Attachment

Question 1

What did Lorenz find out in his study?

Answer 1

Found that geese would imprint onto him if he was the first thing they saw after being hatched.

Question 2

What did Harlow find out in his study?

Answer 2

Found that monkeys sought comfort from the cloth “mothers” which didn’t provide them with food, shows that contact comfort is more important that food.

Question 3

Define attachment

Answer 3

Attachment is an emotional tie between two people shown in their behaviour (e.g. proximity seeking, stranger anxiety). It serves the function of protecting an infant.

Question 4

What is Reciprocity?

Answer 4

When each person responds to each other and elicits a response from the other.

Question 5

What is Interactional Synchrony?

Answer 5

When the mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a synchronised way.

Question 6

What were the findings of the Shafer and Emerson study?

Answer 6

• Specific attachment to primary caregiver takes place at 7-8 months, multiple attachments follow soon after
• 65% of cases it was the mother
• They attached to person who was the most interactive and sensitive to infant signals

Question 7

Method of Shafer and Emerson study

Answer 7

• Took 60 infants from working class families in Glasgow
• Observed development of attachments in first year of each baby’s life.
• Mother reported infant’s behaviour in seven everyday scenarios (e.g. being left in a room with a stranger)

Question 8

What are the four stages that were created by Shafer and Emerson and what age group do they take place in

Answer 8

Stage 1: Asocial (0-8 weeks)
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
Stage 3: Specific attachment (7-12 months)
Stage 4: Multiple attachments (1 year onwards)

Question 9

Evaluation points of Shafer and Emerson’s study

Answer 9

P: Babies observed in their own homes, increased ecological validity
N: only children from Glasgow and working class families, might be different for more foreign kids and different classes.
N: Conducted in 1960's, results today could be different today as parenting has drastically changed since 60's, lower validity.

Question 10

Evaluation of animal research

Answer 10

N: Ethical issues. Harlow’s monkeys went on to kill their children, as they suffered greatly as a result of his experiment.
P: Important applications in range of contexts (e.g. helped social workers understand risk factors of child neglect)
P: Theoretical value, Harlow showed that attachment occurs as a result of contact comfort not food.

Question 11

Outline Dollard and Miller’s Learning theory of Attachment

Answer 11

All babies are born with a tabula rasa, behaviour is learnt not in-born. Suggest that everything including attachment is learnt through classical and operant conditioning

Question 12

Explain using classical and operant conditioning how an attachment is formed with a baby and mother

Answer 12

Classical: Before conditioning, baby associates food with happiness. During conditioning = seeing mother holding food brings happiness. After conditioning = seeing mother brings happiness as they expect food.
Operant = Hungry infant is hungry, which makes it uncomfortable so it cries. Infant is fed and drive is reduced which brings pleasure to the baby. Attachment happens as the child wants the person who will supply their food (cupboard love)

Question 13

Evaluation points of Learning theory

Answer 13

N: Shafer and Emerson study contradicts this idea
N: Suggested that Learning theory is over simplified, ignoring crucial factors like genetics. Lowers validity.
P: Very high application, teaches parents how to become better at raising children
N: Harlow contradicts, as monkeys attached to cloth mother, suggesting its not for food but for comfort.

Question 14

Outline key ideas in Bowlby’s monotropic (evolutionary) theory of attachment.

Answer 14

1: Monotropy = One particular attachment is different to all others, is vital to child’s development
2: Internal working model = Infants develop model about future emotional relationships based on attachment with primary caregiver
3: Continuity hypothesis = Link between early attachment and later social/emotional attitudes/
4: Social releasers: babies have set of inate “cute” behaviours which encourage an adult to take care of them
5: Critical period = Time where attachment must form if it is to form at all

Question 15

Evaluation of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Answer 15

N: Czech twins, disproves idea of critical period, decreasing validity
P: Rutter et al (Romanian orphans), found the children found it difficult to form attachments if they failed to have one before being 6 months old. Supports idea of internal working model, increased validity.

Question 16

Outline Ainsworth’s strange situation and the findings of it

Answer 16

Conducted a controlled observation in order to test separation anxiety, reunion response, stranger anxiety, proximity seeking behaviour and exploration/secure base behaviour.
Findings: Infants were sorted into three groups, secure attachment (Type B), insecure avoidant attachment (Type A) and insecure resistant attachment (Type C).

Question 17

Summarise the behaviour groups identified by Ainsworth’s experiment

Answer 17

Secure: uses caregiver as secure base to explore, shows moderate distress when mother leaves, is easily soothed by parent upon return. Prefers caregiver to stranger
Insecure/avoidant: Doesn’t use mother as secure base, shows little concern when mother leaves. Shows little separation/stranger anxiety. Can be comforted by a stranger or caregiver just as easily.
Insecure/resistant: cling to mother as secure base, becomes extremely distressed when mother leaves the room and is difficult to comfort upon return, showing anger and discomfort. Tends to ignore stranger.

Question 18

Evaluation of Ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 18

P: Application, teachers caregivers to be more responsive to children’s distress, improving parenting in real world.
P: Shows very good inter rate reliability, found a correlation of 0.94 between observations on exploration behaviour, improved reliability.
N: Could be culture bound, decreased generalisability.

Question 19

What was the study done to investigate cultural variations in attachment and what did it find?
(Finish this one)

Answer 19

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg did a meta analysis of 32 replications of Ainsworth’s strange situation in different cultures. Found that secure attachment was the most common form of attachment across all the countries,

Question 20

Evaluation points for Kroonenberg’s study

Answer 20

P: Large samples, looked at 32 studies (almost 2000 babies), increased internal validity
N: Method of assessment is biased, questioned if a western theory can be applied to eastern cultures etc
N: Method may not have been exactly the same in al, the studies, lowering the validity.

Question 21

What is Bowlby’s theory of maternal development and what are the four main points surrounding his theory?

Answer 21

His theory is the idea that being deprived of a primary caregiver for extended periods of time can lead to various deficiencies. His four points are:

• Intellectual development (mental retardation)
• Emotional development (affectionless psychopathy)
• Critical period

Question 22

Evidence for/against Bowlby’s theory

Answer 22

• 44 Thieves study, found that 14 of a group of 44 thieves could be diagnosed with affectionless psychopathy, and of this 14, 12 had experiences prolonged separation from their mothers.
• Czech twins, both were locked in a cupboard for 7 years by mother, when they were found and brought back into society they were still able to for meaningful attachments to people.

Question 23

What was Rutter’s study into effects on institutionalisation?

Answer 23

Rutter, had 165 Romanian orphans adopted to the U.K, assessed physical, emotional and cognitive development at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15. Orphans sorted into three conditions: 1 = adopted before 6 months. 2= adopted between 6 months and 2 years 3 = adopted after 2 years.

Question 24

What was Zenah’s study into effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 24

Bucharest early intervention project, took 95 children ages 12-31 months old who were in institutionalised care. They were then assessed on their attachment type using strange situation and compared results to a control group.

Question 25

Evaluation of studies into effects of institutionalisation

Answer 25

S: real life application
S: Increased validity
W: Long term effects on children aren’t clear