attachment Flashcards
definition of attachment
attachment is an emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure. this relationship is reciprocal, which means it is a two way relationship that endures over time.
caregiver infant interactions in humans
RECIPROCITY AO1
reciprocity means two ways of something that is mutual. reciprocity is a form of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness, with both infant and mother responding to each other’s signals and elicits a response from the other
caregiver infant interactions in humans
INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY AO1
interactional synchrony is when two people interact and tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial and body movements.
interactional synchrony is a form of rhythmic interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual focus, reciprocity and mirroring of emotion or behaviour. infants coordinate their actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation.
caregiver-infant interactions in humans
RESEARCH OF INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY
aim: to extend interactional synchrony in infants
method: using a controlled observation, an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions, or a hand gesture. To start with, the child had a dummy placed in his/her moth to prevent a facial response. Following the display from the adult model, the dummy was removed and the child’s expressions were filmed.
there was a clear association between the infants’ behaviour and that of the adult model. later research by Meltzoff and Moore (1983) found the same findings in three-day-old infants.
these findings suggest that interactional synchrony is innate and reduces the strength of any claim that imitative behaviour is learned.
caregiver infant interactions
evaluation
questionable reliability of testing children - this is because infants move their mouths and wave their arms constantly, which is an issue for researchers investigating intentional behaviour. therefore, we cannot be certain that the infants were actually engaging in interactional synchrony or reciprocity, as some of the behaviour may have occurred by chance. this decreases the credibility of that infant and caregiver interaction .
methodological problems - there is the possibility of observer bias where the researchers consciously or unconsciously interpret behaviour to support their findings. to address this problem, more than one observer should be used to examine the inter-observer reliability of the observations. recent research by Koepke et al (1983) failed to replicate the findings of Meltzoff and Moore. this lack of research support suggests that the results of Meltzoff and Moore are unreliable and more research is required to validate their findings.
exam style question - caregiver infant interactions in humans
outline and evaluate caregiver infant interactions in humans
AO1:
reciprocity - interaction between infant and caregiver
interactional synchrony - when caregiver and infant interact and mirror each other. research by Meltzoff and Morre
AO3:
weakness - questionable reliability of testing children, methodological problems.
schaffers stages of attrachment
asocial, indiscriminate attachments, discriminate attachments, multiple attachments,
asocial attachment
from birth to two months
an infant shows similar responses to objects and people. towards the end of this stage, they do display a preference for faces/eyes
indiscriminate attachments
from two to six months
an infant now shows a preference for human company over non-human company. they can distinguish between different people, but do not show stranger anxiety yet
discriminate attachments
from six to twelve months
an infant shows a preference for one caregiver, displaying separation and stranger anxiety. the infant looks to a particular person for security and protection. the infant shows joy upon reunion and when comforted by their primary caregiver.
multiple attachments
one year onwards
attachment behaviours are now displayed towards several different people eg. siblings, grandparents etc. and are sometimes referred to as secondary attachments. they typically form in the first month after the primary attachment is formed and the number of multiple attachments which develop depends on the social circle to whom the infant is exposed.
stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson’s study (AO1)
Schaffer and Emerson studied 60 babies from Glasgow at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life using a longitudinal method. Their aim was to examine the formation of early attachments.
Their sample consisted of 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow aged between 5-23 weeks. The researchers visited the babies in their homes, every month for the first 12 months and then once again at 18 months. The researchers interviewed the mothers and observed the children in relation to separation anxiety in a range of everyday activities.
The results provided some support for the different stages of developing on attachment. At around 25-32 weeks, 50% of the children showed separation anxiety towards their mothers. Furthermore, by 40 weeks, 80% of the children had a specific attachment and 30% had started to form multiple attachments.
