Psychology, Attachment Paper 1

First Topic : Caregiver Infant Interactions

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First what is Attachment?

Attachment is when infants and caregivers develop deep and lasting emotional bonds. Both members of this emotional relationship seek closeness and feel more secure when close to their attachment figure. The strength of the bonds can be seen in complex two way caregiver infant interactions such as reciprocity and interactional synchrony.

What is Reciprocity? With an AO3 point

Reciprocity is similar to a conversation, is a mutual turn taking form of interaction. Both caregiver and infant contribute to the interaction by responding to the other’s signals and cues.

Strength, Meltzoff & Moore (1977): An experimenter displayed facial gestures such as sticking a tongue out and opening their mouth in shock to 12-21 day old infants. Recordings of the infant were rated by people blind to the experiment. It was found infant responses matched the experimenter’s facial expressions. These results suggests the ability to observe and reciprocate through imitation is present from a very early age.

What is Interactional Synchrony? With an AO3 point

Interactional synchrony is a simultaneous interaction between the infant and caregiver who appear to be acting rhythmically, with matching, coordinated behaviour and matching states

Strength, Condon & Sander (1974): Videotaped interactions between adults and neonates, focusing on the movements of the neonates in response to adult speech. Using a detailed frame by frame analysis of the video recordings, they found evidence of interactional synchrony/ coordination between the neonates movements and the rhythmic patterns of the adults speech. These results suggest even from birth, humans have an innate ability for social interactions.

What is Imitation?

Imitation is the infant copying the caregivers expression

What is Sensitive Responsiveness?

Sensitive Responsiveness is when the adult caregiver correctly interprets the meaning of the infant’s communication and is motivated to respond appropriately. For example, they provide milk or change a nappy when the infant shows distress.

What is Child-Directed Speech (CDS)

Child Directed Speech (CDS) aka baby talk, is when the adult caregiver talks in a ‘sing song’ tone, modulating their voice by slowing it down and raising the pitch; this voice modulating helps keep the infants attention.

Note: CDS is know historically as motherese however this term is criticised as an example of gender stereotyping.

What is Body Contact?

Body Contact or physical contact, especially skin to skin contact, is necessary for bonding, especially in the first few hours of life (i.e. breast feeding)

AO3 point of some of the Infant Interactions study talked about so far?

Strengths - Many studies use observers, blind to the true aims of the experiment to provide inter-rater reliability or even use complex camera systems to document and slow down micro-sequences of interactions between caregivers and infants. This high control of infant studies indicates high internal validity. (Can like to Meltzoff & Moore 1977 and Condon & Sander 1974)

Limitation - Infants cannot directly communicate their thoughts or emotions. Therefore, findings in caregiver-infant interaction research depend on inferences which are considered unscientific.

What are Schaffer and Emerson (1964) 4 stages of attachments?

Schaffer’s four stages of attachment are:

Stage 1: Asocial, 0-6 weeks

Stage 2: Indiscriminate Attachments, 6 weeks - 7 months

Stage 3: Specific Attachments, 7 - 9 months

Stage 4: Multiple Attachments, 9 - 10+ months

What is Stage 1 of Schaffer’s stages of attachment?

Stage 1: Asocial; 0-6 weeks, Babies display innate behaviours (Crying/Smiling) that ensure proximity to any potential caregiver. As their perceptual ability is limited, they will also display these behaviours to non human objects. Anyone can comfort them, as they do not prefer any individual caregiver

What is Stage two of Schaffer’s stages of attachments?

Stage 2: Indiscriminate Attachment; 6 weeks - 7 months, Infants develop the ability to tell the difference between humans and objects and between familiar and unfamiliar individuals, smiling more at the people they see frequently. However, they do not yet show stranger anxiety (distress at the presence of a stranger) or separation anxiety (distress at the absence of a primary caregiver).

What is Stage three of Schaffer’s stages of attachments?

Stage 3: Specific Attachment; 7 - 9 months, Babies form a strong attachment to a primary caregiver, most often their mother. It is in this stage that separation anxiety and stranger anxiety develop.

What is Stage four of Schaffer’s stages of attachments?

