Attatchment Flashcards
How do children show they’re attached?
- Proximity seeking
- Separation protest/anxiety
- Secure base effect
- Stranger anxiety
- General orientation of behaviour towards primary care giver
Describe the ‘secure base effect’ :
The willingness to explore environment in the presence of caregiver. Regular check to ensure carer is there.
Describe ‘stranger anxiety’:
Distress if approached by a stranger, not as good as an indicator for attachment as in a known environment the stranger may appear as a novelty and be approached anyway.
Give an example of ‘general orientation of behaviour towards primary Caregiver(s)’
Pointing out things to the caregiver
Why must attachment be formed?
- Child must see people as individuals and distinguish familiar and unfamiliar.
- Child must be capable of being social.
- Caregiver and child must spend quality time together.
- Both partners must be involved for the attachment to be forged.
Describe ‘reciprocity’:
Reciprocity is a form of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness, with both parties being able to produce response from each other.
Give an example of reciprocity:
Smiling is an example of reciprocity. Infant smiles leads to caregiver smiling and vice versa.
Describe ‘Interactional Synchrony’:
Form of rhythmic interaction between infant and carer involving mutual focus, reciprocity and mirroring of emotion or behaviour.
It is similar to a conversation.
At what ages does each type of attachment form? (Schaffer and Emerson (1964))
Birth-2 months: Indiscriminate attachment.
2-4 months: Beginnings of attachment.
4-7 months: Discriminate attachments.
7-9 months+: Multiple attachment phase.
Describe ‘Indiscriminate attachment’:
Similar responses to all objects. Show greater preference for people towards 2 months. Reciprocity and interactional synchrony leads to relationships forming.
Describe ‘Beginnings of attachments’:
Infant seeks attention from a number of different individuals. No stranger anxiety yet.
Describe ‘Discriminate attachments’:
Infant typically develops a strong attachment to one individual, shows stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
Describe ‘multiple attachment stage’
Baby forms strong emotional ties with other caregivers and non-caregivers such as siblings or other children of similar ages - secondary attachments.
What did Heermann et al (1994) find about fathers sensitivity to cues?
Men less sensitive to infant cues than women.
What did Frodi et al (1978) find in contradiction to Heermann?
No physiological differences in responses between men and women when shown a video of baby crying.
What did Frank et al (1997) find about the role of parents when the father is primary caregiver?
If the father is the primary caregiver the mother and father will share the role of primary caregiver.
What did Geiger (1996) find about fathers as secondary attachment figures?
Fathers play a vital role as:
- Playmates to provide challenges.
- Lack of sensitivity to cues works to give children cognitive demands.
Describe what was found in Harlow and Harlow (1962)’s Harlow’s monkeys:
(Differences in preference to mother)
- Food giving mother (wire cylinder mother).
- No food giving cloth ‘comfort’ mother.
- Monkey spent most of their time on the towelling covered cylinder.
- Shows contact comfort- attachment behaviour.
What was found in Harlow’s monkeys about the interaction between the monkeys raised in Harlow’s experiments and normal monkeys?
- Developed fine physically.
- But the cloth mother could not provide enough ‘love’
- Negatively affected socially and could not interact with other monkeys.
- Difficulty and mating parenting.
In Harlow’s monkeys was contact comfort or food comfort preferable?
Contact comfort.
Harlow’s four monkeys found:
- Four baby monkeys raised together with no ‘mother’.
- Few months spent huddled together.
- Gradual development of independence.
- Suffered no ill effects as long as they spent time with their monkey peers within the first 3 months.
- Just as effective as mother-infant bond.
Lorenz (1935) what did he do?
Lorenz took half of a group of gosling eggs from their mother’s nests and hatched them in an incubator, first thing they saw was Lorenz.
What did Lorenz find (1935)?
He found that the goslings imprinted on him.
What happened when Lorenz put the goslings by their mother and other chicks?
The goslings raised by him showed no interest in their mother.
