attachment key points

Question 1

What is an attachment?

Answer 1

An emotional link between the child and there primary caregiver, which ties them together.

Question 2

Four ways an attachment can be tested?

Answer 2

1. Seeking Proximity
2. Distress on seperation
3. Joy on reunion
4. General Behaviour

Question 3

What is a bond?

Answer 3

A bond is a set of feelings that ties one person to another

Question 4

Benefits of an attachment

Answer 4

Survival
Food
Love
Security

Question 5

Two caregiver-infant interactions are…

Answer 5

Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony

Question 6

What is reciprocity?

Answer 6

Reciprocity is a description of how two people interact, the mother infant interaction is reciprocal in that they both respond to each others signal and each shows a response from the other.

Question 7

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 7

Where mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of one and other and do this in a co-ordinated manner.

Question 8

Outline research that supports reciprocity

Answer 8

Feldman found that both babies have periodic alert phases to signal that they are ready to interact and mothers respond to this on average 2/3rds of the time.
He also found that from 3 months of age this interaction is more frequent and involved close attention to verbal signals and facial expressions.

Brazleton discovered the ‘Dance’ in which each partner responds to each others moves. Both the baby and the PCG can initiate interactions and take turns in doing so.

Question 9

Outline research that supports interactional synchrony

Answer 9

Meltzoff and Moore conducted a study in which they observed infants at two weeks old and had adults show one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures. The children response was filmed and identified by independent observers. They found an association between the action of the adult and the action returned by the babies.

Isabella observed 30 mothers and infants and found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better mother-infant attachment.

Question 10

Evaluate research into infant-caregiver interactions

Answer 10

:) - Controlled observations in a controlled experimental setting with standardised procedures and operationalised behavioural categories with filming from multiple angles. High reliability as can be repeated to check consistency.
:) - These observations are less prone to demand characteristics as obviously babies are unaware an experiment is taking place and thus will not change their natural behaviours.

:( - Observations susceptible to observer bias as they require subjective interpretation from researches who may perceive behaviour as being something else to what it really is, this can lower the validity.
:( - Observations only look at the changes in hand movements and gestures. It is very difficult to be certain that the moves or gestures etc, were actually deliberate or accidental, this reduces the value of the insight into caregiver-infant interaction.
:( - These studies don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony or reciprocity, they simply state that it happens and don’t imply anything about why and what the purpose is. Other studies have said that it is important in the development of empathy and morals.
:( - Conducting research into mother-infant interactions is controversial as it sates that certain people may be at a disadvantage for certain reasons. ie. Mothers going back to work…

Question 11

Outline three research studies into the role of the father

Answer 11

Schaffer found that initially babies become attached to their mother (7 months) and then after this form secondary attachments with others such as the father. 75% of babies had an attachment with their father by 18 months of age, they showed separation anxiety.

Lamb indicated that between the ages of 15-24 months they will show a preference towards their father, this suggests that the father may become the PCG.

Grossman conducted a longitudinal study and found a direct correlation between the quality of fathers play with infants and the quality of adolescent attachments. This suggests that the father may be more about play and stimulation whereas the mother is more about nurturing.

Question 12

Evaluate research into the role of the father

Answer 12

:( - It is very difficult to draw one conclusion from all the research as some psychologists have looked to prove he father as the PCG and others have tried to prove him as the secondary caregiver.
:( - MacCallum and Golombrok found contradicting evidence as they found that children growing up in single or same sex parent families did not develop any differently to those in opposite sex parents.
:( - Alternative explanations about why fathers don’t usually become the PCG could be because of traditional gender roles that people don’t like to break as it is not seen as normal and thus they continue with the social norms.
:( - Alternatively it could be biological reasons for mothers being the PCG majority of the time. Females have much higher levels of oestrogen and oxytocin and these create higher levels of nurturing behaviour.
:( - Socially sensitive research as it suggests children may be at a disadvantage by particular child rearing practices.

