Attachment Flashcards
(8 cards)
Discuss research into the role of the father. (16)
AO1:
- Grossman: quality of the father attachment was less important for teenager attachment than the quality of mothers.
- Field: Filmed 4 month old babies and found that fathers can be PCG’s and could adapt behaviour to be like a mother.
- Schaffer and Emerson: 75% infants formed secondary attachments with their fathers.
AO3:
Strength = Research done in a lab.
- Any activity that may distract a baby can be controlled.
- Babies being filmed means the researchers can watch it back and make it less likely for them to miss any behaviour.
- Data collected should have good reliability and validity.
Limitation = Difficult to observe babies.
- Lack co-ordination, with most of their movement being subtle moves.
- Difficult to understand what the is taking place from the baby’s perspective.
- Can’t be certain that certain behaviours don’t have meaning.
Limitation = Observations don’t tell us developmental importance.
- Feldman: ideas like synchrony just give names to patterns of behaviour.
- Can’t help understand development as we don’t know the purpose of the behaviours.
- Don’t know if synchrony and reciprocity are vital for a child’s development.
Discuss one or more explanations of attachment. (16)
AO1:
Learning theory:
- Child attaches to the person who provides them food.
- Caregiver starts as the NS, but over time by giving food consistently they become the CS. Sight of the caregiver then produces pleasure, the CR.
- Hunger is the primary drive, the attachment is the secondary drive.
Bowlby’s monotropic theory:
- One special attachment to the person they spend the most time with.
- This is a special attachment, vital for development.
- Proposed a critical period, when the attachment should be formed.
- IWM: Mental representation of what an attachment should look like, affects future relationships.
AO3:
Strength (Learning) = Lack of support from animal studies.
- Lorenz’s geese attached through imprinting.
- Harlow’s monkeys attached due to contact comfort, no mention of food.
Strength (Learning) = Elements of conditioning could be important in developing an attachment.
- No association with food.
- But child could associate feeling comfortable, with a certain adult.
- Influence their choice of their main attachment figure.
Limitation (Bowlby) = Lacks validity.
- Schaffer and Emerson: babies will develop multiple attachments at some point.
- Even though first attachment has strong influence on behaviour, doesn’t mean it is different to other attachments.
- Bowlby incorrect over importance of first attachment.
Outline and evaluate research into maternal deprivation. (16)
AO1:
- Prolonged separation from the mother.
- Bowlby: continuous care from mother is vital for normal psychological development.
- Effects: Intellectual development (low IQ), emotional development (affectionless psychopathy + 44 thieves study).
AO3:
Limitation = Poor quality of evidence it is based on.
- 44 thieves study is flawed, Bowlby did it himself.
- Bias as he knew which participants he expected to show affectionless psychopathy.
- Seriously flawed, and wouldn’t be considered good evidence now.
Limitation = Confusion between different types of early experience.
- Deprivation and privation are two separate situations.
- Rutter: the severe effects Bowlby spoke about may be more related to privation and not separation.
- Overestimated seriousness of effects.
Limitation = Bowlby’s idea of a critical period.
- Proposed if a child didn’t form attachment within 2 1/2 years, damage.
- Evidence suggests good aftercare can prevent most or all of the damage.
- Lasting harm is not inevitable, ‘critical period’ should be seen as ‘sensitive period’.
With reference to reciprocity and interactional synchrony, discuss caregiver-infant interactions. (16)
AO1
- What is an attachment?
Interactional synchrony:
- Temporary coordination of micro-level social behaviour, eg nodding head in time.
- Isabella et al = studied mother and baby pairs, found that better levels of synchrony meant they had better attachments.
- Meltzoff and Moore = 30 caregiver and baby pairs, CG showed 1 of 3 gestures and 1 of 3 faciial expressions, baby copied more than chance would predict.
Reciprocity:
- Brazelton = dance.
- eg = mother smiling and causing the baby to respond in some way.
- Alert phases = when a baby shows they are ready for an interaction. (picked up 2/3 of the time).
AO3:
Strength = filmed observations.
- Allows for doube checking of movements and for observations to be done later.
- Unlikely that researchers will miss movements.
- Data has good validity and reliability.
Limitation = Hard to determine a babys movement.
- Lack coordination and only show small movements.
- They often have no meaning, and it is hard to know if the behaviour is a result of something that the caregiver has done.
- Can’t be certain if the movement has an important meaning.
Limitaton = Only observing behaviour doesn’t tell us about development.
- It only allows us too give names to patterns of behaviour.
- Not useful when studying child development.
- Can’t be certain from just observations how reciprocity and IS are important for a child’s development.
