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Attachment Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the definition of attachment?

A

A strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary caregiver

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2
Q

What is reciprocity?

A

The child has a bond to the mother and the mother has a bond to the child, this is shown when an action generates a response- such as when a parent smiles at the child, the child smiles back.

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3
Q

What is interactional synchrony?

A

When the infant and primary caregiver becomes synchronised in their interactions, they carry out the action simultaneously (mirror each other)

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4
Q

What are the three attachment behaviours?

A
  • Proximity, trying to stay close to those they are attached to
  • Separation distress, people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves
    -Secure base behaviour, explore the environment but return to attachment figure for comfort
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5
Q

Why do babies need to form attachments?

A

Human babies are altricial, born at an early stage of development so we need to form bond to adults who will protect and nurture

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6
Q

Who studied reciprocity and what did they find?

A

Feldman- reciprocity can be seen in interactions from 3 months old

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7
Q

When does interactional synchrony begin and who studied it?

A

Meltzoff and Moore- infants as young at 2 to 3 weeks imitates specific gestures.
- The study was conducted using an adult model who displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements, following the display the child’s expression was filmed, finding association between the infant behaviour and the adult.

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8
Q

Why is interactional synchrony important for attachment and who studied this?

A

It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of attachment.
Isabella et al. observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed the degree of synchrony, the researchers also assessed the quality of attachment- finding high levels of synchrony = better quality attachment.

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9
Q

What are the limitations of synchrony and reciprocity?

A
  • observations dont tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
  • It is difficult to test infant behaviour
  • culture bound, caregiver-infant interactions are not found in all cultures
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10
Q

What are the advantages of synchrony and reciprocity?

A
  • Meltzoff and Moore videoed the infant responses and asked an observer, who didn’t know the adults behaviour, to judge the infants behaviour.
  • Research was conducted within a lab setting.
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11
Q

What are the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer and Emerson?

A

Asocial 0-6 weeks
Indiscriminate 6 weeks- 6 months
Specific 7 months +
Multiple 11 months +

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12
Q

What was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

A

60 Glaswegian babies, visited every month for a year and then at 18 months (longitudinal study)
- analysed interactions between caregivers and infants
- interviewed carers
- had them keep a diary to track the infants behaviours based on:
Separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and social referencing (how often a carer looks at an infant to check how they should respond to something new

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13
Q

What are the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

A

-Between 25-30 weeks 50% showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult
- Attachments tended to be to the most interactive caregiver
- By 40 weeks 80% had a specific attachment

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14
Q

Evaluate Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

A
  • Difficult to study babies in the asocial stage because they are so young, they dont move/talk
  • Conflicting evidence, Bowlby’s monotropy theory
  • Measurement issues, it is difficult to objectively measure levels of separation/stranger anxiety
  • Some psychologists agree (Bowlby) that there needs to be a specific attachment before multiple attachments
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15
Q

Who studied role of the father?

A

Grossman

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15
Q

What did Schaffer and Emerson’s study show about role of the father?

A
  • Fathers are much less likely to become the primary caregiver
  • 3% of cases where father was the sole attachment
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16
Q

What did Grossman find?

A

-Father attachment is less important
- quality of infants attachment to mother effects attachments in adolescence

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16
Q

What was the procedure of Grossman’s study?

A
  • Longitudinal study 44 families comparing role of mothers and fathers contributions to their child’s attachment experiences at 6, 10 and 16 years
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17
Q

What was the procedure of Field’s study into Role of the father?

A

Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with: mom (primary caregiver), dad (primary caregiver) and dad (secondary caregiver).

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18
Q

What were the findings of Field’s study?

A

-Primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating & holding infants compared to secondary caregiver fathers
-Shows fathers can step up and be more nurturing, at the same level as pcg moms

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19
Q

What are the 4 limitations of role of the father theories?

