ATTACHMENT

Question 1

What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory?

Answer 1

Bowlby rejected the learning theory as an explanation of attachment and came up with an evolutionary explanation that attachment was an innate system that gave a survival advantage.

Question 2

Why is Bowlby’s theory described as monotropic?

Answer 2

Because he emphasised on a child’s attachment to one caregiver and believed that the child’s attachment to one caregiver is more important than any other attachments.

Question 3

What is the law of continuity?

Answer 3

The more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment.

Question 4

What is the law of accumulated seperation?

Answer 4

It’s the belief that the affects of every seperation from the mother add up

Question 5

What does innate mean?

Answer 5

Natural

Question 6

What are innate behaviours called?

Answer 6

Social releasers because their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system (make an adult feel love towards a baby). They are natural actions such as smiling, cooing and gripping.

Question 7

What is reciprocity?

Answer 7

When the caregiver and infant both respond to each others signals and provokes a response from one another.

Question 8

Which psychologist supported reciprocity?

Answer 8

Brazelton et al

Question 9

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 9

Interactional synchrony happens when both the caregiver and infant reflect the same actions and emotions in a synchronised matter.

Question 10

What is Meltzoff and Moore’s study and what did it show and what is a disadvantage of this study?

Answer 10

This study observed that interactional synchrony happens as young as 2 weeks old. During the study, an adult displayed facial expressions and distinctive gestures and there was an association found between the expression/ gesture and the baby’s action.

A disadvantage of this study is that what’s being observed is simply hand gestures and facial expressions and since we can’t get the baby’s perspective there’s no way to confirm whether these behaviours are conscious or undeliberate.

Question 11

What did Isabella et al find?

Answer 11

Isabella et al found that higher levels of interactional synchrony led to higher levels higher quality of caregiver- infant attachment.

Question 12

What did Schaffer and Emerson find about attachment?

Answer 12

Schaffer and Emerson found that babies became attached to their mother for the first 7 months and a few weeks after formed secondary attachments with others including the father. 75% of the infants studied had an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months displayed by their protesting when the father left.

Question 13

What did Grossman find about the role of the father? And what is an evaluation point for his theory?

Answer 13

Grossman found that the fathers attachment was less important. However, the quality of the fathers play whilst the child was an infant was related to the quality of adolescent attachment and that a father has a role that is more playful and stimulating rather than nuturing. He believes that the father plays an important role as a secondary attachment figure.

However, research shows that children raised in single parent or same-sex families don’t develop differently from those in two parent hetrosexual families which would suggest that the fathers role as a secondary attachment isn’t important.

Question 14

What increases the quality of attachment?

Answer 14

Responsiveness

Question 15

What is a strength of observing attachment?

Answer 15

The baby doesn’t know they’re being filmed so it’s likely that their behaviour is natural which means the research has good validity.

Question 16

Why is research into caregiver-infant attachments socially sensitive?

Answer 16

It suggest that mothers who return to work quickly after giving birth are likely to have a lower quality attachment with their infant and may make mothers feel guilty for returning back to work.

Question 17

Describe the Glasgow mothers research

Answer 17

60 glasweigan babies were visited every month for the first year and again at 18 months. The researchers asked questions to measure separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. The study found that between 25 and 32 weeks of age 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards the specific attachment (normally the mother) . They found that the infant was likely to form a specific attachment with the caregiver which had the most sensitivity (reciprocity) to the infant, rather than the one who spent the most time with the baby. By 40 weeks 80% had specific attachments and 30% had multiple attachments.

Question 18

What are the four stages of attachment discovered by schaffer and Emerson?

Answer 18

Stage 1- Asocial stage
Stage 2- Indiscriminate attachment
Stage 3- Specific attachment
Stage 4- Multiple attachments.

Question 19

What is the first stage of attachment?

Answer 19

Called the asocial stage where babies show similar behaviour towards objects and humans however, prefers to be in the presence of humans.

Question 20

What is the second stage of attachment?

Answer 20

Called the indiscriminate attachment from 2-7 months where babies recognise and prefer familiar adults however does not show signs of stranger or separation anxiety and accept comfort from any adult.

Question 21

What is the third stage of attachment?

Answer 21

From around 7 months called specific attachment where majority of babies start to display separation and stranger anxiety from the specific attachment. This adult is called the primary attachment figure and is the adult which responds to the babies signals the most.

