Attachment

Question 1

Define interactional synchrony

Answer 1

Is when a mother and infant reflects and copy each others micro social interactions

Question 2

what are the 4 stages of emmersons and schaffers theory of attachment?

Answer 2

1.Asocial Stage (0 to 6 weeks)
2. Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 6 months)
3. Specific Attachments (7 months)
4. Multiple Attachments (10-11 months onwards)

Question 3

Examples of what role of father research has presented

Answer 3

Grossman (2002)- found fathers have a more playful and stimulating role whilst mothers are an emotional and nurturing support

Tiffany field - (1978) found in single father families the father were the primary caregivers and they can adopt the behaviour of mothers

Question 4

The baby through the Asocial stage

Answer 4

Similar responses to objects & people.
- Preference for faces/eyes.
- Discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people through their smell and voice.

Question 5

baby through Indiscriminate attachment

Answer 5

Preference for human company.
- Ability to distinguish between people but comforted indiscriminately.
- Do not show fear of strangers.

Question 6

Baby through specific attachment phase

Answer 6

Baby begins to feel separation anxiety: protesting when their primary attachment figure leaves them.
- Show fear of strangers.

Question 7

Baby through multiple attachment phases

Answer 7

Multiple attachments formed.
- Attachment behaviours are shown towards several different people, such as siblings, grandparents etc.

Question 8

Evaluation of the Schaffer and Emersons attachment study points

Answer 8

Sample: Glasgow babies so cannot be generalised.

Size: Only 60 babies so the conclusion cannot be generalised.

Date: 1964 and the primary caregiver may not always be the mother so the temporal validity can be questioned.

Self Report Interview: parents have a bias towards their own children so they may be untruthful.

Data Type: Quantitative and Qualitative data so more insight

Natural Experiment: has mundane realism so the conclusion has ecological validity.

Question 9

define an interworking model and explain its importance

Answer 9

Is the idea that the first primary attachment forms the schema for all future attachments
so serves as a model for the infants future relationships

Question 10

What is a limitation that explores the research into interworking model?

Answer 10

Internal working models are unconscious in our behaviour yet the self report methods used are conscious so aren’t a good way to study them

Question 11

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 11

The idea that a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus combine to create a positive unconditional response
so the neutral stimulus now becomes a conditioned response

Question 12

what is operant conditioning?

Answer 12

In terms of attachment
An infant is hungry and this is an unpleasant sensation
milk is given so removes the unpleasant sensation
Leads to negative reinforcement as consequences are pleasant when they stop- Baby will do more social releases to make it stop.

Question 13

Outline Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 13

States that attachment is an instinctual behaviour that was developed out of the infants innate desire to survive

Is monotropic and should happen within the critical period so within 6-10months

The internal working model, the idea that the first primary attachment causes an influence on future attachments known as the continuity hypothesis

Question 14

Evaluation points for Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 14

• Schaffer and Emersons found that attachment is not monotropic
  Out of the 60 babies 2/3 had multiple attachments by 10 months old

Rutter et al - Found children could still form attachments outside of the critical period (so first primary attachment is not as important as bowlby says) Romanian orphans

Kagan-The baby’s temperament allows them to make attachments not the sensitive of the care giver (insecure future attachments)

Question 14

Evaluation points for the learning theory of attachment (specific to classical conditioning)

Answer 14

• overreliance on supporting research coming from animals. These behaviourist approaches oversimplify the bond within a infant and child
• reduced validity as it is reductionist due to simplifying it to a stimulus response association (link to Bowlby’s monotropic theory of it being a much deeper evolutionary trait)

Question 15

Outline Lorenz’s animal study of attachment

Answer 15

An investigation into imprinting

Two groups of geese one hatched with its mother and the other were incubated with Lorenz

Geese followed the first thing they saw (the critical period) Is in imprinting so is innately biological

Question 15

Evaluate Lorenz’s animal study

Answer 15

Cannot be generalised to humans
Unreliable as humans don’t imprint
Application- later applied to support other theories of human attachment

Question 15

Outline Harlow’s study

Answer 15

sed 8 rhesus monkeys who were taken away from their biological mothers soon after birth and raised in cages. In the cage, there were two ‘surrogate’ mothers: one made of wire, one padded with a soft warm cloth..

When only the wire monkey dispensed food he found that the monkey’s displayed attachment behaviour only towards the soft cuddly mother and not towards the food giving mother.

Disproves the learning theory that contact comfort (which the mother is the primary reinforcer of) then food

Question 16

Evaluate Harlow’s study of attachment

Answer 16

Monkeys are much closer genetically to humans and SO the study is more generalisable to humans

• Confounding variables The two surrogate mothers had different faces while also being made out of different materials so lacks internal validity.
• Ethical dilemma as the study harmed the monkeys BUT it was necessary to do this research in order to learn about humans SO it might be justifiable

Question 17

Aim of Ainsworth strange situation

Answer 17

to see how infants behave under conditions of mild stress

Question 18

what did Ainsworth conclude on her study?

Answer 18

Secure attachment babies had a parent that was sensitive and reponsive

Question 19

Describe insecure avoidant babies

Answer 19

Does explore but doesn’t use the mother as a safe base
Shows little separation and stranger anxiety
indifferent upon reunion behaviour

Question 20

describe insecure resistant babies

Answer 20

Has no willingness to explore stays close to the mother
Is very distressed when mom leaves or stranger comes
Seeks and rejects upon reunion

Question 21

describe secure attachment babies

Answer 21

Moderately distressed when mom leaves and stranger comes
Is easily soothed
And explores with the mother as a safe base

Question 22

Factors that limit or provide validity to Ainsworth study

Answer 22

we do not know if the babies attend day-care so is a confounding variable controlled observation so limited extraneous variables low ecological validity

Question 23

Generalisablity points for ainsworth

Answer 23

Only uses american middle class babies sample is ethnocentric cannot be applied to a non american group

Question 24

what was attachment type D?

Answer 24

Found by main and solomon were disorganised in their attachment and would show different responses

Question 25

What is a collectivist culture?

Answer 25

Group effort and family and high degrees of interpersonal dependency

Question 26

what is an individualistic culture?

Answer 26

emphasises personal dependence and achievement.

Question 27

Main findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

Answer 27

Germany- highest amount of avoidant babies Britain- most secure attached- promotes and individualistic culture Japan- highest resistant baby at 27% mothers barely ever leave the child

Question 28

A03 of cultural variations in attachment

Answer 28

27 studies were carried out in individualistic cultures rather than 5 in collectivist so not truly representative. Goldberg- cultural relativism cannot make valid interpretations without understanding the childrearing culture of that countries- a child being insecurely attached when in reality they are not

Question 29

What was Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation?

Answer 29

if there was no attachment or a disruption during the critical period then the child would suffer both emotionally and socially later on in life leads to them becoming an affectionless psychopath, which is permanent and irreversible Bowlby says : love and presence is as essential for psychological development as vitamins and minerals are for physical development'

Question 30

Describe the study for Bowlby's maternal deprivation (44 thieves study)

Answer 30

Aim- to see the effects of early separation and affectionless psychopathy compared 44 thieves and 44 boys with no criminal record at the Clinic he worked at Operationalised variable of an affectionless psychopath- acts impulsively with little to no regard for the consequences of there actions he claimed 14 of the thieves were affectionless psychopaths and 12 of them had separations from the mother

Question 31

A03 of 44 thieves study

Answer 31

- confounding variables - all from a clinic so all had behavioural problems which made them be perceived to be an affectionless psychopath - Use of interviews on the boys is a self report method - social desirability bias

Question 32

A03 of maternal deprivation study

Answer 32

Hodges and Tizard's-goes against the MD study as it found children in intuitions could make attachments past the critical period Rutter et al- Found in boys with separated parents, if the mother had died there was no sign of delinquency but if it was due to psychological disorder within the family then they became delinquent- Not the actual act of separation but the conflict and stress leads to affectionless psychopathy

Question 33

describe Rutter's ERA study

Answer 33

followed 165 Romanian children adopted in Britain and assessed IQ and emotional attachment at 4,6,11,16 years old. Adopted before 6 months- Had an IQ of 102 6 months- 2years- 86 IQ AFTER 2 Years - 77 IQ most after 6 months had a disinhibited attachment means they were clingy and attached quickly onto any care giver. found quasi-autistic symptoms, impaired language, social skills, reduced empathy.

Question 34

Describe the Bucharest Early intervention project

Answer 34

Assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who spent most of their life in an institution compared to control and measured attachment 19% of group was securely attached compared to 74% of control 65% of the group had a disorganised attachment 44% had disinhibited attachment

Question 35

A03 of Romanian orphan studies

Answer 35

Real life application- improving institutions through lower child to staff ratio to allow child to form an attachment Generalisability- poor due to only use of Romanian orphans, Romania very poor so many kids severely malnourished which had an effect Rutter- does not use randomly assigned groups, research didn't interfere with adoption so investigates a naturally occurring IV- so isn't unethical

Question 36

what are the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 36

1. Disinhibited attachment disorder - no stranger anxiety 2. Low IQ - later they are adopted less of a chance to make up intellectual development - can be recovered if adopted before 6 months 3.delayed physical development- suffer from deprivation dwarfism due too lack of nutrition 4. quasi- autistic symptoms- difficulty in forming healthy peer relationships Or even reactive attachment disorder, an inability to form emotional bonds.

Question 37

Describe Hodges and Tizard's longitudinal study

Answer 37

Aim- to observe if the children are given a second chance in a caring environment can they recover their social development Observed 65 kids who had been raised in a nursey from birth to those raised at home Those who were adopted managed go form close attachments and better in life then those who had returned to biological parents failed to make attachments This pattern continued until they were 16.

Question 38

A03 of studies on institutionalisation

Answer 38

Quinton et al- contradicts being able to make a second chance women who had grown up in privation where more insensitive of their children compared to control. Suggests the psychological effects are long term and into the 2nd generation. the Low IQ is not an effect of the institution but rather personality which allows the child to have the desirable characteristics to get adopted in the first place as they have more responsive behaviour

Question 39

what are the findings of Hazen and shavers study ?

Answer 39

Securely attached adults had certain beliefs that love in enduring and were less likely to be divorced Insecurely attached adults felt true love was rare and more likely to be divorced. Avoidant- love in not necessary for happiness Resistant - trouble finding true love.

Question 40

what does the attachment theory claim about childhood relationships?

Answer 40

those with a secure attachment style would be more confident in interactions with friends.

Question 41

studies on early attachment on childhood relationships

Answer 41

Verismo et al- found a positive correlation with attachment security to father and amount of friends at preschool. Moore et al- found securely attached teenagers were less likely to engage in risky sexual activities. Suggests a secure attachment can help support the transition from adolescence to adulthood.