Attachment Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is attachment?
Attachment is a close emotional relationship between an infant and their caregiver.
What is imitation?
Infant copies the caregiver’s actions and behaviour
What is interactional synchrony?
Infants respond to the caregiver’s speech
What is reciporcity?
Interaction between the caregiver and infant and flows back and forth
What is motherese?
Slow, high-pitched way of speaking to infants.
What was the Schaffer stages in attachment?
ASOCIAL: 0-3 MONTHS, baby learns to separate people from objects but doesn’t have any strong preferences about who cares for it.
INDISCRIMINATE: 6WKS-7 MONTHS, the infant starts to clearly distinguish and recognise different people and smiling at strangers.
DISCRIMINATE: 7-11MONTHS, the infant is able to form a strong attachment to an individual. They are happy when this individual is here and sad when they leave. Scared of strangers and may avoid them.
MULTIPLE: 9+ MONTHS, the infant can form many attachments and some have different functions to others.
What was the Schaffer + Emerson study? evaluate
- Babies were observed in Glasgow every 4 weeks till 18 months.
- Interviews were conducted
SHOWN THAT: Most 8 month old babies had 1+ attachment and the rest had no superior attachments.
Schaffer’s stages occurred.
EVALUATION
- Limited sample: may not be generalisable to the wider public
- Cultural bias: collectivist cultures may have different findings
- Interviews from parents may be biased
What role does the father have?
Fathers engaging in care-taking activities improves a strong attachment to their child.
They also are more of a playmate.
What is Lorenz study and evaluate.
- Studied imprinting in geese
- Left a bunch of eggs with the mother and the other incubated.
FOUND THAT: the incubator eggs followed him whilst the mother eggs followed the mother.
When he had all of the geese, he found that they were would chase their caregiver. Mother eggs went to their mother and the incubator to Lorenz.
Shows IMPRINTING is valid.
EVALUATION
- Can’t generalise to humans as Lorenz used birds, human attachment is complex.
- High reliability: lab experiment.
What is imprinting?
Attach to the first moving thing they see after hatching and follow it everywhere.
What is Harlow’s monkeys? evaluate
- Aimed to found out whether baby monkeys would prefer food or comfort and protection.
- Lab experiment: the monkeys grew up in isolation
- Food was a feeding bottle and cloth for comfort
FINDINGS
- Monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth and used food sometimes.
SHOWS THAT they formed an attachment to a figure with comfort and protection rather than food.
EVALUATION
- Lab experiment: strict control of variables.
- Used animals: can’t be generalised to human behaviour which is complex.
- Lack of ecological validity: monkeys weren’t in a natural setting so it can’t be applied to real life.
What is the learning theory and evaluate
Suggests that babies use conditioning to wanting its needs fulfilled.
CLASSICAL: baby feels pleasure when they see their mother because she feeds the baby, CREATES ATTACHMENT
OPERANT: babies feel discomfort when they’re hungry so they have a desire to get food and remove the discomfort. They found that when they cry, the mother will come and feed them.
EVALUATION
- Reductionist: attachment is complex and tries reducing it to simple stimulus-response processes.
- The research backing this uses animals so the findings aren’t always generalisable.
What is Bowlby’s monotropy theory of attachment and evaluate
- Attachment can be explained by EVOLUTION: we have a biological need to attach to our main caregiver and natural selection to ensure the survival of the child.
- Babies form ONE MAIN ATTACHMENT to the biological mother. This is to survive and provides a safe base.
- Forming an attachment gives us a template for future relationship: INTERNAL WORKING MODEL FOR ALL ATTACHMENTS.
- FIRST 3 YEARS ARE THE CRITICAL PERIOD: if the attachment is broken within these years, it damages the child’s development
EVALUATION
- Schaffer and Emerson provides evidence against monotropy: babies form many attachments rather than one.
- Lorenz’ study shows evidence of attachment being innate.
What is Ainsworth’s Strange Situation? evaluate
- Controlled observation of infants left with their mother.
- During play, a stranger may approach them, the infant may have been left alone and the mother returning
FINDINGS
SECURELY: content with their mother, upset when she left and happy when she returned and avoided strangers.
INSECURE AVOIDANT: ignored their mother and didn’t mind if they left and a stranger could comfort them.
INSECURE RESISTANT: they were uneasy with their mother and constantly throwing tantrums. upset when mother returned and resisted strangers.
LATER:
SECURELY have good relationships
AVOIDANT have behaviour problems and have trust issues.
RESISTANT may be insecure and attention-seeking.
EVALUATION
- Parents may have changed their behaviour because they knew they were being observed.
- Observation was taken place in USA so it can’t be generalised to non-western cultures where they are more collectivist. Japan had no avoidant babies because they never leave their child alone in their culture. ETHNOCENTRIC.
What is maternal deprivation?
Loss of a mother attachment figure. Can lead to childhood issues.
What was Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis and evaluate
- Suggests that deprivation from the main carer during the critical period (3 yrs) can have harmful effects on a child’s development
- Long term effects can include separation anxiety and leads to being very clingy, avoiding to go school. Future relationships may be affected by emotional insecurity.
EVALUATION
- Many studies show this is true, orphanage children who were deprived were less intellectually developed.
What was Bowlby’s study about 44 juvenile thieves and evaluate
- Case studies on adolescents who have been stealing. There was another control group of adolescents who didn’t steal.
FINDINGS:
Many of them had frequent separations from their mothers before 2 yrs old.
SUGGESTS: maternal deprivation can have harmful long-term consequences.
EVALUATION
Other factors could have caused criminal behaviour like poverty.
What was the case of Czech twin boys?
- Twin boys had a mother died soon after they were born.
- Father remarried and the stepmother treated them very badly.
- The boys were found with loads of problems and very bad development.
- Later, they were adopted and improved and their adult relationships were good.
SHOWS THAT: disruption of attachment can be reserved.
What is the difference between privation and deprivation
PRIVATION: a child never had an attachment to its mother or caregiver
DEPRIVATION: an attachment was once formed but it’s now broken.
What is Rutter’s Romanian orphan studies and evaluate
- Romanian orphans who were adopted by British families were compared with normal adopted children.
FINDINGS:
- Babies that were adopted before 6 months old had no major changes in IQ or behaviour
- However, 6 months old - 2 yr olds had lower IQ scores and attachment problems compared to normal adopted children.
- 2 year olds+ had the worst outcomes: LOWEST IQ SCORES AND SIGNIFICANT ATTACHMENT PROBLEMS.
SHOWS THAT: privation can be reversed if it’s before 6 months, afterwards it can result in long-term problems in behaviour and relationship.
EVALUATION
- The control group allows us to identify whether the effects are from institutionalisation or not.
- There might have been issues before they were institutionalised like malnutrition.
What are the long terms of institutionalisation?
- Affectionless psychopathy
- Depression
- Turn to crime
- Lower IQ
What is the Bowlby internal working model?
- A template of how attachments influence adult relationships.
SECURE = secure, healthy relationships
INSECURE = seen as unworthy of love or too clingy.
What was Hazan and Shaver study?
- Conducted a love quiz on a newspaper
- Had two parts: one was about their love towards their parents and current beliefs about romance.
FINDINGS:
- Secure people had happy and trustworthy relationships.
- Insecure-avoidant feared intimacy
- Insecure-resistant worried about not being loved enough.
SUPPORTS BOWLBY’S INTERNAL WORKING MODEL
