Attachment Flashcards

Question

Describe the discriminate attachment stage from Schaffer's theory of attachment

Answer 1

One primary attachment figure. Show separation anxiety when away from primary attachment. Fear of strangers. (7-12 months)

Answer 2

Attachment with primary carer grows. Increased interest in developing bonds with others e.g. grandparents and siblings. (1+ year)

Answer 3

Method: They studied 60 babies from Glasgow at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life using a longitudinal method. The babies were all studied in their own homes and visited monthly. Observations were made of interactions with their carer as well as carrying out interviews with the mothers. Data was analysed to establish if and when infants started to display separation anxiety from their main attachment figure – a key characteristic of attachment.

Answer 4

Findings: Separation anxiety started to be observed at around 7 months. By 10 months old, most of the babies had several attachments, including attachments to mothers, fathers, siblings and extended family. It was observed that 75% of infants studied had formed an attachment with the father at 18 months old. Conclusion: Attachments were most likely to form with carers who were sensitive to the baby's signals, rather than just the person they spent the most time with. They also found that the most important factor in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child, but who plays and communicates with him or her. Therefore, responsiveness appeared to be the key to attachment. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness. Intensely attached infants had parents who responded quickly to their demands and interacted with their child, Infants who were weakly attached had parents who failed to interact.

Answer 5

Schaffer and Emerson observed 60 babies from Glasgow at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life using a longitudinal method and supported the idea that attachment progresses through these stages. They observed separation anxiety and interactions with carers as well as carrying out interviews with the mothers. Results revealed that by 10 months old, most of the babies had several attachments, including attachments to mothers, fathers, siblings and extended family. This study provides ecologically valid support for the stages as it was carried out in a natural environment and so babies and carers will have been behaving in a true to life way. Yet the results cannot necessarily be fully generalised as 60 babies from Glasgow is not a very representative group and other children may progress differently, for example dependent on the socio-economic area some parents may both be at home more whilst others may have multiple caregivers from an early age. This could impact the development through the stages. However, it has been found from further research that the stages are reliable and that most children from all over the world develop attachments according to the stages. Therefore overall the research evidence is in favour of the stages being accurate.

Answer 6

Harlow research into monkeys supports the work of Schaffer. Schaffer concluded that babies attach to caregivers in this way due to their level of sensitive responsiveness. Following the Glasgow babies study Schaffer claimed that during the Discriminate Attachments stage babies form a primary attachment to the person who responds loving to them and not the person who feeds them. This is in agreement with Harlow who found that baby monkeys did the same, when given a choice between a comforting cloth mother or a food providing wire mother the monkey attached to the cloth mother. However, although this study supports what Schaffer found in human babies the results from animal studies should not be fully extrapolated as humans are more cognitively sophisticated and so results are not fully representative.

Answer 7

In contrast, Bowlby disagreed with these stages. His theory of monotropic attachment states that a baby will only form one primary attachment to a single caregiver during the critical period which is from birth to 2 ½ years old.

Answer 8

In the main experiment (Harlow carried out many experiments along with Zimmerman and another Harlow) 8 monkeys were separated from their mothers immediately after birth and isolated in cages with access to two surrogate mothers which were models of adult rhesus monkeys; one was made of wire and provided food and one was covered in a comforting soft cloth but provided no food. Harlow then put the monkeys through a series of attachment tests to assess the quality of the bond with their model surrogate mothers. He measured the amount time that monkeys spent with each surrogate mother and the amount time that they cried for their true biological mother. He also placed them in an unfamiliar room with new objects to see if they would use each surrogate as a ‘secure base’ for exploration and he exposed them to a frightening stimulus (wind-up toy) to see which surrogate mother they would run to.

Answer 9

Harlow wanted to study the factors that cause/motivate new-born rhesus monkeys bond with their mothers. Just like humans baby rhesus monkeys are highly dependent on their mothers for nutrition, protection, comfort and socialization.

