Attachment AO3 Flashcards
Name 3 weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson’s study.
- Lacks population validity, all participants were from Glasgow
- Lacks internal validity due to self-report
- Pre-attachment phase may not be measured accurately as babies actions are not intentional
Name one strength of Lorenz’s experiment.
The results have high internal validity
Name 3 limitations of Lorenz’s experiment.
- Unethical as the goslings were separated from their mothers
- The results may not generalise to humans
- The sample size was too small therefore it lacks reliability
Name 2 strengths of Harlow’s study.
- High internal validity
- His results were influential
3 limitations of Harlow’s study.
- Highly unethical as it caused distress to animals
- Results may not generalise to humans
- Animals cannot consent
4 limitations of the learning theory.
- Bowlby stated that babies only need food occasionally but emotional security always
- Doesn’t consider cognitive or emotional factors
- Harlow found that comfort was more valued
- Schaffer and Emerson argue that the mother always feed but 39% the primary attachment was not the mother
3 strengths of the Strange Situation.
- The method was operationalised
- Controlled observation has high ecological validity
- The results had high internal validity
3 limitations of the Strange Situation.
- Lacks population validity as the sample was not very varied
- Can be considered unethical, causing distress to infants
- <4% had disorganised attachment
Name 2 weaknesses of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study.
- No African or South-American data, therefore a universal conclusion cannot be made
- Intra-cultural differences may be due to class differences
Describe the findings of the Dogon assessment.
- No type A
- Modal type B
- Many Dogon children were cared for by grandmothers during the day but attachment classifications were unaffected
Name one supporting study for Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
Lorenz - found that attachment in goslings was innate
Name 1 study that provides evidence against Bowlby’s monotropic theory.
- Schaffer and Emerson found that babies can form multiple attachments after 10 months
1 strength of the maternal deprivation hypothesis.
Practical application, the study lead to changes in hospital visiting hours and increased paid work leave
4 limitations of the maternal deprivation hypothesis.
- Oversimplified concept, Rutter stated that long-term damage was due to privation (instead of deprivation)
- Methodological issues, children would’ve forgotten their older memories which skews the responses
- Researcher bias, Bowlby was present for the self-reports
- Conclusions are correlations, cannot fully conclude that separation was the cause of delinquency
5 weaknesses for the influence of early attachments on later relationships.
- Zimmerman found that there was little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment
- Most studies have validity issues, self-report
- Association does not mean causality
- People aren’t doomed to have bad relationships due to attachment types
- Self-report is conscious but internal working model is not
