Attachment

Attachment

Attachment

A close emotional relationship between an infant and their caregiver, characterized by a desire to be close, distress upon separation, and pleasure upon reunion.

Sensitive responsiveness

Caregiver's appropriate response to signals from the infant, crucial in maintaining attachment.

Imitation

Infants copying caregiver's actions and behavior, such as facial expressions and hand movements.

Interactional synchrony

Infants reacting in time with caregiver's speech, creating a 'conversation dance'.

Reciprocity/turn-taking

Interaction flowing back and forth between caregiver and infant.

Motherese

Slow, high-pitched way of speaking to infants, though not proven to influence attachment strength.

Attachment Formation Stages

• Pre-attachment

• indiscriminate attachment

• discriminate attachment

• multiple attachment phases identified by Schaffer.

What is the pre-attachment (asocial) phase?

During the 0-3 months of life, the baby learns to separate people from objects but doesn’t have any strong preferences about who cares for it

What is the indiscriminate (or diffuse)

Between 6 weeks and 7 months the infant starts to distinguish and recognise different people, smiling more at strangers. However, there are still no strong preferences about who cares for it

What is the discriminate (or single) attachment phase?

From 7 to 11 months the infant becomes able to form a strong attachment with an individual. This is shown by being content when that person is around, distressed when they leave and happy when they return. It may be scared of strangers and avoid them

What is the multiple attachment phase?

From about 9 months the infant can form attachments to many different people. Some attachments may be stronger than others and have different functions, e.g for play or comfort, but there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of attachments it can make. Although Schaffer found that after 18 months, approximately 32% of babies had at least five attachments, the original attachment is still the strongest

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

Study showing evidence for attachment stages through observations of infants in their homes.

What method did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) use?

• 60 babies were observed in their homes in Glasgow every 4 weeks from birth to about 18 months.

• Interviews were also conducted with their families

What were the results of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study?

• Schaffer’s stages of attachment formation were found to occur.

• Also, at 8 months of age about 50 of the infants had more than one attachment

• About 20 of them either had no attachment with their mother or had a stronger attachment with someone else, even though the mother was always the main caregiver

What were the conclusions of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) study?

• Infants form attachments in stages and can eventually attach to many people.

• Quality of care is important in forming attachments, so the infant may not attach to their mother if other people respond more accurately to its signals

What were the evaluations of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)?

• There is now a lot of evidence to support Schaffer and Emerson’s results and their stages of attachment formation, but there are also criticisms of the study

• For example, Schaffer and Emerson used a limited sample, and evidence from interviews and observations may be biased and unreliable

• Additionally, some cross-cultural differences should be considered.

• Tronick et al (1992) found that infants in Zaire had a strong attachment with their mother by 6 months of age but didn’t have strong attachments with others, even though they had several carers

Cross-cultural differences

Considerations like those found by Tronick et al (1992) in Zaire, where infants had strong attachments with their mother but not others.

Father's role in attachment

Research highlighting the importance of fathers in forming attachments with infants, showing positive correlations with involvement in caregiving activities.

What research did Goodsell and Meldrum (2009) conduct?

A large study into the relationship between infants and their fathers. They found that those with a secure attachment to their mother are also more likely to have a secure attachment to their father

What research did Ross et al (1975) conduct?

Showed that the number of nappies a father changed was positively correlated to the strength of their attachment

Caldera (2004) supported Ross et al’s (1975) study

Who investigated 60 fathers and mothers and their 14-month-old infants. Caldera found that when the father was involved in care-giving activities, they were much more likely to develop a strong attachment with their child

Geiger (1996) conducted research which suggested the role a mother and father can play can be different

It suggested that a mother’s relationship is primarily nurturing and caring, but a father’s relationship is more focused around play