Answer 10

The monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother; approx. 18 hours per day compared to only 1 hour on the wire mother per day; once fed they would return to the cloth mother. If a frightening object was placed in the cage the infant took refuge with the cloth mother. In the unfamiliar room the infant would explore more when the cloth mother was present. As a follow up Harlow also decided to observe the difference in behaviour between the monkeys who had grown up with surrogate mothers and those with normal mothers, because even the cloth surrogate could not be considered a replacement of the real biological mother. Growing up without a mother for a significant amount of time is known as ‘maternal deprivation’. They found that monkeys who had suffered from maternal deprivation were more timid/withdrawn, they didn’t know how to act with other monkeys, they were easily bullied and wouldn’t stand up for themselves, they had difficulty with mating and the females were inadequate mothers as adults. These behaviours were observed only in the monkeys who were left with the surrogate mothers for more than 90 days. For those left less than 90 days the effects could be reversed if placed in a normal environment where they could form attachments.

Answer 11

The main experiment showed that comfort rather than food was the primary motivator in attachment formation. The follow up experiment showed that the maternal deprivation suffered by the monkey’s had negative effects on their future development which were permanent and irreversible if the deprivation had been over 90 days. Although, Harlow found through further investigation that it was actually social deprivation rather than maternal deprivation that the young monkeys were suffering from. When he brought some other infant monkeys up on their own, but with 20 minutes a day in a playroom with three other monkeys, he found they grew up to be quite normal emotionally and socially.

Answer 12

Harlow’s experiments have been seen as unnecessarily cruel (unethical); it was clear that the monkeys in this study suffered from emotional harm and anxiety and their caging environments did not mimic their natural habitat. However, Harlow's experiment is sometimes justified as providing a valuable insight into the development of attachment and social behaviour; vital in convincing people about the importance of and improving the emotional care in hospitals, children's homes and nurseries. At the time of the research there was a dominant belief that attachment was related to physical (i.e. food) rather than emotional care.

Answer 13

Many scientists state that, on a biological level at least, all mammals including the rhesus monkeys that Harlow used have the same brain structure as humans; the only differences relates to size and the number of connections. Monkeys also have similar social structures to human which may mean results are to some extent generalisable. However Harlow’s findings cannot be fully extrapolated to human babies as humans have higher levels of cognitive functioning which may also affect their attachment behaviours. Harlow could not have used human babies in his experiments as he would not have been able to gain so much control for ethical reasons – one cannot keep a baby in isolation with only fake surrogate mothers as it would be a lack of protection from harm.

Answer 14

During the experiments the monkey’s caging environments did not mimic their natural habitat. This may have spoiled the results of his experiments as the behaviours he observed may have been more due to the unnatural and small caging environments rather than the type of surrogate mother or the maternal deprivation. This lack of ecological validity may mean that Harlow was not accurately studying realistic attachment behaviours. However because he sacrificed ecological validity he was able to keep the internal validity high; by manipulating the environment of the monkey he could prevent extraneous variable from becoming confounding and study the IV in a controlled way.

Answer 15

The work of Schaffer and Emerson on 60 babies from Glasgow supports the findings of Harlow. Like Harlow Schaffer and Emerson found that sensitive responsiveness was the main motivation for babies in forming attachments. They used human babies by conducting observations of them at home as well as interviews with their mothers. This complements Harlow’s research as it has better population validity and reaches the same conclusions.

Answer 16

Aim: To find out if attachment is innate (biologically inbuilt) and if there is a biological window in which it must occur. Method: Lorenz (1935) took a large clutch of goose eggs and kept them until they were about to hatch. Half of the eggs were then placed under a goose mother, while Lorenz kept the other half himself. When the geese hatched Lorenz made sure he was the first thing they saw, he even imitated a mother duck's quacking sound. As a result the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly. The other group followed the mother goose. To test if the imprinting had occurred Lorenz put all the goslings together under an upturned box and allowed them to mix. When the box was removed the two groups separated to go to their respective 'mothers' - half to the goose, and half to Lorenz.

Answer 17

Results/findings: Through this research Lorenz discovered that geese follow the first moving object they see, during a 12-17 hour critical period after hatching. This process is known as imprinting, and suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically as it happens before learning can take place and without any feeding having taken place. Conclusions/findings: It is suggested that Imprinting is innate because it has consequences both for short term survival and in the longer term forming internal templates (guidelines) for later relationships. If no attachment has developed in the geese within 32 hours it’s unlikely any attachment will ever develop. Lorenz believed that once imprinting has occurred it cannot be reversed, nor can a gosling imprint on anything else.

