Attatchement

Question 1

what is attachment

Answer 1

• an emotional bond between 2 people, e.g child and primary caregiver
• the bond has to be a two way process that endures over time- lasts forever

Question 2

define the term reciprocity

Answer 2

• responding to an action with another action ( response doesn’t have to be mirrored)
• e.g tickling- laughing
• ‘turn taking’ - respond to one another

Question 3

define the term interactional synchrony

Answer 3

• when two people interact with each other they tend to mirror one another’s facial and body movements. This can include imitating emotions as well as behaviour

Question 4

what experiment did Meltzoff + Moore propose (reciprocity)

Answer 4

• they wanted to investigate reciprocity between infants and their caregivers
• controlled observation
• used 6 babies (12-27 days)
• 12 babies (16-21 days)
• model displaced 1 of 3 expressions (tongue out, mouth open, pursed lips)
• dummy was removed and babies expression was filmed
• results found babies young as 2 weeks showed an association between the expression or gesture

Question 5

what are the weaknesses of Meltzoff and Moore’s research into infant and caregiver interaction (interactional synchrony)

Answer 5

1) lacks internal validity, don’t know if infant activity is genuine or if it’s a random outburst of behaviour
counter point: research shows infants made little response with stimulating objects suggesting they have a specific social response to humans
2) development importance- observing behaviour doesn’t tell us its importance. Therefore unsure if reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development
counter point: Isabella et al found achievement of interactional synchrony predicted development of good quality attachment
3) Deyong (1991) observed infants when they interacted with two objects. One stimulated tongue movements while the other stimulated the opening and closing of the mouth. They found infants within the median age of 5 to 12 weeks made little international synchrony to the objects. This suggests infants do display specific social responses to human interactions as reciprocity and interactional synchrony suggests as they do not simply imitate everything
4) Little cross cultural support- La Vine et al (1994) found that Kenyan mothers had little interactions with their infants yet a high proportion of them were still classed as securely attached

Question 6

what is a strength of Meltzoff and Moore’s research into infant and caregiver interaction (interactional synchrony)

Answer 6

Filmed observations:
- usually filmed in a lab, other activity that may distract child can be controlled
- researchers are unlikely to miss key behaviours
- more than one researcher can observe, baby doesn’t know they are being observed
- reliability and validity are increased

Question 7

what are the 4 stages of attachment proposed by Shaffer + Emerson

Answer 7

stage 1- asocial stage, baby doesn’t care who caregiver is, responds to all (0-3 months)
stage 2- indiscriminate attachment, learns to distinguish primary and secondary caregiver, prefer familiar ppl, still accepts care from anyone (2-7 months)
stage 3- specific attachment, looks to particular figures for security, shows stranger + separation anxiety, formation of attachment to specific caregiver (7-9 months)
stage 4- multiple attachments, baby is able to form several attachments and becomes independent, separation anxiety can occur when separated from secondary attachments (9months onwards) Schaffer and Emerson found that 29% of infants had formed secondary attachments within one month of forming their first attachment. At six months infant will show multiple attachment behaviours to many people within their social circles such as siblings, other parent, grandparents and even nursery minders. Schaffer and Emerson found 78% of infants at six months had multiple attachments and almost all displayed multiple attachments at the age of one year

Question 8

what are the weaknesses of the stages of attachment by Shaffer + Emerson

Answer 8

1) unreliable: data is based on mothers reports, social desirability, want to be seen in a positive light, some mothers may have been more or less sensitive to child’s distress
- subjective observers

2) biased sample, based on mothers from working class background for particular time period (1964), results may apply to working class population but not other social groups or cultures. Also study was conducted in 1960’s so findings may lack validity to modern day where caring practices and guidance has change as well as the education and employability of mothers with many now working. Many infants are now in the care of nursery settings or with stay at home fathers, so if study was repeated in modern world, findings may be unreliable and different
- lack temporal validity, primary caregiver role may be divided between parents and even grandparents, there are more ‘blended’ families, many children have wider, extended families to attach to

