Attachmment

Question 1

Developmental Psychology

Answer 1

Development describes the growth of humans throughout the lifespan, from conception to death. The scientific study of human development seeks to understand and explain how and why people change throughout life.
This includes all aspects of human growth, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, perceptual, and personality development

Question 2

Learning Theory

Answer 2

According to learning theory, infants learn to be attached to their primary caregiver.

Question 3

Evolutionary Theory

Answer 3

Explains attachment is an innate behaviour that has evolved over millions of years because it increases chances of survival.

Question 4

Attachment

Answer 4

Involves both a baby and a parent who have an emotional link between each other. This ties them together and takes longer to develop than a bond. We can see this when we observe behaviours.

Question 5

Bond

Answer 5

A set of feelings that tie one person to another. For example, parents feel bonded with their new born babies. We cannot see this.

Question 6

Maccoby 1980

Answer 6

identified four characteristics of attachment:
-seeking proximity
-distress on separation
-joy on reunion
-orientation of behaviour

Question 7

Why do attachments form?

Answer 7

Survival: short term (less than two years old)(need adults for comfort, food and protection), long term (2 years-adolescence)(emotional relationships)

Question 8

Reciprocity

Answer 8

Caregiver-infant interaction is a two-way, mutual process. The behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other. Each party responds to the action of another’s signal to sustain interaction (turn-taking). The responses are not necessarily similar as in interactional synchronicity.

Question 9

Interactional Synchrony

Answer 9

Psychologists have described a slightly different interaction between infants and caregivers called interactional synchrony which is when two people interact in a mirror pattern in terms of their emotional and facial and body movements. Happens with romantic partners also.
Feldman defines it as “the temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour”

Question 10

Schaffer and Emerson 1964 (Role of the Father)

Answer 10

The majority of babies became attached to their mothers first (at around 7 months) and within a few weeks or months, formed secondary attachments.
-75% attachment was formed with the father by age 18 months

Question 11

Father as the Primary Caregiver

Answer 11

Field 1978 filmed 4-month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
PCF -more likely to smile, hold and imitate baby behaviours than SCF
Key to attachment is level of responsiveness not gender

Question 12

(Evaluation of Role of the Father) Shouldn’t there be differences?

Answer 12

MacCallum and Golombok (2004) children who grow up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently

Question 13

Schaffer and Emerson

Answer 13

Method: 60 babies were observed in their homes in Glasgow every month birth to one year and again at 18 months. Interviews were conducted in their homes.

Results: The stages of attachment formation were found to occur. At 8 months of age about 50 of the infants had more than one attachment. About 20 of them either had no attachment with their mother or had a stronger attachment with someone else, even though the mother was always the main carer.

Conclusion: infants form attachments in stages and can eventually attach to many people. Quality of care is important in forming attachment, so the infant may not attach to their mother if other people respond more accurately to their signals.

Question 14

1st stage of attachment

Answer 14

Asocial stage

-0-6 weeaks
-infant is forming bonds with and recognises carers
-behaviour is similar towards human and non-human objects
-babies are happier in the presence of other familiar humans

Question 15

2nd Stage of Attacchment

Answer 15

Indiscriminate/diffuse phase

-from 2-7 months, displaying observable social behaviours
-preference for people rather than inanimate objects
-babies accept cuddles and comfort from any adult and do not usually show separation or stranger anxiety

Question 16

3rd Attachment Stage

Answer 16

Discriminate/single phase

-around 7 months, majority of babies start to show anxiety towards strangers or when they are separated from one particular adult (65% their biological mother)
-adult is the primary attachment figure but is not necessarily the person they spend the most time with, but the one who offers the most interaction

Question 17

4th Attachment Stage

Answer 17

Multiple attachments

-secondary attachment to people babies spend a lot of time with
-normally occurs before on year

Question 18

(Evaluation of Stages of attachment) Good external validity

Answer 18

conducted in participants’ own homes and most of the observations were done by the parents during normal activities
behaviour of the babies was not effected by researchers
babies behaved naturally

Question 19

Lorenz

Answer 19

Carried out his experiment with grey lag geese
Condition 1: He was the first thing that the goose chicks saw when they hatched
Condition 2: The goose mother was the first thing the goose chicks saw when they hatched

Results:

C1: the chicks who saw Lorenz first followed him like they would their mother.

C2: the chicks which saw their mother first followed her when they were young.

