psychology

attachment

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

1. asocial (anyone)

2. indiscriminate attachment (prefer familiar faces)

3. specific attachment (form attachment to mother)

4. 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

Outline Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• states prolonged early separation from mother leads to affectionless psychopathy (no guilt) and low intellectual development (Goldfarb)

• critical period of 2-2.5 years

Outline Aim & Procedure of Bowlby’s 44 Thieves Study

• Aim - examine links between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation

• Procedure - interviewed 44 juvenile thieves and their families, comparing them to a control group of non-offenders. He assessed their emotional responses and backgrounds to identify any history of maternal deprivation.

Findings of Bowlby’s 44 Thieves Study

The study found that 14 of the 44 thieves showed signs of affectionless psychopathy, and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during the critical period. This suggested a strong link between maternal deprivation and the development of affectionless psychopathy.

Outline Czech Twins Case Study

• It contradicts Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation by demonstrating that the twins, despite early maternal deprivation, developed normally and formed healthy relationships, suggesting that other factors can mitigate the effects of separation.

Strengths of Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• Real world application - Bowlby’s theory has influenced child care practices, emphasizing the importance of stable relationships and early emotional bonds. Before his theory, children were separated from their parents in hospitals but after it resulted in parents being allowed to stay with their children to avoid prolonged separation

Weaknesses of Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• Over exaggeration of deprivation effects - he confused it with privation

• Biased - 44 thieves study, the interviews of families relied on self report data so they may have lied about the maternal deprivation the delinquents received

• Conflicting research - Czech twins were able to recover after maternal deprivation