Question 22

What is the fourth stage of attachment?

Answer 22

Shortly after the specific attachment called the multiple attachments where babies extend their attachments towards adults they regularly spend time with called secondary attachments. In Schaffer and Emersons study they discovered that 29% of infants had secondary attachments within a month of developing a specific attachment. By the age of 1 most children experienced multiple attachments.

Question 23

What are some advantages and disadvantages of Schaffer and Emerson’s attachment study?

Answer 23

• High external validity because the study took place in the families homes and therefore are more likely to act naturally.
• It was a longitudinal study which has better internal validity than cross-sectional study because there are no confounding variables between individual differences between participants.
• However, the sample characteristics are limited because all families came from the same district and social class.
• These results are not generalisable to different social and historical(time). contexts

Question 24

What is internal validity?

Answer 24

The extent to which the results accurately represent the population we are studying.

Question 25

What are confounding variables?

Answer 25

Factors other than the independent variable that may cause a result.

Question 26

What are evaluation points for Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment?

Answer 26

- Some psychologist believe that in cultures where multiple care-givers are the norm, babies form multiple attachments from the beginning commonly in collectivist societies. - Bowlby pointed out that children have playmates and attachment figures and they may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room and that doesn't neccessarily mean that that person is an attachment figure. - Their stages of attachment doesn't give us a way to distinguish the difference in behaviour between an attachment figure and a playmate

Question 27

Describe Lorenz's study

Answer 27

Lorenz set up a classic experiment with geese where half of the geese were hatched in their natural environment with their mother and the other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. The study found that the incubator group followed Lorenz and the other group followed their mother even when the two groups were mixed together. Lorenz found that there was a critical period in which imprinting has to happen otherwise chicks will not attach themselves to their mother figure.

Question 28

What is imprinting?

Answer 28

Where birds who are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first object they see.

Question 29

What is sexual imprinting?

Answer 29

Lorenz found that a peacock had been reared in an environment where they saw giant tortoises mating only mated with giant tortoises in the future.

Question 30

What animals did Harlow use and why is this useful?

Answer 30

He used rhesus monkey's which is useful because they are much more similar to humans than birds.

Question 31

What was the procedure of Harlow's study?

Answer 31

Harlow tested that the idea of a soft object serves some of the functions as a mother. He reared 16 baby monkey's with two wired mothers, in one condition milk was dispensed from a plain wired mother and in another condition milk was dispensed by a cloth covered mother.

Question 32

What does reared mean?

Answer 32

Bring up a child until they are fully grown.

Question 33

What are the findings of Harlow's study?

Answer 33

Baby monkeys cuddled with and preferred the soft object when they were in danger regardless of which one dispensed milk. This showed that contact comfort was more important than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

Question 34

What were the effects on the monkeys in Harlow's study?

Answer 34

Those who were reared with a wire mother only were more dysfunctional however the ones reared with a soft toy substitute did not develop normal social behaviour. They were: - Aggressive - Less sociable than other monkeys - Unskilled at mating so they bred less than other monkeys - Some attacked and killed their children

Question 35

What did Harlow conclude from his study?

Answer 35

Harlow concluded that there was a critical period and that a mother figure had to be introduced within 90 days for an attachment to form after that the damage of maternal deprivation is irreversible.

Question 36

What is a critical period?

Answer 36

A period in a lifetime during which a specific stage of development occurs.

Question 37

What are some issues with Lorenz's study?

Answer 37

Mammalian attachment is different to birds eg mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than birds and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time so it's not appropriate Lorenz's ideas to humans. Also, Lorenz's theory of permanent imprinting was proven wrong by Guiton et al who found that chickens who imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults however with experience they learned to prefer mating with other chickens.

Question 38

What does theoretical value mean and how does Harlow's study display this?

Answer 38

Theoretical value means to explain why and Harlow's study gave psychologist a better understanding of mother-infant attachment and showed that attachment comes from contact comfort not from being fed and how the quality of early relationships can effect later relationships.

Question 39

How has Harlow's study been practical?

Answer 39

- Has helped social workers to become more educated about child neglect - Given an understanding to proper attachment for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild

Question 40

What are ethical issues with Harlow's study?

Answer 40

The monkeys suffered greatly because of this study and Harlow knew the severity of the wire mothers as he names them 'iron maidens' named after a medieval torture device.

Question 41

How does classical conditioning work in attachment?

