Attachment Flashcards
(174 cards)
1
Q
what is an attachment?
A
a two-way enduring emotional bond that is between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security - separation can cause issues in attachment, weakening the bond.
2
Q
what is the baby-face hypothesis?
A
baby face features act as a trigger for parenting behaviour, which is necessary for young animals survival - they elicit our desire to look after and care for babies.
3
Q
what are the caregiver-infant interactions?
A
meaningful social interactions between infants and caregivers - these help a child’s social development, particularly caregiver-infant attachment; attachment begins with interaction and the responsiveness of a caregiver has profound effects.
4
Q
what are the two types of caregiver-infant interactions?
A
reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
5
Q
what is reciprocity?
A
reciprocity is responding, it refers to the process in which a behaviour is responded to during an interaction (turn-taking) - an intense interaction where infants have ‘alert phases’ to signal their caregivers for attention (infants usually around 3 months and hold an active role).
6
Q
what is interactional synchrony?
A
interactional synchrony is mirroring, it is where an infant mirrors the actions of their carer (mother) - carrying out the same actions and emotions simultaneously leading to them being synchronised with their actions and emotions.
7
Q
what is the research into interactional synchrony?
A
meltzoff and moore (1977) found that babies’ interactions to carers started mirroring from as young as two weeks old (filmed observation).
isabella et al (1989) found that the quality of attachment was related to synchrony (observation).
8
Q
what are the strengths of research into caregiver-infant interactions?
A
there is high validity and reliability, filmed observations are in controlled conditions and analysed later so it is unlikely to miss key behaviours, inter-rater reliability can be established and no change in behaviour as babies are unaware of being observed.
there is real-world application, crotwell et al (2013) found that parent-child interactions therapy improved interactional synchrony in low-income mothers and their pre-school children.
9
Q
what are the weaknesses of research into caregiver-infant interactions?
A
there is a difficulty observing babies, it is hard to interpret baby’s behaviour as they have a lack of co-ordination, small movements and subtle expression changes.
it can be socially sensitive as it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to work after having a baby may risk damaging the baby’s development.
the observation of behaviour does not tell us about the importance in development (purpose of behaviours).
10
Q
what is a primary attachment figure?
A
the person to whom the baby has the strongest attachment to.
11
Q
what is the traditional view/research of the role of the father?
A
- men are not equipped to form an attachment biologically, psychologically and socially.
- biological evidence suggests: oestrogen (caring/sensitive) hormone allows women to develop caring behaviours - forms close attachments, not the same with men.
- cultural/social expectations view child rearing as stereo-typically feminine (not suited to men).
- fathers provide a different role to a nurturing role e.g. as a play mate.
12
Q
what is the recent view/research of the role of the father?
A
- fathers can form secure attachments with their children.
- fathers can demonstrate sensitive responsiveness to the needs of their children and can form a strong bond.
- research: testosterone (aggression) lowers when becoming dads.
- leads to increase of dopamine (happy) and oxytocin (love) released when interacting.
- now more common for a man to be more involved in bringing up children.
13
Q
who conducted a study on attachment to fathers and when?
A
schaffer and emerson, 1964
14
Q
what did schaffer and emerson find in their study?
A
they found that the majority of babies first become attached to their mother at around 7 months.
- 3% = when fathers are the first object of attachment
- 27% = when fathers were joint first objects of attachment with their mother.
- 75% = attachment formed with fathers by 18 months.
this suggests that fathers are less likely to become babies’ first attachment figure and go on to become more important figures.
15
Q
what did hrdy do his study on and when?
A
1999, conducted a study on fathers’ attachment.
16
Q
what did hrdy find in his study?
A
he found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress in comparison to mothers, the lack of oestrogen in men means that fathers are not equipped innately to form close attachments with children so this suggests that hrdy’s research supports the biological explanation.
17
Q
who conducted research for distinctive role of fathers and when?
A
grossmann et al, 2002.
18
Q
what did grossmann et al do?
A
they carried out a longitudinal study: babies’ attachments studied until their teens, researchers looked at parents’ behaviour and relationship to quality of later attachments.
19
Q
what did grossmann et al find in their study?
