Attachment Flashcards

Question

# imprint on glove - imprinting is not permanent Evaluation - Strength - Research support for imprinting ? | (Animal Studies)

Answer 1

Point - Guiton exposed chicks to a yellow rubber glove, so that they imprinted on the glove. Male chickens then tried to imprint on the glove. Counter - Guiton found that imprinting is not permanent and is irreversible. If an animal spent enough time with its own species they displayed normal sexual behaviour.

Answer 2

Point - There is an issue when generalising the findings from birds to humans as mammalian attachement systems are different from birds

Answer 3

Aim - To test importance of contact comfort to attachement Procedure - Created to wire mothers (One wrapped in soft cloth) 16 baby monkeys Condition 1 - Wire mother dispensed milk Condition 2 - Cloth mother dispensed milk Recorded who they went to when frightened and who they spent the most time with

Answer 4

Findings - All monkeys spent most time with cloth mother Monkeys that had wire mother dispensing milk would onoly go to wire mother for milk When frightened went to cloth mother Conclusion - Infants don't develop attachments to the person feeding them but the one offering contact comfort

Answer 5

Harlow followed monkeys into adulthood Findings - Monkeys reared with only wire mother were most dysfunctional. Monkeys were less sociable, more aggressive and bred less Some neglected or attacked there young resulting in death Critical period for normal developement in monkeys is 90 days

Answer 6

Point - Harlow's findings gave psychologists better understanding of human mother-infant interaction. Shows attachement develops through contact comfort. Further - Practical application of childworkers understanding the risks of child neglect and abuse more leading to them trying harder to intervene.

Answer 7

Point - Monkeys suffered as part of the study. They are similar enough to humans that findings can be generalised and that suffering was quite-human like Counter I&D - Using cost benefit analysis, Harlows research could be considered sufficiently important to justify the effects of maternal deprivation. study has been used to offer better care for human infants.

Answer 8

Dollard and Millers - Learning theory - Suggests children learn to love whoever feeds them

Answer 9

Hunger is a Primary Drive – it is an innate, biological motivator Attachment is a secondary drive learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive

Answer 10

Neutral Stimulus – caregiver Unconditioned Stimulus – Food Unconditioned Response – pleasure from being fed Conditioned Stimulus – caregiver after some time – the same person provides food over and over, they become associated with food Conditioned Response – once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a conditioned response of pleasure

Answer 11

Posititve Reinforcement: Babies cry in front of caregiver as it results in getting food Negative Reinforcement: When babies cry caregiver receives negative reinforcement as babies crying is irritatitng

Answer 12

Point - Monkeys attached to soft mother rather than wire mother who dispensed milk Further Research - Counter-evidence from human research - Schaffer and Emerson found babies developed attachment to biological mothers even when other people did most of the feeding.

Answer 13

Point - Quality pf attachment is associated with interactional synchrony and reciprocity and the best attachments are with sensitive carers I&D - Reductionist because learning theory reduces the complex notion of attachment to a set of probabilities. It is too simplistic and narrow explanation of attachment. Holistic approach is needed.

Answer 14

Point - Bowlby’s theory of attachment explains why and how attachments form whereas learning theory only explains how they form Further - Bowbly's theory suggests attachment occurs because of evolution whereas learning theory suggest no reason for attachment occuring. Bowlby's theory also suggests impacts on future relationships.

Answer 15

Bowlby believed that a child's attachment to one cargiver (Mother) is differnt and more important than

Answer 16

The law of continuity - The more constant and predictable a childs care, the better the quality of attachment The law of accumulated seperation - the affects of seperation from the mother add up, whereby being seperated for to lonmg can have damaging effects

Answer 17

Babies are born with a set of innate ''cute'' behaviours These behaviours activate the adult attachment system -> making them feel love towards the baby Interplay between infant and adult attachment systems gradually builds the relationship

Answer 18

Critical period is the timeframe a baby has to form an attachment Human critical period is 2 years according to Bowlby If not formed infant may struggle to form attachments in the future

Answer 19

Internal working model - a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver Serves as a model for what relationships are like – influences a child’s future relationships Affects a child’s ability to be a parent later on

Answer 20

Point - Schaffer and Emerson found most babies did not attach to one person first. Also a significant minority could form multiple attachments at the same time Further - Unclear whether first attachment is unique. Attachment to primary attachment figure may just be stronger than othersand not different in quality

Answer 21

Point - Burman claims this places a burden of responsibility on mothers. This sets mothers up to take blame for anything that goes wrong in the rest of the childs life while potentially pushing them out of work. I&D - Socially sensitive theory as it has consequences for a class of individuals. Could lead to a bias and mothers granted custody in divorce cases.

