What is attachment?
An emotional bond between two people. A two-way process that endures over time. It leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking
What is reciprocity?
Reciprocity is achieved when an infant and caregiver respond to and produce responses from each other (two way process).
e.g. a caregiver responds to a baby’s smile by saying something, and then the baby responds by making some sounds of pleasure
What is interactional synchrony?
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
When a caregiver and infant mirror both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way
Outline one study of infant-caregiver interactions
Meltzoff and Moore (1977) conducted a study of interactional synchrony and found that infants as young as two to three weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures
Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 month old (and over) infants to assess degree of synchrony
^— increased synchrony = increased quality of mother-infant attachment
Define multiple attachment
Having more than one attachment figure. In Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) stages of attachment, this happens from the age of 1 year old and over
What is separation anxiety?
The distress shown by an infant when separated from their caregiver. This is not necessarily the child’s biological mother
What is stranger anxiety?
The distress shown by an infant when approached or picked up by someone who is unfamiliar
Describe one study that investigated the development of attachments.
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) conducted a study on the development of attachments
- Participants were 60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow
- These infants were studied until the age of one year old
- The mothers were visited every four weeks and reported on their infant’s response to separation and strangers
- From this, Schaffer and Emerson discovered four stages of attachment: Asocial stage, Indiscriminate attachment, Specific attachment, Multiple attachments
Explain the asocial stage of attachment.
Birth - 2 months
Infants produce a similar response to all objects - inanimate or animate
Explain the indiscriminate attachment stage of attachment
2 months - 7 months
Infants begin to prefer human company to inanimate objects. No strong preferences for people (maybe those who are familiar)
Explain the specific attachment stage of attachment
7 months - 1 year
Infants begin to show separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
They show special joy at the presence of a particular person, their primary attachment figure (doesn’t have to be biological mother)
Explain the multiple attachments stage of attachment
1 year+
Infants begin to form a wider circle of multiple attachments
Schaffer: “within the first month of being attached, 29% of infants had formed multiple attachments with someone else”
Explain Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) findings about the role of the father
- Found most babies became attached to mother at 7 months
- In 3% of cases, father was first attachment figure
- 18 months, 75% of babies were attached to father + showed separation anxiety
Explain Grossman’s (2002) experiment about the role of the father
- Carried out longitudinal study on both parents’ behaviours + relationship to quality of children’s attach,ent in teens
- Quality of infant attachment w/ mother but NOT father related to attachment in adolescence - suggests father not important
- HOWEVER quality of father’s play with infants related to quality of adolescent attachments
Explain Field’s (1978) experiment about the role of the father
- Filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interactions w/ primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers, and primary caregiver fathers
- Fathers played more and held baby less
- Primary caregiver fathers and mothers engaged in more smiling and imitative grimaces than secondary caregiver fathers
Outline Lorenz’s study of attachment
- Lorenz (1935) took a clutch of greylag gosling eggs and divided them into two groups: one was left with their natural mother while the other was placed in an incubator
- When incubator eggs hatched, the first living (moving) thing they saw was Lorenz + they soon started following him around
- They had imprinted on him. To test this, he marked the two groups and placed them together. Both Lorenz and their natural mother were present
- He found that the gosling divided themselves up, one group following their natural mother and the other following Lorenz (Lorenz’s brood showed no recognition of their natural mother
- Lorenz noted that imprinting is restricted to a very definite period of the young animal’s life (critical period)
^— if young animal not exposed to moving object during this period, the animal will not imprint - observed imprinting to humans doesn’t occur in some animals
Define imprinting
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen during this critical period it probably will not happen
Outline Harlow’s animal study of attachment
Harlow (1959) carried out a study on infant attachments. He removed infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers soon after birth and placed in a cage with two monkey effigies
- One was a ‘wire mother’ with a feeding tube for the infant, and the other was a ‘cloth mother’ covered in cloth to provide warmth, but had no feeding tube
- During the time that the monkeys were with the mother models, it was observed they they spent significantly more time with the cloth mother, reluctantly feeding from the wire mother when necessary, but moving back for the warmth of the cloth mother
- When frightened, or playing either new toys, the monkeys remained close to the cloth mother (clinging to it or keeping one foot on it), seemingly for reassurance
- suggests that infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact comfort
Describe the long-lasting effects of Harlow’s (1959) study
- Motherless monkeys (even those who had contact comfort) developed abnormally: they froze or fled when approached by other monkeys (socially abnormal), they did not show normal mating behaviour and did not cradle their own babies (sexually abnormal) and were aggressive
- Found a critical period of 3 months (90 days)
^— motherless monkeys could recover before the 90 days
^— more than six months with only a wire mother was not something they could recover from
Define learning theory
The name given to a group of explanations (classical and operant conditioning) which explain behaviour in terms of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher order thinking)
Explain then development of attachment using learning theory
CLASSICAL
- begins with an innate stimulus-response (for attachment it’s food which produces the innate response of pleasure
- Food is a UCS and pleasure in a UCR
- During an infant’s early weeks, certain things get associated with food because they are present when the infant is fed (e.g. mother, the chair she sits in during feeding or sounds - NS)
- If an NS is consistently present when feeding (UCS), it takes on the properties of the UCS and will produce the same response, becoming the CS which produces a CR
- Here, the person feeding the infant becomes the CS, producing the CR of pleasure from the infant
OPERANT
- When an infant is fed, the drive is reduced, producing a feeling of pleasure - this is rewarding (NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT)
- The behaviour that led to being fed is likely to be repeated because it was rewarding. Food becomes a primary reinforcer
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
- Children observe their parents’ affectionate behaviour and imitate this
- Parents also deliberately instruct children about how to behave in relationships and reward appropriate attachment behaviours such as kissing and hugs
Define monotropy
The idea that the one relationship that the infant has with their primary attachment figure is of special significance in emotional development
What is the critical period?
The biologically determined period of time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Lorenz and Harlow noted that attachment in birds and monkeys had critical periods. Bowlby extended the idea to humans, proposing that human infants have a similar period after which it will be much more difficult to form ab attachment
Outline Bowbly’s monotropic theory of attachment
- Bowlby (1969) stated that attachment behaviour evolved because it serves an important survival function - an infant who is not attached is less well protected (distant infant ancestors)
- Attachments must be formed in two directions so mothers ensure their infants are cared for and survive
- During an infant’s critical period (about 2 years), attachments are determined by sensitivity (says Bowlby)
- Influenced by Mary Ainsworth who observed mothers and stated infants more strongly attached were that way due to mothers being more responsive, cooperative and accessible
- Social releasers are important during the critical period (e.g. smiling and having a baby face) as they elicit caregiving
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APPROACHES - ORIGINS5
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APPROACHES - BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH0
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APPROACHES - SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY12
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APPROACHES - COGNITIVE APPROACH11
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APPRAOCHES - PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH21
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APPROACHES - BIOLOGICAL APPROACH11
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APPROACHES - HUMANISTIC APPROACH8
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APPROACHES - COMPARING APPROACHES44
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RESEARCH METHODS (YEAR 1)71
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ATTACHMENT40
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MEMORY57
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PSYCHOPATHOLOGY56
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BIOPSYCHOLOGY108
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SOCIAL INFLUENCE70
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ISSUES AND DEBATES64
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RELATIONSHIPS97
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RESEARCH METHODS (YEAR 2)46
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AGGRESSION36
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SCHIZOPHRENIA62
