attachment

who conducted the imprinting study

Lorenz

describe lorenz imprinting study procedure

classical experiment, divided a clutch of goose eggs. half of the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in the natural environment and the other half were in an incubator when the first moving object they saw was him

what was lorenz findings

incubator group followed him everywhere but the control group followed the mother goose everywhere. when the chicks were mixed, they still followed the same first moving object. lorenz identified a critical period when imprinting happens. chicks- few hours after hatching and after this if imprinting doesnt occur, chicks dont attach

lorenz findings sexual imprinting

birds that would imprint on humans would later display courtship behaviour towards humans. he reared a peakock infront of giant tortoise where it imprinted + it would show direct courtship behaviour

harlow reasearch summary

Harlow investigated attachment by studying rhesus monkeys, demonstrating that infants form strong bonds with caregivers not primarily for food, but for "contact comfort," preferring soft, cloth-covered surrogates over wire ones that provided milk. His research showed that this comforting touch is crucial for emotional development, as isolated monkeys developed severe social and emotional problems, highlighting the importance of nurturing touch over mere sustenance for healthy attachment.  (1958)

harlow procedure

reared 16 baby monkeys with one wire model ‘mother’ that dispenses milk and one with milk dispensed by a cloth covered mother.

harlow findings

monkeys sought comfort in cloth covered mother when they heard scary noises and were frightened, regardless of whether it dispensed milk or not. suggests contact comfort was more important than food when it came to attachment.

maternally deprived monkeys as adults

followed monkeys that had been deprived of a real mother, and found serious concequences. most dysfunctional, and even those raised with cloth covered mother didnt have regular social behaviour

one strength of lorenz reasearch

existing support for the concept of imprinting. vallortigara and regolin supports the idea. chicks were exposed to one simple shape combination that moved such as a traingle with a rectangle infront. then another pattern of shapes were shown but they followed the first one more closely. young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on the first moving object

one limitation of lorenz study

lacks genealisability to humans. the mammalian attachment system is different to and more complex than birds. mammal mothers also show emotional attachment to young.

one strength of harlows research

RWA. helped clinical psychologists and social workers understand that some adult diffulties such as difficulty in parenting and depression may be rooted from early bonding experiences (white et al 2023). his reasearch has also been apllied to improving the welfare of infant primates in zoo’s. theoretical + practical

limitation of harlows research

cant generalise findings from humans to monkeys. although they share similar attachment behaviour, the human brain and human behaviours is still much more complex than animals

another limitation of harlows study

research caused long term distress and severe concequences to the monekys

summarise learning theory attachment

caregiver-infant attachment can be explained using learning theory. their attachment was sometimes called ‘cupboard love’ because its about how attachment is cuz of food

classical conditioning attachment

associate 2 stimuli together. UCS- food, UCR- pleasure(being fed innately gives us pleasure)

NS- caregiver however they become associated with food. UCS + NS—>pleasure. the caregiver then becomes a CS where the baby expects food. conditioned pleasure response = love, therefore attachment

operant conditioning attachment

OC- learning from the concequences of behaviour. behaviour=pleasent concequence=reinforced. explains why babies cry for food. crying=response from caregiver e.g food. if a caregiver produces a desired response, crying is reinforced because it produces a pleasurable concequence. at the same time, baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver gives negative reinforcement because the crying stops(escaping something unpleasant)

attachment as a secondary drive

learning theory attachment focuses on drive reduction. hunger= primary drive, innate and biological and we are motivated to eat to reduce hunger drive. sears (1957) believes that as caregivers provide food it becomes generalised and attachment is a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive

one limitation of learning theory attachment

lack of support from animal studies such as lorenz. lorenz geese imprinted on the first moving thing regardless of whether or not he had food, and Harlows monekys went for comfort instead of food. shows factors other than association with foodn are important in the formation of attachments.

another limitation of learning theory attachment

lack of suppoprt from human studies on babies. Schaffer and emerson studied mother baby interactions by observing them over 18 months and interviewing the mothers about stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety. found that babies formed their main attached to the mother regardless of whether or not she fed them. suggests food is not the main factor

one strength of learning theory attachment

safety conditioning - attachment figure becomes associated with low levels of anxiety and feelings of safety. Bosmans et al (2020) suggested classical conditioning occurs when attachment figure becomes associated with low levels of anxiety. operant conditioning happens when proximityy seeking is rewarded w anxiety reduction. learning theory is still useful in understanding the development of attachments

- suggests the baby is playing a relatively passive role in attachment development simply responding to associations w comfort and reward. research shows babies are active partners in interactions with their caregiver. feldman and Eidelman found that mothers are alert to babies active signaling which suggests babies arent passive as proposed by learning theory. LT may not explain all aspects of attachment

SLT in attachment

Hay and Vespo (1988) suggested that SLt is better at describing the attachment process. parents teach children to love by demonstrating modelling attachment behaviours such as hugging. SLT also explains some aspects of attachment such as the babies being active recipients, but doesnt explain cross-cultural universals in both parent and infant attachment behaviour

another explaination of attachment

bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment where he rejected the learning approach and looked at lorenz and harlow for an evolutionary explanation- attachment is an innate system that provides survival advantage. attachment has evolved to keep young animals safe to ensure they stay close to the caregivers

why is his theory monotropic

great emphasis on a child attachment to one particular caregiver as that relationship is different and more important than others. he called this stronger attachment ‘mother’ or the primary care giver, the more time spent with them the better

what are the 2 principles he put forward

-law od continuity= the more predictable and stable a childs care, the better their quality of attachment

-the law of accumilated seperation= the effects of every seperation from the mother adds up and ‘the safest dose is the zero dose’

social releasers

suggests that babies are innately born with ‘cute’ behaviours like cooing and smiling to encourage adult attention. evokes social interaction so the adults attach to the baby. both the mother and child were ‘hard-wired’ to become attached.

what was the critical period bowlby proposed

6 months when the infant attachment system is still active. viewed it as more of a sensitive period that goes on until 2 year old. if no attachment is formed the child will find it harder to attach later

Internal working model for relationships

a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary attachment figure. if a child forms a relationship with a reliable and loving caregiver they will expect all other relationships to be like that. however if a child forms a relationship involving poor treatment they are more likely to accept that treatment/act that way. it also affects the childs later ability to be a parent themselves. people tend to base parenting on their own experiences of being parented, thats why people from functional famillies tend to have functional famillies themselves

one limitation of bowlbys theory

concept of monotropy may lack validity. reviewd by Dagan et al (2020), now there is a large body of evidence that infants have multiple attachments rather than just one special one, and the quality of those attachements are independant to each other. The quality of these multiple attachments are better predictors of later development than the quality of one to one primary caregiver -Rivers et al (2024)

one strength of bowlby’s theory

evidence supporting role of social releasers. clear evidence that cute baby releasers are desigmed to elicit interaction. Brazelton (1975) observed babies trigger interactions with adults and then instructed the primary care givers to ignore these. the babies became increasingly distressed and some eventually curl up and lay motionless. this illustrates the role of social releasers and the importance of them in attachment

a strength of bowlby’s theory

IWM predicted that patterns of development will be passed on generation-wise. Bailey et al (2007) assessed relationships between 99 mothers and their one year old babies. the research measured the mothers attachment to their primary caregiver and assessed the attachment quality of the babies thrrough a questionaire. mothers with poor attachmnet to their primary caregivers had poor attachment to their babies . supports bowlby’s idea that mothers’ ability to form attachments to their babies is influenced by their own mothers IWM

-sme psychologists believe there are important genetic differences e.g anxiety levels and sociability affect emotional/social development. could also impact parenting ability. Bowlby may have overstated the importance of the IWM in emotional and social behaviourf

limitation of bowlby’stheory

femenist burman pointed out that the belief that mothers working may negatively impact their child’s development may set mothers up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in the child’s future. also gives people an excuse to restrict mothers activities e.g returing to workA

Ainsworth Aim

observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a babies attachment to a caregiver

ainsworth procedure

controlled observation to measure the security of attachment that a baby displays towards towards a caregiver. takes place in a lab using a one way mirror to observe the babies behaviour discreetly

behaviours used to judge attachment ainsworth study

proximity seeking- good atatchment babies will stay close to the caregiver

exploration secure base- good attachment allows exploration and caregiver =secure base

stranger anxiety- sign of attachment= display of anxiety when a stranger approaches

seperation anxiety- protest at seperation from the caregiver

response at renunion- good attachment babies greet the carregivers return with pleasure +seek comfort

procedure outline

1. baby is encouraged to explore

2. stranger comes in talks to the caregiver and approached baby

3. caregiver leaves baby and stranger together

4. caregiver returns and stranger leaves

5. caregiver leaves baby alone

6. stranger returns

7. caregiver reunited w baby

secure attachment - type

b

insecure attachment type

A

insecure resistant attachment type

C 3% of british babies

strength of strange situation

predicts the number of aspects of a babies later development

madigan et al (2023) conducted meta analysis of 285 studies and insecure attachment predicted higher rates of aggression and MHI later on.

longitudinal study

study conducted over a long period of time

strengths of longitudanal studies

It gives researchers insights into how early experiences shape behaviour.

It allows researchers to gain deeper insights into behaviour and how it changes over time.

researchers can find out if research is reliable over long periods of time

weakness of of longitudanal studies

attrition- participants may not want to take part anymore

strengths of the learning theory of attachment

it is believable because kids get fed over 2000 times in the first year of their life

weakness of learning theory of attachment

Babies raised in communal environments by foster mums called metapelets don’t form attachments to their foster mums

Harlow found that baby monkeys choose comfort over food

According to Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment, the critical period is…

A window of 2.5 years when babies can form attachments to their one, main caregiver.

According to Bowlby, when a child has been deprived of an attachment figure...

they never have a loving attachment figure during the critical period.

they are separated from their loving attachment figure during the critical period.

Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment explains…

why babies form attachments to their caregivers, how caregivers form attachments to their babies.

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory explains…

what happens when children are deprived of an attachment figure.

3 concequences of maternal deprivation

poor cognitive ability such as lower iq and struggling in school, poor emotional ability such as anger outbursts and violence and poor behavioural development such as delinquency and turning to crime

when children are seperated from their main caregiver they go through 3 key stages-

protest- angry about becoming abandoned by their main caregiver

despair- sad and withdrawn and refuse to be comforted

detachment- ignore love and care from main careguve

What is a case study?

A case study is a detailed investigation of a single individual, or a small group of individuals.

case study for pdd model

little john

proitest- cried when mother first left for 9 days to go to the hospital and

despair-refused to sleep or eat

detachment- acoided his mother when she came back

after the study at home he would cry and bolwby and robertson concluded this was permenant damage to him even after a short sepeteration

little john evaluation

provides support for maternal deprivation

One weakness of case studies is The results might not generalise to other people

no control over confounding variables such as the other things in the niursery that might have made lil john upset and cant establish a cause and effect relationship

another case study conducted by bowlby

44 theives

wjhat was bowlby’s hypothesis in the 44 theives study

that maternal deprivation caused delinquency

he concluded the 44 theives has

affectionless psychopathy and 50% of theives had been seperated from their mothers in early life whereas there was less tha 5% in the control group of non criminal children. in the group 32% were considered affectionless psychpaths and 86% had maternal deprivation

the interviews conducted by the children were

self report

One limitation of using self-report is…

People aren’t always accurate and objective when describing their feelings, attitudes and behaviours. Our memory can be biased by Post-event discussion and leading questions

second limitation of theives study

participans may be influenced by investigator effects and said what bowbly would have wanted them to say and responsed to demand characteristics

was a natural experiment where the independant variable was already manipulated - Researchers have little control over extraneous variables that could influence the results.

limitation of bowblys maternal deprivation study

Koluchova’s case study

With the help of their adopted parents, the effects of the twins’ deprivation were reversed.

