Attachments Flashcards
(19 cards)
Caregiver- infant interactions
and evaluation
reciprocity:caregiver and infant signal and respond to each other-like a conversation
interactions synchrony:caregiver and infant mirror each other’s actions
evaluation:
+valuable to society-helps parents understand how to form attatchment with kid
-socially sensitive-portrays a view that if parents don’t have this they won’t have a healthy attachment
-doesn’t explain the purpose-doesn’t explain why it helps or why it’s important
caregiver-infant interactions:meltzoff and moore
procedure:adult displayed 3 facial expressions and 1 hand gesture,child and adult are filmed from multiple angles in slow motion
findings:association between expression and action of child
evaluation:
-socially sensitive-could be offensive to parents as they are being told how to raise their child
+lab study-no risk of extraneous variables
+no demand characteristics-as babies are young and won’t understand
+value to society-helps parents
stages of attachment
Asocial stage-babies react the same to objects and humans
Indiscriminate stage-babies react to humans and familiar faces
discriminate stage-baby forms a specific attachment (primary caregiver) 65% mother 3% father 27% both
multiple attachments-infants forms many attachments to different people 75% fathers by 18 months
Stages of attachment:Schaffer+Ememerson
Procedure:longitudinal study of 60 glaswegian babies.Mothers observed them at home as babies.Wrote in a diary.recorded separation and stranger anxiety.
findings:stages of attachment and sensitive responsiveness:how caregiver reacts to infant
evaluation:
+real life application
-social desirability-risk of mother lying in diary
+high validity-no demand characteristics from babies
-specific measures for attachments.Counter argument=makes it easier to record and gets a good result
Role of the father:Grossman+field
Grossman
Procedure:longitudinal study of 44 families and infants assessed at specific ages up to 16.
Findings:found quality of play played an important part in later life,whereas quality of attachment had no impact later on in life.
Field
did study and found that men could be the primary caregiver,key attachment is responsiveness.
evaluation:
+research support:schaffer and emmerson found that sensitive responsiveness was key in attatchment-field
+economic implications-shows that the father can be the primary caregiver,women can go to work if wanted to
-observations may be bias-family observing so could be bias-social desirability
Animal studie:Lorenz
Procedure: 12 geese eggs,6 saw mother first and 6 put in incubator and saw Lorenz first
findings:
imprinting- first large moving object they see they follow
sexual imprinting-1st bond affects mating preferences in the future
critical period- specific time period to make a bond otherwise no attachment
evaluation:
-can’t generalise humans to geese
+evidence for imprinting-guiton et al found chickens imprinted on yellow gloves
Animal studies:Harlow
16 monkeys observed for 165 days.Food and cloth mother also exposed to fearful stimulus
findings:preferred cloth covered monkey,contact comfort was more important than food.Critical period of 90 days after that no attachment made and struggled with attachments later on in life-eg violent
evaluation
-cant generalise monkeys to humans
+shows importance of attachments
-ethical issues-abuse to monkeys
learning theory-Dollard and miller
children attach to whoever provides them food- ‘cuboard love’
learnt through classical conditioning:UCS (food) produced UCR (pleasure) NS (caregiver) is paired with UCS (food).CS (caregiver) produces CR (pleasure)
Operant conditioning:crying is reinforced as results in caregiver responding
negative reinforcement:caregiver responding is reinforced as crying stops
evaluation:
- contradicting evidence-Schaffer and Emmerson main thing was sensitive responsiveness
-animal studies-contact comfort not food
+some elements of conditioning may be involved
Bowlbys monotropic theory+evaluation
A-Adaption:increases infants chance of survival
S-Social realeases:babies are born with cute innate characteristics
C-Critical period: around 2 years babies have to form an attachment
M-Monotropy: babies have a primary attachment with the mother
I-Internal working model:1st bond with primary attachment becomes a mental representation of what attachments are like
C-Continuity hypothesis:people will base their parenting of there past experiences of being parented
evaluation
+support of critical period:animal studies
+support of internal working model:hazan+shaver
-socially sensitive
-not supported by Schaffer and Emmerson.Found that first attacthment may be mother but infants make multiple attacthments
Ainsworth strange situation
procedure:lab observation of assessing quality of caregiver-infant interaction.
