Caregiver Infant Interactions + Schaffer's stages of attachment + Role of the father

Attachment definition?

A strong, enduring, emotional and reciprocal (2 way) bond between 2 people, especially an infant and caregiver, characterised by a desire to maintain proximity

4 characteristics of attachment? (identified by Maccoby 1980)

-Seeking proximity
-Distress when separated
-Pleasure when reunited
-General orientation (always aware of where caregiver is + vice versa)

Reciprocity definition?

Responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of one partner elicits a response out of the other partner.

Interactional synchrony definition?

When two people interact and they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of facial and body movements.

Method of Tronick's still face experiment?

-Instructed mother to play with child, then look away + ignore them
-Mother then looks back to child, keeping face still + disengaging
-Repeated with different ages
-Dependant variable= severity of reaction from child
-Independent variable= action of mother in each scenario

Results of Tronick's still face experiment?

-Infants became agitated when mothers ignored them
-Tried different methods to get a reaction from their mothers (e.g shouting, moving arms, touching)
-Most children had similar responses
-When caregiver re-engaged, infants went back to normal

Conclusions of Tronick's still face experiment?

-When reciprocity/ interactional synchrony is disrupted, a child becomes distressed
-Disengagement and re-engagement establishes stronger relationship in the long term as it builds trust

Method of Meltzoff + Moore (1977) expt?

-Observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in children as young as 2 wks
-An adult displayed one of 3 facial expressions/distinctive gestures in front of a child
-The child's response was filmed + labelled by independent observers (which largely eliminated bias)

Findings of Meltzoff + Moore (1977) expt?

-The children's expressions + gestures mirrored those of the adults more than just chance might predict, indicting a correlation

Conclusions of Meltzoff + Moore (1977) expt?

-A significant association was found between gestures of adults and children
-Infants copied the hand movements and facial expressions of caregivers, which supports mimicking (interactional synchrony) as a feature of caregiver-infant interactions

Method of Isabella et al (1989) expt?

-30 mothers and babies
-Degree of synchrony + quality of attachment was assessed between them

Findings of Isabella et al (1989) expt?

-Better quality of maternal care associated with higher levels of infant-caregiver interactional synchrony
-Found interactional synchrony behaviours were also correlated with secure attachment styles

Conclusions of Isabella et al (1989) expt?

Showed that interactional synchrony is important and is linked to strong, securely attached relationships

Info on Feldman + Eidelman research?

-An observational study which found that mothers responded to their babies in a reciprocal way two-thirds of the time (during alert phases)

Evaluation of infant-caregiver research?

STRENGTHS:
-Observations are well controlled + can be recorded (good methodology)
-Evidence to support that C-I interactions form an important part of infant development
-Practical application in parenting skills training
LIMITATIONS:
-Behaviour is open to interpretation: observations are difficult to analyse

Aims of Schaffer + Emerson's research?

To investigate the formation of early attachments, the age they developed, their emotional intensity and to whom they attached

Method of Shaffer + Emerson's research?

-Longitudinal study
-60 Glasgow infants from working class homes
-Studied them at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of their life
-All studied in their own home
-Interactions with carers were observed and carers were interviewed (asked to keep a diary on infant behaviour in diff scenarios)

Findings of Schaffer + Emerson's research?

-Found that babies attachments develop in 4 main stages:
-0-2 MONTHS= Asocial attachment stage
-2-7 MONTHS= Indiscriminate attachment stage
-7-9 MONTHS= Specific attachment stage
-9+ MONTHS= Multiple attachment stage

Asocial attachment stage?

-Similar response to all objects (animate or inanimate)
-Around 2 months, infant will start showing preference for humans
-Time reciprocity + time synchrony help to establish the child's relationships with others

Indiscriminate attachment stage?

-Child shows a marked preference for people rather than inanimate objects
-Recognise and prefer familiar adults but accept comfort from any adult
-Do not show stranger or separation anxiety

Specific attachment stage?

-Child starts to show stranger anxiety / distress when separated from specific adult
-The child has therefore formed a specific attachment
-The adult with whom the child has formed the specific attachment is called the primary attachment figure (usually the primary caregiver)

Multiple attachment stage?

-Month after having formed a specific attachment
-Child displays attachment behaviour towards other people with whom they are familiar
-These are called secondary attachments
-Strongest attachment is usually still with primary caregiver

Longitudinal study meaning?

Carried out over a long time period with the same participants

Sensitive responsiveness definition?

How good a caregiver is at responding appropriately to the babies' needs

Who are infants most likely to attach to (based on S+E's research) ?

People who display sensitive responsiveness to their needs- NOT who feeds them / spends the most time

Conclusions of Shaffer + Emerson's research?

-Findings indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent the most time with (known as sensitive responsiveness)

Evaluation of Schaffer + Emerson's research?

STRENGTHS:
-Good external validity (in own homes)
-Longitudinal (participant variables were controlled)
LIMITATIONS:
-Unreliable data (subjective data collection by caregivers)
-Lacking historical validity (only in one place which limits generalisability , done in the 60s)

Lacking historical validity definition?

Research is outdated and might not be true in today's society/ social norms

Good external validity definition?

When a study is carried out in a natural environment it probably collects results that are applicable beyond the study / other environments

Unreliable (evaluative) definition?

E.g when a method uses self-report, people might lie to be seen in a good light (social desirability)

Attrition definition?

Drop out rate- usually higher in research carried out over a long period of time (longitudinal)

Schaffer + Emerson's findings on the father?

-At 18 months old only 3% of the infants studied developed a primary attachment to their father
-However 75% had formed some kind of attachment with their father

Disagreements on the importance of attachments?

-Bowlby says the primary (1st) attachment is most + more important than any other
-Rutter says all attachments are important but serve different purposes for the baby
-Both agree attachments allow development of an internal working model (a mental template of relationships, self worth + expectations of other)

Method of Grossman's 2002 study on the role of the father?

-Longitudinal study looking at quality of both parent's behaviour and it's relationship to quality of children's attachments in their teens

Findings of Grossman's 2002 study on the role of the father?

-Quality of infant attachment to mothers, but NOT to fathers, was related to the children's attachments to parents in adolescence
-However, also found that quality of father's play was related to quality of adolescent attachments

Conclusions of Grossman's 2002 study on the role of the father?

-Findings suggested father attachment was less important
-However also suggested fathers have an important role in attachment= play + stimulation, rather than nurture
-Therefore fathers role can be said to be complementary to mother's

How might biological factors explain differences in roles of mother and father?

-Men have higher testosterone, women have higher oestrogen (caring hormone)
-Lower oestrogen levels in men may mean they are less equipped to care + nurture
-Oxytocin helps with formation of relationships (birth + breastfeeding stimulates oxytocin in women)
-Lack of oxytocin in men may mean fathers are less equipped to be caregivers
-However, some fathers can produce oxytocin after engaging with child

Method of Field's 1978 study on the role of the father?

-Field filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers + primary caregiver fathers

Findings of Field's 1978 study on the role of the father?

-Primary caregiver fathers (like mothers) spent more time smiling, imitating + holding babies

Conclusions of Field's 1978 study on the role of the father?

-Fathers have the potential to be the more emotion focused primary attachment figure
-They can provide the responsiveness required for a close emotional attachment but perhaps can only express this when placed in the role of primary caregiver

Evaluation of research into the role of the father?

STRENGTHS:
-Real world applications (can reduce parental anxiety)
LIMITATIONS:
-Conflicting evidence (due to different methods being used)
-Stereotyping bias in research (preconceived ideas of M/F roles)
-If both men and women are capable of becoming PCG (as Field suggested), why don't more men become PCG?