ATTACHMENT Flashcards
(96 cards)
1
Q
Attachment is
A
a strong, emotional, and reciprocal bond between two people, especially an infant and caregiver.
It endures over time.
2
Q
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS
From the start babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers. Psychologists believe that these interactions have
A
important functions for the child’s social development.
In particular, good quality and early social interactions are associated with the successful development of attachments between babies and their caregivers.
3
Q
ALERT PHASES:
A
babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ in which they signal (e.g. making eye contact) that they are ready for a spell of interaction. Research shows that mothers typically pick up on and respond to their baby’s alertness around two-thirds of the time although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress.
3
Q
RECIPROCITY
An interaction is said to show reciprocity when
A
each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them a caregiver might respond to his baby’s smile by saying something and then this in turn elicits a response from his baby. This kind of reciprocal interaction is also sometimes called ‘turn-taking’.
4
Q
ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT:
A
babies as well as caregivers actually take quite an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so.
5
Q
INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY
Two people are said to be ‘synchronised’ when
A
they carry out the same action simultaneously. It takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.
6
Q
SYNCHRONY STUDY: Meltzoff and Moore observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies.
PROCEDURE
A
An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. The baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.
7
Q
Isabella et al. observed
and found
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30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.
8
Q
AO3: limitation of INFANT-CAREGIVER INTERACTIONS
may not be useful
A
A further limitation is that simply observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.
Feldman points out that ideas like synchrony and reciprocity simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but they still may not be particularly useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours.
This means that we cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development.
9
Q
Meltzoff and Moore
FINDINGS
A
Babies’ expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict was a significant association.
Importance for attachment It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of caregiver-infant attachment.
10
Q
AO3: strength of INFANT-CAREGIVER INTERACTIONS
high control - good validity and reliability
A
One strength of the research on this topic is that caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory.
This means that other activity, that might distract a baby, can be controlled. Also, using films means that observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore, it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours. Furthermore, having filmed interactions means that more than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations. Finally, babies don’t know they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation (demand characteristics is generally the main problem for overt observations).
Therefore, the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
11
Q
AO3: limitation of INFANT-CAREGIVER INTERACTIONS
hard to interpret baby’s behaviour
A
One limitation of research into caregiver-infant interaction is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour.
Young babies lack co-ordination and much of their bodies are almost immobile. The movements being observed are just small hand movements or subtle changes in expression. It is difficult to be sure, for example, whether a baby is smiling or just passing wind. It is also difficult to determine what is taking place from the baby’s perspective. For example, we cannot know whether a movement such as a hand twitch is random or triggered by something the caregiver has done.
This means we cannot be certain that the behaviours seen in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning.
12
Q
STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
Schaffer and Emerson studied the attachment behaviours of babies.
PROCEDURE
A
The study involved 60, all were from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working-class families.
Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months.
The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations, e.g. adult leaving the room.
This was designed to measure the babies’ attachment.
The researchers also assessed stranger anxiety - the babies anxiety response to unfamiliar people.
13
Q
Schaffer and Emerson
Findings
A
65% mothers primary attachment, 27% mother-father joint primary attachment, 3% father primary attachment.
Schaffer and Emerson identified four distinct stages in the development of infant attachment behaviour.
They proposed that there were four identifiable stages of attachment, a sequence which is observed in all babies.
14
Q
STAGE 1: ASOCIAL STAGE
first few weeks
A
behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar.
However, it isn’t entirely asocial because even at this stage babies show signs that they prefer to be with other people.
Babies also tend to show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them.
15
Q
STAGE 2: INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT
From 2 to 7 months
A
babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours.
They now show a clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate objects.
They also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people.
However, at this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person - hence the term ‘indiscriminate.
They do not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
16
Q
STAGE 3: SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT
From around 7 months
A
The majority of babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one particular person.
These signs include anxiety directed towards strangers (stranger anxiety), especially when their attachment figure is absent, and anxiety when separated from their attachment figure (separation anxiety).
This person with whom the attachment is formed is called the primary attachment figure.
This person is not necessarily the individual the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s ‘signals’ with the most skill.
This is the baby’s mother in 65% of cases.
17
Q
STAGE 4: MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS
A
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour (e.g. stranger anxiety and separation anxiety) towards one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom they regularly spend time. These relationships are called secondary attachments. Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment. By the age of one year the majority of babies had developed multiple attachments.
