Attachments

Question 1

What is infancy?

Answer 1

Infancy is the period of a child’s life before speech begins - usually seen as the first year of a child’s life but it can also include the second year.

Question 2

What are the two types of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 2

1. Reciprocacy
2. Interactional synchrony

Question 3

Explain what reciprocacy is.

Answer 3

Reciprocacy is caregiver infant interaction which is a two way process between the caregiver and the infant. The caregiver/ infant responds to the others signals to sustain interaction (this phenomenon is known as turn taking).The behaviour of each party evokes a response from the other. For example, caregiver smiles and baby smiles back.

Question 4

Explain some research into reciprocacy.

Answer 4

Brazelton described reciprocacy interactions as a kind of dance because it is just like a couples dance where each partner responds to each others moves. This rhythm acts as a precursor for later conversations allowing caregiver to anticipate infants behaviour and respond appropriately. Sensitivity to infant behaviour allows for further attachment to occur.

Question 5

Explain what is interactional synchrony.

Answer 5

Interactional synchrony is the temporal co-ordination of micro level social behaviour (the synchronisation of small social interactions) . For example the infant and the caregiver moving their heads in sync with each other.

Question 6

Explain research into interactional synchrony.

Answer 6

Meltzoff and Moore studied the concept of interactional synchrony. Using a controlled observation, children young as 2 weeks old observed an adult model either:
-opening mouth
-poking tongue out
-frowning
-waving a finger
Their response was recorded and judged by independent observers, who were asked to state what they saw the infant do.
This was a “double blind” experiment as the observer did not know what the aim of the experiment was.
The findings of the experiment showed that children young as 2 weeks old imitated specific facial gestures and that there was an association between the infant behaviour and the adult model.

Isabella found using the Meltzoff and Moore method that better synchrony was shown by those infants who has high levels of attachment to their primary caregiver. This emphasises that interactional synchrony is linked to strong, securely attached relationships.

Question 7

Evaluate research into caregiver-infant interactions through reciprocacy and interactional synchrony. (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 7

1. One weakness of testing infant behaviour is that it is difficult to distinguish between infants general activity and specific imitated behaviours. For example, a baby sticking their tounge out in Meltzoff and Moore’s study could just be the fact that babies usually have their mouths in constant motion rather than the baby actually copying the adult model.
2. Another weakness of research into caregiver infant interactions is that some studies have been replicated and have not shown the same results as the original study. For example Koepke et al failed to replicate the same findings shown in Meltzoff and Moore’s study. Meltzoff argued however, that this was due to the fact that Koepke did not control the replica study carefully enough.
   3.another weakness of weakness into research into caregiver-infant interactions is that individuals exist, and when studying caregiver-infant interactions there is some variation between the infants behaviour. For example Isabella found that more strongly attached infant caregiver pairs showed greater interactional synchrony. It may not be appropriate to generalise the findings of the experiment to all babies as all babies behave differently.

Question 8

Evaluate research into Caregiver-infant interactions through reciprocacy and interactional synchrony. (STRENGTHS)

Answer 8

1. One strength into research into caregiver-infant interactions is that there is lots of value to the research into caregiver-infant interactions. The research has shown that infant interactions such as interactional synchrony and reciprocity forms the basis for social development. Based on his research on; interactional synchrony, Meltzoff has developed a ‘like me’ hypothesis’ of infant development , the baby associates their imitation with feelings and thoughts of others which then ultimately leads to understanding of how others think and feel (this is known as the theory of mind). It is a strength because it can show how children are able to conduct relationships.
2. Another strength of research into caregiver-infant interactions through reciprocally and interactional synchrony is that research shows the behaviour of the babies in response to adults behaviour in intentional and not imitative. DeYoung observed infant behaviour when interacting with two objects that moved eg opening and closing mouth, sticking its tounge out etc the babies had little to no response to these objects which shows that babies do not imitate what they see. It shows that reciprocacy and interactional synchrony are indeed social responses which the children are doing like Brazelton and Meltzoff looked into, rather than just blindly copying like other psychologists eg. Piaget suggested.

Question 9

What is an attachment?

Answer 9

An attachment is an emotional tie or bond between two people. This is usually a primary caregiver and a child. The relationship is usually reciprocal, a two way relationship which endures over time.

Question 10

Schaffer and Emerson’ s landmark study on attachment AO1

Answer 10

A: Schaffer and Emerson investigated formation of early attachments in infants from 5-23 weeks of age.