Stage 4: Multiple Attachment; 9 - 10+ months, The infants starts to form attachments with other regular caregivers (like fathers, grandparents, siblings), and stranger anxiety starts to decrease.

AO3 points on Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study on attachment? 2 strength and 1 limitation?

Strength - Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study outlines the stages babies go through as there developing and found that all 60 of the babies studied acted within the same 4 stages , even though some where behind, they still did it once, so this may suggest a biological influence which is causing this.

Strength - As infants and their families were observed in their own homes, the study had a high level of mundane realism; the experience for the infants was normal. Strangers visiting the family home and the caregiver temporarily leaving the room are normal occurrences. This suggests the behaviour recorded was valid.

Limitation - The same in Schaffer’s study may not be generalisable as it only included a group of working class mothers in 1960s Glasgow; this culture is not representative of much of the UK or the rest of the world. The study may also lack temporal validity, as childrearing practices have likely changed significnally in the past 60 years.

What was the Procedure for Schaffer and Emerson 1964 stages of attachment study?

Strength - Schaffer and Emerson (1964) identified the four stages of attachment from the results of a longitudinal observation where they looked at 60 working class babies and their families in Glasgow. In the first year, data was collected through monthly observations and interviews, with an additional follow up visit at 18 months. Two types of behaviour was assessed: Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. They found separation anxiety was found in most babies at 25-32 weeks, with stranger distress occurring in most babies approximately one month later. In the 18 month follow up, 87% had developed multiple attachments. The strongest attachment was to those mothers with consistent caregiver infant interactions. These results identified suggest a possible biological influence behind them as all the babies acted on them at least once.

The role of a father, Schaffer

Schaffer found that infants primary attachment figure was most frequently their mother alone (65%): 30% both parents and only 3% the father alone. However, at 18 months, 75% of infants had formed an attachment with their father, showing separation anxiety, suggesting fathers play an important role in their infant’s life.

The role of the father: The importance of Active Play,

Fathers are seen to engage babies in active ‘play’ activities more consistently than mothers. Fathers’ interactions emphasis situation, and so it is thought their role is to encourage risk taking behaviours, compared to the more comforting style of mother.

The role of the father: As a primary caregiver,

In modern western society, mothers are more likely to take part in the workplace; there is evidence to suggest that if men take on the role of primary caregivers, their interactional style changes to be more like mothers, increasing their capacity for sensitive responsiveness.

AO3 points on the role of the father, 2 strengths and 2 limitations,

Strength - Field 1978 observed caretaker mothers, primary caretaker fathers, and secondary caretaker fathers interacting with their 4 month old infants, finding fathers, in general, focused more on game playing and less on holding. Additionally, the primary caretaker fathers showed more sensitively responsive behaviour, similar to mothers; for example, they used more smiling and child directing speech than secondary caretaker fathers.

Strength - Verissimo 2011 observed preschool children’s relationship with their mothers and fathers, then later conducting a follow up assessment of social interactions when the child started nursey. A strong attachment to the father was the best predictor of the ability to make friends in school, suggesting an important role for fathers in socialisation.

Limitation - Research on the role of the father is socially sensitive. Research that argues the role of the mother cannot be replaced by the father may lead to father led single families and families with two fathers feeling they cannot fully provide for the needs of infants.

Limitation - There are economic implications to research assessing the importance of the fathers role; this could lead to legislation that ensures equal paternity and maternity leave. While this may reduce the number of males in the workforce, reduce economic activity and place pressure on businesses.

Next Topic : Animal Studies

Lorenz and Harlow

What is meant by Lorenz and Imprinting?

Certain animals, such as many species of bird, are known to attach to their mother strongly; the infant animal will then follow their mother, Lorenz termed this process imprinting and tested this early bond.

What was Lorenz 1935 Procedure?

Procedure: Greylag Goose eggs were randomly divided; half where taken to be hatched by Lorenz using an incubator, and the other half were hatched naturally by the biological mother. In later studies, he varied the time between hatching and when the gosling first observed a moving object

What were Lorenz 1935 Findings.

The goslings who Lorenz had hatched imprinted on him, following him rather than the Mother Goose. The goslings hatched in a natural environment, imprinted on the Mother goose and followed her. Lorenz placed all the goslings in a box. When the goslings were released from the box, the goslings who imprinted on Lorenz found him and continued to follow him.