Question 13

Outline Schaffer’s stages of attachment Research

Answer 13

He has 60 babies from Glasgow and had Psychologists visited once a month for the first year and again at 18 months in participants homes and interviewed mothers.
During observations psychologists tested separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. He found that between 25-32 weeks of age 50% of the babies showed separation anxiety towards adults, usually the mother (specific attachment). He also found that attachments were formed with the adults who were the most sensitive to babies signals (reciprocity). By 40 weeks 80% had a specific attachment and 30% showed multiple attachments.

Question 14

Evaluate Schaffer’s research into attachment

Answer 14

:) - The babies were never taken out of there homes and thus were always observed in a natural setting for the babies, this allows for results that can be more easily generalised to the population.
:( - The sample size was much too small to be able to have any sort of reliable generalising to the wider population. Not only was it too small but it was all people from working class families that lived in Glasgow. This sample is too specific.
:( - The study was a longitudinal study which has its benefits however it then is susceptible to attrition where participants will inevitably drop out of it over time, making the sample even less generalisable to other children’s stages of development.

Question 15

Outline Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 15

AISM!
Stage 1: The Asocial Stage (first weeks)
Babies behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is similar but they do show a slight preference to adults and are happier with humans present.

Stage 2: Indiscriminate Attachment (2-7 months)
Begin to show a preference to humans over inanimate objects and also now recognise and prefer familiar adult faces. However they accept cuddles and affection from any adult. NO separation or stranger anxiety is shown.

Stage 3: Specific Attachment (7+ months)
Start to display stranger anxiety and showed separation anxiety to the PCG (65% mother).

Stage 4: Multiple Attachments
Baby forms secondary attachments to other adults who they spend time with. After one month of forming a PAF 29% formed secondary attachments and by the age of one majority had secondary attachments.

Question 16

Evaluate Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment

Answer 16

:( - It is near impossible to prove that a baby during the asocial stage is doing something, wether that be a a gesture or a movement, consciously or unconsciously and thus it is hard to make meaningful judgements about there behaviour so the evidence is hard to rely on.
:( - Used very crude measurements to define attachment. By only using separation and stranger anxiety they have oversimplified a complex behaviour. This reduces the value of the insight into stages of attachment.
:( - They used self report techniques done by the parents which are at risk of extreme social desirability as the parents may well have lied to present their babies in the best possible light, this means the validity of the findings are reduced.

Question 17

Outline Lorenz’s Animal Study into attachment

Answer 17

Lorenz divided up a clutch of goose eggs, where half were hatched with the mother goose and the other half in an incubator where Lorenz was the first living thing they saw. He found that the incubator group followed him around everywhere whereas the control group stayed with the mother and ignored him. When there two groups were mixed they stuck with there original attachment figure.

Lorenz called this imprinting and he suggested that there was a critical period of a few hours depending on the species and if imprinting does not occur then the chicks do not attach to the mother figure.

Question 18

Evaluate Lorenz’s Animal Study

Answer 18

:( - This type of research will always have animal bias and we must be cautious when applying the findings to humans as we are very different to other species, cognitively that is.

Question 19

Outline Harlow’s Animal Study into attachment

Answer 19

16 baby rhesus monkeys were reared with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was given to the plain wire mother whereas in the second it was given to the cloth covered mother.

He found that the babies always chose to spend their time with the cloth covered monkey over the wire frame one. Specifically 22 hours compared to 2 hours, this shows that contact comfort was more important to the monkey then drive reduction when it came to attachment.

Harlow also suggested that there was a critical period of 90 days, and if an attachment had not been formed by then, then it never could and the damage is irreversible.

Question 20

Evaluate Harlow’s Animal Study

Answer 20

:) - Many very useful practical applications have come from this as it gives us a very valuable insight into caregiver-infant attachment. It has helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect and instead of just making sure people have shelter and food that they are also being treated with love and care.

:( - There are however drawbacks of this study and it is that it lacks the following of any ethical guidelines. The monkeys suffered greatly with irreversible effect and as they share a high percentage of humans gene pool they have strong emotions like us. However the argument is that the research is important enough to justify the effects on the monkeys.

Question 21

State two explanations of attachment

Answer 21

• The learning theory (Behavioural)
• Bowlbys Theory (Biological)

Question 22

Sate two theories for the learning theory

Answer 22

Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

Question 23

Briefly explain classical conditioning

Answer 23

Learning a behaviour through stimulus, response and association

Question 24

Briefly explain operant conditioning

Answer 24

Learning a behaviour through rewards reinforcements and punishments

Question 25

Explain classical conditioning linking it to attachment

Answer 25

Milk provided by the mother is an unconditioned stimulus which provides an unconditioned response in the baby of relief from hunger.

This response is automatic and does not need to be learnt. The neutral stimulus is the feeder, and through repetition of feeding the feeder becomes the conditioned stimulus. Therefore whenever the baby is hungry at just the sight of the feeder it will link the CS and the UCR together and become relieved.

Question 26

Explain operant conditioning linking it to attachment

Answer 26

When the baby feels uncomfortable because it is hungry they experience a drive state. This drive state motivates the baby to find a way to lessen the discomfort. In the early years the baby can do nothing but cry and being fed leads to drive reduction as the child is satisfied. The food is the primary reinforcer and the child learns that the food is a reward. The person that feeds the baby becomes the secondary reinforcer and the infant thus seeks to be near to this feeder as they are the source of reward and the attachment is formed.

Question 27

Evaluate the learning theories explanation of attachment

Answer 27

Contradictory evidence from animal studies
:( - Lorenz showed how young animals imprint on carers who don’t necessarily feed them. Harlow’s monkeys chose to spend contact comfort over drive reduction, showing us that the value of insight into human attachments is limited.
Counter evidence from human studies
:( - Schaffer found that babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother regardless of who did most the feeding, this directly contradicts the learning theories explanation.
Too oversimplified
:( - Learning theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachments such as interactional synchrony and reciprocity. Furthermore studies have shown that the best quality attachments are with sensitive and responsive caregivers who respond to infants signals.

Question 28

Outline Bowlbys Monotropic Theory

Answer 28

Bowlby stated that it is likely that adults are innately programmed to become attached to their children as attachments have short and long term benefits such as survival.
There are four main features of Bowlby’s theory;

Monotropy - He suggested that the child attaches to one particular caregiver which is the mother (not necessarily the biological one). The law of continuity is the more consistent a child’s care = better quality of attachment. The law of accumulated separation is the separations from the mother adding up affecting the attachment.

Social Releasers - These are important and ensure interaction takes place, they are behaviours such as smiling crying etc.

Critical Period - This is biological and if an attachment is not formed in this critical period of 2.5 years then it may not take place at all.

Internal Working Model - This relationship with the monotropy provides infants with an IWM of relationships. This is a template of self worth and they will apply it to all future relationships.

Question 29

Evaluate Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Answer 29

:) - Brazleton observed mothers and babies interact and showed that there was interactional synchrony. In further experiments he instructed the PCG to ignore the babies signals (social releases). He found that after some distress the babies curled up and remained motionless. The fact the children responded so strongly supports Bowlbys theory.
:) - Hazan printed a love quiz in an American newspaper. They collected information about individuals early attachments and their current attachments wth loved ones. They found that securely attached children had happy and long lasting relationships in later life. insecurely attached children found it hard to form relationships. This supports the IWM.
:( - Bowlby stated that the only use of the father was to support the mother however Lamb indicated that as an infant grows older they show a preference towards the father, this therefore contradicts Bowlbys theory.
:( - Other psychologists criticise Bowlbys mono-tropic theory for not accepting the role of the child’s temperament. It has been shown that some babies are born more social or more anxious than others. Therefore this could explain later social behaviour rather than the IWM.

