Studies Flashcards
Lorenz (1952) Study + Findings
Observed imprinting with goose eggs. Half eggs hatched with mother in natural environment and half in an incubator where first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
He found that the control group hatched in the presence of the mother followed her whereas the experimental group hatched in the incubator followed Lorenz. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place.
Lorenz (1952) - Evaluation
Strength - research support for existence of imprinting. Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) supports Lorenz’s idea of imprinting. Chicks exposed to simple shape combinations eg triangle with rectangle in front. Range of shape combinations then moved in front of them and they followed the original shape. Supports view that young animals are born with innate mechanism to imprint.
Weakness - generalisability to humans. One limitation of Lorenz’s is the inability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans. The mammalian attachment system is more complex than that of a bird. Mammalian attachment is a two way process and so the process to form attachments in inherently different
Harlow (1958) Study + Findings
Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. He reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’. In one condition milk was dispensed by plain wire mother whereas in the other condition milk was dispensed by cloth covered mother.
He found that the babies preferred to hug the cloth covered mother and sought comfort from the cloth covered mother when frightened regardless of which one dispensed milk. Shows that contact comfort was of more important to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
Harlow (1958) - Evaluation
Strength - real world value. His research helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (Howe 1998). Also benefits zoos and breeding programmes in the wild. Practical value.
Weakness - generalisability to humans. Although Rhesus monkeys are a lot more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, human brains and behaviour is still far more complex than that of monkeys. Therefore may not be appropriate to generalise.
Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’ (1970) Study + Procedure
Controlled observation procedure designed to measure security of attachment. Takes place in a room with controlled conditions with a two-way mirror or security cameras for observation. The behaviours used to judge attachment included:
- Proximity-seeking
- Exploration and secure base behaviour
- Stranger anxiety
- Separation anxiety
- Reunion response
The procedure has 7 episodes, each lasting 3 minutes:
1. The baby is encouraged to explore
2. A stranger comes in, talks to the caregiver and approaches the baby
3. The caregiver leaves the baby and stranger together
4. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves
5. The caregiver leaves the baby alone
6. The stranger returns
7. The caregiver returns and is reunited with the baby
Each episode tests for a different behaviour (Illuminate)
Ainsworth et al. ‘Strange Situation’ (1978) - Findings
Found there were distinct patterns in the way babies behaved and identified 3 main attachment types: Secure attachment (Type B) - these babies explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver. Show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety. Require and accept comfort from caregiver in the reunion stage. About 60-75% of British babies are classed as secure. Insecure-avoidant attachment (Type A) - these babies explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. Show little to no reaction when their caregiver leaves and little stranger anxiety. Make little effort to make contact when caregiver returns and may avoid such contact. About 20-25% of British babies are classed as insecure-avoidant. Insecure-resistant attachment (Type C) - these babies seek greater proximity than others and explore less. Show high levels of separation distress and stranger anxiety but resist comfort when reunited with caregiver. About 3% of British babies are classified as insecure-resistant.
Ainsworth et al. ‘Strange Situation’ (1978) - Evaluation
Strength - predictive validity. The outcome of the study predicts a number of aspects of a baby’s later development. Large body of research showed that babies and toddlers assessed as secure (Type B) tend to have better outcomes than others both in later childhood and adulthood. Includes better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying (McCormick et al. 2016, Kokkinos 2007). Securely attached babies also tend to have better mental health in adulthood (Ward et al. 2006). Insecure-resistant babies and those who don’t fall into Type A,B or C tend to have the worst outcomes. Suggests Strange Situation measures something meaningful.
Weakness - cultural relativity. Strange Situation may not be a valid form of measuring attachment in different cultures. It was developed in Britain and the US and so may only be relevant in Europe and the US. Babies have different experiences in different cultures so their experiences affect their response to the Strange Situation. In a Japanese study by Keiko Takahashi (1986) babies displayed a high level of separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. Disproportionate number were classed as insecure-resistant. He suggests this response was not due to high levels of attachment insecurity but the experience in Japan where mother-baby separation is very rare. Means it is difficult to know what Strange Situation is measuring when used in other cultures.
Strength - good reliability. The study has good inter-rater reliability. Bick et al. (2012) tested inter-rater reliability with observers and found agreement on attachment type in 94% of cases. High level of reliability may be because the procedure takes place under very controlled conditions and the behaviours are easy to observe. Therefore can be confident that Strange Situation does not depend on subjective judgements.
van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) Study + Procedure
Conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation. Also looked at differences within the same country to see variations within one culture.
They located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation had been used to investigate proportions of babies with different attachment types. These were conducted in 8 countries, 15 were in US. Overall studies yielded 1990 children. Data from these 32 studies was meta-analysed.
van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) Findings
There was wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies. In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification. However proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China. In individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth’s original sample (all under 14%) however this wasn’t true for collectivist samples from China, Japan and Israel where rates were above 25% (and rates of insecure-avoidant were reduced).
van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) - Evaluation
Strength - indigenous researchers. A strengths of the research is that it was conducted by indigenous researchers. This means psychologists are from the same cultural background as the participants. IJ & Kr included studies by a German research team (Grossman et al. 1981) and Takahashi (1986) who is Japanese. This kind of research means that many potential problems in cross cultural research can be prevented such as researchers misunderstandings of the language used by participants or having difficulty communicating instructions to them. Difficulties can also include bias because of one nations stereotypes compared to another. Excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully. +validity
Weakness - confounding variables. A limitation of cross cultural research including meta-analyses of patterns of attachment is the impact of confounding variables on findings. Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews or meta-analyses. Sample characteristics such as poverty, social class and urban/rural make up can confound results as can age of participants studied in different countries. Environmental variables might also differ between studies and confound results. For example size of room/ if there are interesting toys in there. Babies might appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms with attractive toys compared to large, bare rooms. Less visible proximity-seeking because of room size might make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant. This means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us everything about cross cultural patterns of attachment
Weakness - imposed etic. A further limitation of cross cultural research is in trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context. Cross-cultural psychology includes the ideas of emic (cultural uniqueness) and etic (cross-cultural universality). Imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another. An example of this in attachment research is in the use of babies’ response to reunion with the caregiver in Strange Situation. In Britain and the US, lack of affection on reunion may indicate an avoidant attachment. But in Germany such behaviour would more likely be interpreted as independence rather than insecurity, so part of the strange situation wouldn’t work in Germany. Means that the behaviours measured by the strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts, and comparing them across cultures is meaningless.
Bowlby - Maternal Deprivation theory
His theory focused on the idea that the continual presence of care from a mother or mother-substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies and toddlers both emotionally and intellectually. Bowlby (1953) famously said that ‘mother-love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health’. Being separated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences (maternal deprivation)
Seperation vs. Deprivation
Seperation = child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure, this only becomes a problem if child becomes deprived of emotional care (which can happen if mother is present and depressed for example). Seperations where child is with a substitute caregiver who can provide emotional care are not significant for emotional development. Extended separations can lead to deprivation.
Critical Period
First two and a half years of life is a critical period for psychological development. If child is separated from mother in absence of suitable substitute care for extended duration in critical period then Bowlby believed psychological damage was inevitable.
Maternal deprivation - effects on development
Intellectual development - child can experience delayed intellectual development characterised by an abnormally low IQ. This has been demonstrated in studies of adoption. Goldfarb (1947) found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and so had higher standard of substitute care.
Emotional development - Bowlby identified affection less psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others. This prevents a person developing fulfilling relationships and is associated with criminality. They can’t appreciate feelings of victims and so lack remorse.
Romanian Orphan Studies
An opportunity arose in Romania in the 1990s for study on effects of deprivation on emotional and intellectual development. Orphanages had very poor conditions due to amount of parents who couldn’t afford to keep the children.
