attachment Flashcards

Question

describe the procedure for Harlow's monkeys

Answer 1

He reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’ In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother In the other condition, milk was dispensed by a cloth-covered mother

Answer 2

He found that the baby monkeys cuddled the soft (cloth-covered) mother in preference to the wire one They even sought comfort from the cloth mother when frightened These results were found even if the cloth mother did not dispense milk Contact comfort is more important than food

Answer 3

- Generalisability - can we generalise animal behaviour to humans Lorenz used birds in his studies – the attachment system used by birds very different to humans E.g. mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their young than birds do imprinting is unlikely to occur in humans as our attachments take longer than animals. -conflicting evidence Guiton et al. (1966) – found that chickens that had imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults However, with experience they later learned to prefer mating with other chickens -suggests that imprinting is not permanent

Answer 4

Theoretical value Harlow’s findings have had a huge impact on psychologists’ understanding of human mother-infant attachment He showed that attachment doesn’t develop as a result of being fed (biological) but as a result of contact comfort practical value Howe (1998) – found that it has given social workers an understanding of the possible implications of child neglect and abuse

Answer 5

Harlow faced criticism for the ethics of his research The monkeys suffered both short and long-term as a result of his procedures (give examples) -monkeys seperated from their mothers Monkeys were used because they are considered as the most similar species to humans – but this also means they would have experienced suffering similar to humans

Answer 6

monotropy describes that the first attachment is different from all the other attachments. Attachment to the mother is different to all other attachments

Answer 7

the more constant and predictable a child’s care, =the better quality of the attachment

Answer 8

the effects of every separation add up (the less, the better)

Answer 9

a social behaviour or characteristic that elicits caregiving Babies are born with a set of innate (and cute) behaviours like smiling and gripping that encourage attention from adults Their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system

Answer 10

the time an attachement needs to form if formed at all However, in humans, Bowlby suggested that the critical period is before 2 years of age (when the infant’s attachment system is most active)

Answer 11

the mental representation carried about ones attachment to their primary caregiver An IWM serves as a model for all other relationships in a child’s life – the mental representation is their baseline for what all future relationships should be like

Answer 12

mixed evidence against monotropy Bowlby’s theory suggests that the primary attachment is the most significant and is different from other attachments however Emmerson and Shaffer van Izjendoorn et al. also found that in some cultures, multiple attachment is the norm, with no sign of a significant, primary attachment developing first not all children form a montropic attachement -low expalanatory power

Answer 13

Brazleton et al. (1975) observed mothers and babies during their interactions and reported levels of interactional synchrony They extended their observation to an experiment – they asked mothers to ignore their babies’ signals They found that babies initially showed some distress. After continued ignorance, some babies responded by curling up and lying motionless This study validates the PURPOSE of social releasers. This is inferred from the babies lying motionless after being ignored. If the behaviours were random and purposeless, why would the babies stop doing them if no one interacts? The fact that they stop doing them suggests that they had purpose in the first place. We infer that they do the behaviours to activate attachment if the behaviours don’t meet their purpose, they stop – this is an inference and c -very difficult to prove though (we can’t ask them).

Answer 14

A strength of IWMs is that they’re testable we can make predictions about attachment patterns that pass through generations Bailey et al. (2007) Interviewed 99 mothers with one-year old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers They also assessed the attachment between the mothers and babies via observation They found that mothers who reported poor attachments to their own mothers were more likely to have the attachment with their child rated as ‘poor’

Answer 15

he idea of monotropy is controversial as it has major implications on the choices of young mothers If the primary attachment is so important, mothers may feel like they must be around during the first two years (critical period) of their child’s life and may be reluctant to go back to work Problem? Burman (1994) highlighted that this places a terrible burden on mothers as they may blame themselves for anything that goes wrong with their child

Answer 16

She tested attachment security by observing infants’ responses to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, being left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver

Answer 17

Proximity seeking: Exploration and secure-base behaviour: Stranger anxiety: stranger approaches Separation anxiety: # Response to reunion:

Answer 18

Secure attachment (type B) – 65-70% of British toddlers Children that explored happily but regularly went back to their caregiver Showed moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety Required and accepted comfort from their caregiver in the reunion stage

