attachment

Question 1

what is an attachment

Answer 1

a close two way emotional bond between individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 2

reciprocity

Answer 2

this develops by about three months

the interaction is reciprocal, when each person responds to the other’s signals and responds to them

Question 3

interactional synchrony

Answer 3

the infant and the mother mirror the actions and emotions of each other in a synchronised way

Question 4

evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions - observations

Answer 4

when observing infant interactions - difficult to know what is merely hand movement and what is direct interaction

Question 5

evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions - importance

Answer 5

feldman - synchrony and reciprocity simply describes behaviours but not developmental purpose of them

Question 6

evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions - validity

Answer 6

observations are well controlled and filmed from multiple angles - enables inter-rater reliability as more than one observer can watch

babies also dont alter behaviour

Question 7

schaffer and emerson

Answer 7

studied 60 glasglow babies from working class backgrounds - every months for a year then again at 18 months

Question 8

stages of attachment

Answer 8

asocial

indiscriminate

specific

multiple

Question 9

asocial

Answer 9

no stranger or separation anxiety

human = object

Question 10

indiscriminate

Answer 10

human better than object but no stranger or separation anxiety

Question 11

specific attachment

Answer 11

stranger and separation anxiety about one person

Question 12

multiple attachments

Answer 12

secondary attachments with people it sees on regular basis

Question 13

evaluation of stages of attachment - earlier attachment

Answer 13

carpenter - two week old infants looked at faces for longer when accompanied with mother’s voice

infants attached to mothers at earlier age than schaffer and emerson suggested

Question 14

evaluation of stages of attachment - culture

Answer 14

van ijzendoorn - culture plays a part in how and when we form attachments and with whome

non-western societies - babies have multiple carers - norm so multiple attachments are formed

Question 15

evaluation of stages of attachment - asocial stage

Answer 15

young babies have poor coordination - pretty much immobile in first few weeks

difficult to make any judgements about the purpose of behaviour

Question 16

role of father - multiple attachments

Answer 16

schaffer and emerson found that 75% of babies have attached to father by 18 months

Question 17

role of father - playrole

Answer 17

grossman et al - quality of father’s play with babies linked to quality of attachment in adolescence - play instead of emotional role

Question 18

role of father - primary caregiver

Answer 18

field - primary caregiving fathers spent more time interacting, imitating and holding infants

Question 19

evaluation of role of father - inconsistent research

Answer 19

some researchers examine fathers as a primary figure and some as secondary - we cannot simply answer what is the role

Question 20

evaluation of role of father - real-world application

Answer 20

parents can be reassured that fathers can be effective primary caregivers if mother wants to work

Question 21

evaluation of role of father - father’s role not important

Answer 21

MacCullum and Golombok - children in single/same sex parent families do not develop any differently

Question 22

lorenz aim

Answer 22

to investigate how attachments form in geese

Question 23

lorenz procedure

Answer 23

took a large clutch of goose eggs
placed half of the eggs with a goose mother, other half were put in an incubator where the first moving object they would see would be lorenz

Question 24

lorenz findings

Answer 24

goslings imprinted onto lorenz and didnt recognise their actual mother

Question 25

lorenz conclusion

Answer 25

imprinting has a critical period during when it can occur - cannot be reversed

Question 26

harlow aim

Answer 26

investigate whether food or comfort was more important in forming a bond in monkeys

Question 27

harlow procedure

Answer 27

16 baby monkeys first condition - wire mother milk second condition - cloth mother milk

Question 28

harlow findings

Answer 28

monkeys preferred to cuddle the cloth-covered mother to the wire one - when they frightened the monkeys they ran to cloth mother even when didn’t dispense milk monkeys showed dysfunctional behaviours - aggressive and killed offspring

Question 29

harlow conclusion

Answer 29

attachment is more concerned with warmth and emotional security than food early deprivation of real comforting mother leads to irreversible damage

Question 30

evaluation of animal studies - real world application

Answer 30

harlow’s research has good practical application to society - social work - understand how important it is for a baby to be placed with adoptive families as early as possible

Question 31

evaluation of animal studies - generalisability

Answer 31

difficult to generalise findings from animals to human beings attachment in humans may be different to the attachments animals form as babies are more defenceless

Question 32

evaluation of animal studies - critical or sensitive

Answer 32

slucking - research with ducklings - imprinted but kept one duckling in isolation for 5 days - still able to imprint rather than critical people - sensitive period when imprinting was best to occur

Question 33

classical conditioning

Answer 33

baby forms association between mother (NS) and pleasure from food (UCR) so mother becomes CS as she elicits a feeling of pleasure on her own

Question 34

operant conditioning

Answer 34

crying causes the caregiver to feed baby so crying is reinforced caregiver is negatively reinforced as baby stops crying

Question 35

secondary drive

Answer 35

hunger is primary drive as it is innate primary drive is generalised to the mother as she provides food and so attachment is secondary drive

Question 36

evaluation of learning theory of attachment - animal research

Answer 36

both harlow and lorenz suggest food is not the most important factor in forming attachment

Question 37

evaluation of learning theory of attachment - evolutionary theory

Answer 37

bowlby stated that we have an innate drive to attach regardless of food

Question 38

evaluation of learning theory of attachment - schaffer and emerson

Answer 38

39% of babies attached to the person who did not feed them but who interacted with them

