attachment

• interactions - babies have frequent and important interactions with their caregiver
• reciprocity


  • turn taking
  • mothers respond when baby is alert
  • from 3 months becomes more intense and reciprocal
• Interactional synchrony


  • same actions simultaneously
  • interactions co-ordinated from two weeks (meltzoff and moore)
  • quality of attachment related to synchrony (isabella et al)
• evaluate caregiver-infant interactions

  • filmed observations
  • difficulty observing babies
  • developmental importance
  • practical value versus ethics
• filmed observations - capture fine detail, can establish interrupter reliability and babies not aware of being observed
• difficulty observing babies - hard to know meaning of small movements
• developmental importance - observation of behaviour does not tell us about its importance in development

  counterpoint - evidence from e.g. Isabella et al. suggests interactional synchrony is important for attachment
• practical value versus ethics - attachment research has practical value but is controversial (implications for working mothers)
• schaffer's stages of attachment

  1. asocial stage
  2. indiscriminate attachment
  3. specific attachments
  4. multiple attachments
• asocial stage - first few weeks, same response to humans and objects
• indiscriminate stage - 2-7 months, preference for (familiar) people, no stranger / separation anxiety
• specific attachments - stranger and separation anxiety in regard to on particular adult = primary attachment figure (65% were mother)
• multiple attachments - soon after attachment behaviour is directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments)
• schaffer and emerson's research - procedure

  mothers of 60 working class glasgow babies reported monthly separation and stranger anxiety
• schaffer and emerson's research - findings

  babies' attachment behaviour progressed as detailed in schaffer and emerson's stage theory
• evaluate schaffers stages of attachment

  • good external validity
  • poor evidence for asocial stage
  • real world application
  • generalisability
• good external validity (schaffer) - mother did the observing so babies not stressed being observed

  counterpoint - mothers might not have accurately noted behaviour
• poor evidence for the asocial staged - babies have poor co-ordination, so just may seen asocial
• real world application (schaffer) - no harm in starting at daycare during asocial / indiscriminate stages (any skilled adult adequate) but problematic starting daycare in specific attachment stage
• generalisability (schaffer) - data gather only in 1960s working-class glasgow, e.g. multiple attachment may be different in collectivist cultures (can ijzendoorn)
• attachment to fathers - most babies attach to their father, (75% by the first 18 months) but rarely as the first attachment (only 3% sole attachment) (schaffer and emerson)
• distinctive role for fathers - fathers may have a distinctive role involving play and stimulation (grossmann et al.)
• fathers as primary attachments figures - those father who were primary caregivers more responsive than secondary caregiver fathers (field)
• evaluate the role of the father

  • confusion over research questions
  • conflicting evidence
  • real world application
  • research bias
• confusion over research questions (role of the father) - competing research questions prevent a simple answer about the father's role
• conflicting evidence (role of the father) - studies have reached different conclusions about a distinctive role for fathers

  counterpoint - fathers may be predisposed to a role but single mother and lesbian parents simply take on these roles
• real world application (role of the father) - families can be advised about the father's role in attachment
• research bias (role of the father) - preconceptions lead to observer bias, may affect some studies
• classical conditioning - caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food (unconditioned stimulus). caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus
• operant conditioning - crying behaviour reinforced positively for baby and negatively for caregiver
• attachment as a secondary drive - attachment becomes a secondary drive through association with hunger
• evaluate attachment (learning theory)

  • counter evidence from animal studies
  • counter evidence from studies on humans
  • some conditioning may be involved
  • slt
• counter evidence from animal studies (learning theory) - lorenz and harlow show that feeding is not the key to attachment
• counter evidence from studies on humans (learning theory) - primary attachment figure not always person who does the feeding (schaffer and emerson), quality of attachment related to interactional synchrony not feeding (isabella et al)
• some conditioning may be involved (learning theory) - conditioning (association with comfort) may influence the choice of primary attachment figure

  counterpoint - babies are more active in attachment than conditioning explanations suggest (feldman and eidelman)
• slt (learning theory) - involves modelling attachment behaviours, includes role of active baby (hay and vespo)
• lorenz research - procedure

  goslings saw lorenz when they hatched
• lorenz research - findings

  newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting)
• sexual imprinting - adult birds try to mate with whatever species or object they imprint on
• evaluate lorenz's research

  • research support
  • generalisability to humans
  • applications to human behaviour