Answer 18

Lorenz’s research can be seen as unethical due to the fact that Lorenz allowed the goslings to attach to him rather than a goose mother. Ultimately this could affect their survival as attaching to their own species would ensure they learnt the survival basics they needed in their wild environment. However, at no point did the geese appear to be in distress nor were they separated from all of their species and Lorenz cared for the geese for the duration of their lives, therefore aiding their survival.

Answer 19

There is very little research into the similarities between geese and humans, though they tend to be monogamous which could mean attachments have a similar basis. However, the fact that imprinting occurs within 12 – 17 hours shows a distinct difference compared to humans, who Shaffer suggests take 7 – 10 months to form a primary attachment bond. This suggests that how we attach and perhaps why could be very different. However, what it does show us is that attachment CAN be biological which suggests occurs due to the instinct to survive.

Answer 20

the ecological validity of Lorenz’s research is high in comparison to Harlow’s. Though in a slightly sheltered environment compared to their natural wild state, the goslings were kept with other goslings and learnt all the typical behaviour of wild geese. Therefore we can argue that the behaviour seen in the geese is relatively similar to what we might expect outside of the research.

Answer 21

Lorenz’s research is supported by Bowlby’s ideas about attachment. Bowlby agreed that attachment is innate as it is an adaptive behaviour – it has come about as a result of evolution because it is necessary for survival. Bowlby used Lorenz’s concept of the critical period and applied it to his theory of human attachment, claiming that human babies also have a critical period for forming an attachment which he stated was from birth to 2 ½ years old.

Answer 22

It is not disputed that most children form multiple attachments, emotional bonds with several. But what is disputed is the relative importance of these different attachment figures. Bowlby believed that children had one primary attachment (monotropy) and that although children had attachments to other people, these were of minor importance compared to their main attachment bond, which should be with the mother. However, Schaffer proposed a model of multiple attachments as of equal importance, with these attachments combining together to help form a child’s internal working model. He claimed that babies form attachments with whoever responds sensitively to their needs. Schaffer claimed in his stages of attachment that by 10 months babies can have multiple attachments with wider family member such as fathers, grand parents and siblings. Multiple attachments are often formed to different people for different purposes, for example to mother for loving care, but additionally to father for exciting unpredictable play. Other attachments are often formed to grandparents, siblings and childminders.

Answer 23

Schaffer and Emerson found that when they observed 60 Glasgow babies and interviewed parents that by 10 months the babies had multiple attachments as evidenced by them displaying separation anxiety from more people than just the mother. This provides support for multiple attachments and contradicts Bowlby’s claim that children can only have one main attachment until 2 and a half (within the critical period).

Answer 24

Bowlby proposed this theory in the UK just after WW2 and it influenced society into believing the best place for the mother was at home with the kids. This is prejudiced against both genders as it excludes the father from the caring role and excludes the mother from returning to work. As other psychologists dispute the idea of monotropy this is potentially incorrect and therefore socially sensitive as it unfairly prejudices society into who should be responsible for the care of babies.

Answer 25

Traditionally fathers have been seen to play a minor role in the parenting of their children, indeed some would argue males are biologically unsuitable to raise children. In the past children were raised mainly by married couples, with the father going out to work to provide resources for his family, while the mother stayed at home to look after her children until they were of school age. This created cultural/social expectations that childrearing is stereotypically feminine which may have deterred males from taking on the role even if they wanted to. Bowlby claims it is not possible for the father to have a role. The attachment bond within the critical period of 0-2 ½ years should be monotropic and it should be with the mother for normal development to take place. Bowlby claimed that the quality of an attachment is a result of how the mother has treated and responded to the child. Bowlby argues that in most families with young children, the father's role tends to be different. According to Bowlby, a father is more likely to engage in physically active play than the mother and tends to become his child's preferred play companion. But society has changed a lot. It is the norm now for mothers to have a job. Fathers can demonstrate sensitive responsiveness; where they respond to the needs of their children and so can form strong attachment. According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2013 10% of those who care for children while their partner goes out to work were men. Another interesting statistic from the ONS (2019) is that 14% of British single parents are male. Evidently many men are having a much bigger role in parenting than before.