P: 60 working class infants were observed by mothers from 1-18 months old. The mothers were also interviewed by researchers and kept a diary, writing observations to report back to the researchers about separation/stranger anxiety.
Each mother reported their infants response to separation in 7 everyday situations + describe the intensity of any protest (eg crying or whimpering)
-being left alone in a room
-being left with other people
-being left in their pram outside the house
-being left in their pram outside the shops
-being left in their coot at night
-being put down after being held by an adult
-passed by while sitting on their cot or chair
Two specific attachments were measured:
1. Seperation protest
2. Stranger anxiety

F: the first specific primary attachment was to the mother for 65% of babies
30% of the babies were jointly attached to the mother and one other father figure
3% were attached to their father
27% were jointly attached to the father and mother

As soon as the first attachment happened, most babies formed multiple attachments. By 18 months, 75% of the babies had formed an attachment with their father! YAY

C: NOTE: intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly and sensitively to their ‘signals’ and offered their child the most interaction. Infants who were poorly attached to their mothers usually were infant mothers who failed to interact with them. As a result they concluded that the quality of the relationship and not the quantity , mattered most in the formation of an attachment . It also shows that attachments are a gradual process as it takes time for the infant to understand their surroundings as well as form proper attachments with others who are around them.

Question 11

Schaffer and Emerson’s landmark study on attachments AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 11

1. One strength of Schaefer and Emerson’s study is that it has good external validity as the majority of the study was carried out in the family’s own homes and most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was done by the parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers later. Thus the participants (mother and baby) would not have shown demand characteristics. This means the findings of the study can be applied to everyday life. This means that the study has mundane realism. As it was conducted under everyday conditions, meaning that the conclusions drawn about the formation of attachments can be seen to have high external validity.
2. Another strength of the study is that there are no ethical issues this is because consent was gained from the infants parents . This increases the value of the reasearch because no harm has been done to the participants and the study itself was landmark study.
   3.Another strength of the study is that it has a longitudinal design ( a longitudinal study is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time ) this has a higher internal validity compared to studies with a cross sectional design.

Question 12

Schaffer and Emerson’ s landmark study on attachments AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 12

1. One weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’ s study is that there are methodological issues . In the study, the findings were drawn from data received from self report techniques. The problem with this is that the mothers could have shown social desirability bias and may have answered the questions in the interview in a way to show that they have a good relationship with their child rather than the relationship they might really have. This decreases the internal validity of the study.
2. Another weakness with the study is that there is sample bias. Schaffer and Emerson used children from Glasgow (population bias) who were from working class families. Infants from middle class families may have produced a different set of results if they were in the study. Additionally, infants from other parts of the world rather than Glasgow, for example Bangladesh may have also produced a different set of results compared to the ones from the original study. Therefore it may not be appropriate to generalise the findings of the study to all infants and as a result, the external validity of the findings decrease.

Question 13

What are the stages of development in attachments devised by Schaffer and Emerson?

Answer 13

STAGE 1 : PRE-ATTACHMENT PHASE 0-3 months
Baby beavers similarly to both humans and inanimate objects. From 6 weeks of age they prefer company of humans, demonstrated by smiling at people’s faces.
STAGE 2: INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT STAGE 3-7 months
Babies at this stage become much more social. They begin to recognise and prefer much more familiar adults but usually do accept comfort and hugs from any adult. They don’t show seperation protest or stranger anxiety as they do not have a preference towards one adult.
STAGE 3: SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT PHASE 7/8 MONTHS
By 7 months infants begin to show a distinctly different sort of protest when one particular person puts them down (separation anxiety) but equally, they show special joy at the reunion with that same person and are most comforted by this person. It is said they have formed a specific attachment with this person , known as their primary attachment figure.
STAGE 4: MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS 9+ MONTHS
Very soon after the main attachment has formed the infant also developed a wider circle of multiple attachments depending on how many consistent relationships the infant has. These attachments are known as secondary attachments , infants also displayed separation anxiety in these relationships.

Question 14

Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment AO3

Answer 14

1- One weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment is that there has been cross cultural research, which has shown the stages of attachment originally proposed don’t exactly match attachment in non-western cultures eg. collectivist cultures who form multiple attachments a lot more earlier. This may be because in collectivist cultures, individuals are surrounded by lots of family compared to individualistic cultures, where family is a lot smaller. As a result the stages of attachment proposed by Schaffer and Emerson lack population validity.

Question 15

Outline research which has looked into the role of the father in attachments.