Answer 22

Point - Tronick et al - research support for social releasers, when mother ignored babies social releasers, babies became distressed and some responded by lying motionless to grab attention Further - Bailey et al - Research support for internal working models. Study conducted on 99 mothers with 1 year old, showed that mothers with poor attachement to their mother were more likely to have poor attachment with babies

Answer 23

Aim - Observe key attachment behaviours to assess quality of a childs attachment. Procedure - Controlled observation, in a room with a two way mirror Sample of 100 American middle class Behaviours tested: Proximity Seeking - good attachment stays fairly close to caregiver Exploration and Secure-base behaviour - good attachment enables child to feel confident to explore using caregiver as a secure base Stranger Anxiety - a sign of attachment is to display anxiety when a stranger approaches Separation Anxiety - a sign of attachment is to protest at separation from the caregiver Response to Reunion - with the caregiver after separation for a short period of time

Answer 24

Secure Attachment (Type B) - Shows moderate of all behaviours Requires and accepts comfort in reunion stage Insecure-Avoident Attachment (Type A) - Doesnt show any of the behaviours Doesnt require comfort in reunion stage Insecure-Resistant Attachment (Type C) - Shows high levels of all behaviours Resists comfort when reunited

Answer 25

Point - Cultural differences in childhood experiences likely to mean children respond differently to strange situation and caregivers from different cultures will repond differrently. Takahashi tested in Japan and found securely attached children have high seperation anxiety I&D - Culture bias as the experiment reflects norms and values of the US culture. For example German mothers are seen as cold and rejecting rather than encouraging interdependance in children - ethnocentrism. Ainsworth imposed her own cultural understanding on rest of the world which is imposed etic

Answer 26

Point - Attachement is strongly predicitve of later development. Secure typically have better outcomes like success at school and romance whereas Insecure-Resistant Attachment is associated with the worst outcomes such as bullying and mental health problems I&D - Suggesting there are fixed outcomes is environmental determinism

Answer 27

Point - Main and Soloman analysed over 200 strange situation studies and proposed Insecure-Disorganised (Type D). They lack consistent patterns of social behaviour, where caregivers are a soure of fear when they should be a source of comfort Further - Van Ijezendoorn et al's meta analysis US found that 15% were insecure-disorganised

Answer 28

Aim: To find variations between different cultures To find the variation within each culture Procedure: Meta-Analysis of 32 studies in 8 different countries 15 were from USA sample size of 1990

Answer 29

Findings: Secure most common attachment type in all countries - Ranging from UK 75% to China 50% Insecure-Resistant least common in most countires except Japan and Israel - Ranging from UK 3% to Israel 30% Insecure-Avoidant found most in Germany and Japan Conclusion: Secure is the norm in a wide range of cultures supporting Bowlby's theory However cultural practices do have an influence on attachment type

Answer 30

Point - Van Ijzendoorn combined the results of attachment studies amounting to a large sample of 1990 infants However - This is culture bias as the strange situation was desighned by an American and based on British theory. Also suffers from imposed etic as tries to apply Anglo-American theories

Answer 31

Point - Grossman and Grossman found that German infants tended to be classed as insecure rather than secure. This could be due to different child rearing practices emphasizing keeping some interpersonal distance between parents and children. Further - Takahashi studied 60 Japanese infants and mothers and found that infants were so distressed when left alone study was stopped 90% of the time

Answer 32

Point - Comparisons by Van Ijzendoorn were between countries not cultures of which there are many different cultures in each different country each with diffferent child-rearing practices. Further - Van Ijzendoorn and Sagi found attachment in Tokyo was similar to western cultures whereas more rural samples had an overepresentation of Insecure-resistant.

Answer 33

Seperation - Not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure Speration is only an issue if the child becomes deprived of an element of their care Extended seperations can lead to emotional and intellectual impacts

Answer 34

Children deprived for too long in the critical period (30 months) suffered delayed intellectial development Normally characterised by a low IQ (under 80)

Answer 35

Bowlby identified 'Affectionless Psychopathy' as the inability to feel guilt or strong emotions for others This prevents a person from developing relationships with others and is linked with criminality Affectionless pychopaths cannot appreciate feelings of victims so they lack remorse for there actions

Answer 36

Aim: To identify a link between affectionless psyco-athy and maternal deprivation Procedure: 44 Theives interviwed for sighns of AP. Families interviewed to see if the theives had experienced prolonged early seperations Control group of non-criminal (Disturbed young people) was set up to see how often maternal deprivation occured in children who were not theives

Answer 37

Findings : 14/44 theives could be described as APs 12 od the 14 had experienced prolonged seperation from mother in first 2 years Only 5/30 remaining had experienced seperations 2/44 from control group had expereinced long seperations Conclusion: Prolonged early seperation / deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy

Answer 38

Point - The theory has had a major effect on care of children in hospitals, originally parents were discouraged or forbidden from seeing newborn. This has changed greatly due to the potential emotional and intellectual damage that prolonged seperation causes. Counter - Lewis recreated 44 theives study with 500 young people. She found history of prolonged seperation from mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.