A
they found that the quality of fathers’ play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments and the baby’s attachment to mothers, this suggests that attachment to fathers is less important than to mothers and fathers have a different role from mothers.
20
Q
what did brown conduct their study in and when?
A
father involvement, 2012.
21
Q
what did brown do?
A
he investigated father involvement, paternal sensitivity and father-child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years.
22
Q
what did brown find in his study?
A
the results showed that involvement and sensitivity influenced father-child attachment security at age 3 - involvement was a greater predictor of secure attachment when fathers were rated as less sensitive.
23
Q
what did field conduct his study on and when?
A
1978, fathers as primary attachment figures.
24
Q
what did field do in his study?
A
he filmed 4 month old babies in face-to0face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
25
what did field find and conclude in his study?
they found that primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies (reciprocity and synchrony), this suggests that fathers can have the potential to be a more emotion-focused primary attachment figure.
26
what are the strengths for research into the role of the father?
there is RWA, research can be used to give reassuring advice to parents - heterosexual parents can be advised that fathers are capable of being a primary-attachment figure and lesbian-parent / single-mother families can be informed that not having a father around does not affect a child's development, parental anxiety about the role of the father can be reduced.
27
what are the weaknesses of research into the role of the father?
there is research bias, preconceptions of fathers' behaviour may lead to observer bias and may affect some studies.
findings on the role of the father have been inconsistent - some studies showing fathers have a nurturing role, some suggesting they have a different role, therefore, it is hard to make a conclusion on what the role of the father is.
28
who conducted a study on the development of attachment and when?
schaffer and emerson, 1964.
29
what was the aim of schaffer and emerson's study?
to discover and understand how babies' attachments develop, they believed that human attachments took longer than animals.
30
what did schaffer and emerson do in their study?
- they conducted an observational study with 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) from glasgow and skilled working class families.
- they visited the babies in their homes at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of their life (longitudinal study).
- interactions with their carers were analysed and questioned mothers to establish if and when babies displayed separation and stranger anxiety.
31
what was the IV in schaffer and emerson's study?
age of infant.
32
what was the DV in schaffer and emerson's study?
stranger and separation anxiety.
33
what did schaffer and emerson find in their study?
the babies' attachment behaviour progressed, which led them to identify 4 stages.
34
what were the 4 stages that schaffer and emerson identified?
asocial stage, indiscriminate attachment, specific attachment and multiple attachments.
35
what is the asocial stage?
0-6 weeks, their behaviour is the same towards everything (humans and objects) and for attention but start to show signs that they prefer to be with other people e.g. primary attachment figure.
36
what is the indiscriminate attachment?
2-7 months, start to show a clear preference for being with humans rather than objects and are more strongly responsive to familiar people, they do not show stranger/separation anxiety as are happy to receive attention from anyone.
37
what is the specific attachment?
7-9 months, they begin to experience and show separation anxiety from their primary caregivers and stranger anxiety.
38
what is the multiple attachments?
10 months +, they become interested in and attached to other people, such as grandparents, siblings, etc, so they start forming several attachments.
39
what did schaffer and emerson conclude?
that infants go through each of the attachment stages and that infants' mothers are still the most crucial attachment figures at 18 months of age.
40
what are the strengths of schaffer and emerson's stages of attachment?
there is external validity as most of the observations were made by the parents so the babies were not stressed (no stranger anxiety) which means that it is highly likely that the babies' behaved naturally while being observed, however, it can be considered that the mothers may have been biased or not noticed key behaviours so the external validity is affected.
there is practical application as in infants can stay at day care during the asocial/indiscriminate stage, babies can be comforted by any skilled adult but problematic starting day care in specific attachment stage.
41
what are the weaknesses of schaffer and emerson's stages of attachment?
there is poor evidence for the asocial stage as young babies have poor co-ordination and are immobile so if they experienced anxiety it is hard to observe which suggests that there may be a lack of validity in the measures used to assess attachments.
there is lack of generalisability as even though the study can be generalised due to its large scale study, the data gathered is only from glasgow and the working class which is not fully representative of other populations and cultures, the study was also conducted in the 1960s suggesting that it is outdated as well.