3) culturally biased towards western cultures, collectivist cultures may teach to share and do things together to cater the groups needs, attachment stage order may be different in terms of how an infant was brought up e.g some may have multiple attachments first etc, therefore research only applies to individualistic cultures, therefore difficult to be generalised

Question 9

what are the strengths of the stages of attachment by Shaffer + Emerson

Answer 9

1) has external validity, observations were made during ordinary activities and reported to researchers
- means highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed, babies weren’t distracted from unfamiliar researchers

2) real world application- applied to daycare settings, parents can use stages of attachment to help development of child
- avoid putting in daycare around 7 months due to likelihood of child being in specific attachment phase

Question 10

what did Lorenz(1935) find in his Geese study

Answer 10

-through imprinting, the goslings followed Lorenz around, and the control group followed their real mother.
- sexual imprinting, choose to mate with same object they imprinted with, so has an impact on mate preferences too
- if object is not exposed to a object during critical period ‘2 days’ it would not imprint
- process of imprinting is similar to attachment in humans and supports the case for attachment itself being biological in nature
- imprinting shows how animals are biologically programmed to form a special relationship in the same way attachment is explained to occur with a primary caregiver and infant.

Question 11

Whats a strength of Lorenz’s geese study
(strength with counterpoint)

Answer 11

• Guiton et al imprinted new-born chicken onto yellow rubber gloves, as theory predicts, they tried to mate with the gloves
• However, imprinting may not be permanent as Guiton later found that chickens who had imprinted themselves to yellow rubber gloves and tried to mate with them would later begin mating with other chickens provided they spent enough time with them. This suggests imprinting may have a learned element too and it may not be completely biological in nature

Question 12

Explain Harlow’s monkey study with findings

Answer 12

• observed rhesus monkeys
• suggested attachment is not based on a ‘feeding bond’ as predicted by the learning theory, rather formed through being comforted
• 2 monkeys, one wrapped in soft cloth, the other in plain wire with milk bottle
• saw how monkey’s reacted to being scared
• monkeys spent longer with soft cloth when scared regardless where milk bottle was
• therefore, monkeys don’t form attachments with figure who feeds them, but to the one offering contact comfort
• both groups developed abnormally, however ones with the ‘plain wire’ mother were most dysfunctional
• Harlow suggested a critical period, those who socialised with other monkeys before 3 months showed abnormal behaviours could be reversed, those who spent more than 6 months couldn’t recover

Question 13

What are weaknesses of Harlow’s monkey study

Answer 13

1) confounding variables: head shape of monkey was different, soft cloth looked more realistic to a monkey. Decreases internal validity as no longer measuring what intended to measure, attached to head shape instead
2) can’t generalise to humans: can’t extrapolate findings as may not be representative of human behaviour due to us being different species and humans being governed by greater awareness of their thought processes in their decisions, lack external validity and generalisation to the human population but also internal validity as it could be argued to only demonstrate attachment behaviour in monkeys. However, monkeys share approximately 94% of genetics so could have validity in humans to some degree
3) ethical issues: research cause severe and everlasting damage to animals, found it difficult to form relationships with other monkeys, experienced great distress from being separated and were subjected to intentional emotional harm through fears tactics to observe behaviour- so unethical that the American animal liberation movement was born, highlights the question of how far animal research can go in the name of science, however cost benefit analysis- many would argue that this research was a gateway for us to better understand attachment behaviour in humans

Question 14

what did Shaffer and Emerson find on primary attachment with the role of the father

Answer 14

• only 3% of cases the father was the primary caregiver
• in 27% of the cases the father was joint first with the mother
• by 18 months of age, 75% of infants had formed an attachment to their father

Question 15

What did Grossmann find in his longitudinal study (role of father in attachment)

Answer 15

• looked into both parent’s behaviour and its relationship with to the child’s quality of attachment into their teens
• quality of a baby’s attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence
• suggests that attachment to fathers is less important than attachments to mothers
• therefore fathers may be less important for long-term emotional development
• however he also found that he quality of fathers’ play with the baby was related to quality of attachment, suggesting that fathers have a different role from mothers, one is more to do with play and stimulation rather than emotional development