By the time they were adults, both twins were above average intelligence, had good jobs, and were in happy relationships.

When the twins were found at the age of 7, they had experienced severe deprivation.

another limitation of bowblys maternal deprivation study

ignores other factors that affect psychological development-

where he was mistreated and abused, starved of food, and living in absolute poverty. So, these factors are confounding

variables in the relationship between deprivation and psychological distress.

Michael Rutter criticised Bowlby’s theory because…

Bowlby confused deprivation with privation

What happened in the Koluchova twins study?

The twins formed happy and healthy relationships.

When found, the boys were severely emotionally, physically and intellectually impaired.

Once the twins were placed with foster parents, their cognitive abilities improved until they had above average intelligence.

Koluchova was a researcher who conducted a case study on twin boys who had been abused by their step mother.

The twin boys had been abused, included starved and beaten, from 18 months to 7 years old.

What are three limitations of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory?

A limitation of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory is that research evidence shows that the effects of deprivation are not irreversible, and that deprived children can recover from the psychological damage caused. A second limitation is that there are confounding variables that could cause the children’s psychological damage, and so it is difficult to establish cause and effect. Finally, a third limitation is that Bowlby’s use of the term deprivation has been critiqued, for being confused with privation, where a child never forms an attachment to a caregiver.

Describe the Koluchova twins case study.

The case study involved identical twin boys from Czechoslovakia who were found at age seven, having spent most of their lives locked in a small, unheated closet or cellar, subjected to severe physical abuse and malnutrition by their stepmother. They were discovered with severe developmental delays, unable to speak, and physically underdeveloped. 

Hodges and Tizard’s study of institutionalisation

It was a natural experiment.

It investigated 65 children who had been placed in an institution.

The four groups of children were children who were adopted early, children who remained in the institution, children who were returned to their biological parents, and a control group of children who had not been institutionalised.

What did Hodges and Tizard find in their study of institutionalisation?

The children who were adopted early didn’t develop psychological damage.

The findings suggest that the effects of privation can be reversed if the children are placed in a loving environment when they’re still young.

The children who experienced privation and remained in the institution, or were returned to their biological parents, experienced impaired emotional development.

who conducted the second study of institutionalisation

rutter. He investigated the children’s cognitive, emotional and behavioural development using a series of observations, tests and interviews throughout their childhood.

What did Rutter and his team find?

after studying 165 romanian children adopted by british famillies and comparing them to 52 british adopted famillies he found

The Romanian children who were adopted before they were 6 months old showed good emotional development.

The Romanian children who were adopted after they were 6 months old had long-term emotional and cognitive impairment.

British children displayed good emotional and cognitive development, even if they were adopted after they were 6 months old.

What did Rutter and his team conclude?

The effects of privation can be reversed, even if the privation is severe, so long as children are introduced into loving homes from a young age.

The longer children experience severe privation, the worse their long-term outcomes.

Worse outcomes can be due to the abuse and neglect that comes with privation, as well as the lack of an attachment figure.

The effects of privation can be reversed.

evaluation of institutionalisation

-attrition. people may ahve droppes out of the study because the child was getting worse.there is often attrition in longitudinal studies meaning a possible underestimation of the negative effects of privation.

-social desriability bias and the parents may be recording their childs behaviour in a more desirable way families might have displayed social desirability bias meaning a possible underestimation of the negative effects of privation.

Children with an insecure avoidant attachment style…

display indifferent reunion behaviour, have indifferent caregivers who aren’t very responsive to their needs.display low separation anxiety.display low stranger anxiety.