caregiver-infant interactions and the stages of attachment

Question 1

Define attachment

Answer 1

an emotional bond between 2 people.
It’s a 2-way process that lasts a long time.
It leads to certain behaviors such as proximity seeking and helps infants survive

Question 2

What are the 2 main purposes for attachment?

Answer 2

1- survival to protect from danger

2- Provides an internal working model (schema) about relationships which leads to expectations about future relationships

Question 3

What are the 3 attachment behaviors?

Answer 3

1- Proximity
2- Separation anxiety
3- Secure base behaviour

Question 4

What is separation anxiety?

Answer 4

Feeling distressed when the attachment figure leaves the presence

Question 5

What is secure base behavior?

Answer 5

infants return to their attachment figure when playing

Question 6

What are the 2 caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 6

Reciprocity (interaction 2 ways)
Interactional synchrony (mirroring)

Question 7

What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 7

A two way process where each party responds to the other signals to sustain interaction (turn-taking)

Question 8

What is interactional synchrony in caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 8

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way to sustain communication
(Copying)

Question 9

Who researched caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 9

Meltoff and Moore

Question 10

What was the procedure of Meltoff and Moore’s study?

Answer 10

-Observed interactional synchrony between mothers and 2-week-old infants

-adults displayed 3 facial expressions and 3 gestures

-response of child rated by independent researchers

Question 11

What was the results of Meltoff and Moore’s study?

Answer 11

-Found an association between the action of the child and the expression/gesture of the adult

Question 12

Who researched into why high quality interactions are important?

Answer 12

Isabella

Question 13

What was the procedure of Isabellas study?

Answer 13

-observed 30 mums and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony

-also assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment when a bit older

Question 14

What were the results of Isabellas study?

Answer 14

-high levels of synchrony are associated with higher quality attachments which suggests..

that high-quality interactions help develop high-quality attachments

Question 15

Who researched what happens without synchrony?

Answer 15

Tronick still faces experiment

Question 16

Describe the procedure of Tronicks still face experiment

Answer 16

-parent and child interact and respond to each other
-parent stops responding and has a still face

Question 17

Describe the results of Tronicks still face experiment

Answer 17

-child quickly becomes distressed and tries to get a reaction from parent (scream, points)

This shows synchrony must be important in child emotional development

Question 18

Give a strength of caregiver-infant interaction research

Answer 18

Most research is done in controlled observations so the studies capture fine details. This also increases the internal validity of the study

Eg meltoff and Moore specifically look at the details of interactions.

Question 19

Give a limitation of caregiver- infant interaction research

Answer 19

The observations do not tell us the meaning behind the interactions.

This means we don’t know if they’re important for the development of attachment

This reduces the usefulness of the research

Question 20

Which researcher studied who the child attaches to?

Answer 20

Emerson

Question 21

What did Emerson find

Answer 21

Most children form a primary attachment to their mum around 7 months old
-they then form a secondary attachment to other family members

Question 22

What are the 4 stages of attachment

Answer 22

1. Associate stage
2. Indiscriminate attachment
   3 specific attachment
3. Multiple attachment

Question 23

Describe the Asocial stage

Answer 23

-Babies are interested in discovering the world around them.
-They have a similar reposted to objects and humans
-Accept comfort from any adult

Question 24

Describe Indiscriminate attachment (stage 2)

Answer 24

(2-7 month)
-Babies start to recognise and show a preference for people
-Accept comfort from any adult
-don’t have main attachment figure yet

Question 25

Describe specific attachment (stage 3)

Answer 25

(7 months) -develop separation anxiety from primary attachment figure -show anxiety towards strangers

Question 26

Describe multiple attachments (stage 4)

Answer 26

(7 month onwards) -children become attached to other people they have regular contact with these are called secondary attachments -they’re not as important to the child as the primary figure

Question 27

Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s study

Answer 27

-observed the development of 60 infants Glasgow in their own homes

Question 28

What were the results of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?

Answer 28

65% attached to mothers only 30% attached to mother and another 3% attached to father only -Playing and social interaction mattered the most in attachment formation not the person who spent the most time with the child

Question 29

Give a strength of Schaffers stages and research

Answer 29

The research on the Glasgow babies supports stage 3 that most children had primary attachment at 7 months old -this increases the reliability of the stages as the same results have been found in another study

Question 30

What’s a counter to the strength of supporting research on Schaffers stages and research

Answer 30

Some children didn’t have primary attachments, they had multiple -This causes us to question the accuracy of the stages as this shows that stage 3 of primary attachment may not be necessary before children can reach stage 4 of multiple attachments

Question 31

Give a limitation of Schaffers stages and research

Answer 31

- difficult to measure the asocial stage - it suggests that children don’t show a preference between objects and people, this is measured by how long children look at object and people - we cannot know for sure what the child’s thinking therefore we don’t know if we are measuring the preference correctly

Question 32

Give another strength of Schaffers stages and research

Answer 32

High external validity- the observations were carried out in the children’s home which is a naturalistic setting - this proves the children are likely to be showing their real life behaviour therefore the accuracy of the results is likely to be high