attachment

• reciprocity 


  interactions between a caregiver and infant involving 2 way/mutual responsiveness, this is important in developing attachment relationships
• interactional synchrony 


  when interactions between a caregiver and infant are 'synchronised' so that their responses reflect each other, this can mean mirroring or imitating the action
• MACCOBY identified 4 key behaviours of attachment:

  • seeking proximity by child and PAF
  • distress on separation (separation anxiety)
  • pleasure when reunited
  • general orientation of behaviour towards PAF
• Schaffer's stages of attachment:

  1. asocial stage
  2. indiscriminate attachment stage
  3. discriminate/specific stage
  4. multiple attachments
• asocial stage 


  (0-6 weeks) infant produces similar responses to objects + people, show no preference to specific people, but towards the end of the stage they show a preference to social stimuli
• indiscriminate stage 


  (6 weeks - 7 months) babies become more sociable, they can tell people apart and prefer to be in human company, they can distinguish between familiar + unfamiliar people (but still relatively comforted by anyone), do not show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety
• discriminate stage 


  (7 - 9 months) infants begin to show separation anxiety, they show a strong attachment + reference to 1 individual
• multiple attachments 


  (10+ months) the baby now makes several attachments to important people in their life, infants also display separation anxiety in main + secondary attachments
• it is possible that there are mediating factors that relate to the type of attachment a father has with his children, these include:

  • interaction - how much the father engages with the child
  • accessibility - how physically + emotionally accessible he is
  • responsibility - the extent to which he takes on 'caretaking' tasks
• role of the father - Grossman (2002)

  • a longitudinal study of 44 families comparing the role of the mothers' and fathers' contribution to to their children's attachment experiences at 6, 10 and 16 years was conducted
  • they found the quality of the mother-child attachment was important when assessing the quality of attachment in adolescence, this was not the case for father-child attachments
  • indicating the role of the father is less important, so the quality of the father-child attachment is not considered necessary for the child's long-term attachment
• role of the father - Field (1978)

  • Field compared the behaviours of primary caretaker mothers with primary and secondary caretaker father
  • face-to-fcae interactions were unanalysed from videos with infants at 4 months of age
  • they found that fathers who were primary attachment figures acted in very similar ways to mothers who were primary attachment figures - they showed more smiling, imitative grimaces and vocalisations than secondary caretaker fathers
  • suggesting fathers are able to take on the more caring/nurturing role usually associated with the mother
• role of the father - Brown et al. (2012)

  • father involvement, paternal sensitivity and father-child attachment was investigated at 13 months and 3 years of age
  • results demonstrated that involvement and sensitivity influenced father-child attachment security at age 3
  • they concluded that the gender of the caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types/quality, rather it is the extent of the caregiver involvement
• role of the father - MacCallum and Golombok (2004)

  • they found that children growing up in single-parent or same sex households do not develop any differently from those who grow up in more 'conventional' families
  • suggesting that the role of the father is not significant in attachment
• sensitivity - Hrdy (1997)

  • Hrdy investigated the sensitivity of fathers, he found fathers are less able than mothers to detect low levels of infant distress, suggesting males are less suitable as primary caregivers
  • this supports the important of sensitivity and indicates that differences in males and females may be due to differences in time spent with the child, not biological differences
• counterargument to Hrdy (sensitivity) - Lamb (1987)

  • Lamb found that that fathers who became the primary caregiver, quickly developed more sensitivity to children's needs
  • suggesting sensitive responsiveness isn't a biological ability limited to women
• biological differences - Frodi et al. (1978)

  • they found evidence to challenge the view that mothers have a greater physiological response to infant distress
  • men + women were shown videos of infants crying and found no differences in their physiological responses
  • this suggests that biological factors may not explain the gender differences in attachment relationships between parents and infants
• different roles - Geiger (1996)

  • Geiger found that fathers play a different role to mothers
  • he found that father's play interactions are more exciting and pleasurable that a mother's
  • mothers = nurturing/affectionate (caregivers)
  • fathers = playful (playmates)
  • these findings support the idea that the roles of mothers and fathers are complementary and that both roles are important rather than a hierarchical system (suggested by Bowlby)
• ethological theory 


  the idea that behaviour is strongly influenced by biology and is tied to evolution - characterised by critical or sensitive periods, these are specific time frames which (according to ethologists) the presence or absence of certain experiences has a long-lasting influence on individuals
• precocial species 


  young that are relatively mature, mobile and can feed themselves within hours or days of birth
• imprinting 


  when young animals follow and form an attachment to the first large moving object they meet (it is mainly seen exhibited by nidifugous birds, ones that leave their nest early)
• Lorenz (1935) imprinting in geese - aim 


  to investigate the mechanism of imprinting
• Lorenz (1935) imprinting in geese - procedure

  • 12 eggs were used in the study: 6 placed under the mother, the other 6 Lorenz kept in an incubator
  • Lorenz marked all the goslings to determine the naturally hatched eggs and the incubated eggs
  • he observed the goslings behaviour
  • to examine if imprinting had worked, he placed all the goslings under a box, allowing them to mix
  • he also varied the time between birth and seeing a moving object to measure the critical period for imprinting
• Lorenz (1935) imprinting in geese - findings

  • immediately after hatching, the goslings followed the first moving object they saw
  • when related from the box, the 6 naturally hatched gosling went to their mother + the 6 incubated goslings went to Lorenz (these bonds were irreversible)
  • critical period fro imprinting to occur is 4 to 25 hours after hatching
  • Lorenz also found that goslings who imprinted on humans attempted to mate with humans as adult birds
• Lorenz (1935) imprinting in geese - conclusion

  • imprinting is irreversible, suggesting it is an innate process (biological rather than learned)
  • the concept of a critical period has been carried over to theories of human attachment
  • goslings who tried to mate with humans suggests imprinting is important for later relationships and short-term survival
• Harlow (1958) rhesus monkey study - aim 


  to investigate the mechanisms by which newborn monkeys bond with their mothers
• Harlow (1958) rhesus monkey study - procedure

  • 16 infant rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth
  • each monkey was then individually reared in a cage, each containing 2 surrogate mothers
  • surrogate mother 1: made of wire mesh with a bottle inside to feed the monkey + surrogate mother 2: made of wire mesh but covered in a soft cloth (no food)
  • monkeys were frightened with a loud noise to test which surrogate mother they preferred
  • monkeys were also placed in a larger cage to test their degree of explorations depending on which surrogate mother they are placed with
• Harlow (1958) rhesus monkey study - findings

  • infants spent more time with the cloth mother than with the surrogate mother who provided food - babies only visited the wire mother when they were hungry, retuning to the cloth mother the rest of the day
  • when in a larger cage, they explored more if the cloth mother was present
  • preference for cloth mother is stronger when distressed (frightened by loud noise)
• Harlow (1958) rhesus monkey study - conclusion

  • contact comfort (provided by soft cloth)is more important than feeding
  • support evolutionary theory of attachment - it is a sensitive response + security of caregiver that is important, not who provides food
  • in the first few months (critical period of attachment) the monkeys need some interaction with another object to cling to that comforts them
  • long term effects = 'motherless-mothers'
• biological continuity 


  behaviours or traits are passed down through evolution because they help us survive or reproduce
• extrapolation

  using data or findings from a study to make predictions or draw conclusions about situations beyond the original research
• altricial species 


  young that are born in an immature state and are unable to care for themselves (do require parental extensive care to become independent)