attachment

what is Reciprocity ?

how 2 people interact
both infant and mother respond to each others signals and elicit a response
mothers usually pick up on and respond to the infants 2/3 of the time ( Feldman and Eildman 2007)
Brazleton et al describes the interaction as a couples dance as each partner responds to each others moves

what is Interactional Synchrony and who are the researches behind it ?

mother and infant reflect both actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way. Meltzoff and Moore observed interactional synchrony in children as young as 2 weeks old. An adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions or gestures. the child's response was filmed and identified by independent observers . there was a link between adults gesture and babies actions.
Isabelle et al observed 30 mothers and assessed their level of synchrony. high levels of synchrony meant better quality of mother infant attachment

what are the advantages and disadvantages of caregiver-infant interactions?

• subjective as babies expression may have no meaning

• observations don't tell us why there is reciprocity and interational synchrony

• it is socially sensitive as Isabelle et al's study shows that mothers should not go to work

• controlled observations

Parent- infant attachment

traditionally the mother
Schaffer and Emerson found what babied become attached to their mother first around 7 moths then secondary attachment a few weeks later. in 75% of the studies an attachment was made with the father by 18 months ( determined by baby showing separation anxiety from father)

Role of the father

Grossman carried out longitude study looking at both parents behaviour and attachment with child until their teens. The attachment with the mother was related to the child's attachment during adolescent suggesting the father is less important . however, the quality of the fathers play with the child was related to their quality of attachment suggesting the fathers role is more to do with play and stimulation rather than nurture.

Father as primary care giver

evidence shows that fathers can adapt to the role of primary care giver if mother not present. Field filmed 4 moth old baby interact with primary mother, primary father , and secondary father. Primary fathers and mothers spent more time smiling , imitating and holding than the secondary father. therefore gender does not affect attachment.

advantages and disadvantages of attachment figures

• inconsistent findings as different researchers are interested in finding different things e.g. primary and secondary attachment. no studies actually tell us what the role of the father is. -socially sensitive as suggests child might be at a disadvantage if mother goes back to work

• children with fathers growing up are no difference showing similar role

• biological explanation, woman have more oestrogen making them more nurturing

Schaffer and Emerson's Study

investigated the aims of early attachment at the age which they develop emotional intensity and to whom they direct it at
60 babies (1 male and 29 female) from Glasgow working class families . they were visited to their homes every month for for the first year and again at 18 months. mothers asked if babies show any protest and tested separation and stranger anxiety.
they found that between 25 and 32 months 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety . they showed reciprocity. BY age 40 weeks 80% of babies had specific attachment and 30% showed multiple attachment

Schaffer and Emerson evaluation

+good external validity as carried out in the homes +longitudinal so good internal validity as children followed up so no confounding variables as same children used

• can't be generalised

• doesn't necessarily measure attachment as stranger and separation anxiety are only two components that make up attachment

Stage 1 of attachment

asocial stage
birth to 2 months
recognising and forming bonds with carer but behaviours towards human and non-human objects are similar.
baby shows preference to familiar people and can calm down quickly with them
baby happier in the presence of humans

Stage 2 of attachment

indiscriminate stage
2-7 months
child shows preference to humans rather than inanimate objects. they recognise and prefer similar objects
they accept comfort from any adult
do not show stranger of separation anxiety

Stage 3 of attachment

specific attachment
around 7 months
infant starts to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. the child has formed a specific attachment with the primary caregiver

Stage 4 of attachment

multiple attachments
a month after forming specific attachments
child forms secondary attachment

evaluation of sages of development

• problems with asocial stage as baby has no coordination and is immobile so judgements on behaviour can not be made when this young

• problems with multiple attachments as not clear when baby forms second attachment as different in collectivist cultures

• the stage theory suggests that development of attachment is not flexible +application as gives a mothers point of view of their child's progress in attachment

Lorenz's Research

Lorenz randomly divided goose eggs. Half of them hatched in a natural environment with their mother. The others hatched in an incubator and the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz.
Incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group followed the mother duck. This was imprinting whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching. if they did not form an attachment in this time Lorenz found that the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure

Evaluation of Lorenz's research

• research may not generalise to other animals let alone humans

• observations can be questioned. E.g. the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al found that some chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try and mate with them as well as adults. But with experience they learnt they preferred to mate with other chickens. This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not permanent as Lorenz believed.

sexual imprinting

Lorenz investigate the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preference. He observed that birds that imprinted on humans will later show courtship behaviour towards the humans. E.g. in a case study Lorenz described a peacock that had been reared in a retile house at a zoo. The first thing the peacock saw when born as a giant tortoise. As an adult the peacock showed courtship behaviour toward the giant tortoise therefore had undergone sexual imprinting.

