Psychology - Explanations of attachments

Question 1

What are the behaviors that suggest people have an attachment, and who said this/when?

Answer 1

Maccoby (1980)
Seeking proximity
Distress on separation
Joy on reunion
General orientation of behavior towards other person

Question 2

Lorenz (year)

Answer 2

1935

Question 3

Lorenz (findings)

Answer 3

Goslings will imprint - form a rapid attachment to the first large moving object seen after birth
Critical period in geese is 32 hours - after this no attachment formed

Question 4

Lorenz (method)

Answer 4

Divided fertile geese eggs - one group saw mother after hatching the other saw him
Short time after hatching he put the geese together and they went immediately split into 2 groups and went to their ‘mother’

Question 5

Klaus and Kennell (year)

Answer 5

1976

Question 6

Klaus and Kennell (experiment)

Answer 6

Followed 2 groups of young mothers in North America from the birth of their children until 1 year of age
Control group had routine contact
Experimental group had extended skin-to-skin contact

Question 7

Klaus and Kennell (findings and conclusion)

Answer 7

Extended contact mothers showed more soothing behaviors like cuddling, and maintained closer proximity to their babies
These behaviours suggested a closer bond between mother and baby
Indicated there may be a sensitive period

Question 8

Sensitive period

Answer 8

Period of time shortly after birth that may be important for bonding to take place

Question 9

Schaffer and Emerson (year)

Answer 9

1964

Question 10

Schaffer and Emerson (experiment)

Answer 10

Looked at development of attachments in 60 babies in Glasgow born to working class families
Considered two types of behaviour: stranger distress, separation anxiety
Used variety of methods like interviewing mothers about babies response upon separation and observation of if baby reacted when they approached to collect data
Asked mothers to rate baby's behaviour using a 4-point scale from 'no protest shown' (0) to 'cries loudly every time' (3) on seperation

Question 11

Schaffer and Emerson (results - When attachment takes place)

Answer 11

Stages loosely linked with age
6-8 months babies start to show separation anxiety to indicate attachment
Stranger distress seemed to follow 1 month later
Most went on to form multiple attachments with people they saw regularly

Question 12

Schaffer and Emerson (results - who they attach to first)

Answer 12

65% was with mother
3% with fathers
27% joint mother and father
In 40% of attachments the person who cared for the child is not the first attachment

Question 13

Stage and age in development of attachements

Answer 13

Asocial (0-6 weeks)
Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks to 6 months)
Specific attachments (7 months)
Multiple attachments (10/11 months onwards)

Question 14

Asocial stage

Answer 14

0-6 weeks
Don't prefer specific people
Bias towards human like stimuli 
Prefer to look at faces and eyes
Learn to discriminate familiar people from unfamiliar people by their smell and voice

Question 15

Indiscriminate attachments

Answer 15

6 weeks-6 months
Babies more sociable
Can tell people apart
No fear of stranger yet

Question 16

Stage of developments of attachments (acronym)

Answer 16

Any
Island
Sinks
Muchly

Question 17

Specific attachments

Answer 17

7 months onwards
Begins to show separation anxiety
Stranger distress shown

Question 18

Multiple attachments

Answer 18

10/11 months onwards
Follow soon after first attachment is made
Shows attachment behaviours to several different people like siblings and parents

Question 19

Operant conditioning

Answer 19

Skinner
Any behaviour that produces a reward will be repeated (positve reinforcement)
Behaviours that stop something unpleasant will be repeated (negative reinforcement)

Question 20

How can oparent conditioning be applied to attachments?

Answer 20

Newborn baby will cry if hungry or cold
Sound of baby crying is uncomfortable to caregiver so they go to baby
Positive reinforcement for baby
Negative reinforcement for carer
Forms a system where baby cries when it needs something to make carer come to it

Question 21

Classical conditioning

Answer 21

Pavlov
Learning through association
Unconditioned stimulus - unconditioned response
Conditioned stimulus - conditioned response

Question 22

How can classical conditioning be applied to attachments?

Answer 22

Milk (unconditioned stimulus) causes pleasure (unconditioned response) in baby
The carer who provides the milk becomes associated (conditioned stimulus)
Over time the carer cause pleasure milk would (conditioned response)

Question 23

Studies against feeding being key in formation of attachments - why

Answer 23

Harlow and Zimmerman - Monkeys
Schaffer and Emerson - 39% of attachments not mother
Bowlby - evolutionary

Question 24

Harlow and Harlow (year)

Answer 24

1958
8 monkeys raised in isolation
Surrogate mothers- cloth one and wire/food one
Scared them to see if they attached to a surrogate
Cloth one

Question 25

Social learning explanation

Answer 25

Hay and Vespo (1988)
Parents act as role models
Give direct instruction on how to reciprocate affection - “give me a kiss goodbye”
Social facilitation - help child carry out attachment behaviours like playing with siblings

Question 26

Who came up with a evolutionary theory of attachment?

Answer 26

Bowlby

Question 27

Bolwby

Answer 27

Came up with ASCMI

Argues attachment was an innate mechanism to ensure the survival of the child

Question 28

What does ASCMI stand for?

Answer 28

Adaptive advantage
Social releases
Critical period
Monotropy
Internal working model

Question 29

What did Bowlby’s theory overlook?

Answer 29

Attachment to father and siblings

Question 30

The continuity hypothesis

Answer 30

Supports Bowlby’s theory

Question 31

Internal working model

Answer 31

A template for future relationships

Including a model for how you and other people should behave

Question 32

Who did research into the continuity hypothesis and when?

Answer 32

Hazan and Shaver

1987

Question 33

Hazan and Shaver

Answer 33

Set out to see if adult romantic relationships are affected by attachment as a child
Used a ‘Love quiz’ in North American paper

Question 34

What Hazan and Shaver asked participants to report about

Answer 34

Which 3 descriptions best applied to their feelings/experiences about romantic relationships: uncomfortable about being close to others, find it relatively easy to get close to others, find others are reluctant to get as close as you would like
Simple adjective checklist to describe childhood relationship with parents

Question 35

Hazan and Shiver (results)

Answer 35

Found a strong relationship between childhood attachment
Secure - expressed a belief in lasting love and trusted others
Insecure avoidant - More doubtful in existence of love, felt you didn’t need a happy relationship to enjoy life
Insecure ambivalent - Fell in love easily, but rarely found ‘true love’. Felt insecurity and self-doubt in love

Question 36

Who did Hazan and Shiver use as participants?

Answer 36

Two groups:

1) 215 men, 415 women selected from responses from paper ad
2) 108 university undergraduate students at their university

Question 37

Support for Bowlby’s internal working model

Answer 37

Haven and Shaver 1987

Question 38

Support against Bowlby’s internal working model

Answer 38

Zimmerman 2000

Question 39

Zimmerman (general/conclusion)

Answer 39

2000
Looked at 44 children’s attachment types when 12-18 months then at 16 years
In Germany
Recorded life events like parental divorce or death
Found that child attachment type isn’t a good predictor of attachment type as adolescent

Question 40

Zimmerman (how observed at 2 ages)

Answer 40

12-18 months: looked at separation behaviour and response to strangers
16 years: interviews focused on relationship with their parents

Question 41

Evidence against Bowlby’s monotropy

Answer 41

Schaffer and Emerson’s Glasgow baby study (1964)
Common for babies to develop multiple attachments
Strongest bond wasn’t always with mother