attachment Flashcards
1
Q
What are Schaffer’s stages of attachment?
A
Asocial stage, Indiscriminate stage, specific attachment, multiple attachments.
2
Q
What is reciprocity?
A
mutual process of turn-taking where each persons response elicits another response from the other. This sensitivity lays the groundwork for later attachment.
3
Q
What is interactional synchrony?
A
When a caregiver and infant reflect each others actions. They mirror each other in a coordinated way.
4
Q
What was Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study?
A
- Sample of 60 babies from Glasgow from working class families. Observations and interviews were used. They also assessed stranger and separation anxiety. Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who showed reciprocity. Fathers were rarely the sole object of attachment. By 40 weeks 80% had formed a specific attachment. This suggests that there is a pattern of attachment to all infants which is biologically controlled.
5
Q
What is undermining evidence for the asocial stage?
A
Babies are mostly immobile in their first weeks so we cannot know that they do not want to socialise, we can only observe that they don’t, which is not reliable.
6
Q
Strength of Schaffer and Emerson as supporting evidence?
A
The behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of the observers. The study was carried out in the families’ own homes and most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later. This suggests that the behaviour of the participants was likely to be natural while they were being observed.
7
Q
Undermining evidence for stages of attachment (culture)?
A
One difficulty with stage theories is that they suggest that development is inflexible. In this case, it suggests that normally specific attachments come before multiple attachments. In some situations and cultures, multiple attachments may come first.
8
Q
What does caregiver-infant interaction form?
A
The basis of attachment
9
Q
What was Lorenz’s study?
A
(1952) he divided a clutch of goose eggs, hatching half with their mother goose and half in an incubator by him. He found the Geese who saw him as their first carer followed him, and vice versa with the mother. This is called imprinting, which Lorenz found a critical period for.
10
Q
What was Bowlby’s theory of attachment? (When does it have to form? Else?)
A
That there is a critical period of about two years for developing attachment, which if not formed results in irreversible developmental consequences.
11
Q
What is the supporting -> undermining evidence for Lorenz’s study?
A
When chickens were exposed to rubber yellow gloves when young, they would try and mate with them as adults. However, with experience they eventually learnt to prefer other chickens.
12
Q
What is a strength of Lorenz’s study?
A
He had a control group, making cause and effect more clear.
13
Q
What is a weakness of Lorenz’s study?
A
There are issues with generalising results about birds to humans - low external validity.
14
Q
What was Harlow’s 1959 study?
A
Monkey 106 was reared on a wire mother and cloth mother, but when in distress would run to the cloth one. This showed ‘contact comfort’ was more important to the baby than food. Suggested the critical period for this was 90 days.
15
Q
What is a real-world application of Harlow’s study?
A
Helps social workers understand the risks of child neglect and so try and prevent it. Also relevant to care of captive monkeys.
16
Q
What is a weakness of Harlow’s study?
A
The two mothers had different shapes, which acts as a confounding variable, making it hard to establish cause and effect.
17
Q
Outline the role of the father…
A
- Research shows role may differ depending on the gender of the child.
- If father is single parent he will adopt maternal role.
- Father takes the role of play and adventure instead of nurturing the child.
- The father is the main male caregiver.
18
Q
What did Grossman find about the role of the father?
A
(2002) found in his longitudinal study that only quality of attachment to mother was important in the child’s adolescence. However, quality of the fathers play was relevant, showing their role.
19
Q
Why might mother and father roles be different?
A
men are less emotionally sensitive than women (biological or social factors) which could be due to not having oestrogen.
20
Q
What evidence is there that fathers can take on the nurturing role?
A
Field (1978) filmed babies in face-to-face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers.
21
Q
What is Schaffer and Emerson’s research on the role of the father?
A
- Found the majority of babies did become attached to their mothers first.
- In 75% of babies studied, an attachment was formed with the father in the first 18 months.
- Fathers are therefore usually secondary attachment figures.
22
Q
What is a weakness of the claim that fathers do not play a distinct role?
A
Socially sensitive, as suggesting fathers are unimportant could distress them and impact legal proceedings.
23
Q
What research suggests that the father can play an important role?
A
Freeman et al. found that sons often prefer the father as the attachment figure.
24
Q
What is a culture?