Harlow's Research evaluation

-highly unethical
+ real life application for social workers as they understand the effects of neglect and abuse
+can generalise better to humans that Lorenz's study of goose

Harlow's research

Harlow tested the idea that soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers. In one condition milk was dispensed from the plain wire mother whereas in the second condition milk was dispensed from the cloth covered mother.
it was found that the monkeys cuddled and sought comfort when frightened from the cloth mother over the wire mother even when the wire mother dispensed milk. This shows that contact comfort is more important to monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

what is the importance of comfort contact

Harlow observed that new-born kept alone in a bare cage usually died but survived if they had something soft like a cloth

Maternally deprived monkeys as adults (Harlow)

Harlow followed the monkeys into adult hood to see if the effects of not having a real mother, being maternally deprived had any permanent effects. The researchers found sever consequences. The monkeys reared by only the wire mother were the most dysfunctional even those reared with the cloth mother did not develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive less sociable and bred less often than other monkeys (as they were unskilled at mating). As mothers the deprived monkeys neglected their children and sometimes attacked their children even killing them

the critical period for normal development (Harlow)

A mother had to be introduced to the infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible

learning theory

behaviourist approach that emphasises the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour e.g. classical and operant conditioning.

Dollard and Miller

proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by the learning theory. Their approach is often referred to as 'the cupboard of love' approach as it emphasise the importance of the caregiver being the provider of food. They proposed that children love to learn whoever gives them food.

classical conditioning

involves learning to associate two stimuli together so the response you give to one will also be given for the other. Food was the UCS, and the pleasure from the food is the UCR. The caregiver is the neutral stimulus and over time they will be associated with food and so become a conditioned stimulus. After conditioning if the caregiver is seen the infant will produce a conditioned response of pleasure.

operant conditioning

involves learning to repeat a behaviour, or not depending on the consequences. If it is a pleasant consequence the behaviour is more likely to be repeated and so the behaviour is reinforced. This explains why babies cry for comfort. Crying leads to a response form the caregiver e.g. food and comfort, as long as the caregiver gives the right response (food and 'social suppressor') the crying is reinforced.
At the same time the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops escaping from something unpleasant is reinforcing.
This interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens the attachment.

explain why Attachment is a secondary drive

hunger is a primary drive; it's an innate biological motivator as we are motivated to eat to reduce hunger. Sears et al suggested that as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them and so attachment is a secondary drive learned by the association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of the primary drive.

evaluation of learning theory of attachment

-counter evidence as lorenz used imprinting which maintained the attachment
-can' be generalised
+ evidence for we do learn by association eg pavlovs dog
- does not take into account that other things form attachment eg reciprocity and interactional synchrony

Bowlby's monotropic theory

Bowlby rejected the learning theory of attachment because 'if it were true an infant of 2years old should take readily to whoever feeds them and this is not the case'. Instead he looked at the studies of Lorenz and Harlow and proposed an evolutionary explanation: attachment is an innate system that gave us a survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment evolved they ensure that young animals stay close to their caregiver and this protects them from hazards. Millions of years ago this might have been wild animals, today it is traffic and electricity.

monotropy

he placed emphasis on a child's attachment to one particular caregiver and believed that this attachment is different and more important than others. Bowlby called this person the mother but it did not need to be the baby's actual mother. The more time the baby spent with the mother the better.

The law of continuity

that the more predictable and constant the child's care the better the quality of attachment.

The law of accumulation separation

the effects of every separation from the mother add up and therefore the safest dose is the zero dose.

social releasers

Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate cute behaviours like smiling that encourages the attention from an adult. He called these social releasers as their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system i.e. make an adult feel love towards a child. He also noticed this behaviour was a reciprocal process. Both babies and mothers have innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers.

critical period

around two years when the infant attachment system is active and if it is not formed in this time they will find it difficult to form one later

internal working model

a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver and therefore has an effect on the child's relationships when older. A child's whose first relationship is loving and reliable, will expect all relationships to be like this and also be loving and reliable back. However, a child's relationship that involves poor treatment will and expect poor treatment and treat others that way. It also affects a child's ability to be a parent themselves as people base their parenting on experiences

Bowlby's theory of attachment evaluation

• critical period should be sensitive period

• contradicting research be schaffer and Emerson says you can form more that one attachment

• could be due to alternative hypothesis temperament

• support for internal working model from baily et al he assessed 99 mothers attachment and the attachment they had with their own parent through standard interview. he found mothers who had a poor attachment with their mothers had a poor attachment with their children

1) Type A attachment

insecure avoidant attachment (20-25%) - these children explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. They have little/no reaction when their care giver leaves and does not seek contact when caregiver returns. They show little stranger anxiety. They do not require comfort during reunion.

type b attachment

B secure attachment (60-75%of British toddlers) - explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver (proximity seeking and secure base behaviour). Show moderate stranger and separation anxiety. they require and accept comport in reunion stage

type c attachment

resistant attachment (3% of British toddlers)-seek greater proximity and so explore less. Huge stranger and separation anxiety but resist comfort when reunited with their carer.

