studies of attachment Flashcards
(13 cards)
what was lorenz procedure in animal studies of attachment
-randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs, half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose and the other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was lorenz
what did lorenz find
- the incubator group followed lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed the mother goose, even when the two groups where mixed up.
- this is known as imprinting.- mobile bird species attach to the first moving thing they see
- he identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to occur or the chicks will not attach themselves to a mother figure.
explain sexual imprinting
Lorenz investigates the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preference.
- found that ,peaocok who hatched and the first moving object they saw was a tortoise they later would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tourise.
- they had gone through sexual imprinting.
evaluation of Lorenz’s imprinting
-cant really generalise to humans as attachment system is different as the mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to their infants.
imprinting now is described as “plastic and forgiving mechanism” as you can reverse imprinting. imprinting isn’t so different from any other kind of learning, sd learning can take place raiding with little conscious effort.
what did Harlow investigate.
observed how new born monkeys kept alone is a bare cage usually died but survived if given a soft like cloth to cuddle
explain harlows findings
found that baby monkeys sought comfort when scared regardless of which one dispensed milk.
- shows how comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.
maternal deprivation had a permanent effect, found monkeys with wire mothers were more dysfunctional, however the soft toy either didn’t develop normal social behaviour either. they were aggressive and less social than other monkeys, breed less, mother monkeys reacted their young and sometimes even killed them.
critical period for normal development, Harlow concluded that a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to f
evaluation for hallows research
- showed how attachment does not occur due to being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort
- showed the importance of attachment for later social development.
- helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and can intervene to prevent it.
- understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos.
ethical issues: suffering monkeys endured, monkeys simulacra enough to humans to be able to generalise findings to so their suffering was human like.
learning theory
Neal miller proposed how care-giver attachment can be explained by learning theory. they proposed that children learn to love anyone who feeds them
explain the learning theory
classical conditioning: food is the unconditioned stimulus( gives us pleasure and we don’t have to learn it so its the unconditioned response)
- caregiver is the neutral stimulus and when the same person provides the food constantly they become associated with the food.
- so now when the baby see the caregiver there is an immediate expectation of food so they now become contitoned stimulus.
- caregiver creates a conditioned response of pleasure.
operate condition:learning to repeat behaviour or not based on consequences.
-if behaviour has pleasnt consequences behaviour is reinforced, negative consquences it won’t be repeated.
evaluation on the learning theory.
- lorenzes geese imprinted before he had fed them and hallows monkey did not attach to the wired mother who had fed them. these studies show attachment doesnt develop a s a result of feeding.
- shaffer and Emerson found babies more likely to attach to their mothers even though other cares did the feeding, highlight how feeding is not a key element to attachment therefore no unconditioned stimulus involved.
- LT ignores other factors involved with forming attachment like developing reciprocity and good Levels of interactional synchrony.
What is bowlbys theory of attachment
reject LT as an explanation for attachment
-looked into the work of Lorenz and Harlow for ideas and proposed an evolutionary explanations. That attachment an imprinting are an innate system that helps survival. They evolved as it ensures that young animals stay with their caregiver and this protects them from hazards.
explain bowlbys theory.
-described as monotropic as he placed great importance of Childs attachment to one caregiver.
-believed the more time spent with primary caregiver the better
two main principles : law of continuity,mote constant and predictable a Childs care the better their quality of attraction.
the law of accumulated separation, the effects of every separation from the mother add up and the safest dose is zero
social
bowl by suggests babies are born with set of innate cute behaviours, smiling cooing etc that encourage attention from the adults. called these social releases as their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system. e.g make them feel love toward baby.
-states that attachment was a reciprocal process and therefore baby + mom have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releaser trigger that response in caregivers.
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-critical period around 2, maximally sensitive and if no attachment is formed = much harder to form one later.
internal working model: a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, this is known as the internal working model.
- serves as a model for what relationships are like, therefore has large effect on nature of Childs future relationships.
- internal working model affects Childs later ability to be a parent, as people base their parenting behaviour on their own experiences of being parented.
- explains why children from functional families tend to have similar families themselves
evaluation of bowlbys theory
mixed evidence for monotropy as he believed a baby formed one attachment to their primary caregiver and this is a special attachment compared to their later attachments.
-only after could they form later attachments.
-not supported by Schaffer and Emerson as they found most babies attach to one adult first and majority unable to form multiple attachments ay the same Time.
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