attachment

Question 1

define attachment

Answer 1

close two way emotional bond between two individuals where each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 2

how do we recognise attachment

Answer 2

proximity- people try to stay physically close to those who they are attached to
separation distress- people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence
secure base behaviour- even when we are independent, we make regular contact with out attachment figure and return to them as our base

Question 3

define caregiver infant interactions

Answer 3

communication between infant and caregiver which is important for child’s social development and forms basis of attachment. if they are more responsive and sensitive to each others signals, deeper the bond

Question 4

define caregiver

Answer 4

person who cares for a child

Question 5

define infant

Answer 5

refer to child’s early years where they are predominantly taken care of by their caregivers

Question 6

types of caregiver interactions

Answer 6

• reciprocity
• international synchrony
• imitation
• sensitive responsiveness
• motherese

Question 7

define reciprocity and features

Answer 7

two way or mutual process where each other responds to the others signals to sustain the interaction (turn taking )
- either can initiate the interactions
- important for later communications
- conlon and sander (1974) found that babies moved in time with the conversation and appeared to take in turns

Question 8

define interactional synchrony/ imitation and features

Answer 8

caregiver and infant reflect and mirror the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated, synchronised way
- isabella et al oversee 30 mother and infants and found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother-infant attachment

Question 9

meltzoff and moore (1977) study on international synchrony

Answer 9

• observed infants as young as 2 weeks old and filmed their response to an adult displaying one of three facial expressions or gestures
• observers viewed from an angle where the adult couldn’t be seen
• association was found between the expression or gesture the adult displayed and the action of the babies

Question 10

define sensitive responsiveness

Answer 10

caregiver response appropriately to signals from the infant

Question 11

define motherese

Answer 11

slow high pitched way of speaking to infants

Question 12

schaffer and emerson study on attachment stages procedure

Answer 12

• 60 babies were observed in their homes in glasgow every 4 weeks from birth to 18 mothers
• longitudinal study
• assessed separation anxiety, in situations like being left alone in a room
• analysed and interviews

Question 13

schaffer and emerson study in attachment stages findings

Answer 13

• more sensitive they are to each others cues, the closer the attachment
• around 7 months, 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult
• 65% of first specific attachments was to the mother and a further 30% saw them as the first joint object if attachment
• 3% of first specific attachments was towards the father, and 27% of the time they were the joint first object
• by 40 weeks, 80% had a specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments

Question 14

stages of attachment

Answer 14

1. asocial attachment (first few weeks)- learns to separate people from objects but has no strong preference about who cares for them
2. indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)- distinguish between different people and becomes more social, but has no preference for who cares for them
3. specific attachment (7-11 months)- start to display stranger anxiety and become anxious when separated, primary attachment figure
4. multiple attachments (after stage 3)- form attachments to many people, where some may be stronger or have different functions, at 18 months 32% had at least 5 attachments

Question 15

evaluation of schaffer and emerson study

Answer 15

+ sample size was good considering the large volume of data gathered
+ carried out longitudinally which decreases participant variables
+ has ecological validity as it was carried out in everyday scenarios
- sampler was biased as they were all from the same city and working class, and was 50 years ago, so it lacks population and temporal validity
- quite a small sample size
- data based on mothers report of their infants as they may be less sensitive to their infants’ protests and show social desirability bias, so lacks internal validity

Question 16

evaluation of stages of attachment

Answer 16

• cultural bias as it fails to consider collectivist cultures where people share more possessions and childcare, where multiple attachments may be more common
• suggest development is inflexible where specific attachments come before multiple attachments
• hard to distinguish between secondary attachment figures and playmates , so they may not be validly measuring multiple attachments
• hard to judge behaviour at such a young age

Question 17

evaluation of caregiver infant interactions strengths

Answer 17

+ supported research, like by murray and trevarthen (1985) where 2 year olds interacted with their mothers over a video monitor and showed acute distress when their mother wasn’t directly paying attention to their cues
+ well controlled procedures, often filmed so they can be played back to look for finer details
+ babies do not show demand characteristics or social desirability bias

Question 18

evaluation of caregiver infant interactions weaknesses

Answer 18

• imitation in infants is not intentional and anything before its 1 st year is operant conditioning so it may be pseudo imitation
• difficult to distinguish infants behaviour as their mouths are constantly moving so we are not sure if the action is deliberate
• observational research cannot tell us why infants reciprocate
  -socially sensitive research as mothers may have to return to work and cannot develop a bond with their cold through interactions synchrony for example, making them feel guilty