42
what is imprinting?
an innate readiness to develop certain behaviours during a critical/sensitive period of development.
43
who conducted a study investigating imprinting and when?
lorenz, 1952.
44
what did lorenz do in his study?
he conducted a classic/field experiment and randomly divided goose eggs; one half hatched with mother (control group), 1/2 hatched with lorenz in an incubator (experimental group).
45
what was the IV in lorenz's study?
where the goslings hatched.
46
what was the DV in lorenz's study?
who the goslings hatched to.
47
what did lorenz find in his study?
the control group followed their mother everywhere while the experimental group followed lorenz everywhere, even when the group were mixed (they imprinted onto him).
48
what did lorenz conclude?
he identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place - depending on the species, this can be brief as a few hours after hatching (or birth).
49
what is the critical period?
a window of opportunity in which a stage of development occurs.
50
what did lorenz also investigate?
sexual imprinting, the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences.
51
what did lorenz find in his sexual imprinting research?
he found that birds who imprinted on a human displayed courtship rituals towards humans.
52
what are the strengths of lorenz's research?
there is research support, regolin and vallortigara (1995) observed chicks imprint on the first moving objects they see and found that they did, suggesting young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint in critical period.
there is real-world application, seebach (2005) suggested that computer users exhibit 'baby duck syndrome' which is the attachment formed to their first computer operating system, leading them to reject others.
53
what are the weaknesses of lorenz's research?
there is research conflict, guilton et al (1966) found that chickens who had imprinted on yellow rubber gloves showed courtship behaviour towards gloves at first (and tried to mate) but then learned to mate with other chickens which suggests lorenz overstated the effects of imprinting.
there are ethical issues as it can be argued that the use of animals in research can be questioned on ethical grounds, it could be argued that animals have a right not to be researched/harmed.
there is lack of generalisability as the attachment in humans is more different and complex than animals so it is hard to generalise the findings to humans.
54
what is contact comfort?
the sense of ease that an infant experiences when they are in physical contact with their mother or other parental figure.
55
who conducted a study investigating the importance of contact comfort and when was it?
harlow, 1958.
56
what did harlow do in his study?
he conducted a lab experiment and tested the effect of contact comfort in attachment formation with 16 baby rhesus monkeys, he reared them with two wire model 'mothers' with a feeding bottle and divided them into 2 conditions; 1=plain (without a cloth), 2=cloth covered.
57
what did harlow find in his study?
baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother and sought comfort from her when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk.
58
what did harlow conclude in his study?
that 'contact comfort' was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
59
what did harlow also investigate?
he followed monkeys who had been deprived of a 'real' mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect.
60
what did harlow find in his study on maternally deprived monkeys?
monkeys reared with plain-wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional and even monkeys reared with a cloth-covered mother did not develop normal social behaviour.
61
what did harlow conclude from his study on maternally deprived monkeys?
the deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable and bred less often (unskilled at mating), when they became mothers they neglected and some even attacked or killed their children. harlow also concluded that there was a critical period when attachment must be formed (90 days for monkeys) or they never formed.
62
what are the strengths of harlow's research?
there is real-world application as his research helps professionals e.g. social workers to promote bondings as lack of can be risky in a child's development, the research has also been applied to zoos and breeding programmed which means that harlow's research has practical value.
there is research support, green (1994) states that biologically, all mammals have the same brain structure as humans meaning that harlow's research is reliable.
63
what are the weaknesses of harlow's research?
there are ethical issues as it can be argued that the use of animals in research can be questioned, it could be argued that animals have a right not to be researched/harmed and harlow also caused severe and long-term distress to the monkeys.
monkeys are much more similar to humans than lorenz's goslings and they share common attachment behaviours but there is lack of generalisability as the human brain is much more different and complex than animals so it is hard to generalise the findings to humans.
64
what is the learning theory and attachment?
it states that attachment occurs because children learn to love whoever feeds them.
65
what can the learning theory also be recognised as?
the 'cupboard love theory'.
66
what is the 'cupboard love theory'?
as the infant attached to the caregiver who provides the food, they learn to love whoever feeds them.
67
what is classical conditioning?
learning through association.