Question 16

why aren’t fathers said to be suitable to be primary caregivers

Answer 16

1) not psychologically equipped, less oestrogen in men which plays a role in interpersonal skills
2) biological- men are less receptive and sensitive to the needs of an infant, hormonal differences e.g women have more oestrogen than males meaning they are naturally more sensitive to the needs of an infant
3) fathers are ‘playmates’ not caregivers

Question 17

what is research support for the idea that fathers are not caregivers they are ‘playmates’ (Lamb 1987)

Answer 17

• found children proffered interacting with their fathers but only when in a positive state themselves and wanting to be stimulated
• mothers were sought primarily for comfort when distressed supporting the idea of fathers being preferred playmates while mothers provided emotional support

Question 18

what is research support for the idea that fathers are not psychologically/biologically/socially equipped for nurturing attachment

Answer 18

• Hrdy found that fathers were less able to detect levels of infant distress compared to mothers
• fathers aren’t capable of showing sensitive responses so aren’t equipped
• also less oestrogen

Question 19

What are the assumptions of the Learning Theory in attachment

Answer 19

• children are born as ‘blank slates’, experience is key to learning
• children attach to caregiver bc caregiver is provider of food
  -we learn to form an attachment through classical and operant conditioning based on food (classical conditioning)
• the baby forms an association between mother (NS) and pleasure of being fed (UCR)
• results happiness when mother is present
• operant conditioning- positive + negative reinforcement
• negative reinforcement shown when through crying, draws attention to caregiver who feeds them and therefore removed unwanted feeling of discomfort.
• child displays proximity seeking and attachment behaviour as become a source of reward (food)

Question 20

what is the role of operant conditioning in the Learning theory of attachment

Answer 20

• if behaviour produced pleasant consequence, behaviour will be repeated
• e.g baby is fed and feels pleasure (reward)
• behaviour that led baby being fed is likely to be repeated by the behaviour e.g crying
• food reinforces behaviour
• attachment to caregiver occurs because baby is seeking the reward

Question 21

what does the drive reduction theory suggest in the Learning Theory

Answer 21

• hunger is a primary drive, an innate biological motivator. We are motivated to eat to reduce the hunger drive

Question 22

what is are weaknesses of the Learning Theory

Answer 22

1) Fox (1977), studied 122 children and raised them in a nursing home, allowing them to see their parents 1hr per day, the nurses were responsible for feeding them. Found that children were strongly attached to their parents and had a weaker attachment with the nurses. Suggests attachment isn’t because of feeding and has more of an innate explanation
3) Harlow’s monkey study, attachment formed by contact comfort rather than a feeding bond. As adults, the monkeys went on to struggle in forming reproductive relationships and tended to be poor mothers themselves suggesting lack of interaction from caregiver may cause maladjustment in later life, evolutionists such as Bowlby’s may argue this highlights how attachment may be innate and serve a purpose in further reproduction and relationships and not just a learnt response
- however hard to extrapolate findings to humans and are more complex e.g cognitive processes
BUT
3) Emerson et al studied 60 babies over 18 months
- study found attachment was most likely to form with those who were most sensitive and responsive to the child’s needs not who was feeding them, as this would be most rewarding for them- more than half of the infants

Question 23

what are the stages of Bowlby’s monotropic theory (ASCMI)

Answer 23

-adaptive: attachment is an innate system that gives us a survival advantage, ensures they remain in close proximity to a caregiver that will protect and feed them, increasing chances if survival and reproducing in the future
- social releasers: ‘unlocking’ innate tendency of adults to care for them. Physical : baby face, cooing
- critical period: have to form an attachment within first 2 and a half years, if not then child would be damaged for life, socially, physically, mentally and emotionally
- monotropy: infants form a special attachment bond with primary caregiver, usually biological mother (not always case tho) will attach to one who responds most sensitively to infants needs
-internal working model: mental schema for relationships based attachment in childhood, secure relationships, stronger relationships

