Attachment

Define attachment

Define attachment

Close, two-way emotional bond

Each sees the other as essential for emotional security

How do you identify attachment

Proximity

Separation distress

Secure base behaviour

What are care-giver/infant interactions and why are they important

Form of communication between care-giver and infant

Helpful for infants social development, forms basis of attachment and influences attachment for life

What is reciprocity

Two-way process, each party responds to the signals and cues given by the other

What is interactional synchrony

CG and I reflect each others emotions and cue in co-ordinated manner

Mirror each other

Sensitivity hypothesis

Ainsworth theorised child’s attachment to PCG is based on how sensitive PCG is to infant’s needs

Studies into CG/I interactions

Meltzoff and Moore

Isabella et al.

CG/I

Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Studied infants around 2 weeks old

Had adults display hand and facial gestures, babies were able to respond similarly

CG/I

Isabella et al. (1989)

30 mother and infant pairs

Assessed synchrony between pairs and measured their level of attachment

• (HOW?)

Higher synchrony = Better attachment

Perceptions of fathers as CG

• More of a playmate, more physically active and involved

• Supporting role of the mother

• Viewed as secondary attachment figures

Factors leading to difference in gender attachment

BIO

• Testosterone = Increase playmate behaviour

• Oxytocin = Attachment behaviours

• Amygdala growth = Protective behaviour

Increase oxytocin and amygdala occurs in both parents

Factors leading to difference in gender attachment

SOCIAL

• Fathers are more likely to be affected by their own experience

  • Internal working model

• Gender socialisation, how we teach girls vs. boys

• Social expectations of genders

  • IMPACTS OWN EXPERIENCE

Factors leading to difference in gender attachment

ECONOMIC

• Being breadwinner is central to many men’s identities = impacts their ability to be CG

  • Encompasses socialisation

• Increase in both parents working

Female led household & Same sex

Single-parent families don’t fare as well as others

Same-sex parents had no difference in developmental differences

• Father’s importance is as an additional parent

  • SOCIAL SENSITIVITY

Studies for gender and attachment

Schaffer and Emerson

Field

Grossman

GaA

Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

(LONGITUDINAL STUDY)

Primary caregiver is more likely to be mother

Most babies had attached to mother by 7/8 months

75% of babies had attachment to father by 18 months

GaA

Field (1978)

Filmed 4 month old babies with PCG mum, PCG dad, SCG dad

PCG spent more time smiling at/with baby, imitating baby and holding baby

Responsiveness was key to attachment

GaA

Grossman (2002)

(LONGITUDINAL STUDY)

Father’s play style relates to his own internal working model

Quality of father + infant attachment related to quality of adolescent/teen attachments

SCHAFFER AND EMERSON

Procedure

Longitudinal study

1960’s Glasgow, working class

Mum and baby visited once a month until a year old, then once more when baby 18 months

Parents had to observe baby in different scenarios and keep a diary of observations

SCHAFFER AND EMERSON

Results

25-32 weeks : 50% babies showed separation towards a specific adult

• Attachment to CG was to whichever was most sensitive to babies signals

40 weeks: 30% had formed multiple attachments

Identified stages of development

Asocial

Indiscriminate

Specific

Multiple

Asocial attachment

0-2 months

Similar response to ALL objects

Towards end, show preference to people

Indiscriminate attachment

2-7 months

Prefer familiar people (some strange anxiety)

Will accept comfort from any adult (no separation anxiety)

Specific attachment

7 months

Specific attachment to person, that person = PCG

Stranger anxiety AND separation anxiety

Multiple attachments

Months after specific developed

Display of attachment to other people, they are familiar with

SCHAFFER AND EMERSON

Conclusion

By 1 year old, most babies will have formed multiple attachments

SCHAFFER AND EMERSON

Supporting study

Meltzoff and Moore

Study babies and interactional synchrony

At 2 weeks, babies already show preference to humans over inanimate objects

When is animal testing allowed

When there is a tangible benefit for humans that outweighs the harm done to animalsWha

