psych paper 1 - attachment

3 caregiver infant interactions

seeking proximity- wanting to be near each other

distress if separated- both infant and caregiver feel distressed when separated

secure base behaviour- even when independent from attachment figures you make regular check ins coming back to attached figure

why is forming an attachment so important

infancy is a period before speech begins usually in the first year of a Child’s life

one of the key interactions is non verbal communication between caregivers and infants which form attachment

the more sensitive each is to the others signals, the deeper the connection

meltzoff and moore study

controlled observation with 4 stimuli, observer watched video of infant behaviour in real time then slo mo and frame by frame

video then judged by another observer who has no knowledge of what infants had seen

observers asked to note tongue protrusions, head movements using categories and is a signal they are ready for interaction

reciprocity

where one responds to another (done in return)

happens when babies are in alert phase and signaling they are ready for interaction 2/3 of the time mothers respond

interactional synchrony

mirroring - sam act at same time

mother and babies actions and emotions mirror each other

A03 of caregiver infant interactions

well controlled procedure - filmed at multiple angles, babies don’t care they are being filmed so will behave the same way- no demand characteristics

social sensitivity- feldman 2012 synchrony research doesn’t tell us the actual purpose, may be helpful for building relationships empathy and moral development

stages of attachment

All Infants Smell Milk

asocial stage (birth-2 mth) - many kinds of stimuli social and non social produce a favourable reaction eg smile

indiscriminate attachment (2-7 mth) - indiscriminately enjoy human company and get upset when someone doesn’t interact with them

specific attachment (7mth+) - express protest when seperated from one particular individual, they attempt to stay close to the person and show stranger anxiety

multiple attachment (by 1 year) - begin to attach to others most have formed multiple attachments by 18 months

glasgow study (stages of attachment)

60 infants from working class homes 5-23 weeks, studies for a year and mothers visited every 4 weeks and reported infants response to separation in everyday situations

mothers asked to describe intensity of protest on a 4 point scale and who it was directed to

stranger anxiety also measured by seeing response to interviewer

findings: 4 stages found by 32weeks- 60% specific attachment and 57% attachment to mother

by 36 weeks- 73% showed stranger anxiety

fathers first object of attachment for 3%

A03 of development of attachment (stages)

small ethnocentric sample- same city and social class so hard to generalise

van ijzendoorn found collectivist cultures had multiple attachments from very early age more than norm

culture bias- study was in 1960s and only made up of same social class glasgow babies so low temporal validity

role of the father

Schafer and emerson found most babies attach to mother first and in 3% of cases the father first

quality of play - geiger found in observations that play interactions with father are more exciting and focused on fun and playing whereas mothers more affectionate and caring

level of responsiveness- tiffany field found fathers engaged in more game playing and primary caregivers mother or father engaged in more smiling/ higher pitched voice than secondary caregivers

A03 of role of fathers

social sensitivity - suggests children might be disadvantaged by certain child rearing practices

Fathers can also be primary caregiver and it assumes it’s only mothers

Animal studies of attachment -imprinting

Imprinting- an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother within the first few hours after birth

Lorenz study- randomly divided a clutch of eggs into two groups half hatched with mother and other half with Lorenz

Findings: incubator group imprinted on Lorenz whereas group with mother imprinted on her even when the groups were mixed up, this helps animals to know what other animal to mate with (sexual imprinting)

Harrows monkey procedure- imprinting

16 monkeys had two wired mothers, one soft who has no food and one wired but had food, found that monkeys favoured the cloth monkey even though it had no food but never really attached to it, this lead to long lasting effects of maternal deprivation showing aggression and less sociable

Ao3 of animal studies -Lorenz and Harlow

Support- chicks exposed to yellow rubber gloves imprinted on them showing imprinting is linked to later reproduction

Confounding variables- may not be applicable to other monkeys and they were raised in a lab so not like normal monkeys

Social sensitivity- monkeys distressed and using them clinically is ethically wrong

Learning theory of attachment- classical conditioning (pavolv)

Classical conditioning- where an animal or person learns to associate a reflex response with a new stimulus

UCS leads to a response that doesn’t need to be learnt, then NS paired with the UCS enough times that we respond to it in the same way as the UCS, CS after learning the NS has become the CS because we have learnt a new response to it