Ethnocentrism

is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important and that all other groups are measure in relation to one's own.

culture

Culture is a group of people tat share the same norms and values

meta-analysis

Meta-analysis looks at and analyses data that's already been carried out (secondary data)

individualistic culture

Individualistic cultures are concerned with themselves and support independence e.g. USA and Germany

Collectivist culture

Collectivist cultures are more concerned with the group or community than themselves. Their decisions tend to be based on what is good for their family or community than themselves e.g. japan

Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory

Mother love in infancy is as important in mental health as vitamins and proteins are for physical health. Being separated from a mother in childhood can lead to serious consequences

Separation

a child not being in the presence of a primary attachment figure

Deprivation

infants losing an element of care. Prolonged separation can lead to privation

critical period for maternal deprivation

30 months. If the child is deprived of mother's emotional care for an extended period during the critical period the child will have psychological damage.

intellectually development for maternally deprived children

low IQ. Goldfarb 1947 children who had remained in institutions had a lower IQ than those fostered as they had a higher standard of emotional care

Affectionless psychopathology

inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others. This prevents the person from forming normal relationships and is associated with criminality. They can't appreciate feelings for victims and therefore have no remorse.

Bowlby's 44 thieves study

44 teenage 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathology. Their families were interviewed in order to establish whether the 'thieves' had prologues early separation from mothers. A control group of non-criminals but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/ deprivation occurred in children who were not thieves. Bowlby found that 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation form their mothers in their critical period. This shows failing to form an attachment can lead to affectionless psychopathology.

bowlby's maternal deprivation theory evaluation

+ supporting evidence from Levy et al who separated rats from their mothers for as little as a day and it had permanent effect on their development
-critical period is more of a sensitive period
-some people genetically have a low IQ but have not experienced maternal deprivation
-Bowlby confused deprivation and privation. E.g. Michael Rutter claimed that when Bowlby talks of 'deprivation', he had mixed up deprivation (loss of primary attachment figure after attachment had developed) and privation (failure to form any attachment in the first place). Rutter claimed that severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation.

childhood relationships

affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates and with adults such as teachers

adult relationships

relationships children go on to have including friendships and working relationships but most critically relationships with romantic partners and the persons own children

The continuity hypothesis

idea that there is consistency between early emotional experiences and later relationships, and it sees children's attachment types being reflected in these later relationships. This idea is based upon the internal working model, which was proposed by Bowlby in his monotropic theory.

if secure base as child when an adult you...

seek functional relationships and behave functionally within them.

if insecure avoidant as child when an adult you ..

will be too emotionally involved or uninvolved in the relationship

if insecure resistant as child when an adult you...

will be controlling and argumentative

affects of attachment on friendship

Securely attached infants go on to form the better quality of friendship whereas insecurely attached usually go on to have friend difficulties ( Kerns 1994)

affects of attachment on bullying

Myron-Wilson and Smith 1998 assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaire in 196 children aged 7-11 from London. it was found that secure children were most likely to be the victims and insecure children the bullies

affects of early relationships on later relationships study

McCarthy 1999 studied 40 women who had been assessed when they were infants for attachment type. 620 replies to a love quiz (American) were analysed. Test had 3 sections: 1-respondents current most important relationship. 2-general love experiences. 3- Attachment type. 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached with 25% insecure- avoidant and 19% insecure resistant. Secure attachment would have long lasting, secure and romantic experiences whereas insecure avoidant would have jealousy and fear or intimacy

evaluation of McCarthy's study in affects of early relationships on later relationships

+ supporting research from Bailey et al 99 women internal working model
-questionnaire lacks validity because p might not be honest and relies on accurate recollection
- researchers have exaggerated the significance of the influence of attachment on later relationships e.g. Clarke and Clarke describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic. People are not doomed to always have bad relationships because they had attachment problems. They just have a greater risk of problems. By over emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic about peoples future.
-concepts of internal working models is that there are theoretical problems. Internal working models are unconscious -we are not directly aware of their influence on us. So we would not really expect to get direct evidence about them through self - report methods which require conscious awareness. When participants self-report on their relationships they are relying on their conscious understanding of those relationships. At best, self -report give us indirect evidence about internal working models

institutionalisation

term for effect of living in an institutional setting. Institution being like a hospital/ orphanage where children live for long continuous periods of time. Often little emotional care. they affect children's attachment and subsequent development

disinhibited attachment

the effect of spending time in an institution. They are equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know as well as strangers. This is unusual as most children at 2 show stranger anxiety. Rutter explained this as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period.

