Attachment topic 3

Question 1

define attachment

Answer 1

this is when two people (infant and caregiver) develop a long and lasting emotional connection. Both the infant and the mother seek closeness to each other and they feel more secure when they are close to their attachment figure.

Question 2

Define reciprocity

Answer 2

the mutual interaction between a caregiver and an infant, where each respond to each other’s behaviour and signals in a meaningful way.

Question 3

what are alert phases

Answer 3

these are signals from the baby that indicate to the caregiver that they are ready for an interaction e.g. eye contact.
at around 3 months, these alert phases become much more frequent. the baby and the mother both play close attention to each other’s expressions.

Question 4

what is active involvement

Answer 4

babies aren’t only receiving interactions from the caregiver. babies and the caregiver can initiate interactions.

Question 5

define interactional synchrony

Answer 5

when the caregiver and baby mirror each other’s actions and emotions in a synchronised and coordinated manner.

Question 6

Meltzoff and Moore study and findings

Answer 6

procedure: they observed the responses of babies as young as two weeks old as adults displayed one of three facial expressions or a hand gesture. The babies responses were recorded and judged by independent observers to check for imitation.
findings: infants imitated both facial expressions and hand gestures clearly showing that interactional synchrony starts at a young age.

Question 7

Isabella et al’s study and findings

Answer 7

Procedure: observed 30 mothers and their baby’s. Researchers focused on the synchrony between the mother and their baby and also measured the quality of attachment between the mother and baby.
Findings: there is an association between high levels of synchrony and better mother-baby attachment.

Question 8

Evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions

Answer 8

PEEL+: one strength is that there’s supporting research. Meltzoff and Moore found that interactional synchrony starts at a young age, with infants imitating both hand and facial gestures. However, it is difficult to interpret a baby’s behaviour. This is because their movements are usually subtle hand movements and subtle facial changes. This means that it’s difficult to know whether a hand movement is random or due to interactional synchrony taking place.
PEEL+: a limitation of caregiver-infant interactions is that observing this behaviour does not mean that it’s important for the baby’s development. Feldman suggests that by observing patterns of behaviour from babies such as interactional synchrony and reciprocity only provides names to the baby’s behaviour. However, observing baby’s behaviour cannot definitely show that these behaviours can have an impact on their development. BUT: other evidence has found that these behaviours can affect their development. For example, Isabella et al found that when the infant and caregiver achieve interactional synchrony, they are more likely to have a better quality of attachment.

Question 9

What are Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment and describe each one

Answer 9

1) Asocial stage: behaviour to humans and objects is the same. babies do show some preference to being with people, especially familiar people.
2) Indiscriminate attachment: 2-7 months- show clear preference of being with humans not objects. prefer company of familiar people but accept comfort from anyone. no separation or stranger anxiety.
3) Specific attachment: babies show attachment to a specific person- the primary attachment figure. they express stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
4) Multiple attachments: the baby begins to extend attachments to others they spend time with (secondary attachments). by the age of 1, babies have formed multiple attachments.

Question 10

Evaluation of Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment

Answer 10

PEEL++: A strength is that there is supporting research as Schaffer and Emerson based their stages on research. Researchers visited the home of 60 babies every month for the baby’s first year and at 18 months. Researchers asked the mother about protests from the baby in order to investigate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. The findings then led to the identified stages. This study has strong external validity. This is because it is highly likely that the babies behaved naturally since observations were done in the baby’s regular environment with the mother observing. If the researcher observed, this could have led to different behaviour from the baby. However, by asking the mothers to be observers, it risks the findings not being objective since the mothers may be biased and don’t want to give negative observations. Furthermore, the mothers may have forgotten or misremembered some observations.

PEEL: identifying the stages of attachment has real world application. it can be used to suggest when babies should start daycare. it may be best to start during the asocial or indiscriminate stage since the baby will form an attachment. However, starting in the specific attachment stage can lead to problems since the baby would have stranger and separation anxiety.