Answer 15

-Fathers are way less likely to be the infants first attachment figure compared to mothers. Schaffer and Emerson’ s study showed that in only 3% of cases the father was the first attachment figure.
-Fathers seem to hold a different value in the child’s development, in Grossmans study he looked into babies attachments until they were teens, looking at both the parents behaviour and the quality of their relationships with their children. It was found that the quality of the relationships with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence. This suggests that attachment to fathers is less important that attachment to mothers.
-Grossman did suggest however, that fathers had a different role to the mother, and that the fathers role is more to do with play and stimulation than emotional development
-Fathers tend to be secondary attachment figures , research has shown however, that fathers can take the role of the primary caregiver if they were put in that sort of situation. This is shown in Field’s research where 4 month old babies interactions were compared to the primary caregiver mother/father and the secondary caregiver father. The results showed that primary caregiver mother and fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their babies than secondary caregiver fathers.

Question 16

Evaluate the research of role into the father

Answer 16

+One strength of the role of the role of the father is that it has real world application , it can reassure and offer advice to parents is because it shows that fathers can be equally be as competent as mothers in fufilling the role of the primary attachment figure . Having no father will not affect a child’s development.
-One weakness research of the role of the father is it suggests that fathers are useless and not as important as mothers, and that babies don’t need fathers, and this is not true.

Question 17

What is imprinting?

Answer 17

Imprinting is when a new born baby attaches to the first living they see at birth in a specific time frame known as a critical period. If imprinting doesn’t occur in the critical period the baby will probably never be able to form an attachment.

Question 18

Lorenz study AO1

Answer 18

A: Lorenz set to investigate the mechanisms of imprinting

P: Lorenz split a large group of goose eggs into two batches.
Batch 1) hatched naturally, seeing the mother as the first living thing they see
Batch 2) hatched in an incubator, with Lorenz being the first living thing they see.
Once hatched the goslings were labelled so that Lorenz could identify which batch the gosling came from the behaviour of the goslings were observed.

F: The naturally hatched goslings followed their mother after birth, while the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz around.
Lorenz also noted that imprinting would only occur 4-25 hours after hatching (this was the critical period) otherwise it would not occur at all.
Lorenz also noticed there was a relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. The goslings that imprinted on Lorenz would later show Lorenz courtship behaviour. (Eg the geese Martina).
Lorenz said that the features of imprinting are irreversible and long lasting.

Question 19

Lorenz study AO3

Answer 19

1) One strength of Lorenz’s study is that there is supporting research to help back up some of his claims. For example Guiton demonstrated that chicks who were exposed to rubber gloves for feeding during their first few weeks became imprinted on the gloves , male chickens later on even tried to mate with the gloves.
2) One weakness is however, that further in Guitons study it was found that the effects of imprinting could be reversed if the chickens spent time with their own species. This shows that imprinting isn’t a rigid mechanism like Lorenz suggested, but rather a more “plastic and forgiving mechanism” .
3) Another weakness with Lorenz study is that because the research is attachment in animals and their offspring it may not be appropriate to generalise the findings of this study to other animals or even us as humans. Humans have higher cognitive abilities and social complexity and the findings of the geese may not necessarily be the same for humans. This reduces the external validity of the findings.

Question 20

Harrow’s research AO1

Answer 20

A: Harlow investigated the role of food and comfort in attachment. Wanted to see if attachments are formed through food as suggested by the learning theory.

P: New born monkeys were out in a cage with a wire mother and a towelling mother with 4 different conditions
-wire mother produced milk, towelling mother didn’t
-wire mother didn’t produce milk, towelling mother did
-wire mother producing milk
-towelling mother producing milk
Amount of time spent with mother and feeding time was recorded.
Monkeys were frightened with loud noises to test for mother preference during stress.

F: The findings of the study were that the monkeys preferred contact with the towelling mother when given the choice between the wired mother and the towelling mother and the monkeys who only had the wired mother showed extreme signs of distress.
And when frightened with a loud noise, monkeys ran to the towelling mother in the conditions she was available.

C: Monkeys have an innate need for contact comfort and attachments involve emotional security rather than food.

Question 21

Tell me about Harlows other studies / further studies.

Answer 21

-Harlow et al raised newborn monkeys in total isolation from other living beings for 3 6 12 or 24 months. These monkeys showed signs of psychological disturbance, hugging their own bodies and rocking repetively. They also showed signs of self harm habits such as biting their arms and legs and pulling out their hair. The degree of damage corresponded to the amount of isolation the monkeys had. When eventually placed with other monkeys they were fearful of them and had no other social interaction apart from attacking them. When the monkeys became adults, they seemed to have no ability to engage in sexual courtship.
-Harlow was keen to see how these isolated monkeys would cope as parents, so he devised a “rape rack” where female monkeys raised in isolation would be tied and forcibly mated. They ended up being awful parents, abusing and neglecting their babies. One mother chewed her babies feet off and another mother crushed her babies head to a pulp. These further studies show that social interactions are essential for normal and social development to occur.
-Harlow and Suomi raised 4 newborn monkeys in total isolation for 6 months and then placed each one with a normally raised three month old female ‘therapist’ monkey for 2 hours 3 times a week, gradually increasing the amount of contact time. After 12 months the behaviour of the isolated monkeys was almost normal and by 3 years of age they had totally recovered and were able to live normally among monkeys. This suggests the effects of total isolation are reversible.