A
  • Inconsistent findings of studies as researchers are interested in different questions (secondary or primary)
  • Does not explain why children without fathers develop differently
  • There are numerous influences which might impact on child’s emotional development, it is difficult to control all of these variables to draw valid conclusions about role of the father
  • Research doesn’t explain why fathers don’t generally become pcg’s
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20
Q

What was the aim of Lorenz’s study?

A

To investigate imprinting where the youngsters follow and form an attachment to the first large moving objects that they meet.

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21
Q

What was Lorenz’s method?

A

Lorenz split a large clutch of goose eggs into two batches, one with the mother and the other hatched from an incubator with the first thing they see when they hatch was Lorenz, he then recorded their behaviour.
He marked the goslings to determine which hatched naturally and which were incubated and placed them all in an upturned box, removed it and recorded their behaviour

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22
Q

What did Lorenz find?

A

The incubator ducks followed Lorenz and showed no bond to their natural mother, these bonds proved irreversible.
Lorenz found imprinting occurred within the first few hours after birth which he terms the critical period.
He later found the goslings went through sexual imprinting and so attempted to mate with humans

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23
What was the aim of Harlow's study?
To investigate whether food or comfort was more important in forming a bond
24
What was Harlow's method?
He reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model 'mothers', one plain and one cloth covered. In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the second condition milk was dispensed by a cloth covered mother
25
What did Harlow find?
The baby monkey cuddled the cloth-covered object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth-covered one when scared regardless of which dispensed milk. This showed that 'contact comfort' was of more importance to the monkey than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
26
What did Harlow's follow up study show?
Harlow followed the monkeys into adulthood to see if there was a permanent effect, he found that monkeys reared from the wire mother were the most dysfunctional and those reared with the cloth mother were also partially dysfunctional. They were more aggressive and less sociable and as mothers they attacked their children even killing them.
27
What does the learning theory state is the reason for attachment?
Children are born as blank slates, everything we know is learned through experience so the baby learns attachment from its mother, we learn attachment through classical and operant conditioning. The idea of 'cupboard love' where we form attachments to the person providing us with food
28
How does classical conditioning cause attachment?
The infant receives pleasure (UCR) from feeding (UCS), as the primary caregiver (NS) becomes associated with feeding time, the primary caregiver (CS) also provides pleasure response (CR), the pleasure the infant receives from being with the pcg provides the basis for the attachment bond
29
How does operant conditioning cause attachment?
Food becomes a primary reinforcer, it provided a reward from removing discomfort. The person who provides the food is associated with avoiding the discomfort so is a secondary reinforcer
30
Evaluate the learning theory of attachment:
- Research contradicts the learning theory (Harlow), demonstrates that attachments are based on comfort rather then food=contact comfort not cupboard love. - More research contradicting learning theory (Schaffer and Emerson) attachment was to the parent who was more responsive and interactive + scientific as founded in an already established theory
31
Bowlby's theory is evolutionary, what does this mean?
- The tendency to form attachments is INNATE
32
What acronym summarises Bowlby's theory?
SoMAGIC
33
What does the So stand for in this acronym?
Social releasers- Crying and looking cute, the elicit caregiving
34
What does the M stand for in this acronym?
Monotropy- Forming one special attachment
35
What does the A stand for in this acronym?
Adaptive advantage- Attachments enable us to adapt to our environment e.g. learning to walk and being fed
36
What does the G stand for in this acronym?
Good quality care- PCG are responsive to their child's needs
37
What does the I stand for in this acronym?
Internal Working Model- First attachments form a template for all adult relationships
38
What does the C stand for in this acronym?
Critical period- Babies must form an attachment within the first 2 and a half years otherwise they would never be able to fully form one, they would be damaged socially, emotionally and intellectually