The results provided some support for Schaffer’s stages of attachment and suggest that attachments develops through a series of stages across the first year of life.
stages of attachment
evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson’s research
strength
high ecological validity - Schaffer and Emerson conducted the observation in each child’s own home which means that the children and parents were more likely to act naturally. This suggests that the behaviours observed such as separation anxiety and forming an attachment in the first year of age happened in a real-life environment. Therefore, the results are likely to apply to other children from a similar demographic in their own homes which increases the ecological validity of the findings
weakness
lacks population validity - the sample consisted of only 60 working class mothers and babies from Glasgow, who may form very different attachments with their infants when compared with wealthier families from other countries. This means that we are unable to generalise the results of this study to mothers and babies from other countries and backgrounds as their behaviour might not be comparable. Therefore, Schaffer’s study is culturally biased on the results cannot be extrapolated to other cultures.
the role of the father
father and primary caregivers (AO1)
Field
Field - fathers are equipped to be primary caregivers
Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spend more time smiling imitating and holding infants than the secondary caregiver fathers. This behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with the infant. It seems that fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of the responsiveness not the gender of the parent.
the role of the father
father and primary caregiver (AO1)
Hrdy
Hrdy - fathers are not equipped as mothers to provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment
Hrdy found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress, in comparison to mothers. These results appear to support the biological explanation that the lack of oestrogen in men means that fathers are not equipped to innately to form close attachments with their children. This suggests that the role of the father is, to some extent, biologically determined and that a father’s role is restricted because of their makeup. This provides further evidence that fathers are not able to produce a sensitive nurturing type of attachment, as they are unable to detect stress in their children.
the role of the father
the role of the father (AO1)
Grossman
Grossman - argued that fathers do not take on a caregiver role and infact provide a different role: as a playmate
Grossman carried out a longitudinal study looking at both the parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the children’s attachment into their teens. Quality of infant attachment was less important. However, the quality of the fathers’ play with infants have a different role in attachment one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.
the role of the father
parent-infant attachment (AO1)
Schaffer and Emerson
Schaffer and Emerson - argued that fathers can demonstrate sensitive responsiveness and respond to the needs of their children and therefore can form a strong emotional tie or bond,
Schaffer and Emerson found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mothers’ first primary attachment (around 7 months) and within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members including the father. In 75% of the infant studied, an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months. This was determined by the fact that the infant protested when their fathers walked away a sign of attachment
the role of the father
strengths (AO3)
the role of the fathers as secondary attachment figures can be explained through biological processes and gender stereotyping. For example, the fact that fathers tend to not become the primary attachment figure could simply be down to the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men. On the other hand, it could be that female hormones (oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure. This is a strength as it confirms that such difference between mothers and fathers in the role of rearing children can be down to an individual’s nature but also their experience of nurture.
the role of the father
weakness (AO3)
there are inconsistent findings as to the role of the father in attachments. For example, the research into the role of the father is attachment is confusing because different researchers are interested in different research questions. Some researchers are interested in understanding the role fathers have as secondary attachment figures, whereas others are more concerned with the father’s role as a primary attachment figure. The former have tended to see fathers behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role. The latter have tended to find that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role. This is a problem because it means psychologists cannot easily answer the questions ‘what is the role of the father?’. The findings from research being inconsistent means that firm conclusion cannot be drawn.
research has left unanswered questions such as if fathers have a distinct role then why aren’t children without fathers different.
disadvantage of animal experiments
animals have a different physiology to humans. this means that any studies on animals cannot be accurately related to humans, making them invalid. for example, humans do not express immediate imprinting on the first person they see, unlike animals such as ducks and dogs.
advantage of animal experiments
things can be done to animals that would be impractical or unethical to do to humans. For example, animals can be bred to see what effects show up in their descendants; they can also be kept in a controlled environment and observed for long period, perhaps for their entire lives
what was the animal experiment
In the 1950s, research which used animal subjects to investigate early life experiences and the ability for organisms to form attachments contributed significantly to the field of developmental psychology. Two of the most well known animal studies were conducted by Konrad Lorenz and Harry Harlow.
animal experiments
Lorenz experiment (AO1)
Lorenz’s research suggests that organisms have a biological propensity to form attachments to one single subject. Lorenz conducted an experiment in which goslings were hatched either with their mother or in an incubator. Once goslings had hatched they proceeded to follow the first moving object that they saw between 13&16 hours after hatching; in this case, Lorenz. It supports the view that having a biological basis for an attachment is adaptive as it promotes survival. This would explain why goslings imprint after a matter of minutes due to their increased mobility; human babies are born immobile and therefore there is less call for them to form an attachment straight away, and so, this develops later (8-9 months).
Furthermore, this has been studied by another case study by Lorenz. Lorenz described a peacock in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises. As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards tortoises. He concluded that the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting. Lorenz found the same behaviour with goslings that imprinting on yellow plastic gloves.
animal experiment
Lorenz experiment (AO3)
it can be criticised for extrapolation - Lorenz conducted his study on imprinting on animals. This is a weakness because humans and animals are psychologically different. The way a human infant develops an attaches with their primary caregiver could be very different to the way an animal forms and attachment with their caregiver. For example, mammals appear to show more emotional reactions to their babies compared to birds. Also mammals are able to form attachments beyond the first few hours after birth. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalised to humans.
animal experiment
Harlow experiment (AO1)
aim: Harlow wanted to find out if monkeys attach to mothers because they feed them or because they provide a safe environment.
procedure: Harlow conducted research with 16 rhesus monkeys which were caged from infancy (removed from their mothers). Harlow measured the amount of time that monkeys spent with each surrogate mother and the amount of time that they cried for their biological mother. 8 monkeys went to a wire mother with cloth which did not provide food but provided comfort. He measured the amount of time the monkeys spent with each mother and the amount of time they cried for their biological mother.
Harlow’s findings revealed that separated infant rhesus monkeys would show attachment behaviours towards a cloth-covered surrogate mother when frightened, rather than a food-dispensing surrogate mother.
Monkeys were willing to explore a room full of novel toys when the cloth-covered monkey was present but displayed phobic responses when only the food-dispensing surrogate was present.
Baby monkeys appear to have an innate drive to seek contact and comfort from their parent suggesting that attachment is formed through an emotional need for security rather than food, which contradicts the learning theory.
This contact with the mother is associate to a higher willingness to explore their surroundings and lower levels of stress
animal experiment
weakness of Harlows experiment (AO3)
conducted in a controlled, artificial laboratory setting -The highly controlled laboratory setting that Harlow used is not reflective of the real life situations and may cause the monkeys to behave in an artificial manner. This is a weakness because it means that Harlow wasn’t necessarily measuring the real-life attachment formation and therefore the study can be criticised for lacking ecological validity.
unethical - the monkeys in Harlow’s study showed great distress when they were removed from their biological mothers. In addition, after the study, when the monkeys were placed in situation with other rhesus monkeys, the rhesus monkeys from the study showed great distress in social situations and were unable to communicate with other monkeys. In addition, when the monkeys from the study had their own children many were said to neglect their offspring and killed their offspring. This is a weakness because Harlow’s study can be seen to be in breach of the BPS guidelines.
16 mark question on animal studies
outline and evaluate animal experiments
AO1: animal experiment - research which used animal subjects to investigate early life experiences and the ability for organisms to form attachments contributed significantly to the field of developmental psychology. Two of the most well known animal studies were conducted by Konrad Lorenz and Harry Harlow.
AO1: Lorenz experiment - gosling
AO1: Harlow experiment - rhesus monkeys
AO3: evaluation lorenz experiment - criticised for extrapolation
AO3: evaluation Harlow experiment - strengthL it was conducted in a controlled laboratory setting, weakness: conducted in an artificial setting, unethical
what are the two explanations of attachment
learning theory, monotropic theory
explanations of attachment
learning theory as an explanation of attachment (AO1)
this proposes that attachments are formed when an infant receives food - they learn to ‘love’ the person who feeds them. this is the ‘cupboard love’ idea.
classical conditioning involves learning through a stimulus with a response. in this case, as food naturally gives pleasure, food is an unconditional stimulus, leading to the unconditioned pleasure response. the caregiver (neutral stimulus) gives in the infant food, and the infant learns to associate the caregiver with the food - so the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response is the pleasure of being fed, which is now ‘paired’ with the caregiver
operant conditioning involves learning through rewards/punishments. by crying, infants produce a response from the caregiver of caregiver’s perspective, comforting the infant leads to the crying stopping, so this behaviour will be repeated by the caregiver. this is negative reinforcement - continuing a behaviour to avoid a negative outcome
explanations of attachment
learning theory of attachment (AO3)
provides a very plausible and scientifically reliable explanation for attachment formation - it seems highly likely that simple association between the provision of needs essential for survival and the person providing those needs can lead to strong attachments. However, the theory is extremely reductionist and there is evidence that infants can form attachments with a person who is not the primary care-giver.
