Define Attachment
Attachment is the close emotional bond between two people, which involves a feeling of well-being and desire to be close. It is the responsiveness of the caregiver to the infant’s signals that has profound effects.
Define Seeking proximity
The desire to be close to the person to whom you are attached.
Define Separation anxiety
The distress that results from being separated from that person.
Define Pleasure when reunited
Relief and observable joy when reunited with them.
Define General orientation of behaviour towards caregiver
The child’s awareness of where the person is, and the reassurance they feel by them being close.
Define Reciprocity
This is how two people interact e.g., mother and her child. This mother-child interaction is reciprocal, meaning it is a two-way relationship. The mother and child both respond to each other’s signals, and each elicits a response from each other.
Define Alert phases
Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ in which they signal that they are ready for interaction. Research shows that mothers typically respond to their baby’s alertness around 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007), although this varies according to the skill of the mother and external factors such as stress. (Finegood et al, 2016)
Define Active involvement
Traditional views of childhood portray babies in a passive role as they receive care from an adult.
However, babies as well as caregivers take an active role. Both caregiver and baby can initiate interactions in turns. T. Berry Brazelton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couple’s dance where each person responds to the others moves.
Define Interactional synchrony
This is when the mother and child reflect both the action and emotions of each other. This is often co-ordinated/in unison with each other (synchronised). Important to the development of the mother-child attachment. The more synchronised the mother and child’s actions and emotions were, the better quality of the attachment.
What was Meltzoff and Moore’s procedure?
They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as two weeks old. An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. The baby’s response was filmed and labelled by independent observers.
What were Meltzoff and Moore’s findings?
Babies’ expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict i.e., there was a significant association
Name the stages of attachment
Stage 1: Asocial
Stage 2: indiscriminate attachment
Stage 3: specific attachment
Stage 4: multiple attachments
Define the asocial stage of attachment
- First few weeks
- Starts to recognise and form bonds
- Responds to humans and objects in the same way
- Some preference for familiar adults e.g., it’s easier for familiar adults to calm the baby.
- Happier in presence of humans.
Define the indiscriminate attachment stage of attachment
- 2-7 months
- Display more observable social behaviour
- Prefer humans over objects especially familiar adults.
- Usually accept comfort from any adult
- Don’t usually display separation or stranger anxiety.
Define the specific attachment stage of attachment
- 7+ months
- At around 7 months babies display anxiety around strangers and become anxious when separated from caregiver (usually mother).
- At this point a baby will have formed a “specific attachment” to the primary caregiver. This is the person that interacts with the child most not necessarily the person who spends the most time with the child.
Define the multiple attachments stage of attachment
- 7+ months – shortly after stage 3: specific attachment
- Once the child’s first attachment has formed (specific) they tend to extend this to other adults forming “multiple attachments”, these are called “secondary attachments”.
- 29% of secondary attachments form within a month of the specific/primary attachment forming.
- 1 year + the majority of children have multiple attachments.