Learning theories of attachment- operant conditioning (skinner)

Operant conditioning- learning from the consequences of our actions through positive and negative reinforcement

Positive reinforcement- presenting something good leads to a positive outcome

Negative reinforcement- taking away something bad leads to a positive outcome

A03 of learning theory of attachment

Animal study evidence counters it- lack of support from animal studies as geese imprinted on first moving object even if not associated with food so food not important, hallows monkeys displayed attachment behaviour to non food mothers showing things other than association with food are important to form attachments

Counter evidence from human studies- Schaffer and Emerson found babies tend to form attachment with mother even if not the one to feed baby

Russell Isabella also found high levels of interaction all synchrony predicted the quality if attachment not related to feeding suggesting food isn’t the main factor in human attachment

I/D nature/nurture

Bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment ASCMI

Adaptive behaviour- attachments adaptive so give species advantage making us more likely to survive, because an infant has an attachment to a caregiver they are safe given food and kept warm.

Social releasers- babies have social releasers which unlock the innate tendency of adults to care for them, physical- body proportions and face features, behavioural- crying, cooing

Critical period- have to form attachment with caregiver during critical period, birth- 2.5 years and if didn’t happen the child is damaged for life socially, emotionally and physically

Monotropy- infants form one specific attachment with mother and if mother not available it can be with another adult mother substitute

Internal working model- through monotropic attachment infant forms an internal working model, a special mental schema for relationships which all future relationships are based on

Ao3 of monotropic theory

Support for internal working model- Bailey et al assessed attachment relationships in 1yo and mothers measuring their attachment to own primary caregiver and found mothers with poor attachment to own primary caregivers more likely to have poorly attached babies

I/D- nature/ nurture- some psychologists believe genetic differences in anxiety and sociability affect social behaviour in a babies and adults which could impact parenting abilities

Ainsworths strange situation- types of attachment in infants

7 stages of strange situation

1. baby encouraged to explore- tests exploration and secure base behaviour

2. Stranger comes in talks to caregiver and approaches baby- tests stranger anxiety

3. Caregiver leaves baby and stranger together- tests separation and stranger anxiety

4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves- tests reunion and secure base behaviour

5. caregiver leaves baby alone- tests separation anxiety

6. stranger returns - tests stranger anxiety

7. caregiver returns and reunites with baby- tests reunion behaviour

findings in ainsworths strange situation (types of attachment)

insecure avoidant - type A -willing to explore low stranger anxiety and avoided contact when parent returned

secure attachment- type B- willing to explore high stranger anxiety , easy to soothe and happy when mother returned

insecure resistant- type C - not willing to explore, high stranger anxiety and rejected contact when parent returned

a03 of strange situation

good validity - inter rater reliability, different observers watching same children usually agree on attachment type, back et al found 94%

this may be because strange situation takes place under controlled conditions and behavioural categories are easy to observe

I/D - test is culture bound - test may not have the same meaning in countries outside Western Europe and the USA

cultural differences in children experiences mean they respond differently, caregivers from cultures also act and parent differently

Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their children so they show high levels of anxiety so strange situation isn’t a valid test for attachment across cultures

cultural variations in attachment

cultural variations - the ways in which different groups vary in terms of their social practices and the effects these practices have on development and behaviour

van ijzerdoorn and kroonenburg - conducted meta analysis of the findings from 32 studies of attachment behaviour examined over 2000 strange situations in 8 different countries

they were interested in whether inter cultural differences exist and if there are any intra culture differences

findings: found that the differences were small in variation between cultures and secure attachement was the most common classification in every country

also found the variation within a culture was 1.5 times bigger than variation between different cultures

these findings support the idea attachment is an innate process

a03 of cultural variations in attachment

use of indigenous researchers - come from the same cultural backgrounds as the pps and aids communication which helps prevent misunderstandings increasing validity

imposed etics - using strange situation in a different cultural context may be meaningless eg in us a lack of affection leads to insecure attachment but in germany it would be seen as a sign of independence

Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation- the value of maternal care

bowlby proposed prolonged emotional deprivation would have long term consequences in terms of emotional development

value of maternal care- he believed it wasn’t enough for a child to be fed, safe and warm and thought infants need a warm intimate continuous relationship with a mother( or permeant mother substitute ) to ensure continuing normal mental health

bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation - critical period

a young child who is denied such care may become emotionally disturbed but only if it happens before the age of 2.5 years and if there is no substitute person available

he also felt there was a continuing risk up to 5 years, deprivation has the potential to cause long term effects but not necessarily separation

bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation - long term consequences

affection less psychopathy- inability to experience guilt or strong emotions towards others preventing a person developing fulfilling relationships

anaclitic depression- involving appetite loss, sleeplessness and impaired social and intellectual development

depriation dwarfism- physically underdeveloped due to emotional deprivation

bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation - effects on development

delayed intellectual development means abnormally low IQ

affectionless psychopathy - the inability to experience guilt or strong emotions to others preventing a person developing fulfilling relationships

bowlbys maternal deprivation theory- 44 juveniles study

aimed to test maternal deprivation hypothesis, he interviewed children and their families who attended a clinic where he worked and compared the backgrounds of 44 non delinquent children to 44 juvenile thieves

findings: bowlby diagnosed 86% of thieves affectionless psychopaths with the main symptom being lack of moral conscience . most of the juveniles had experienced separation for at least one week before the age of 5. only 45 of the control group experienced early separation

conclusion: seperation in early life led to long term ill effects particularly affecting emotional development showing there is a link between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy

A03 of Bowlbys maternal deprivation theory

flawed evidence- 44 thieves study flawed as bowlby conducted it himself leaving it open to bias as he knew in advance which teens he expected to show affectionless psychopathy

critical vs sensitive periods - evidence suggests good quality aftercare can prevent most or all of this damage, in the case of the Czech twins, they experienced physical and emotional abuse from 18mnths- 7yrs, they received excellent care after and by their teens they were fully recovered meaning lasting harm isn’t inevitable so the critical period can also be seen as a sensitive period

gender bias-sample was only boys so can’t be generalised to a whole population and there’s no telling if its the same for girls

what is institutionalisation

the effects of institutional care. we are concerned with how time spent in an institution such as an orphanage can affect the development of children eg social, mental and physical development

Romanian orphan study - effects of institutionalisation

Romanian orphan study- 165 Romanian children adopted in England to test if good care could make up for poor experiences in institutions assessing physical, cognitive and emotional development at age 4,6,11

findings: half showed signs of retardation and were undernourished

children adopted between 6months- 2years had normal IQ but those adopted after 2 had lower than average IQ

if adoption took place after 6 months they showed disinhibited attachment but those adopted before 6 months rarely showed it

Effects of institutionalisation

disinhibited attachment- equally friendly and affectionate to people they know well or who are strangers, this is unusual as 2 year olds often show stranger anxiety , rutter argues this is the result of adapting to living with multiple caregivers

intellectual disability- most showed signs of retardation when they arrived in Britain , but most adopted before 6 months laugh up to the control group by age 4 suggesting damage can be recovered if adopted before 6 months

A03 Romanian orphan study

all Romanian so it may not be the same for other children

the adopted group may have been more socially skilled making them easier to place in adoptive families

A03 of effects of institutionalisation

real world application- studying Romanian orphans has important practical application as it led to improvements in orphanages and care homes

fewer cofounding variables- other orphan studies have trauma and multiple factors that are difficult to isolate, the Romanian orphan study has high internal validity

I/D- social sensitivity- results show late adopted children have poor developmental outcomes

also a lack of adult data as in the ERA study children were looked at in their mid 20s but what about lifetime of mental health, success in forming and maintaining developmental outcomes

influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (internal working model)

role of internal working model

idea that we form templates for future relationships based on our relationship with primary caregiver or attachment figure

loving start = loving relationships

not too uninvolved or emotionally close

influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (Hazan and Shaver study)

620 replies to love quiz

section 1 : respondents current or most important relationship

section 2: assessed general love experiences eg number of partners

section 3: assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of 3 statements best described their feelings

findings:

56% respondents securely attached = reported good and longer lasting relationships

25% insecure avoidant = revealed jealously and fear of intimacy

19% insecure resistant

conclusion: patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships