Studied by 5 people
Define caregiver-infant interaction
from an early age babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers - these interactions have important functions for child’s development
features reciprocity and interactional synchrony
define reciprocity
PCG and infant interaction is reciprocal in that infant and carer respond to each others signals and each elicits a response from the other
Feldman and Eidelman (2007)
mothers (PCGs) pick up on babies readiness for interaction about 2/3 of the time
Feldman (2007)
after about 3 months, caregiver-infant interaction becomes more frequent and involves close attention to verbal and facial signals and reciprocity becomes a key feature of interaction
Brazelton (1975)
baby used to seen as passive in CG-infant interaction but Brazelton describes it as a ‘couples' dance’ - each responds to the others signals/movement
define interactional synchrony
mother and infant reflect actions and emotions of one another in a coordinated way - ‘temporal coordination of micro-level social behaviour’
Meltzof and Moore (1977)
adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions to babies as young as 2 weeks old. Response of child was recorded and then identified by independent observer. Association was found between the expression the child witnessed and their actions.
Isabella (1989)
observed 30 mothers and infants and assessed degree of synchronicity and quality of attachment. Found a +ve correlation between synchrony and quality of relationship.
give two weaknesses and one strength of interactional synchrony and reciprocity as indicators of attachment
hard to know what’s happening when observing infants - impossible to interpret from hand gestures or expressions what is happening from the child’s perspective.
controlled observations - fine details can be recorded and later analysed. Babies don’t know or care that they’re being observed so don’t alter their behaviour.
observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony or reciprocity - simply describe behaviours but aren’t particularly useful without establishing their purpose.
outline Schaffer and Emmerson’s conclusions on parent-infant attachment
traditionally thought of as mother-infant attachment (not CG-infant)
majority of babies attach to mother first at about 7 months and form a secondary attachment to father a few weeks later.
by 18 months old, 75% of infants had secondary attachments with father
Outline Grossman’s (2002) conclusions on the role of the father
longitudinal study found that quality of infant attachment with mother but not father had effect on adolescent attachment.
quality of father’s play had impact on adolescent attachment
concluded that father had enriching ‘fun’ role of importance rather than nurturing
Outline Feild’s conclusions on the role of the father
observed PCG mothers, PCG fathers and SCG fathers. PCG fathers behaved very similarly to mothers. Fathers can be PCGs.
Key feature is responsiveness not gender
give two weaknesses of ‘the role of the father’
socially sensitive - could suggest woman’s place is in the home and implicate guilt in a decision to return to work
children in single or same-sex parent families without fathers do not develop differently
suggest role of father as a SCG is not important/significant to a child’s development.
Outline Schaffer and Emmerson’s (1964) study
60 babies from WC families in Glasgow
visited every month for first year of life and again at 18th months
assessed by interview for response in 7 everyday situations of separation
designed to measure attachment (separation anxiety) and stranger anxiety
attachment and anxiety behaviours changed over time and could be categorised into ’stages’
Give two strengths and one weakness of Schaffer and Emmerson’s (1964) study
high external validity - carried out in real homes and most observation was done by parents
longitudinal design - results can’t be down to an ‘off day’. Same participants over time means no confounding variables
limited sample - good size but all from Glasgow and all of the same social class
What are Schaffer and Emmerson’s stages of attachment?
asocial
indiscriminate
specific
multiple
outline the features of the asocial stage
first few weeks of life
behaviour toward humans and non human objects is basically the same
shows a slight preference for familiar adults
happier in presence of humans
outline the features of the indiscriminate stage
2-7 months
happy to interact with anyone
no stranger or separation anxiety
prefer humans to non-humans
outline the features of the specific stage
7months
displays anxiety towards strangers and separation distress with one particular adult
specific attachment to ‘primary attachment figure
not always the person the child spends the most time with but whoever offers most interactions and responds to signals with most skill
in 65% of cases - this is the biological mother
outline the features of the multiple attachments stage
extension of specific attachments to other adults they spend lots of time with
secondary attachments
29% had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment
by age of 1 majority had developed multiple attachments
Give three weaknesses of Schaffer and Emmerson's stages of attachment
problem studying asocial stage - babies are basically immobile at this stage and don’t display much observable behaviour
measuring multiple attachments - just because a baby gets upset when someone leaves doesn’t mean they have a true attachment. Bowlby’s example of playmates.
different in collectivist cultures - psychologists believe these findings don’t have cross-cultural replicability. In collectivist cultures babies could be seen to form multiple attachments from the outset.
Outline Lorenz’s procedure and findings for his study into imprinting
divided a clutch of goose. ½ hatched w mother goose and ½ in an incubator where the 1st moving thing they saw was Lorenz
incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and control group followed mother goose - even when mixed up
imprinting
identified a critical period - varies from species to species but if no imprinting occurs before end of critical period then animal will not attach itself to a mother figure.
sexual imprinting - once an animal has matured it will often display courtship rituals towards the thing it imprinted on. Tortoise and peacock case study.
Give two weaknesses of Lorenz’s study
generalisability to humans - mammalian attachment = very different to birds, findings can’t be carried across
imprinting may not be as permanent as Lorenz believed - chickens imprinted to washing up gloves did try to mate with them but then eventually learnt to prefer other chickens.
Outline Harlow’s procedure and method
raised 16 baby monkeys with two wire ‘mothers’ - one plain and one covered with soft cloth
in one condition, milk was dispensed by the wire mother, in the other it was dispensed by the cloth covered mother.
baby monkeys cuddled and sought comfort from the soft object in preference to the wire one - regardless of which one was dispensing milk
contact comfort was more important than food
also found that the monkeys that had been deprived of a real mother were dysfunctional - aggressive and bad at raising their own young
90 day critical period
give two strengths and one weakness of Harlow’s study
theoretical value - changes the way psychologists view mother-infant attachment; not about food but comfort. Also reveals importance of early attachment on later functioning and relationships
practical value/application - social workers understanding child neglect
ethical issues - monkeys suffered greatly - but does the ends justify the means?
who came up with the learning theory of attachment and what is its basic assumption
Dollard and Miller
children attach to whoever feeds them through classical and operant conditioning
how does the learning theory claim classical and operant conditioning are involved in attachment
classical - child learns to associate neutral stimulus (mother) with unconditioned stimulus (food) and the unconditioned response it brings (pleasure) eventually pleasure becomes unconditioned response to seeing and/or interacting with the PCG
to a learning theorist, this = love
operant - learning to repeat behaviour or not based on its consequence.
crying = response from CG so +ve reinforcement
two way process, CG is conditioned too, comforting child means child stops crying - -ve reinforcement.
briefly outline the concept of attachment as a secondary drive
learning theory draws on the concept of drive reduction.
hunger = primary drive - innate biological motivator.
when attachment figures provide food, primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them - attachment is thus a secondary drive learned by association.
give three weaknesses of learning theory
counter evidence from animal research - Lorenz and Harlow, geese imprinted before being fed and monkeys attached to soft surrogate for ‘contact comfort’ despite being fed by another ‘mother’
ignores other factors involved in developing attachments - factors like reciprocity and interactional synchrony; best attachments seem to feature sensitive carers that pick up infant signals and respond appropriately
alternate learning theory explanation - social learning theory, we teach our children attachment by modelling attachment behaviour to them (hugging etc) and praising their own attachment behaviour when mirrored “look at that nice smile” …
Outline the key features of bowlby’s monotropic theory
attachment is innate
monotropy - attachment to one primary figure
law of continuity
law of accumulated seperation
social releasers and the critical period
internal working model
define Bowlby’s concept of monotropy
child makes attachment to one primary attachment figure
this attachment is different and more important than all others
Bowlby’s ‘law of continuity’
the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better quality their attachment
Bowlby’s ‘law of accumulated separation’
the effects of every separation from primary attachment figure adds up - safest is a ‘zero dose’
outline Bowlby’s views on social releasers and the critical period
babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours that encourage attention from adults - social releasers
attachment is a reciprocal process
both PCG (Bowlby thinks mother) and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached
proposes there is a critical period of about 2 years where the baby’s attachment system is ‘active’
if attachment is not formed by this time, it will be hard to form one later
Define Bowlby’s concept of the ‘internal working model’
child forms mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver
affect our future relationships
define our understanding of what relationships are like
if our early attachments are loving - we will expect our later relationships to be loving too
poor treatment in early attachment can mean we expect to be treated poorly or treat others poorly
affects child’s later ability to be a parent themselves
children from functional families are more likely to have functional families themselves
Give two weaknesses and a strength of Bowlby’s monotropic theory
monotropy is a socially sensitive idea - major implications for lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young
and places responsibility on them if anything goes wrong in the child’s life
temperament may be just as important as attachment - genetically influenced personality. Psychologists supporting this argument state that temperamental differences account for later relationship experiences and that Bowlby overemphasises the role of ‘nurture’ attachment forces
support for internal working model - assessment of 99 mothers with one year old babies on their quality of attachment (standard interview) and then assessed attachment (observation) . Found that mothers who reported poor attachment to their own parents were more likely to have poor attachments with their own children
Who devised the strange situation and in what year
Ainsworth - 1969
what behaviours was Ainsworth observing for?
proximity seeking
exploration and secure base behaviour
stranger anxiety
separation anxiety
response to reunion
outline the 7 ‘episodes’ of the strange situation
child is encouraged to explore
stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child
CG leaves stranger and child together
CG returns and stranger leaves
CG leaves child alone
stranger returns
CG returns and is reunited with the child
outline Ainsworth’s findings
found there were distinctive patterns in the way infants behave and identified 3 main types of attachment
secure attachment - type B
insecure - avoidant attachment - type A
insecure - resistant attachment - type C
Define a ‘type B’ attachment
secure
explore happily but regularly seek proximity by returning to CG - display moderate separation and stranger anxiety. Accept comfort from CG when reunited
about 60-75% of British population
Define ‘type A’ attachment
insecure avoidant
explore freely but do not seek proximity or display secure base behaviour. Show little or no reaction when caregiver leaves and make little effort to contact when CG returns. Display a little bit of stranger anxiety but do not require comfort during reunion
about 20-25% of British population
define ‘Type-C’ attachment
insecure resistant
seek greater proximity than others and explore less, show huge stranger and separation distress but resist comfort when reunited with their PCG
about 3% of British population
Give two weaknesses and one strength of the strange situation
good interrater reliability - observations are consistent across multiple observers
it’s reliable that attachment type is not just down to who’s observing them
culture bound - displays ‘abnormally’ high levels of separation anxiety. This is likely due to cultural differences in upbringing - Japanese babies are much less frequently separated from their mothers
arguable that temperament had more of an influence on responses to the strange situation than attachment style
outline van Ijzendoorn’s work
located 32 studies where the strange situation had been used across 8 countries - data for over a thousand children
meta-analysed
found wide variation in attachment types
secure attachment most common in all countries but proportions ranged from 75% - 50%
insecure resistant overall least common but ranged from 3%-30%
variations within countries were also high
outline Simonella’s research
Italy - assessed 76 1 year olds using strange situation
found 50% to be secure
found 36% to be insecure
these were lower rates of secure attachment than previously recorded
researchers suggested it was in part, due to higher rates of women returning to work and using professional childcare
cultural changes can make a dramatic difference to patterns of secure and insecure attachment
give a very brief outline of the conclusions of cross-cultural research into attachment
secure attachment is generally the norm in a wide range of cultures - supporting Bowlby’s view that it’s innate and universal.
But it’s clear that cultural practices and norms have an influence.
Give a strength and two weaknesses of research into cultural differences in attachment
large samples = high internal validity, lowers potential impact of anomalous results, increases generalisability of findings
samples can be unrepresentative of culture - only selecting from big cities neglects to represent rural practices of upbringing
method of assessment is biased - imposed etic: designed by an American researcher based on the theories of a British psychologist. Behaviour can be interpreted differently in different cultural contexts.
list the key features of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theroy
separation vs deprivation
critical period
effects on development
intellectual
emotional - 44 thieves study
explain bowlby’s distinction between maternal deprivation and maternal separation
separation = child is simply not in presence of PCG - only becomes an issue for attachment if this leads to deprivation
deprivation - loss of an element of care.
explain bowlby’s critical period for maternal deprivation
first 30 months of life
if a child is separated from mother during this period and in absence of suitable substitute care - psychological damage is inevitable
outline the intellectual effects on development that Bowlby claims maternal deprivation leads to
deprivation of maternal care = delayed intellectual development
characterised by abnormally low IQ
Goldfarb - adoption study: found lower IQ in children who had been institutionalised than in those who had been fostered
Outline the emotional effects on development that Bowlby claims maternal deprivation leads to
deprivation of maternal care = higher chance of affectionless psychopathy
inability to experience guilt or extreme emotion for others
prevents individual from developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
44 thieves study
outline procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study
44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
families also interviewed to establish whether the child had early prolonged separation from their mothers
control group of emotionally disturbed but non criminal teenagers also established
outline findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study
of the 44, 14 of the thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths
of this 14, 12 had experienced maternal deprivation
5/30 remaining ‘non psychopaths’ had experienced maternal deprivation
+ only 2/44 of control group
concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation causes affectionless psychopathy
give three weaknesses of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
evidence may be poor - Bowlby carried out the interviews and assessments himself, knowing what he hoped to find.
critical period may actually be more of a sensitive period - case studies have shown potential for children to recover from horrific mistreatment long past critical period when provided by loving substitute care
failure to distinguish between deprivation and privation - Rutter claims that deprivation really means loss of PCG after attachment is formed and the word Bowlby should actually have used is privation - which is what he claims these effects are actually down to
outline procedure for Rutter’s ERA study
followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
group of 52 British children adopted at the same time served as control group
tests for physical, emotional, and cognitive ability were conducted at ages 4, 6, 11, and 15
Outline findings for Rutter’s ERA study
when first arriving in the UK - ½ the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and majority were severely undernourished
by the age of 11 - rates of recovery were different depending on what age the child had been adopted at
IQ for those adopted before 6 months of age was about 102
IQ for those adopted after 6 months was about 86
also differentiation in attachment behaviour
those adopted after 6 months were much more likely to show symptoms of disinhibited attachment
clinginess
attention seeking
social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults
outline procedure for Zeanah’s ‘Bucharest Early Intervention project’
assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who’d spent most of their lives in institutional care - compared to control group of 50 children who had never been institutionalised
attachment type was measured using the strange situation
in addition, caregivers were asked about unusual social behaviour
Outline findings for Zeanah’s ‘Bucharest Early Intervention project’
only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached - compared to 74% of the control group
44% of the institutional group could be described as having disinhibited attachment - compared to less than 20% of the controls
give the two key effects of institutionalisation
disinhibited attachment
mental retardation
define disinhibited attachment
a typical effect of spending time in an institution
show indiscriminate friendly behaviour - highly unusual as most children experience stranger anxiety
an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers
define ‘mental retardation’ as an effect of institutionalisation
severe damage to intellectual development
can be recovered by suitable substitute care - especially if child was adopted before 6 months old
give one strength and two weaknesses of Romanian orphan studies
Real life application - enhanced psychological understanding of the effects on institutionalisation - brings awareness to dangers of it
Romanian orphanages weren’t typical - especially poor conditions
methodological issues - researchers didn’t interfere w the research process so it may be that earliest adoptees were simply more sociable - which could account for better attachment behaviour
outline procedure for Hazan and Shaver’s ‘love quiz’
analysed 620 responses to a love quiz advertised in newspapers
quiz had 3 sections
1st part - assessed current or most important relationship
2nd part - assessed general love experiences - number of partners etc
3rd part - assessed attachment type
outline findings for Hazan and Shaver’s ‘love quiz’
56% of respondents identified as securely attached, 25% insecure avoidant, 19% insecure resistant
those reporting secure attachments most likely to have good and long lasting romantic relationships
avoidant respondents more likely to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy
outline procedure and findings of McCarthy’s (1999) study
studied 40 adult women who had been assessed for attachment type as babies
those who were securely attached had best adult romantic and platonic relationships
those classed as insecure resistant had particular problems with maintaining friendships
those classed as insecure avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships
how might early attachment affect bullying behaviour later on
secure children unlikely to be involved in bullying at all
insecure-avoidant most likely to be victims
insecure-resistant most likely to be bullies
outline procedure and findings of Bailey’s study
considered attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers
using the strange situation and interview.
majority of women had same attachment classification to their children as they did to their own mother.
give three weaknesses of research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships
most studies have issues of validity - most use retrospective evidence through interview
association does not mean causality - other factors may impact, relationship may be coincidental
self report is conscious - but the things it’s trying to measure (internal working models etc) are not
Note 
Flashcard (48)