topic 3 - attachment Flashcards
(58 cards)
1
Q
what is an attachment?
A
a strong, enduring, emotional and reciprocal bond between 2 people
2
Q
what is an infants 1st attachment?
A
primary caregiver
3
Q
what is the still face paradigm study?
A
- caregiver and baby
- caregiver stares blankly at baby with still face for 2 minutes
- baby tried hard to reengage the caregiver by waving their hands and screeching
4
Q
what is reciprocity?
A
- a 2 way mutual process, response to a gesture, action or signal, interaction is sustained and flows both ways
- eg: caregiver smiles at baby and baby smiles back
5
Q
what is interactional synchrony?
A
- the same action, communication or emotion simultaneously, with rhythmic timing and pattern - mirroring each others behaviour
- eg: an infant moving their head in time with their caregiver
6
Q
describe Meltzoff and Moore (1977) study into reciprocity and IS?
A
- covert, non-participant, non-controlled
- sample age of 18 infants, max age of 3 weeks
- caregiver performed facial behaviour eg: tongue sticking out, and see if baby responds and how
- findings show similarity scores of no less than 92/100 between caregiver and infant
7
Q
what are the 4 stages of attachment?
A
asocial, indiscriminate, discriminate, multiple
8
Q
describe asocial stage of attachment?
A
- 0 to 6 weeks
- behaviour between humans and non humans is very similar
- smile at anyone
- prefer faces to non faces
9
Q
describe indiscriminate stage of attachment?
A
- 6 weeks to 6 months
- smile more at familiar than unfamiliar faces
- accept comfort from any adult
- preference for people over objects
10
Q
describe discriminate stage of attachment?
A
- 7 to 10 months
- primary attachment to one particular individual
- shows stranger anxiety and avoids contact with unfamiliar people
11
Q
describe multiple stage of attachment?
A
- 10 months onwards
- forms secondary attachments with familiar adults who they spend time with
12
Q
what is the learning theory of attachment?
A
- states that food is cause of attachment bond and so love is learnt
- applies classical conditioning to explain initial acquisition of attachment bond
- applies operant conditioning through drive reduction theory showing maintenance of the attachment bond
13
Q
strengths of learning theory of attachment?
A
- practical applications, eg: new caregivers could share feeding responsibilities to encourage attachment to both caregivers
- well established theory of conditioning with multiple research studies and applies to lots oh human behaviour so logical + scientific
14
Q
weaknesses of learning theory of attachment?
A
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) shows 39% of infants attached first to someone who did not feed them, multiple reasons for attachment - saying food is only cause is too simplistic and inaccurate
- low ecological relevance as abused children still show attachments to their abusive caregivers despite potential lack of food
15
Q
describe overview of Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study into attachment?
A
- naturalistic, participant, covert
- low temporal validity due to gender roles as only investigated mother-infant pairs
- 60 infant-mother pairs aged between 5 - 23 weeks from working class Glasgow families
- low ecological validity but relatively decent sample size
16
Q
describe procedure of Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study?
A
- pairs tested every 4 weeks for a year then again at 18 months
- mother asked to observe infants response to everyday separation events such as being left alone in a room or in a cot at night
- asked to rate intensity out of 4 and record in dairy
- at every monthly visit researcher approached infant to measure level of stranger anxiety
17
Q
describe findings of Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study?
A
- 50% of infants developed first attachment between 6-8 months old
- 39% of cases the infant had primary attachment to someone who didn’t feed and bathe them
- 29% of infants had multiple attachments within one month of primary attachment - rose to 78% after 6 months
18
Q
describe conclusions of Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study?
A
- first attachment is formed at around 7 months on average
- food not main cause of attachment but emotion more important
- multiple attachments are more normal than one
19
Q
describe the Isabella et al (1989) study into caregiver-infant interactions?
A
- 30 mother infant pairs
- observed interactions at 1,3 and 9 months old
- assessed their level of synchrony + quality of attachment
- positive correlation found between these two
20
Q
strengths of research into caregiver-infant interactions?
A
- controlled observations in lab controlling for extraneous variables Eg: TV at home, people knocking on door
- practical applications, educating parents especially new ones on importance of interaction
- multiple case studies so meta analysis can be conducted
21
Q
weaknesses of research into caregiver-infant interactions?
A
- unethical as infants can’t consent and they go through short lived distress in still face paradigm BUT at home there will also be periods where caregiver can’t focus on them
- small sample size so ungeneralisable
- social desirability bias may incur, reducing accuracy as is not representative
- babies can’t talk so we are only inferring that they’re giving a response, reducing accuracy
22
Q
how might researchers address difficulties encountered when investigating caregiver-infant interactions?
A
- do observation in caregivers own home rather than lab
- conduct blind experiment so caregiver unaware of true aim
23
Q
describe procedure of Harlow (1959)?
A
- 8 baby rhesus monkeys studied for 165 days
- 2 surrogate wire mother monkeys, one with soft cloth on
- monkeys immediately separated from mother at birth and put in cage with surrogate mother - 4 in cage where wire mother had milk bottle and 4 vice versa
- measured amount of time monkey spent with each surrogate mother
24
Q
describe findings of Harlow (1959)?
A
- all 8 monkeys spent most time with cloth covered monkey, with some stretching over to wire monkey to feed whilst still clinging to cloth covered
- when heard loud noise all 8 monkeys clung to cloth covered monkey
- having surrogate mother had long term negative consequences on development - they were aggressive + had poor social skills, neglected their children sometimes hurting them and themselves
25
strength of Harlow (1959) study?
- practical real world applications, for parents, caregivers and childcare workers as now know reciprocation and interaction is vital for development, can engage in classes NEVERTHELESS interaction alone is insufficient, contact comfort is vital as learnt in this study
26
weaknesses of Harlow (1959) study?
- findings may not generalise to human behaviour, many differences Eg: usually multiple caregivers for humans + humans make greater conscious decisions; BUT S + E (1964) did find that 39% infants attached to someone who didn't feed them similarly to Harlow's key findings PLUS monkeys are mammalian species so overall could conclude we behave similarly attachment wise
- unethical as monkeys bred specifically for this + put through multiple traumatic events, cost benefit analysis doesn't weigh up
27
what is imprinting?
- innate readiness to form attachment to caregiver by following first moving object seen after birth
- irreversible + must occur during critical period (12 - 17 hours)
28
describe method of Lorenz study?
- divide cluster of goose eggs
- half eggs hatched with mother goose in natural environment
- half eggs hatched in incubator where first mother seen was Lorenz
- behaviour observed, particularly around attachment
29
describe findings of Lorenz study?
- incubator group followed Lorenz whilst mother goose group followed mother goose
- when groups were mixed they continued to follow original "mother" still even if this was Lorenz
30
strength of Lorenz study?
highly influential in filed of developmental psych:
- eg: his idea that imprinting is irreversible suggests attachment formation is under biological control
- led to well recognised theories by other psychologists like Bowlby's monotropic theory
- these theories have practical applications today eg: childcare
31
weaknesses of Lorenz study?
- findings ungeneralizable to humans as mammalian attachment different to birds eg: mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young
- conclusions have been questioned: Lorenz said imprinting has permanent effect on mating behaviour BUT Guiton et al (1966) found chickens imprinted onto rubber gloves a chicks, would as adults try to mate with them as Lorenz would've predicted BUT those chickens actually then learnt to mate with other chickens proving imprinting isn't irreversible as Lorenz said
32
compare traditional and modern fathers role?
T = financial provider for family, disciplinarian where necessary, paid for nanny
M = equally as involved a s mother, attitudes shifted since post-war Britain
33
what are the new legislations to do with role of the father?
- females do not automatically gain custody of their children in a divorce settlement
- since 2015, shared mat/paternity leave for 12 months
34
describe Lamb (1987) study into roles of the father?
- evidence that infants prefer interacting with fathers when in positive emotional state but mothers preferred when in distress
- shows that mother and father DO have different roles
- reliable consistent findings
35
describe Field (1978) study into role of father via primary/secondary caregiver role?
- filmed 4-month-old infants in face-to-face interaction with PC mothers, PC fathers, and SC fathers
- PC fathers found to spend more time smiling, imitating and holding infant than SC fathers
- shows P/SC difference is far more important than mother/father - investigating wrong thing
- shows if fathers given opportunity as PC, equally as important as mothers
- high population validity
36
describe McCallum and Golombok (2004) study into roles of father in single/homo/heterosexual couples?
- found infants in same-sex and single parent families don't develop any differently than infants in 2-parent heterosexual families
- shows mother isn't required and fathers role equal importance
- more temporal validity as modern day families are often like this rather than traditional + reassuring to same sex parents
37
what does Bowlby's monotropic theory state?
- attachment is innate system giving survival advantage (evolutionary) - rejecting learning theory
- children form IWM as model for relationships - personal + affects child's ability to parent later on
- primary attachment figure is most important
- infants have critical period of 2 to 2 1/2 years - if attachment not formed in this time it will be very difficult to in future
- babies born with innate cute behaviours called social releasers - to activate adult attachment system
38
strengths of Bolwby's monotropic theory?
- Bailey et al (2007) assessed 99 mothers w 1yo’s on quality of attachment to their own parents + to their infant. Found mothers with poor parental attachment had children they were poorly attached to. High population validity. But correlation doesn’t equal causation.
- Lorenz study provides evidence for innate attachment behaviour as geese imprinted + evidence for critical period BUT geese don’t generalise to human behaviour
39
weaknesses of Bowlby’s monotropic theory?
- too deterministic, claiming the insecure attachment infants will never succeed in forming relationships - creating self fulfilling prophecy
- fails to consider importance of multiple attachments - Schaffer + Emerson found 2 attachments at same time equally as important/useful as 1
40
describe procedure of Ainsworth (1971) “strange situation” study?
- 106 middle class infants observed
- 8 episodes of 3 minutes each assessing different behaviours eg: stranger entering and talking to caregiver assesses stranger anxiety
- data collected with one way mirror and camera
- infants behaviour split into 5 behavioural categories eg: proximity and contact seeking behaviour, and ranked from 1 - 7 in intensity
41
what were the findings of Ainsworth (1971) “strange situation” study?
that there are 3 types of attachment: insecure avoidant, insecure resistant, and secure,
42
describe insecure avoidant attachment?
- little/no reaction to caregiver leaving and little/no reaction to stranger appearing
- no effort to seek caregiver upon reunion
- 60 - 75% of British children
43
describe insecure resistant attachment?
- show proximity greater than others and so explore less
- show a lot of separation and stranger anxiety
- 3% of British children
44
strengths of Ainsworth (1971) study?
- high ecological validity with setup as playroom and 8 everyday scenarios + separation can happen at any time and even though it caused distress it was only short lived
- replicable experiment as standardised method plus video evidence of original + highly controlled so no extraneous variables + covert from infants perspective so they can't change their behaviour
45
weaknesses of Ainsworth (1971) study?
- too simplistic as Ainsworth disregarded other attachment types - Main and Solomon (1986) found a fourth attachment type - insecure-diagnosed
- unethical as caregivers may become distressed if they find out their child is insecurely attached, they'd feel guilty and withdraw from child + no protection from psychological harm in study
46
describe Bowlby's (1951) theory of maternal deprivation?
- continuous care from a mother or mother substitute is essential for normal psychological development
- if child is denied of such care before age of 2 1/2 (critical period) they become emotionally disturbed and unable to form/maintain relationships in future
- mother provides template for future relationships (IWM)
- law of continuity + law of accumulated separation
47
what is the law of continuity?
the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better the quality of their attachment
48
what is the law of accumulated separation?
the effects of every separation from the mother add up so "the safest dose is zero"
49
privation vs deprivation?
P = complete absence of emotional care
D = loss of emotional care provided by a caregiver
50
what are some effects of maternal deprivation?
delinquency, anti social behaviour, physical and intellectual development deficits, affectionless psychopathy
51
describe Bowlby (1944) study on thieves?
- 44 juvenile thieves were compared to control group of emotionally disturbed teens
- 14 of the thieves were diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths
- 86% of the affectionless thieves had experienced maternal deprivation compared to 17% of other thieves and only 4% of control group
52
describe Bifulco et al (1992) study into maternal deprivation?
- 25% of women who'd had separation from mother for over 1 year experienced depression or anxiety compared to 15% who had no experience of separation
- the mental health problems were much greater in the women who loss occurred before the age of 6
53
describe Koluchova (1976) study into maternal deprivation?
- twin boys found age 7
- stepmother had kept them locked in cupboard - malnourished and no language ability
- they were fostered into loving home at age 9 and by age 20 had appeared to fully recover with above average IQ's
54
strengths of Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory?
- research evidence that supports: Bowlby (1944) study found 86% of affectionless thieves and 39% of other thieves experienced maternal deprivation BUT correlation doesn't equal causation
- practical applications - now 12 months of shared mat/paternity leave, adoption encouraged earlier in critical period, key workers to children in nurseries
55
weaknesses of Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory?
- effects are not irreversible as Bowlby stated - research proves this: Koluchova (1976) - twin boys who were maternally deprived until aged 9 made full recovery by 20 with higher than average IQ and forming relationships
- too deterministic - pessimistic outlook gives no hope creating self fulfilling prophecy
56
what is institutionalisation?
- living arrangements outside family home, adopting established rules and norms of institution, loss of personal identity (deindividuation)
- Eg: Romanian orphanages - cramped and unhygienic
57
what are some of the effects of institutionalisation?
delayed physical and intellectual development, attention seeking, quasi-autism, stunted growth
58
describe Rutter (1998) the Romanian orphan study?NOT DONE
- 165 Romanian orphans (58 adopted before age of 6 months and 107 adopted after 6 months) compared to 52 British children who were adopted before 6 months but not from institution
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