He argued that imprinting d to take place within the ‘window of development’, which he called the critical period.

Question 20

Imprinting

Answer 20

the name given to this rapid formation of attachments by Lorenz. This is the tendency to form an attachment the first large moving object seen after birth.
In later studies he found that the strongest tendency to imprint takes place between 13 and 16 hours after the gosling has hatched.
By 32 hours, the tendency to imprint has virtually passed and the attachment will not take place.

Question 21

Sexual Imprinting

Answer 21

Investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult male preferences. The birds that imprinted on humans, later displayed courtship behaviours towards humans. Case study 1952.

Question 22

Harlow (method)

Answer 22

aimed to find out whether baby monkeys would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure. Rhesus monkeys were raised in isolation and had two surrogate mothers: one was made with wire mesh and had a feeding bottle and the other was made with cloth and had no feeding bottle.

Question 23

Harlow (Results)

Answer 23

The monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth surrogate and only used the wire surrogate to feed. The cloth surrogate seemed to give them comfort in new situations. When the monkeys grew up, they showed signs of emotional and social disturbance. The females were bad mothers, often being violent towards their offspring.

Question 24

Harlow (conclusion)

Answer 24

Infant monkeys formed more of an attachment with a figure that provided comfort and protection. Growing up in isolation affected their development.

Question 25

Harlow (Evaluaiton)

Answer 25

-Lab experiment, strict control of variables so likely few extraneous variables.
-can’t be generalised to humans
-unethical, stressful situations and subsequent psychological damage. monkeys are social animals
-lacked ecological validity, unnatural environment
-couldn’t be repeated due to ethical guidelines

Question 26

(Evaluation of Lorenz) Questionable findings

Answer 26

imprinting and mating behaviour- Guiton et al 1966 found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults but with experience they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens

Question 27

Dollard and Miller 1950

Answer 27

caregiver as a provider of food. Do we learn to love whoever feeds us?

Question 28

Attachment and classical conditioning

Answer 28

According to learning theory, the baby has to learn to form an attachment with his/her primary caregiver

By the process of classical conditioning, the baby forms an association between the primary caregiver (a neutral stimulus) and the feeling of pleasure that comes from being fed (an innate, unconditioned response).

At first, the baby simply feels comforted by food. However, each time he/she is fed, the primary caregiver is there too. He/she quickly associates the primary caregiver with the pleasure of being fed.

Before long, the primary caregiver stimulates a feeling of pleasure on her own, even without food.

This means the baby feels [happier] when the primary caregiver is near. It is the beginning of [attachment]

Question 29

Operant Conditioning for Infants

Answer 29

Babies cry for comfort, this builds attachment because it leads to a response from the caregiver. If the correct response is given, crying is reinforced. The caregiver response is comforting the ‘social supressor’ behaviour. It is a two-way process, the baby is reinforced and the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the baby stops crying.

Question 30

The drive reduction theory

Answer 30

suggests that hunger (drive) makes the infant feel uncomfortable, and prompts a behaviour (crying) to reduce the discomfort. Food reduces the discomfort. Food reduces the discomfort and is therefore rewarding via negative reinforcement. This ‘stamps in’ the feeding behaviour, food is the primary reinforcer because it supplies rewards. The person who supplies the food becomes associated (secondary reinforcer) resulting in the infant becoming attached to the person as they become a source of reward in his/her own right.

Question 31

(Evaluation of Cupboard Love) Counter evidence from animal research

Answer 31

Lorenz’s geese imprinted before they were fed and maintained this attachment despite who fed them.
Harlow’s monkeys preferred the cloth mother over the wire mother with food.
In humans, food does not create the attachment bond. We also attach for physical comfort, safety and warmth.

Question 32

(Evaluation of Cupboard Love) Counter evidence from human research

Answer 32

Schaffer and Emerson 1964, many of the babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other care givers fed them.

Question 33

Evolution

Answer 33

the process whereby useful features are introduced into a species. Features are useful if they help the animals to survive long enough to successfully reproduce. To survive and reproduce, animals need to be well adapted to their environment.
Useful features are called adaptive.

Question 34

Q
Bowlby’s Monotropic Attachment Theory

Answer 34

According to Bowlby, attachment is a behaviour that has evolved because of its survival value
An evolutionary trait is always genetically transmitted so children are born with a drive to become attached to a care giver. It is innate.