Answer 26

Fathers are not as hormonally equipped as mothers to provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment. A lack of oestrogen in men means that they struggle biologically to form close attachments with their children. Hrdy found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress, in comparison to mothers. This suggests that the role of the father is biologically determined and that a father’s role is restricted because of their genetic makeup. However, determinism does not account for individual differences and assumes all men respond in the same ways – some men may be more sensitive than others to children’s needs.

Answer 27

In contrast to the above Field found that when fathers are left as the sole primary caregiver they appear to change their behaviour and become far more nurturing, as if they were acting as surrogate mums. Lone parent fathers spend more time holding and cuddling their children as well as talking to them. Their behaviour becomes more focused on attachment building. This indicates that the gender of a caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types/ quality; rather it is the extent of caregiver involvement.

Answer 28

Grossman provided evidence suggesting the role of dad was less crucial than that of mum. In a longitudinal study of 44 families looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachments (friendships) in adolescence, suggesting that father attachment was less important to the child’s emotional development. However, Grossmann did find that fathers have an important role in developing play behaviour which is widely seen as crucial in intellectual development.

Answer 29

There is evidence to suggest that not all children respond in the same way to fathers. It can depend on personality and gender. Psychologists have found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children, that children are more likely to be attached to their father during their late childhood to early adolescence and that fathers are less likely to be involved with their infant if the infant has a difficult temperament/personality.

Answer 30

In order to test the type of attachment a child and its caregiver have, and be able to study the effects of this bond on development, Ainsworth developed a controlled observation. The study requires a 12-18month old child and their primary caregiver to be placed in an unfamiliar room with some toys in it. After a while a stranger will enter, talk to the mother and try to interact with the child. The mother will then leave and the stranger will continue to try to interact with the child. The mother will then return to comfort the child. Multiple observers recorded the infant behaviour every 15 seconds behind a one way mirror. They were looking at the infants’ willingness to explore the room and toys, the separation anxiety when the caregiver leaves, the infants’ stranger anxiety and willingness to interact with them and the reunion behaviour once the caregiver returns and offers comfort. The results from an original group of 100 middle class American children led to the development of three attachment classifications. Securely attached was the most common where children are distressed at the mother’s departure and are comforted by her return, interacting minimally with the stranger. Here the mothers were described as sensitive. Insecure avoidant infants are not concerned by separation and are uninterested in reunion, it was observed that these mothers sometimes ignored their infant. Finally insecure resistant become overly distressed on separation and go to the mother on reunion but push her away and are unable to be comforted, here the mothers put their own needs above their child's. Ainsworth concluded that the primary caregiver’s behaviour shapes the attachment behaviour of the child. This is known as the caregiver sensitivity hypothesis and is based on upbringing (nurture) determining our relationship style.

Answer 31

(70% of the original 100 children) The child shows some signs of expected distress when their caregiver leaves (low separation anxiety), the child is upset and wary of strangers but they are able to offer some comfort to the child, (reunion behaviour - ) child runs to mother and greets her enthusiastically, mother is able to calm them easily

Answer 32

(15% of the original 100 children), no signs of distress in the face of separation anxiety, less stranger anxiety - infant is okay with the stranger and plays normally when stranger is present, no reunion behaviour - infant shows little interest when the mother returns (both the mother and the stranger are able to comfort the infant equally well, the child is a confident explorer)

Answer 33

(15% of the original 100 children) show intense distress in the face of separation anxiety, infant is very wary of the stranger and stays away (high stranger anxiety) - reunion behaviour: child approaches mother but resists contact, may even push her away and cannot find comfort. This infant will cry more and explores less than the other 2 types.

Answer 34

Wolff and Van Ijzendoorn (1997) conducted a Meta-analysis of research into attachment types and found that there is a weak correlation of 0.24 between parental sensitivity and attachment type – generally more sensitive parents had securely attached children. This suggests that there are other reasons which may better explain why children develop different attachment types and that the maternal sensitivity theory places too much emphasis on the mother.

Answer 35

An alternative theory from Fox (1989) suggests that babies with an ‘Easy’ temperament (those who eat and sleep regularly and accept new experiences) are likely to develop secure attachments. Babies with a ‘slow to warm up’ temperament (those who took a while to get used to new experiences) are likely to have insecure-avoidant attachments. Babies with a ‘Difficult’ temperament (those who eat and sleep irregularly and who reject new experiences) are likely to have insecure-ambivalent attachments. Therefore a more complete explanation of attachment types would suggest that they develop due to a combination of both innate infant temperament and caregiver sensitivity.

Answer 36

The strange situation is a lab based controlled observation and the artificial environment seems to exaggerate behaviours. Children over-react when placed in the strange situation so do not behave as they would normally in the real world. This means it lacks ecological validity and care should be taken when generalising as it may not be a fair representation of the real attachment bond. However due to the study being artificial it has the benefit of being of a high level of internal validity as all the variables can be controlled and results are objective through the used of operationalised behaviour categories.

Answer 37

The strange situation uses multiple observers. Ainsworth found almost perfect agreement between observers when rating exploratory behaviour – they found a correlation coefficient of +0.94 agreement between raters (+1.00 would be perfect). This is because they used a highly standardised procedure with behavioural categories that were clearly operationalised. They also videoed each interaction. This means observers could be extremely clear on the behaviours they were looking for and watch the interactions multiple times. This suggests that the research has high inter rater reliability and suggests there was little bias involved in the observers judgements.

Answer 38

Ainsworth is criticised for over-simplification and a lack of validity in her belief that children can be categorised into only three groups. Other studies have suggested that there big individual differences between children within in attachment group. Later, a psychologists called Main (1991) re-analysed ‘The Strange Situation’ video tapes and suggested there may be a fourth type of attachment. The insecure-disorganised child lacks a coherent strategy for dealing with the stress of separation and will quickly change from strong attachment behaviour to avoidance and fear. This is normally found in children who have been the victim of child abuse.

Answer 39

There are positive real life applications of the research. In situations where disordered patterns of attachment develop between infant and caregiver, intervention strategies can be developed to teach caregivers to better understand their infants’ signals of distress and to increase their understanding of what it feels like to feel anxious. These interventions work to increase the number of secure attachments.

Answer 40

Although originally developed with middle class American children the strange situation procedure has now been used in a variety of cultural settings to identify if patterns of attachments are universal (the whole world has similar attachment patterns to that original American group) or if attachments are subject to cultural influences (different patterns of attachment in different cultures). Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg wanted to bring together strange situation research and look at the findings in combination to see if results were universal or culture specific. In order to do this they conducted a meta-analysis of nearly 2,000 strange situations classifications from 32 studies across 8 countries. They looked through various databases to find multiple studies on attachment and then combined the results and took averages for each country to look for trends across the countries. They found that secure attachment was the most common type of attachment across all 8 nations. The lowest % of secure attachments was shown in China, and the highest in Great Britain. Avoidant attachment was more common in Germany but rare in Israel and Japan. Resistant attachment was more common in Japan than any other of the countries. Variation within cultures was 1.5 times greater than the variation between cultures. They concluded that the global pattern across cultures appears to be similar to that in the US. Secure attachment is the ‘norm’/modal - the most common form of attachment. This supports the idea that secure attachment may be innate as they are universal. However, the differences in insecure attachments may be more to do with nurture and upbringing due to different parenting practises. E.g. German parents seek to raise independent children.

Answer 41

In a specific study in Japan by Takahashi it was found there were much higher levels of resistant attachment (32%) and in some cases the study had to be stopped on ethical grounds as the infants were so severely distressed by separation. This finding suggests there are in fact cross cultural variations in the way infants respond to separation due to different parenting norms, for example in Japan children even sleep with their parents until they are 2 and so are not used to being apart which may explain higher levels of insecure resistant children. There are also cross-cultural variations in avoidant behaviour – none was shown in Japanese children. This is also due to upbringing as Japanese children are taught this behaviour is impolite and are discouraged from it As Japanese infants are rarely separated from their primary caregivers, the infant-alone step induced stress that they would not normally encounter and so the strange situation is not an ecologically valid way to test attachment between mother and baby. It is likely that in Japan the SS does not test attachment at all and is simply measure of infant distress rather than the bond between child and caregiver. It could be argued that Takahashi’s research was unethical as the harm that the procedure caused exceeded what infants would be exposed to in their day-to-day lives meaning that it exceeded undue risk.

