attachment

Question 1

what is bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 1

Bowlby proposed that separation from the mother/mother substitute has a serious effect on psychological development

Question 2

what is the definition of maternal deprivation?

Answer 2

the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute

Question 3

what is the definition of maternal deprivation?

Answer 3

the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute

Question 4

what is the difference between brief and extended separation?

Answer 4

•brief separations, particularly when there is a substitute caregiver, are not significant for development
•extended separations can lead to deprivation as the child has essentially lost an element of the mother’s care

Question 5

what is the critical period for maternal deprivation?

Answer 5

Bowlby saw the first 30 months (2 and a half years) as a critical period for psychological development.

Question 6

what happens to intellectual development if a child experiences maternal deprivation?

Answer 6

they would suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by an abnormally low IQ

Question 7

what study demonstrates delayed intellectual development in children that have experienced maternal deprivation?

Answer 7

Goldfarb followed up 30 orphaned children to 12 years old. Of the original sample, half had been fostered by 4 months and the other half were in an orphanage. At 12 their IG was assessed using the Stanford-Binet test. Found that the foster group had an average IQ of 96 whereas the group that remained in the orphanage averaged only 68.

Question 8

what is attachment?

Answer 8

a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

Question 9

what 3 behaviours display an attachment?

Answer 9

•proximity
•separation distress
•secure-base behaviour

Question 10

what is reciprocity?

Answer 10

a description of how two people interact. caregiver-infant interactions is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each others signals and each elicits a response from each other

Question 11

what did Feldman (2007) find about caregiver infant interactions?

Answer 11

from around 3 months caregiver-infant interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 12

what did Brazleton et al (1975) liken caregiver-infant interaction to?

Answer 12

described it as a “dance” because it is just like a couples dance where each partner responds to the others moves

Question 13

what did Condon and Sander (1974) study and find?

Answer 13

studied reciprocity in infants. Analysed frame by frame recordings of infants’ movements whilst an adult was talking. Found that infants coordinated their actions in sequence with the adults speech to form a kind of turn-taking conversation.

Question 14

what is interactional synchrony?

Answer 14

caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way

Question 15

what was Meltzoff and Moore’s study?

Answer 15

observed the beginnings of intersectional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old. An adult displayed an expression or gesture and the babies expression or gesture was more likely to mirror the adults than chance would predict

Question 16

what was Isabella et al’s (1989) study?

Answer 16

observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the synchrony. Found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment

Question 17

what are limitations of researching caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 17

•hard to know what is happening when observing infants and impossible for us to tell whether the imitation or turn taking that we see is deliberate or conscious. This means we do not fully know whether the behaviours we see in caregiver-infant interactions have a special meaning
•observations also do not tell us the purpose of interactional synchrony or reciprocity. Feldman (2012) argues they simple describe the behaviours but do not tell us their purpose. Psychologists want to know why behaviours are occurring not just describe them, which may limit the impact of research in this area
•research into this area can be socially sensitive. If mothers return to work shortly after a child is born it restricts the opportunities for achieving interactional synchrony. Could suggest children may be disadvantaged by particular child-rearing practices and may make some women feel guilty

Question 18

what did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find about fathers as a “secondary attachment”?

Answer 18

most babies attach to their mothers first, at around 7 months. In only 3% of cases was the father the first sole object of attachment. In 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother .
•in 75% of the infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by 18 months. This suggests that most fathers go on to become an important attachment figure

Question 19

what did Grossman (2002) find about the distinctive role of the father?

Answer 19

he carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachment in their teens. Quality of infant attachment with mothers, but not fathers, was related to attachments in adolescents, suggesting that father attachment was less important than mothers

Question 20

what did Grossman think the role of the father was?

Answer 20

a play mate- more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with nurturing and emotional development

Question 21

Who researched fathers as primary carers?

Answer 21

Field- filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers. These behaviours are all part of interactional synchrony and reciprocity which is part of attachment formation.This appears to show that fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary attachment figure if required. Suggests that the key to attachment is level of responsiveness and not gender of the parent

Question 22

what are limitations on the research into the role of fathers?

Answer 22

•there are inconsistent findings on the role of fathers because different researchers are interested in different questions.
•if fathers have a distinct role we would expect those without them to be different, but they are not. Grossman’s study suggests that fathers have a distinct role in play however other studies such as MacCallum and Golombok (2004) have found that children growing up in single or same-sex families do not develop any differently. This suggests Grossman’s findings that the father has a unique role in child development are not supported.

Question 23

what are strengths of the role of the father?

Answer 23

•research in this area could have benefits for fathers aiming to be granted joint or full custody of their children. Research suggesting that fathers have a unique role or that they can be just as nurturing if they take on the role of primary caregiver highlights the importance of a paternal relationship.This shows research has important implications.
•research into the role of fathers can be used to offer advice to parents. Parents sometimes agonise about decisions about who should take on the primary caregiver role.

Question 24

what was Schaffer and Emerson’s key study (1964)?

Answer 24

to investigate the formation of early attachments in particular the age at which they developed their emotional intensity and to whom the emotions were directed

Question 25

what was Schaffer and Emerson’s method?

Answer 25

•60 Glaswegian babies
•babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
•researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations- this was designed to measure the infant’s attachment