18
Q
AO3: strength of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
good external validity
A
One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has good external validity.
Most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers. The alternative would have been to have researchers present to record observations. This might have distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious.
This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed.
19
Q
AO3: strength of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
practical application - daycare use
A
Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is that they have practical application in day care where babies are cared for outside of their home (by a non-family adult).
In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that day care, especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.
This means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages
19
Q
AO3: limitation of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
low validity - hard to interpret behaviour
A
One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite subtle, hard-to-observe ways. This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear to be asocial.
20
Q
AO3: limitation of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
issues of mothers being main observers
A
On the other hand, there are issues with asking the mothers to be the ‘observers’.
They were unlikely to be objective observers. They might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported, for example they might not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or they may have misremembered it.
This means that even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.
21
Q
ATTACHMENT TO FATHERS
Perhaps the most basic question about the role of fathers is whether babies actually attach to them and, if so, when.
Available evidence suggests that fathers are much less likely to become babies’ first attachment figure compared to mothers.
Schaffer and Emerson they found that the majority of babies first became attached to
A
their mother at around 7 months.
In only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment.
In 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother.
22
Q
However, it appears that most fathers go on to become important attachment figures. 75% of the babies studied by Schaffer and Emerson formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months. This was determined by
A
the fact that the babies protested when their father walked away - a sign of attachment.
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FATHERS AS PRIMARY ATTACHMENT FIGURES
There is some evidence to suggest that when fathers do take on the role of primary caregiver, they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers.
Field filmed 4-month-old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
She found
Primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating, and holding babies than the secondary caregiver fathers. These are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony which are part of the process of attachment formation.
So, it seems that fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary attachment figure - they can provide the responsiveness required for a close emotional attachment but perhaps only express this when given the role of primary caregiver.
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Grossmann carried out a longitudinal study where babies attachments were studied until they were into their teens. The researchers looked at both parents' behaviour and its relationship to the quality of their baby's later attachments to other people.
He found:
Quality of a baby's attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence This suggests that attachment to fathers is less important than attachment to mothers.
However, Grossmann et al. also found that the quality of fathers' play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. This suggests that fathers have a different role from mothers - one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with emotional development.
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CAREGIVER VERSUS ATTACHMENT FIGURE
A primary caregiver is the person who spends most time with a baby, caring for its needs.
A primary attachment figure is
the person to whom the baby has the strongest attachment.
26
AO3: strength of THE ROLE OF THE FATHER
| practical application - advice
One strength of research into the role of the father is that it can be used to offer advice to parents.
Parents and prospective parents sometimes agonise over decisions like who should take on the primary caregiver role. For some this can even mean worrying about whether to have children at all. Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home because of stereotypical views of mothers' and fathers' roles.
Equally, fathers may be pressured to focus on work rather than parenting. In some families this may not be economically the best solution. Research into the role of the father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents. For example, heterosexual parents can be informed that fathers are quite capable of becoming primary attachment figures. Also, lesbian-parent and single-mother families can be informed that not having a father around does not affect a child's development.
This means that parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced.
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AO3: limitation of THE ROLE OF THE FATHER
| lack of clarity over the question
One limitation of research into the role of fathers is lack of clarity over the question being asked.
The question, 'What is the role of the father' in the context of attachment is much more complicated than it sounds. Some researchers attempting to answer this question actually want to understand the role of fathers as secondary attachment figures. But others are more concerned with fathers as a primary attachment figure. The former have tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role. The latter have found that fathers can take on a 'maternal' role.
This makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as to the role of the father. It really depends on what specific role is being discussed.
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AO3: limitation of THE ROLE OF THE FATHER
| findings vary - Grossman vs Lesbian parents
A further limitation of research into the role of fathers is that findings vary according to the methodology used.
Longitudinal studies such as that of Grossmann et al. have suggested that fathers as secondary attachment figures have an important and distinct role in their children's development, involving play and stimulation.
However, if fathers have a distinctive and important role, we'd expect that children growing up in single-mother and lesbian-parent families would turn out in some way different from those in two-parent heterosexual families. In fact, studies consistently show that these children do not develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families.
This means that the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered.
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LORENZ'S RESEARCH - IMPRINTING
PROCEDURE:
Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs.
Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment.
The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
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LORENZ'S RESEARCH - IMPRINTING FINDINGS:
The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her. When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz.
This is called imprinting - whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see.
