attachment

• What is attachment in the context of emotional bonds?

  A strong emotional bond between a person and someone who cares for them
• What are the behaviours indicating attachment?

  • Proximity seeking
  • Joy
  • Distress
  • General orientation
  • Caregiver understanding needs
• What is reciprocity in attachment theory?

  A rhythmic form where behaviours of infant or caregiver are mimicked
• At what age does reciprocity typically occur?

  Around 3 months
• What is interactional synchrony?

  Where two people carry out the same action simultaneously
• Who conducted the study on infants and caregivers in 1977?

  Meltzoff and Moore
• How many babies participated in Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  12 babies aged 2-4 weeks old
• What was the method used by caregivers in Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  Caregivers pulled faces at infants, and infants reciprocated actions
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of Meltzoff and Moore's study?

  Strengths:

  • Two observers agreed
  • Establishes cause and effect

  
  

  Weaknesses:

  • Doesn't explain why the infants react this way
• infants who have been deprived of social interaction during this period may suffer from long-term psychological problems such as depression or schizophrenia
• Bowlby also observed that children who were adopted at a young age tended to form attachments more easily than those who were older.
• Bowlby's theory of attachment was based on his observations of children who had experienced separation from their parents due to war or other traumatic events.
• securely attached children have positive views about themselves and others, whereas insecurely attached children may struggle with relationships later on in life
• Avoidant attachment is marked by a child avoiding or ignoring the caregiver, showing little emotion when the caregiver leaves or returns.
• the first six months are crucial to the development of secure attachments, as this is when infants begin to develop their own sense of self
• The Strange Situation is an observation procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth which assesses the quality of infant-mother attachment using standardised procedures.
• Ainsworth found that there were three main types of attachment: secure, avoidant and resistant/ambivalent