Attachment Flashcards
1
Q
What is reciprocity?
A
How 2 people interact and respond to each other to gain a mutual benefit.
2
Q
What did Feldman and Eidelman (2007) find about reciprocity?
A
Babies have periodic alert phases which indicates that they are ready for interaction, mothers tend to pick up on and respond to this indication 2/3 times.
3
Q
What did Feldman say is meant to happen from around 3 months?
A
Interaction begins to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each others verbal signals and facial expressions.
4
Q
What did Brazleton et al describe caregiver infant interaction as?
A
As a dance because it is where each person partaking responds to each others moves. Therefore both the mother and the infant can initiate the interaction.
5
Q
What is meant by interactional synchrony in caregiver infant interactions?
A
When the mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated synchronised way.
6
Q
What did Isabella et al find?
A
Observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed degree of synchrony and the quality of mother-infant attachment. Found high levels of synchrony to associate with better mother infant interactions.
7
Q
What is a support for caregiver infant interactions?
A
Controlled observations capture fine details as both the mother and infant were filmed from multiple angles. This increases the validity of the study.
8
Q
What did Feldman (2012) point out concerning interactional synchrony?
A
That synchrony only describes the behaviors which happen at the same time. They are robust phenomena which can be reliably observed however these observations are not particularly useful.
9
Q
What is a criticism for the study of caregiver infant interactions?
A
Its hard to know whats happening when observing infants as all which can be observed is hand movements or changes in expression.
10
Q
What research has been done on the role of the father?
A
Grossman (2002)
11
Q
What did Grossman (2002) do concerning parent infant behaviour?
A
Conducted a longitudinal study looking at both parents behavior and its relationship to the quality of children attachments into their teens.
12
Q
What did Grossman (2002) find concerning role of the father?
A
That the quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachment in adolescence suggesting role of father is less important.
However quality of fathers play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. Suggesting fathers role is more to do with play and stimulation than nurturing.
13
Q
What research has been done on fathers as primary care givers?
A
Tiffany Field (1978)
14
Q
What did Tiffany Field (1978) do?
A
Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
15
Q
What did Tiffany Field (1978) find concerning fathers as primary caregivers?
A
The key to nurturing is a level of interaction between the main care giver and the child. Sex of care giver does not seem to matter.
16
Q
What criticisms are there for research on attachment figures?
A
Inconsistent findings on fathers
If father have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different?
Why don’t fathers generally become primary?
17
Q
What is a criticism for the role of the father?
A
That if fathers have such a distinct role why aren’t children without them different.
18
Q
Why is it said that fathers do not become primary attachment figures?
A
Due to traditional gender roles in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than women. This can be a criticism for fathers as primary caregivers.
19
Q
Why is it said that there is inconsistent findings on fathers?
A
Because different researchers are seen to be interested in different research questions. Psychologists are either interested in understanding the role of fathers as secondary or primary caregivers.
20
Q
What research has been done on parent infant attachment?
A
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
21
Q
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find?
A
Found children tend to form their first primary attachment to their mothers within 7 months, and 75% had formed a secondary attachment to their father by 18 months.
22
Q
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) do?
A
Studied 60 babies (31 male 29 female) at monthly intervals for the first 18 moths of life.
23
Q
What was Schaffer and Emerson (1964) aims?
A
To investigate the formation of early attachments at a particular age at which they developed.
24
Q
Where were Schaffer and Emersons (1964) participants from?
A
Glasgow from skilled working class families.
25
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) measure?
Separation anxiety - when the parent left the room
Stranger anxiety - when a unfamiliar adult entered the room
26
What evaluations can we use for Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study?
+ Good external validity
+ Longitudinal design
- Limited sample characteristics
27
Why is Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study said to have good external validity?
Due to it being carried out in the parents own homes and most observations being done by parents during ordinary activities. Meaning behaviour of babies was unlikely to be effected by the researchers presence.
28
Why is Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study said to have a beneficial longitudinal design?
Carried out longitudinally meaning same children were followed up and observed monthly. This increases the internal validity of the study as it means there are no confounding variables of individual differences.
29
Why is Schaffer and Emersons (1964) study said to have a limiting sample?
Although they used a large volume of participants all were from the same district and the same social class ad was conducted over 50 years ago making it hard to generalise.
30
What are the four stages of attachment according to Schaffer and Emmerson?
Stage 1 - Asocial stage
Stage 2 - Indiscriminate attachment
Stage 3 - Specific attachment
Stage 4 - Multiple attachment
31
What is meant by the asocial stage of attachment?