68
how does classical conditioning occur in attachment?
once the caregiver (neutral stimulus - NS) is associated with food (unconditioned stimulus - UCS) they become the conditioned stimulus:
UCS -> UCR
NS -> NR
UCS + NR -> UCR
CS -> CR
69
what is operant conditioning?
learning through reinforcement (consequences).
70
what are the three types of reinforcement?
positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment.
71
what is positive reinforcement?
repeating a behaviour if rewarded for it.
72
what is negative reinforcement?
repeating a behaviour if it removes something unpleasant.
73
what is punishment?
a behaviour is stopped if negative consequences are received - less likely for the behaviour to be repeated.
74
what is a primary drive?
desire to complete an action, it is instinctive, such as eating for hunger, sleep for tiredness and sex for reproduction (it is based on a biological need).
75
what is attachment as a secondary drive?
developed due to a learnt process, it is associated with the satisfaction of a primary drive e.g. food.
76
what are the strengths of the learning theory?
some aspects of conditioning may play a role in attachment, such as contact comfort may influences a baby's choice of main attachment figure which means that the learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments, however, research shows that babies play more of an active role in interactions that produce attachment which suggests that conditioning may not be an adequate explanation of attachment.
77
what are the weaknesses of the learning theory?
there is counter-evidence from animal studies, lorenz and harlow's research weakens the learning theory, lorenz's goslings imprinted on him before he fed them and harlow's monkeys preferred a cloth mother regardless of food which suggests that food is not a primary reason for attachment.
there is also counter-evidence from studies on humans, schaffer and emerson's research showed babies attached based on who spent time sensitively responding to them which weakens the assumptions of the learning theory.
it is over-simplistic as it only considers food as a driving force for attachment, no other factors are considered.
78
what is bowlby's monotropic theory (1969)?
he rejected the learning theory and proposed an evolutionary theory, he suggested that attachment is innate (unlearned) which means that humans are born with the need to attach to someone for safety and protection (survival) and this behaviour will pass on genetically.
79
what is a way to remember the aspects of bowlby's monotropic theory?
SICIM
80
what are the aspects of bowlby's monotropic theory?
attachment is innate, social releasers, monotropy, critical period and the internal working model.
81
how is attachment innate?
infants are born with readiness to attach which aids survival, safety and protection is ensured.
82
what are social releasers?
innate behaviours and characteristics that promote interaction e.g. smiling, cooing, eye contact and these maintain close contact between the caregiver and the infant.
83
what is monotropy in bowlby's theory?
infants need one unique and special emotional bond to ensure good child development (primary attachment), as it allows for continuous, consistent care and prevents separation from primary caregiver - infants use this attachment to form later attachments (safe base).
84
what are the two principles of monotropy?
the law of continuity and the law of accumulated separation.
85
what is the law of continuity?
the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better the quality of their attachment.
86
what is the law of accumulated separation?
the effects of every separation from the mother add up.
87
what is the critical period?
bowlby proposed that an infant must form an attachment within their first 2 years of life, if they do not form an attachment, attachments will be more difficult or not occur at all.
88
what is the internal working model?
the concept that a child's primary attachment provides them a 'template'/'model' for future relationships - what to expect.
89
what is the continuity hypothesis?
there is consistency between early emotional experiences and later relationships so children's attachment types are reflected in later relationships e.g. parenting, romantic relationships, friendships etc.
90
who conducted research for the internal working model?
mccarthy (1999)
91
what mccarthy do and find in her study?
she assessed 40 women who experienced insecure attachments as childreen and found that those with an insecure-resistant attachment had adult friendship problems and those with an insecure-avoidant attachment had adult relationship problems; secure attachment style had more positive ratings in adult love relationships.
92
what is the strength of bowlby's monotropic theory?
there is research support for the internal working model, mccarthy's study and bailey et al (2007) found that mothers who reported poor attachments to their own mothers (measured by a questionnaire) also had poor quality attachments to their children (measured by observation) which support the internal working model.
93
what is the weakness of bowlby's monotropic theory?
although the primary attachment may be a strong influence on later behaviour, it does not mean that it is different in quality of child's other attachments as they all provide the same key qualities so bowlby may be incorrect in claiming that there is a unique quality and importance to child's primary attachment.