Question 30

Outline The Strange Situation (research into children’s attachment behaviour)

Answer 30

She had a sample of 100 middle class American infants and observed them through a two way mirror. Specifically watching how children reacted to; Separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and reunion behaviour.
What they did was:
1) Parent entered room for three mins with adult and explored room
2) Stranger enters and joins, adults talk
3) Parent leaves
4) Parent returns and stranger leaves
5) Parent settles infant and leaves
6) Stranger returns
7) Parent returns and stranger leaves

Results: She found three attachment types; secure (66%), insecure avoidant (22%) and insecure resistant (12%).

Question 31

Explain Ainsworth’s three attachment types

Answer 31

Secure - Upset when put under separation anxiety, avoidant of stranger but curious, instantly soothed when mother returns. Responsive and sensitive caregiver.

Insecure Avoidant - Unconcerned by mothers absence, avoidant of both, unresponsive in reunion. Unresponsive caregiver.

Insecure resistant - Overly distressed when mother left, fear of stranger, clinginess + rejection on reunion. Inconsistent caregiver.

Question 32

Evaluate Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

Answer 32

:( - Lacks ecological validity as it was fake environment with unrealistic task. Means it is difficult to generalise the three different attachment styles to other children in the real world.
:( - The SSC has been criticised for imposed etic. The tool is based on western practices and ignores cultural norms and practices in collectivist cultures. We must take caution when using it in cultures it is not designed for.
:( - Low pop validity, hard to generalise
:( - Criticised for being over simplified, other psychologists believe that you cant fit every child into one of three attachment types and that there are large individual differences between children that play a huge part. This lowers the value of the insight into children’s attachment types and development.

Question 33

Reliability & Validity of TSS

Answer 33

Reliability was proved by ‘Main et al’, he tested babies at 18 months and then retested them at 6 years of age and found 100% of the secure babies were still secure and 75% of the avoidant babies were still avoidant. This is called test retest reliability.
Ainsworth tested inter-rater reliability, this was also found to be very high.
Validity has been argued that TSS only measures the relationship between two people and not the attachment style

Question 34

Outline Cultural Variations in individualistic and collectivist cultures

Answer 34

Different cultures have different rules, laws social norms and customs etc. If there is difference in social norms it is natural to assume that attachment types vary across different countries. People use different child rearing practices when bringing up their children which encourages them to develop different qualities and abilities.

Question 35

Outline research done into cultural differences in attachment types

Answer 35

Van Ijzendoorn conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries based on around 2000 children.
He found non-western cultures had most number of insecure resistant and as a whole most attachment types were secure.
Overall consistent results in countries were found showing us that there must be universal characteristics.

Question 36

Evaluate research into cultural differences in attachment types

Answer 36

:) - The study used 2000 children which gives it a very high population validity, meaning the results about cultural differences in attachment styles can be generalised to the target population of other children around the world.
:( - Although a large number of studies were used nearly half of them were done in US therefore the study has culture bias and we must be cautious when generalising the results across different cultures. This limits the value of the insight into cultural variations in styles.
:( - This study used the SSC which has been criticised for imposed etic and was made solely for individualistic cultures originally. This means we must be cautious when extrapolating results as the SSC might not be suitable to measure attachments in collectivist cultures.
:( - Reductionist as it doesn’t take other factors into account such as individual differences.

Question 37

Outline Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 37

The theory is concerned with prolonged separation from the mother and the effects on the children that this has, emphasising how important continuous care from a mother figure is essential.
If separations are brief it is acceptable and wont damage the child, it is when these become common and for prolonged periods when it becomes deprivation where attachments can be broken.
Bowlby stated that the first 2.5 years are the critical period and if separation occurs here then psychological damage is inevitable.
Damage can be mental retardation, lowered IQ, which Goldfarb found when comparing IQ in children who were fostered to children in institutions. Bowlby also said that it could lead to affectionless psychopathy, which is where children cannot feel remorse and prevents children from forming normal relationships.

