attachment Flashcards
(150 cards)
what is attachment?
an emotional tie or bond between an infant and a caregiver. the relationship is said to be reciprocal
MSA - Attachment can be defined as an emotional relationship between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure.
3 behaviours or characteristics that demonstrate attachment?
Proximity
Separation distress
Secure-base behaviour
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS
what is reciprocity?
a two way mutual process where an infant responds to the action of another person in a form of turn taking. The behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other.
e.g A mother smiles, the baby smiles back
what is interactional synchrony?
Where an infant mirrors the actions of another person; for example, an infant imitating behaviours and/or the emotions of their parents/carers
KEY STUDY: MELTZOFF AND MOORE (1977)
What was his aim?
to examine interactional synchrony in infants
Describe the method used by Meltzoff and Moore (1977)?
using controlled observation an adult model would display one of three facial expressions and hand movements. To start with, the child had a dummy placed in his/her mouth to prevent a facial response, and then removed following the adult’s display. The child’s response was filmed.
what were the results of Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
there was a clear association between the infants behaviour and that of the adult model.
Meltzoff and Moore conclusion?
interactional synchrony is innate and reduces the strength of any claim that imitative behaviour is learned
AO3: Evaluation of Caregiver-Infant Interactions
strength: Meltzoff and Moore’s (1977) - REPLICATED STUDY - FINDINGS = REPEATED
- Meltzoff and Moore (1983) replicated their study with infants as young as three-days old. The found that even infants this young demonstrated the same synchrony, suggesting that the behaviour is innate. This suggests that the original findings were reliable and that caregiver-infant interactions are an innate mechanism used to help develop an attachment bond.
weakness - QUESTIONALBLE RELIABILITY - DIFFICULT TO OBSERVE BABIES
Weakness 2: KOEPKE ET AL (1983) - REPLICATED - did not find the same results
Weakness 3: OBSERVER BIAS
Weakness 4: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES - ISABELLA ET AL.
Infants pull ‘funny faces’ all the time and it is not uncommon for an infant to randomly stick their tongue out, yawn or smile and therefore it is difficult to distinguish between normal behaviour and imitation. We are unable to conclude whether the results of Meltzoff and Moore’s research demonstrate caregiver-infant interactions or everyday infant behaviour, and therefore further research is required to test the reliability of these findings.
Koepke et al. (1983) attempted to replicate Meltzoff and Moore’s findings, but failed to produce the same results. This matters because it questions the reliability of Meltzoff and Moore’s findings and their replication conducted 6 years later, and further illustrates the need for additional research in this area.
in addition there is observer bias, the researchers may concoiusly or unconcoisly interpret behaviour to support their findings. to demolish this we need more than one observer to examine the inter-observer reliability.. lack of research = unreliable, more research is required.
individual differences play a role. recent research has shown that only secure infants engage in interactional synchrony - Isabella et al found that the more securely attached the infant, the greater the level of interactional synchrony. This suggests that not all children engage in interactional synchrony and m and m overlooked individual differences.
SHAFFER AND EMERSON STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
What are Shaffer and Emerson stages of attachment?
Shaffer and Emerson identified 4 stages of attachment, which suggest that as babies age, they display certain behaviours, which are set in stages. And suggested that every baby goes through each of the stages in the same sequence.
KEY STUDY: SHAFFER AND EMERSON(1964):
what was the aim of Shaffer and Emerson (1964) glasgow babies research?
they aimed to investigate the formation of early attachment
describe the method used by Shaffer and Emerson?
-used a sample of 60 babies 31 male, 29 female from working class families in glasgow aged 5-23 weeks
- this was a longitudinal study so the babies were studied every month for the for the first year and then again at 18months
- they used observation and interviews with the mothers
- they assessed separation anxiety/protest; through infant being left alone in the room, left in a pram outside the shops, left in a cot at night etc
- also assessed stranger anxiety with the researcher at home visits by approaching the infant
what was Schaffer and emersons’s results?
- at around 25-32 weeks, 50% of the children showed separation anxiety towards their mother
- babies also tended to be with the caregiver who was the most interactive and sensitive to the infants signals
- by 40 weeks, 80% of the children had a specific attachment and 30% had started to form multiple attachments
what do these results suggest?
does provide some support for Shaffers stages and suggests that attachment develops through a series of stages across the first year of life. furthermore, attachmets are more easily made when the parent shows reciprocity rather than spending more time with the child
what are the stages of attachment?
Asocial/ Pre-attachment
indiscriminate attachment
discriminate (specific) attachment
multiple attachments
describe A-social attachment?
- from 0 to 2 months (0-8 weeks)
- behaviour between humans and objects similar
- recognise specific faces
- happier in presence of humans than alone
- preference for familliar individuals
- prefer faces to non-faces
- smile at anyone
describe indiscriminate attachment?
- from 2-7 months
recognise and prefer familiar adults - smile more at familiar then unfamiliar faces
- preference for people rather than objects
- accept comfort from any adult
- do not show stranger anxiety yet
describe discriminate/specific attachment?
- 8-12 months
- primary attachment to one individual
- shows stranger anxiety
- show separation anxiety
- use familliar adulta as a secure base
describe multiple attachment stage?
-1 year onwards
-form secondary attachments with familiar adults with whom they spend time
strengths of Shaffer and Emerson study:
1- HIGH EXTERNAL VALIDITY - conducted at the child’s own home
2- LONGITUDINAL STUDY - better when comparing two groups of children
one strength of Shaffer and Emerson’s study is that is has high ecological/external validity. They conducted the investigation at the child’s own home which means that children and parents are more likely to act naturally. In addition, most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later. So the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers. Therefore we can generalise these finding and apply them to children from a similar demographic in their homes.
another strength of the study is that the research is longitudinal. so the same children followed-up regularly, which is better than ‘cross sectional’ when comparing two groups children. This means it has good internal validity as there are no confounding variables that you would find if you studied different babies and compared them.