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AO3: strength of ANIMAL STUDIES - LORENZ
| research support - Regolin (chicks)
One strength of Lorenz's research is the existence of support for the concept of imprinting.
A study by Regolin supports Lorenz's idea of imprinting. Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a triangle with a rectangle in front. A range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them, and they followed the original most closely.
This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development, as predicted by Lorenz.
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Lorenz identified a critical period of
4-25 hours in which imprinting needs to take place. If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.
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SEXUAL IMPRINTING
Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. He observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans.
In a case study Lorenz described a peacock
that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises. As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant the peacock had undergone sexual imprinting.
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AO3: limtation of ANIMAL STUDIES - LORENZ
| low generalisability
One limitation of Lorenz's studies is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans.
The mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds. For example, in mammals' attachment is a two-way process, so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but also the mammalian mothers show an emotional attachment to their young.
This means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans.
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HARLOW'S RESEARCH
Harlow worked with rhesus monkeys, which are much more similar to humans than Lorenz's birds.
PROCEDURE:
Harlow tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model 'mothers'.
In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain-wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth- covered mother.
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HARLOW'S RESEARCH
FINDINGS
The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk.
This showed that 'contact comfort' was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
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MATERNALLY DEPRIVED MONKEYS AS ADULTS
Harlow also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a 'real' mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect - severe consequences.
The monkeys reared with plain-wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional.
However, even those reared with a cloth-covered mother did not develop normal social behaviour.
These deprived monkeys were
more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and they bred less often than is typical for monkeys, being unskilled at mating.
When they became mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.
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Like Lorenz, Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for attachment formation - a mother figure had to be introduced to a young monkey within
90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.
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AO3: strength of ANIMAL STUDIES - HARLOW
| real world applicaitons
One strength of Harlow's research is its important real-world applications.
For example, it has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes. We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild.
This means that the value of Harlow's research is not just theoretical but also practical.
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OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant conditioning involves learning from the consequences of behaviour. If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again. The behaviour is said to be reinforced. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence (punishment) it is less likely to be repeated.
Operant conditioning can explain why babies cry for comfort - an important behaviour in building attachment.
Crying leads to a response from the caregiver, for example feeding. As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced. The baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting 'social suppressor' behaviour.
This reinforcement is a two-way process. At the same time as the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops - escaping from something unpleasant is reinforcing. This interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens an attachment.
36
AO3: limitation of ANIMAL STUDIES - HARLOW
| low generalisability
One limitation of Harlow's research is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans.
Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz's birds, and all mammals share some common attachment behaviours. However, the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys.
This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow's findings to humans.
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ATTACHMENT AS A SECONDARY DRIVE
As well as conditioning, learning theory draws on the concept of drive reduction.
Hunger can be thought of as a primary drive - it's an innate, biological motivator.
We are motivated to eat in order to reduce the hunger drive.
| Sears et al. suggested that
as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them.
Attachment is thus a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.
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CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning involves learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we already respond to the other.
In the case of attachment,
food serves as an unconditioned stimulus. Being fed gives us pleasure - we don't have to learn that it is an unconditioned response.
A caregiver starts as a neutral stimulus, something that produces no response.
However, when the caregiver provides food over time they become associated with food when the baby then sees this person there is an expectation of food.
The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus.
Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a conditioned response of pleasure.
To a learning theorist this conditioned pleasure response is love, an attachment is formed, and the caregiver becomes an attachment figure
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Learning theorists Dollard and Miler proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory sometimes called a 'cupboard love' approach, because it emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food.
They proposed
children learn to love whoever feeds them
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AO3: strength of LEARNING THEORY
| some elements of conditioning still involved
One strength of learning theory is that elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of attachment.
It seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in attachment, but conditioning may still play a role. For example, a baby may associate feeling warm and comfortable with the presence of a particular adult, and this may influence the baby's choice of their main attachment figure.
This means that learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments.
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AO3: limitation of LEARNING THEORY
| counterevidence from animal studies
One limitation of learning theory explanations for attachment is lack of support from studies conducted on animals.
For example, Lorenz's geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw regardless of whether this object was associated with food. Also, if we consider Harlow's research with monkeys, there is no support for the importance of food. When given a choice, Harlow's monkeys displayed attachment behaviour towards a soft surrogate 'mother' in preference to a wire one which provided milk.
This shows that factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments.
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AO3: limitation of LEARNING THEORY
| lack of support from human studies
A further limitation of learning theory explanations is lack of support from studies of human babies.