Question 11

when do babies form attachment to father? Schaffer and Emerson’s findings?

Answer 11

most studies suggest that the babies usually form their primary attachment to their mother but later form one with their father.
Schaffer and Emerson found that only 3% cases were father primary attachment figure, 27% joint mother and father.
However, by 18 months, babies have formed strong connection with their father.

Question 12

do fathers have the same or a different role to mothers in a child’s development?

Answer 12

Grossman et al: different- more with play and stimulation then emotional development.

Question 13

can father’s be primary caregivers?

Answer 13

yes- the primary caregiver is extremely important in the baby’s emotional development- it helps form later emotional relationships. Studies have shown that when father’s are PC they adopt an emotional role

Question 14

Field’s study

Answer 14

filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions between PC mothers, PC fathers and SC fathers. Found that PC fathers, like PC mothers spent more time holding, imitating and smiling with the baby then SC fathers. These are all part of interactional synchrony- fathers do have potential do adopt emotional role.

Question 15

Evaluation of the Role of the Father

Answer 15

PEEL+: supporting research for different role of father. Grossman et al found that the quality of the baby’s attachment with their mother was related to the infant’s relationships in adolescents. The quality of the father’s play with babies was related to the quality of the infant’s relationships in adolescents. Clearly shows different but important role for fathers. However, if fathers do have a different role, then it would be expected that those raised in single-mother families or lesbian families would turn out different to those raised in heterosexual families. however, other studies have found that this is not the case.

PEEL+: Supporting research from Field that father’s can be primary caregivers. Field found that fathers can adopt the emotional role and become the primary attachment figure. Her study had high internal validity since the procedure was standardised; the interactions were filmed and coded, therefore removing any extraneous variables. This increases the validity of the study and so the findings are more genuine. These findings can be applied to real world situations. Often there are conflicts between the mother and father over who should stay home to look after the child, and the mother may feel guilty as she feels that only she can be the primary caregiver. However, Field’s study has clearly shown that fathers can also stay home and be the primary caregiver.

Question 16

Lorenz’s study: procedure, findings and conclusion

Answer 16

Procedure: randomly divided goose eggs. Half hatched in their natural environment with the mother goose, and half hatched in an incubator with Lorenz being the first moving object that they saw.
Findings: incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group (in the natural environment) followed the mother goose.
Conclusions: imprinting- when bird species attach to the first moving object they see.
Critical period- an attachment must be formed within this time or otherwise they will not attach to an attachment figure- it is irreversible.

Question 17

Harlow’s Research: procedure, findings and conclusion

Answer 17

Procedure: studied 16 monkeys using two models of surrogate mothers: a plain wired mother and a cloth covered mother.
half of the monkeys had milk dispensed from the cloth covered one and half had milk dispensed from the plain wired mother.

Findings:
all monkeys spent more time with the cloth covered mother- those with milk dispensed from plain wired mother went to receive food and then went back to cloth. Whenever afraid, they all went to cloth covered.
these monkeys did not develop normally- those with plain wired mother were the most dysfunctional- were more aggressive, less sociable.

conclusion: there is a critical period for attachment- if attachment not formed there are irreversible consequences.

Question 18

Evaluation of animal studies of attachment

Answer 18

PEEL+: supporting research for Lorenz’s study. In Regolin and Vallortigara’s study chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations which moved. The chicks were then exposed to other shape combinations that moved and they all followed the original one. This supports Lorenz’s findings that imprinting does occur within the critical period in young animals. However, it’s difficult to generalise findings from bird studies to humans. This is because the mammalian attachment system is different to humans. for example, in human attachment it’s a two way process between the caregiver and infant, whilst in birds it’s a one way system where only the infant forms an attachment.

PEEL+: Harlow’s research has RWA. Harlow’s research has helped social workers to understand that by there not being a bond or relationship between the mother and infant, it can be a risk factor in the way the child develops, allowing them to intervene and prevent this from happening earlier on. However, although Harlow’s monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds, the human brain and behaviour is more complex to understand than monkey’s. This means that it is difficult to generalise Harlow’s findings to human behaviour.

