Attachment Flashcards
(149 cards)
What is attachment?
Attachment is a strong, enduring, emotional and reciprocal bond between two people. Takes a few months to develop.
According to Macoby (1980) what are the four characteristics of attachment?
- Seeking Proximity - the desire to be close to the person whom you are attached
- Separation Anxiety - the distress that results from being separated from that person
- Pleasure when Reunited - relief and observable joy when reunited with them
- General Orientation of Behaviours towards the Caregiver - the child’s awareness of where the person is and the reassurance they feel by them being close.
Who do babies have meaningful interactions with?
Babies have meaningful (intense and pleasurable) interactions with their carers and these are important for their social development, particularly caregiver-infant attachment.
What do babies have which signal that they are ready for interaction?
Babies have periodic alert phases which signal that they are ready for interaction
and their mothers respond 2/3rd of the time ( Feldman and Eidleman,2007)
What did Feldman define Interactional Synchrony?
Interactional synchrony can be defined as ‘the co- ordination of micro level behaviour’. It takes place when the infant and the mother interact in such a way that they will mirror their actions and emotions.
What are two people are said to be ‘synchronised ‘?
Two people are said to be synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously
What is Meltzof and Moore (1977) study?
They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as 12 - 21 day old babies. An adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions (sticking tongue out) or one of 3 distinct gestures (waving fingers) and the child’s response was filmed. An association was found between the expression/gesture and the action of the child.
What is the conclusion of Meltzof and Moore (1977) study?
Showed that babies as young as 2 weeks old displayed interactional synchrony supporting the idea that babies are alert and interact with their caregivers.
Why is Interactional Synchrony important?
It is important for the development of attachment since it provides the necessary
foundation for the mother and infant connection which can be built on in subsequent years.
Why is Interactional synchrony important: what is the method of Isabella’s study?
Isabella (1989) observed 20 mothers and infants together and assessed their degree of synchrony and the quality of mother- infant attachment.
What are the findings of Isabella’s study?
She found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother - infant attachment - emotional intensity of the relationship.
What are the results of Isabella’s study?
Interactional synchrony is important in development of attachment.
What is Reciprocity Interaction?
Reciprocity Interaction is when the infant and mother respond to each other signals and elicits a response from the other
When is Reciprocity Interaction frequently used?
It is found to be increasingly frequent from around 3 months and involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions.
How did Brazelton describe this interaction?
Brazelton described this interaction as a ‘dance’ - it is like a couple’s dance where each person responds to the other’s moves.
What does reciprocity imply?
This suggests that babies are active. This goes against the traditional views that
babies play a passive role in receiving care from an adult. Both mother and child can initiate interactions and seem to be taking turn in doing so.
What are strengths of research into interactional synchrony ?
However it is hard to know what is happening when observing infants. What is being observed is hand movements and changes in expression. It is difficult to say based on these observations whether the infant’s imitation of adult signals is conscious and deliberate. Since we can’t communicate with infants using
— we can’t be sure about what is taking place from their perspective. This means that we can’t be sure that certain behaviours seen in mother - infant interactions have any special meaning. Most research therefore has low internal validity.
These observations also do not tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity. All the research does is simply describe the behaviours that occur at the time.
What are weaknesses of research into interactional synchrony ?
However it is hard to know what is happening when observing infants. What is being observed is hand movements and changes in expression. It is difficult to say based on these observations whether the infant’s imitation of adult signals is conscious and deliberate. Since we can’t communicate with infants using
— we can’t be sure about what is taking place from their perspective. This means that we can’t be sure that certain behaviours seen in mother - infant interactions have any special meaning. Most research therefore has low internal validity.
These observations also do not tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity. All the research does is simply describe the behaviours that occur at the time.
What are weaknesses of research into interactional synchrony ?
It is difficult to draw conclusions about the role of caregiver- infant interactions in the development of attachment is that there may be extraneous factors such as culture, temperament, substitute care, life events may have a long term effect on attachment and cannot be controlled.
There also may be practical issues such as need for limited observation periods because of limited waking periods.
Another limitation of the research in mother- infant interactions is that it is a sensitive issue. This is because it suggests that children may be disadvantaged by certain child- rearing practices. Example: mothers who go back to work soon after the baby is born.
Development of attachment: what is the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)?
Procedure:
Schaffer and Emerson conducted a longitudinal study on 60 Glasgow infants - 31 male and 29 female (5-23 weeks at the start of the study) from skilled working-class homes. The babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and then again at 18 months.
Separation anxiety was measured by asking the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations e.g. adult leaving the room. This was done to measure the infant’s attachment.
Stranger anxiety was assessed by the researchers through direct observations of the infants’ reaction when they approached him/her - children’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.
Development of attachment: what is the results of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)?
Results:
50% babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult between 25 and 32 weeks of age - usually the mother ( called specific attachment).
In 3% cases the father was the first sole object of attachment.
In 27% the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother.
By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.
Reciprocity was found to be important in the development of attachment.
Development of attachment: what is the conclusion of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)?
Conclusions:
The results of the study indicated that attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was the most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (reciprocity) and this may not be who they spent the most time with. They called this ‘sensitive responsiveness. The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with him or her.
The study also shows that a significant number of infants form multiple attachments.
What are the strengths of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?
The study has good external validity because most observations were made by parents during ordinary activities at home which is the natural environment of the babies and reported to researchers. Behaviour of babies unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers, so it is likely to be natural behaviour.
Another strength of the research is that it was carried out longitudinally. This
means that the same children were followed up and observed regularly. A quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at each stage. This is called a longitudinal study. However longitudinal studies have better internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable of participant variables since the same children are being studied.
What is a weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?
The sample size of 60 babies and their carers were all from the same city and the same class from the same community, 50 years ago. Child rearing practices vary from culture to culture and from one historical period to another. These results may not generalise to other social and historical contexts.