94
who developed the strange situation and when?
ainsworth and bell (1970)
95
what is the aim of ainsowrth and bell's study?
to observe and classify different attachment types, they developed the strange situation as a way of studying and measuring attachment.
96
what is the procedure of ainsworth and bell's study?
they conducted a controlled observation of the babies' behaviour with 7 different 'scenarios' introduced.
97
what were the behaviours that the researchers used to judge attachment?
proximity seeking, exploration/secure base behaviour, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and reunion behaviour.
98
what is proximity-seeking?
a baby with a good quality attachment with stay fairly close to a caregiver.
99
what is exploration / secure-base behaviour?
good attachment enables a baby to feel confident to explore, using caregiver as a secure base.
100
what is stranger anxiety?
one of the signs of becoming closely attached is a display of anxiety when a stranger approaches.
101
what is separation anxiety?
another sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver.
102
what is response to reunion?
baboes who are securely attached greet the caregiver's return with pleasure and seek comfort.
103
what are the 7 scenarios of the procedure?
1 - the infant is encouraged to explore
2 - the stranger enters and interacts with the infant
3 - the caregiver leaves
4 - the caregiver returns and the stranger leaves
5 - the caregiver leaves
6 - the stranger returns
7 - the caregiver returns
104
what do each of the scenarios of the procedure test?
1 = exploration and safe base behaviour
2 = stranger anxiety
3 = separation and stranger anxiety
4 = reunion behaviour
5 = separation anxiety
6 = stranger anxiety
7 = reunion behaviour
105
what were the findings of ainsworth and bell's study?
there were 3 different 'patterns' of behaviour that ainsworth classified: secure attachment, insecure-resistant attachment and insecure-avoidant attachment.
106
what is secure attachment and what were their findings of it?
the infant experiences distress when separated from the caregiver, avoidant of stranger unless with caregiver, happy to see caregiver after separation and moderate anxiety (60-75% of infants).
107
what is insecure-resistant attachment and what were their findings of it?
intense distress when separated from caregiver, fear of caregiver, approach caregiver but reject contact after separation (15% of infants).
108
what is insecure-avoidant attachment and what were their findings of it?
they show no interest when separated from the caregiver, play happily with stranger, ignore the caregiver after separation (15% of infants).
109
what were the conclusions of ainsworth and bell's study?
they concluded that attachment can be classified as one of these types and proposed the caregiver sensitivity hypothesis.
110
what is the caregiver sensitivity hypothesis?
differences in infants' attachment styles are dependent on the mother's behaviour during a critical period of development.
111
what are the strengths of the strange situation?
there is good predictive validity, attachment types can predict later social behaviours as shown by research (infants assessed as secure tend to have better outcomes than other, both in childhood and adulthood and tend to have better mental health) which increases validity of the explanation, this suggests that the strange situation measures something real and meaningful in a baby's development.
-> (counterpoint): however, not all psychologists believe that just attachment influences later behaviour, as it can be due to genetically or environmentally influenced anxiety levels.
there is good reliability (inter-rater reliability), bick et al (2012) tested inter-rater reliability for strange situation and found 94% agreement between trained observers which suggests that the controlled nature of the study and behavioural categories were appropriate and reliable.
112
what are the weaknesses of the strange situation?
the procedure of the study may be culture bound, the strange situation developed in the UK and the USA so the findings may be affected by western methods of child-rearing, infants from other cultures may be raised differently so they may act differently in the scenarios which weakens the generalisability of the results.
113
what are cultural variations in attachment?
the differences in attachment patterns that exist between infants and their caregivers in different cultures.
114
what are the two types of cultures?
individualist and collectivist.
115
what is an individualist culture?
they value independence with each working to their own individual goals e.g. USA and europe (western cultures) - higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment types.
116
what is a collectivist culture?
they value co-operation with each working towards the family or group goals e.g. japan and israel (eastern cultures) - higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment type.
117
what did van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg (1968) aim with their study?
they aimed to investigate proportions of different attachment types in different countries.
118
what did van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg (1968) do in their study?
the results of 32 studies across 8 countries (1900 children) were analysed (meta analysis - detect patterns / trends from other studies).