Question 19

role of the father

Answer 19

• 75% of infants in schaffer and emerson study formed a secondary attachment to father by 18 months
• seems as playmate and provides more physical and exciting play, and better at providing challenging situations for their children
• allow them to take risks whilst keeping them safe

Question 20

why is role of father different to role of mother

Answer 20

• previously women were expected to have the most important role when caring for a child, but now it is increasingly more common for the father to be the primary attachment figure
• female hormones like oestrogen create higher levels of nurturing so women are predisposed to be primary caregiver
• fathers may lack emotional sensitivity
• gross and carried out a longitudinal study and found that quality of infant attachments to mother was related to the child res attachments in adolescents

Question 21

field (1978) study in equal importance of mother and father

Answer 21

• filmed 4 month old babies face to face with primary and secondary caregivers mother or father, and concluded both genders play an important role when being the primary figure

Question 22

role of father evaluation strengths

Answer 22

• practical application and can be used to offer advice to parents as there is less pressure on mothers to be the primary caregiver and helps reduce anxiety

Question 23

role of the father evaluation weaknesses

Answer 23

• research into role of father has been inconsistent as research as some researchers are interested in role of fathers as secondary attachment figures compared to some interested in them as primary figures
• conflicting evidence where Grossman’s study found that fathers as secondary attachment figures were important but other research has found that is not the case like in same sex parenting
• socially sensitive as it suggest their role is not important can lead to reduced rights for fathers in legal proceedings

Question 24

define imprinting

Answer 24

innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the first moving thing they see (most likely mother), which takes place during a specific time in development and is irreversible and long lasting

Question 25

lorenz imprinting in geese procedure

Answer 25

• split a large clutch of greylag goose eggs in two and randomly let one hatch naturally with the mother and the other was hatched in an incubator where Lorenz was the first thing they saw
• he also marked all goslings and put them under an upturned box and let them choose between Lorenz or the mother goose

Question 26

lorenz imprinting in geese findings

Answer 26

-geese automatically attach and imprint on the first moving thing they see , which was either the mother or Lorenz depending on who they saw first
- naturally hatched goslings went straight to their mother and the incubator hatched goslings went straight to Lorenz
- imprinting took place a short period of time after birth (4-25 hours)

Question 27

define sexual imprinting

Answer 27

imprinting can affect adult male preferences as they would want to mate with the same kind of species upon which they were imprinted

Question 28

lorenz imprinting implications for humans

Answer 28

• babies do not imprint instantly like birds but the same concepts and importance of attachments is applicable
• bowlby developed a theory that there is a critical period for developing an attachment in humans (2 years)

Question 29

evaluation of lorenz imprinting in geese

Answer 29

+ other studies have demonstrated imprinting in animals like Guiton demonstrated that leghorn chicks exposed to yellow rubber gloves imprinted on them
- cannot extrapolate animal findings to humans especially because mammalian attachment system is different from birds
- imprinting is not permanent or irreversible as Guiton could reverse the imprinting in chicken which made them try to mate with the gloves and after spending time with other chickens they engaged in normally sexual behaviour

Question 30

harlow monkeys procedure

Answer 30

• 16 infant rhesus monkeys were separated from their natural mothers and were out into 2 different set ups
• a wire mother who produced milk and a cloth covered who didn’t, or a wire mother who didn’t produce milk and a cloth covered one who did
• measurements were taken on the amount of time each infant spent with the two different mothers

Question 31

harlow monkeys findings

Answer 31

• monkeys cuddled the cloth covered mother in preference to wire covered
• all monkeys spent most of their time with cloth covered regardless if they had the bottle, including those who were fed from wire mother
• all sought comfort from cloth mother when frightened regardless if they dispensed milk
• when playing, the monkeys often kept one foot on cloth mother
• motherless monkeys, even those who did have close contact, developed abnormally sexually and socially

Question 32

harlow monkeys conclusions and implications on humans

Answer 32

• critical period for this behaviour, usually within 90 days, before attachment is impossible
• findings suggest infants form attachment with the person offering contact comfort rather than who feeds them

Question 33

harlow’s study evaluation strengths

Answer 33

• practical application as it helps social workers to understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and is helpful in proper attachment figures in zoos

Question 34

harlow’s study evaluation weaknesses

Answer 34

• two mothers varied in more ways than being cloth covered or not, like the heads were different, so it may act as a confounding variable and cannot guarantee cause and effect
• cannot extrapolate animal findings to humans
• ethical issue as monkeys suffered in the long term with difficulty to function socially
  > however, can be justified as it has had significant effect on our understanding of the process of attachment