Answer 42

The countries that were included in the meta analysis aren’t globally representative. For example, the majority of the countries are western orientated. Large areas have been missed, such as Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. This may have yielded vastly different results and would have given a far better overview of differences due to culture.

Answer 43

Due to the different numbers of strange situation studies gathered from each country, the findings are misleading. For example, 18 of the 32 studies were in the USA and only 1 in China. This means the over all findings will be distorted and so the apparent consistency in attachment types seen between cultures may actually be significantly different. Furthermore, the results aren’t representative of the entire countries involved. For example, the one study with 25 children represents the whole of China – this is unlikely to be representative of and generalisable to all Chinese children.

Answer 44

Applying the Strange Situation procedures and behavioural categories is ethnocentric: Cross-cultural research using the Strange Situation judges and categorises infant behaviour according to behavioural categories that were developed following observations of middle-class American infants. This means that when researchers interpret non-American infant behaviour, it is being judged against an American standard. Eg. an infant exploring the playroom by themselves would be classed as avoidant based on American standards but is valued as reflecting independence in Germany

Answer 45

The research uses a meta-analysis and so it uses secondary data collected by other researchers so we can’t be sure that all of the studies were carried out in the same way. It is possible that the ‘Strange Situation’ or ways of categorising types of attachment were different in the different studies which will make comparisons unreliable.

Answer 46

The findings from both the Japanese studies in Van Izjedoorn and Kroonnbergs meta analysis and Takahshi’s own research suggests good reliability. For example they both observed 68% of infants as having secure attachment, both found at around 30% were insecure resistant and both that less than 5% were insecure avoidant. This findings show clear consistency. However, reliability does not equate to validity so they could have both found consistent findings of behaviour that isn’t accurate.

Answer 47

Comparisons are made of findings from participants of different cultures. A Psychologist may replicate a study in a location culturally different to the original study and compare findings. A Psychologist may gather together results from culturally different places and compare them all.

Answer 48

A strength is that it helps to establish if a behaviour is down to nature or nurture – if there are cultural differences then its nurture but if same then nature. It also helps to reduce the ethnocentrism of a theory or research as it uses a culturally diverse and wider sample to make conclusions However there is the problem of imposed etic which is where the research tool (e.g. the strange situation) is based on the original culture (US in the Strange situation) and therefore provides invalid results in other cultures. It can also be time consuming and expensive Furthermore researchers may be subjective as they may not fully understand the different culture and their own culture/language may act as a barrier to understanding.

Answer 49

Results from large number of studies that have all focussed on the same hypothesis and have used the same method are combined together to create an overall conclusion/ comparison. It is a popular method to use when doing cross cultural research. It is a type of secondary data as it uses data which was not collected for the purpose of the study itself but which already exists for another purpose.

Answer 50

Strengths of a meta-analysis are that it allows the identification of trends that would not be possible from individual smaller studies. It will also increase the sample size of the results and so improve generalisability of the findings. Weaknesses are that it is often the case that in many of the studies reviewed sample sizes are small and therefore should not be considered representative of the entire target populations involved. Also findings for the meta analysis come from many different studies and so reviewers can’t be sure that all of the studies were carried out in the same way. It is possible that the methods were slightly different which will make comparisons unreliable. Furthermore errors made in the original studies, such as bias or uncontrolled situational variables, are also inherited by the meta-analysis.

Answer 51

Bowlby proposed that for normal development to take place attachment should be formed with only one main person, and that this person should be the mother – this is known as monotropy. This relationship must form and remain throughout the critical period which Bowlby originally stated was up to 2 and ½ years and then extended to up to 5 years. He also claimed that this relationship leads to the internal working model; a schema theory where this first attachment forms expectations of all future relationships and will influence future romantic relationships – this is known as the continuity hypothesis. The assumption is that if the early attachment bond is poor then future relationships will be too, affecting romantic prospects and future parenting skills. Bowlby went on to claim that if the attachment bond with the primary caregiver is broken/disrupted or not formed within the critical period then this will have permanent and irreversible negative consequences for a child’s development. These consequences include the development of depression, delinquency, low IQ, affectionless psychopathy (not feeling empathy for others) and social maladjustment. This idea is known as the maternal deprivation hypothesis.