119
what were the 8 countries they analysed?
UK, USA, sweden, japan, china, holland, germany and israel.
120
what did van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg (1968) find in their study?
they found that in all countries secure attachment was the most common type, in individualist cultures insecure-resistant was the least common (all under 14%) and in collectivist cultures insecure-avoidant was the least common, variations between countries were less than variations within cultures.
121
what did van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg (1968) conclude in their study?
that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type and secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting bowlby's idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm.
122
what did simonelli et al (2014) do in their study and what did they find (italian study)?
they assessed 76 12 month old babies using the strange situation and they found that 50% were securely attached, 36% were insecure-avoidant (lower rates of secure than other studies and higher rates of insecure).
123
what did jin et al (2012) do in their study and what did they find (korean study)?
they assessed 87 babies using the strange situation and similar results were found to the japanese infants in ijzendoorn's study, reflecting cultural similarities between countries.
124
what did both studies conclude?
secure attachment is the primary attachment type for all cultures and culture does affect attachment and differences within cultures are more significant than between cultures.
125
what are the strengths of research into the cultural variations of attachment?
most of the studies were conducted by indigenous researchers (from the same cultural background as participants), this means that many of the potential problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided e.g. misunderstandings of language, difficulty communicating, bias etc, which means that researchers and participants most likely communicated well, enhancing the validity of the data collected.
126
what are the weaknesses of research into the cultural variations of attachment?
there is an impact of confounding variables on findings, sample characteristics e.g. poverty, social class etc can confound results, environmental variables can also differ between studies and confound results e.g. size of room, toys etc, this means that looking at behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns of attachment.
imposed etic occurs when it is assumed that an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another e.g. the strange situation method being conducted in the UK and USA but used in other countries, this means that behaviours measured by the strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts and comparing them across cultures is meaningless.
127
what is bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis?
he proposed that separation from the mother figure in early childhood has serious consequences for emotional and physical development - continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development.
128
what is separation?
it simply means that the child is not in the presence of the primary attachment figure.
129
what is disruption/deprivation?
loss or disruption to the attachment created with the primary attachment figure - extended separations can lead to deprivation which can cause harm to the child.
130
what is privation?
when no attachment has ever been formed.
131
what did bowlby believe about the critical period?
the first 2 1/2 years of life was a critical period for psychological development, if a child is separated from their mother and deprived of her emotional care for an extended duration during this critical period then psychological damage was inevitable.
132
what are the two types of development that are affected by maternal deprivation?
intellectual development and emotional development.
133
how is a child's intellectual development affected by maternal deprivation?
bowlby believed that if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would experience delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ.
134
what support is there for the affect of intellectual development?
goldfarb (1947) found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and thus had a higher standard of emotional care.
135
how is a child's emotional development affected by maternal deprivation?
bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy which prevents a person developing fulfilling relationships and is associated with criminality - affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for their actions.
136
what is affectionless psychopathy?
an inability to show affection/concern for others, such individuals act on impulse with little regard for consequences of their actions e.g. no guilt / antisocial behaviour.
137
what did bowlby's (1944) 44 thieves study examine?
the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
138
what did bowlby do in his study?
he studied 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing and compared with 44 non-thieves with emotional problems; interviews and questionnaires used.
139
what did bowlby find in his study?
- 17/44 had experienced early prolonged separation from their mothers before 5 years.
- 14/44 were classed as affectionless psychopaths (no guilt/remorse).
- 2/44 non-thieves had experienced such separation.
140
what did bowlby conclude?
his findings support the maternal deprivation hypothesis (MDH) as there appears to be a link between disruption to attachment in the first 5 years and later maladjustment.
- experiencing disrupted attachments in early life is linked to crime, emotion maladjustment and lower academic achievement, lending stronger support for the MDH.
141
what are the strengths of the maternal deprivation hypothesis?
there is real-world application, the maternal deprivation hypothesis highlights the importance of positive attachment experiences and maintaining a monotropic bond in the first 5 years - instrumental in the developments of good child care practices e.g. greater stability in childcare practice has been developed i.e. daycare centres assigning caregivers to children and hospital visiting hours reviwed to allow children to maintain contact with parents, more financial support from government e.g. maternity/paternity leave, therefore showing that his hypothesis has practical value.
