4.1.3 CARE-GIVER INFANT INTERACTIONS

Question 1

who measured attachment?
when?
what did they look at / what were the aims?

Answer 1

• Schaffer and Emerson
• 1964
• looked at the age at which attachment developed, the emotional intensity and to whom they were directed

AIMS
- to assess whether there was a pattern of attachment formation common to all infants
- to identify and describe the distinct stages by which attachments form

Question 2

what was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 2

• was a natural study
• studied 60 working class Glaswegian babies and their mothers, all from the same housing estate over an 18 month period
• they were studied monthly until they were 12 months old and then a final visit was arranged at 18 months
  -> this therefore is a longitudinal study
• observations were made at their home
• infants were studied by there primary care giver who kept a diary which was shared on the monthly visits
• interviews with mothers included questions relating to infant smiling, responses and causes of distress
• attachment was measured in two ways
  separation protest = assessed through several everyday situations -> left outside a shop / front door
  stranger anxiety = observer would approach the baby and measure their reaction

Question 3

what were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 3

• 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards their PCG in the first 25-32 weeks
  -> this showed attachment had started
• stranger anxiety followed within one month of attachment forming
• most infants developed multiple attachments
  -> at 18 months 87% had at least two attachments , 31% had five or more attachments
• attachments to different people were of similar nature, infants behaving in the same way to dif figures
• 39% of infants prime attachments wasn’t to the main carer
• attachments were formed on quality of time
  -> sensitive response interactions

Question 4

what are the conclusions of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 4

• pattern of attachment formation is common to infants
• attachments are more easily made to those who display sensitive responsiveness, recognising and responding to an infants needs
• multiple attachments are the norm and are of similar quality and nature
• they use the evidence from this study to suggest that attachments develop in stages

Question 5

what are some strengths of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 5

• it’s a natural study so infants feel more comfortable and behaviour of PCG and infant is more relaxed
  -> less demand characteristics, familiar
• high ecological validity
• allowed for the development of stages of attachment which are still influential and used today
• longitudinal study = can see the development over time of the same infants
  -> reducing individual differences
  -> same infants = fewer participant variables

Question 6

what are some weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 6

• longitudinal study = drop-out could be high as some parents may have moved away or found it too time-consuming
• the infants cannot talk so inference is required, may decrease accuracy
• the mothers had to self report and were interviewed so could not have reported all behaviour / lied due to social desirability bias
  -> leading to demand characteristics
• population validaty: only Glaswegian infants
  -> may not be able to generalise to other caregivers and infants in other places

Question 7

what is attachment and its purpose?

Answer 7

ATTACHMENT
=> affectional bond between 2 people
endures over time
caregiver and infant seek proximity
-> provides comfort and security
infant will show distress or separation anxiety when
separated

PURPOSE
=> babies are immobile
they form this attachment to survive
this drive is innate

Question 8

how do infants communicate?

Answer 8

• infants without speech have to engage in non-verbal communication
• two behaviours are shown by infants which encourage attachment
  -> interactional synchrony
  -> reciprocity

Question 9

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 9

interactional synchrony
-> at the same time
mirrors / copies caregiver
instigated by either the caregiver or the infant
occurs as young as 2 years old

eg) facial expressions or hand gestures

Question 10

what is reciprocity?

Answer 10

reciprocity
-> return the gesture
caregiver and infant respond to each other’s signals
appropriately
instigated by either
has been described as a dance - one leads, the other
follows
the more engaged with, the stronger the bond
babies are active

eg) caregiver smiles; infant smiles back

Question 11

what do reciprocity and interactional synchrony do?

Answer 11

• strengthen the attachment bond
• aids sensitive responding
• encourages caregiving

Question 12

what was the research into interactional synchrony carried out by MELTZOFF AND MOORE?

Answer 12

• used 2 week old babies
• observed them through a camera
• infants observed a parent do 2 / 3 / 4 actions
  —> opening mouth, poking tongue out, frowing, waving a
  finger
• independent observers viewed the footage and stated what they saw the infant do
• this was ‘double blind’ as the observer didn’t know what the aim of the experiment was
• was to check if the infant really did poke their tongue out at a certain time as it was felt the PCG and/or experimenter would be biased
• positive correlation found between the infant’s actions and those of the PCG: copying/imitating was felt to be occurring

Question 13

what was the research into interactional synchrony carried out by ISABELLA ET AL?

Answer 13

ISABELLA ET AL (1989)
- assessed interactional synchrony in 30 infants

• the Meltzoff and Moore method was used
• found that better synchrony was shown by those infants who had high levels of attachment to their PCG
• this shows that interactional synchrony is important and is linked to strong, securely attached relationships

Question 14

how can we evaluate interactional synchrony?

Answer 14

PROS
- research has strong face validity as it looks to be true
-> it makes sense we learn at a young age how to interact
with others for our own survival
- the use of the ‘double blind’ observer who looked at the footage meant less biased results
- research suggesting the development of mother-infant attachments helps with the stress response, empathy, language and moral development
- valuable research to society

CONS
- camera may have had an effect on the participants, especially the infant as it may have been intrusive and noisy
- we can never really be certain if the infant poked this tongue out or frowned as they were copying or if it were for another reason, unrelated to the PCG’s actions
- observations don’t tell us the purpose of the behaviours
- research is socially-sensitive

Question 15

how can reciprocity be applied?