mental retardation

low IQ . Like emotional development, damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of 6 moths

orphan study

these concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them. an orphan is a child whose parents have died or abandoned them permanently

Rutter's ERA(English and Romanian Adoptee) study

see how they have developed and to what extent good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
165 children, all had suffered from the effects of institutionalisation that were adopted in Britain.
Their cognitive, physical and emotional development were tested regularly at the ages of 4,6,11 and 15.
When first adopted all Romanian children were behind British children emotionally, physically and cognitively. They showed signs of mental retardation and were malnourished. The earlier they were adopted the quicker they caught up with UK children. If adopted before 6 months they had an IQ of 102, if between 6 months and 2 years their IQ was 86 and if adopted after 2 years their IQ was 77. Orphans adopted after 6 months were more likely to show attachment disorder and have peer relationship problems , in particular a disinhibited attachment)

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project-
Procedure

95 children aged 12-31 months who spent most of their lives in institutionalised care were assessed. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never spent time in institutionalised care. The strange situation procedure was used and carers were asked questions on unusual social behaviour i.e. cling attention seeking behaviours directed inappropriately towards an adult (disinhibited attachment) . 74% of control group are securely attached compared to 19% of institutional group

Romanian orphan studies evaluation

+application as more understanding so improve care in institutions
+few extraneous variables in orphan studies as orphans abandoned at birth so all they do is due to the institution rather than neglect and abuse before being institutionalised
-can't be generalised all institutions are different and Romanian ones were particularly bad
-long term effect are not shown. they may catch up when adults

cultural variation in attachment study

van ijzendoorn and kroosnberg conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure insecure - avoidant and insecure resistant attachment across a range of countries. They looked at the differences within the same country to get an idea of variations within a culture
Located 32 studies of attachment where strange situation had been used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types. Conducted in8 countries with 1990 children
Highest % of securely attached was in great Britain as sow exploring behaviours as children go to nursery from a young age. Lowest % of securely attached is china.

Highest % of insecure avoidant is in Germany because Germans leave kid alone form a young age so that they can be independent. Lowest % is japan.

Highest % of insecure resistant is japan as aren't never leave the child alone so child reacts scared and surprised. Lowest % of insecure resistant is Sweden.

Italian Study

Simonella et al 2014 looked at whether babies if different attachment types still match previous studies. 76, 12 moth olds. 50% were secure and 36& were insecure avoidant. This is lower rate of secure attachment then had been found in other studies because mothers work long hours and have professional child care. Cultural differences can make a dramatic difference to patterns of secure and insecure attachment.

Korean Study

Jin et al 2012 compared proportions of attachment types in Korea to duo studies. 87 children used. Proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to other countries-most infants secure but most insecurely attached and resistant only I child was avoidant. This is similar to japan as they have similar rearing techniques.

Cultural variation in attachment evaluation

+sample size (2000 babies used in total) is a strength because large samples increase internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results caused by bad methodology or very unusual participants
-samples are not true representation of all cultures. E.g. van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg claimed to study countries when in fact they studied cultures. In each country there are many different cultures with different children rearing techniques. An analysis by van Ijzendoorn and Sagi found that distributions of attachment type in Tokyo (urban setting) were similar to the western studies, whereas a more rural sample had an over representation of insecure resistant individuals.
-method in 'strange situation' can be seen as biased. E.g. it is Anglo American so cannot be applied to other cultures. Trying to apply a theory or technique designed for one culture to another culture is known as imposed etic (cultural universal). E.g. etic may be the idea of lack of separation anxiety and lack of pleasure on reunion indicate an insecure attachment in the strange situation. In Germany this behaviour might be seen more as independence than avoidance
-alternative explanations for cultural similarities. E.g. different cultural differences may reflect effect of mass media that other countries might not be exposed to. For instance on child rearing techniques
-strange situation lacks validity as it might not measure attachment at all but rather looks at temperament

proximity seeking

an infant with a good attachment will stay close to the care giver

Exploration and secure base behaviour

good attachment enable child to feel comfortable to explore, using their care giver as a secure base it a point of contact that will make them feel safe

Stanger anxiety

if closely attached child will show anxiety when stranger approaches

Separation anxiety

sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver

Ainsworth's strange situation

Controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. It takes pace in controlled conditions (i.e. laboratory) and with a two way mirror through with the psychologists can research the child's behaviour. they looked for separation/stranger anxiety, exploration and secure base, proximity seeking and response to reunion

Ainsworth's strange situation evaluation

+increased reliability as there is inter-rater-reliability
+validity of these concepts as it can explain subsequent outcomes
-may be measuring temperament
-it is culture bound
-does not include all types of attachment eg disinhibited ( treat strangers and familiar people the same) and disorganised attachment