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attachment
emotional relationship between 2 people in which each seeks closeness & feels more secure in presence of attachment figure
reciprocity
both infant and caregiver respond to each other's signals, and each elicits a response from the other
still face experiment
shows infants need to respond to their caregivers to form an attachment
interactional synchrony
baby imitates caregiver’s actions in time with them
3 indicators for attachment are?
proximity
secure base behaviour
separation distress
schaffer and emerson case study
they aimed to investigate formation of attachment in babies
they used 60 babies, from glasgow in working home families
schaffer’s stages of attachment
asocial (anyone)
indiscriminate attachment (prefer familiar faces)
specific attachment (form attachment to mother)
multiple attachment
Outline Lorenz's Animal Study Experiment
Lorenz divided up a clutch of goose eggs, where the control group hatched in front of the mother goose and the experimental group hatched in an incubator where Lorenz was the first living thing they saw. When there two groups were mixed they stuck with there original attachment figure.
Evaluate Lorenz’s findings
critical period of 90minutes
animals imprint on first moving object they see
later in life, goslings displayed attraction to humans
Strengths of Lorenz’s experiment
Many supporting studies on imprinting
The findings of Lorenz's research have influenced other areas of psychology
Weaknesses of Lorenz’s study
lacks generalisability to humans because human attachment is more complex (goes two ways)
Outline Harlow's Animal Study experiment
16 baby rhesus monkeys were reared with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was given to the plain wire mother whereas in the second it was given to the cloth covered mother.
Harlow scared monkeys with mechanical teddy bear and found they went to cloth mother for comfort
Evaluate Harlow’s Findings
contact comfort was most import in forming an attachment
monkeys spent more time with cloth covered mother
Long term - monkeys displayed aggressive and antisocial behaviour and struggled to form attachments
What Are The Strengths Of Harlow’s Experiment ?
scientific because it was controlled and done in lab
Real world application - It has helped social workers understand risk factors in neglect and instead of just making sure people have shelter and food that they are also being treated with love and care.
Weaknesses of Harlow’s Experiment ?
unethical - monkeys couldn’t withdraw; some died if they weren’t given blankets to cuddle and they were separated from their mothers at birth.
What is Social Learning Theory
proposes that new behaviors can be acquired by observing and imitating others.
State two explanations of attachment
Social Learning theory (behavioural)
Bowlby’s Theory (biological)
State two theories for the learning theory
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Briefly explain classical conditioning
Learning through association
Briefly explain operant conditioning
Learning through consequences and reinforcement
Explain classical conditioning linking it to attachment
Milk provided by the mother (NS) is an unconditioned stimulus which provides an unconditioned response in the baby of relief from hunger.
The neutral stimulus is the mother, and through repetition of feeding the feeder becomes the conditioned stimulus. Therefore whenever the baby is hungry at just the sight of the feeder it will link the CS and the UCR together and become relieved.
Explain operant conditioning making it to attachment
When the baby feels uncomfortable because it is hungry they experience a drive state.
The food is the primary reinforcer and the child learns that the food is a reward. The feeder of the baby becomes the secondary reinforcer and the infant thus seeks to be near to this feeder as they are the source of reward and the attachment is formed.
What is monotropy ?
One unique attachment
What is Ainsworth’s A Strange Situation
an observation to investigate child attachment
involves increasingly stressful experiences for the child - the reactions determine the attachment type
What was the procedure for A Strange Situation
baby encouraged to explore
a stranger comes in
the caregiver leaves so the baby and stranger are left alone
the caregiver returns and the stranger leaves
the caregiver leaves so the baby is alone
the stranger returns
the baby is reunited with caregiver
How is a Strange Situation measured ?
Proximity
Reunion behaviour
Exploration + secure base behaviour
separation anxiety
stranger anxiety
Strengths of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
research support - high inter-rater reliability
outcome can predict babies’ future development
Weaknesses of A Strange Situation
culture bound - experiment done in USA 🇺🇸 and UK 🇬🇧 so not representative of collectivist cultures.
ignores other types of attachement - type D
What are the attachment types
type A - insecure avoidant
type B - secure
type C - insecure resistant
collectivist culture meaning
emphasises family and work goals above individual needs and desires so people are interdépendant
e.g UK & USA
individualistic culture meaning
emphasises personal indépendance and achievements, resulting in a sense of competition
meta analysis meaning
a researcher looks at a number of studies that have investigated the same topic in order to reach a general conclusion about a particular hypothesis
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonberg
conducted meta analysis of different strange situation from around the world and found secure attachment was always the most common
Outline Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonberg’s Procedure
Aim - to find out if there were differences between country’s attachment types
procedure - meta analysis examined 32 countries where strange situation occurred. Studies were conducted in 8 countries.
Secure was most common among all cultures
Insecure Avoidant least common in collectivist cultures
Insecure resistant least common in individualistic cultures
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