Attachment

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

An affectional bond between 2 people which endures over time and each seek to maintain proximity. There may be signs of separation anxiety when separated

Question 2

What 3 behaviours is attachment shown by?

Answer 2

Proximity
Separation distress
Secure- base behaviour

Question 3

What is proximity?

Answer 3

Trying to stay close to attachment figures

Question 4

What is separation distress?

Answer 4

People show signs of anxiety when an attachment figure leaves their presence

Question 5

What is secure-base behaviour?

Answer 5

We try to make regular contact with our attachment figure
E.g. babies return to their attachment figure when playing

Question 6

Who is the most common attachment figure?

Answer 6

The child’s mother

Question 7

Who can attachments be formed with?

Answer 7

Anyone who provides comfort and security

Question 8

What are 3 behaviours infants show?

Answer 8

Active involvement
Alert phases
Reciprocity

Question 9

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 9

The temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour
Takes place when the caregiver and baby interacts in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other

Question 10

What did Meltzoff and Moore observe?

Answer 10

Interactional synchrony in infants as young as 2 weeks old

Question 11

What did the adults do in Meltzoff and Moore’s experiment?

Answer 11

An adult displayed facial expressions or distinctive gestures
The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers

Question 12

What were Meltzoff’s and Moore’s findings?

Answer 12

Association was found between the expression/gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies

Question 13

What was the Tronick et al- Still Face experiment?

Answer 13

Mother and baby are coordinating emotions
Mother is engaged with the baby and responding
As soon as mother stops smiling, baby tries to get attention back by smiling, pointing etc
Baby begins to respond to negative emotions by turning away, crying etc

Question 14

AO3: difficult to test?

Answer 14

Difficult to test infant behaviour
Infants mouths are frequently moving- hard to know whether behaviour is general or imitated behaviour
Infants are non-verbal

Question 15

AO3: socially sensitive?

Answer 15

Research is socially sensitive
May have social/economic implications of mothers returning back to work
May be able to support parenting
May have a negative impact on the children as mothers may feel obliged to return back to work in order to reduce separation anxiety but may miss out on crucial love to give to baby

Question 16

AO3: controlled observations?

Answer 16

Observations are highly controlled
Filming interactions means you can check inter-rater reliability
Undertaken in controlled settings- can limit distractions to baby
No demand characteristics as they do not know they are being studied

Question 17

AO3: purpose?

Answer 17

Observations do not tell us the purpose
Synchrony and reciprocity describe behaviours not purpose
E.g. babies can move their head, but not necessarily in response to the stimulus we presented
Feldman pointed out that synchrony and reciprocity simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours but they do not tell us the purpose
Therefore we cant be certain that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child’s development

Question 18

What is reciprocity?

Answer 18

Reciprocity occurs when a caregiver will do an action e.g. talk to the infant, which then elicits an action from the infant e.g. smile. This process occurs over time and each action elicits a response from the other party, creating interactions,

Question 19

What are alert phases?

Answer 19

When babies signal e.g. make eye contact that they are ready for interaction.
Mothers typically pick up on and respond to their babies alertness around 2/3 of the time (Feldman and Eidelman)
Involves both mother and baby paying close attention to eachothers verbal signals and facial expressions

Question 20

What is active involvement?

Answer 20

Babies as well as caregivers take an active role
Both caregivers and babies can initiate interactions and they take turns in doing so

Question 21

Importance of interactional synchrony for attachment?

Answer 21

Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony
The researchers assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment
High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attache,net s