A
A set of norms, traditions beliefs and values shared by a large group of people.
25
What were the findings of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
- found wide variations between proportions of attachment types in different studies.
- In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification. However the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China.
26
What was the procedure of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) study?
- researchers found 32 studies of attachment which used the strange situation to investigate attachment types.
- results of studies were combined and analysed together, weighting each for sample size.
27
What was Jin et als. 2012 study procedure?
conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies. The Strange Situation was used to assess 87 children.
28
What did Jin et al. 2012 find?
- The overall proportions of secure and insecure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most children being securely attached. More of those who were insecurely attached were resistant; only one was avoidant.
29
What is a strength of both Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s studies?
Combining results of attachment studies leads to very large and varied sample, which increases internal and external validity.
30
What is a weakness of Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s studies?
While they claimed to study cultural variations, they actually studied variations between countries, which is very different.
31
When does Schaffer's asocial stage occur and what does it present?
A baby's first few weeks of life - a preference to the company of familiar people, forming bonds with certain people to form the basis for attachment.
32
When does Schaffer's Indiscriminate attachment stage occur and what does it present?
- 2 to 7 months
- Babies display more observable social behaviours, clearing preferring humans to inanimate objects. Accepts comfort from familiar people particularly.
33
When does Schaffer's specific attachment stage occur and what does it present?
- Around 7 months
- displays classic attachment to primary attachment figure, and stranger anxiety when they are absent.
34
When does Schaffer's multiple attachments stage occur and what does it present?
- after 7 months
- relationships with secondary attachment figures begin.
35
What is separation anxiety?
When people are distressed when primary attachment figure leaves.
36
What is stranger anxiety?
The infant is distressed when in close proximity to people they don't know.
37
What is the difference between primary and secondary attachments?
A primary attachment happens with an infant and their main caregiver, a secondary attachments happens between the infant and other caregivers, such as grandparents (called multiple attachments)
38
How does classical conditioning work?
Unconditioned stimulus -> unconditioned response
Neutral stimulus -> no response
unconditioned + neutral response -> unconditioned response
conditioned stimulus -> conditioned response
39
How does operant conditioning work?
When a behaviour is reinforced through either punishment, negative reinforcement, positive.
40
What is the critical period?
The time within which an attachment must form, after which it is much more difficult to form an attachment.
41
What is an internal working model?
Our mental representations of the world, based on our relationship with our primary attachment figure, affecting what our future relationships will be like.
42
What does monotropic mean?
Indicates that one particular attachment is different from all others and more important.
43
What is Bowlby's monotropic theory?
That we have an innate tendency to form an attachment for survival. It is a reciprocal attachment which has biologically developed through natural selection.
44
What is the supporting evidence for Bowlby's monotropic theory?
Evidence suggests cute infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction and that doing so is important for the baby. Research found that when primary attachment figures ignored their babies’ signals, they initially showed some distress, but when they continued to ignore them, some responded by curling up and lying motionless.
45
What is an ethical issue with Bowlby's monotropic theory?
Implications for mothers lifestyles through suggestion that time apart will impact a quality attachment. Places burden on mothers and encourages them not to return to work.
46
What undermining evidence is there for Bowlby's monotropic theory?
Schaffer and Emerson found that babies are able to form multiple attachments at the same time, suggesting monotropy doesn't apply to all infants.
47
What is the importance of a fathers role in a child's development?
More related to adolescent attachments and is more to do with play and stimulation, less nurturing.
48
Why might the mother and father roles be different?
- men may lack the emotional sensitivity that women have to form an intense attachment. This could be due to social or biological factors.
- traditional gender roles, that women nurture more.
- biological predisposition of women having more oestrogen.
49
What is the supporting evidence for care-giver infant interactions?
Meltzoff and Moore and Isabella et al. both support importance of interactional synchrony.
49
What was Isabella et als study? Findings?
Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony. They found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother-infant attachment.
49
What is Meltzoff and Moore's study + findings
Observed beginnings of interactional synchrony. Adult displayed 1/3 expressions and the babies response was identified within behavioural categories by observers who didn't know what the original expression was. They found an association, and suggested the baby was intentionally copying.
50
What is a real-world impact of care-giver infant interaction research?