Where the baby cannot recognise differences between humans and non human objects. May show some preference for familiar adults in that they find it easier to calm them.
32
What is meant by the indiscriminate stage of attachment?
From 2 - 7 months. Show preference for people and recognise familiar ones. However accept care and cuddles from any adult. Therefore indiscriminate as behaviour shows no difference to any one person.
33
What is meant by the specific stage of attachment?
From 7 months and baby was seen to show anxiety when separated from one particular adult. Therefore child has formed a specific attachment figure which is termed primary caregiver (65% of cases were biological mother).
34
What is meant by the multiple stage of attachment?
Shortly after specific attachment the baby show attachment behaviour towards other adults with who they spend time with. These relationships are called secondary and in the study 29% of children formed this within a month of forming primary attachment.
35
What evaluations can we use for Schaffer and Emersons (1964) stages of attachment?
- Problems in studying the asocial stage
- Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments
- Difficulties in measuring the multiple attachment stage
36
Why is there said to be problems in studying the asocial stage?
They described the first few weeks of the attachment to be the asocial stage however in those first few weeks babies have poor coordination and are generally immobile. Therefore difficult to make judgements about them based on observations of behaviour.
37
Why is there said to be conflicting evidence on the multiple attachment stage?
Its unclear when the multiple attachment stage happens. Some psychologists say its formed after the primary caregiver is whereas others say multiple caregivers are the norm (Van Iljendoorn et al) these cultures are called collectivist.
38
Why is there said to be a problem when measuring multiple attachments?
Bowlby argued that just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves a room does not necessarily mean they are a true attachment figure. He pointed out that children have playmates as well and could show distress when they leave.
39
What animal studies are there into attachment?
Lorenz's imprinting with geese
Harlow's monkeys
40
What was Lorenzs procedure?
Conducted a classic experiment where he separated half a clutch of goose eggs half of which hatched with the mother and the others in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
41
What did Lorenz find?
The incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group followed the original mother. This phenomena was called imprinting.
42
What did Lorenz identify as the critical period for birds?
As brief as a few hours in some species.
43
What is meant by imprinting with birds?
Where a bird species which are mobile from birth attach to the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified this as the critical period and can be as brief as a few hours after hatching depending on the species. If imprinting didn't happen in that time then it was seen to make no attachment to mothers.
44
What is meant by sexual imprinting?
Birds who imprint on humans would often show courtship behaviours towards humans.
45
What problems are seen with Lorenz's research?
Generalisability to humans
Some observations have been questioned
46
Why is it said that Lorenz's study is not generalisable to humans
Humans have a much higher level of thinking and emotion than birds. Therefore findings from this species cannot be applied to humans and therefore isn't that useful.
47
Why are Lorenzs observation often questioned?
Animals were found later on to showing courtship with the item/animal they had imprinted on which Lorenz described as being permanent however this was found to not be the case. Due to animals who attempted this courtship eventually gave up and learned to prefer mating with their own species.
48
What animals did Harlow work with?
Rhesus monkeys
49
What was Harlows procedure?
Reared 16 monkeys in a cage with 2 wire model mothers one of which was covered in cloth and therefore offered comfort.
50
What were the 2 conditions in Harlows procedure?
Milk dispensed by the plain wire mother
Milk dispensed by the cloth covered mother
51
What were Harlows findings?
The baby monkeys cuddled, preferred and sought comfort when frightened from the cloth mother regardless of which dispensed milk. Therefore the contact comfort was more important to the monkeys than food.
52
What did Harlow find about the monkeys who were maternally deprived?
Those reared with only a wire mother were most dysfunctional even those with a soft toy substitute didn't develop normal social behaviour.
53
What behaviours did the maternally deprived monkeys show in adulthood?
More aggressive, less sociable, bred less often and were unskilled at mating.
As mothers they neglected and even attacked and killed their young.
54
What did Lorenz and Harlow conclude the critical period a mother had to be introduced within to be?
For monkeys 90 days.
55
What ethical issues does Harlows study show?
The monkeys suffered permanent unresolvable harm. In addition as the monkeys used were similar enough to humans to generalise findings its presumed they suffered in a human like way.
56
What is a benefit of Harlows research?
Harlows research has a large practical application. The monkeys used were similar to humans, therefore it's believed humans act in a similar way. This is shown as it helped social workers to understand the risk factors in child neglect and abuse and therefore how to prevent in.
57
What explanations of attachment are there?
Learning theory
Bowlby's monotropic theory
58
What does learning theory say the reason for development of attachment is due to?
Classical and operant conditioning
59
What does classical conditioning involve?
Learning to associate two stimuli together so we begin to respond to one in the same way as we already responded to the other.
60
How does classical conditioning form development of attachment?
When the caregiver (neutral stimulus) is associated with a unconditioned stimulus enough times for the caregiver to become the conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response being shown.
61
When is classical conditioning shown in development of attachment?
When food is given it is an unconditioned stimulus as it produces pleasure from being fed (unconditioned response). When a caregiver is consistently feeding the child then they will change from the neutral stimulus to the conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response being shown when the caregiver is seen.
62
What does operant conditioning involve?
Learning the repeat behaviours or not depending on the consequence from doing it in the first place.
63
How does operant conditioning reinforce development of attachment?
Operant conditioning forces the infant to either repeat a behaviour or not. Therefore if a certain behaviour produces a pleasant consequence that behaviour may be repeated however if it produced an unpleasant response it won't be repeated. This is then reinforced by repeating the negative/positive responses.
64
How can operant conditioning explain why babies cry for comfort?
When a baby cries it usually leads to a response from the caregiver ie feeding. Therefore if the caregiver provides the right response the crying is reinforced. However this goes both ways as the parent is negatively reinforced as the crying has stopped.
65
What is meant by drive reduction?
The idea that we do certain things to fulfil primary drives ie innate biological motivators such as hunger.
66
Why does learning theory consider attachment as a secondary drive?
Because the primary drive is to fulfil the need for hunger and the secondary drive is the association between caregiver and primary drive satisfaction.
67
How does animal research counter learning theories explanation of attachment?
Many animal studies show that young animals don't attach/imprint on those who feed them. Harlows monkeys attached to a soft cloth mother rather than a wire one which offered milk.
68
How does human research counter learning theories explanation of attachment?
Human research shows feeding doesn't appear to be an important factor in humans. For example Schaffer and Emerson found many babies developed a primary attachment to biological mother even though carers did most of the feeding.
69
What factors does learning theory ignore which are associated with forming attachments?
Research into early infant-caregiver attachment suggests that the quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony. None of these are shown in the learning theory explanation.
70
What is meant by 'cupboard love'?
The learning theory approach of explaining attachment as it strongly emphasises the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food.
71
Why did John Bowlby reject learning theory as an explanation of attachment?
He said if it were true an infant of 2 should take readily to whomever feeds them which is clearly not the case.
72
What is meant by innate and universal according to Bowlby?
Bowlby believed we are born with the drive to form an attachment, which means that all babies everywhere have this drive, making his theory universal as it applies to all humans.
73
What is meant by monotropy?
A single strong relationship
74
What is meant by the internal working model?
The use of the first attachment as a model for all later attachments. Therefore if the child has a poor first attachment with primary caregiver then future attachment will also be poor.
75
What did Bowlby identify as the critical period for humans?
From birth until 30 months old in which time we must form a enduring reciprocal bond between ourselves and our primary caregivers.
76
How did Bowlby say that infants form attachments?
By being equipped with social releases such as smiling or cooing to reward the parent for taking care of them.
77
What did Bowlby say would happen if the child failed to form an attachment within these first 30 months?
It could still be done later however poor experiences with the primary caregiver can cause the child to suffer throughout the rest of their lives. Therefore he suggested the 'critical period' to be more of a 'sensitive period'.
78
What are some supporting studies of Bowlbys monotropic theory?
+ Harlows monkeys - as showed damaged infant monkeys would struggle as adults.
+ Bowlbys 44 thieves study
79
What is a criticising study of Bowlbys monotropic theory?
- Schaffer and Emerson argued babies often form multiple attachments within the first 30 months.
80
What is the procedure of the strange situation?
Controlled observation designed to measure security of attachment. Takes place in a room with controlled observations and a 2 way mirror in which psychologists observe infants behaviour.
81
What were the 5 behaviours which were looked out for in the strange situation procedure?
Proximity seeking - seeking to be close to caregiver.
Secure base and exploration - using carer as safe place to explore from.
Stranger anxiety - showing fear of strangers.
Separation protest - showing upset when the carer leaves.
Reunion response - how they react when carer returns.
82
How many episodes does the strange situation have?
7 each of which last 3 minutes
83
What are the 7 stages in the strange situation procedure?
1. Infant encouraged to explore as are alone with parent
2. Stranger joins to interact with child
3. Caregiver leave child and stranger together
4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves
5. Caregiver leaves child alone
6. Stranger returns
7. Parent returns and stranger leaves
84
What did Ainsworth identify the 3 attachment types as?