Question 22

Harrows research AO3

Answer 22

1) One weakness of Harlow study is that the study was EXTREMELY UNETHICAL, it most definitely won’t be done with humans as a result of the amount of psychological harm it causes, so why put those monkeys through that psychological harm ? Many of the monkeys in his experiment died and struggled to form relationships with peers. This significantly decreases the value of the research as the amount of harm done to the monkeys is ridiculous compared to the results Harlow got from the study (in my opinion).
2) One strength of Harlow study is that it has real world application. Harlow study outlined the detrimental effects of neglect on infant monkeys, as a result, humans can strive towards a better society by trying to prevent neglect in youth so it does not affect the future generation eg social workers intervening to prevent abuse and neglect. These findings are also useful because when keeping animals captive we know we need baby animals to have proper attachment figures while they are in captivity. It could be argued that these benefits outweigh the cost to the animals involved in the study.
3) Another weakness with Harlow’s study is that because the research is attachment in monkeys rather than humans or other animals it may not be appropriate to generalise the findings of this study to other animals or even us as humans. Humans have higher cognitive abilities and social complexity and the findings of the monkeys may not necessarily be the same for humans. This reduces the external validity of the findings.

Question 23

Learning theory AO1

Answer 23

-the learning theory suggests that attachments are based of providing food alone
-it suggest attachments are formed from classical conditioning, which is based on learning by association
-this has been shown through pavlov’s study with dogs, where Pavlov was able to make a dog salivate to the ring of a bell. The ring of the bell was initially a neutral stimulus, but father repeatedly pairing it with food (an unconditioned stimulus which created the unconditioned response of salivating) the ring of the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus, which created a conditioned response aka salivating.
-This idea can be applied to attachments, where the baby forms an attachment to the mother because they associate the mother with pleasure and relieving from hunger as she provides the milk and therefore the mother alone becomes the conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response.
-operant conditioning is based of learning through rewards and punishments.
Positive reinforcements - gaining pleasure
Negative reinforcements - removal of displeasure
-the learning theory also draws on the concept of drive reduction. Hunger is a primary drive, a biological motivator and we are motivated to eat to reduce this hunger drive. The mother, who removes the discomfort of hunger becomes a secondary drive . Attachment is therefore a secondary drive learned by association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of primary drive

Question 24

Learning theory AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 24

1) One strength about the learning theory is that it makes sense, and this idea could be a factor in the strength of attachments. Most babies also do form attachments with the caregivers who feed them the most.

Question 25

Learning theory AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 25

1) One weakness of the learning theory is that research has contradicted the Learning theory, showing that attachment is not based on food. For example, Harlows findings of his study showed that monkeys preferred a soft “towelling mother” who didn’t provide milk compared to a wire mother who did provide milk. This can question the strength of the cupboard love theory and whether it is actually a suitable explanation for attachments.
2) Another weakness with the learning theory is that because the research is based of animal study’s eg Pavlov rather than humans it may not be appropriate to generalise the theory to us as humans. Humans have higher cognitive abilities and social complexity and the theory of learning may not necessarily be the same for humans. This reduces the external validity of the theory.
3) Another weakness with the learning theory is that it is a reductionist approach as it ignores other factors which could be associated with forming attachments for example reciprocacy and interactional synchrony and instead oversimplifies attachments to being just based off food.

Question 26

Bowlblys monotropic theory AO1

Answer 26

-Bowlblys monotoropic theory suggests that attachments are innate rather than learned.
-He also proposed a number of important characteristics that aid the formation of attachment
One of these characteristic is monotropy where even though the infant forms a number of attachments, there is one special attachment above all, the primary attachment figure. Attachments infants form with individual are heirachical. He explained this with the law of continuinity where the more constant and predictable child care is the stronger the quality of attachment and the law of accumulated seperation, where the effects of every seperation from a mother add up and “the safest dose is therefore a zero dose”.
-This primary attachment figure provides the main foundation for emotional development, self esteem and future relationships.
-Another characteristic that aid the formation of attachments are social releasers. Babies are born with a set of innate “cute bahaviours” such as smiling cooing and gripping. These behaviours are known as social releasers and they attract attention from adults. Social releasers evoke a nurturing reaction in caregivers. Bowbly therefore recognised attachment was a reciprocal process.
-Another concept mentioned in Bowblys monotropic theory is the idea of a critical period. Bowbly argued this lasted in the first 2 years of a childs life and if an attachment isnt formed in this window it would be really difficult for a child to form any further attachments.
-Another characteristic that helps aid the formation of an attachment. Bowbly proposed that children forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, and this is known as the internal working model. This internal working model becomes a template of how their future relationships will be like and what to expect from others, whether they can be trusted, whether their love is conditional etc.
-Bowbly also mentioned that attachments are important for protection, and thus the childs primary caregiver acts as a secure base from which the child can explore the world and return to it when threatened. Attachments can therefore help in fostering independence.