Socially sensitive as it suggests some children may be disadvantaged by certain child rearing practises, placing a burden on women who may want to return to work.
51
What is a weakness of research supporting care-giver infant interactions?
They may be observable, but this does not explain why they occur, and so we cannot be certain they have a special meaning.
52
What undermining research is there for the father having a distinct role?
Freeman et al. found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than girls, suggesting the fathers role is more distinct in some attachments than others.
53
What is a weakness (real world impact) of the claim that fathers do not play a distinct role?
Suggestion that the fathers role is secondary is very socially sensitive, and could lead to reduced rights for fathers in legal proceedings.
54
What is a real-world application of research into the role of fathers?
It can offer advice to worried parents who are unsure who should stay at home. It could reassure single mothers that fathers are not required for their child's development and vice versa.
55
What is imprinting?
Where offspring follow the first large-moving object they see.
56
What is sexual imprinting?
Sexual imprinting is a process whereby mate preferences are affected by learning at a very young age, usually using a parent as the model.
57
What is the strange situation?
A controlled observation designed to test attachment security. Babies are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left along, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver.
58
What is a secure attachment?
associated with psychologically healthy outcomes - moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion.
59
What is insecure-avoidant attachment
Characterised by low anxiety but weak attachment. In the strange situation this is low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion.
60
What is insecure-resistant attachment?
Characterised by strong attachment and high anxiety. In strange situation this is high levels of stranger and separation anxiety but resistance to being comforted at reunion.
61
What was the procedure of the strange situation?
controlled observation: psychologists observe through two-way mirror.
62
What is proximity seeking behaviour?
babies with good attachments will stay close to their caregivers.
63
What is exploration and secure-base behaviour?
Baby is confident to explore using their caregiver as a secure base.
64
What is a healthy response to reunion?
babies who are securely attached greet the caregivers return with pleasure and seek comfort.
65
What are the stages of strange situation and what do they test?
1. Baby is encouraged to explore (exploration and secure base)
2. Stranger enters (stranger anxiety)
3. caregiver leaves (separation + Sa)
4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves (reunion + exploration and secure base)
5. caregiver leaves baby alone (separation anxiety)
6. stranger returns (stranger anxiety)
7. caregiver returns (reunion behaviour)
66
What percentage of the pop. are each attachment type?
Secure attachment - 60-75% British babies.
Insecure avoidant - 20-25% British babies.
Insecure-resistant - 3% of British babies.
67
What is a weakness of the strange situation? (culture)
As it was developed in Britain and the U.S. it may be culture-bound, as babies have different experiences in different cultures. For example in Japan, many babies are classified as insecure-resistant, but this could just be because mother-baby separation is rare in Japan.
68
What is a strength of the strange situation?(reliability)
Good inter-rater reliability, with tests finding a 94% agreement between observers. This could be because of the controlled conditions or the easily observable behaviours.
69
What is a strength of the strange situation? (predictive) However ...
It is predictive of later development - research shows secure attachment children go on to have better mental health and do better in school, being less involved in bullying.
However... some psychologists suggest this could be influenced by genetics, not attachment.
70
What are the effects of institutionalisation?
- Low IQ
- Physical underdevelopment
- Disinhibited attachment
- Poor parenting
- Emotional functioning
- Quasi-autism
- lack of internal working model.
- emotionless psychopathy
71
What is Quasi-autism?
struggling to understand social contexts and developing obsessions.
72
What is maternal deprivation?
lack of nurturing secure mother-child relationship.
73
What is mental retardation?
Delayed brain development which can cause low IQ.
74
What is seperation?
Where the child is not in the presence of the primary caregiver for extended periods of time.
75
What is deprivation?
Child loses an element of the primary attachment figures emotional care, without a suitable substitute.
76
What are the stages in Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory?
Maternal deprivation -> Monotropy -> critical period -> Irreversible -> Emotional and intellectual development -> Affectionless psychopathy + intellectual development -> internal working model -> continuity hypothesis.
77
What is maternal deprivation?
Long term separation from mother
78
What is monotropy?
specific attachment with the mother
79
What is the critical period?
A sensitive period where there can be irreversible effects if attachment is damaged or disrupted.
80
What can a lack of continual maternal care cause?
Stunted emotional (affectionless psychopathy - inability to experience guilt and affection) and intellectual development (low IQ)
81
What is an internal working model?