Answer 19

20-25% of British toddlers They explore freely. However, do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour . They show little/no reaction when the caregiver leaves They show little anxiety when a stranger approaches They make little effort to make contact when their caregiver returns – they do not require comfort at the reunion stage

Answer 20

3% of British toddlers They seek greater proximity than others and so explore less They show huge stranger anxiety and separation distress However, they resist comfort when reunited with their carer

Answer 21

The Strange Situation has shown very good inter-rater/inter-observer reliability (which is?) Observers generally agree on attachment types they classify for children (why might this be?) This is suggested to be due to highly controlled conditions and behavioural categories used Bick et al. (2012) looked at inter-observer reliability in a team of trained Strange Situation observers and found agreement 94% of the time

Answer 22

The Strange Situation has been criticised for being a culture-bound test – does it have the same meaning in other cultures? (e.g. Eastern cultures) Cultural differences in childhood experiences means children are likely to respond differently to the SS Additionally, caregivers may also behave differently Takahashi (1990) – found that the test does not really work in Japan as Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their babies – meaning high levels of? Mothers rushed to pick their babies up during the reunion stage, making the child’s response difficult to observe

Answer 23

If the method is culture-bound, how meaningful can the attachment types be in other cultures? If the measures are inappropriate, the classifications may not be appropriate (valid or meaningful either) E.g. in Japan, there is a much higher proportion of insecure-resistant attachment compared to the UK This is unlikely to be due to ‘poor parenting’ by Japanese mothers It is unlikely that so many more children in Japan are ‘unhealthy’ compared to British children This shows that the Strange Situation is ethnocentric, as attachments are classified based on Western ideas on what ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ attachments look like.

Answer 24

He proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development Prolonged separation causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development

Answer 25

eparation refers to the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment This only becomes an issue if the child loses an element of care If separations are brief they are insignificant However, if they are prolonged periods they can cause psychological harm (deprivation)

Answer 26

~Two years of age – potentially up to 30 months This is the period that is critical for a child’s psychological developmen

Answer 27

Intellectual development If children are deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ

Answer 28

Bowlby identified what is known as affectionless psychopathy This refers to the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others This prevents the person from developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack the remorse for their actions

Answer 29

Bowlby aimed to examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation The sample consisted of 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing – all were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy He assessed characteristics such as lack of affection, lack of guilt and lack of empathy Their families were also interviewed to establish whether there had been any prolonged separation from their mothers

Answer 30

He found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be identified as affectionless psychopaths Of those 14, 12 of them had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives Only 5 of the remaining thieves had experienced prolonged separations

Answer 31

Lack of cause and effect, despite conclusion (examples) Self-report – children and families may have lied during interviews (context) Researcher bias? (be convincing) Goldfarb’s research into IQ differences investigated orphaned children during the Second World War. Problem with this? War-orphans may have been traumatised and had poor after-care – these may have been the causes for development difficulties

Answer 32

Not all research supports Bowlby’s theory Lewis (1954) Replicated Bowlby’s 44 thieves study on a larger scale (500 ppts) She found that prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships…

Answer 33

Koluchova (1976) – reported a case of twin boys who were kept in a cupboard by their step-mother from 18 months to 7 years of age Bowlby proposed that if maternal deprivation took place during the ‘critical period’ then the damage caused is inevitable However, later research has shown that the damage isn’t inevitable –

Answer 34

differences in norms and values which exist between people in different groups

Answer 35

van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) Aimed to investigate the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across different countries They also looked at variations within countries (cultures) They located 32 studies that had used the Strange Situation to investigate attachment types – 8 countries in total, 15 of the studies conducted in the USA

Answer 36

van lizjendoorn and kroonberg

Answer 37

secure attachment was the most common 75% (GB) to 50% China Insecure-resistant However, this varied from 3% (GB) to 30% (Israel) Insecure-avoidant attachment was most common in Germany and least common in Japan

Answer 38

Large sample van Ijzendoorn’s meta-analysis totalled to near 2000 babies Similarly, Simonella et al. and Jin et al’s had large comparison groups, even though their own samples were smaller Why is this a strength? More ppts means less impact of anomalies, bad methodology or very unusual ppts

Answer 39

Unrepresentative samples van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenburg claimed to be studying cultural variations in their meta-analysis However, they were actually investigating variation between countries, not cultures E.g. the 15 studies from the US are unlikely to represent all cultural variations in the US – (poverty, religion, etc. van Ijzendoorn and Sagi (2001) – found that variation in attachment types in Tokyo ⚫ In more urban setting they found similar patterns to Western studies, however more rural areas showed an over-representation of insecure-resistant babies

Answer 40

The Strange Situation has been criticised for being culturally biased (culture-bound) The SS was designed by an American researcher (Ainsworth) and based on a British theory (Bowlby) Problem? How do we know American/British theories can be applied to other cultures? It may be culturally biased to apply something designed for one culture to others - ethnocentroism

Answer 41

The term for the effects of living in an institutional setting. ‘Institution’ refers to a hospital/orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time

Answer 42

In 1966, the president at the time (dictator Nicolae Ceausescu) banned abortions and contraceptives to keep the population from shrinking after World War II - this resulted in many children ending up in huge orphanages in poor conditions ⚫ After the 1989 revolution many children were adopted, some by British parents

Answer 43

Rutter et al. (2011) wanted to test to what extent good care could make up for years living in institutions ⚫ They followed 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain – they tested their physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years of age ⚫ They also assessed a control group of 52 British children adopted around the same time

Answer 44

When they first arrived in the UK half of the adoptees showed delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished ⚫ At age 11 they showed different rates of recovery which depended on the age they were adopted ⚫ Those adopted before 6 months of age had a mean IQ of 102 ⚫ Those adopted between 6 months – 2 years of age averaged 86 ⚫ Those adopted after 2 years of age averaged an IQ of 77

Answer 45

They also found that children adopted after 6 months of age showed a particular attachment style ⚫ Disinhibited attachment: includes symptoms of attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar

Answer 46

Rutter’s study showed that when children arrived to Britain they showed signs of mental retardation ⚫ However, if adopted before 6 months of age they managed to catch up with the control group by age 4 ⚫ This suggests that similar to emotional development, mental retardation can be recovered if adoption takes place before 6 months (the age of which attachments begin to form)

Answer 47

Good real life applications Findings from this research have led to improvements in how orphanages and children’s homes are run. ⚫ They now avoid having large numbers of carers and have a limit of one/two carers playing a central role in each child’s life – this person being called the ‘key worker’ ⚫ Why have they done this? Based on what exactly? ⚫ What is the strength here? ⚫ Practical/real-life application – the research has been used to better the lives of real children

Answer 48

Not generalisable The Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, especially in regards to forming relationships with the children ⚫ and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation ⚫ Little resources/toys, lack of daylight/fresh air ⚫ These are SITUATIONAL extraneous variables ⚫ Although the research may be valid for those particular orphanages and orphans, the results are not generalisable to other orphanages/orphans

Answer 49

Confounding variables involved Children were not randomly allocated to their adoption conditions. The researchers did not interfere with the adoption process – the order in which children were adopted was not controlled by anyone – so? ⚫ More sociable children may have been adopted first (before 6 months). There may have already been existing differences between children before they were adopted Low internal validity

Answer 50

The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver Bowlby (1969) suggested that IWMs are important as they act as a template for future relationships

Answer 51

Kerns (1994) – found that securely attached children tend to form the best quality childhood friendships ⚫ Insecurely attached children have friendship difficulties

Answer 52

Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998) used questionnaires to assess attachment and bullying involvement in 196 7-11 year olds in London ⚫ They found that securely attached children were not involved in bullying ⚫ Insecure-avoidant children were more likely to be victims to bullying whereas insecure-resistant children were more likely to be bullie

Answer 53

McCarthy (1999) – studied 40 women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type ⚫ Those assessed as securely attached had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships ⚫ Insecure-resistants had problems maintaining friendships ⚫ Insecure-avoidants struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships

Answer 54

People also tend to base their parenting style on their IWM Assessed 99 mothers with their babies via the Strange Situation and asked about their attachments with their own mothers via interview ⚫ Found that the majority had the same attachment type for their children and their mother

attachment Flashcards

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