ATTATCHMENT

What were Schaffer and Emerson investigating?

If attachment develops through a series of stages

How many babies were in Schaffer and Emersons study?

60

Where were the babies in Schaffer and Emersons study from?

Glasgow

What class was involved in the Schaffer and Emerson study?

Working Class

What type of study was the Schaffer and Emerson Study?

Longitudinal

How long was the Schaffer and Emerson Study?

18 months

How often where the infants in Schaffer and Emerson Study visited?

Monthly for a year

How did the mothers record the babies interactions in the Schaffer and Emerson study?

By diary entries

What three measures were recorded in the Schaffer and Emerson study?

Stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and social referencing

What is stranger anxiety?

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

What is separation anxiety?

The distress that most children develop, at about 6

What is social referencing?

reading emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situation

At what age do infants begin to show asocial behaviour?

0

What is the asocial stage?

Very young infants show the same reaction to inanimate objects and animate EG Smiling

At what age to infants begin to show indiscriminative attachments?

6 weeks

What is the indiscriminate attachment phase ?

Show a preference in people instead of non human objects. At this stage babies usually accept comfort from any adult and do not show stranger or separation anxiety

At what age do infants start showing a specific attachment?

7

what is the specific attachment stage?

special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby looks to a particular person for comfort. shows stranger and separation anxiety.

At what age do infants start showing multiple attachments?

10 months onwards

What is the multiple attachment stage?

babies had multiple attachments by 10 months. including mother, father, siblings, grandparents and neighbours.

How were attachments found to most likely form in Schaffer and Emersons study?

with those who responded to the babies needs accurately rather than who spent the most time with the infants

What was the population validity like for Schaffer and Emersons study?

Low. the babies were only from one area and one class type

Were diaries an accurate form of evidence in Schaffer and Emersons study?

No. Social desirability could have played a large part because the mothers were likely not to have put down negative interactions that could make them appear bad.

What was the temporal validity like for schaffer and Emersons study?

Low. conducted in 60s when gender roles were different

What was the external validity like for Schaffer and Emersons study?

Very high. study took place in the babies homes so they were more likely to act natural

What is the definition of attachment?

an emotional relationship between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure

what is the definition of caregiver?

any person who is providing care for a child, such as a parent, grandparent, sibling, childminders etc

what is the definition of interactional synchrony ?

when two people interact they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial and body movements. this includes imitating emotions as well as behaviours. this is described as synchrony

what is the definition of reciprocity?

responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of one partner elicit a response from the other partner. the responses are not necessarily similar as in international synchrony.

what did Jaffe et al demonstrate?

that infants coordinated their actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation

What did Brazelton suggest?

that the basic rhythm as seen in reciprocity is an important value in later communications. A caregiver can anticipate the infants behavior and respond appropriately/ the sensitivity to infant behaviour lays the foundation for attachment.

How did Meltzoff and Moore study interactional synchrony?

an adult model displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements, while the child had a dummy in their mouth to avoid a response. once the dummy was removed, and the child's expression was filmed.

What did Meltzoff and Moore find?

infants as young as two to three weeks old imitated specific spacial and hand gestures. they found that there was an association between the infant behavior and that of the adult model.

How did piaget contrast to meltzoff and moore?

M+M proposed that imitation was intentional: the infant is deliberately copying what the other person is doing.

Piaget believed that true imitation only developed towards the end of the first year and anything before this was a kind of response training. EG; Child sticks tongue out because the caregiver smiles

3 evaluation points for interactional synchrony and reciprocity

1

What is monotropy? (Bowlby)

only the principal attachment figure has impact on emotional and social development

What did schaffer and Emerson find about the role of the father?

fathers were far less likely to be primary attachment figures than mothers.

What biological and social factors affect how men and women attach to their children?

1

Men form secure attachments with their children TRUE OR FALSE

TRUE

What has research shown about fathers as secondary attachment figures

fathers play an important role as secondary attachment figures: fathers are more playful, physically active and generally better at providing challenging situations for their children.

what did Geiger say about fathers as secondary attachment figures?

a father is an exciting playmate whereas mothers are more conventional and tend to read stories to their children.

what is does imprinting mean?

an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth. if it doesn't happen at this time, then it probably will not happen at all.

