Attachment

• What is an attachment?

  • An emotional bond between two people, an infant and caregiver
  • The relationship is reciprocal, which means it is a two way relationship
• Signs that you have formed an attachment:


  • Proximity
  • Separation anxiety
  • Secure base behaviour
• Why do we form attachments?

  • Human babies are altricial: born in an early stage of development
  • They need to form bonds with adults who will protect and nurture them
  • Short term benefits: Survival
  • Long term benefits: Emotional relationships, it is believed that this first relationship acts as a template for later relationships
• Care-giver infant interactions:

  • Non-verbal communication-> Key interaction, forms the basis of attachment between an infant and caregiver
  • Each responds to the other-> determines the formation of attachment
  • The more sensitive each is to the others' signals, the deeper the relationship
• Two main types of care-giver infant interactions:

  • Reciprocity
  • Interactional Synchrony
• Reciprocity 


  • A form of interaction between infant and care-giver involving mutual responsiveness
  • Responding to each others' signals
  • Each elicits a response from the other
  • 'Turn taking' or a 'dance' as described by Brazelton (1975)
  • Basic communication rhythm is important in forming attachments
  • Baby is actively involved
• Alert phases


  • Periodic phase where babies signal they are ready for interaction
  • Feldman and Eidelman (2007): parents pick up on 2/3 of alert phases
  • 3 months+ is when this interaction becomes more frequent, both mother and baby are paying closer attention facially and verbally
• Finegold et al. (2016)

  Researched into what makes caregivers notice signals/alert phases

  • Stress/ business of caregiver
  • Experience (previous children)

  Responding more to signals will enhance the quality of the relationship and attachment
• Interactional Synchrony

  When care-giver and infant mirror the actions and emotions of what the other is doing, in a coordinated way
• Mettztoff and Moore (1977)

  An association was found between the expression and gestures of an adult and the baby's responses
• Mettztoff and Moore research:

  • Aim: To investigate interactional synchrony and whether is was innate within humans
  • Procedure:
  • An adult model displayed 1/3 movements and a hand gesture.
  • A dummy was placed in the baby's mouth to prevent any responses.
  • The dummy was then removed and the infant's facial gestures filmed
  • Findings:
  • Infants as young as 2 or 3 weeks old imitated specific gestures and facial expressions
• Russell Isabella et al. (1989)

  • Assessed degree of synchrony between 30 mothers and babies
  • Assessed emotional quality of attachment
  • Findings: High levels of synchrony= better quality attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson aim

  Investigate the formation of early attachment at the age at which they develop
• Schaffer and Emerson sample

  60 babies from Glasglow , from a majority working class family. Longitudinal study-> studied every month for the first year and then again at 18 months
• What did S&E assess?

  • separation anxiety
  • stranger anxiety
• S&E findings

  • 25-32 weeks: 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards caregiver
  • Attachment: Caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to the infant's signals and facial expression (reciprocity)
  • 40 weeks: 80% of babies had a specific attachment to the primary caregiver
  • 30% displayed secondary multiple attachments
  • pattern of attachment common to all infants which is biologically controlled
• Schaffers stages of attachment

  1. Asocial (0-8 weeks)
  2. Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
  3. Specific attachments (7-12 months)
  4. Multiple attachments (1 year onwards)
• Asocial stage


  • Preference for familial individuals
  • behaviour towards humans and non-humans similiar
  • Happier in the presence of humans than alone
  • recognise specific faces
• Indiscriminate attachment

  • recognise and prefer familial people
  • accept comfort from any adult
  • preference for people than inanimate objects
  • smile more at familiar than unfamiliar faces
• Specific attachments

  • show separation anxiety
  • primary attachment to one particular individual
  • shows stranger anxiety
  • use familiar adults as secure base
• Multiple attachments

  • Form secondary attachments with familiar adults whom they spend time with
• S&E evaluation

  • Longitudinal study: Helps eliminate individual differences, less confounding variables , high internal validity
  • Real world application: to help overcome caring issues
  • Population validity: Lacks generalisability BUT very similar findings found with other cultures
• S&E Eternal validity

  • Naturalistic observation-> behaviour studied in an environment where it naturally occurs
  • Researchers were not present during observation (parents kept a diary)
  • GOOD EXTERNAL VALIDITY
• S&E Real world application AO3

  Help struggling parents, day care-> good ecological validity (can be applied to the real world)
• S&E generalisability AO3

  Lack generalisability, lacks population validity-> historical and culture context (only Glasglow babies)
• The Role of the father 


  People are interested in finding out whether it is essential that the mother should be the primary caregiver and attachment figure. Is it possible for fathers to be equally good/better than mothers?
• Research about the father being an important attachment figure

  • S&E-> goes on to become an important attachment figure, 75% form attachment at 18 months
  • Klaus Grossman et al-> quality of the fathers play is related to the quality of adolescent attachment, fathers role: play and stimulation
  • Tiffany Field (1978)-> fathers have the potential to be more emotion-focused primary attachment figures (have the capability)
• Research about the father NOT being a particularly important attachment figure

  • Schaffer and Emerson-> majority of babies become attached to their mothers (less likely to be the babies 1st attachment figure), only 3% of babies had their father as the sole object of attachment
  • Klaus Grossman et al.-> attachment with father is less important in terms of attachment in adolescent
• Role of the father: single mother families and lesbian mothers

  • According to Grossman et al. fathers play an important role in a child's development
  • we would expect a child growing up without a father to have a different development
  • COUNTER: McCallum and Golombok (2004)-> evidence proving that children without a father do not develop differently, families can adapt without a father
• Role of the father: Real world application 


  • Research can be used to offer advice to parents
  • Mothers and fathers may feel pressured to fit into stereotypes
  • Research shows that fathers are capable of becoming the primary attachment figure-> break the stereotype
  • Parental advice can be given (anxiety reduced)
• Role of the father: Bias


  Researchers may already have an idea of what a 'father' is, may impact research
• What is imprinting?

  An innate readiness to form a strong bond with the mother-> the first moving object they see. Can take place within the first few hours of birth/hatching. Has long lasting effects
• Lorenz (1935)

  Aim: To investigate the mechanisms of imprinting

  Procedure:

  • Randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs
  • Half eggs hatched with the mother goose, the other half with Lorenz
  • After imprinting: to prove they formed an attachment, mixed the attached geese together in a box and saw that they all went to their attachment figure (Lorenz or the mother goose)
• Lorenz findings (1935)

  • Experimental group followed Lorenz
  • Control group followed the mother goose
  • Effects of imprinting was permanent/irreversible
  • Lorenz identified a critical period dependent on the species (imprinting occurs within 17 hours)
• Lorenz: AO3 application to human behaviour 


  • Human attachment very different to that of birds
  • Peter Seebach (2005): computer users exhibit 'baby duck syndrome', attachment formed to their first computer operating system hence rejecting others
• Lorenz AO3: Research support

  Strength

  • Evidence supporting the concept of imprinting
  • Regolin and Vallortigara (1995)-> chicks exposed to simple moving shape combinations, followed the original most closely
  • Supports the idea that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on the first moving object present
• Lorenz AO3: Ethical issues 


  • Geese can't give consent
  • Lorenz cannot provide the equivalent support to the mother goose
  • Protection from harm
  • Psychological stress of mother for losing her children
  • Geese can no longer survive in the wild
• Lorenz AO3: Generalisation

  Limitation

  • Mammalian attachment system is different and more complex than birds
  • Mammal attachment: 2 way process (mother and young)-> show an emotional attachment
  • Not appropriate to generalise to humans
• Harlow (1958)

  Aim: To investigate what the key mechanisms are when researching attachment in monkeys

  Procedure:

  • 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model 'mothers'
  • Split into two groups
  • One condition: milk dispensed to the plain wire mother
  • Second condition: milk dispensed to the cloth wire monkey
  • Would scare the monkey to see which mother it would seek comfort from
• Harlow Findings


  • Baby monkeys cuddled the cloth covered mother in preference, regardless of where milk was dispensed
  • Sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened
  • 'contact-comfort- was more important than food for baby monkeys
  • Rhesus monkeys have an innate 'comfort-contact'