attatchment

Question 1

reciprocity and interactional synchrony

Answer 1

• IS is mirroring, takes place when a mother and an infant interact and their actions and emotions mirror one another.
• it is important for developing attatchment.
• R is when one person responds to another.

Question 2

the role of the father

Answer 2

• schaffer and emerson, mot babies attatch to mothers first
• very little cases the father was first object of attacthment.
• most eventually form secondary attcthment with fathers.
• fathers play is imortant, fathers have a diiferent role in attachment - more to do w stimulation.
• inconsistent findings of fathers, tresearchers interested in different questions.
• if fathers have a distinct role, why arent children without fathers different?
• why dont fathers generally become primary attatchments?

Question 3

schaffers stages of attatchent

Answer 3

• asocial stage (babies begaviour towards objecst and humans is the same
• indiscriminate attachment 2-7 months (display more social behaviour)
• specific attatchment 7 months (strnager and seperation anxiety, baby has formed an attathcment with primary attachment figure)
• multiple attatchments by 1 yr ( secodary attahcments form shortly after)

-problems studyig asocial stage, babies are immobile and difficult to study them
- no clear evidence on when babies form multiple attahcments.
- problem in how multiple attatchments are assessed, just bc baby is distressed when an adult leaves room doesnt mean they are true attahcment figure.

Question 4

schaffer and emerson key study

Answer 4

• 60 babies from glasgow and their mothers where visited every month for a year.
  -stranger and seperation anxiety was measure by asking mothers questions about babies behaviour.
• thye found half od the babies showed seperation anxiety around 32 weeks of age.
• attacthment tended to be to caregiver who was most intercative ad sensitive with infant.
• good external validity, study carried out in peoples homes, RL application.
• study carried out longitudinally, same children checked reguarly, better internal validity ( no confounding variables)
• limited sample, all from glasglow. Findings cannot be generlaised.

Question 5

animal syudies of attacthment

Answer 5

• lorenz : imprinting, half of goose eggs hatched w mother half hatched with lorenz.
• limitation is generalisablity to humans as lorenz used geese.
• some lorenz observations questioned, ethically wrong.
• harlow : importance of contact comfort, monkeys given on cloth mother one wire mother.
• ethical issues
• theoretical value, his finding have had a profound effect on sychologists understandings.
• practical value in social workers.

Question 6

Learning theory of attatchment

Answer 6

• classical conditioning : learning to associate 2 stimuli together.
• operant conditioning : learning to repeat behaviour or depedning on its consequences.
• negative reinforcment (escaping from soemthing unpleasant)
• hunger is a primary drive, an innate biological motivator.

Question 7

evaluation of LT of attatchemnt

Answer 7

• counter evidence from animal research - lorenz and harlow showed attatchment didnt develop as a result of feeding.
• human research -scahffer ad emerson found many primary attathcments was not the one who fed them.
• ignores other factors associated with forming attachments (reciprocity, interactional synchrony)

Question 8

bowlbys monotropic thoery of attatchment

Answer 8

• attahcment is innate, like imprinting, for better chace of survival.
• more time spent with the mother is beneficial : law of continuity, law of accumulated seperation.
• babies born with social releasers
• there is a critical period around 2 years : if attahcment not formed in this time, much harder to form one later.
• the first attachment forms and internal working model of relationships.

Question 9

evaluation of bowlbys theory.

Answer 9

• bowlby believed one uniqueattahcmet formed with primary caregiver, scaffer and emerson found babies form more than one attachment later on.
• evidence supporting social releasers, research found that if babies signals (social releasers) are ignored, they show distress.
• support for internal working models, 99 mothers where assessed : their attathcment w baby was similar to attatchmet with mother.

Question 10

key studies in cultural variations of attatchment

Answer 10

• van uzendoorn, looked at proportionns on secure insecure avoida and insecure resistant attatchments across a range of countries.
• simonelli assessed 12 month olds using the strange situation to see if the proportion of attatchment types still macthed previous studies in italy.

Question 11

van lizendoorn evaluation

Answer 11

• he used meta analaysis where u can en up with large samples. He studied nearly 2000 babies and their attatchment figures - large samples increase internal validity.
• their samples may not be representative to cultures. Thye made comparisons between countries not cultures. Comparisosns between coutries (likeitaly and korea) may have little meaning.

Question 12

simonelli evaluation

Question 13

the theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 13

• bowlby suggested continuous emotional care from the mother is essential for intellectual development.
• seperation may lead to maternal deprivation, this can be avoided if alternative emotioal care is offered.
• critical period first 30 months - seperation from mother in this time leads to psychological damage.
• deprivation lowers IQ (goldfarb)
• lack of emotional care may lead to affectionless psychopathy.

Question 14

key study of maternal deprivation theory

Answer 14

• Bowlbys 44 thieves study
• sample : 44 teenagers accused of stealing.
• They where all interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy, created by lack of affection.
• 14 of the 44 could be described as afectionless psychopaths, 12 of these had experienced prolonged seperation from their mothers in the first 2 yrs of thir life.

Question 15

evaluation of bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 15

• LIMITATION : goldfarb studied war orphans who where traumatised - may be the reason development difficulties not the seperation. This means the source of info is flawed.
• LIMIATTION : there is counter evidence : the study was replicated but with 500 ppl instead, early seperation did not predict criminality - show other factors may affect outcome.
• STRENGTH : animal studies found materal deprivation. Harlow found monkeys sepreated from mother where more agressive and foud it hard to mate later on. – however, always doubt if animal studies can be generalised for human behaviour.

Question 16

effects of institutionalisation

Answer 16

• child is equally friendly to ppl they know and to strangers (this is disinhibited attatchment)
• institutionalised children show signs of mental retardation

Question 17

Romanian orphan key studies

Answer 17

• Rutter studied 165 orphans, where istitutionalised b4 adopted in UK.
• tests to see the extent to which good care can make up for poor eary care.
• Adopted b4 6 months : mean IQ of 102, from 6 monnths - 2 yrs : mean IQ of 86
• adopted after 2 yrs : 77.
• Zeanah used the strange situation to assses attatchmet in choldren of 21-30 months in institution.
• compared to a control gorup, ever experionced institutional care.
• 19 percennt where securely attatched, 65 percent had disorganised attathcment.

Question 18

evaluation of orphan studies

Answer 18

• hard to generalise, the conditions of the orphanages are so bad that results may not apply to institutionalisation. Romanian orphanages had poor standards of care.
• has important practical applications, results have led to imporvemnts in the way children are cared in institutions. Childrens homes have 1 or 2 key workers who play a central role now, avoiding disinhibited atatthcments.
• have fewer confoundig variables than other studies, other orphan studies experienced loss before instituionalised, so results could be bc of other variables. Romanian oprhans where mostly abandoned at birth, incerasing interal validity.