Attachment Researchers Flashcards
All of the psychologists that are mentioned in this part of the spec
Harlow and Lorenz (explanations of attachment)
Refuting evidence:
- monkeys sought contact comfort+ formed lasting attachments with towel mother instead of food providing mother
- geese imprinted - this attached to first moving object they saw
Schaffer and Emerson eval (explanations of attachment)
Attachments strongest with caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infants social releases and not the person who fed them most
Bowlby eval (explanations of attachment)
Bowlby’s theory addresses both how and why attachment forms
- how: based on parental sensitivity to social releasers
- why: beneficial for infants protection and survival and for adults to ensure their genes are passed onto future generations
Sroufe et al (Bowlby’s theory)
Minnesota Parent child study:
Followed ppts from infancy to late adolescence- found continuity between quality of early attachment and later emotional/ social development
Tizard and Hodges (Bowlby’s theory)
Found that whilst attachment generally happens in starting years of life, studies of orphaned children who have been adopted at ages of 3 and 4 - still capable of forming new attachments with new adoptive parents - contradictory to CP
Schaffer and Emerson (Bowlby theory) + (maternal deprivation)
Multiple attachments for babies is the norm- refutes idea of Monotropy: around the age of 10 months old, 30% of babies had multiple attachments hemmed and 1/3 were with the father instead of biological mother like Bowlby proposed
Lorenz goslings (animal studies of attachment)
- took a clutch of goose eggs and divided them into two groups
- control group left w natural mother and first saw bio mother
- exp group - eggs placed in incubator and when hatched the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
- exp group followed him everywhere + showed no recognition of bio mother whereas control group followed mother goose.
- cp up to two days
- sexual imprinting
- imprinting occurs due to evolutionary need to form attachments in order to increase chance of survival
Harlow’s monkeys (animal studies of attachment)
- placed monkeys in isolation till 8 months old- missed cp of up to 90 days- put into cages with two surrogate mothers - one of wire and dispensed milk- other wooden block covered in soft towel and provided comfort to monkeys
- monkeys spent more time w towel mother to feel comfort
- when frightened went to towel mother
- followed up on them found that they developed abnormally socially and mating beh due to missing cp and not forming healthy attachment
Guiton (animal studies of attachment)
Found that leghorn chicks that were fed using yellow rubber gloves in their first few weeks of life became imprinted to gloves/ male chicks tried to mate with them
Hoffman (animal studies in attachment) and also Guiton
Argued that imprinting was a “plastic” mechanism - can be reversed and is flexible. Guiton reverse imprinting in chickens who tried to mate with glove after they spent time with their own species- able to engage in normal sexual beh
Isabella et al (caregiver and infant interactions)
Found that high levels of synchrony meant there was a better quality attachment between mother and infant
Murray and Trevarthen (caregiver and infant interactions)
Asked mothers to interact with 2 month old infants through live video chat in real time. Then infant saw prerecorded video of mother interacting- mother could not respond to infants facial and bodily expressions - a cute distress - reciprocity and interactional synchrony important
Gratier (caregiver and infant interactions)
Studied the timing of spontaneous vocal interactions of 30 mothers and their 2-5 month old infants from India, France and US. Found all coordinate spontaneous vocalisations - universal beh - viral part of attachment process
Fieldman (caregiver and infant interactions)
Points out that synchrony simply describes beh between parent and child which occurs at the same time- cannot understand purpose of these behaviours or how it affects quality of future attachments
Grossman (role of fathers)
Carried out a longitudinal study looking at influence of parental behaviour on attachment
- quality of fathers play w/ infants and not security of attachment - better adolescent attachments with father - suggests rather than a nurturing role - more centred around play and stimulation
Field (role of fathers)
Observed 4 month old infants in face-face interactions with/ their primary caregiver fathers or mothers or secondary caregiver fathers
- primary caregiver fathers like mothers spent longer smiling, imitating and holding infant than secondary caregiver fathers - role can be centred around nurturing like mothers
MacCallum and Golombok (role of fathers)
have found that children growing in a single (mother only) or same sex parent family (led by two females) may not develop differently from those in two- parent heterosexual families.
Weakness bc it suggests that the father only plays a ‘minimal role’ in the development of a child - and thus is only a secondary attachment.
Schaffer and Emerson (stages of attachment)
Studied 60 babies from Glasgo from skilled working class families
The babies and their mothers were visited every month for a year and once more at 18 months after the study began.
The mothers were asked questions abt the child’s response in everyday separation anxiety related situations.
25-32 weeks of age: 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards an adult, usually the mother. Attachment was formed with person who was most sensitive to infant signals, not the person who spent the most time with them.
By 40 weeks: Although most babies had specific attachment to the adult, nearly 30% displayed multiple attachments.
Van Ijzendoorn et al (stages of attachment)
Cross-cultural research has shown that when multiple caregivers are the norm, babies form multiple attachments from the outset (Van Ijzendoorn et al 1993). Collectivist cultures often have an emphasis on children being rased in groups, where different families share childrearing responsibilities - rather than just the mother (e.g Kibbutz communities in Israel).
Mary Ainsworth (strange situation)
A controlled observation designed by Mary Ainsworth that aims to measure the security of attachment that a child displays towards the caregiver.
Took place on 100 middle class American mothers and their children
Takes place in a controlled space, through a one-way mirror, through which psychologists observed over 8 episodes
Each episode lasted 3 minutes
The episodes involve measuring the infant’s reaction to a stranger approaching/ leaving and their carer approaching/leaving
Takahashi (strange situation) (cultural variations in attachment)
noted that the test does not work in Japan because Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their children. In this country a mother leaving her child with a stranger is not a realistic day to day scenario.
Infact, infants were so distressed by being left alone, that for 90% of the infants, the study had to be stopped.
Main and Soloman (strange situation) + (cultural variations in attachment)
analysed over 200 strange situation tapes and proposed a type D attachment: insecure-disorganised. This was characterised by a lack of consistent social behaviour and attachment. When dealing with stress and separation, they showed very strong attachment which was suddenly followed by avoidance or looking scared of the caregiver.
Main and Weston (strange situation) (cultural variations in attachment)
That children behaved differently based on which parent they were with.
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenburg (cultural variations in attachment)
Aim: to measure proportions of type a/b/c attachments across a range of cultures and if variations exist within same countries too.
Conducted a meta analysis of 32 studies where SS had been used. - these 32 studies were conducted in 8 countries and have results for 1990 children.
- secure attachment: highest in all but Britain 75% and China 50%
- insecure avoidant: highest in Germany due to focus on independent upbringing and lowest in Japan and Israel
- insecure resistant: highest in Israel and Japan, lowest in Britain
- 1.5x greater variation within culture than between countries