142
what are the weaknesses of the maternal deprivation hypothesis?
in bowlby's research it could be considered that his methods were flawed; his sample is not representative of all types of juveniles but just those available in his clinic, there is only one researcher so no inter-rater reliability and the study could not be replicated in the same way again, the juveniles may not tell the whole truth and this affects the quality of research and bowlby may also be biased as it is juveniles from his child guidance clinic therefore meaning there is low validity.
rutter re-assessed maternal deprivation and critiqued bowlby's concept of the maternal deprivation hypothesis, he argues that he failed to distinguish between separation from an attachment figure, loss of an attachment figure and a complete lack of attachment (privation), he argues that these 3 circumstances have different long-term effects on which bowlby overlooked.
143
what did rutter et al (2001) do in their study?
- studied 165 romanian orphans that were adopted (as part of an english and romanian adoptee project - ERA project).
- investigated the extent good care (adoption) can make up for effects of institutionalisation and physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at different ages (4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years).
- orphans compared to a control group of 52 uk children adopted.
144
what did rutter et al (2001) find in their study?
- 1/2 of adopted orphans showed signs of delayed intellectual development and majority undernourished, at 11 showed different rates of intellectual development related to the age of adoption: before 6 months = 102 mean IQ, 6 months to 2 years = 86 mean IQ, 2 years = 77 mean IQ, ADHD was more common in 15 and 22-25 year olds.
- children showed stages of disinhibited attachment (attention-seeking, clinginess, social behaviour indiscriminately to adults) if adoption was after 6 months.
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what did zeanah et al (2005) do in their study?
- conducted the bucharest early intervention (BEI) project.
- studied attachment in 95 romanian children (12-31 months) who spent most their lives in institutional care and compared to a control group of 50 children that never lived in an institution.
- used the strange situation method.
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what did zeanah et al (2005) find in their study?
- 74% of control group = securely attached
- 19% of institutional group = securely attached
- 44% of institutional group = disinhibited attachment
- less than 20% of control group = disinhibited attachment
- children in institutional care were more likely to have disinhibited attachments.
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what did chugani et al (2001) do in their study?
administered PET scans to 10 romanian adoptees and compared with 17 'normal' adults and a group of 7 children.
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what did chugani et al (2001) find in their study?
the assessments showed mild neurocognitive impairment, impulsivity and attention and social deficits and decreased activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex/hippocampus, the amygdala and brain stem.
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what did chugani et al (2001) conclude in their study?
dysfunction in the brain resulted from stress of early deprivation and might be linked to long-term cognitive and behavioural deficits.
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what is an institution?
a place like a hospital or an orphanage where children live for a long, continuous period of time.
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what is institutionalisation (in attachment)?
the effects of growing up in an orphanage or a children's home, children raised in these institutions often suffer from a lack of emotional care, therefore are unable to form attachments.
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what is the disinhibited attachment?
children select attachment figures indiscriminately (randomly - unusual behaviour) and behave in an overly familiar fashion with complete strangers, seems to be caused by long periods of institutional care in early life especially with high turnover of caregivers during critical period with no opportunities to form secure attachments and often have behavioural disorders too including attention seeking.
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what is the intellectual disability?
measured by lower than the average IQ, impaired cognitive and intellectual development, affecting their ability to learn.
- however, not permanent as rutter found children adopted by 6 months 'caught up' by age 4, therefore damage to intellectual development could be recovered.
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what are the strengths of romanian orphan studies and institutionalisation?
both institutional care and adoption practice have improved using lessons from romanian orphans studies e.g. 1-2 key workers playing a central role in emotional care of a child, institutional care now seems undesirable and efforts made in foster care and adoption to develop normal attachments (disinhibited attachment avoided).
romanian orphans had fewer negative influences before institutionalisations (handed over by loving parents that could not afford to keep them) meaning there is high internal validity and results were less likely to be confounded by other negative experiences.
-> (counterpoint): however, the extreme poor conditions in romanian orphanages could be a confounding variable.