Question 24

what are the strengths and weaknesses of Bowlby’s theory of attachment

Answer 24

1) weakness of monotropy: Shaffer + Emerson study of 60 Glaswegian infants which showed that 1 third of children formed multiple attachments rather than specific ones
2) Czech twins were raised in isolation beyond sensitive period, once reduced through the efforts of adoptive mothership showed no signs of abnormal behaviour at age of 14 when examined, in fact they had close attachments to their mothers and went on to live normal lives into adulthood with stable relationships, goes against critical period in the theory, also real world application that children in foster care can lead normal lives if attachments are disrupted with the right support

2) strength of IWM: Hazan and Shaver: found adults romantic attachments were closely linked to infant attachments, secure= secure romantic attachments
- strength of IWM: Baily et al observed 99 mothers and their child’s attachment type using strange situation. Those with insecure attachments matched the attachment of the mothers with their own parents

Question 25

Explain the steps of the strange situation

Answer 25

1. The caregiver enters a room, places the child on the floor and sits on a chair. The caregiver does not interact with the child unless the infant seeks attention. 2. A stranger enters the room, talks to the caregiver and then approaches the child with a toy. 3. The caregiver exits the room. If the infant plays the stranger observes without interruption. If the child is passive, the stranger attempts to interest them in the toy. If they show distress the stranger attempts to comfort them. 4. The caregiver returns while the stranger then leaves. 5. Once the infant begins to play again, the caregiver may leave the room, leaving the child alone briefly. 6. The stranger enters the room again and repeats behaviour mentioned in step 3 (observing, engaging, comforting as needed) 7. The stranger leaves and the caregiver returns. The “strange situation” places the child in a mildly stressful situation in order to observe 4 different types of behaviour which are separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, willingness to explore and reunion behaviour with the caregiver.

Question 26

what 3 attachment types did Ainsworth identify after the Strange Situation

Answer 26

1. secure attachment (70%) 2. insecure avoidant (15%) 3. insecure resistant (15%)

Question 27

describe a secure attachment type in the stages of the strange situation

Answer 27

mother present- uses mother as secure base to explore mother leaves- distressed stranger enters- avoidant, but friendly when mother present mother returns- happy and content

Question 28

describe insecure avoidant in the stages of the strange situation

Answer 28

mother present- child is comforted with mother and also stranger mother leaves- no distress stranger enters- infant is okay, plays normally mother returns- infant shows little interest

Question 29

describe insecure resistant in the stages of the strange situation

Answer 29

mother present- cries more and explores less than other children mother leaves- intense distress stranger enters- avoids stranger mother returns- resists contact with mother

Question 30

what are the strengths of the strange situation

Answer 30

1. predictive validity- attachment predicts later development in relationships, therefore can predict what will happen in the future e.g secure babies tend to have better outcomes than others both in childhood and adulthood, including better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying (McCormick, Kokkinos) suggests the strange situation measures something real and meaningful in baby’s development 2. very good inter-rater reliability- different observers watching same children generally agree on attachment type. Bick at al (2012) found 94% agreement in one team. May be as Strange situation is under controlled conditions so behavioural categories are easy to observe, confidence that attachment types aren’t subjective judgements

Question 31

what are weaknesses of the strange situation

Answer 31

1. may be cultural-bound- may not have same meaning in countries outside Europe and USA. Cultural differences in children's experiences mean they respond differently. E.g in a Japanese study, babies displayed high levels of separation anxiety, however this anxiety wasn’t due to high rates of insecurity in attachment, rather the unusual nature of the experience in Japan where mother-baby separation is rare Isn't applicable to other countries, lacks generalisability, culture bias 2. Lacks ecological validity- infants placed in a strange and artificial environment - episodes taken place are unlikely to happen irl, some infants may be wrongly classified reducing validity of findings, may not explore as new environment, not reflecting how they would react normally, lacking mundane realism 3. Main and Solomon analysed over 200 strange situation videotapes and proposed a 4th type suggesting original classification is too simplistic - 4th attachment type- insecure disorganised where a lack of consistent pattern of social behaviour + may appear fearful of attachment figure - suggests more research needs to be carried out in order to have a more complete explanation for attachment type

