What are the two caregiver interactions?
Reciprocity and Interactional Synchrony.
What is reciprocity?
Babies have alert phases and signal they are ready for interaction.
Mothers pick up on these signals and respond (Feldman and Eidelman).
Reciprocity is responding to the other person and eliciting a response. (Brazleton) describes this as a dance.
What is interactional synchrony?
The temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour (Feldman). Carrying out the same action simultaneously.
(Meltzoff and Moore) observed this in infants and found an association between expression of adults and action of babies.
(Isabella) high levels of synchrony associated with better quality attachment with mothers.
Evaluate caregiver-infant interactions (3)?
- It’s hard to know what is happening when observing infants. (Gratier) many studies have shown the same pattern. It’s hard to know the thoughts of the infant e.g. is it conscious and deliberate?
- Observations are well controlled and capture fine detail. Mother and infant are filmed from multiple angles meaning all behaviour is recorded. Babies also don’t know they are being observed so their behaviour does not change. = good validity.
- (Feldman) points out that these behaviours are just descriptions, but this does not tell us their purpose. However, there is some evidence that they are helpful in development of mother-infant attachment, as well as behaviour development.
What did Schaffer and Emerson say about mother-infant attachments?
The majority of babies do become attached to their mothers first, and within a few weeks formed secondary attachments to other family e.g. father. 75% of infants formed father attachment within 18 months.
What did Grossman find about the role of the father?
Longitudinal study looking at parents behaviour and relationship to quality of children’s attachment. Quality of attachment with fathers was not related to children’s attachment - so fathers are less important. Fathers rale is play and stimulation.
What did Field find about fathers as primary carers?
Filmed variety of infants and carers. Primary fathers took on the role of a mother and spent more time smiling and imitating the infants than secondary - showing the father can be the nurturing attachment figure.
Evaluate attachment figures (4).
- Inconsistent findings on father. Some study fathers as primary figures, some as secondary. Psychologists can’t answer the question ‘what is the role of the father?’.
- McCallum and Golombok found that children growing up in same-sex or single parent families do not develop any different showing that the fathers role is not important.
- Gender roles. Fathers may not become the primary attachment figure due to traditional gender roles where women are expected to be more caring. It could also be hormones such as oestrogen which create higher levels of nurturing in women.
- Socially sensitive research. It can effect mothers because they may feel they are disadvantaging their child by returning to work after giving birth - leaving them stressed and worried.
Outline the method of Schaffer and Emerson’s study.
60 babies - 31 male and 29 female. All from glasgow and working class families. They were visited every month and asked questions about the baby. e.g. adult leaving the room (separation anxiety) and stranger anxiety.
Outline the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study.
Between 25 and 32 weeks, 50% babies showed signs of separation anxiety. Attachment was with the parent who was the most interactive and sensitive to signals
By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of babies had a specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments.
Evaluate Schaffer and Emerson’s study (3).
- Good external validity - carried out in the homes and observation was done by parents in ordinary activities. Behaviour was not affected by presence of observers - they behaved naturally.
- Longitudinal design - the children were followed up and observed regularly, so it has better internal validity as there are no individual differences.
- Limited sample - 60 babies all from same location and social class. Rearing practices vary from cultures so it can’t be generalised. Cultural bias & ethnocentrism.
What are the stages of attachment?
- Asocial stage (first few weeks)
Behaviour towards objects and humans is similar. Babies show some preference for familiar people but also happy in presence of strangers. - Indiscriminate attachment 2-7 months
Preference for people over objects, recognise and prefer certain adults - but accept all. No separation or stranger anxiety. - Specific attachment 7 months
Stranger and separation anxiety. Attachment formed with primary attachment figure. - Multiple attachments
Secondary attachments are formed.
Evaluate the stages of attachment (3).
- Problems studying asocial stage
Babies have poor co-ordination and are immobile meaning it’s hard to make judgements based on behaviour. - Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments
It’s not clear when multiple attachments are formed.
Bowlby found that children form a primary attachment before multiple. However, Ijzendorn found babies in some cultures form multiple attachments right away (collectivist cultures).
- Problems with measuring multiple attachments.
Separation anxiety does not mean the individual is a true attachment figure. Children may become distressed if a playmate leaves but this does not mean attachment.
Outline Lorenz’s research.
Imprinting -
P - Hatched half goose eggs with mother, and half with incubator with first sight of Lorenz.
F - Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and the control group followed mother, even when mixed.
Bird species that are mobile attach to and follow the first moving object with a critical period of a few hours after birth.
Sexual Imprinting -
Birds that imprinted on humans displayed courtship behaviour towards them. Peacock saw turtles when hatched, and displayed courtship towards them.
Evaluate Lorenz’s research (2).
- Generalisability to humans - he studied birds. Mammals are very different to birds. Mammals show more emotion & can form attachments at any time.
- Guiton questions Lorenz’s conclusions. He found chickens imprinted on yellow gloves and tried to mate with them but eventually learned to mate with other chickens.
Outline Harlow’s research.
Contact comfort -
Newborns kept in a bare cage usually died, but survived if given something soft to cuddle.
Procedure: 16 baby monkeys with two wire models. In one condition milk was from wire mother, in the other it was f
from cloth mother.
Findings: baby monkeys cuddled the soft object and sough comfort from it when frightened. Showed that contact comfort was important.
Maternal deprivation -
Monkeys reared with wire mothers became dysfunctional - less sociable and bred less often. Some attacked their children, some even killed them.
Critical period -
Period of 90 days for an attachment to form.
Evaluate Harlow’s research (4).
- Attachment is not as a result of feeding, but as a result of contact comfort - which has had great help in understanding attachment. Also found the importance of quality of early relationships for later development.
- It has helped social workers to understand risk of child neglect and abuse. We also now understand the important of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes.
- Ethical issues - monkeys suffered greatly because of his research. Their suffering would be similar to humans. However, his research was important in psychology to justify the effects.
- Monkeys are similar to humans, but are still different. Issues of generalisability.
Who proposed the learning theory of attachment?
Dollard and Miller Cupboard Love theory.
How can classical conditioning explain attachment?
Food is an unconditioned stimulus, pleasure is an unconditioned response. The caregiver is a neutral stimulus.
The mother becomes a conditioned stimulus for a conditioned response (pleasure).
How can operant conditioning explain attachment?
Babies cry for comfort which leads to a response in the caregiver s.g. feeding. The caregiver offers negative reinforcement as they stop the crying.
How is attachment a secondary drive?
Learning theory draws on drive reduction. Hunger is a primary drive (innate and biological) and we are motivated to eat to reduce it. Attachment is a secondary drive.
Evaluate learning theory of attachment (5).
- Counter evidence from animal research - animal studies show that infants do not attach to those who feed them.
- Counter-evidence from human research - in Schaffer and Emerson’s study the babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even if their carers did the feeding.
- Ignores other factors - such as reciprocity, interactional synchrony and good quality interactions.
- Some conditioning is still involved - it may not be fully conditioning but some reinforcement and association is involved.
- Newer explanation - Hay and Vespo proposed a new social learning theory explanation. They said attachment forms as a result of modelling and imitation.
What is institutionalisation?
Living in an institution such as a hospital or orphanage where children live for long periods of time.
What was the procedure of Rutter’s romanian orphan study?
- 165 orphans adopted in Britain to test the extent to which good care could make up for poor experiences in institutions.
- Physical, cognitive and emotional development was asseses at ages 4,6,11,15. -A group of 52 british children acted as a control.
