Attachment

Define: Affectionless Psychopathy

Describing people who don’t show concern or affection for other people and show no no or very little remorse or guilt.

Define: Asocial Stage

Stage from 0-6 weeks where infant may respond to faces or voices but an attachment has not been formed.

Define: Attachment

Two-way enduring emotional tie to another person.

Define: Contact Comfort

The physical and emotional comfort that an infant receives from being close to its mother.

Define: Continuity Hypothesis

The idea that early relationships with caregivers predict later relationships in adulthood.

Define: Critical Period

A time period where an attachment has to form or it never will.

Define: Disinhibited Attachment

Child shows equal affection to strangers as they do people they know well.

What is the Evolutionary Explanation?

Behaviour such as attachment is viewed as increasing survival chances.

Define: Imprinting

Where offspring follow the first large-moving object they see.

Define: Indiscriminate Attachment

Infants aged 2-7 months can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people but show no stranger anxiety so can be comforted by anyone.

Define: Innate Behaviour

A behaviour that is instinctive and does not need to be learned.

Define: Insecure Avoidant Attachment

Attachment classification where a child shows low stranger anxiety, low separation anxiety, and little response to reunion.

Define: Insecure Resistant Attachment

Attachment classification where a child shows high stranger anxiety, high seperation anxiety, and resists comfort at reunion.

Define: Institutionalisation

The effects of growing up in an institution such as a children’s home or an orphanage.

Define: Interactional Synchrony

Infant and caregiver reflect each other’s actions and emotions in a coordinated manner. (Like a mirror)

Define: Internal Working Model

Mental representation of relationships with primary caregivers that become a template for future relationships.

Define: Learning Theory

Explanations that emphasise the role of learning in acquiring behaviours such as attachment.

Define: Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

Separation from the mother figure in early childhood has serious consequences.

Define: Monotropy

A unique and close attachment to one person, the primary attachment figure.

Define: Multiple Attachment

Formation of emotional bonds with more than one person.

Define: Privation

Failure to form an attachment in early childhood.

Define: Proximity Seeking

The way that infants try to maintain physical contact or be close to their attachment figure.

Define: Reciprocity

Infant and caregiver match each other’s actions, when they respond to each other. (turn-taking)

Define: Secure Attachment

Most desirable attachment classification where a child shows separation anxiety, stranger anxiety and joy on reunion.

Define: Sensitive Period

The best time period over which attachments can form.

Define: Separation anxiety

Degree of distress shown by a child when separated from the caregiver.

Define: Social Releasers

Innate behaviour shown by an infant that leads to a caregiving response

Define: Specific Attachment

Infants aged 7 months tend to show a strong attachment to one particular person and are wary of strangers.

What is the strange situation?

A controlled observation used to test children’s attachment patterns.

Define: Stranger anxiety

Degree of distress shown by an infant when with unfamiliar people.

Define: Temperament

The characteristics and aspects of personality an infant is born with and that might impact on its attachment type.

Part of the brain which is responsible for emotions is the ______.

amygdala

What is imposed etic?

When an idea or technique that works in one culture is imposed on another.

What are the stages of attachment? (Shaffer and Emerson)

Asocial Stage (0-2 months)

Indiscriminate Attachment (2-6 months)

Specific Attachment (7-12 months)

Multiple Attachments (1 year onwards)

Support for stages of attachment: Shaffer and Emerson (1964)

At 25-32 weeks (6-8 months) 50% of the children showed separation anxiety towards their mothers. By 40 weeks, 80% had a specific discriminate attachment and 30% started to form multiple attachments.

Role of the Father: Shaffer and Emerson

Only in 3% of the cases, babies formed a sole attachment to the father. In 27% the first attachment was joint between mother and father.

Role of the Father: Hrdy (1999)

Fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress than mothers due to lack of oestrogen. Supporting the idea the role of the father is biologically determined.

The Role of the Father: Feldman

The amygdala activates when the father is primary caregiver. After birth, oxytocin levels were same in both parents.

The Role of the Father: Geiger (1996)

Father’s play interactions were more exciting than the nurturing mother. Father is a playmate.

The Role of the Father: MacCallum and Golombok (2004)

Growing up in with single-parents or same-sex families, children do not develop differently.

Interactional Synchrony: Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

By displaying three distinct facial expressions/gestures, it was found that the baby would mirror the adults more often than chance would predict.

Interactional Synchrony: Isabella et al (1989)

From 30 mothers and their babies, it was found high-levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother-baby attachment.

Imprinting in Animal Studies: Lorenz (1935) Method

Greylag goose eggs were randomly divided into two groups. One group were naturally hatched, the other hatched first saw as Lorenz. The goslings were marked according to the groups, placed under a box, and behaviour was recorded when it was removed.

Imprinting in Animal Studies: Lorenz (1935) Results

Naturally hatched goslings followed their bio mother, the rest followed Lorenz. The imprinting occurred within a critical period of 4-24 hours.

Contact Comfort in Animal Studies: Harlow (1958) Method

16 baby rhesus monkeys were removed at birth and placed with two surrogate mothers. One was made of wire, the other of cloth. Time spent with each mother was recorded.

Contact Comfort in Animal Studies: Harlow (1958) Results

The majority of the time was spent with the cloth mother regardless of feeding condition. The monkeys would cling to her and reach for food from the other. Contact comfort was more important.

Contact Comfort in Animal Studies: Harlow (1958) Further Outcomes

The monkeys grew to be aggressive, less sociable, less skilled in mating and some even neglected or killed their own offspring.

What is the Cupboard Love Theory?

Classical conditioning where a primary attachment is developed through the association of food with the primary caregiver.

How is attachment learned through operant conditioning?

Through consequences. The primary caregiver reduces discomfort of hunger with food. (positive reinforcement) The primary caregiver learns to feed when baby cries to reduce punishment. (negative reinforcement)

Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory suggests that

Babies are born with an innate tendency to form attachment in order to increase their chance of survival.

What is the critical period in Monotropic Theory?

Around 6 months

What is the sensitive period in Monotropic Theory?

Up to 2 years.

What happened if an attachment was not formed in the sensitive period according to Bowlby?

Then damage to the child will occur; emotionally, physically, intellectually, socially.

What is the Law of Continuity proposed by Bowlby?

The more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of attachment.

What is the Law of Accumulated Separation proposed by Bowlby?

The effects of every separation from the mother adds up and the safest does is therefore a zero dose.

Support for Social Releasers: Brazelton et al

Found clear evidence that cute baby behaviours are designed to elicit caregiver interactions.

Support for Social Releasers: Tronick

Still Face Experiment - found babies become increasingly distressed when the primary attachment figure ignored their social releasers.

Who developed the theory of internal working model?

Bowlby