

• found babies didn’t necessarily attach to the person who fed them the most
• but actually to the person who showed the most sensitivity and reciprocity to the babies signals and social releases

Question 58

Describe Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 58

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

• suggests attachment is innate and has a survival advantage
• emphasis on one primary caregiver
• this attachment is different and more significant than any others
• more time spent with his mother figure the better (law of continuity and accumulated separation)
• proposed social releasers, critical period and internal working model

Question 60

Describe Bowlby’s proposal of social releasers and critical period

Answer 60

• set of innate behaviours that trigger adult social interaction and attachment, adults also have innate behaviours to response to the social releasers
• e.g. laughing, smiling, cooing

-child is maximally sensitive to attachment at 6 months (sensitive period) and this extends up to 2 years (critical period)

Question 61

Describe Bowlby’s proposal of the internal working model

Answer 61

• a child’s mental representation of the attachment they have with their primary attachment figure
• serves as a model for what the child expects future relationships to be like (if loving relationship with primary caregiver then expect all relationships to be loving and reliable and will bring these qualities to future relationships)
• people base their parenting behaviour on their experiences of being parented based on their internal working model

Question 62

Strengths of Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment

Answer 62

•Research support of the internal working model

• -Bailey et al used strange situation on mother-baby attachment and also interviewed mother to assess mother-own mother attachment
• found most mothers had same attachment type to their baby as their own mother

• Rutter et al

• Romanian orphans from institutions were adopted into Britain
• found that even when adopted, they struggled to form new good quality attachments, especially if they were adopted after the age of 6 months- which was Bowlby’s proposed maximum sensitive period
• they mainly formed disinhibited attachments

Question 63

Weaknesses of Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment

Answer 63

•Schaffer and Emerson contradictory research

• found that although most babies formed one attachment at first, the majority of babies formed multiple attachments around the age of 1
• although the primary attachment does have strong influence on later behaviour it may just be because it is stronger, not better quality than the others
• concept of monotropy lacks validity

•Czech Twins research

• were abused by their mother and fostered at 7 years old
• able to form attachments even though they hadn’t formed any attachments at 7 years old
• suggests critical period is more flexible than Bowlby suggested

Question 64

Define the laws of continuity and accumulated separation

Answer 64

Law of continuity- the more constant and predictable a child’s care is, the better quality the attachment

Law of accumulated separation- every separation of the baby from the mother adds up, safest dose is zero

Question 65

define imposed etic

Answer 65

when we assume a technique that works in one cultural context will work in another