Question 35

how can classically conditioning explain attachment

Answer 35

• learn to associate food with pleasure
• cupboard love- learn to love the person who feeds them
• food is UCS with pleasure being UCR, but once paired with the caregiver (NS), they become conditioned

Question 36

how can operant conditioning explain attachment

Answer 36

• crying leads to response from the caregiver so they are positively reinforced to repeat the action if they are hungry
• caregiver learns to feed the infant when they cry and involves negative reinforcement
• drive reduction- when we feel discomfort this creates a drive to reduce this discomfort
• primary reinforced is food as it directly supplies reward, but caregiver is secondary reinforcer as it is associated with food

Question 37

evaluation of learning theory to explain attachment strengths

Answer 37

• real world application as infants do learn through association and reinforcement however food may not be the main reinforcer

Question 38

evaluation of learning theory to explain attachment weaknesses

Answer 38

• drive reduction is now undermined as people exhibit behaviours that may increase discomfort, for example doing things that are out of our comfort zone
• based on animals so cannot extrapolate findings
• reductionists as it fails to acknowledge the differences between humans and animals like cognition and emotion
• food is not the key explanation for attachment as seen in harlow’s monkeys who preferred comfort over food
• feeding does not appear to be an important factor in humans, where Schaffer and Emerson found that 30% of infants developed a primary attachment to the person who did not feed them

Question 39

bowlbys monotropic theory main assumptions

Answer 39

• attachment has evolved through natural selection as we developed an innate need to attach to our main caregiver for survival
• critical period of 2 years otherwise we will struggle later on (maternal deprivation hypothesis)
• babies are born with innate “cute features” like small eyes and behaviour like crying, which encourages attention from adults called social releasers
• attachment is reciprocal and both mother and baby have innate predisposition for it
• monotropy- one main attachment
• internal working model- template for later relationships

Question 40

define maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 40

if relationship with mother is distrusted, stopped or never established, there are long term emotional consequences

Question 41

define innate adult attachment

Answer 41

tendency for adults to care for infants

Question 42

define monotropy

Answer 42

we form one main attachment, usually mother, and is important in physical and emotional development

Question 43

define internal working model

Answer 43

mental relationship of relationship with primary caregiver and acts as a template for future relationships or parenting styles

Question 44

evaluation of bowlbys monotropic theory strengths

Answer 44

• research to support internal working model as patterns of attachment can be passed on through generations
  => bailey et al assessed 99 mothers with their 1 year old babies in the quality of attachment to their own mothers and found that those who reported poor attachments to their own parents were more likely to have children classified as poorly attached
• clear evidence that social releasers are intended to initiate social integration as Brazelton et al observed primary attachment figures who ignored their babies social releasers, and they become more distressed and eventually lied motionless
  -supports evolutionary aspect as attaching later on, for example when crawling, is more important that earlier on

Question 45

evaluation of bowlbys monotropic theory weakness

Answer 45

• ignored other influences on attachment like the temperament hypothesis, where infants with “easy” temperament are more likely to become strongly attached and socialise compared to those who are “difficult” and tend to be insecurely attached
• monotropy remains unclear as Schaffer and Emerson found some babies can form multiple attachments
• unclear whether there is something unique about the first attachment, but just the fact it is stronger
• attachments are possible after critical period, and should instead be called “sensitive period”
• socially sensitive as Bowlbys report in 1950s led to an increase in “stay at home” mothering

Question 46

what are the 7 scenarios in ainsworth strange situation

Answer 46

1. child and caregiver enter an unfamiliar playroom and child is left to explore (exploration and secure base)
2. stranger enters and approaches the infant (stranger)
3. caregiver and stranger tried to soothe the infant if crying or observer them (separation and stranger)
4. caregiver returns and stranger leaves (reunion behaviour)
5. caregiver leaves so the infant is alone (separation)
6. stranger enters and approaches infant (stranger)
7. caregiver returns (reunion behaviour)

Question 47

describe type a insecure avoidant attachment

Answer 47

• avoid social interaction and intimacy
• explore freely and do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour
• little to no reaction when caregiver leaves
• little stranger anxiety
• do not require comfort at reunion stage
• in Ainsworth study, 15% had this type, whereas 20-25% in the Uk

Question 48

describe type b secure attachment

Answer 48

• explore happily but regularly check up on caregiver
• show moderate separation and stranger anxiety
• require and accept comfort from caregiver and are easily soothed
• in ainsworth study, 70% had this and 60-75% in UK