Answer 41

Food is an unconditioned stimulus and response (naturally gives us pleasure) and a caregiver is a neutral stimulus. When the baby sees the same person giving them food they associate food with the person and the person becomes an conditioned stimulus and then a conditioned response of pleasure.

Question 42

What is a stimulus?

Answer 42

Something that elicits a response.

Question 43

What behaviour from babies can be explained by positive reinforcement and why?

Answer 43

Crying. This is because when a baby cries, it leads to a response from a caregiver eg feeding. This means that the baby starts to understand that crying makes them receive comfort and therefore crying is reinforced. The baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting behaviour.

Question 44

How is reinforcement a two-way process between infant and caregiver?

Answer 44

The baby receives positive reinforcement from crying because they learn that through crying they receives something positive eg food. An the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because they don't want to hear their infant cry as it is an unpleasant experience and therefore will continue to reinforce this behaviour to avoid the crying.

Question 45

What is drive reduction and how does it relate to attachment?

Answer 45

Hunger is seen as a primary drive because we are driven to eat in order to reduce hunger drive so when parents produce drive reduction by feeding their infants that drive reduction becomes generalised to them so attachment is a secondary drive learnt by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.

Question 46

What are some issues with the learning theory in studying attachment?

Answer 46

- Schaffer and Emersons study shows that babies were most likely to attach to their mother even if she wasn't giving them food most of the time. - Animal studies - Ignores other factors that effect forming attachments eg reciprocity and interactional synchrony

Question 47

What was the aim of ainsworth's strange situation?

Answer 47

To be able to asses key attachment behaviours.

Question 48

What type of observation is ainsworth's strange situation and what is the aim?

Answer 48

A controlled observation designed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards their caregiver. It has a two way mirror so psychologists can observe the infants behaviour.

Question 49

What are the behaviours used to judge attachment?

Answer 49

- Proximity seeking - Stranger and separation anxiety - Response to reunion with the caregiver after a short period of time. - Exploration and secure base behaviour : good attachment allows a child to feel confident to explore whilst using their caregiver as a secure base

Question 50

What are the seven episodes in Ainsworth's strange situation?

Answer 50

1. The child is encouraged to explore 2. A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child 3. The caregiver leaves the child and the stranger together 4. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves 5. The caregiver leaves the child alone 6. The stranger returns 7. The caregiver is return and united with the child

Question 51

What did Ainsworth find?

Answer 51

Ainsworth found that there are three types of attachment: - Secure attachment - Insecure-avoidant attachment - Insecure-resistant attachment

Question 52

What behaviours does a baby with secure attachment show?

Answer 52

- Proximity seeking and secure base behaviour - Moderate separation and stranger anxiety - They accept comfort from the caregiver in the reunion stage - 60-75% of British toddlers are seen as secure

Question 53

What type of behaviour does a baby with insecure-avoidant attachment show?

Answer 53

- They explore freely but don't seek proximity or secure base behaviour - They show little or no reaction when the caregiver leaves and makes little effort when the caregiver returns - They show little stranger anxiety - 20-25% of toddlers are classified as insecure-avoidant

Question 54

What type of behaviour does an infant with insecure-resistant attachment show?

Answer 54

- They seek greater proximity and explore less - They show huge stranger and separation anxiety but resist comfort when they are reunited with their carer - 3% of British toddlers are classified as insecure-resistant

Question 55

What are some advantages of Ainsworth's strange situation?

Answer 55

- High validity because of predictability in adult life eg infants who had secure attachments were found more likely to have success in romantic relationships and friendships. Whereas infants who had insecure-resistant attachment were more likely to be bullied. - The study shows good inter-rater reliability meaning most psychologist agree with the results of Ainsworth's experiments. - Takes place under controlled conditions and behavioural categories are easy to observe. In a study with brick et al they looked at inter-rater reliability within strange situation observers and found agreement for attachment type for 94% of tested babies. - Temperament of a baby may be a confounding variables.

Question 56

What is a disadvantage of the strange situation?

Answer 56

A disadvantage of the strange situation is that the study is culture bound because different caregivers from different backgrounds would act differently in the strange situation. eg Takahashi noted that this test doesn't really work in Japan because mothers are rarely separated from their babies so a high level of separation anxiety would be expected and in the reunion stage the Japanese mother ran to them and scoped their babies so their reaction was hard to tell.