39
What is Bowlby's monotropic theory and what are its two principles?
Bowlby suggests that we have one special attachment (most often the mom) 1. The law on continuity - The more the constant and predictable the childcare the better quality the attachment 2. The law of accumulated separation - Effect of every separation from the mother adds up
40
How long is the critical period, how long is the sensitive period?
CP- 2 1/2 years SP- 5 years - takes longer to form attachments but its still possible
41
Evaluate Bowlby's monotropy theory:
+ Supporting evidence of IWMs in research on 99 mothers and recording of their attachment type using the Strange Situation model, the research found that poor insecure attachments coincided with the mothers who reported poor insecure attachments to their parents - Monotropy is socially sensitive research, it puts pressures on working mothers to delay their return to work and blames any developmental abnormalities on mother by default - Monotropy may not be evident in all children, monotropy is scarce in collectivist cultures where the whole family is involved in raising a child 'it takes a village'
42
What was the aim of Ainsworth's study?
To see how infants aged between 9-18 months behave under conditions of mild stress and also novelty
43
What was the procedure of Ainsworth's study?
100 American infants. Controlled observation, in a lab using a two way mirror, in which the child and the mother were observed interacting in 7 different scenarios: 1. Mother and baby 2. A stranger joins mom and baby 3. Mom leaves baby and stranger alone 4. Mother returns, stranger leaves 5. Mother leaves, baby alone 6. Stranger returns 7. Mother returns, stranger leaves
44
What were the 5 main behaviours Ainsworth observed for?
- Exploration behaviour - Proximity seeking - Stranger anxiety - Separation anxiety - Reunion behaviour
45
What were the findings of Ainsworth's strange situation?
Three main types of attachments: - Secure - Insecure-avoidant - Insecure-resistant
46
What is a secure attachment?
These children explore happily but regularly return to their caregiver, (proximity seeking). They show moderate levels of stranger and separation anxiety, they require and accept comfort at the reunion stage. 60-70% of British infants.
47
What is an insecure avoidant attachment?
Explore happily with no secure base behaviour (do not proximity seek), they show little to no stranger anxiety or separation distress, they do not require comforting when the parent returns. 15% of British infants
48
What is an insecure resistant attachment?
Do not explore freely and seek extreme levels of proximity. Extreme separation distress and stranger anxiety but resist comfort when reunited with caregiver. 15% of British infants
49
What are the strengths of Ainsworth's strange situation?
- Effective means of looking at infants attachments to their parents in an efficient way - Replication was easy: the method had been employed in studies all over the world- especially in cross-cultural research -Good reliability: test-retest reliability in replications, inter-rater reliability (observers score behaviour in a similar way)
50
What are the limitations of Ainsworth's strange situation?
- Validity concerns related to the location being different from the infant's normal environment (low ecological validity) - Unethical- deliberate stress caused to infants - Biased sample- 100 middle class American families - Focus on only one attachment figure
51
What was the aim of Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg's study?
- Conducted a study to look at proportions of attachment across a range of countries
52
What was the procedure of Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg's study?
- Meta-analysis on 32 studies using Ainsworth's SS- 8 countries - Attachment types in each were studied - Over 2000 babies studied
53
Which country was the most common in V & K's research and which was least common?
Most - USA (18) Least- China, Sweden, UK (1)
53
Which was the most frequent and least frequent attachment type?
Most -Secure Least- Insecure resistant
54
Which country had the highest level of each attachment type?
Secure- UK IA- Germany IR- Japan
55
Overview of Simonella et al:
- Replication of SS in Italy - 12 months old F: Secure 50%, IA 36% - Suggests mothers working long hours and using childcare
56
Overview of Jin et al:
- Replication of SS in Korea - 87 children - Proportions similar but most IR
57
Overview of Takahashi:
- Replication of SS in Japan - 60 infants No IA, high IR (lots of separation distress) 90% of children didn't complete the whole procedure due to extreme stress
58
Evaluate Van Ijendoorn & Kroonenberg's study:
- 18/32 studies were carried out in America - 27/31 studies were carried out in individualistic cultures - Ainsworth's strange situation was developed in American and so may not be suitable for use in other cultures (imposed etic) + Very large sample size across multiple cultures +Secure attachments were the most common in all cultures studied
59
What does Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation state happens in absence of attachment?
- Inability to form attachments in the future (no IWM) - Affectionless psychopathy (unable to feel remorse) - Delinquency (behavioral problems in child's teens) - Problems with cognitive development
60
What did Bowlby's 44 thieves study show?
To assess the effects of maternal deprivation, found that out of 44 thieves 14 were affectionless psychopaths and 12 of the 14 suffered from maternal deprivation
61
What are the limitations of Bowlby's MD theory?
- The 44 thieves study may have suffered from researcher bias- Bowlby knew what he wanted to find so phrased questions in a way that influenced responses - Studies have shown that the effects of a critical period may not be as concrete as Bowlby initially believed, the effects of maternal deprivation are not always so clear-cut -Lewis et al disagreed with the conclusion that affectionless psychopathy and MD caused criminality, qualitative data with 500 juveniles showed no link between MD and difficulty forming relationships in later life.
62
Who studied Romanian orphans and what was their aim?
Rutter et al To investigate the effects of institutionalisation in a group of 165 Romanian orphans
63
What was the procedure of the Romanian Orphan study?
- Observed a group of 165 Romanian orphans and assessed them at 4, 6 and 11 years old - Assessed their psychological, emotional and physical development - Results were compared to 50 children adopted in Britain at around the same time (control group) - Longitudinal study after adoption to British families - Babies adopted before 6 months, between 6-24 months and 2-4 years
64
What were the findings of Rutter's study?
-Majority were malnourished - For children adopted before 6 months = Didn't show any major problems with attachment, they caught up (in terms of IQ) with the control group by age 4. - For children adopted between 6-24 months = Showed signs of disinhibited attachment and mental retardation. - For children adopted between 2-4 years = Showed extreme mental retardation and disinhibited attachment, having a much lower IQ then those adopted before 6 months.
65
What is a disinhibited attachment?
When people are friendly and overly affectionate to people they have just met, Rutter explains this as a result of having multiple caregivers during the sensitive period, up to 50 caregivers in Romania
66
What is mental retardation?
Significantly below average intellectual capabilities, the majority of children showed signs of mental retardation in Rutter's study
67
Evaluate the Romanian Orphans case study:
+ Real life application changing the way orphanages are run, avoid having large number of caregivers per child. + Fewer extraneous variables because the children used were there from birth, other orphan studies involve trauma and bereavement - Not generalisable as it is a case study - Completely irreplicable - Long term effects are not yet apparent as they haven't been studied yet
68
What does Bowlby claim is the reason for continuity between your childhood attachment and your later relationships?
The Internal Working model, created by your primary attachment figure which works as a blueprint for all future friendships and relationships
69
Which study supports Bowlby's IWM theory in childhood friendships?
Wilson & Smith, assessed attachment type and bullying using a questionnaire 200 London children Secure Attachment: Forms best quality friendship, unlikely to be part of bullying behaviour IR: Poor quality friendship, more likely to be the bully IA: Poor friendships, more likely to be bullied
70
Which study supports Bowlby's IWM theory in adult relationships?
Hazen and Shaver- The Love Quiz Posted in American newspaper, first assessed respondents current or important relationship, second assessed general love experiences, finally assessed which attachment type they were Found- Secure had good, longer lasting relationships IA revealed jealousy and fear of intimacy, more divorces and didn't believe in true love IR had multiple partners
71
What are limitations of early attachment on future relationship theories?
- Reductionist and deterministic, suggests all IA children will grow up and have poor relationships but there are many cases where IA grow to have strong happy relationships - Research shows that the link between some attachment types and strength of adult relationships were not clear, reduces confidence that can be placed in Bowlby's theories of attachment and continuity

Psychology (6 decks)

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