Question 19

learning theory of attachment (AO1)

Answer 19

classical conditioning: this involves learning to associate two stimuli together producing the same response to one as you would to the other.
in attachment: food= unconditioned stimulus, producing the unconditioned response of pleasure. the CG provides the baby with food and so the baby begins to associate the CG with food. Baby then produces a conditioned response of pleasure to the CG resulting in an attachment being formed.

Operant Conditioning: learning through consequences of a behaviour. when the baby cries, there’s a response from the CG- positive reinforcement for the baby. crying is reinforced and baby directs crying to when it wants something from the CG. for the CG, comforting the baby is negative reinforcement as it stops the crying. this behaviour from CG continues when baby is crying. This strengthens the attachment between CG and baby.

hunger= primary drive as it’s innate. CG provides food and so attachment is secondary drive as baby learns to associate CG with satisfying it’s primary drive of hunger

Question 20

Evaluation of the Learning Theory of Attachment

Answer 20

PEEL+: contradicting research from animal studies. In Lorenz’s study, the geese imprinted onto the first moving object regardless of whether it provided them with food or not. Furthermore, in Harlow’s study, the monkey’s preferred the cloth covered monkey over the wired one even if the wired mother was providing the milk. However, it is difficult to generalise these findings to humans since animals and humans function differently. However, there is research contradicting the learning theory that is from studies done on humans. For example, Isabella et al found that high levels of interactional synchrony was associated with a better attachment between the mother and baby. This had nothing to do with food implying that the attachment between a CG and baby is not dependent on food.

PEEL+: a strength of the learning approach is that elements of classical conditioning may be involved in the baby’s primary attachment. For example, a baby may associate feeling safe and comforted with a particular adult. This then leads to the baby choosing this adult as their primary caregiver. However, classical and operant conditioning but display the baby adopting a passive role in attachment. However, babies do seem to play an active role in attachment called active involvement where the baby also initiates interactions.

Question 21

what is Bowlby’s monotropic theory- define monotropy

Answer 21

the idea that a child has one particular attachment with one particular caregiver that is more important than others. The more time the baby spends with this primary caregiver the better.

Question 22

define the law of continuity

Answer 22

the more constant and predictable the child’s care is from the mother the better quality of attachment between the baby and mother.

Question 23

define the law of accumulated separation

Answer 23

there are negative effects on the baby from every separation from the mother

Question 24

what are social releasers

Answer 24

innate behaviours from the baby, e.g. smiling and gripping that get attention from adults. Their purpose is to make the mother attach to the baby.

Question 25

what is the critical period

Answer 25

this is when the attachment system in the infant is active. If an attachment is not formed in this time (6 months - 2 years) it will be harder to form a later attachment

Question 26

what is the internal working model

Answer 26

its a mental representation of the child's relationship with the PCG providing a model for what future relationships should look like. It also affects the child later as a parent.

Question 27

Evaluation of Bowlby's monotropic theory

Answer 27

PEEL+: one strength is that there's supporting research from animal studies. Bowlby based his work on Lorenz and Harlow's research. These both point out the importance of an attachment being formed in the critical period as otherwise it can lead to irreversible negative impacts on the animal's development. However, these studies were both done on animals, and the behaviour of humans is more complicated than animals. This challenges Bowlby's approach as he based his research on these studies. Therefore, it is unclear how important a critical period is in humans compared to animals. Furthermore, in Romain institution studies, Rutter found that the critical period is perhaps too strict, and an attachment can be formed after 2.5 years. PEEL+: supporting research for the internal working model. Bailey et al assessed the quality of 99 mothers and their attachment with their baby as well as the quality of attachment between the mother and their mother. They found that mothers with a poor quality of attachment to their baby were more likely to have a poor quality of attachment to their mother. However, there are other influences that can have impact on someone's social development which can also impact their parenting, apart from the internal working model. for example, genetic differences in sociability. Therefore, Bowlby may have overstated the importance of the internal working model.