Question 27

Bowbly’s monotropic theory AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 27

+ One strength of Bowbly’s theory is that the imprinting and critical period is supported by many animal studies. Research by Lorenz supports the view that imprinting is innate. For example, Lorenz found that baby goslings imprinted on the moving thing they see after hatching . And research by Guiton found that leghorn chicks imprinted on yellow rubber gloves after hatching, which was the first thing they saw. This is simillar to humans, where babies tend to imprint onto their mother, especially if she is breastfeeding. Lorenz also found if the goslings did not imprint within the critical period they were unable to form attachments in the future, simillar to what Bowbly suggested.
+Another strength of Bowbly’s theory is that there is also research support for monotropy. Tronick et al looked into an frican tribe where babies were looked other and breastfed by other women although these babies slept with their mothers at night. It was found that babies still showed one primary attachment. This supports the idea of monotropy.
+Another strength of Bowbly’s theory is that there is also research support for his idea of social releasers, Brazelton et al observed mothers and babies during their interactions and reported the existence of interactional synchrony. They then extended the study from an observation to an experiment. Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies signals (social releasers) and it was found that babies initially showed some distress, but after a while some of the babies began to curl up and lie motionless. Despite the experiment being ethically questionable- it does show that social releasers are made to elicit responses in caregivers.
+There is also research supporting for the internal working model in Bowbly’s theory. The idea of an internal working model is testable because it predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed on from one generation to the next. Bailey et al tested this idea by assessing 99 mothers with 1 year old babies on their quality of their attachement to their own parents using a standard interview procedure. They also assessed the quality of the attachment with their own children through observation. THe findings showed that those who reported having poor attachments with their mothers also has poor attachments with their children as seen through the observations. his supports the idea of an internal working model being passed down through families.
+There is also research supporting the continuity hypothesis. The Minnesota study has followed participants from infancy to late adolescence and the findings showed that individuals who were classified as secure in infancy were the highest for social competetency in later life. This supports Bowblys continuity hypothesis????

Question 28

Bowbly’s monotropy theory AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 28

-Many psychologists critisize Bowbly’s theory for putting too much emphasis on the childs attachment with their primary attachment figure, and not other attachment figures which are seen as equally important. For example, fathers help children in their social development and attachment to siblings help children have relationships with peers. Schaffer and Emerson focussed on the idea of multiple attachments rather than primary and secondary attachments. And Rutter suggested that all of these attachments were of equal importance. Tronicks study shows that infants can form multiple attachments as well.
-Additionally, the idea that an attachment cannot be formed after the critical period has been challenged. Although it is hard, it isn’t impossible.
-The idea of a person having a poor first attachment means that the child will always have poor relationships has also been challenged. Research has shown that individuals with difficult childhoods and insecure attachments can go on to develop positive and secure relationships in adulthood. This is due to positive school experiences or strong adult attachments leading them to develop feelings of security and trust later in life. There are many real life examples such as Oprah Winfrey, Eminem who had poor relationships with their family but still ended up being sucessful.
-Bowbly ignored the role of the father and therefore his theory could be seen as outdated and sexist.
-Another weakness of Bowbly’s theory is that the quality of an attachment could be based of the temperament of a child (as argued by Kagan) rather than the internal working model of a person.

Question 29

Ainsworth’s strange situation AO1

Answer 29

-Ainsworth was interested in the different types of attachments infants formed with their caregivers so he devised the strange situation to be able to investigate and categorise different attachment styles .
-The strange situation consists of a novel environment for the baby, a room (gridded into 16 squares to help in recording the infants movements) where the baby goes through 7 episodes where their behaviour is assessed. The 7 episodes in this lab study were:
1. The parent sitting down while the infant plays ( see if baby uses mother as secure base )
2. Stranger enters and talks to parent ( stranger anxiety )
3. Parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort if needed ( seperation anxiety )
4. Parent returns, offers comfort to infant if needed, stranger leaves. ( reunion behaviour )
5. Parent leaves and infant is alone ( separation anxiety )
6. Stranger enters and offers comfort ( stranger anxiety )
7. Parent returns, greets child and offers comfort ( reunion behaviour )
-Ainsworth then combined the data of all the stranger situations and found 3 types of attachment.
1. Secure attachment (high willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, may be easy to soothe, enthusiastic and about 66% of infants were in this category)
2. Insecure avoidant attachment (high willingness to explore, low stranger anxiety, indifferent at seperation, avoids contact with caregiver at reunion and about 22% of infants were in this category)
3.Insecure resistant (low willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, distressed at separation, seeks and rejects at reunion and about 12% of infants were in this category)