Lorenz found the goslings had a critical period of around 32 hours; if a gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first few hours, it lost the ability to imprint

What does Lorenz’s research suggest?

It suggests imprinting is a strong evolutionary/ biological feature of attachment in certain birds, and imprinting is with the first object large object visually seen, not other potential cues (i.e. smell/ sound).

What is meant by Harlow and Contact Comfort?

A test of the cupboard love theory, that babies love there mothers because they feed them

Harlow (1958) Procedure:

Infant rhesus macaque monkeys were removed from their biological mothers and placed in cages with surrogate mothers. One surrogate mother provide milk and no comfort while the other provided comfort but no milk; the milk mother was made of out exposed wires while the comfort mother was made out of cloth. Time spent with the mother was recorded, as well as which surrogate the infant ran to when frightened by a mechanical monkey.

Harlow (1958) Findings:

- The infant monkeys spent most of their time with the comfort providing ‘cloth mother’, only visiting the ‘food mother’ when they need to eat but quickly returned to the cloth mother for comfort.

- The infant monkeys returned to the cloth mother when frightened. And monkeys without access to a cloth mother showed signs of stress related illness.

- In follow up studies, Harlow found that the maternal deprivation his studies had caused resulted in permanent social disorders in the monkeys as adults, including difficulty in mating and raising their offspring

What does Harlow’s research suggest?

It suggests that rhesus macaques have a biological (nature) need for physical contact and will attach to whatever provides comfort rather than food, providing evidence against the cupboard love theory

Animal Studies of Attachment AO3 points

Limitation - The generalisation of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic. Humans and animals have very different biology, and humans have various social and cultural experiences that inform their behaviour. Even Harlow’s findings on primates, who are closer genetically to humans than Lorenz’s birds, should not automatically be thought to apply to humans.

Strength - Harlow's findings on contact comfort have been highly influential; Bowlby argued similar to macaques, infants crave comfort from their mothers, attempting to form a monotropic relationship. If this fails, then Blowby claims that humans infants will grow into adults with poor socialisation, similar to the monkeys without a cloth mother.

Strength - Lorenz’s findings on the critical period in geese have been highly influential; Bowbly argued that there is a similar critical period for humans, 6 - 30 months. And if an attachment is not made then it will cause permanent damage and social problems.

Strength - There are practical applications of Harlow and Lorenz’s work. Knowledge initially gained from these studies and later developed by Bowlby has been applied to early childcare. For example, after birth, immediate physical touch between mother and child is now encouraged.

Next Topic : Explanations of Attachment

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What was Dolland and Miller’s (1950) Theory?

Dolland and Miller (1950) came up with the cupboard love theory, based on the principles of learning theory; it argues infants become attached to their caregiver because they learn that their caregiver provides food.

Explaining the cupboard love theory using, Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning, learning die to association. When two stimuli are presented to a creature at the same time, an association can form. In the case of the cupboard love theory of attachment, the food (initially an unconditioned stimulus) provides pleasure, as an unconditioned response. As the mother is present every time the baby is fed, the mother becomes associated with the pleasure of being fed: she changes from being a neutral stimulus to a conditioned stimulus. Now, in the presence of the mother, the infant experiences a conditioned pleasure response.

Explaining the cupboard love theory using, Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is learning due to patterns of reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is when a behaviour is made more likely when receiving a pleasurable stimulus; in attachment, when a parent feeds a crying baby, the baby is more likely to repeat the crying behaviour to get food.

Negative reinforcement is when a behaviour is made more likely when removing an unpleasant stimulus. The parents feeding behaviour is negatively reinforced by the baby stopping its crying behaviour when fed.

Explaining the cupboard love theory, Attachment as a Secondary Drive

Drives are the desire to complete an action. Primary drives are instinctive; we don’t need to learn to want to eat or sleep as they are based on biological needs'; we feel hungry and sleepy. Secondary Drives are learnt; for example, according to cupboard love, we learn as infants to want attachment because we learn that the the secondary drives will ultimately lead to satisfying a primary drive, in this case, hunger.