What was Lorenz's procedure?

took a clutch of gosling eggs and decided them into two groups. one group was left with their natural mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator. when the incubator eggs hatched, the first living moving they saw was lorenz, and soon they started following him around.
he marked them, and placed them with the goslings that stayed with the mother. the incubator goslings had imprinted on him.

what were the findings of Lorenz's study?

when the goslings were together, they quickly divided themselves up. one group following their natural mother and the other group following lorenz. lorenz group showed not recognition of their natural mother.

what is Lorenz's critical period? what does it suggest?

critical period: the process of imprinting is restricted to a very definite period of the young's life. if they are not exposed to a moving object during this early critical period, imprinting will not take place.

this suggests animals can imprint on a persistently present moving object seen with in its first few days.

What was the aim of Harlow's study?

To determine whether food or close comfort was the important factor in attachment

what was the procedure of harlows study?

Monkey ppts

what were the results of harlows study?

all eight monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth covered mother whether or not this mother had the feeding bottle. those monkeys who fed from the wire mother only spent a short amount of time getting the milk and then returned to the cloth covered mother. when frightened and or unsure, the infants went to the cloth covered mother.

what do the findings from harlows study suggest?

infants do not develop attachment to the person who feeds them but to the person offering contact and comfort.

3 long term affects harlow found after the wire mother study

the motherless monkeys developed abnormally

1

two evaluation points of Lorenz's research

1

what does lorenz's study show?

that young animals are not born with a predisposition to imprint on a specific type of object, but probably on any moving thing that is present during the critical window of development.

3 evaluation points of harlows research

1

what is the learning theory?

The name given to a group of explanations (classical and operant conditioning), which explain behaviour in terms of learning rather than any inborn tendencies or higher order thinking.

What is operant conditioning?

Learning through reinforcement

what is social learning theory?

Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded.

what does learning theory (attachment) propose?

that all behaviour is learned rather than innate. when children are born they are blank slates and everything they become can be explained in terms of the experiences they have.

what is the process of classical conditioning in attachment?

food \= unconditioned stimulus ▶ pleasure \= unconditioned response

Mother \= neutral stimulus

Unconditioned stimulus + neutral stimulus \= conditioned response (pleasure)

How does a neutral stimulus become a conditioned stimulus?

if its regularly and consistently associated with a unconditioned stimulus

What is the drive reduction theory?

when a physiological need increases, so does our psychological drive to reduce it. a hungry infant has a drive to reduce hunger/discomfort. When the infant is fed, the drive is reduced and this produces a feeling of pleasure. this is rewarding. negative reinforcement.

food is the primary reinforcer because it supplies the reward.

3 evaluation points for the learning theory explanation of attachment

a criticism of learning theory is that it is largely based on studies with non human animals, such as skinners research with pigeons. it may lack validity because they present an oversimplified version of human behaviour.

contradicted by harlow, who suggests that feeding has nothing to do with attachment. the monkeys were attached to mothers that provided comfort and contact not food. supported by Shaffer and emerson

one strength, infants do learn through association and reinforcement, but food may not be the main enforcer. or may be that attention and responsiveness from a caregiver are important rewards.
learning theory may not provide a complete explanation of attachment but it still has some value.

what is the continuity hypothesis?

The idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure adults

what is the internal working model?

what is a social releaser?

A social behaviour or characteristic that elicits caregiving and leads to attachment

what does bowlby suggest in his maternal deprivation theory?

that children deprived of an early strong attachment may suffer permanent long term emotional maladjustment.

why are attachments formed according to bowlby?

attachment behaviour evolved because it serves an important survival function

how does bowlby suggest attachments are formed?

the critical period, in which babies have an innate drive to become attached. the critical period for development is between 3

what does bowlby say are the consequences of attachment? (the importance of monotropy)

an infant has one special relationship and forms a mental representation of this relationship called an internal working model.

what are the two consequences of the internal working model?

1: in the short term it gives the child insight into the caregivers behaviour and enables the child to influence the caregivers behaviour so that a true partnership can be formed (an understanding of eachother)

2: in the long term it acts as a template for all future relationships because it generates expectations about what intimate loving relationships are like.

three evaluation points of bowlbys monotropic theory

1

what is the environment of evolutionary adaptiveness? how does it relate to bowlby?

this is the environment to which any species is adapted an the selective pressures that existed at that time. for humans, it was moving from forest life to the developing savannahs in africa.

bowlby argued that there would have been a strong selective pressure for close attachment between an infant its mother at this time.