Question 30

Ainsworth’s strange situation AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 30

+ high reliability, inter rated reliability of 0.94 between raters. In Ainsworth’s study, bick et al also did a recent study looking at the inter rated reliability of strange situation observers and found an agreement on 94% of tested baby’s. This increases the internal validity of the study
+ this study also has real world application and can be used to help better the world, and we can develop intervention strategies to stop children from becoming insecurely attached. Circle of security project by cooper et al teachers caregivers to understand children’s signals of distress. This project lead to an increase in securely attached infants.
+ Ainsworth’s strange situation has a standardised procedure, which allows us to replicate the situation easily, so if we wish to replicate the study in the future we would be able to do so in a similar way to Ainsworth’s study

Question 31

Ainsworth’s strange situation AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 31

• ethical issues, babies faced distress being left alone this could result in psychological harm. Even though the stress was mild, some psychologists have questioned whether it is acceptable to do this to the infants and this could lead us to question the value of Ainsworth’s overall research.
• another weakness is that there are other types of attachments that Ainsworth’s study failed to identify, Main and Solomon called this the insecure disorganised type attachment, where they lacked consistent patterns of social behaviour (they didn’t have a consistent form of attachment)

Question 32

The role of the internal working model and two aspects early attachments have on

Answer 32

-Bowlbly proposed that the internal working model is a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, known as the internal working model.
-This attachment becomes a template for what future relationships should be like and what to expect from others
-eg securely attached: less emotional dependence, ambition and interpersonal synchrony.
Avoidant attachment : aggressive, negative effect
Resistant attachment : high anxiety and withdrawn behaviour
This was suggested by prior and glaser
1) affects childhood relationships
Myron-Wilson and Smith assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using a questionnaire
Securely attached: unlikely to be involved in bullying
Insecure avoidant: most likely to be victims of bullying
Insecure resistant: most likely to be bullies
2) affects adult relationships
Hazan and Shaver looked at how the attachment theory offers a perspective on love through putting a ‘love quiz’ questionnaire where they were asked about their current attachment experiences, attachment history and attitudes towards love.
They found that securely attached (which took roughly 56% of the sample) described their relationships as happy friendly and trusting . These participants has longer lasting relationships and less likely to divorce.
Insecure avoidant participants ( which took roughly 25% of the sample ) were more doubtful on the existence of love
HARLOW SUGGESTED ONE BEHAVIOUR INFLUENCED BY INTERNAL WORKING MODEL IS POOR PARENTING, THE MONKEYS THAT TOOK PART IN THE EXPERIMENT BECAME HORRIBLE PARENTS

Question 33

Influence of early attachments onto later relationships AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 33

Research supporting : Harlows research

Question 34

The influence on early attachment on later relationships AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 34

-influence of early attachment is probabilistic but not definite.theory has damaging mentality.
-Study’s measuring the internal working model usually have methodological issues, eg Myron-Wilson and Smith , Hazan and Shaver used questionnaire
-In the studies it shows the infant attachment type is associated with the quality of later relationships, this may not be true as ASSOCIATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSALITY and therefore the later relationships in life could be a result of a different variable rather than their attachment styles.

Question 35

Simonella

Answer 35

-study in Italy to see whether the proportion of babies with different attachment styles matched those of previous studies. found that there was a lower rate of secure attachment that had been found in previous studies which may be due to an increase of mothers of infants in work, this shows that cultural changes can make a significant difference to patterns in secure and insecure attachments

Question 36

Jin et al

Answer 36

Korean study used to compare the proportion of attachment types via the strange situation, most children were securely attached but the insecurely attached babies were usually insecure resistant. This may be because incollectivist cultures like Korean and Japanese infants are rarely separated from the primary caregiver and hence why there is a higher proportion of insecure resistant children in collectivist cultures like Japan and Korea compared to other countries.

Question 37

Grossman and Grossman

Answer 37

Grossman and Grossman found that infants tended to be insecurely attached rather than securely attached and this may be due to child rearing practices where parents tend to maintain some interpersonal distance.

Question 38

Tronick et al

Answer 38

Studied an African tribe, the Efe, where all the infants were looked after and breastfed by different women (usually slept with mothers though at night) but despite this the infants at 6 months still showed one primary attachment supporting the idea of monotropy.