For example, Schaffer and Emerson found that babies tended to form their main attachment to their mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them. In another study, Isabella et al. found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment. These factors are not related to feeding.
This again suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments.
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FINDINGS - TYPES OF ATTACHMENT: Ainsworth et al. found that there were distinct patterns in the way that babies behaved.
They identified three main types of attachment:
| describe secure attachment (type B)
Secure attachment (Type B): These babies explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver. They usually show moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety.
Securely attached babies require and accept comfort from the caregiver in the reunion stage. About 60-75% of British babies are classified as secure.
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# AINSWORTH'S 'STRANGE SITUATION'
The Strange Situation was developed by Ainsworth to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a baby's
attachment to a caregiver.
PROCEDURE:
The Strange Situation is a controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a baby displays towards a caregiver. It takes place in a room with controlled conditions (with a two-way mirror and/or cameras through which psychologists can observe the baby's behaviour.
The behaviours used to judge attachment included:
* Proximity-seeking - a baby with a good quality attachment will stay fairly close to a caregiver.
* Exploration and secure-base behaviour - good attachment enables a baby to feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a secure base.
* Stranger anxiety - one of the signs of becoming closely attached is a display of anxiety when a stranger approaches.
* Separation anxiety - another sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver.
* Response to reunion - babies who are securely attached greet the caregiver's return with pleasure and seek comfort.
The procedure has seven episodes, each of which lasts three minutes.
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# AINSWORTH'S 'STRANGE SITUATION'
describe insecure-avoidant attachment (type A)
Insecure-avoidant attachment (Type A): These babies explore freely, but do not seek proximity or show secure-base behaviour. They show little or no reaction when their caregiver leaves and little stranger anxiety. They make little effort to make contact when the caregiver returns and may even avoid such contact.
About 20-25% of British babies are classified as insecure avoidant.
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describe insecure resistant attachment (type C)
Insecure-resistant attachment (Type C): These babies seek greater proximity than others and so explore less. They show high levels of stranger and separation distress, but they resist comfort when reunited with their caregiver. Around 3% of British babies are classified as insecure-resistant.
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AO3: strength of STRANGE SITUATION
| predicts later development accurately
One strength of the Strange Situation is that its outcome predicts a number of aspects of the baby's later development.
A large body of research has shown that babies and toddlers assessed as Type B (secure) tend to have better outcomes than others, both in later childhood and in adulthood. In childhood this includes better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying. Securely attached babies also tend to go on to have better mental health in adulthood. Those babies assessed as having insecure-resistant attachment and those not falling into Types A, B or C tend to have the worst outcomes.
This suggests that the Strange Situation measures something real and meaningful in a baby's development.
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AO3: strength of STRANGE SITUATION
| good inter rater reliability - Bick
A further strength of the Strange Situation is good inter-rater reliability (the agreement between different observers).
Bick et al. tested inter-rater reliability for the Strange Situation for a team of trained observers and found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases. This high level of reliability may be because the procedure takes place under controlled conditions and because behaviours involve large movements and are therefore easy to observe. For example, anxious babies cry and crawl away from strangers.
This means that we can be confident that attachment type as assessed by the Strange Situation does not depend on subjective judgements.
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AO3: limitation of STRANGE SITUATION
| culture bound - Takahashi
One limitation of the Strange Situation is that it may not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts.
The Strange Situation was developed in Britain and the US. It may be culture-bound - only valid for use in certain cultures. One reason for this is that babies have different experiences in different cultures and these experiences may affect their responses to the Strange Situation. For example, in one Japanese study by Takahashi, babies displayed very high levels of separation anxiety and so a disproportionate number were classified as insecure-resistant. Takahashi suggests that this anxiety response was not due to high rates of attachment insecurity but to the unusual nature of the experience in Japan where mother-baby separation is very rare.
This means that it is very difficult to know what the Strange Situation is measuring when used outside Europe and the US.
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# VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG'S RESEARCH
They conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation.
They also looked at the differences within the same countries to get an idea of variations within a culture.
PROCEDURE:
The researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation had been used to investigate the proportions of babies with different attachment types. These were conducted in eight countries - 15 were in the US. The data for these 32 studies was meta-analysed.