Question 32

define inter-cultural differences and intra-cultural differences

Answer 32

1. inter-cultural: differences between different countries and cultures 2. intra-cultural: differences within the same countries and cultures

Question 33

Explain Van Ijzendoorn + Kroonenberg's study on cultural variations in attachment

Answer 33

- conducted a meta-analysis of 32 strange situation studies from 8 countries (UK, US, Sweden, Japan, China, Holland, Germany and Israel), interested in how cultural variations effect the development of a child and their behaviour Findings: secure attachment, most common - secure most common (50% in china to 75% in the uk) -Germany, highest insecure avoidant, individualistic culture -Japan + Israel, highest insecure resistant, collectivist culture (over 25%) -intra-cultural variations within cultures were 1.5 times greater than between inter-cultural - support idea that secure attachment is required for healthy social and emotional development, and that attachment is an innate process

Question 34

what is a strength of Van Ijzgendoorn + Kroonenberg's study

Answer 34

1) large samples, nearly 2000 mother-child pairs studied - large sample = good as it reduced impact of anomalous results caused by unusual ppt or flawed methodology - however some sampled such as the Chinese were very small comprising of only 36 children, may be unwise to generalise results across all Chinese children as findings may not be representative of whole population

Question 35

what are the weaknesses of Van Ijzgendoorn + Kroonenberg's study

Answer 35

1. using a test designed in one culture (an imposed etic), based on western and American values and norms, e.g in Japan dependence is seen as a positive sign, but in strange situation, Japanese children may be seen as insecurely attached according to western criteria, but securely attached in Japanese standards, suffers from imposed ethic as western ideas are imposed onto another However, supports Bowlby's evolutionary theory as the reason for similar patterns is because attachment is innate. 2. Alternative explanation for similarities in cultures- cross cultural similarities may be due to the mass media. Books, TV programmes are broadcasted across the world and may create parenting norms and therefore similarities in child caring norms have become more common due to media as opposed to innate attachment 3. Countries do not equate to culture- Intra-cultural differences could be attributed to differences in the socio-economic backgrounds of the family’s involved. E.g some US samples were from middle class while others were from poorer families. Ijzendoorn and Sagi studied attachment from urban background in Tokyo and founf they were similar to western studies, however when studying attachment from a more rural sample, they found more insecure resistant - therefore drawing conclusions using strange situation is impossible as it will lack validity and generalisation for that culture and sub culture as caution when concluding whether sample is representative of a whole culture not country

Question 36

what did Grossman + Grossman find (cultural variations in attachment)

Answer 36

- studied 49 German families using the strange situation -German infants tended to be classified as insecurely rather than securely attached -German culture involves keeping same interpersonal distance between parent + child, encourage children to be independent, so infant does not engage in proximity seeking behaviours, in strange situation this was deemed as insecurely attached - may be wrongfully classed as insecure avoidant due to the infants being used to exploring on their own

Question 37

what are Takahashi’s findings when studying 60 Japanese infants (cultural variations in attachment)

Answer 37

- found similar rates of secure attachment that Ainsworth found (68%) - high rates of insecure resistant attachment (32%) and no evidence of insecure avoidant attachment - Japanese infants were extremely distressed at being left alone, 90% of the studies were stopped at this point - differences can be explained through differences in child-rearing practices - in Japan infants rarely experience separation from their mothers, thus showed high levels of distress in the Strange situation and were deemed as insecurely attached - In Japan, sense of oneness (amae) is encouraged - strange situation may not be universally applied as a measure of attachment behaviour in other cultures

Question 38

what is maternal deprivation in Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 38