Assessed on four things separation anxiety,stranger anxiety,exploration and reunion behaviour.
findings:3 types of attachments
evaluation:
+controlled observation
-only 3 types could be more.EG-Zeenah et al found disorganised attachment
counter argument =easier to group
-cultural bound:strange situation behaviours have different meanings outside Europe EG-japanese mothers value clinginess
-socially sensitive:telling parents that they might not have a good attachment with there infant
+test retest reliability:tested children again at 6 100% still secure
-confounding variable:role of temperant-genetically influenced personality.Has more impact on strange situation
types of attachment
secure (60-75%)-moderate separation and stranger anxiety and moderate reunion behaviour insecure avoidant (20-25%)- low separation and stranger anxiety insecure resistant (3%)-high separation and stranger anxiety
cultural variations:Van Ijzendoorn
procedure:meta analysis of 32 studies using strange situation method 1990 children ,18 countries
findings :secure attachment common across all cultures 50% china 75% Britain
More differences in cultures than between cultures 150%
Germany had highest avoidance
Insecure more common in collectivists countries
evaluation:
-imposed etic-methodology not right for all cultures,some collective some individual
-reductionist-only 3 types could be more.Easier to justify
+large sample
-not cross cultures,5 collectivist cultures, 27 individualist cultures
Bowlbys theory-material deprivation
lack of emotional care,continous care is needed for development
If this doesn’t happen negative effects will occur:
intellectual: deprivation lack in IQ
emotional:leads to affectionless pyschopathy
Bowlbys 44 thief study
interviewed 44 young thieves compared to 44 control.
found 14 affectionless psychopaths.12 separated from mothers under 2 yrs
evaluation:
-flawed evidence:bowlby interviewed them,social desirability
+animal studies:harlow critical period had long term effects on monkeys
-sensitive period not critical period:Czech twins recovered from maternal deprivation
+real life application
-social sensitivity
institutionalisation effects
disinhibited attachment:patterns of attention seeking.doesn’t discriminate between who they chose as attachment figures
damage to intellectual development:children who suffer from emotional deprivation will experience poor cognitive development.
deprivation dwarfism:physical underdevelopment due to emotional deprivation.
romanian orphan studies:Rutter et al
procedure:longitudinal natural experiment 165 romanian orphans adopted in the Uk.
findings: infants adopted before 6 months had an IQ of 102 after 2 years IQ of 77
evaluation:
+real life application
-generalising issues-only romanian orphans,known for being neglected
-long term effects aren’t clear yet,some early adopted children may fall behind
Zeanah et al
procedure:strange situation
assessed 95 instituationalised children 12-31 months
control 50
findings:
19% secure attachment
65% disorganised attachments
evaluation:
+real life application-improved care for institutions
+ few confounding variables-no early trauma
-long term effects aren’t clear-some last adopted children may catch up
influence of early attachment:childhood
Bowlby:
positive attatchments earlier means positive attatchments later in life
secure attatchments tend to have better friendships
insecure resistant=bully
insecure avoidant=bullied
evaluation:
-exaggerates influence-attachments might not be as influential later on life
-socially sensitive-says that if your child isn’t a certain way may be a bully
+real life application
influence of early attatchments:adults
Hanzan+shaver
asked people to answer a love quiz
assessed early attachments and current relationships
56% of secure attachments had better longer relationships
25% classed as avoidant feared intimacy
evaluation:
-social desirability:relies on self report,social desirability
+real life application-affetcs parenting as correlation between poor attachment in childhood and poor children’s attachment
