Attachment Flashcards
Attachment
Infant and caregiver
An attachment is a strong emotional bond betweel two people.
A two way process that continues over time and is characterised by desire to maintain proximity
Reciprocity:
two way/mutual relationship. Infants move in rhythm when interacting with an adult almost like taking turns. Smiling is example of this
Interactional synchrony:
Temporal coordination of micro level social behavious
Bowlbys 44 thieves study
Aim:
Investigation into the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
Procedure:
Natural experiment analysing case histories of 88 emotionally maladjusted participants from london.
-independent groups design. IV= criminality:
44 thieves accused of stealing
44 not thieves control group
- DV= affection-less psychopathy- assessed from interviews.
- early separation- assessed from interviews with parents.
Findings:
Of the 14 affectionless thieves 86% experienced deprivation.
Of the 30 not affectionless thieves 17% experienced deprivation.
Non thieves:
Of the 44 not affectionless nor thieves 5% experienced deprivation.
Conclusion:
Prolonged maternal deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy. A lack of continuous care may cause emotional maladjustment or even a psychological disorder.
Evaluation:
Real world application- one strenght of the research into maternal deprivation is it has real world applications. One of Bowlby colleague Robertson filmed a two year old girl during the eight day period she was in hospital she was distressed and begged to go home. They concluded that substitute emotional care can prevent bond disruption and prevent the harmful effects of separation. Bowlby and Robertson research led go major changes in the way children were cared for in hospital. This illustrates the positive impact that research into attachment has had on childcare practices.
Counter evidence- however not all research has supported bowlbys findings. For example, lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves study on larger scale. In her sample a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming relationships. This is a problem because other factors affect early maternal deprived. This questions the validity of Bowlby findings.
Individual different-
Another criticism of the research into maternal deprivation is individual differences need to be considered. Research has shown that not all children are affected by maternal deprivation in same way. Study by Bowlby which has children who were hospitalised(because of TB) and experiences prolonged disruption of attachment. He suggested that those children who cope better were securely attached. Suggests such individual differences need to be considered when assessing negative effects of disruption of attachment.
Deprivation vs privation-
Rutter criticised Bowlby’s view of deprivation because it didnt make clear whether childs attachment bond had formed and broken or never formed. Rutter claimed that the severe long term damage bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely as result of privation. Therefore highlighting important of distinguishing between deprivation and privation.
Influence of early attachment on child and adult relationships
Role of internal working model:
Bowlby suggested that a child having first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation. The model acts as a template for future relationships. Its resembles a schema and provides the basis for forming expectations.
Research: childhood relationships- myron wilson and smith:
They investigated internal working model to see if there was an association between early attachment type and participation in bullying behaviour in childhood.
Procedure:
196 children ages between 7-11 years from london school.
-all children were assessed for attachment type and quality of relationship with parent using separation anxiety test and parenting styles questionnaire. Children were divided into attachment types
- the number of bullies and victims identified were counted.
Findings:
Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying
Insecure avoidant children were most likely to be victims of bullying
Insecure resistant children were likely to be bullies.
Conclusion:
Supports continuity hypothesis suggesting theres a link between early attachment and quality of peer relationships in childhood.
Research into adulthood relationships-hazan and shaver-
To investigate the idea that early attachment styles would be reflected in adult romantic relationships as predicted by Bowlby.
Procedure:
Analysed 620 responses to a love quiz. The questionnaires asked questions about current attachment type. Participants also asked to complete a checklist describing childhood relationships with parents.
Findings:
56% of adults classed as securely attached tended go have positive internal working model and described love experiences as happy and friendly.
25% classes as insecure avoidant were more doubtful about existence or duration of romantic love.
19% classed as insecure resistant tended to fall in love easily and demonstrated jealousy.
Conclusion:
The findings suggest that early patterns of attachment behavious are reflected in adult romantic relationships.
Evaluation
Supporting research:
Theres supporting for the internal working model that an infants first relationship forms mental representation for later relationships. Simpson et al’s longitudinal study assessed infants attachment type and found thag participants who were securely attached as infants were rated as having higher social competence. This supports the view that attachment types does predict future childhood and adult relationships.
Mixed findings:
Findings from zimmerman et al longitudinal study yielded mixed results. They found that childhood attachmeng types was not good predictor of attachment in adolescence. Those who had changed attachment type had generally experienced loss of someone. This suggests that although there strong support for continuity attachment theres also evidence that positive or negative environmental changes can improve or compromise attachment type in later life
Correlational Research:
One problem with the research linking the internal working model is that it is correlational rather than experimental.Therefore we cannot claim that the relationship between early attachment and later relationships is one of cause and effect. The temperament hypothesis is an alternative explanation to the continuity hypothesis. This view is that some infants are born friendly and this leads to secure attachment and also determines the kind of relationships they have later in life. This suggests it is not attachments in early life that lead to later relationships but the child’s own innate temperament. This is a limitation as it is counter to Bowlby’s view that the internal working model caused these later outcomes.
Determinist:
Research suggests that very early experiences have a fixed effect on later relationships and, therefore, children who are insecurely attached at one year of age are doomed to experience emotionally unsatisfactory relationships in childhood and adult. Therefore the research does not suggest that an individual’s past unalterably determines the future course of their relationship, it just suggests they are at a greater risk of future problems.
Romanian orphans studies: effects of institutionalisation
Institutionalisation is a term for effects of living outside the family/family home in an institutional setting. This can result in child adopting rules and norms of the institution. Such places have very little emotional care provided and hard to develop attachment.
Rutter ERA study
AIM:
To investigate to what extent loving and nurturing care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
PROCEDURE:
Natural experiment, followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to assess physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11 and 15.
The independent variable was the age of adoption with 3 age groups being studied: condition 1: children adopted before the age of 6 months. Condition 2: children adopted between 6 months and 2 years. Condition 3: children adopted after 2 years.
Their progress was compared to a control group of 52 british children adopted in the UK before age of 6 months.
Findings:
When they first arrived in UK half the romanian adoptees showed signs of intellectual delay. At age 11 the mean IQ of children adopted before ago of 6 months was 102.
Rutter found that children who are adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment. Symptoms include attention seeking and clinginess.
Conclusion:
Rutters findings suggest that children can recover from institutionalisation if they have good quality care.
Study 2
Procedure
Longitudinal study. 30 orphans adopted to families in canada whk were compared to 2 matched control groups.
Findings
The adopted orphans were physically smaller than the control group at age 4.5.
Conclusion
Suggests the initial growth intellectual delay was caused by depriving circumstances.
Evaluation
Real life application:
A strength of research into institutionalisation has enhanced out understanding. For example orphanages and childrens homes now avoid havinv large number of caregivers for each child and ensures that smaller number of people play central role for the child. Shows research has been valuable in practical terms.
Value of longitudinal studies:
Strength of conducting a longitudinal study on the orphans is they have followed the lives of children over many years. Such studies take alot of time meaninv alot of planning and waiting for result but benefits are large. Without such studies we may mistakenly conclude theres major effects.
Romanian orphans were not typical:
Although lots of useful data about institutionalisation, its possible that the conditions were so bad that the results cannot be applied to understanding the impacts of better quality institutional care. This questions the population validity of Romanian orphans study.
Natural experiences:
One of the methodological issues for rutters ERA project is children were not randomly assisted to 3 conditions. The researcher did not interfere with the adoption process which means children adopted early may have been more sociable, a confounding variable. Highlights the importance of ethical consideration when conducting research on adopted children due to possible long term effects of institutionalisation.