What are the 5 characteristics of the secure personality type? (ainsworth)

1

what are the 5 characteristics of the insecure avoidant personality type? (ainsworth)

1

what are the 5 characteristics of the insecure resistant personality type? (ainsworth)

1

What were the 4 situations observed in Ainsworth's strange situation?

1

how old were the infants in Ainsworths strange situation study?

between 9 and 18 months

how was information collected in ainsworths strange situation study?

data is typically collected by a group of observers using a video recorder . record what the infant is doing every 15 seconds using 5 behaviour categories. each is scored for intensity on a scale of 1

what are the 5 behaviour categories of ainsworth's strange situation?

1

3 evaluation points for ainsworths strange situation study

1

what is meant by deprivation?

in the context of child development, deprivation refers to the loss of emotional care that is normally provided by a primary care gier.

what is bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation?

bowlbly proposed that prolonged emotional deprivation would have long term consequences in terms of emotional development.

What was the procedure of the 44 thieves study?

bowlby analysed the case histories of a number of his patients in the child guidance clinic in london. all the children attending the clinic were emotionally maladjusted. he studied 88 children

what did bowlby suggest about some of the 44 thieves?

that they were affectionate psychopaths, they lacked normal signs of affection, shame or sense of responsibility. such characteristics enabled them to be thieves. they could steal from others because it didn't matter to them.

what were the findings of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?

the individuals diagnosed as affectionless thieves had experiences frequent early separations from their mothers.
12/15 affectionless thieves experienced frequent separation, compared with 5/30 of the other thieves

what do the findings of Bowlby's 22 thieves study suggest about early separations?

lack of continuous care may cause emotional maladjustment or even mental disorders.

what did bowlby believe children needed to have continuing normal mental health? (maternal deprivation)

children needed a warm intimate and continuous relationship with a mother or permanent mother substitutive.

what is the critical period in Bowlbys maternal deprivation theory?

if separation occurs before two and half years and if there is no substitute mother person available, the child may become emotionally disturbed.

3 evaluation points of bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

1

what is the difference between Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory and his attachment theory?

Theory of attachment focuses on the benefits of attachment; protection for the infant and the template for later relationships.

maternal deprivation focuses on the consequences of emotional separation.

what is institutionalisation?

The effects of living in an institutional setting

what caused a romanian orphan crisis in 1966?

the romanian government tried to boost the population or romania by encouraging parents to have large families; abortion was also banned. the consequence was that many babies could not be cared for by the families.

what happened when the regime collapsed in 1989? (romanian dictatorship, banning of abortion and encouragement of families etc)

the western world became aware of the plight of the orphans in institutional care. the children would spend their days alone in cribs and with very little stimulation

what was the procedure of Rutters ERA study? (english and romanian adoptees study)

the study included 165 romanian children who spent their early lives in romanian institutions and thus suffered from the effects of institutionalisation.

111 were adopted before the age of 2
54 adopted by the age of 4

they were tested at regular age intervals: 4,6,11 and 15) to asses their physical, cognitive and social development.

parents and teachers were interviewed.

the childrens progress has been compared to a control group of 52 british children adopted in the uk before 6 months.

what were the findings of rutters romanian orphans study?

at the time of adoption, the romanian orphans lagged behind their british counterparts on all measures of: physical, cognitive and social development

they were smaller, weighed less and were classified as having severe educational mental issues.

in rutters romanian orphan study, which children were most likely to catch up with their british counterparts?

the children adopted before the age of 6 months by the age of 4 had caught up.

in rutters romanian orphan study, how did the children adopted after 6 months present?

showed disinhibited attachments and had problems with peer relationships.

what do the findings of rutters orphan study suggest?

that long term consequences may be less severe than was once thought if the children have the opportunity to form attachments. however, when children do not form the attachments, then consequences are likely to be severe.

What did Le Mare and Audet find? (effects of institutionalisation)

recovery is possible from the effects of institutionalisation on physical development. longitudinal study showed that by ten and half years, the difference between the romanian orphans and the control had disappeared.

4 effects of institutionalisation

Physical underdevelopment

Intellectual underfunctioning

Disinhibited attachment (over friendliness)

Poor parenting

3 evaluation points for the effects of institutionalisation on attachment.

1