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# VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG'S RESEARCH
1. lowest secure
2. lowest avoidant
3. lowest resistant
4. highest secure
5. highest avoidant
6. highest resistant
1. China 50
2. Japan 5
3. UK 3
4. UK 74
5. Germany 35
6. Israel 29
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# VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG'S RESEARCH
FINDINGS:
There was wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies.
In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification.
In individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth's original sample (all under 14%) but this was not true for the collectivist samples from China, Japan, and Israel where rates were above 25%.
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Simonelli et al. conducted a study in Italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies.
The researchers assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using the Strange Situation.
They found
50% were secure, with 36% insecure avoidant. This is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure-avoidant attachment than has been found in many studies.
The researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare.
These findings suggest that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change.
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# VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG'S RESEARCH
An interesting finding was that variations between results of studies within the same country were
actually 150% greater than those between countries.
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AO3: strength of CULTURAL VARIATIONS
| use of indegeous researchers
One strength of the research is that most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists.
Indigenous psychologists are those from the same cultural background as the participants. For example, van ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg included research by a German team and Takahashi who is Japanese. This kind of research means that many of the potential problems in cross- cultural research can be avoided, such as researchers' misunderstandings of the language used by participants or having difficulty communicating instructions to them. Difficulties can also include bias because of one nation's stereotypes of another.
This means there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected.
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Korean study: Jin et al. conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies. The Strange Situation was used to assess 87 babies.
The overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most babies being secure. However, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one baby was avoidant. This distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in
Japan. Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing style.
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CONCLUSIONS
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.
However, the research also clearly shows that
cultural practices have an influence on attachment type.
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AO3: limitation of CULTURAL VARIATIONS
| imposed etic
A further limitation of cross-cultural research is in trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context.
Cross-cultural psychology includes the ideas of emic and etic. Imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another. An example of this in attachment research is in the use of babies' response to reunion with the caregiver in the Strange Situation. In Britain and the US, lack of affection on reunion may indicate an avoidant attachment. But in Germany such behaviour would be more likely interpreted as independence rather than insecurity. Therefore, that part of the Strange Situation may not work in Germany.
This means that the behaviours measured by the Strange Situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts, and comparing them across cultures is
meaningless.
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AO3: limitation of CULTURAL VARIATIONS
| counterpoint - Efe in Zaire (Morelli)
However, this has not been true of all cross-cultural attachment research.
For example, Morelli et al. were outsiders from America when they studied child-rearing and patterns of attachment in the Efé of Zaire.
Their data might have been affected by difficulties in gathering data from participants outside their own culture.
This means that the data from some countries might have been affected by bias and difficult in cross-cultural communication.
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AO3: limitation of CULTURAL VARIATIONS
| not usually matched for methodology
One limitation of cross-cultural research, including meta-analyses of patterns of attachment types, is the impact of confounding variables on findings.
Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews or meta-analyses. Sample characteristics such as poverty, social class and urban/rural make-up can confound results as can the age of participants studied in different countries. Environmental variables might also differ between studies and confound results. For example, the size of the room and the availability of interesting toys there - babies might appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms with attractive toys compared to large, bare rooms. Less visible proximity-seeking because of room size might make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant.
This means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns of attachment.
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THEORY OF MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
Being separated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences - maternal deprivation:
the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and the mother substitute.
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SEPARATION VERSUS DEPRIVATION
Separation: the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure.
This only becomes a problem if the child becomes deprived of emotional care. Brief separations, particularly where the child is with a substitute caregiver who can provide emotional care, are not significant for development but extended separations can lead to
deprivation, which by definition causes harm.
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THE CRITICAL PERIOD
Bowlby saw the first two-and-a-half years of life as a critical period for psychological development if a child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended duration during this critical period
then psychological damage was inevitable.
He also believed there was a continuing risk up to the age of five.
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# MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
EFFECTS ON DEVELOPMENT
Emotional development:
A second major way in which being deprived of a mother figure's emotional care affects children is in their emotional development. Bowlby identified AFFECTIONLESS PSYCHOPATHY as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others. This 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.
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# MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
BOWLBY'S RESEARCH
Bowlby's 44 thieves study examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
PROCEDURE:
The sample in this study consisted of 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. All 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: characterised as a lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and lack of empathy for their victims. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the 'thieves' had prolonged early separations from their mothers. The sample was compared to a control group of 44 non- criminal but emotionally disturbed young people.
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# MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
EFFECTS ON DEVELOPMENT
Intellectual development:
One way in which maternal deprivation affects children's development is their intellectual development. Bowly 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. This has been demonstrated in studies of adoption. For example, Goldfarb 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.
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AO3: limitation of MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
| 44 thieves flawed
One limitation of the theory of maternal deprivation is the poor quality of the evidence it is based on.
Bowlby's 44 thieves' study is flawed because it was Bowlby himself who carried out both the family interviews and the assessments for affectionless psychopathy. This left him open to bias because he knew in advance which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy. Other sources of evidence were equally flawed. For example, Bowlby was also influenced by the findings of Goldfarb's research on the development of deprived children in wartime orphanages. This study has problems of confounding variables because the children in Goldfarb's study had experienced early trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation from their primary caregivers.
This means that Bowlby's original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had serious flaws and would not be taken seriously as evidence nowadays.
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AO3: strength of MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
| research support - Levy (rats)
A new line of research has provided some modest support for the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects.
Lévy et al. showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development though not other aspects of development.
This means that, although Bowlby relied on flawed evidence to support the theory of maternal deprivation, there are other sources of evidence for his ideas.
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BOWLBY'S RESEARCH
FINDINGS:
Bowly found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. In contrast only five of the remaining 30 'thieves had experienced separations. Only two participants in the control group of 44 had experienced long separations.
Bowly concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.
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AO3: limitation of MATERNAL DEPRIVATION
| not a critical period, but a sensitive period - Koluchova (czech twins)
A further limitation of the theory is Bowlby's idea of a critical period.
For Bowlby, damage was inevitable if a child had not formed an attachment in the first two-and-a-half years of life. Hence this is a critical period. However, there is evidence to suggest that in many cases good quality aftercare can prevent most or all of this damage. For example, Koluchová reported the case of the Czech Twins. The twins experienced very severe physical and emotional abuse from the age of 18 months up until they were seven years old. Although they were severely damaged emotionally by their experience, they received excellent care and by their teens they had recovered fully.
This means that lasting harm is not inevitable even in cases of severe privation. The critical period is therefore better seen as a 'sensitive period'.
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ROMANIAN ORPHAN STUDIES
RUTTER ET AL.'S RESEARCH
PROCEDURE:
Rutter have followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romanian adoptee (ERA) study which aimed to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
The orphans had been adopted by families in the UK.
Physical, cognitive, and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years.
A group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time have served as a control group.
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ZEANAH ET AL.'S RESEARCH
PROCEDURE:
Zeanah et al. conducted the Bucharest early intervention (BED) project, assessing attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution. Their attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation. In addition, carers were asked about unusual social behaviour including clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults (a measure of disinhibited attachment).
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rutter ERA FINDINGS:
When the children first arrived in the UK, half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished.
At age 11 the adopted children showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption.
The mean IQ of those children adopted before the age of six months was 102, compared with 86 for those adopted between six months and two years and 77 for those adopted after two years.
These differences remained at age 16.
In terms of attachment, there appeared to be a difference in outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after six months. Those children adopted after they were six months showed signs of a particular attachment style called disinhibited attachment.
Symptoms include attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar.
In contrast those children adopted before the age of six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
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ZEANAH ET AL - FINDINGS
The researchers found that 74% of the control group were classed as securely attached in the Strange Situation. However, only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached. In contrast, the description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of the controls.
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# EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
DISINHIBITED ATTACHMENT
Children who have spent their early lives in an institution often show signs of disinhibited attachment, being equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers.
Rutter has explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation. In poor quality institutions, like those in Romania, a child might have 50 carers but doesn't spend enough time with any one of them to be able to form a secure attachment.
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# EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
In Rutter's study most children showed signs of intellectual disability when they arrived in Britain. However, most of those adopted before they were six months old caught up with the control group by age four.
It appears that, like emotional development, damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of six months - the age at which attachments form.
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# EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
DEPRIVATION DWARFISM
institutionalised children appear physically smaller, mostly due to a lack of attachment rather than malnutrition.
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AO3: strength of EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
| practical applications - childrens homes
One strength of the Romanian orphanage studies is their application to improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home.
Studying the Romanian orphans has improved psychologists understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these effects. This has led to improvements in the conditions experienced by looked-after children, children growing up in the care system. For example, children's homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child. Instead, the children tend to have one or two key workers' who play a central role in their emotional care. Also, institutional care is now seen as an undesirable option for looked-after children. Considerable effort is made to accommodate such children in foster care or to have them adopted instead.
This means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.
