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Question 1

What is an attachment?

Answer 1

Attachment can be defined as an emotional relationship between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure.

Question 2

What is caregiver-infant attachment?

Answer 2

The emotional bond between a young child and a nurturing figure who elicits back a response to their interactions.

Question 3

What are the three behaviours used to recognise attachment?

Answer 3

1. Proximity,
2. Separation distress,
3. Secure-base behaviour.

Question 4

proximity

Answer 4

infant trying to stay physically close to their caregiver

Question 5

separation distress

Answer 5

Signs of anxiety if their caregiver is not in their presence

Question 6

Secure base behaviour

Answer 6

Even when infants are separate from their caregiver, infants tend to make regular contact with them

Question 7

Features of caregiver-infant interaction?

Answer 7

1. Sensitive responsiveness,
2. Imitation,
3. Interactional synchrony,
4. Reciprocity/turn taking,
5. Motherese.

Question 8

What is sensitive responsiveness?

Answer 8

The caregiver responds appropriately to signals from the infant.

Question 9

What is imitation?

Answer 9

The infant copies the caregiver’s actions and behaviour.

Question 10

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 10

Infants react in time with the caregiver’s speech, resulting in a ‘conversation dance’.

Question 11

What is reciprocity?

Answer 11

Interaction flows back and forth between the caregiver and infant.

Question 12

What is motherese?

Answer 12

The slow, high-pitched way of speaking to infants. However, there is no evidence that this influences the strength of an attachment between parent and infant.

Question 13

What are Schaffer’s stages in attachment formation?

Answer 13

1. Pre-attachment or asocial phase,
2. Indiscriminate or diffuse attachment phase,
3. The discriminate or single attachment phase,
4. The multiple attachment phase.

Question 14

What is the pre-attachment phase?

Answer 14

1. During first 0-3 months of life,
2. The baby learns to separate people from objects but doesn’t have any strong preference about who cares for it.

Question 15

What is the indiscriminate attachment phase?

Answer 15

1. Between 6 weeks and seven months,
2. Infant starts to clearly distinguish and recognise different people, smiling more at people it knows than at strangers. However, there are still no strong preferences about who cares for it.

Question 16

What is the discriminate attachment phase?

Answer 16

1. From seven to eleven months,
2. The infant becomes able to form a strong attachment with an individual,
3. Shown by being content when that person is around, distreessed when they leave and happy when they return. It may be scared of strangers and avoid them.

Question 17

What is the multiple attachment phase?

Answer 17

1. From about nine months,
2. Infant can form attachments to many different people,
3. Some attachments may be stronger than others and have different functions, e.g. for play or comfort,
4. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of attachments it can make,
5. Although Schaffer found that after 18 months, approximately 32% of babies had at least five attachments, the orignal attachment is still the strongest.

Question 18

Schaffer and Emerson (1964), method?

Answer 18

1. 60 babies observed in their homes in Glasgow every four weeks from birth to about 18 months old,
2. Interviews were also conducted with their families.

Question 19

Schaffer and Emerson (1964), results?

Answer 19

1. Schaffer’s stages of attachment formation were found to occur,
2. At 8 months of age about 50 of the infants had more than one attachment. About 20 of them either had no attachment with their mother or had a stronger attachment with someone else, even though the mother was always the main carer.

Question 20

Schaffer and Emerson (1964), conclusion?

Answer 20

1. Infants form attachments in stages and can eventually attach to many people,
2. Quality of care is important in forming attachments, so the infant may not attach to their mother if other people respond more accurately to its signals.

Question 21

Schaffer and Emerson (1964), evaluation?

Answer 21

1. Now a lot of evidence to support their results and their stages of attachment formation,
2. Are some criticisms of the study, e.g. limited sample, evidence from interviews and observations may be biased and unreliable,
3. Some cross-cultural differences that should be considered. Tronick et al. (1992) found that infants in Zaire had a strong attachment with their mother by six months of age but didn’t have strong attachments with others, even though they had several carers.

Question 22

What did Schaffer and Emerson find in relation to who the infants attached to?

Answer 22

1. Mother was primary attachment for only half the infants,
2. A third of the infants preferred their father,
3. the rest had their strongest attachment with their grandfather or siblings.

Question 23

Goodsell and Meldrum (2009), method and results?

Answer 23

1. Conducted large study into the relationship between infants and their fathers,
2. Found that those with a secure attachment to their mother are also more likely to have a secure attachment to their father.

Question 24

Ross et al. (1975), findings?

Answer 24

Showed that the number of nappies a father changed was positively correlated to the strength of their attachment.

Question 25

Caldera (2004), findings?

Answer 25

Investigated 60 fathers and mothers and their 14-month-old infants, Caldera found that when the father was involved in care-giving activities, they were much more likely to develop a strong attachment with their child.

Question 26

Geiger (1996), findings?

Answer 26

1. Suggested that a mother's relationship is primarily nurturing and caring, 2. A father's relationship is more focused around play.