Answer 15

THE PSEUDO-CONVERSATION
- when the caregiver speaks to the infant and then allows the infant to respond before responding themselves
- this teaches the child about turn taking in conversations, even though neither party can understand what the other is saying
- caregiver will usually speak in ‘motherese’ or ‘caregivers’ - the exaggerated sing-song voice often used by adults to ‘talk’ to babies and animals
- this is the start of learning how to converse with others

reciprocity = when the caregiver and infant respond to each other’s signals appropriately

Question 16

what is infancy?

Answer 16

• infancy is viewed as the period in a child’s life before speech begins
• comes from ‘infans’
• caregiver infanr interactions focus on non-verbal communication
• the more sensitively they respond to the signals of others, the stronger the attachment bond becomes

Question 17

how do we know an attachment has formed?

Answer 17

• desire to keep close proximity to a particular individual
• expressed through distress at separation from that person
• the individual gives the infant a sense of security, most commonly the child’s mother
• however, attachments can be with anyone who provides comfort and security

Question 18

Schaffer and Emerson’s study lead to the Stages of Attachment.

what are these?

Answer 18

• asocial (0-8 weeks)
  -> happier in presence of humans than alone
  -> preference for familiar individuals
  -> smile at anyone
  -> recognise specific faces
• indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
  -> recognise and prefer familiar faces
  -> accept comfort from any adult
  -> prefer people rather than inanimate objects
• specific attachment (7-12 months)
  -> show separation and stranger anxiety
  -> use familiar adults as a secure base
  -> primary attachment to one particularly individual [person who shows the most sensitivity]
• multiple attachment (1 year onwards)
  -> form secondary attachments with familiar adults with whom they
  spend time

Question 19

what is the idea of multiple attachments and who were they formed by?

Answer 19

• Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
• they found that by the time the infants were 18 months old they had already formed multiple attachments
• multiple attachments are an infant forms several, different attachments with a range of people, usually a family member

Question 20

from Schaffer and Emerson, the most common second attachment formed was with the father.

what % of infants showed this with the initial sample and at 18 months?
what’s it like today?

Answer 20

• 27% of the initial sample
• 75% at 18 months had formed an attachment with their father
• role of the father has significantly developed since + many men are more hands on with their children now than in the 1960s

Question 21

what did GROSSMAN (2002) look into and what did he find?

Answer 21

• longitudinal study
• looked at how the quality of relationships between parents and children changed from infancy to the teenage years

FINDINGS
- early attachment to the mother was a better predictor of what the teenage relationship was like
- seems the father is less important to later development than the mother in terms of nurture

• Grossman found that if the father had engaged in active play with the child when they were young, the adolescent relationship with BOTH parents is strengthened
  -> this SUPPPORTS GEIGER’s WORK

Question 22

what did GEIGER (2006) find?

Answer 22

• found that father had a different role from the mother
• the mum is associated with care and nurturing the child
• the dad is more about fun and playing with the child
• from this, we can infer the father’s role being the ‘fun dad’

Question 23

what did FIELD (1978) find?

Answer 23

• found that if the father was the main PCG from before attachment began (before 6 months) then they took on more of a maternal role
• they were seen to be more nurturing and caring than the traditional father role
• demonstrates that there’s flexibility in the role of the father and how men can respond to the different needs of their children

Question 24

what are the NEGATIVES of the research and information on the role of the father?

Answer 24

NEGATIVES
- numerous factors can effect the father’s role and the impact he has on his child’s emotional development
ie) culture, age, amount of time he spends away from home
-> therefore makes it difficult to generalise about the fathers role

• possible that most men aren’t psychologically equipped to form an intense attachment because they lack the emotional sensitivity that women offer
  -> oestrogen underlies caring behaviour so there continues to be sex stereotypes which affect male behaviour
• mothers will feel pressured to stay home because research states they’re vital for healthy emotional development but in some families, this may not be economically the best solution
• MCCALLUM AND GOLOMBOK found that children growing up in single or same sex families didn’t develop differently from those in two parent families
  -> this undermines the idea of fathers having distinct roles

Question 25

how do cultural factors affect the role of the father?

Answer 25

• there are cultural differences in the role of the father
• until very recently men were expected to be breadwinners and not to have direct involvement in their children’s care
• this may be a very stereotypical view rather than reflective of reality as fathers might not have been directly involved in the day to day care but they were involved in factors like play, instruction and guidance
• in modern families, fathers are less likely to engage in physical play in middle class Indian families

Question 26

how do biological factors affect the role of the father?

Answer 26

• men seem to lack the emotional sensitivity to infant cues that women offer spontaneously
• this could be due to the fact that women produce oestrogen which increases emotional response to other’s needs
• however FRODI ET AL. (1978) found that men’s physiological response was the same as woman’s

Question 27

how do factors like the age, gender and temperament affect the role of the father?

Answer 27

gender: FREEMAN ET AL. (2010) found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children
age: found that children are more likely to be attached to their father during late childhood to early adolescence
infants and young adults are less likely to seek attachment to their fathers
temperament: MANLOVE ET AL. (2002) father are less likely to be involved with their infant if the infant has a difficult temperament