Question 28

what is the strange situation

Answer 28

a controlled observation to test the quality of a baby's attachment to their caregiver.

Question 29

what are the behaviours that were observed in the SS to judge attachment- explain each one

Answer 29

1) proximity seeking: those with a good attachment would stay close to their CG. 2) Exploration and secure base behaviour: those with good attachment feel confident to explore and return to CG to feel safe. 3) Stranger anxiety: sign of being closely attached is being anxious when stranger approaches. 4) separation anxiety: sign of being closely attached is protesting when CG leaves. 5) Response to Reunion: those with secure attachment express pleasure when CG returns.

Question 30

Ainsworth's findings

Answer 30

identified 3 main types of attachment: 1) Secure attachment: explore happily and return to CG for safety. Moderate stranger + separation anxiety. accept comfort at reunion stage. 2) Insecure- avoidant attachment: explore freely, don't seek proximity, no/ little stranger or separation anxiety. Little effort when caregiver returns. 3) Insecure-resistant attachment: explore less freely, high levels of proximity, express high levels of stranger and separation anxiety. resist comfort when reunited.

Question 31

Evaluation of the Strange Situation

Answer 31

PEEL+: a strength of the strange situation is that the procedure was a controlled one that was done in a lab setting. This means that all extraneous variables were controlled, and so increases the internal validity of the study. Furthermore, it means replication can be done on the strange situation in order to perhaps assess how attachment types change overtime or within different cultures. However, due to the controlled setting, it means that it may have a low external validity since the lab setting does not reflect everyday life. The babies may have acted differently in the experiment to how they would at home lowering the validity of the findings. PEEL+: a further strength of the SS is that it has RWA. The SS helps predict how a child may develop later on. Those who are securely attached seem to do better in school and have better mental health as adults. In comparison, babies who are type C have more problems later on in life. However, some psychologists argue that although the SS do predict future outcomes, it may not be assessing attachment. For example, Kagan said that the differences in babies behaviour could be due to their natural anxiety levels and not their attachment.

Question 32

what was Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg's aims

Answer 32

1) investigate cross-cultural variations in the proportions of attachment types. 2) investigate variations in attachment types within a culture.

Question 33

Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg's procedure

Answer 33

they did a meta-analysis of 1990 children in 32 different studies conducted in 8 different countries where the SS had been used to investigate proportions of babies with different attachment types.

Question 34

Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg's findings

Answer 34

- secure was the most common in all countries - there's a wide variation in secure attachment between different countries- e.g. Britain= 75%, China= 50%. - in collectivist countries, insecure-resistant is over 25%, whilst in individualistic countries, it's around 14%. - variations between results of studies done in the same country is 150% greater than between different countries e.g. one study done in US found 46% secure, whilst another study found 90% secure.

Question 35

Evaluation of cultural variations in attachment

Answer 35

PEEL+: supporting research for cultural variations in attachment. In Simonelli et al's study they assessed 76 babies in Italy using the SS. They found that 56%= secure and 36% were insecure-avoidant. There is a lower % of secure and a higher % of avoidant than what's been found in other studies. This suggests that attachment type does change from culture to culture. In addition to this, Mi Kyoung Jin et al found in an SS type study to assess attachment type on 87 Korean babies that most were secure and of the insecure, most were resistant. This also shows that attachment type varies between cultures. However, it does support Bowlby's belief that attachment is innate and universal since secure attachment is the most common in all studies. PEEL+: a strength of cross-cultural research is that most of the studies were carried out by indigenous psychologists which means that they were from the same backgrounds as the pps. This means that there would be no language barrier or difficulty understanding instructions. It also means that culture bias would not be an issue, increasing the validity of these studies. However, not all studies have been conducted by indigenous researchers. For example, American researchers Morelli and Tronick conducted a study in Congo. This highlights that some studies may have been affected by cultural bias.