Answer 52

Research carried out on human participants by Bowlby offers support for his claims. Bowlby interviewed 44 juvenile thieves and their families, who attended a clinic where he worked, along with a control group. He compared their backgrounds and current stage of development. 17 of the thieves had experienced maternal deprivation for at least one week before the age of 5. 12 of these were diagnosed by Bowlby and an independent social worker as having affectionless psychopathy, the main symptom of which is lack of moral conscience. He concluded that deprivation in early life led to long term ill effects, particularly adversely affecting emotional development. This therefore supports his maternal deprivation hypothesis of permanent and irreversible damage.

Answer 53

However the study cannot offer full support as the data collection was mainly retrospective as the children and their parents had to think back many years to the child’s younger days. This can produce inaccuracies as we forget things and our memories can become distorted. Furthermore the results are correlational, so cannot prove cause and effect. Bowlby assumed that the early separation had caused the later disturbance, but many other factors could be responsible. For example children from poor backgrounds are more likely to be hospitalised. Children from poor families are also more likely to become delinquent and attachments may not be the cause but poverty may be

Answer 54

Bowlby highlighted the need for a monotropic relationship within the sensitive period in order for normal development to take place. This is supported through research linking the lack of a monotropic relationship to negative developmental consequences. For example, monkeys taken away from their mothers by Harlow and given only a model monkey as a substitute became depressed, socially withdrawn and poor parents to their own offspring. However, despite its value Harlow’s study lacks population validity as studies conducted on animals cannot be fully extrapolated to humans due to humans having more complex cognitive abilities.

Answer 55

Bowlby’s theories have had positive real life applications. At the time of Bowbly’s work there was a dominant belief that attachment was related to physical (i.e. food) rather than emotional care. The sensible focus of the hypothesis on the importance of emotion based childhood experiences had many wider implications to the care of young children, e.g. changes in child hospitalisation where more regular, even around the clock, visiting hours are now available for parents.

Answer 56

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation relies on the concept of monotropy being accurate as the hypothesis states that it is only the loss of the relationship with the mother than can cause the harmful effects. However, there is evidence to show that monotropy may not be a valid concept and in fact a child can form multiple attachments and have a main attachment to the father. Shaffer and Emerson observed 60 Glasgow babies and found that by 10 months old, the majority of the children had multiple attachments, not only with mum, criticising the idea of monotropy.

Answer 57

Bowlby used the term ‘maternal deprivation’ to refer to the separation or loss of the mother as well as failure to develop an attachment. Michael Rutter (1981) argued that if a child fails to develop an attachment this is privation, whereas deprivation refers to the loss of or damage to an attachment. Bowlby failed to make this distinction and therefore did not explain how much more serious privation might be compared to deprivation.

Answer 58

The English Romanian Adoptee study supports the claim that suffering from privation and never forming an attachment during the critical period can severely affect development in a negative way. The children adopted before the end of their critical period were the ones to catch up the fastest, supporting Bowlby’s claim that attachment must form within this window. However the study does not fully support the maternal deprivation hypothesis as the majority of children caught up in their development with the help of the positive aftercare, this suggests that the effects of privation are not permanent and can be reversed.

Answer 59

Institutionalisation is classed as any living arrangements outside the family/family home where there is no opportunity to form a monotropic attachment bond within the critical period. Types of institutions which may cause a failure to form an attachment are poor quality orphanages, children’s homes, hospitals etc. This experience results in the child adopting the rules and norms of the institution which can impair functioning

Answer 60

This experience can lead to negative effects on development similar to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis, however Bowlby did not distinguish between deprivation and privation. Rutter (1981) argued that if a child fails to develop an attachment this is privation, whereas deprivation refers to the loss of or damage to an attachment. Bowlby failed to make this distinction and therefore did not explain how much more serious privation might be compared to deprivation.

Attachment Flashcards

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