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what are the weaknesses of the romanian orphan studies and institutionalisation?
there is research only for children up to the age of 20 so we do not know the effects of institutionalisation on adult development and it would take a long time to gain adult data due to longitudinal design of the study.
findings report poor outcomes for late-adopted children so they might affect self and others' expectations which can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy.
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what does the internal working model predict?
that there is consistency between early emotional experiences and later relationships as relationships with primary caregivers become a template for future relationships as it influences an individual's emotions, behaviour and expectations of others in relationships.
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what research studies show early attachment and later relationships?
maternal deprivation - intellectual development (IQ) and emotional development (affectionless).
mccarthy (1999) - attachments in infants vs adults.
bailey et al (2007) - attachment through generations (parenting).
romanian orphans - lack of secure attachments influenced emotional development.
harlow (1958) - monkeys struggled to form attachments and were aggressive parents (failed offspring).
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what research studies showed relationships in adulthood?
mccarthy (1999), hazan and shaver (1987) and bailey et al (2007).
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what did mccarthy (1999) do and find?
40 women were assessed as babies for attachment type and found babies with insecure-resistant attachment type had adult friendship problems and insecure-avoidant attachment type had adult romantic relationship difficulties.
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what effect did mccarthy (1999) demonstrate?
insecure attachment type developed in infancy creates the internal working model which leads to issues in adulthood with friendships and romantic relationships.
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what did hazan and shaver (1987) do?
published love quiz in the newspaper which assessed current relationships, love experiences and attachment type and analysed the 620 replies received (volunteer sample).
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what did hazan and shaver (1987) find?
securely-attached (56%) = good, long-lasting relationships.
insecure-avoidant (25%) = jealousy and fear of intimacy.
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what effect did hazan and shaver (1987) demonstrate?
there is a positive correlation between early attachment experiences and adult relationships as secure attachments showed positive relationships while insecure-avoidant attachments showed negative relationships.
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what did bailey et al (2007) do?
assessed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their 1 year old babies, measured mother's attachments to their parents and attachment quality of babies.
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what did bailey et al (2007) find?
mothers with poor attachment to own primary attachment figures were more likely to have poorly attached babies.
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what effect did bailey et al (2007) demonstrate?
attachment to primary attachment figures affected attachment with own child / parenting.
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what research studies showed relationships in childhood?
kerns (1994) and myron-wilson and smith (1998).
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what did kerns (1994) find?
securely attached babies tend to go on to have the best quality friendships vs insecurely attached babies who go on to have friendship issues.
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what effect did kerns (1994) demonstrate?
there is a correlation between the attachment type and quality of friendships.
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what did myron-wilson and smith (1998) do?
longitudinal study on 196 7-11 year olds investigating an association between early attachment type and bullying.
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what did myron-wilson and smith (1998) find?
secure-attachment = generally not involved in bullying behaviour.
insecure-avoidant = more likely to be victims of bullying.
insecure-resistant = more likely to be bullies.
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what effect did myron-wilson and smith (1998) demonstrate?
attachment type was highly associated with friendship issues and possibly bullying.
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what are the strengths of research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships?
mccarthy (1999) and hazan and shaver (1987) have supported attachment linking to relationships in adulthood, such evidence has concluded that early attachment predicts later attachment consistently, emotional wellbeing and attachment to own children - the correlation is based on attachment type and aspect of later development which enables us to understand how the different types of attachments impact future developments and relationships.
by knowing someone's attachment type there is an opportunity to help their development, this may be important in helping people with disorganised attachment and there are therapies designed to improve attachment security.
-> (counterpoint): we may become too pessimistic once we know someone has an insecure attachment and is likely that influence of early attachment is probabilistic which means that an insecure attachment doesn't cause later developmental problems - need to consider other factors e.g. more vulnerable.
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what are the weaknesses of research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships?
early attachment is assessed retrospectively, most research is not longitudinal and the self-report caused 2 validity issues: questions relies on honesty and accurate perception of the participants and it is hard to know if early attachment is being assessed or adult attachment, which means measure of early attachment in most studies may be confounded by other factors.
associations between attachment type and later development may be due to e.g. parenting style or genes which means we cannot be sure if it is early attachment or other factors influencing later development.