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) studied the attachments formed by 60 infants from birth. They found that a significant number of infants formed attachments with a person other than the one doing the feeding, nappy changing, etc. and that the primary attachment was often with the father and not the mother. They found that it was the quality of interaction with the infant that was most important - stronger attachments were formed with the person who was most sensitive and responsive to the infant’s needs.
Harlow (1958) experimented with the attachments formed between rhesus monkeys and surrogate mothers. In this case the surrogate mothers were wire framed models that provided food and therefore satisfied the monkeys’ primary needs, or ones that were comfortable and padded but provided no food. The findings were that the monkeys would cuddle up to and be more distressed at losing the comfortable padded surrogate mother that provided no food than they were the uncomfortable wire-framed surrogate mother that fed them. It would be easy to conclude from this that conditioning does not explain attachment in infant monkeys as they are not linking food with pleasure, but clinging could actually be essential to the survival of infant monkeys whose mothers may be swinging through trees and so conditioning could still adequately explain their attachment formations - clinging is not so essential for survival to humans
explanations of attachment
monotropic theory (AO1)
Bowlby’s theory
Bowlby (1969) suggests that attachment is a vital adaptive quality that has evolved to increase the chance of survival through proximity-seeking behaviour. As babies are born in an early stage of development, they are highly dependant on the parent as they require constant care, which means that the infant would benefit from a biological mechanism that could keep the parents close to them. According to Bowlby, infants require a qualitatively unique relationship to develop an internal working model and emotional maturity - this special bond is known as monotropic bond. The special bond helps to maintain proximity between the parent and infant and also offers the infant the opportunity to develop skills and an understanding of how to attach and bond to others. Bowlby suggests that attachment takes place during a critical period. It is suggested that if a child does not form an
Bowlby’s monotopic theory of attachment takes an evolutionary perspective. He argued that children are born with an innate tendency to form attachments with their parents in order to increase chances of survival.
there are 5 key elements in this theory; adaptive, social releases, critical period, monotropy, internal working model
adaptive
attachments are adaptive which means they give humans an advantage, making them more likely to survive. if an infant has an attachment, they are kept safe, given food and kept warm by their caregivers. therefore, attachment is innate as it has survival advantages.
social releasers
babies are born with the tendency to display certain innate behaviours (called social releasers) which help ensure proximity and contact with the mother or attachment figure (eg., crying, smiling, crawling etc.) - these are species-specific behaviours.
critical period
Bowlby suggests that there is a critical period for developing an attachment (2.5 years). if an attachment has not developed during this time period, then it may well not happen at all. bowlby later proposed a sensitive period of up to 5 years. if an attachment is not formed during this critical period, the child would be damaged for life, socially, intellectually and physically
monotropy
a child has an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure. This is called monotropy. this concept of monotropy suggests that there is one relationship which is more important than all person is the one that responds more sensitively to the child’s needs
internal working model
according to Bowlby, an internal working model is a cognitive framework comprising mental representations for understanding the world, self and others, and is based on the relationship with a primary caregiver. it becomes a prototype for all future social relationships and allows individuals to predict, control manipulate interactions with others
explanations of attachment
strengths of monotropic theory (AO3)
CRTICIAL PERIOD
there is evidence from animal studies to support the critical period. Lorenz (1935) found that goslings who are mobile soon after birth imprinted on the mother within the first few days of life. Lorenz referred to this imprinting period as the critical period as birds would attach to the mother in this limited period of time. For example, goslings that did not imprint 13-16 hours after hatching would die. This supports the idea that attachment is adaptive and promotes survival. Therefore, the critical period of forming an attachment is supported by animal studies, so Bowlby’s theory can be seen as credible.
INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
there is research to support the idea that attachment provides an internal working model for future relationships. Hazan and Shaver created the love questionnaire and found that anxious lovers were jealous and preoccupied with a partner, avoidant adults tended to shy away from intimacy for fear of being hurt, and secure attachments were the most likely to have a good long lasting romantic relationship. They also found that secure adults reported their parents to be respectful and more accepting while avoidant adults remember their parents as critical and distant. Therefore, this supports the idea that childhood attachment is the memory model for future relationships, increasing the credibility of Bowlby’s theory.
