Attachment

Question 1

Schaffer and Emerson’s research (procedure)

Answer 1

• 60 babies from Glasgow, from working class families.
•babies and mothers were visited in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months.
• researchers asked mothers questions to babies behaviour in everyday separations to measure the babies attachment. They also assessed stranger anxiety, their response to unfamiliar people.

Question 2

What is reciprocity?

Answer 2

When both the caregiver and the baby responds to each others signals and each elicits a response from them.

Question 3

What are alert phases?

Answer 3

Periodic phases when they signal they are ready for interaction. Mothers typically pick up and respond to these.

Question 4

Traditional views portray that…. However it seems that….

Answer 4

Babies take a passive role and receive care from an adult.
However it seems that babies and caregivers can take quite an active role. They both can initiate interactions.

Question 5

What is international synchrony?

Answer 5

When a caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other.

Question 6

What did Meltzoff and Moore observe?

Answer 6

That synchrony begins in babies from 2 weeks.
A adult displayed one of three facial expressions or gestures. The babies response was filmed and found that they were more likely to mirror those of adults than chance would predict.

Question 7

What is Isabella et al observe?

Answer 7

30 mothers and babies together and assesses the degree of synchrony. The researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment and found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment.

Question 8

Strength of research on caregiver-infant interaction.

Answer 8

Interactions usually filmed in a lab. This means distractions can be controlled. Observations can be recorded and reanalysed meaning unlikely to misbehaviour. The babies also don’t know that they are being observed so they can’t change their behaviour. So the data has good reliability and validity.

Question 9

Limitation of caregiver infant interaction - why can’t you be certain that the behaviours seen in the interaction have meaning?

Answer 9

It is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour. Hard to be sure if their movements are mirrored or just subtle changes.

Question 10

Limitation of caregiver infant interaction - developmental importance.

Answer 10

Simply observing the behaviour doesn’t tell us the developmental importance. May not be useful in understanding child development as it doesn’t tell the purpose. Cannot be certain from observational research alone that reciprocity and interactions synchrony are important for a child’s development.

Question 11

How could you counterpoint the limitation due to developmental importance?

Answer 11

Isabella et al, stating that reciprocity and international synchrony predict good quality attachments

Question 12

Who identified the stages of attachment?

Answer 12

Schaffer and Emerson.

Question 13

What is stage 1 of the attachment stages called?

Answer 13

Asocial attachment.

Question 14

What is stage 2 called of stages of attachment?

Answer 14

Indiscriminate attachment

Question 15

Stage 3 name of stages of attachment.

Answer 15

Specific attachment.

Question 16

Stage 4 name of stages of attachment.

Answer 16

Multiple attachments

Question 17

What happens in the asocial stage (stage 1)

Answer 17

Babies show preference for familiar people. They are easily comforted. They give a similar response to all objects.

Question 18

What happens in stage 2? (Indiscriminate)

Answer 18

Clear preference attachment to humans rather than objects. Accept company from any adult. Prefer familiar adults.
No stranger/separation anxiety.

Question 19

What happens in the specific attachment phase? (Stage 3)

Answer 19

Separation anxiety to their attachment figure. Stranger anxiety to strangers when attachment figure is absent. Specific attachment is to the primary attachment figure person who offers the most interaction. (Mother 65% of time)

Question 20

What happens in stage 4, multiple attachment?

Answer 20

Child displays attachment behaviour towards other familiar people. These are called secondary attachments.
Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment. By age of 1, they had developed multiple attachments.

Question 21

Strength of Schaffer and Emerson (external validity)

Answer 21

Good external validity as observations made by parents and not by researchers where they could be distracted. High likely the babies behaved naturally.

Question 22

Counterpoint to good external validity of S&E

Answer 22

Mothers being observers are unlikely to produce objective results as they may have been biased or misremember so despite being natural their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.

Question 23

Limitation of S&E research.

Answer 23

Validity of the measures used to assess attachment in asocial stage. Young babies are immobile and have poor co-ordination. Behaviour may be subtle so difficult for mothers to observe. Flawed methods so babies may be social but appear to be asocial.

Question 24

Practical application strength of S&E

Answer 24

Practical application in daycare. In the first two stages daycare is likely to be straightforward as they can be comforted by any adult however S&E research tells us that starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult can be problematic in stage three.

Question 25

Why can starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult in stage 3 be problematic?

Answer 25

Babies start to have separation anxiety and stranger anxiety so may not accept comfort.

Question 26

Generalisability limitation of S&E research.

Answer 26

Only looked at a sample with unique features in terms of cultural and historical context. (1960s working class Glasgow.)

Question 27

Schaffer and Emerson’s research into role of the father.

Answer 27

They found that the majority of babies first attached to the mother at seven months. In only 3% of cases the father was the first object of attachment. In 27% of cases the father was the joint first objective attachment with the mother. However, fathers go on to become important attachment figures by 18 months 75% of the babies studied formed an attachment to the father. This was determined by babies protesting when the fathers walked away

Question 28

What did Grossmann suggest from his research?

Answer 28

Father attachment is less important as the quality of baby’s attachment with mothers was related to attachments in adolescence. But father’s role was more to do with play and simulation and less to do with emotional development. This is because the quality of fathers play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments.

Question 29

What was grossmann’s research

Answer 29

A longitudinal study where babies attachment was studied into teens. Looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of baby’s later attachments

Question 30

Field research procedure

Answer 30

Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, primary caregiver fathers and secondary caregiver fathers.

Question 31

Field research findings.

Answer 31

The primary caregiver father spent more time smiling imitating and holding the babies than the secondary caregiver father. This is all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony which are part of the process of attachment formation. This means the fathers have the potential to be the more emotion focused primary attachment figure they can provide the responsiveness required for a close attachment but only when given the primary caregiver role

Question 32

Limitation into role of the father research to do with clarity.

Answer 32

Lack of clarity over the question being asked some researchers attempted to answer this question actually want to understand the role of father as a secondary figures others are more concerned with primary. It’s difficult to answer as it depends on what specific role is being discussed.

Question 33

Limitation of role of the father research (fathers role to other families)

Answer 33

Grossmann suggested fathers as secondary attachment figures have a distinctive role in their children’s development. This means we would expect children in lesbian families/ single families would turn out different. Research shows they do not. Question still remains unanswered. - counterpoint says parents in single mother or lesbian families adapt to accommodate to fathers role. The families can adapt to the father’s role.

Question 34

Strength of role of the father research.

Answer 34

Can be used to offer advice to parents. For example parents can informed that fathers are quote capable of becoming primary attachment figures. Lesbian and single mother families can be informed that not having a father around class does not affect a child’s development. This means parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced.