Caregiver-infant interactions, role of father and schaffer's stages

Question 1

what is meant by attachment?

Answer 1

an emotional bond between two people, it is a two-way process (reciprocal) that lasts a long time

attachment leads to certain behaviours such as proximity-seeking and it helps the infant survive

Question 2

what are the two purposes of attachment?

Answer 2

1. survival- to protect from danger, keep safe
2. provides an internal working model about relationships which leads to expectations about future relationships

Question 3

what are 3 attachment behaviours?

Answer 3

1. proximity- people try stay physically close to those they are attached to
2. separation anxiety- people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence
3. secure base behaviour- infants regularly return to attachment figure when playing

Question 4

what do babies emit which helps form attachments?

Answer 4

social releasers e.g. looking cute, cooing, having big eyes, laughing, smiling

Question 5

what is meant by interactional synchrony as a caregiver-infant interaction?

Answer 5

mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions or the other (mirror), they do this in a coordinated (synchronised) way

Question 6

what is meant by reciprocity as a caregiver-infant interaction?

Answer 6

interaction is 2 way
both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other

it is described as a ‘dance’ between mother and baby, sometimes called ‘turn-taking’

Question 7

what did Meltoff and Moore investigate?

Answer 7

interactional synchrony between mothers and 2 week old infants

adult displayed 3 different facial expressions and 3 different gestures

Question 8

what did Meltoff and Moore find?

Answer 8

the response of the child to the expressions/gestures was rated and they found an association between the action of the child and expression/gesture of adult

this was rated by researchers independently

Question 9

what could a limitation of Meltoff and Moore’s study be?

Answer 9

we don’t know the purpose of the interactions or how important they are for forming attachments- which is why we look at Isabella et al study

Question 10

what did Isabella et al study?

Answer 10

observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed degree of synchrony

also assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment

Question 11

what did Isabella et al find and what does this suggest?

Answer 11

high levels of synchrony are associated with high quality attachments

which suggests that these interactions are important for development of quality attachments

Question 12

what experiment did Tronick carry out?

Answer 12

still face experiment

Question 13

describe Tronick’s still face experiment?

Answer 13

parent and child are interacting and responding to each other, then parent stops responding and goes ‘still face’

the child then becomes distressed and tries to get the parent to respond

Question 14

how does Tronick’s findings support the importance of caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 14

the interactions must be important in forming attachments and therefore the child’s emotional development because the child becomes so distressed when the interactions aren’t there

Question 15

What is a general strength of research into caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 15

generally controlled observations that capture fine details e.g. Meltoff and Moore

Question 16

what is a main limitation of research into caregiver-infant interactions?

Answer 16

observations don’t tell us the meaning behind the interactions e.g. are they important for attachment/development? are infants actions conscious or deliberate?

Question 17

what are the 4 stages of Schaffer’s stages of attachment?

Answer 17

1. asocial stage (first 2 weeks)
2. indiscriminate attachment stage (2-7 months)
3. specific attachment stage (around 7 months)
4. multiple attachment stage (7 months onwards)

Question 18

what happens in the asocial stage of attachment?

Answer 18

babies are interested in discovering the world around them

have similar response to objects and humans

accept comfort from any adult

Question 19

what happens in the indiscriminate stage of attachment?

Answer 19

show preference for people over objects

recognise and prefer familiar adults

usually accept comfort from any adult

Question 20

what happens during the specific attachment stage?

Answer 20

start to show anxiety towards strangers and separation anxiety from one particular adult (mother in 65% of cases) called the PRIMARY ATTACHMENT FIGURE

Question 21

who is usually the primary attachment figure and why?

Answer 21

65% mother

it isn’t the person the baby spends the most time with, but the person who best responds to their emotional needs

Question 22

what happens during the multiple attachments stage?

Answer 22

children become attached to other people who they have regular contact with- called SECONDARY ATTACHMENTS

these aren’t as important to the child as primary attachments

Question 23

who is a key researcher who can be used to support stages of attachment? what did they do?

Answer 23

Schaffer and Emerson’s Glasgow baby study

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

Question 24

what were the findings or Schaffer and Emerson’s Glasgow baby study?

Answer 24

65% attached to mother only
30% mother and another (usually father)
3% father only

they found responsiveness to emotional needs, play and social interaction mattered most in attachment formation

the primary attachment wasn’t necessarily the person who fed, changed, washed or spent most time with child

Question 25

how can Schaffer and Emerson's Glasgow baby study be used to support stages of attachment?

Answer 25

supports stage 3 as most children had a primary attachment at 6 months (specific attachment)

Question 26

BUT not all children had one primary attachment, some went straight to multiple attachments, what problems does this raise about Schaffer's stages?

Answer 26

does primary attachment formed during stage 3 necessarily come before secondary attachments at stage 4, or can some children go straight to having multiple attachments

Question 27

what is a limitation of research into Schaffer's stages of development?

Answer 27

difficult to measure the asocial stage- babies under 2 weeks have poor co-ordination and are often pretty much immobile so there isn't much observable behaviour so we can't rely on evidence during this stage

Question 28

what are some strengths of research into Schaffer's stages of development? counter these?

Answer 28

high external validity as the observation was naturalistic (carried out in children's own homes) HOWEVER findings might not be that generalisable since the study was using a small sample of 60 babies and all were brought up in the same city 50 years ago, might lack temporal validity longitudinal study meant higher validity- same children were followed and studied regularly.... so we can be sure findings aren't a one off, also less participant variables

Question 29

what is the problem with measuring multiple attachments for Schaffer's stages?

Answer 29

just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean the individual is a 'true' attachment figure Bowlby pointed out children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may become distressed when these leave but that doesn't actually mean they're attached Schaffer and Emerson's study cannot distinguish between observations when a secondary attachment figure leaves the room and when a 'playmate' leaves

Question 30

in basic terms, what is the role of the father?

Answer 30

research shows fathers have an important role in play and stimulation and less so in nurturing (meeting emotional needs) when father's take on the caregiving role, they adopt behaviour more typical of mothers

Question 31

how can evidence from Schaffer and Emerson's study be used to support role of the father?

Answer 31

found majority of infants attached to mother first around 7 months but shortly after, they would form secondary attachments to other family members including the father. 75% of the children had formed attachments to father by 18 months

Question 32

what does Shaffer and Emerson's study tell us about importance of father's in attachment?

Answer 32

1. perhaps father's role is less important than mothers 2. children do form attachments with the father so the father is important in child development

Question 33

what did Field do that supports the role of the father? what did they found?

Answer 33

filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with mother and father found that if father was the primary caregiver, they spend just as much time smiling, imitating and holding the infants as the mother does

Question 34

what does Field's study tell us about the importance of the father in attachment?

Answer 34

1. if the father takes on primary caregiver role, they are just as capable of meeting the child's emotional needs as mother. 2. it isn't about gender, it is about how responsive the parent is to the child's needs

Question 35

what did Grossman do that supports role of the father?

Answer 35

found that the quality of a fathers play with infants was correlated to the quality of child's attachment in adolescence.

Question 36

what does Grossman's research tell us about the importance of the father in attachment?

Answer 36

father plays important role but not through meeting emotional needs, play and social interaction instead could help explain why fathers are often the secondary attachment figure also still shows importance of father for quality attachment in later life

Question 37

what did MacCallum and Golombok find?

Answer 37

children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families tells us attachment is less to do with gender and more to do with quality of interactions and responding to child's emotional needs

Question 38

why don't father's generally become the primary attachment?

Answer 38

societal expectations of the father going to work and the mother caring for child- it is less down to ability.

Question 39

why is it difficult to draw conclusions from research into the role of the father?

Answer 39

research focuses on different things so hard to make comparisons

Question 40

why is research into the role of the father and caregiver interactions socially sensitive?

Answer 40

it suggests fathers aren't usually the primary caregiver so that might imply mothers have a role of staying at home to look after the children so reinforces societal expectations and restricts women in careers.