Describe and evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment. (16)
AO1
- Four stages: asocial, indiscriminate, specific attachment, multiple attachments.
- Asocial = 0-8 weeks, better when in company of others, recognises faces, behaviour is similar with humans and objects.
- Indiscriminate = 2-7 months, will accept affection from anyone, recognise and prefer company from familiar people.
- Specific = 7-12 months, attached to PAF, seperation and stranger anxiety.
- Multiple = 12 months onwards, form secondary attachments.
Schaffer and Emerson’s study:
- 60 babies, 31 male and 29 female.
- Visited once every month up until 12 months and again at 18 months.
- Studied seperation behaviour in 7 different situations and stranger anxiety.
- Identified the 4 stages as a result.
AO3:
Strength = Application to daycare.
- In the asocial and indiscriminate stages, daycare is simple as the child cn be cared for by a professional.
- In specific stage though, being with an unfamiliar adult may be an issue.
- Parents use of daycare can be planned uusing S+E stages.
Strength = Data has good external validity.
- Observations were done by the mother in natural situations.
- By filming them, it may have made them anxious or unsure.
- Means they showed natural and valid behaviour.
Limitation = Poor methods used for observation in the asocial stage.
- Mothers had to observe their baby and report back to the researchers.
- However, baby’s movements are small and uncoordinated and it can be hard to observe.
- Means that babies who were social may have been taken as anti-social and vice versa.
Describe and evaluate research into Romian Orphans. (16)
AO1
Rutter (to investigate if good after care could make up for poor experiences in institutions):
- 165 Romanian orphans.
- All adopted by English families.
- Control group = 52 kids who had been adopted from the UK around the same time.
- Assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11,15 and 22-25.
- Findings: half showed delayed intellectual developent when they arried in the UK, at 11 they showed differential rates of recovery that aligned with their age of adopption.
- Disinhibited attachments.
Zeanah et al (assessed attachment types):
- 95 orphans aged 12-31 months.
- Control group = 50 kids who had never been institutionalised.
- Assessed using the strange situation.
- Carers were also asked about unusual social behaviour.
- Findings = 74% of control group were securely attached, compared to 19% of institutionalised group. 44% of institutionalised group had a disinhibited attachment compared to 20% of control group.
- Effects: lack of emotional and intellectual development.
AO3:
Strength = Application to the care system.
- Helped psychologists understand the early effects of institutionalisation.
- Helped change the care system.
- EG = less carers to children.
Strength = Fewer confounding variables.
- Previous research had been done on children who had experienced childhood trauma such as war.
- New research has been done on orphans who had been given up by loving families, removing any negative experiences and their effects.
Limitation = Lack of adult data.
- Research has been done on young children and adults.
- No data to show the long term effects such as mental health issues or affects on later attachments.
Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment. (16)
AO1:
Lorenz:
- Studied geese.
- Randomly divided a clutch of geese into 2 groups.
- Hatched half with him and half with their mother in a natural environment.
- The half hatched with him imprinted on him and the others imprinted on their mother.
- Concept of sexual imprinting.
Harlow:
- Studied monkeys.
- Reared them with 2 mothers, one with cloth and one with milk and a cloth.
- Monkeys cuddled the cloth monkey when they were scared rather than going for food.
AO3:
Strength = Real world value.
- Understanding a lack of bonding experience.
- Can also be applied to zoos and the importance of attachment figures.
Limitation = Generalisability issues.
- Attachment in humans is much more complicated.
- Not appropriate to generalise to humans.
Limitation = Ethical issues.
- No consent.
- Monkeys in Harlow’s study had long term consequences and distress.
Describe and evaluate the Strange Situation as a method of assessing attachment type. (16)
AO1:
- Controlled observation, lab, two way mirror.
- Behaviours judged: proximity seeking, reunion behaviour, stranger/separation anxiety, secure base.
- 7 stages:
1) Caregiver and baby in a room, baby encouraged to explore.
2) Stranger comes in + talks to CG, approaches baby.
3) CG leaves.
4) CG returns and stranger leaves.
5) CG leaves baby alone.
6) Stranger returns.
7) CG returns and reunites with baby.
- Findings: the 3 attachment types.
AO3:
Strength = Good predictive ability.
- EG: those seen as type B tend to have better outcomes in general such as not being involved in bullying.
- Also have better MH.
Strength = High inter-rater reliability.
- Observers agreed on attachment type 94% of the time.
- May be due to controlled conditions.
Limitation = May be culture bound.
- Developed in UK + US.
- Different behaviours may have different meanings in cultures.
- Babies will also have different experiences.