Question 36

what is Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 36

if a mother's care is not continuous then there will be serious consequences for the child, emotionally and intellectually.

Question 37

what happens if an attachment is not formed in the critical period and when is the critical period

Answer 37

first 2.5 years of a babies life- attachment must be formed here between mother and baby as otherwise psychological damage is inevitable. It's when the child is deprived of emotional care for a long period of time.

Question 37

when does separation between a mother and infant become a problem

Answer 37

this is when the child is deprived of emotional care (prolonged separation). not a problem if brief separations occur.

Question 38

Outline Bowlby's procedure in the 44 thieves study

Answer 38

he interviewed 44 teenagers accused of stealing, looking for signs of affectionless psychopathy- these include a lack of guilt, and a lack of empathy towards their victims. Their families were also interviewed in order to find out whether they had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers. This group was compared to a control group of 44 non-criminals but were emotionally disturbed.

Question 39

what effects does maternal deprivation have on the child's development

Answer 39

Intellectual development: delayed intellectual development which is seen by abnormally low IQ Emotional development: may develop affectionless psychopathy. they don't feel guilt for actions or strong emotions towards other people. this prevents them from building relationships with others in the future.

Question 40

Outline Bowlby's findings from his 44 thieves study

Answer 40

14/44 showed affectionless psychopathy and of these 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation. In comparison, of the 30 remaining thieves, 5 had experienced prolonged separation and in the control group 2 had experienced early deprivation.

Question 41

Evaluation of Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 41

PEEL++: supporting research from Bowlby's 44 thieves study. Bowlby interviewed 44 teenagers accused of stealing looking for signs of affectionless psychopathy. He also asked families whether they had experienced prolonged separation. This group was compared to a control group who were not criminals but were emotionally disturbed. He found that of the 44, 14 showed signs of affectionless psychopathy and of the 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation. In contrast, of the 30 remaining thieves, 5 had experienced prolonged separation and of the control group only 2 had. This study clearly indicates the severe impact of an attachment not being formed within the critical period and the effects of prolonged separation. However, this study may have bias since he carried out both the interviews and assessments so he knew who he expected to show signs of psychopathy. Furthermore, he relied on Goldfarb's study which had confounding variables as the children in this study had experienced trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation, making it difficult to isolate only the effects of maternal deprivation. This lowers the validity of Bowlby's theory since it is based on flawed evidence. However, there is some support from animal research. Levy et al found that separating baby rats from their mothers, even for one day had permanent effects on the rat's social development. This supports Bowlby's idea that early separation has long-term consequences. However, it is difficult to generalise the findings from animal studies to humans as the human brain and therefore behaviour is much more complex than animals. PEEL: a limitation is that there's evidence against the idea of a critical period. Koluchova's study on the Czech twins suggests that good quality care after the critical period can prevent the damages. These twins experienced abuse from 18 months to 7 years old. Despite the severely emotionally damaging impacts this had on them, after receiving excellent care they had fully recovered by teenagers. This criticizes Bowlby's theory that an attachment must be formed during the critical period.

Question 42

Rutter et al's study: procedure

Answer 42

they followed the development of 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted by families in the UK. The aim of his study was to investigate to what extent good care could make up for traumatic early experiences. They assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11,15 , 22-25 yrs. A group of 52 children from the UK who were also adopted were the control group.

Question 43

Rutter et al's study: findings

Answer 43

when first adopted half showed signs of delayed intellectual development and most were undernourished. at age 11, the mean IQ for those adopted before 6 months was 102, those 6 months- 2 years was 86 and those 2 yrs + was 77 - these differences remained at 16 ADHD was more common in samples done on 15 yr olds and 22-25 those adopted after 6 months were more likely to present signs of disinhibited attachment.