Question 39

bowlby’s evoluationary theory

Answer 39

monotropy - one caregiver attachment is innate - increases survival good quality care from social releasers - crying internal working model - templaye critical period

Question 40

evaluation of evolutionary theory - love quiz

Answer 40

hazan and shaver - love experience and attitudes towards love (IWM) were related to attachment type

Question 41

evaluation of evolutionary theory of attachment - temperament hypothesis

Answer 41

kagan - some children are innately more likely to seek attachments and form close relationships bowlby did not take individual differences into account

Question 42

evaluation of learning theory of attachment - hodges and tizard

Answer 42

close relationships and attachments could be formed later in life and early deprivation could be reversed

Question 43

ainsworth aim

Answer 43

observe 106 infants aged 9-18 months and assess them for quality of attachment

Question 44

ainsworth procedure

Answer 44

explored behaviours - exploration behaviour, proximity seeking, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and reunion behaviour

Question 45

ainsworth findings

Answer 45

70% secure 15% insecure resistance 15% insecure avoidant

Question 46

ainsworth conclusion

Answer 46

mother acts towards child impacts their behaviour maternal sensitivity hypothesis

Question 47

insecure-avoidance

Answer 47

willing to explore indifferent to mother’s departure did not seek comfort little stranger anxiety

Question 48

secure

Answer 48

mother as safe base good reunion behaviour moderate stranger anxiety moderate separation anxiety

Question 49

insecure-resistant

Answer 49

explored less high separation anxiety poor reunion behaviour resisted high stranger anxiety

Question 50

evaluation of ainsworth - type D

Answer 50

solomon and main - simply putting infants into 3 categories is reduction and they found 4th type

Question 51

evaluation of ainsworth - ethnocentric

Answer 51

cross cultural research suggests that the strange situation uses western values to judge - imposed etic

Question 52

evaluation of ainsworth - validity

Answer 52

lab setting so unfamiliar - mothers may have behaved differently

Question 53

van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg aim

Answer 53

investigate how attachment types vary across cultures

Question 54

van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg procedure

Answer 54

completed meta-analysis on 32 studies using ainsworth’s strange situation

Question 55

van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg findings

Answer 55

secure attachment most common germany - avoidant japan - resistant

Question 56

van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg conclusion

Answer 56

caregiver and infant interactions were similar around the world with some intra-cultural variation - mass media

Question 57

evaluation of van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg - korea

Answer 57

jin et al - most infants had secure and others were resistant - similar to japan as similar parenting styles

Question 58

evaluation of van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg - different sample sizes

Answer 58

18 out of 32 studies from USA and japan only had 2 distorts overall findings

Question 59

evaluation of van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg - large scale research

Answer 59

huge sample and significantly developed our understanding of different child rearing practices around the world

Question 60

bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 60

mother is essential for normal psychological development - prolonged deprivation causes damage to emotional and intellectual development esp in critical period intellectual - low IQ - goldfarb - children who stayed in an orphanage had lower average iq scores than those fostered emotional - affectionless psychopathy - lack ability to form close long lasting relationships - criminality

Question 61

evaluation of maternal deprivation - 44 thieves

Answer 61

bowlby - 14 out of 44 thieves had affectionless psychopathy 12 had experienced prolonged separation from mother in first two years of life

Question 62

evaluation of maternal deprivation - privation

Answer 62

rutter - argues bowlby muddle deprivation and privation privation is when an attachment has never been formed

Question 63

evaluation of maternal deprivation - czech twins

Answer 63

czech twins locked up in cupboard by stepmother from ages 18 months to 7 years able to form close attachment with two new parents

Question 64

romanian orphans

Answer 64

rutter et al - 165 romanian orphans adopted in uk - showed delayed intellectual development - those adopted before 6 months had higher iq - after 6 months - disinhibited attachment clingy, attention seeking directed to adults inc strangers zeanah et al - bucharest early intervention project assessed 95 romanian orphans - 19% secure, 44% disinhibited

Question 65

evaluation of romanian orphans - real world application

Answer 65

led to improvements in how we care for children eg key workers and foster care over institutions

Question 66

evaluation of romanian orphans - confounding variables

Answer 66

high internal validity - orphans did not suffer trauma before hand

Question 67

evaluation of romanian orphans - lack of data

Answer 67

only assess orphans until 20s - do not know long term effects or whether adopted children can catch up

Question 68

relationships in childhood

Answer 68

securely attached children - form quality friendships insecurely have friendship difficulties avoidant - victim resistant - bully

Question 69

relationships in adulthood

Answer 69

hazan and shaver - those with secure attachments more likely to have good and longer romantic experiences avoidants - jealousy and fear of intimacy

Question 70

evaluation of effect on later relationships - causal relationship

Answer 70

just because there is a relationship between attachment type and later relationships doesnt mean they cause one another

Question 71

evaluation of effect on later relationships - supporting research

Answer 71

bailey et al - found that most women had the same classification of attachment with their mothers as their own chidlren

Question 72

evaluation of effect on later relationships - validity

Answer 72

problems with using retrospective data participants may not be honest with their responses about early attachment or cannot remember