Attachment Flashcards
What is the difference between secure attachment and insecure attachment
Secure attachment is when infant uses caregiver as secure base to explore the rest of their world and insecure is a negative or unpredictable experience with caregiver and they may not develop stable emotional bond
What is reciprocity?
Two way interaction where there is a response to each other’s actions
Where is interactional synchrony?
Both mother and infant reflect the actions and emotions of each other in a coordinated way
What was the aim of the study of meltzoff and moore 1977
To investigate the age at which babies begin synchrony
What was the procedure of meltzoff and moore
Record videotape from infant’s behaviour in real time, slow motion and framed by frame and got individual observers to note down all instances of infant behaviour that was listed
What was the findings of meltzoff and moore 1977
Babies just young as two weeks were demonstrating behaviours listed and all scores were greater than .92
Evaluate the study of meltzoff and moore
-It had a high degree of control, replicable and both intraobserver and internal observer reliability could be calculated as each observer watch the take twice
-infant mouths are fairly in constant motion so it’s difficult to distinguish general activity and specific imitated behaviours
What was the aim of Schaefer and Emerson study?
To identify stages of attachment and find a pattern in the development of an attachment between infants and parents
What was the procedure of Schaefer and Emerson study?
They analysed the interactions between infants and carers and they interviewed the carers.
The mother had to keep her diary to track the infant behaviour based on the following measures :
- Separation anxiety: signs of distress when the carer left and how much the infant needed to be converted when the carer returned
- Stranger anxiety: signs of distress as a response to a stranger arriving
- Social referencing: how often the infant looks at their carer to check how they should respond to something new
What was the conclusion of the Schaeffer and Emerson study
Babies of parents who had sensitive responsiveness were more likely to perform an attachment
-Found that sensitive responsiveness was more than the amount of time spent with the baby so infant formed more attachments with those who spent less time with them but we’re more sensitive to their needs
-Infant who had parents who responded to their needs quickly and spent more time interacting with a child had more intense attachments whereas those who had parents we did not interact with their child at all had very weak attachments
What are the four stages of attachment?
-Asocial stage 0 to 6 weeks: this is when the infant responds to objects and people similarly but may respond more to faces and eyes
-Indiscriminate attachments six weeks to 6 months: infant develops more responses to human company and although they can tell the difference between people they can be comforted by anyone
-Specific seven months+ : this is when inference begin to prefer one particular carer and seek for security comfort and protection in particular people-they begin to show a stranger anxiety and separation
-Multiple 10/11 months+ : this is an infant for multiple attachments and seek security comfort and protection in multiple people
Evaluate the stages of attachment according to Schaeffer and Emerson study
-Lacked population validity: inference in the study came from Glasgow and we’re mostly working class and the sample was 60 families
-Cultural variation: it focuses on individual cultures isn’t applicable to collectivist cultures
-Longitudinal design: studying babies overtime allowed them to identify different stages of attachment
-High ecological validity: observations were taken at the baby’s house
What did Schaefer and Emerson find around attachment to fathers?
3% of fathers were the so object of attachment and 27% were joined with the mother however after 18 months 75% formed a secondary attachment with their father
What did grossman eat al find about the distinctive role of fathers?
He did a Longitudinal study babies attachment into their teens
-On one hand only mothers quality attachment affected adolescence but the quality of fathers play related to the quality of adolescence attachment
What did field 1978 find about fathers as a primary attachment figure?
He filmed a four month old interactions with PCG mother’s fathers and SCG fathers and the PCG fathers showed similar behaviours to mothers such as smiling and imitating
What did lamb 1977 find about the role of the father?
Social and biological factors preventing intense attachment however FRODI 1978- no difference between men and women in sensitivity AND FRANK ET AL 1977- parents often share role as primary attachment figure
What was Lorenz’s study?
He showed that imprinting occurred in a clutch of goose eggs where he split the eggs into half in an incubator which would see Lorenz first and half under their natural mother and found that the half attached to and followed Lorenz as they saw him as the first moving person after the birth
What is the critical period for imprinting?
Must occur within the first two days after which an attachment is not possible and the consequences or failure to form an attachment or irreversible and it affects make choice as they meet with those similar to what they’ve been imprinted on
What was Harlow’s experiment in 1958?
Demonstrated the importance of contact comfort with Rhesus monkeys and twoiron maiden
-He removed infant monkeys from their mothers a few hours after birth and created to show good mothers one made of cloth and the other made of wire
-the cloth mother provided comfort but no food while the wire mother provided food but no comfort and he recorded how much time the monkey spent with each surrogate mother ar and how much they cried for their biological mother
-The research is found that when the monkeys were scared irrespective of which why are monkey was dispensing milk the babies would always see comfort from the clothbound mother
How do we attach according to classical conditioning?
A child will form attachment on basis of primary care provision, attachment behaviour should increase steadily from birth and the strongest attachment will be with those who provide the most primary care
How do we attach according to operating conditioning?
Learning through reinforcement and punishment and it draws on the concept of driver reduction
Hunger: primary Drive -innate and biological motivator
Attachment: secondary drive – reduce hunger through attachment
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers or response without any prior learning
What is an unconditioned response?
The natural automatic response to the unconditional stimulus and it occurs without any prior learning