- separation: chid is mot in presence of primary caregiver e.g substitute - deprivation- loss of emotional care normally provided by caregiver - privation: attachment bond has never been formed - attachment is essential for healthy social and emotional development of child - deprivation could have negative effects on social, intellectual and emotional development - link between maternal deprivation and affection less psychopathology and emotional maladjustment - loss or prolonged separation from attachment figure during critical period could also lead to emotional disturbance

Question 39

what does Bowlby mean by critical period under maternal deprivation

Answer 39

- first two years of a child’s life are a critical period in emotional and psychological development -a young child may become emotionally disturbed if they are denied emotional care because of frequent or prolonged separations if within the critical period of 2 and a half years and if there is no substitute mother figure - long term damage can be avoided if there is a mother sub, separation need not result in deprivation

Question 40

what may be consequences of maternal deprivation

Answer 40

- inability to form attachments in the future (IWM) - affectionless psychopathy (unable to feel remorse) - delinquency (behavioural problems in child’s teenage years) - problems with cognitive (brain) development

Question 41

explain the 44 Thieves study by Bowlby on the effects of maternal deprivation

Answer 41

- Bowlby studied 88 children who were emotionally maladjusted - 44 were accused of stealing, 44 made up the control group - all thieves were interviewed for signs of being affectionless psychopaths, families were also interviewed to see whether the thieves had prolonged periods of seperation - found that 14 of the 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths, of these, 12 (87%) had experienced prolonged periods of separation in first 2 years of lives - 40% of thieves group had experienced early separation - in control group only two had experienced prolonged separation - Bowlby’s concluded that prolonged earlier separation/deprivation caused affection less psychopathy

Question 42

What is the difference between separation and deprivation

Answer 42

- separation is when the child is not in the presence of their primary attachment figure - deprivation refers to a lack of emotional care (can happen when caregiver is present) - separation doesn’t have a significant effect on child as long as infant has a substitute caregiver who can offer emotional care - extended separations can lead to deprivation which can cause emotional and developmental harm

Question 43

what are the weaknesses of maternal deprivation theory

Answer 43

1. Researcher bias, sources of evidence are flawed, in 44 thieves study Bowlby himself assessed deprivation and affectionless psychopathy knowing what he hoped to find. Therefore no evidence to base his theory off, also based off retrospective information, requiring the parents to think back many years which could lead to inaccuracies in recall 2. Bowlby confused deprivation and privation in 44 thieves. Rutter (1981) contended that some boys were moved so much in infancy e.g in hospital that they never really had the chance to form an attachment so the issue is privation rather than maternal deprivation 3. critical period is more of a sensitive period- Czech twins were isolated from 18 months so were deprived of emotional care, later they were found and were looked after by loving adults and by age of 14 showed normal social and intellectual functioning and could form attachments - therefore lasting harm isn’t inevitable even in cases of severe privation, the ‘critical’ period is better seen as a ‘sensitive period’

Question 44

what are the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 44

1. Physical underdevelopment-deprivation dwarfism 2. Delayed intellectual development (low IQ) 3. disinhibited attachment- attention seeking and overfriendliness to anyone 4. lack of internal working model- don't know how to form an attachment, poor parenting in the future 5. Lack of emotional development

Question 45

explain Rutter's study - Romanian orphan study, institutionalisation

Answer 45

- 165 Romanian orphans (4,6,11,15) assessed at regular intervals - results compared to 50 adopted British children (control group) who were adopted before age of 6 months in the UK Findings: - majority of orphans had delayed IQ levels compared to British, they were smaller, weighed less and classified as mentally retarded - adopted before 6 months- IQ 102 - adopted after 2 years - IQ 77 and disinhibited attachment - by age of 4, some orphans caught up to the British, only true if adopted before 6 months - adopted after 6 months had a ‘disinhibited attachment’ where they were attention seeking, clingy and showed indiscriminate behaviour towards all adults

