Attatchment

Question 1

Research into peer relations in daycare

Answer 1

• guralnick et al found that children with disabilities like communication and motor skills were less accepted.

+Clarke-Stewart et al found that children who had the greatest ability to negotiate with peers were in group based daycare instead of home care

Question 2

Key ideas of Bowlby’s theory

Answer 2

Nature - attachment is innate
Monotropy - only make 1 attachment
Critical period- 7months- 3 years
Internal working model-the first attachment you make determines later attatchment
Social releasers- ways of getting attention from caregivers.

Question 3

Attatchment stages

Answer 3

1) Pre-attatchment phase -birth to 3 months and becomes attracted to humans.
2) indiscriminate - start to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people (3-7 months)
3) discriminate phase- begin to form specific attatchment and start stranger anxiety and separation protest (7-8 months)
4) multiple attatchment phase - babies form strong ties with other major caregivers and fear of strangers weakens.

Question 4

The strange situation

Answer 4

Measured separation protest, stranger anxiety,willingness to explore and reunion behaviour.

1) observer introduces mother and baby into room then leaves.
2) baby is left to explore(willingness to explore )
3) stranger enters (stranger anxiety)
4) mother leaves (separation anxiety)
5) mother returns (reunion behaviour)
6) mother leaves again and comes back for the second reunion (reunion behaviour)

Question 5

Cultural variations in attatchment

Answer 5

Van Izendoorn + Koonenberg

• all cultures were secure attatchment as norm.
• 2nd most common in Germany was avoidant (encourage independence)
• 2nd most common in Japan is resistant (encourage dependence)

Question 6

Daycare - research into aggression

Answer 6

-Durkein - reported that pre-schoolers who had been in daycare were more prone to aggressiveness than those who started daycare later.
+Doherty - found that in high quality daycare, there is less likelihood of aggression.

Question 7

The learning theory

Answer 7

Classical conditioning

UCS > UCR

NS + UCS > UCR

CS > CR

Operant conditioning - learning by consequences via reinforcement.

Question 8

Evaluation of the learning theory

Answer 8

Fox - studied the relationships with mothers , babies and metapelats (carers) in Israeli children. Children were more attached to mothers which suggests the learning theory is flawed as metapelats did the majority of feeding .

• Lorenz imprinting
• Harlows monkeys

Question 9

Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory

Answer 9

+ Lorenz’s imprinting
+ Harlow’s monkeys
- Lamb - studied relationships that children had with many people. There are different kinds of attachment , children go to fathers for play.

Question 10

Daycare - social development

Answer 10

+ Clarke-Stewart et al found that children in group based daycare were more sociable with peers than those cared for at home or by childminders.

• Violata and Russell found in a meta-analysis study found that more than 20 hours a week in daycare had negative effect on socio-emotional development

Question 11

Maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 11

Bowlby’s 44 thieves (longitudinal)
44 juvenile delinquents and 44 adolescents with emotional problems were studied.
17/44 were separated from their mothers
14/17 were considered affection less psychopaths.

Question 12

Maternal deprivation hypothesis ⛪️

Answer 12

Goldfarb (longitudinal) 
2 group of 15 orphans 
Group 1 - fostered before 9 months 
Group 2 - After 3 years
Early fostered children did better on tests and had better communication skills.

Question 13

Short term deprivation

Answer 13

Robertson and Robertson came up with the idea of a syndrome of distress when studying John, a child who was in care whilst his mother was in hospital.

The syndrome of distress consisted of three stages. Protest (crying), despair (child becomes quiet) and detachment (child doesn’t want to see the attachment figure anymore , John ran to the observer )
John running to the observer suggests children try to make substitute attachments.

Question 14

Institutionalisation

Answer 14

Hodges and Tizard - used a longitudinal study to compare children in institutions.
One group - children were adopted
Second group - children were returned

First group formed close attachments by age 8 whilst the returned children didn’t. This contradicts the critical period.

Both groups had difficulties with relationships with peers.(supports Bowlby)