Question 39

Van and Kroonenberg

Answer 39

-meta analysis of findings of 32 studies of attachment behaviour from 8 different countries that looked into the strange situation
-found that
Secure attachment was the most common
China had lowest amount of secure attachments
Insecure avoidant was next common
There is a higher proportion of insecure resistant infants in collectivist cultures such as Israel and Japan
There is a higher proportion of insecure avoidant in individualistic cultures such as west Germany and uk
-Conclusion
Cultural practices can impact the likely hood of a baby forming an insecure avoidant or insecure resistant attachment.

Question 40

Cultural variations in attachment AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 40

+Large samples, combining the results of attachment studies all over the world means that you end up with a very large sample, this reduces the affect of anomolies meaning the internal validity of the strange situation increases

Question 41

Cultural variations in attachments AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 41

-Samples unrepresentative of culture, within countries there are many different cultures with different child rearing practices . This reduces the external validity.

Question 42

Complete the table.

 COUNTRY  | Number of studies  | secure % | avoidant %  | resistant %
———————————————————————————————————————
China | 1   | 50   |  |
———————————————————————————————————————
Netherlands | 4   | 67 |   | 
———————————————————————————————————————
UK | 1     |  75   |    | 
———————————————————————————————————————
Japan   | 2   | 68    |    | 
———————————————————————————————————————
Israel | 2   | 64   |     | 
———————————————————————————————————————
Sweeden | 1   | 74   |     | 
———————————————————————————————————————
USA   | 18   |   65    |   |
———————————————————————————————————————
West Germany| 3   | 57  |   |
———————————————————————————————————————

Answer 42

 COUNTRY  | Number of studies  | secure % | avoidant %  | resistant %
———————————————————————————————————————
China | 1   | 50   | 25  | 25
———————————————————————————————————————
Netherlands | 4   | 67 | 26   | 7
———————————————————————————————————————
UK | 1     |  75   |  22  | 3
———————————————————————————————————————
Japan   | 2   | 68    | 5    | 27
———————————————————————————————————————
Israel | 2   | 64   |  7   | 29
———————————————————————————————————————
Sweeden | 1   | 74   |  22   | 4
———————————————————————————————————————
USA   | 18   |   65    |  21   | 14
———————————————————————————————————————
West Germany| 3   | 57  | 35   | 8
———————————————————————————————————————

Question 43

Bowbly’s theory of maternal deprivation AO1

Answer 43

-The maternal deprivation theory focused on the idea that the continual presence of nurturing from the mother or mother-substitute was essention for normal psychological development.
-Being seperated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences, known as maternal deprivation
-Deprivation refers to a child being seperated from their mother and losing an element of their care.
-Bowbly saw that the first 2-3 years of an infants life as a critical period for psychological development- if a child is deprived from their mother during this critical period for an extended amount of time then psychological damage would be inevitable and long lasting, arguably irreversible.
-maternal deprivation was suggested to be harmful for the childs intellectual development (for example having low IQs) and emotional development (possibly becoming affectionless psychopaths, unable to experience guilt or strong emotion for others)

Question 44

Bowbly conducted a study to support his theory of maternal deprivation. What was it ? Outline the study.

Answer 44

-Bowbly constucted the 44 theives study, where he aimed to see if maternal deptivation during the critical period lead to higher juvenille deliquency (young children committing criminal acts)
-44 criminal teenagers were accused of stealing and were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. Their families were also interviewed to establish weather their teenagers had suffered maternal deprivation. A control group of non criminal but emotionally disturbed teenaers were used to see if they also had suffered maternal deprivation.
-The findings showed that 14/44 theives could be describes as emotionless psychopaths. Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolongued seperations from their mother during the critical period. In contrast, the remaining theives, only 5 had experienced seperation.
-Bowbly thus concluded that emotional deprivation lead to affectionless psychopathy.

Question 45

Maternal deprivation hypothesis AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 45

+One strength of Bowbly’s theory of maternal deprivation is that there is animal research supporting showing the affects of maternal deprivation. For example Levy et al showed that seperating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development (However, there were no other affects of this seperation on other aspects of their development). The study shows there is a grain of truth in the maternal deprivation hypothesis but it may not be as severe as Bowbly claimed.
-(coverting to weakness) However, it can be argued that this evidence is weak, and it is even more weaker as the study is based of rats, which are completely different to humans, and therefore it may be hard to generalise Levy’s study to us as humans and our attachments.

Question 46

Maternal deprivation hypothesis AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 46

-One weakness of Bowbly’s maternal deprivation hypothesis is that the study he used to back his theory (the 44 theive’s study) may be poor. As the study was conducted during WW2 and war is not a normal period/event. The evidence can be seen as flawed since War orphans were traumatised and often had poor after care. It could be these factors which caused the affectionless psychopathy in the teens rather than the maternal deprivation. Bowbly himself also carried out all the interviews which means he could have shown bias in what he was aiming to find (researcher bias).
-Another weakness of Bowbly’s theory of maternal deprivation is that he failed to distinguish between deprivation and privation. Rutter suggested that severe long term damage Bowbly suggested may be associated with deprivation might actually be a result of privation. Deprivation was described as the loss of an attachment figure and Privation was the inability to form an attachment in the first place.
-maternal deprivation is reversible… Harlow????

Question 47

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 47

Institutionalisation is where babied and children are placed in an insitution and are unable to be looked after their parents or caregivers in a normal home or family. These children could be awaiting adoption or fostering.

Question 48

What are two negative effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 48

1) The child adopting the rules and norms of the institution, which can impair functioning (their mental, social and physical wellbeing)
2)Leading to a loss of personal identity, deinviduation etc.

Question 49

Rutter and Songua Barke’s Romanian orphan study AO1

Answer 49

-Rutter studied 165 Romanian children adopted by British families who fell into 3 different groups.
1) adopted before the age of 6 months
2) adopted between the ages of 6 months and 2 years
3) adopted between the age of 2-4 years.
-These children were tested at regular intervals at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years of age to assess their physical, cognitive and social development. Their progress was compared to a control group of British children adopted in the UK before 6 months.
-The findings showed us that upon adoption, Romanian orphans lagged behind their British counterparts on all measures of physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. This was because the Romanian children were extremely malnourished and showed signs of mental retardation when they entered the UK.
-However by the age of 4, some of the Romanian children had caught up with their British counterparts, especially the Romanian children adopted before the age of 6 months.
-Those adopted after 6 months were more likely to suffer social, emotional and cognitive deficts.
-Many of the romanian orphans adopted after the age of 6 months also showed signs of “disinhibited attachment”. Symptoms of disinhibited attachment included attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familliar and unfamilliar. It’s a typical effect of spending time in an institution.
-Rutter concluded that institutionalisation does not always mean children will not recover, the effects of institutionalisation can be minimised if the child is adopted as soon as possible.

Question 50

Rutter and Songua Barkes romanian orphan study AO3 (STRENGTHS)

Answer 50

+However one strength of this study is that it has real life application. Studying the Romanian orphans has increased our understanding of institutionalisation and has helped us improve the way children are cared for in institutions. For example, it was previously believed that caregivers should not form attachments with the children in institutions as the children would be upset and cry lots when the caregiver leaves. However we have learnt it is more detremental for the child to not have anybody to play a central role for the child as they could gain a disinhibited attachment style. This shows that Rutters research has been immensely valuable in practical terms.
+We have also learnt that if a child is to be adopted, it should be done as soon as possible to minimise and reduce the effects of institutionalisation.
+Another advantage of Rutter and Songua Barke’s Romanian orphan study is that it is a longitudinal study, the same children were followed up over many years. This allows us to see the effects of insitutionalisation over time and have a greater understanding of the effects of institutionalisation.

Question 51

Rutter and Songua Barkes Romanian orphan study AO3 (WEAKNESSES)

Answer 51

-One weakness is that this study was a natural experiment. There could have been extraneous variables which could have affected the findings of the study. For example the quality of care recieved from the parents of the adopted children.
-Another weakness of the study is that it has ethical issues. Rutter did not gain the consent of the children if they wanted to take part in the study as they were too young. This could cause us to question the value of the research and its findings against the rights of the children.
-Another weakness of the Romanian orphan study is that there are individual differences between all the children. Some children may not be as affected by institutionalisation than others. An example could be that one baby may look “cuter” than other babies and therefore may have recieved special treatment while they were in their institution.This decreases the internal validity of the study.

Question 52

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 52

-Physical underdevelopment: children in institutionalisation care are usually small. Research by Gardener has shown that lack of emotional care rather than poor norishment has been the result of what has been called DEPRIVATION DWARFISM.
-Mental retardation: cognitive development is affected by emotional deprivation
-Disinhibited attachment: as shown in Rutter and Songua Barke’s study Disinhibited attachment is the typical effect of spending time in an institution, where children do not discriminate between people they choose as atachment figures. Children with this attachment style are attention seeking, clingy and social behaviour is directed indiscriminately towards all adults, familliar or unfamilliar.
-Poor parenting: Those raised in institutions were more likely to be poor parents. This is also supported by Harlo’ws further research where he found female monkeys raised in total isolation ended up being horrible parents.