Attachment

What is Attachment?

• an emotional bond between two people, usually a mother and a child

What are caregiver-infant interactions?

• the behaviours shown between a caregiver and their infant that help attachment to develop

What is Reciprocity?

• when an infant responds to the actions of another person

What is Interactional Synchrony?

• when an infant mirrors the actions of another person in a coordinated and rhythmic manner

What is imitation?

• when the infant copies the caregiver’s actions and behaviour

What is bodily contact?

• physical interactions between carer and infant that help to form the attachment bond

What is caregiverese?

• adults who interact with infants using a high-pitched, slow and repetitive voice

• it aids communication between carer and infant

What is caregiver sensitivity?

• the ability to recognize and respond to an infants needs responsibly

What does innate mean?

• traits that we are born with rather than acquired or learned

What are alert phases?

• when babies signal to their mother that they are ready for interaction

What is stranger anxiety?

• when an infant cries when an unfamiliar person approaches

What is separation anxiety?

• distress when the child is unexpectantly separated from home or a close attachment figure

What is bodily contact?

• physical interactions between carer and infant that help to form the attachment bond

What is John Bowlby’s theory about?

• maternal deprivation

• separation from the mother figure in early childhood has serious consequences for emotional and physical development

What did Schaffer and Emerson do and when?

• study the development of attachment in infants

• 1964

What was Schaffer and Emerson’s aims?

• to assess whether there was a pattern of attachment formation that was common to all infants

• to identify and describe the distinct stages by which attachments form

How many participants took part in Schaffer and Emersons experiment?

• 60 newborn babies and their mothers

What was the procedure of Schaffer and Emersons experiment?

• babies were studied for the first year of their lives in their own homes

• mothers were interviewed about their observations

How did Schaffer and Emerson measure attachment?

• separation protest

• Stranger anxiety

What is separation protest and how is it assessed?

• distress shown when infant is apart from caregiver

• assessed through several everyday situations: the infant being left alone in a room, left alone with others, left in their pram outside the house etc

What is stranger anxiety and how is it assessed?

• distress shown when an unfamiliar person is present

• assessed by the researcher approaching the infant at the start of each home visit, to see if infant gets distressed

What were Schaffer and Emerson’s findings towards separation protest and stranger anxiety?

• infants at 6-8 months showed separation protest when parted from their attachment figure

• stranger anxiety was shown 1 month later

What were Schaffer and Emerson’s findings on multiple attachments?

• at 18 months: 87% hat at least two attachments, 31% having five or more attachments

What stages of attachment did Schaffer identify?

• asocial (pre-attachment) phase

• indiscriminate (diffuse) attachment phase

• discriminate (single) attachment phase

• multiple attachment phase

When is the asocial phase?

• during the first 0 to 3 months of life

What happens during the asocial phase?

• The baby learns to separate people from objects but doesn’t have any strong preferences about who cares for it

When is the indiscriminate attachment phase?

• between 3 to 7/8 months

What happens during the indiscriminate attachment phase?

• the infant starts to clearly distinguish and recognise different people, smiling more at people it knows than at strangers

• there are still no strong preferences about who cares for it

When is the discriminate attachment phase?

• from 7/8 months onwards

What happens during the discriminate attachment phase?

• the infant becomes able to form a strong attachment with an individual

When is the the multiple attachment phase?

• 9 months onwards

What happens during the multiple attachment phase?

• the infant can form attachments to many different people

What did Condon and Sander do and when?

• analysed frame-by-frame video recordings of infants’ movements to find they co-ordinated their actions in sequence with adults’ speech to form a turn-taking conversation

• 1974

What did Condon and Sander’s research support?

• interactional synchrony

Strengths and criticisms of Condon and Sander’s research?

• Strengths: Ecological validity (parents and babies in their own environment), ethical study

• Limitations: The behaviour of newborns is open to interpretation e.g. is it a smile or wind?

What did Klaus and Kennell do and when?

• compared mums who had a lot of physical contact with their babies, to mums who only had physical contact when feeding

• 1976

What did Klaus and Kennell discover?

• greater physical contact leads to stronger and closer bond formation

Criticisms of Klaus and Kennell’s research?

• their findings were due to the attention given rather than increased physical contact.

What did Meltzoff and Moore do and when?

• found that infants aged 2-3weeks tended to mimic adults’ specific facial expressions and hand movements

• 1977

What did Meltzoff and Moore’s research support?

• infant mimicry is an innate ability to aid the formation of attachment

Criticisms of Meltzoff and Moore’s research?

• only securely attached infants engage in interactional synchrony

What did Papousek et al do and when?

• found that the tendency to use a rising tone to show an infant that it was their turn in the interaction was cross-cultural

• 1991

What did Papousek et al’s research support?

• that caregiveres is an innate, biological device to facilitate the formation of attachments

Criticisms of Papousek et al’s research?

• low ecological validity due to the artificial lab setting

• potential for observer bias

• difficulties in precisely defining and measuring infant behavior

What did Feldman and Eidelman do and when?

• reported that reciprocity is seen from 3 months of age

• 2007

Criticisms of Feldman and Eidelman’s research?

• infants lack coordinated movements and tend to move their limbs randomly