Question 46

explain Zeanah's study on the strange situation and Romanian orphans

Answer 46

- studied 95 Romanian children who spent 90% of their lives in institutions, control group 50 Romanian children never been in an institution Findings: secure attachment - control group= 74%, institutionalised= 19% disinhibited attachment - control group= 20% institutionalised= 44%

Question 47

what are the strengths on Romanian orphan research

Answer 47

1. real world application- apply understanding to improve lives of children placed in care, points out the importance of early adoption e.g children’s homes now avoiding large numbers of caregivers for each child, help improve lives of children 2. longitudinal studies- without we would have concluded that there are major effects on infants due to institutionalisation , but we now they they have the ability to recover if adopted before 6 months However, a problem was the attrition rate, 20% of orphans used their right to withdraw from study meaning we can't be completely conclusive, can also be argued more of a follow up is needed to establish whether the effects are life long as it may be that some of the effects reduce further into adulthood in order to have a fuller understanding of the effects of institutionalisation

Question 48

what are the weaknesses on Romanian orphan research

Answer 48

1. confounding variables- due to quality of care being so poor, it makes it hard to separate effects of institutional care from those of poor institutional care. E.g multiple children slept in one cot, rat infestation and no access to medicine, lack of physical care 2. Data wasn’t followed into adulthood, raises qs about long term impacts of institutionalisation

Question 49

explain Hazan and Shaver's study on the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (love quiz)

Answer 49

- designed a 'love quiz' asking questions about current attachment to identify attachment type - analysed 620 responses, 205 from men, 415 from women - secure responders (56%) relationships were reported as positive and enduring (10 years +), were happy and trusting experiences - avoidant responders- tended to be jealous and fear intimacy - supports concept that the internal working model has a lifelong effect on attachment and relationships

Question 50

what are the weaknesses of Hazan and Shaver's love quiz study on attachment

Answer 50

1. Lacks validity- using a questionnaire could introduce social desirability as ppl may lie to protect their carers and hide what they believe, so aren't truly measuring IWM 2. Association does not mean causation- third influencing factor could be parenting style or innate personality, can't be entirely sure it is infant attachment and not another factor 3. deterministic- Clarke + Clarke describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as deterministic. Ppl aren't always doomed to have bad relationships because they had attachment problems. They just have greater chance of encountering problems. Unreliable and can be damaging to individuals

Question 51

how does the internal working model affect adulthood as a parent

Answer 51

- affects ability to parent their own children in the future - base their own parenting style from IWM so attachment type tends to be passed from one generation to the next

Question 52

explain Bailey's study as a strength of early attachment- relationships in adulthood as a parent

Answer 52

- studied the attachment of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers - mother & baby attachment was assessed using the strange situation, mother & mother was assessed in an interview - the majority of mothers had the same attachment with their mothers and their babies - supports idea of continuity, IWM that we develop in response to our first attachment contain our perceptions of what a normal relationship looks like

Question 53

A01 Explain research carried out by Shaffer and Emerson on the development of attachments

Answer 53

- 60 Glaswegian babies - analysed interactions between infants and carers, mother kept a diary to track the infants behaviours based - interviewed caregivers - assessed separation and stranger anxiety - longitudinal study and naturalistic observation - found that those carers who had ‘sensitive responsiveness’ to babies needs were more likely to have formed an attachment - 87% formed an attachment with at least 2 adult figures, supporting multiple attachment

Question 54

A03 What is a strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s study on the development of attachment

Answer 54

1) high ecological validity- study was a naturalistic observation

Question 55

A03 What is a weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s study on the development of attachments

Answer 55

1) results may have been prone to social desirability bias, as carers were interviewed, may not have wanted to seem like bad parents with a lack of secure attachment with their child

Question 56

A01 Explain Lorenz’s geese study

Answer 56

- randomly split goose eggs into two groups, one left in natural habitat with mother (control group) - one placed in incubator (experimental group) - for the incubator eggs, first thing they saw moving was Lorenz - found that the control group followed their natural mother and experimental group followed Lorenz as they had imprinted on him - Lorenz identified a critical period of 13 to 16 hours