Question 44

What are the two effects of institutionalisation

Answer 44

1) disinhibited attachment: they are equally friendly to all people and have little to no stranger anxiety. Rutter suggests this is a response to having many caregivers during the sensitive period and so never forming an attachment with one. 2) intellectual development: the damage to intellectual development can be fixed if they are adopted before 6 months as those adopted before 6 months had caught up intellectually with the control grp by the age of 4.

Question 45

Evaluation of Romanian Institutionalisations

Answer 45

PEEL+: supporting research from Zeanah et al's research. In their study, they assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children (12-31 months old) who had spent majority of their lives in an institution. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never spent any time in an institution. They used the strange situation to assess their attachment types as well as asking carers about any signs of disinhibited attachment. They found in the 74% of the control group were secure whilst only 19% in the experimental group. In the institution group, 44% displayed signs of disinhibited attachment whilst less than 20% did in the control group. This clearly highlights the affects that institutional care can have. However, neither this study or Rutter's study have any data on the Romanian orphan's development. This means that the long-term effects of institution cannot be seen, for example their ability to form adult relationships and their mental health. Although these studies are useful in seeing the childhood effects of institutions, it has not shown how the Romanian orphans are currently. PEEL+: The Romanian orphan studies have RWA in helping to improve the conditions of those growing up outside their home. By understanding the long-term effects of institutions, psychologists can make sure to take action to ensure this does not happen again. For example, instead of many caregivers for each child, the care system make sure that there is one or two main caregiver for each child. Furthermore, it is clear that it's better for the child to grow up in foster homes rather than in institutions. However, the Romanian orphanages may have been an extreme situation with awful conditions that cannot be generalised to institutions nowadays. Therefore, it is difficult to know how much psychologists can learn from the Romanian orphan studies that can be applied nowadays.

Question 46

how does the internal working model influence later relationships

Answer 46

this is the idea that the baby's relationship with their primary CG acts as a mental representation for what future relationships should look like. those with a loving relationship with their attachment figure will seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them. if they have a bad first relationship they may display behaviours of insecure-avoidant (acts uninvolved) or resistant (can be controlling). may struggle to form relationships.

Question 47

How early attachment affects relationships in childhood

Answer 47

those securely attached tend to go on to form the best quality friendships. Insecurely attached babies struggle in friendships. Insecure-resistant seem to be bullies, whilst insecure-avoidant seem to be the victims to bullying.

Question 48

How IWM affects relationships as an adult

Answer 48

affects romantic relationships and parental relationships when raising your own children. in romantic relationships, those classified as secure are most likely to form long-lasting relationships whilst insecure often struggle to maintain relationships. In parental relationships, the way one raises their child is often based on how their parents raised them.

Question 49

Evaluation of the influence of early attachment on later relationships

Answer 49

PEEL+: A strength is that by knowing one's attachment type it helps to predict their relationships as a child and an adult. For example, in Myron-Wilson and Smith's study they gave questionnaires to 196 children in order to assess attachment type and bullying involvement. They found that secure children were the least involved in bullying. Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be the victims to bullying whilst insecure-resistant were most likely to be the bullies. In addition to this study, McCarthy's study also highlights the affects of attachment type on adult relationships. He studied 40 female adults whose attachment types had been assessed as babies. Those who were classified as secure babies had the most stable adult friendships and best relationships. Insecure-resistant babies struggled to maintain friendships and insecure-avoidant babies struggled in relationships. Both these studies clearly indicate that early attachment has an impact on an individual's later relationships. PEEL+: Supporting research from Bailey et al on the internal working model. They assessed attachment in 99 mothers and their babies using the SS as well as the mothers and their mother using interviews. They found that most women had the same attachment type to their mother and their baby. However, most research on early attachment and later impacts are not longitudinal which means that the adults attachment type was not assessed as a child. This means that the researchers are relying on the honest perception of the participants which lowers the validity of studies including Bailey et al's. This is because they used interviews in order to find out the attachment type between the mother and their mothers and inaccurate perceptions may have been given.