Attachment

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

• deep-seated emotional tie that one individual forms with another, enduring over time

Question 2

Give examples of attachment behaviours

Answer 2

Crying, smiling, clinging
- allows for balance between exploration and safety

Question 3

Who is the main theorist for attachment?

Answer 3

Bowlby

Question 4

What was Bowlbys attachemnt theory

Answer 4

• Psychoanalytic ideas - importance of childhood experiences
• Evolutionary Psych - need for survival
• Comparative Psych - Harlows stufy
• Ethology - Imprinting in birds (Lorenz)
• Maternal deprivation hypothesis

Question 5

What are aspects of Bowlby’s attachment theory?

Answer 5

• critical period is 0-2.5 years
• selective – focused on specific individuals
• physical proximity seeking
• provide comfort and security
• seperation elicits protest, crying
• stranger anxiety

Question 6

What is the pre attachment phase?

Answer 6

0-2 months
shows little differentiation in responses to mother and other people, familiar or unfamiliar

Question 7

what is the ealry attachment phase?

Answer 7

2-7 months
begins to recognise mother gradually more likely to be comforted by her

Question 8

what is the seperation protest?

Answer 8

7-9 months to 2 years
seeks to maintain proximity with mother, way of strangers and protests when seperated

Question 9

what is the goal corrected phase

Answer 9

2-3 years+
more abstract represenattions of attachment (trust, affection, approval), begins to understand mothers needs, with increased independence

Question 10

What is the maternal deprivation hypothesis?

Answer 10

prolonged seperation from the primary caregiver during early childhood can have deterimental effects on a childs emotional and social well being

Question 11

Summarise Harlow (1958) study

Answer 11

-Rhesus monkeys
- wire mothers: get food, cloth mothers: get comfort
- fear test
monkeys clung onto cloth mother and the monkeys only left the cloth mother when absolutley necessary in order to feed

Question 12

What did Harlow’s monkey studies reveal about the nature of attachment in nonhuman primates?

Answer 12

infant monkeys preferred “contact comfort” from cloth mother overwire mother that provided food, showing that emotional comfort is a primary need, not just food (“cupboard love”)

Question 13

What were the long-term effects of maternal deprivation observed in Harlow’s monkeys?

Answer 13

As adolescents, they were withdrawn, fearful, showed aggression, and were often unsuccessful at mating, highlighting the lasting impact of early emotional deprivation.

Question 14

Describe Lorenz imprinting theory

Answer 14

imprinting = proximity-maintaining behaviour
critical period- irreversible

Question 15

Summarise Lorenz study

Answer 15

• Geese study
• one group of eggs would hatch under their goose mother the other half would hatch in an incubator.
• birds that leave the nest early would imprint on the first large morving object they see after hatching

Question 16

Criticisms of Bowlby’s attachment theory

Answer 16

Critical period - sesitive period
- Bowlby worked with traumatised kids
- Overemphasis on the Mother
- Cultural Bias

Question 17

How is attachment measured?

Answer 17

Strange situation experiemnt (Ainsworth)

Question 18

What were the conditions of the strange situation experiment?

Answer 18

• Caregiver and infant enter room.
• Infant explores room (secure base behavior).
• Stranger enters and talks to caregiver.
• Caregiver leaves (separation anxiety).
• Caregiver returns, stranger leaves (reunion behavior).
• Caregiver leaves infant alone (separation).
• Stranger returns and tries to comfort infant.
• Caregiver returns (second reunion).

Question 19

Explain secure attachment type

Answer 19

66% Type B
caregiver as a safe base, is upset when they leave, and is easily comforted when they return.

Question 20

Explain insecure avoidant attachment type

Answer 20

20% Type A
Readily explores, Little distress on separation, Does not avoid stranger, During reunion, does not seek proximity to mother.

Question 21

Explain insecure resistant attachment type

Answer 21

12% Type C
Does not explore, Anxious and clingy prior to separation, Intense distress during separation
During reunion, ambivalent behaviour

Question 22

Describe disorganised attachment type

Answer 22

2% Type D
Unusual and disoriented behaviours, Unable to handle stressful situations, May appear dazed, frightened or depressed in presence of mother

Question 23

Criticisms of TSS

Answer 23

• low ecological validity
• relationships differ
• based on 100 m/c families
• not appropriate for all culturees

Question 24

Why does attachment matter

Answer 24

formation of internal working models

used to predict/interpret behaviours of others in future life

Question 25

Define internal working model

Answer 25

The mental representation about oneself, others and their relationships on which one’s expectations about future relationships are based.

Question 26

What are the long term outcomes of secure attachment?

Answer 26

SA at 12 months predicts good social skills at 6 years - most likely to become; socially skilled, empathetic, intellectually curious, compliant, good problem solvers, self directed

Question 27

What are the long term outcomes of insecure attachment

Answer 27

insecure anxious boys have more depression and social withdrawal at 6 years old(Lewis et al) less harmonious friendships at 4 years (Park and Waters) Disorganised children rated by teachers as more disruptive, impulsive pr aggressive at age 7

Question 28

What factors influence the development of attachment?

Answer 28

Parenting secure: sonsistently responsive, read babies signals, respond quickly, coordination resistant: inconsistent, sometimes respond; anxious/depressed avoidant: dismissive, cold or rejecting disorganised: frightening, insensitive, disturbances in emotional communication