Attachment Flashcards
(40 cards)
1
Q
What is the difference between the learning theory and evolutionary theory to attachment?
A
- According to learning theory, infants learn to be attached to their primary caregiver.
- Evolutionary theory explains attachment is an innate behaviour that has evolved over millions of years because it increases chances of survival.
2
Q
What is a bond?
A
- A set of ‘feelings’ that tie one person to another. E.g. parents often feel strongly ‘bonded’ with their new born babies.
- we can’t see this…we can’t see feelings.
3
Q
what is an attachment?
A
- Attachment is a close 2-way emotional bond between 2 individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
- Takes longer to develop than a bond (may take a few months).
- We can see this when we observe behaviours.
4
Q
What 4 characteristics of attachment did Maccoby (1980) identify?
A
- seeking proximity
- distress on separation
- joy on reunion
- orientation of behaviour
5
Q
Why do attachments form?
A
- Important for survival as infants are physically helpless.
- Short term: need adults to provide food, comfort and protection.
- Long term: Emotional relationships
6
Q
What is reciprocity?
A
- Caregiver-infant interaction is a 2-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
7
Q
What has research on reciprocity shown?
A
- research demonstrated that infants coordinated actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation. Mothers respond to infant alertness around 2/3s of the time.
- Feldman: around 3 months this interaction tends to be increasingly frequent.
- Babies move in a rhythm when interacting with an adult almost as if they were taking turns.
- Brazelton et al suggested this rhythm is important to later communications. Regularity of infant’s signals allows caregiver to anticipate infant’s behaviour and respond appropriately
8
Q
What is interactional synchrony
A
- slightly different interaction from reciprocity between infants/caregivers which is when 2 people interact in a mirror pattern in terms of their emotional/facial/body movements.
- This includes imitating emotions as well as behaviours.
- Feldman defines it as ‘the temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour
9
Q
List the features of Meltzoff and Moore’s research on synchrony:
A
- Observed beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks.
- An adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or 1 of 3 distinctive gestures.
- child’s response filmed and identified by observers. An association found between expression/gesture the adult displayed and the actions of the babies.
- In later study, Meltzoff and Moore demonstrated the same synchrony with infants only 3 days old
10
Q
List the features of Isabella’s et al research on synchrony:
A
- Found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment.
- Suggests that strong emotional attachments are associated with high levels of synchrony
11
Q
List the evaluations of research on reciprocity and synchrony:
A
Positive:
- controlled observations capture fine detail
Negative:
- difficulty observing infants
- observations do not show purpose of synchrony/reciprocity
12
Q
Explain how controlled observations capturing fine detail is a positive evaluation (strength) of research on reciprocity/synchrony
A
- observations are video taped from different angles to capture all details.
- Babies do not know or care that they are being observed - they will not change their behaviour (demand characteristics).
- Improves validity
13
Q
Explain how difficulty observing infants is a negative evaluation (weakness) of research on reciprocity/synchrony
A
- It is difficult during observations to see the infant’s perspective.
- unclear whether behaviour is conscious and deliberate.
- We cannot assume the interaction has a specific meaning
14
Q
Explain how observations not showing the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity is a limitation of research on reciprocity and synchrony
A
- Feldman suggests that synchrony simply describes behaviors that occur at the same time.
- Observations do not tell us their purpose.
- HOWEVER: there is evidence suggesting that reciprocity and synchrony are helpful in the development of mother-infant attachment as well as helpful stress responses, empathy, lang and moral development
15
Q
Explain features of Grossman’s research on the role of the father
A
- longitudinal study looking at parent’s behavior and quality of children’s attachment into their teens.
- Quality of fathers’ play with infants related to quality of adolescent attachment, suggesting play and stimulation was an important role for fathers and not nurturing
16
Q
List the different researchers who studied the role of the father in attachment
A
- Grossman
- Schaffer an Emerson
- Field
17
Q
explain Schaffer and Emerson’s research on the role of the father (father-infant attachment)
A
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that 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
18
Q
explain Field’s research on the role of the father (fathers as primary carers)
A
- Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers (SCF) and primary caregiver fathers (PCF).
- PCF more likely to smile, hold and imitate baby behaviors than SCF
- conclusion: key to attachment is the level of responsiveness, not gender
19
Q
list the evaluations of research on the role of the father:
A
negatives:
- inconsistent findings
- research cannot be generalized
- biological factors / traditional gender roles
- social sensitive research (working mothers)
20
Q
how are inconsistent findings a limitation of research on the role of the father?
A
- Role of the father is not easy to define as the research asks different questions.
- e.g. role of the father as the Primary care giver vs secondary? + what is the role of the father overall?
21
Q
How is lack generalization a limitation of research on the role of the father?
A
- Grossman: father has distinct role to do with play/stimulation.
- HOWEVER: MacCallum and Golombok (2004) children who grow up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently.
22
Q
How are biological factors / traditional gender roles a limitation of research on the role of the father?
A
- traditional gender roles may limit/confound the role of the father.
