Attachment Flashcards

Question

Lorenz's studies of animal attachment RESULTS

Answer 1

The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz. depending on the species this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching (or birth). If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure

Answer 2

Aim to investigate the nature of attachment and the factors that contribute to it Procedure Harlow conducted research with 8 rhesus monkeys which were caged from infancy with wire mesh food dispensing and cloth-covered surrogate mothers, to investigate which of the two alternatives would have more attachment behaviours directed towards it.

Answer 3

Harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a 'real' mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. The researchers found severe consequences. The monkeys that stayed with plain-wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional. However, even those reared with a cloth-covered mother did not develop normal social behaviour. These deprived monkeys were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and they bred less often than is typical for monkeys, being unskilled at mating. When they became mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.

Answer 4

Results The baby monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened (e.g. by a noisy mechanical teddy bear) regardless of which mother (cloth-covered or plain-wire) dispensed milk. Conclusions This showed that 'contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour

Answer 5

Babies cry when they need something (like food or comfort). If crying leads to a response from the caregiver (e.g., being fed or cuddled), the baby feels better. This positive outcome reinforces the crying because the baby learns that crying gets a response. Over time, the baby learns to direct crying towards the caregiver, who provides comfort.

Answer 6

The belief that babies are born with cute innate behaviours like smiling, cooing and gripping

Answer 7

The period when attachment is most active at around six months old This sensitive period possibly extends up to age two. If an attachment isn’t formed during this time, it becomes much harder for the child to form one later.

Answer 8

Dollard and Miller (1950) suggested that attachment can be explained through learning theory. Attachment is a result of classical or operant conditioning. The caregiver becomes associated with food, as it reduces the baby's hunger and produces pleasure Learning theory also uses the idea of drive reduction

Answer 9

A drive is a strong biological urge. For example, hunger is a primary drive because it motivates us to eat. When the baby is fed, the hunger drive is reduced, and this feels good. According to psychologist research, because the caregiver provides the food, the baby starts to associate the caregiver with feeling good. Over time, the baby becomes attached to the caregiver. This is called a secondary drive because it's not biological like hunger, but it's learned through association.

Answer 10

Food naturally gives pleasure. This is called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) because it causes a response automatically. The baby’s pleasure when fed is the unconditioned response (UCR) – they didn’t have to learn it. The caregiver starts off as a neutral stimulus (NS) – the baby doesn’t respond emotionally to them at first. But after being repeatedly paired with food, the caregiver becomes associated with the pleasure of feeding. (UCS + UCR = NS) The caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), and seeing them brings pleasure – now a conditioned response (CR).

Answer 11

Before developing his monotropic theory, John Bowlby (1953) proposed the theory of maternal deprivation. This earlier theory focused on the idea that babies and toddlers need continuous emotional care from a mother or mother-substitute for normal emotional and intellectual development. He famously said:

Answer 12

Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment is an evolutionary explanation, suggesting that attachment is an innate system that gives a survival advantage This theory is described as monotropic because he placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver Bowlby believed that the more time a baby spent with the primary attachment figure the better and proposed two principles to clarify this: - The law of continuity - The law of accumulated separation

Answer 13

Procedure: Adult Lorenz set up an experiment where there are 2 groups of goose eggs. Half the eggs hatched in their natural environment (control group) while half hatched in an incubator to find see Lorenz when born (experimental group) Findings: The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere he went whereas the control group followed their mother. Even when both groups when both groups were muddled back together they still followed each other

Answer 14

P: A strength is that it supports the concept of imprinting E: Chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations e.g triangle with rectangles infront. A range of shape combinations that moved in front of them L: Supports the view that young animals are born with an innate drive to imprint on the first moving object they see

Answer 15

P: There's an ability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans E: The mammalian attachment is more complex and different in birds. E: For example it is a two way process in attachment. Mammalian Mothers show attachment to their young birds while a bird shows attachment back L: This makes it unreasonable to generalise Lorenz's study to humans

Answer 16

Proposed the idea that there are two forms of learning that happen in a child resulting in attachment to the caregiver (primary attachment figure) Involves food (UCS), caregiver (NS) and baby's natural response to that (UCR) repeated a number of times until the baby associates the caregiver with comfort. Caregiver (CS) -> Baby natural reaction of pleasure (CR) is the conditioning

Answer 17

Classical conditioning = The caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food Operant conditioning = The infant learns that crying/proximity seeking behaviour is negatively reinforced by attention/hunger relief

Attachment Flashcards

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