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AO3: strength of EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
| lack of confounding variables
Another strength of the Romanian studies is the lack of confounding variables.
There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available to study e.g. orphans studied during the Second World War. Many of the children studied in orphanages had experienced varying degrees of trauma, and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect, physical abuse, and bereavement from those of institutional care. However, the children from Romanian orphanages had, in the main, been handed over by loving parents who could not afford to keep them.
This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experienceshigher internal validity.
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AO3: limitation of EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION
| lack of adult data
One limitation of the Romanian orphanage studies is the current lack of data on adult development.
The latest data from the ERA Study looked at the children in their early- to mid-20s. This means that we do not currently have data to answer some of the most interesting research questions about the long-term effects of early institutional care.
These research questions include the lifetime prevalence of mental health problems and participants success in forming and maintaining adult romantic and parental readerships. It will take a long time to gather this data because of the longitudinal design of the study.
This means it will be some time before we know more completely what the long-team elects are for the Romanian orphans. It is possible that late-adopted children may catch up.
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INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
Bowlby suggested that a baby's first relationship with their primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation of this relationship.
This internal working model acts as a template for future childhood and adult relationships.
The quality of a baby's first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships.
A baby whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable attachment figure will tend to assume
this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them, without being too uninvolved or emotionally close (which would typify insecure-avoidant attachment) or being controlling and argumentative (insecure-resistant attachment)
A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place, or they may not behave appropriately within relationships, displaying insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant behaviour towards friends and partners.
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RELATIONSHIPS IN CHILDHOOD
Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood.
Securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached babies later have friendship difficulties.
In particular, bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type.
Wilson and Smith
assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7-11 from London.
Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying.
Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies.
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RELATIONSHIPS IN ADULTHOOD
Internal working models affect two major adult experiences - romantic relationships and parental relationships with your own children.
Hazan and Shaver conducted a study of the association between attachment and adult relationships.
PROCEDURE -
They analysed 620 replies to a 'love quiz' printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had three sections. The first assessed respondents' current or most important relationship. The second part assessed general love experiences such as number of partners. The third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings.
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HAZAN AND SHAVER - LOVE QUIZ
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
- 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached, with 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant.
- Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer-lasting romantic experiences.
- The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy.
These findings suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.
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McCarthy studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were babies to establish their early attachment type.
Those assessed as securely attached babies had
the best adult friendships and romantic relationships.
Adults classed as insecure-resistant as babies had particular problems maintaining friendships whilst those classed and insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.
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Internal working models also affect the child's ability to parent their own children. People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model, so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family. Bailey et al.
| procedure and findings
considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. Mother-baby attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation and mothers' attachment to their own mother was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.
| this supports the continuity hypothesis
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AO3: strength of EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS
| supporting evidence
One strength of the research into attachment and later relationships is supporting evidence.
Reviews of such evidence have concluded that early attachment consistently predicts later attachment, emotional well-being, and attachment to own children. How strong the relationship is between early attachment type and later development depends both on the attachment type and the aspect of later development. So, whilst insecure-avoidant attachment seems to convey fairly mild disadvantages for any aspect of development, disorganised attachment is strongly associated with later mental disorder.
This means that secure attachment as a baby appears to convey advantages for future development while disorganised attachment appears to seriously disadvantage children.
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AO3: limitation of EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS
| assessed retrospectively
One limitation of most research into the influence of attachment is that early attachment is assessed retrospectively.
Most research on the link between early attachment and later development are not longitudinal - they don't assess attachment in early life and then revisit the same person later in life. Instead, researchers usually ask adolescent or adult participants questions about their relationship with parents and identify attachment type from this. This causes two validity problems. First, asking questions relies on the honesty and accurate perception of the participants. Second, it means it is very hard to know whether what is being assessed is early attachment or in fact adult attachment.
This means that the measures of early attachment used in most studies may be confounded with other factors making them meaningless.
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AO3: limitation of EFFECTS OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON LATER RELATIONSHIPS
| confounding variables
A further limitation of studies into the influence of early attachment on later development is the existence of confounding variables.
Some studies do assess attachment in infancy, which means that the assessment of early attachment is valid. However, even these studies may have validity problems because associations between attachment quality and later development may be affected by confounding variables. For example, parenting style may influence both attachment quality and later development.
Alternatively, genetically influenced personality may be an influence on both factors.
This means that we can never be entirely sure that it is early attachment and not some other factor that is influencing later development.