Question 38

Outline research into Maternal Deprivation

Answer 38

Bowlby had 44 criminal teens and interviewed them for signs of affectionless psychopathy and lack of affection to their victims. Their families were also interviewed to see whether they had had prolonged separations.
He found that 14/44 thieves were AP’s, of the 14 12 had experienced long term separation at a young age. In contrast only 5/30 had experienced separations.
He concluded that early separation can cause affectionless psychopathy.

Question 39

Evaluate Maternal Deprivation

Answer 39

:( - His research he used to support his theory is flawed as there are many confounding variables such as the fact that his study on war orphans were not just deprived as children but they were often traumatised from atrocities of war.
:( - Furthermore Bowlby carried out all the interviews himself and thus it is at risk of extreme researcher bias as the results could have been subjective. This would reduce the value of the insight into maternal deprivation in children.
:( - Lewis replicated the 44 thieves study with 500 children and found no relationship between criminality and separation as a chid. This shows other factors could have been present causing AP.

Question 40

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 40

It refers to children spending a period of time within an institute such as an orphanage where there is often little emotional care provided.

Question 41

Describe the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 41

Reactive detachment disorder - This is caused by an extreme lack of sensitive responsiveness from a parent in early life and it leads top children unable to trust or love others, they ultimately end up isolated, selfish and aggressive and can end up being sociopathic.

Disinhibited attachment disorder- This is where a child may select attachment figures discriminately which can cause them to become overly comfortable around strangers.

Question 42

Describe evidence for the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 42

A longitudinal study was conducted on 156 Romanian orphans who had been adopted to the UK to see what extent good care could make up for effects institutions.
Many aspects of the child’s development were assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years of age. A control group of 52 British children adopted at the same time was used. They found that 50% of the children showed signs of mental retardation/malnourished. Children adopted before 6 months has an average IQ of 100, between 6 and two years were 90 and after 2 years 80.
Children adopted after 6 months were more likely to show signs of reactive attachment disorder and disinhibited attachment disorder.

Zenah assesed attachment in 95 children aged 1-3 years old that spent 90% of their life institutionalised. Compared to a control group of 50 participants. He used the strange situation to measure attachment type. He found that there were 65% insecure and 19% were secure. The control group had 74% secure.

Question 43

Evaluate these roman orphanage studies

Answer 43

:( - The use of a longitudinal study means that it is at risk to attrition (people dropping out). This was in fact the case as there was a fairly large amount of dropouts, this means the sample could be biased as the people that stayed could be ones of a particular personality etc. This reduces the value of the insight the research gives about institutionalisation.

:) - There are practical applications that came with this research, for example many orphanages now work in a way that each orphan has a key worker that they are looked after by in order to create a strong bond between them, instead of having many different workers.

:( - The data collection methods are criticised for being subjective as there is no factual measurement. They used self reports which are prone to social desirability, as the participants could easily lie about their attachments.

:) - Often research that has been done into institutionalisation uses children that have been through other situations such as abuse, whereas the sample in this where only put through institutionalisation so the effects are isolated.

Question 44

Outline the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 44

Relationships with the monotropy provides the child with an internal working model which is a template of self worth and will effect all other relationships in the future.

Attachment types are associated with the quality of peer relationships. Bullying behaviour can be predicted from attachment types. 196 children ages 7-1 were given questionnaires about bullying. They found that secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying, avoidant were most likely to be victims, and resistant the bullies.

A love quiz was created and printed in a local newspaper which had three sections; assessed participants current relationship, general number of love experiences and assessed attachment type. They found that 56% of participants were secure, 25% avoidant and 19% resistant. Secure participants were most likely to be in a good long lasting relationship, avoidant tended to be jealous of intimacy and resistant were likely to be single.

Question 45

Evaluate the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 45

:( - Most of the research used self report techniques which are at risk to social desirability and given the sensitive topic of the research this is very likely to have occurred, devaluing the value of the insight.

:( - The retrospective nature of the research as it involved asking participants about their childhood which realistically they may not recall accurately.