Attachment Flashcards
What is attachment?
-2 way emotional bond that forms between 2 individuals, in which individual sees other as essential for emotional security + development
Different types of attachment
-secure attachment= distressed upon separation but warmly welcome caregiver back via eye contact and hugs
-anxious resistant attachment= child frightened by separation and continues to display anxious behaviour when caregiver returns
-avoidant attachment= child reacts fairly calm to separation and doesn’t embrace them upon return
-disorganised attachment= odd behaviour towards caregiver upon return i.e hitting (result of childhood trauma)
How is attachment displayed?
displayed by:
-proximity(physically close to attachment figures)
-separation distress(signs of anxiety when attachment figure leaves)
-secure base behaviour(regular contact even when independent i.e coming back to caregiver while playing)
-reunion behaviour(i.e baby happy to see primary caregiver if separated)
Caregiver-infant interactions
-interactions have important functions for the child’s social development i.e good quality social interactions associated with successful attachment developments
Reciprocity
-caregiver infant interactions is a 2 way process where each party responds to the other one’s signals(turn-taking)
-behaviour of each person elicits a response from the other i.e smiling at a baby so they smile back
Alert phases
-babies have these periodic phases in which they signal to primary caregiver they’re ready for interaction
-Feldman and Edelman(2007) found that mothers typically pick up on this signal and respond 2/3 of the time
-from around 3 months, it becomes more frequent and baby and mother paying close attention to verbal signals + facial expressions
Active involvement
-babies as well as caregivers have an active role—} both crgver and baby can initiate interactions and appear to be taking turns with it
Brazelton et al(1975) described it as a ‘dance’
Interactional synchrony
-mother and infant reflect actions and emotions of other in a co-ordinated, synchronised way(mirroring perfectly in time)
‘temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’ Feldman 2007
Meltzoff and Moore(1977): Interactional synchrony
-aim: to observe the interactional synchrony between infants& caregivers
-procedure: controlled observation of babies as young as 2 weeks old.
exposed babies to 4 stimuli( 3 facial gestures e.g sticking our tongue, 1 manual gesture e.g waving).
the babies responses were observed &filmed and then an independent observer was asked to note all instances of sticking out tongue and head movements with behaviour categories. Each scored tape twice(intra observer, inter rater reliability)
Findings: babies 12 to 27 days old could imitate both facial expression and manual gestures.
Conclusion: ability to imitate serves as a building block for layer development+ attachment formations
Importance of interactional synchrony: Isabella et al(1989)
important for the development of caregiver-infant attachment
-Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony. Also assessed the quality of attachment= found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
Evaluating caregiver-infant interactions:
Filmed observation :)
-well controlled procedures with mother and infant being filmed from several angles= details can be recorded and later analysed
-babies don’t know they’re being observed so behaviour doesn’t change(internal validity)
-can establish inter-rater reliability
Evaluating caregiver-infant interactions:
Difficulty observing babies :(
-babies lack co-ordination and are mostly immobile so small movements are hard to interpret
-can’t determine what’s taking place from the baby’s perspective i.e cannot know whether they are twitching or triggered by something caregiver has done
-hard to establish cause and effect(internal validity)
Evaluating caregiver-infant interactions:
Developmental importance :(
-simply observing don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony + reciprocity
- Feldman (2012) suggests that these processes just give names to patterns of observable behaviours
-cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for child development
Evaluating caregiver-infant interactions: practical value:)- ethics :(
-reaearch has given practical application into parent skills i.e Crotwell et al(2013) found that a 10 min Parent-Child Interaction Therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their preschool children
HOWEVER research is socially sensitive because it suggests mothers returning back to work damage baby’s development
The role of the father-
compared to mothers(schaffer and emerson)
-evidence suggests fathers are much less likely to become babies’ first attachment figure compared to mothers
-Schaffer and Emerson(1964) found that babies attached to their mothers first, around 7 months + secondary attachments later
-only 3% of cases the father was the joint primary attachment figure whereas 75% developed secondary attachment figures(age of 18 months) —} babies protested when their fathers walked away
The role of the father- study by Grossman(2002) longitudinal study
-role of the father was often left out of psychological research until recently
-Grossman(2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at BOTH parents’ behaviour and its relationship to child’s attachment to others through to teens.
-found that the quality of a baby’s attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence —} suggests that fathers have a less important attachment than mothers
What is a longitudinal study? (strength + weakness)
-A study that is done over a long period of time
:) we can see trends and changes in data
:( may be hard to concise data and there may be logistical issues
The role of the father- Grossman on quality of attachment
-quality of fathers’ play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments—} fathers have a different role from the mothers, more to do with play and simulation, and less to do with emotional development
Fathers as primary attachment figures
-has been further research to suggest that when fathers do take on role of primary caregiver they adopt the emotional role typically associated with mothers
-Field(1978) filmed 4 month-old babies in face to face interaction with primary mothers, primary fathers and secondary fathers
-found that the primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary(reciprocity+interactional synchrony)
-shows that fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary figure but perhaps only express this when have a primary role
Heteronormativity
-line of research focusing on role of the father is based on opposite gender parent idea
-BUT no suggestion from respectable psychologists that having a single parent or same gender parent has negative impact on development (McCallum and Golombok 2004)
Evaluating the role of the father-
inconsistent findings
-lack of clarity over what exactly is the role of the father
-some researchers want to understand it from a secondary figure perspective(Grossman) and others from a primary one
-fathers have a distinct role vs fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role
-makes it difficult to prove a simple answer
Evaluating the role of the father-
conflicting evidence
-findings vary according to the methodology used—} Grossman et al have suggested that fathers have a distinct role in their children’s development BUT that contradicts the idea that children growing up in same-sex or single parent households don’t turn out different than traditional families(McCallum and Golombok)
HOWEVER conflicts could be just that same sex or single mothers typically fill the distinct role of the fathers so families can adapt to missing role
Evaluating the role of the father-
Real world application
-can be used to offer advice to parents= they sometimes agonise over decisions like who should take on the primary caregiver role + even whether to have children at home
-Mothers may feel pressured to stay home and fathers may be pressured to focus on work than parenting
-research to offer reassuring advice to parents i.e suggesting fathers CAN be primary attachment figures and same sex/ single parents won’t affect development
-parental anxiety reduced
Evaluating the role of the father-
Bias in this research
-preconceptions about how fathers do or should behave can be created by stereotypical accounts and images of parenting roles and behaviours
-may cause unintentional observer bias whereas observers ‘see’ what they expect to see rather than recording objective reality