Template for future relationships based on primary attachment.
82
What is the continuity hypothesis?
poor maternal relationship = poor future relationships.
83
What is Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory?
That the effects of early experiences (loss of emotional care from maternal figure) may interfere with usual processes of attachment forming
84
What was the aim of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?
To examine the links between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
85
What was the procedure of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?
- Sample of 44 criminal teenagers.
- participants interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (lack of guilt + lack of empathy)
- families interviewed to establish if there was deprivation.
- control group of 44 non-criminal children (with emotional problems)
86
What were the findings of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?
Main study -14 had affectionless psychopathy and 12 of these had maternal deprivation.
Control - 2 had maternal deprivation but none had affectionless psychopathy.
87
What is the evaluation for Bowlby's 44 thieves study?
+ showed a connection
- researcher bias
- correlation not causation
- real-world application: hospital parenting.
88
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation?
+ 44 thieves study supports
- 44 thieves has researcher bias
+ Hospital-parenting
- Determinism: research has found critical period damage may be reversible with good aftercare.
89
What is the strength of the research on cultural variation?
- Van ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg's had a very large sample of nearly 2000
90
What are the weaknesses of the research on cultural variation?
- It is an Anglo-American theory, so may apply less to other cultures e.g. in Germany low separation anxiety could be a good sign of independence.
- claims to study cultural variation, but actually studies countries not cultures: there can be many cultures within a country.
91
What are social releasers?
Bowlby suggested that babies are born with 'cute' features (e.g. big eyes, crying and cooing) which encourage care from adults, activating the innate adult attachment system. These enhance survival, and so are spread through natural selection.
92
What is monotropy?
That a child's relationship with their primary attachment figure is of special significance for their emotional development and is the most important relationship.
93
What is an internal working model?
A child's mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure, which gives them a template for future relationships.
94
What was the procedure of Rutter et als. study?
- followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans (suffering effects of institutionalisation) adopted in Britain (in good care)
- Control group of 52 British children.
- A longitudinal study, involving interviews with parents and teachers.
95
What were the findings of Rutter et al. study?
- By the age of 4, almost all Romanian children adopted before the age of 6 months had caught up with their British counterparts.
- At 11, rates of recovery related to age of adoption.
- children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment, but rarely if before.
96
What was Zeanah et al. 2005 study?
They assessed attachment in 95 children who had spent most of their lives in institutional care, compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution, measuring using the Strange Situation. Carers were also asked about unusual social behaviour, including clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults (i.e. disinhibited attachment).
97
What were the findings of Zeanah et al. study?
- most of the control group came out as securely attached
- Only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached, with 65% being classified with disorganised attachment.
98
What is a real-world application of studying Romanian orphans?
Enhanced understanding of institutionalisation, for example orphanages now work on having central workers who look after the children.
99
What is a strength of specifically Romanian orphan studies?
Often orphans are suffering from bereavement which acts as a confounding variable.
100
What is a weakness of the Romanian orphan studies?
The children were not randomly allocated to conditions, so more sociable children could have just been adopted earlier- compromised internal validity.
101
What will happen if a child has a secure relationship with their primary caregiver?
They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them, without being too uninvolved (insecure-avoidant) or being controlling and argumentative (insecure-resistant).
102
What will happen to a child with one of the two unhealthy attachment types?
The latter two attachment types experienced in childhood may result in struggling to form relationships in the first place, or not behaving appropriately when they have them (both friends and partners).
103
What was Hazan and Shaver's love quiz?
A study in 1987 to examine the application of attachment theory to adult romantic relationships. They designed a ‘love quiz’ to collect information on participants’ early attachment styles and attitudes toward loving relationships.
104
What did Hazen and Shaffer find?
- 56% were securely attached, 25% insecure-avoidant, and 19% insecure-resistant.
- They found a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences.
105
What is a weakness of studying the influence of early attachment on relationships?
Overly determinist - suggests children are doomed by their early experiences, when research has found that people with poor first attachments can have healthy relationships in the future.
106
What is a weakness of studying the influence of early attachment on relationships? (internal working model)
Because they are subconscious, it means we can only gather evidence on it from self-report, which is unreliable.
