Attachment

Attachment

A close emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security

How is attachment characterised

by a need for proximity ,separation distress and secure base behaviour( where we need to make regular contact with them )

Care-giver interactions

Reciprocity

International synchrony

-suggested these interactions have important functions for child development

interactional synchrony

When the caregiver and infant mirror what the other doing in terms of their facial expressions and body movements

Reciprocity

Refers to mutual responsiveness where infant and care giver take turns to communicate respond to signals

Tronicks still face experiment

Mother was initially responsive but then shows still face and stops responding to baby as they try to communicate

Findings: baby tries to get response and shows distress

What does tronicks still face experiment show

Shows infants are active Interactions

• they can engage in and shape interactions

• How needed interactions is. ( importance of reciprocity)

Meltzoff’s and moore’s research into care giver interactions

They studied interactional synchrony with babies 6-27days

• exposed babies to 3 different facial gestures and recorded responses

What were 3 facial gestures babies were exposed to in meltozof’s and moores’s study

Tounge out, ‘o’ and pursed lips

What did meltzoff and Moore find?

Infants as young as 2-3 weeks old imitated specific facial and hand gestures

A- suggests they are not passive but instead too communicate in interaction

Research into caregiver-infant interactions include:

tronicks still face experiment

meltzoff’s and moore’s study into interactional synchrony

Weaknesses of research into caregiver-infant interactions

Difficulty observing a baby’s behaviour, does not tell us the developmental importance

What makes it difficult to observe a baby’s behaviour?

they lack coordination and mostly immobile and so responses may be hard to interpret e.g smiling or passing wing? and whether the behaviour is intentional

-They also cannot speak to let us known so we have to infer

A-reduces validity of findings

How does research into caregiver-infant interactions lack explanation of developmental importance

the ideas of I.C and reciprocity give name to the observable patterns but does not touch on the purpose of this behaviour and why it is important for children

What does the lack of explanation of its developmental importance suggest about research into care giver interactions

that this research alone is not sufficient in order to truly understand the interactions

What are schaffer’s stages of attachment(and ages it develops)

1-asocial stage(first few weeks)

2-indiscriminate attachment(from around 2 months to 7 months)

3-specific attachment (from around 7 months)

4-multiple attachment(shortly after specific attachments are formed)

Asocial Stage

-babies will form bonds with and respond to both human and inanimate objects similarly

-they do though prefer to be with humans rather than obejcts

-in this stage they can be comforted by anyone

Indiscriminate Attachment

-babies start to show more obvious social behaviours e.g smile/laugh

-clear preference for over people rather than objects

-may show preference for familiar adults but still will accept cuddles from anyone;no separation or stranger anxiety

Specific Attachment

child starts to show preference for one adult(primary caregiver)

-will start to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

Primary Care Giver

not always the person who they spend the most time with but whoever responds to baby’s signal and interacts the most

Who is usually primary care giver

mother , in 65% of cases (schaffer)

Multiple Attachment

begin to form secondary attachments

-behaviour is extended to others they spend time with:dad,auntie,grandma ec

Schaffer and Emerson study

They did a longitudinal study with 60 babies from working class families and Glasgow

Schaffer and Emerson study(procedure)

Observed infants and babies at home

-Mothers were interviewed about every day separations in order to measure separation anxiety

-Also measure stranger anxiety by researchers approaching the infant

(Interactions recorder)

How often were the infants observed In Schaeffer and Emerson study

Every month for the first year and again at 18 months

What everyday separation is when mothers interviewed about?

7 in total

-for example , when parent leaves the room

Schaffers and Emerson’s findings

By 6months…

By 7 months…

By 10 months…

What does Schaffer and Emerson find about the babies by the time they were6 months?

By six months, 50% of babies started showing separation anxiety towards the primary caregiver(usually mother)

What did saffron and Emerson find out about the babies by the time they were seven months?

By seven months, most babies attached to the mother but had not developed attachment to the father until around 18 months

What does saffron and Emerson find out about the babies by the time they were 10 months?

By 10 months, most babies had multiple attachments(to siblings etc)

Strengths of shepherd and Emerson study into the state of attachment

Real life setting, longitudinal study and practical application

How does she and Emerson study take place in a real life setting?

Infants were observed at home(high mundane realism)

-this allows for natural day-to-day occurrences

A= so we can assume that behaviour is natural and so findings are valid

How is Schaffer and Emerson study longitudinal study?

Observation was overtime; They observed every month for the first year and again after 18 months

-by following up same infants this removes the effects of confounding variables such aso particular participant variables e.g on one particular day baby might be sick and display more signs of attachment and separation anxiety

= valid findings

How does research into stages of attachment have practical application

In daycare care example during the session on discriminate stage setting in is usually straightforward What is specific at mistake? Child can be difficult with the adult hence this could explain suddenly in days.

A-this can be planned accordingly in response to the stages of attachment

Weaknesses of schaffers and Emerson’s research into the stages of attachment

Lack of temporal validity ,lack of population validity and problems with studying asocial stage

How does sufferers in Emerson study lack temporary validity?

The study was on the 60s so things would have been much different

-for example, women typically stayed at home and so took on a roll of the primary caregiver which could explain why an attachment was developed with the mother first as the PCG

A= so cannot apply findings to today’s infants

How does Schaffer and Emerson study lack population validity

Sample was 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow

-but may vary in different cultures for example infants from collectivist cultures may development multiple actions earlier

A= so could not be applied to different cultures or even classes

How may it be difficult to study the a social stage?

to study we look at interactional synchrony and personality but babies are poor coordination and generally immobile

-So we can’t be sure if their behaviour is intentional or what it is there doing e,g smiling or passing wind

A= this means we have to infer in order to draw conclusions which gives the results a lack of reliability