attachment evaluations

Question 1

Give evals for harlow’s study

Answer 1

Confounding variable - two heads were different one looked like a monkey the others didn’t
Generalising animal studies to behaviour - always seek confirmation from humans studies
ethical - study created emotional harm monkeys found it difficult to form relationships with peers.

Question 2

Give evals for Lorenz’s study

Answer 2

Research support - Guiton (1966) - leghorn chicks exposed to yellow gloves

criticisms of imprinting - not irreversible (Hoffman,1996)
(Guiton,1966) found he could reverse the imprinting. found that later when the chicks spent time with their own species, they were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens

Question 3

GIve evals for learning theory.

Answer 3

attachment not based on food - LT suggests food key element of attachment harlow study shows infant monkeys prefer comfort over food, support by schaffer and emerson’s research.
2. LT based on animal studies - behaviourists believe our humans and animals are the same in terms of how they learn. humans behv patterns are made from same basic building blocks of stimulus and response. not all human behaviour can be explained by conditioning especially attachment (complex) behaviourist believe that attachment involves innate predispositions and metal activity that cannot be explained in terms of conditioning

Question 4

evaluate Bowlby’s theory of monotropic attachment.

Answer 4

1. attachment is adaptive - bowlby suggested that attachments develop when the infant is older than 3 months.age of attachment to late to protect infants. age of attachment may be linked to features of a species’ life. humans don’t need cling on to mums. when crawling attachment is vital, that’s when attachment forms in humans.
2. a sensitive period rather than “critical” - rutter et al bowlby’s claim true to an extent but not impossible. it appears less likely that attachments will form after this period, but it’s not impossible. Developmental window is when children are maximally receptive to the formation of certain characteristics. but developments can for outside this window

Question 5

evaluate types of attachment.

Answer 5

1. observations had high reliability - ainsworth et al. (1978) found almost perfect agreement when rating exploratory behaviour - they found .94 agreement between raters (1.00 = perfect)
2. Real world applications - circle of security project (Cooper et al., 2005) teaches caregivers to better understand su infant distress signals decrease in CGs classed as disordered (60-15%), increased type b infants (32-40%)

Question 6

evaluate cultural variations in attachment.

Answer 6

1. countries rather than cultures - compared japan - US - urban setting tokyo similar distributions of attach types to west studies. more rural over-representation of insecure resistant (van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg) great caution in using cultural variation assessing a individ sample is representative.
2. similarities due to global cultures - van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg meta - analysis of 32 studies and cultural similarities due to effects of mass media (e.g tv and books) not innate biological influences

Question 7

evaluate theory of maternal deprivation.

Answer 7

1. real world application - before bowlby research kids and parents separated in hospitals no visits allow. james robertson (1952), filmed 2 year old girl laura eight day period in hospital. freq distressed and begs go home. lead to major social change in childcare in hospitals.
2. physical and emotional separation - e.g mother depressed may physically there emotionally absent - depriving child of that care. Marian Radke Yarrow et al (1985) studied mothers who were severely depressed 55% were insecurely attach (mean age 32 months) compared to 29% non depressed group

Question 8

evaluate effects on institutionalisation

Answer 8

1. real life application - bowlby robertson hospital - past mothers encourage to nurse baby before adoption by nurses but sensitive period may have passed, making difficult to form attachments with new mum. most babies adopted within first week of birth. adoptive mothers and children just as securely attached (Singer et al., 1985).
2. individual differences - not all children institutionalised unable to recover. Rutter suggests some kids may receive special attention might have enabled them to cope better. not possible to conclude that institutionalisation leads to inability to form attachments

Question 9

evaluate of early of attachment.

Answer 9

1. research overly deterministic - e.g the research Hazan and Shaver early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships: children who’re insecurely attached at 1 year old doomed to experience emotionally unsatisfactory relationships as adults. not the case plenty of instances of happy adult relationships despite insecurely attached infants.
2. research is correlational - can’t claim early attachment and e.g later love styles are correlational. possible caused by an intervening variable e.g temperament. temp affects the response of parents - determining factor that may explain their issues (G or B) with relationships in later life.