Question 49

describe type c insecure resistant attachment

Answer 49

• seek and resist intimacy and social interaction
• seek greater proximity than others and explore less
• show greater stranger and separation distress
• resist comfort when reunited with caregiver
• in ainsworth study, 15% had this but 3% in UK

Question 50

evaluation of strange situation strengths

Answer 50

• research has found a fourth type called insecure- disorganised where children display an odd mixture of resistant and avoidant behaviours which suggests it is oversimplified
• good inter-rater reliability as the strange situation took place in controlled conditions and there was an agreement for 94%
• help improve life with intervention strategies, where caregivers can be taught to better understand their infants’ signals of distress- decrease in disordered caregivers from 60% to 15% and an increase in secure attachments from 32% to 40%

Question 51

evaluation of strange situation weaknesses

Answer 51

-research strongly predictive of later development and babies with secure attachments have better outcomes in the future like relationships
- may be a culture bound test as there are differences, for example Takshashi notes the test doesn’t work in Japan as mothers are rarely separated from babies and there are very high levels of separation anxiety
- unethical as infants are deliberately put under stress
- only measured one attachment type with mother, who many not be primary caregiver

Question 52

what experiment did Van Ijzendoorn conduct

Answer 52

meta analysis of 32 strange situations in different cultures from 8 countries (UK, US, Japan, China, Holland, Germany and Israel)

Question 53

findings of van ijzendoorn’s cross cultural study

Answer 53

• all have majority secure attachments
• germany have the highest % of insecure avoidant (35%)
• israel and japan have the highest % of insecure resistant (27-29%)
• china have same % of insecure avoidant and resistant (25%) and the lowest % of secure attachments (50%)
• great britain has the smallest amount of insecure resistant
• uk and sweden had the most secure attachments

Question 54

conclusions of van ijzendoorn’s cross cultural study

Answer 54

• intra cultural variation was nearly 1.5- greater than the cross cultural variation
  => one study found US having 46% secure compared to 90% in another
  => another study found no avoidant attachment in japan but another found 20%
• global pattern across cultures is similar than in the US
• secure is the “norm”
• cu,trial similarities support Bowlby’s theory

Question 55

evaluation of van ijzendoorn’s meta analysis strengths

Answer 55

• large sample of nearly 2000 studies so there is internal and population validity
  => over half (18 out of 32) were in US and only 5 were conducted in collecting cultures so may not be representative
• better understand cultural differences and highlight our similarities and differences

Question 56

evaluation of van ijzendoorn’s meta analysis weaknesses

Answer 56

• compared counties and didn’t consider different child rearing practices within cultures, like attachment in tokyo is similar to those in Western countries but differ from Japanese rural samples
• designed by an American researcher based on British (Bowlby’s) study and has an imposed ethic
• media has played a role in parenting, and attachment cannot be explained as an innate mechanism

Question 57

define etic

Answer 57

assumes behaviour in a culture can be applied elsewhere

Question 58

define separation

Answer 58

child is not in the presence of the primary attachment figure, usually for a short period of time and with a substitute caregiver

Question 59

define deprivation

Answer 59

child loses an element of the primary attachment figures emotional care

Question 60

what is bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation and the effects

Answer 60

• long term separation or loss of emotional care from the mother
• if the attachment in broken or distrusted during critical period (2.5 years), the child is deprived of her emotional care and will suffer from irreversible long term psychological consequences
• risk continues until 5 years
• affectionless psychopathy- inability to experience guilt or strong emotion and associated with criminality
• affects intellectual development and leads to low IQ and intellectual disability
• poor internal working model

Question 61

procedure of bowlby’s 44 thieves study

Answer 61

• sample of 44 criminal teenagers who were accused of stealing and interviews them for signs of affectionless psychopathy, like lack of affection and guilt
• families were interviews to establish if there was prolonged early separation from mother
• control group of 44 non-criminal teenagers with emotional problems

Question 62

results of bowlby’s 44 thieves study

Answer 62

• 14 out of 44 thieves were affectionless psychopathy and 17 out of 44 had maternal deprivation
• of the 14 affectionless, 12 experienced prolonged separation in the first 2 years
• control had 2 with maternal deprivation and 0 were affectionless psychopaths

Question 63

evaluation of bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation strengths

Answer 63

• bowlbys 44 thieves supports the idea that maternal deprivation has consequences for emotional development
  => however, there is researcher bias and correlation does not equal causation
• impact on post war thinking about childbearing for example letting parents stay overnight with their children in hospital

Question 64

evaluation of bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation weaknesses

Answer 64

• other research undermines as lewis replicated on a larger scale and maternal deprivation did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships
• research shows critical period may jot cause inevitable damage wanting boys from czechoslovakia were isolated from 18 months to 7 years and treated badly by their stepmother but were looked after by two loving adults and recovered fully as teenagers
• lack of attachment bond has more consequences than loss of one
  -socially sensitive research as some mothers feel obligated to stay home, and will feel guilt when separated from their child
  -other factors like poor condition in orphanages and affect children behaviour instead of

Question 65

define institutionalisation

Answer 65

effects of living in an institutional setting like hospital or orphanage for long, continuous periods of time

Question 66

effects of institutionalisation

Answer 66

• physical underdevelopment- physically small, developmental dwarfism
• low IQ
• disinhibited attachment- form of insecure attachment where children are indiscriminately friendly and affectionate to all adults, like being attention seeking and clingy
• poor parenting- study by Quinton compared 50 women who were reared in institutions and 50 who were reared at home, and found ex-institutional women found it harder to be parents
• emotional functioning- affectionless psychopathy
• poor internal working model
• quasi-autism

Question 67

procedure of rutter et al romanian orphan studies

Answer 67

• followed 165 Romanian orphans adopted in britain and compared to a control group of 52 british children adopted around the same time
• 111 were adopted before 2, and a further 54 by the age of 4
• physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years

Question 68

results of rutter et al romanian orphan studies

Answer 68

• at time at adoption, romanian orphans lagged behind british counterparts, like weighing less and showing signs of intellectual disability disorder
• by 4 years old, some of the children had caught up, including almost all of the children adopted before 6 months
• mean IQ for those adopted before 6 months was 102 ( same as british), compared to 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years, and 77 for those adopted after 2 years
• those adopted after 6. onths showed signs of disinhibited attachment but those before 6 months rarely did

Question 69

conclusion of rutter et al romanian orphan studies

Answer 69

long term consequences may be less severe once the children formed secure attachments and most children recovered and developed slower

Question 70

other institutionalisation studies

Answer 70

• le mare and audit (2006)- longitudinal study on 36 romanian orphans adopted in Canada where they found the orphans were physically smaller than the matched control group at 4.5 years, but this difference disappeared by s
• zeanah et al Bucharest early intervention project- 65% of the sample of orphans displayed disorganised attachments, compared to only 20% of the control

Question 71

evaluation of romanian orphan studies strengths

Answer 71

+ enhanced our understanding and allowed for improvements like having a key worked to avoid disinhibited attachments
+ fewer confounding variables as there children were institutionalised by loving parents who couldn’t afford to keep them so there is a cause and effect relationship directly on the effects of institutionalisation

Question 72

evaluation of romanian orphan studies weaknesses

Answer 72

• conditions were so bad the results cannot be applied elsewhere, so low ecological validty
• cannot conclude that all children who experience institutionalisation are unable to recover
• implied effects of institutionalisation are irreversible but we found some children had recovered, meaning they may have a slower development instead
• socially sensitive as research was published as they were still growing up, which may have lead to them having a low self esteem or people treated them differently

Question 73

how does early attachment affect later childhood

Answer 73

• securely attached infants form the best quality friendships and have the highest social competence later in childhood
• links to internal working model because securely attached infants gave higher expectations that others are friendly
• Myron-Wilson and smith found that insecure avoidant infants are more likely to be bullied and insecure resistant are more likely to be bullies

Question 74

how does early attachment affect relationships romantically

Answer 74

• McCarthy found adults classified as insecure resistant had problems maintaining friendships and insecure avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships
• responses to a “love quiz” which explored previous and current relationships, found positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences
• secure attachment were more likely to have a good and linger lasting romantic experiences
• insecure avoidant reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy
• insecure resistant tend to fall in love easily but find it difficult to find true love

Question 75

how does ear,y attachment affect relationship as a parent

Answer 75

• bailey et al conducted interviews with mothers and their children with their own mother, and found they had the same attachment type with both

Question 76

evaluation of continuity hypothesis strengths

Answer 76

• supporting studies like bailey et ak

Question 77

evaluation of continuity hypothesis weaknesses

Answer 77

• deterministic and pessimistic as it suggests early experiences will have a fixed effect on later adult relationships, and clarke and clarke argues later relationships are probabilistic instead
• internal working models are unconscious so we cannot get direct evidence
• self report methods have methodological limitations, and are unreliable
• not all studies support internal working models as zimmerman found little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment
• studies have correlation but does not mean causation
• temperament hypothesis, which is the idea that humans have innate character traits that include infant and adult relationships