It has a number of parts which can be broken down into the following:
-adaptivity
-monotropy
-sensitive period
-social releasers
-internal working model

Question 35

Adaptive

Answer 35

attachments give our species an adaptive advantage, making us more likely to survive. This is because if an infant has an attachment to a caregiver, they are kept safe, give food and kept warm.

Question 36

Sensitive period

Answer 36

(3-6 months) babies should develop attachment with their caregiver during this time. As the months pass it becomes increasingly difficult to form attachments between the caregiver and the infant. The infant has a critical period (2-2.5years) when the infant attachment system is active. If the child fails to form an attachment this critical period they could be damaged for life- socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

Question 37

Social releasers

Answer 37

these unlock the innate tendency of adults to care for them. It provides protection and enhances survival. These are both: physical (baby face features and body proporions) and behavioural (crying and cooing). A parent satisfying the needs of a baby with the intention of stopping them from crying is negative reinforcement.

Question 38

Internal Working Model

Answer 38

internal working model: with monotropic attachment the infant would form an internal working model. This is a special model for relationships and has several consequences.
-Short term: child given insight into the caregiver’s behaviour and enables the child to influence the caregiver’s behaviour, so that a partnership can be formed.
-Long term: it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what an intimate, loving friendships are like.
IWM affects the child’s ability as a parent later.

Question 39

Internal working model (continuity hypothesis)

Answer 39

The continuity hypothesis proposes that infants who are strongly attached will continue to be socially and emotionally competent in their adult relationships. Whereas infants who aren’t strongly attached have more social and emotional difficulties in future adult relationships.

Question 40

(Evaluations for monotropy) Schaffer and Emerson 1964

Answer 40

-monotropy doesn’t happen in all infants
-Schaffer and Emerson found that a significant minority of infants formed multiple attachments at the same time.
-Suess et al 1992 have shown that attachment to the mother is more important in predicting later behaviour.

Question 41

Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Theory

Answer 41

The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute:

Separation
-Distress when separated for a relatively short period of time from primary caregiver to whom an attachment has been formed

+

Deprivation
-Occurs when a bond that has been formed is broken

=

Bond disruption

Question 42

Effects of Deprivation on Development

Answer 42

Intellectual
-Bowlby believed that infants who were deprived of maternal are for too long during the critical period would have delayed intellectual development- abnormally low IQ.

-Goldfarb 1947 found lower IQ in children who remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and those who had a higher standard of emotional care.

Emotional
-Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others
-This prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
-Lack remorse for their crimes as they cannot appreciate the feelings of the victims

Question 43

(Bowlby 1944 the 44 juvenile thieves) Method

Answer 43

Case studies were completed on the backgrounds of 44 adolescents who had been referred to the clinic where Bowlby worked because they had been stealing.

There was a control group of 44 ‘emotionally disturbed’ adolescents who didn’t steal

Question 44

(Bowlby 1944 the 44 juvenile thieves) Results

Answer 44

17 of the thieves had experienced frequent separations from their mothers before the age of two, compared with 2 in the control group.

14 of the thieves were diagnosed as ‘affectionless psychopaths’ (they didn’t care about how their actions affected others). 12 of these 14 had experienced separation from their mothers

Question 45

(Bowlby 1944 the 44 juvenile thieves) Conclusion

Answer 45

Deprivation of the child from its main carer early in life can have very harmful long-term consequences.

Question 46

(Bowlby 1944 the 44 juvenile thieves) Evaluation

Answer 46

Indicates a correlation between deprivation and criminal behaviour, although a causal relationship cannot be established.

There may be other factors such as poverty that caused the behaviour.

Although case studies provide a lot of detailed information, the study relied on retrospective data, which may be unreliable.

The data came before the theory, while the theory is usually made before hand.

Question 47

3 Types of Attchments

Answer 47

Type B - Secure Attachment

Type A - Insecure-avoidant Attachment

Type C - Insecure-resistant attachment

Question 48

Type B - Secure Attachment

Answer 48

Most desirable attachment type,associated with psychologically healthy outcomes. In the stranger situation, this is shown by moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion

Question 49

Type A - Insecure-avoidant Attachment

Answer 49

Low anxiety but weak attachment. In the stranger situation this was shown by low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion - avoidance of caregiver

Question 50

Type C - Insecure-resistant attachment

Answer 50

Strong attachment and high anxiety. In the stranger situation this is shown by high levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resitance to be comforted at reunion