Question 57

A03 What is a weakness of Lorenz’s geese study

Answer 57

1) cannot be generalised to humans, attachment in humans is different to birds - attachment in humans is a two way process ( formed by reciprocity and interactional synchrony) - however birds can imprint onto inanimate objects meaning it’s a one way relationship

Question 58

A01 Explain the role of classical conditioning as part of the learning theory of attachment

Answer 58

- developed through association of stimuli - UCS (food), UCR (salivation) don’t have to learn to feel hunger or salivate, it’s a reflex action - known as ‘cupboard love’ theory - caregiver starts as NS, food is UCS, baby’s response e.g crying, smiling, banging chair is the UCR - caregiver provides food overtime they become associated with the food - the NS is paired with the UCS - baby expects food when they see their caregiver, emits their usual response (crying) - NS has become CS met by the babies CR

Question 59

A01 Explain the influence of early attachment on childhood relationships (as well as adult relationships)

Answer 59

- securely attached infants tend to form healthy anf functional friendships during childhood - also more popular and empathetic children, meaning higher development of emotional/social skills - securely attached children are unlikely to be involved in incidences of bullying, either victims or bullies - insecure avoidant- likely to be victims of bullying - insecure resistant- more likely to be bullies

Question 60

A01 How can mental health also be affected by a persons internal working model

Answer 60

- lack of attachment during child’s infancy and their critical period may lead to a poor internal working model - can lead to a mental health condition called attachment disorder characterised by - lack of a preferred attachment figure - inability to interact functionally with others - experiences of severe neglect - frequent change of caregivers (e.g in foster care)

Question 61

AO3 Explain Myron-Wilson and Smith’s study on childhood relationships (influence of early attachment)

Answer 61

- used questionnaires on children ages 7-11 - were asked about attachment type and bullying involvement - insecure avoidant: more likely to be victims of bulling - insecure resistant: more likely to be bullies - secure attachment: no experience of bulling - suggests bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type and how it influences how you treat and are treated by peers in childhood

Question 62

A01 Briefly explain the role of the father

Answer 62

- fathers traditionally play role as the bread winder while mothers stay home to establish closer bonds - gender stereotypes in some cultures may affect the role of the father as it is seen as feminine to be sensitive to needs of the children, encouraging more masculine behaviour - father is less psychologically equipped to form close bonds, unlike mothers- may be due to them lacking the emotional sensitivity which Bowlby argued was more important than time spent with child - females produce oestrogen which promotes caring behaviour and sensitivity while males do not - research also suggests the farther’s role has also been seen more as a playmate to encourage physical activity, encouraging problem solving (cognitive demands) - important factors: sensitivity, type of attachment fathers had with own parents - fathers role tended to take more risks during physical play than mothers - mothers found to structure their talk around emotional support to soothe and reassure infant - Varissimo (2011) found that the quality of relationship between father and toddler significantly correlated with number of friends they had at preschool and this was more important than the attachment between mother and child

Question 63

What research for the role of fathers suggest they are just as important as mothers (Field)

Answer 63

- Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with: - primary caregiver mothers + secondary caregiver fathers - primary caregiver father - primary fathers spent more time smiling, imitating, holding etc compared to secondary fathers - behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with infant - fathers are capable in taking on a nurturing role and the level of responsiveness is unrelated to gender - shows biology isn’t destiny, expertise can override hormones

Question 64

A01 What is meant by the continuity hypothesis in Bowlby’s monotopic theory

Answer 64

- there is a link between early attachment and later relationships with poorly attached having more difficulty in adulthood and childhood while severely attached children form more stable relationships - there is a continuity from infancy to childhood in terms of relationships

Question 65

A03 What is a strength of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory

Answer 65

1) real world applications- especially during post war era where many children were left as orphans - research impacted child rearing practices as well as altered how children were cared for within hospitals as prior to his study, mothers and children were separated and visitation was limited. Bowlby’s work therefore led to a major social change in the way children were cared for by institutions and provided real world applications to help foster healthy attachment bonds.