What is imprinting

Innate readiness to develop attachment within a critical period

What is sexual imprinting

Early imprinting can affect adult mating preferences

Choose same type that they imprinted on

LORENZ

When was his study

1935

LORENZ

Aims

Understand the predisposition to imprinting and attachment, especially in regards to critical period

LORENZ

Procedure

One clutch of geese eggs split into two

½ first saw him when hatch, ½ saw mother goose

Observed behaviour

LORENZ

Findings

Imprinting restricted to critical period, if it doesn’t occur then, won’t occur at all

Mixed geese together, followed who they imprinted on

Impacted sexual imprinting, geese that had imprinted on him had hard time mating with other geese

LORENZ

Eval POS

• Ground-breaking research: Importance of critical period and imprinting behaviours

• Aided development of human theories and research

• Study style = natural and ecologically valid

LORENZ

Eval NEG

• Cross-species = Can you apply a study on geese to human behaviour

• Long-term ethical concerns

• Simplistic interpretation of attachment and imprinting

• Didn’t consider environmental variables, decided it was innate

HARLOW

When was study

1959

HARLOW

Aim

Understand behaviours in relation to comfort vs. food searching

HARLOW

Procedure

Cloth vs. wire (comfort vs. food)

16 monkeys

Stimuli given and observed monkey’s reaction

• Scaring, placing empty rooms

HARLOW

Findings

Monkeys would go to the cloth mother for comfort, over the wire mother despite providing food

HARLOW

Follow-up

Observed them as adults

Social behaviours were abnormal, aggressive and unable to mate

• Accounts of monkeys abusing partners and babies

HARLOW

Eval POS

• Ground-breaking and theoretically important → influenced later human studies

• Closer to humans than geese

• Methodologically controlled

HARLOW

Eval NEG

• Massive ethical concerns

• External validity issues due to level of artificiality

• Generalisability to humans = better than geese, but still not human

• Cannot be sure on findings, interpretations of behaviour

Learning theory and attachment

Suggests that behaviour is learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning

Classical conditioning : terms

Unconditioned stimulus = Food

Neutral stimulus = Mother

Unconditioned response = Pleasure

US + NS = UR

Conditioned stimulus = Mother

Conditioned response = Pleasure

Classical conditioning : Process

Food (US) → Pleasure (UR)

Food (US) + Mother (NS) → Pleasure (UR)

Mother (CS) → Pleasure (CR)

What operant conditioning

Maintenance of learned behaviour through consequences

Pos reinforcement = Add pleasant stimulus to encourage behaviour

• Sweet for every 3 flashcards learnt

Neg reinforcement = Remove unpleasant stimulus to encourage behaviour

• Shortening revision time by 1 minute for every flashcard learnt

Operant conditioning : Process : POS

Baby cries → Baby gets food from mother → reinforces idea crying = food → baby repeats

Operant conditioning : Process : NEG

Baby cries → Mother feeds baby → Baby stops crying → Feeding takes away negative stimulus of baby crying → mother repeats behaviour

Theory of Drive reduction

When humans feel discomfort, drive is created to reduce the discomfort

Discomfort = Hunger, being fed = reduce discomfort

• Being fed = Positive reinforcement to fussing etc. that gets baby fed

Key part of Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Adaptive / Evolutionary

Social releasers

Critical period / Continuity hypothesis

Monotropy

Internal Working Model

Monotropic theory : Adaptive

Evolutionary process that has allowed as to form attachment for a survival benefit

Monotropic theory: Social Releasers

Innate behaviours that encourage attention / caregiver behaviours

Physical: Big eyes, small nose and chin

Behavioural : Crying and cooing

Reciprocal process between CG and I

Monotropic theory : Critical period

Babies must form an attachment within a critical period otherwise they will struggle to form one later in life

Monotropic theory : Continuity hypothesis

A secure attachment as an infant = Child/ adult that is emotionally and socially secure later in life = Secure relationships as an adult

Monotropic theory : Monotropy

Between CG and I only, special relationship

Important to emotional development

Monotropic theory : Internal Working Model

Mental relationship that is formed with CG influences later relationship

Acts as template for future relationships