Explanations of Attachment: Learning Theory: AO3

Strength - Learning theory has face validity; it makes intuitive sense that babies cry when they learn crying gains them attention and, ultimately food.

Strength/ Limitation - The behaviourist principles used to explain attachment are backed up by a long history of well controlled research, such as that by Pavlov and Skinner. However such research on human babies is highly impossible due to ethical and practical reasons.

Limitation - There are alternate theories of attachment that don’t depend on learning theory, for example Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory, which gives an evolutionary explanation for caregiver-infant attachment. Arguing babies have an instinct to attach to their primary caregivers as they provide security.

What is Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory?

Bowley’s Monotropic theory is an evolutionart explanation of attachment; Bowlby argues infants have an innate drive to form an especially strong attachment to their mother (monotropy) and stay in close proximity. Bowlby argues this drive is instinctual as forming a strong attachment is vital to infants survival, as their mother provides food and security.

How do babies help develop the Monotropic relationship?

Babies help to develop the monotropic relationship but instinctively using signals called social releasers (Crying, Smiling, Vocalisation) that attract the caregiver’s attention; according to Bowlby’s monotropic theory, mothers are biologically programmed to instinctively find these behaviours cute or distressing.

What did Bowlby say about a critical period in context with his montropic theory?

Based on Lornenz’s discovery of a 32 hour critical period in geese, in which attachment must form or not all, Bowlby suggests a strong monotropic attachment must form in the first 30 months after birth. Bowlby claims a lack of monotropy results in permanent negative social, intellectual and emotional consequences for the infant.

What did Bowlby claim as a result of Freud and Harlow?

Informed by Freud’s focus on early childhood and Harlow’s work on monkeys, Bowlby claims the child’s monotropic attachment to its mother provides a blueprint for future relationships (a schema). This internal working model guides how to conduct future relationships, such as if people can be trusted or if relationships are loving.

Bowlby suggests stronger attachments in infant-caregiver relationships will form if?

Bowlby suggests stronger attachments in infant-caregiver relationships will form if care is consistent, and weaker attachments will form with frequent/ long separations. The strength of the monotropic relationships can be seen in safe base behaviour. Infants with goof attachments will use their mother as a base explore their environment but will show distress if their mum disappears or if a stranger approaches.

Evaluations for Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory

Strength - Bowlby’s work has been impactful; he inspired later researchers, such as Mary Ainsworth. Bowlby’s ideas have been developed and applied to early childcare. For example, immediate physical contact between the mother and their babies in the first few hours of life after birth is encouraged, and social workers actively investigate cases of infant neglect, understanding the long term harm.

Limitation - Bowlby’s theory is criticised for suffering from a form of gender bias called alpha bias, the exaggeration of gender differences. Bowlby argues the fathers role is to provide resources for the family, while the mother’s monotropic role is crucial. This is likely a reflection of a 1940s worldwide that was likely incorrect in its time but now lacks temporal validity due to the changing nature of the modern family.

Strength/ Limitation - Bowlby’s work is based in part on Lorenz’s findings of a critical period in geese; Bowlby argued that there is similar critical period for humans. However, showing the difficulty of applying animal research to humans, later research on orphans suggest unlike with geese, this period is ‘sensitive’, not critical, important, but suitable care can lead to recovery, counter to Bowlby’s claim of permanent damage.

Next Topic : Strange Situation

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What is Insecure Avoidant (Type A) attachment?

Infants keep a distance from their mother, not using her as a secure base but exploring freely. The infant displays low stranger anxiety. If their mothers leave the room, they have low separation anxiety; when mum returns, they are indifferent, not attempting to get comfort from her. Their mothers seem to show little sensitive responsiveness to their infant needs.

What is Secure (Type B) attachment?

Infants use their mother as a safe base as they explore their environment. They show a moderate level of stranger anxiety, and when separated from mum, they show separation anxiety, but a happy reunion response allows them to settle quickly back to exploration. Caregivers show sensitive responsiveness

What is Insecure Resistant (Type C) attachment?

Infants do not explore the environment and are clingy, seeking closeness to mum. They have high stranger and separation anxiety; when their mothers return, the infants appear ambivalent, with mixed emotions, seeming to both crave and reject her attention. Mothers appear to be inconsistent with their sensitive responsiveness