Secure attachment (type B)
Insecure - avoidant (type A)
Insecure - resistant (type C)
85
What was shown from a child with a secure (type B)
attachment?
Explore happily but regularly go back to the caregiver.
Separation showed some moderate distress.
Moderate stranger anxiety.
Require and accept comfort from caregiver.
60-70% British toddlers are secure
86
What percentage of British toddlers are securely attached?
60-70%
87
What was shown from a child with insecure avoidant (type A) attachment?
Explore freely but do not show secure base behaviour
Show little to no separation distress
Show little stranger anxiety
Do not require comfort at reunion stage
88
What percentage of British toddlers have insecure avoidant (type A) attachment?
20-25%
89
What was shown from a child with insecure resistant (type C) attachment?
Explore less as do not seek proximity
Show huge separation distress
Show huge stranger anxiety
Resist comfort when reunited with carer
90
What percentage of British toddlers have insecure resistant attachment (type C)?
3%
91
Why is Ainsworth's strange situation procedure said to have good reliability?
Shows very good inter-rater reliability as different observers agree on what attachment type to classify children as. This may be because its taken place under controlled conditions and behavioural categories are easy to observe.
92
Why is the strange situation procedure said to lack validity?
Kagan (1982) suggested that genetics could influence the child's behaviour and not just the attachment with primary caregiver. This means that temperament could be a confounding variable for the study.
93
What is a criticism of Ainsworth's strange situation procedure?
Theres doubt whether the strange situation is a culture bound test ie doesn't have same meaning in countries outs Western Europe. This is because children and caregivers respond and behave differently to the procedure.
94
What is a criticism of Ainsworth's strange situation?
It only accounts for 3 types of attachment when there is certainly a 4th. Main and Solomon (1986) pointed out a minority of children to display disorganised attachment which is an odd mix of resistant and avoidant behaviour.
95
What was Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) procedure?
Located 32 studies across 8 countries of attachment where strange situation was used and meta analysed them all. These studies allowed for 1990 childrens attachment to be analysed.
96
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) do?
Conducted a study to look at the propertion of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure resistent attachments across a range of countries.
97
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) find in Great Britain?
Secure (type B) = 75
Insecure avoidant (type A) = 22
Insecure resistant (type C) = 3
98
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) find in China?
Secure (type B) = 50
Insecure avoidant (type A) = 25
Insecure resistant (type C) = 25
99
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) find in Israel?
Secure (type B) = 64
Insecure avoidant (type A) = 7
Insecure resistant (type C) = 29
100
What is an overall strength of Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)?
They used a large sample size, because they compared attachment across so many countries, this increased the internal validity of the study.
101
Why is Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) methods of assessment said to be biased?
The methods of assessment do not consider the etic of their study. Due to the strange situation study being designed by an American researcher and applied to other countries. This is known as imposed etic.
102
What is a criticism of Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) study?
They claimed their study to have cultural variation whereas it was done on countries and in one country there may be multiple cultures.
103
What does Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation consist of?
Separation
Deprivation
The critical period
Effects on development - intellectual and emotional
104
What is meant by separation?
Child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure.
105
What is meant by deprivation?
Extended separations for the child not receiving any care.
106
What is meant by the critical period according to Bowlby?
The first 30 months of the child's life which is critical for psychological development. Bowbly said psychological harm was inevitable if the child didn't receive suitable care within this time.
107
How can maternal deprivation affect a child's intellectual development?
Bowlby said that if a child received delayed maternal care for too long they would suffer delayed intellectual development (abnormally low IQ). This is usually seen in adoption.
108
How can maternal deprivation affect a child's emotional development?
Affectionless psychopathy is the inability to feel remorse, guilt or strong emotions for others which is associated with crime.
109
What was Bowlbys study?
44 thieves study
110
What were the participants in Bowlbys 44 thieves study?
44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing i.e thieves with signs of affectionless psychopathy.
111
What did Bowlby do in his 44 thieves study?
Interviewed participants for signs of psychopathy. Families were also interviewed to check for prolonged separations from their mothers. A control group were also set with non criminal but emotionally disturbed young people.
112
What were Bowlbys findings in his 44 thieves study?
Found 14 of the thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of the 14 12 had experienced prolonged separation from mothers in the first 2 years of life. Of the control group only 2 of 44 had prolonged separation.
113
How can animal studies support Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation?
Although animals are very different from humans cognitively, they still show as a support. Harlow found that when the babies were deprived of care there would be significant problems in later life.
114