- Estrogen: results in higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be primary attachment figures
23
Q
How is socially sensitive research a negative evaluation (limitation) of research on the role of the father?
A
- Research suggests that children may be disadvantaged by particular child-rearing practices, e.g. authoritarian, authoritative and permissive (strict parenting?).
- Mothers who return to work quickly after giving birth, restrict the opportunity for achieving interaction synchrony.
- HOWEVER: Kassamali and Rattani (2014) - results revealed that maternal employment itself does not enhance or deteriorate attachment with the child.
- It is a combination of factors that revolve around attachment which impacts on their bond
24
Q
Give the key features of the Schaffer and Emerson study on stages of attachment (1964):
A
- Aim: to investigate formation of early attachment, specifically age of this development, emotional intensity and to whom this was directed to.
- Method: Observed 60, Glaswegian babies for 18 months, mostly from working class families.
- Mothers/babies visited once a month for 1 year and then again at 18 months.
- asked parents to observe child in different circumstances, e.g. separation anxiety, stranger anxiety.
- Longitudinal study
25
give a strength and weakness of a longitudinal study (Schaffer and Emerson stages of attachment)
- strength: captures data over a long period of time.
- weakness: influence of extraneous variables (lack of control)
26
Give examples of the different circumstances in Schaffer and Emerson's study on stages of attachment:
- child left alone in a room, left alone with a stranger, left alone in their cot.
- Stranger anxiety also directly observed by Schaffer and Emerson when they visited the families.
27
What were the results of Schaffer and Emerson's study (used to develop stages of attachment)?
- Between 25-32 weeks, 50% babies showed separation anxiety towards particular adult, esp mothers (links to specific attachment).
- Attachment tended to be to caregiver most sensitive to infant's signals + facial expressions (reciprocity) = primary attachment figure.
- not necessarily to person who spent most time with infant.
- 40 weeks, nearly 30% formed multiple attachment (formed once specific attachment formed). Called secondary attachments.
- 80% formed specific attachment
28
List the stages of attachment and the age range of these stages (Schaffer and Emerson):
- Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)
- indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks - 6 months)
- specific attachments (7 months onwards)
- multiple attachments (10/11 months onwards)
29
what are the characteristics of the asocial stage:
- 1st few weeks.
- Infant forming bond with and recognises carers.
- Behaviour similar to human and non-human objects.
- Babies happier in presence of other familiar human
30
What are the characteristics of indiscriminate attachments?
- 2-7 months: Display 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
31
What are the characteristics of specific attachments?
- Around 7 months, majority of babies start to show anxiety towards strangers or when separated from a specific adult (65% biological mother in S+E study).
- Adult is primary attachment figure but not necessarily the person they spend most time with, but one who offers most interaction
32
What are the characteristics of the multiple attachments stage?
- Secondary attachment to the people babies spend a lot of time with.
- Normally occurs before one year.
33
list the evaluations of the Schaffer and Emerson study on the stages of attachment:
Positive:
- Good external validity
- use of Longitudinal design
Negative:
- limited sample characteristics
- Issues with studying the asocial stage
- Conflicting evidence for multiple attachments
- Problems with measuring multiple attachments
34
Explain how good external validity is a strength of the Schaffer and Emerson study on the stages of attachments
- Study conducted in participants' own homes and most of the observations were done by the parents during normal activities.
- Behaviour of babies not effected by researchers.
- Babies behaved naturally
35
Explain how the use of a longitudinal design is a strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s study on the stages of attachment
- The same children were observed over a period of time.
- cross-sectional design: different children observed at different ages.
- longitudinal design has better internal validity as they do not have confounding variables of individual differences between ppts.
36
Explain how limited sample characteristics are a limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s study on the stages of attachment
- Research is limited due to ppts being from the same town, same social class and carried out over 50 years ago.
- Child rearing practices vary from culture and historical events
37
Explain how limited sample characteristics are a limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s study on the stages of attachment
- Research is limited due to ppts being from the same town, same social class and carried out over 50 years ago.
- Child rearing practices vary from culture and historical events
38
Explain how issues with studying the asocial stage
- difficult to gather any meaningful data from infants at this age as they’re immobile and have little coordination.
- Evidence shown that infants ARE social at this age, e.g. Melzoff + Moore: babies have ability to imitate at 2 weeks.
- Evidence has also shown that babies prefer their mother’s face/voice to that of stranger
39
Explain how conflicting evidence for multiple attachments is a limitation of the Schaffer and Emerson study on the stages of attachment.
- Some (Bowlby) agree with assumption that an attachment with a primary attachment figure needs to come before developing multiple attachments.
- HOWEVER only reflects cultures where child reared by 1 person (usually mother).
- In meta analysis, van Ljzendoorn found in collectivist cultures, multiple attachments are the norm and are formed much earlier than S&E suggested.
- E.G. Uganda: infants cared for by several adults and form multiple attachments very young
40
Explain how difficulty measuring multiple attachments is a limitation of the Schaffer and Emerson study on stages of attachment
- How do we measure ‘true’ attachment?
- Bowlby (1969) pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room, which does not signify attachment.
