PAPER 1- TOPIC 3 ATTACHMENT ✅ Flashcards
Define attachment
a close two way emotional bond, where both individuals see the other as important for them to be emotionally secure
Define imprinting
where mobile bird species attach to and follow the first moving object they see, at birth
Lorenz’s imprinting study
- randomly divided large clutch of goose eggs
- half of goose eggs to hatch with with mother goose (control group)
- half to hatch in incubator and the first moving object they see is Lorenz (experimental group)
findings of Lorenz’s imprinting study
- control group followed mother goose
- experimental group followed Lorenz
- continued to both follow the same moving object when groups were mixed
define critical period in relation to Lorenz’s study
Lorenz found there was a period of time where imprinting needs to take place, otherwise chicks won’t attach themselves to a mother figure
- could be up to a few hours after hatching depending on species of bird
describe Lorenz’s sexual imprinting study and findings
found that when a newborn peacock, reared in reptile house at zoo, first observed a giant tortoise, as an adult the peacock aimed its courtings at tortoises
-found this whatever object birds were imprinted to would be the subject of their courtship (observed this occurred even from birds onto humans)
describe Harlow’s study on attachment
testing idea mother wasn’t based on feeding, and that soft objects can serve some of the fucntions of a mother
reared 16 monkeys with 2 wire mothers (a plain wire mother and a cloth covered wire mother)
- in one condition, the plain wire mother dispensed the milk
- in the other condition, the cloth covered mother dispensed the milk
Findings of Harlow’s study on attachment
- found all 16 monkeys spent most time with cloth mother, regardless of which mother had the feeding bottle
- all monkeys sought comfort from cloth mother regardless of where the bottle was, when scared by a mechanical bear
- shows that contact comfort is more important to rhesus monkeys than food, in attachment
Harlow’s follow up research study on these monkey as adults
These monkeys had maternal deprivation
•the group who had the wire mother with the feeding bottle were the most dysfunctional, but those with the cloth mother did also develop abnormal behaviour
• struggled forming mating relationships, more aggressive, less social, neglected, attacked and some killed their children
Suggested critical period for monkeys based on Harlow
90 days otherwise monkey will form no attachment
- damage done by early maternal deprivation is irreversible
Strength and weakness of Lorenz study
•research support
- Regolin et al showed newborn chicks moving shape and then a different shape was moved infront of it
- chicks followed the original shape most closely
•generalisability
- mammalian attachment system is more complex than birds (in mammals it is two way)
Strength and weakness of Harlow’s study
•application
- social workers and psychologists can understand that a lack of bonding with attachment figure can alter a child’s development
- workers can intervene and prevent poor outcomes
•ethical issues
- monkeys had severe long term effects
- lasted into their own parenting (killed and attacked their own babies)
- humans are supposed to have similar genes to monkeys however these behaviours are not seen in humans
Describe Mary Ainsworth’s strange situation
controlled observation (2 way mirror) designed to test attachment • 7 stages, each 3 minutes long
- baby with mother, free to explore in unfamiliar playroom
- stranger enters and tries to interact with baby
- mother leaves, baby alone with stranger
- mother returns to comfort baby while stranger leaves
- mother leaves, baby is alone
- stranger enters and approaches child
- mother returns, reunited with baby
Behaviours used to judge attachment
- proximity seeking - distance to which baby will stay to mother (close in securely attached)
- exploration and secure base - level to which baby feels comfortable exploring and using mother as point of contact to return to
- separation anxiety - secure protests
- stranger anxiety - high in secure
- reunion response - secure greets
Findings of Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
identified three main types of attachment based on distinct patterns
• secure : moderate stranger and separation anxiety
- freely explore and often return to mother
- greet mother upon reunion
• insecure avoidant : little effect of separation and reunion
- little stranger anxiety
- freely explore but no secure base behaviour or proximity
- 𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 or make little effort to contact mother upon reunion
• insecure resistant : high separation and stranger anxiety
- seek great proximity and don’t explore
- 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁 comfort and stays distressed when reunited
- greater proximity seeking (no exploration)
% of babies that were insecure avoidant (type … )
20-25%
Type A
(A)voidant type (A)
% of babies that were securely attached (type …)
60-75%
Type B
BS BULLSHIT
type B Secure
% of babies that were insecure resistant (type….)
3%
Type C
Describe Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg study
what were they trying to study and the procedure
Studied the proportion of each attachment type 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 and 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 different cultures
-meta analysed 32 Strange Situations for assessing attachment of around 2,000 children
define a meta analysis
combination of research and findings from several studies on the same topic
- findings are weighted for its sample size
define cultural variation
the differences in norms and values that exist between people of different cultural groups
Findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta analysis
•most common attachment type was secure, like Ainsworth
—> although varied (Britain 75% , China 50%)
- least common attachment type was insecure resistant, like Ainsworth
- individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant was same as Ainsworth’s study but not collectivist cultures (China, Japan, Israel) where rates were above 25% (3% in Ainsworth)
- insecure avoidant was most common in Germany
- variation within cultures was 150% greater than variation between cultures
Describe 2 other studies of Cultural Variation
Italian study - 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶
- used strange situation
- found 50% secure, 36% insecure avoidant (much higher)
- suggested due to increase in Italian mothers working long hours, so more use professional childcare
- –> cultural changes alter patterns in attachment type
Korean study - 𝗟𝗶𝗻
used strange situation
- found secure and insecure ratios were similar to most countries
- but most insecure, were insecure resistant (like Japan) due to rare separation in these cultures (similar child rearing style)
conclusions that can be drawn from studies on cultural variations in attachment
- secure attachment is norm in wider range of culture - supports Bowlby idea that attachment is innate and universal
- although culture practices do influence attachment type…..
—> (similar child rearing in Japan and Korea led to increased resistant than in Ainsworth SS)
—> (cultural trend in Italy of more working mothers led to increased avoidant)
…… variation within cultures is 150% greater than inbetween cultures
define maternal deprivation
Bowlby
- if baby is separated from primary caregiver for a prolonged period of time, without substitute care, there will be emotional and intellectual developmental consequences
- suggested continual care is essential for normal emotional and intellectual development
Describe how attachment forms through classical conditioning
- unconditioned stimulus (the food) creates an unconditioned repsonse (pleasure) is associated with the neutral stimulus (the mother- originally produces no response) as she keeps providing food, therefore causing a conditioned response of pleasure when the baby sees the now conditioned stimulus of the mother (as she is associated with the food)
- the mother then becomes an attachment figure, as conditioned response formed is love and attachment forms