Answer 39

Point - Goldfarb followed 30 orphans and found lower IQ in those that stayed in institutions compared to those who were fostered and had a higher standard of emotional care Counter - Goldfarb's study used children in the WW2, this means his evidence was flawed as children were traumatised and often had poor after-care. Therefore these factors may have been developmental problems not seperation.

Answer 40

Point - Use of the term ''critical'' suggests damage from prolonged seperation is inevitable if occured within that period. Whereas Kulochova's study were twin boys were isolated from mother between 18months to 7 yrs, and went on to make a full recovery suggests otherwise I&D - Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation is an example of environmental determinism as it claims those who have experienced deprivation in early childhood are doomed to bad outcomes

Answer 41

Institutionalisation - the effects of living in an institute where there is little emotional care provided

Answer 42

Aim: to investigate the impact that living in institutional care has on children and whether good care can make up for poor early experiences Procedure: Followed 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain Control group of 52 British adopted children Physical, cognitive and emotional development assesed at 4, 6, 11 and 15

Answer 43

Findings: Intellectual Development - when first assesed 1/2 showed delayed intellectual development at 11 - showed different rates of recovery based off age adopted Mean IQ (before 6 months) - 102 Mean IQ (between 6 months and 2 yrs) - 86 Mean IQ (after 2 years) - 77 differences remained at 16 years old Those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment Conclusion: Failure to form attachment in 6 months appears to have long lasting effects. Effects are greater after 2 yrs. Supports critical period theory.

Answer 44

Aim: measure the attachment of those who had lived in intstitutional care Procedure: Strange situation test on 95 Romanian children who spent most of there time in orphanages 50 children who had never experienced institutional care

Answer 45

Findings: Only 19% of institutionalised group wee securely attached 44% of institutionalised grouped had characteristics of disinhibited attachment Conclusion: Growing up in institutional care causes disinhibited attachment

Answer 46

Disinhibited attachment - children do not discriminate between people chosen as attachment figures - will treat near strangers with innapropriate familiarity and may be attention seeking. Caused by living with multiple caregivers at senstitive age Mental retardation - Children adopted after 6 months have signs of having very low IQ.

Answer 47

Point - Romanian orphans had not suffered any trauma therefore when studying the effects of instititutionalisation in isolation the study was not effected by confounding variables Counter - Romanian orphanages were not typical and had such bad conditions that results cant be applied to institutional care, as some institutions will have better facilities and better care

Answer 48

Point - The studies are longitudinal but only follow orphans into mid-teens which is too soon to say if children suffered short or long term effects. Those who lag behind may catch up in adulthood and those that appear to have no issues may experience emotional issues as adults I&D - Suffers from environmental determinism as suggets that those adopted after 6 months will develop emotional and intellectual defecits regardless of quality of care

Answer 49

Point - Enhanced understanding of institutionalisation has led to improvments in the way children are cared for in institutions. Orphanages now avoid having a large number of caregivers and ensure a smaller number play a central role for the child. This gives children the opportunity to form normal attachments. Further - Has had an affect on encouraging early adoption. In the past mothers were encouraged to nurse the baby for a period of time before adoption which could be after sensitive period had passed. Now babies are normally adopted within the first week of birth.

Answer 50

Study: Friendships in childhood Findings: Securely attached infnats form strongest relationships Insecurely attached infants struggle to form friendships

Answer 51

Study: Studied bullying, looked at 196 children from London Findings: Securely attached children unlikely to be bullied Insecure-Avoidant (Type A) = Victim Insecure-Resistant (TypeC) = Bully

Answer 52

Study: Romantic friendships and relationships 40 women Findings: Securely attached had best adult relationships and friendships Insecure-Avoidant (Type A) = Struggle with intimacy Inseure-Resistant (Tye C) = Struggle to maintain

Answer 53

Study: Romantic relationships, 620 replies to love quiz Findings: Securely attached experience long lasting relationships Insecure-Avoidant (Type A) = Reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy

Answer 54

Study: 99 mothers and their attachments to their babies using strange situation Findings: Babies had same attachment types as mothers

Answer 55

Point - Research is correlational and not experimental meaning you cant claim cause and effect that, early attachemnt types effect relationships later in life. There could be other factors such as parenting style which could have a direct impact on childrens ability to form relationships Further - Studies are not representative of population. Myron-Wilson and Smith looked at a 196 children located in London during the 80s meaning findings may be difficult to generalise to urban areas and the study lacks temporal validity due to greater social awareness

Answer 56

Point - Most studies assess infant caregiver attachment using a questionnaire or interview when participants are older. This creates validity issues as participants may not fully understand their attachment type and may not have accurate recollection. Further - Internal working models are unconscious meaning we are unaware of their influence. This means we cannot gather data as people can only report what there conscious of.

Answer 57

Point - Poor early attachments may just be a risk factor to later relationships and there effects may have been exaggerated. I&D - Studies suffer from environmental determinsim as it claims that very early experiences have a fixed outcome later in life