Psychologists

• T. Berry Brazelton et al.

  1975

  Described reciprocity as a dance because each partner responds to the other person's moves

  Baby's trigger interactions with adults using social releasers

  The researchers instructed the babies primary attachment figures to ignore their baby's social releasers

  Babies who were previously responsive became increasingly distressed and some eventually curled up and became motionless
• Andrew Meltzoff and Keith Moore

  1977

  Observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks old

  Adult displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or 1 of 3 distinctive gestures

  Baby's response filmed and labelled by independent observers

  Baby's expression and gestures were more likely to mirror those of the adults more than chance would predict
• Russell Isabella et al.

  1989

  Observed 30 mothers and babies together and assessed the degree of synchrony

  Researchers also assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment

  High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
• Ruth Feldman (2012)

  Ideas like synchrony simply give names to patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours

  Robust phenomena that can be reliably observed

  May not be useful in understanding child development as it does not tell us the purpose of behaviour
• Rebecca Crotwell et al.

  2013

  10 minute Parent-Child Interaction Therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their pre-school children
• Schaffer and Emerson - Procedure

  1964

  Based their stage theory on observational study of the formation of early-infant attachments

  60 babies: 31 males and 29 females

  All from Glasgow

  Majority working-class families

  Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months

  Researchers asked mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations

  Designed to measure the babies attachment

  Researchers also assessed stranger anxiety
• Schaffer and Emerson - Findings


  Attachments more likely to form with carers who were more sensitive to the baby's signals, rather than who they spent the most time with or fed them

  Majority of babies first became attached to their mother at around 7 months, only 3% father sole attachment

  27% father joint first object of attachment with mother

  75% attachment to their father by 18 months

  Found four distinctive stages of attachment:

  Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)

  Similar responses to objects & people. Preference for faces/eyes.

  Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks – 6 months)

  Preference for human company. Ability to distinguish between people but comforted indiscriminately.

  Specific (7 months +)

  Infants show a preference for one caregiver, separation and stranger anxiety. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection.

  Multiple (10/11 months +)

  Attachment behaviours are displayed towards several different people
• Klaus Grossmann et al.

  (2002)

  Longitudinal study

  Babies attachment were studied until they were teens

  Looked at both parents behaviours and its relationship to the quality of their baby's later attachments to other people

  Quality of attachment with mother but not father related to attachments in adolescence

  Quality of fathers play with babies was related to quality of adolescent attachments

  Fathers different role to mothers, play and stimulation rather than emotional development
• Tiffany Field

  (1978)

  Filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers

  Primary caregivers (mothers and fathers) spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies (reciprocity and interactional synchrony) than secondary caregiver fathers

  Fathers have the potential to be the responsive emotional primary attachment figure
• Konrad Lorenz - Procedure

  First observed imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that then followed him around

  (1952)

  Randomly divided a large clutch of goose eggs

  Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment

  The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
• Konrad Lorenz - Findings

  Incubator group followed him; Control group followed mother even when mixed up

  Imprinting - Bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see

  Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place

  Depending on the species this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching 

  If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
• Lucia Regolin and Giorgio Vallortigara (1995)

  Supports Lorenz idea of imprinting

  Chicks exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, like a triangle with a rectangle in front

  Range of shape combinations were moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely

  Young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object present in the critical window of development
• Peter Seebach (2005)

  Computer users exhibit 'baby duck syndrome' - attachment to first computer operating system leading them to reject others
• John Dollard and Neal Miller (1950)

  Learning theory

  'Cupboard Love'

  Emphasises the role of the attachment figure as a provider of food

  Classical conditioning: food (unconditional stimulus) = pleasure (unconditional response); caregiver (neutral) repeatedly provides food so there is an expectation; caregiver (conditioned stimulus) = pleasure + love (conditioned response)

  Operant conditioning: crying = response, as long as caregiver provides correct response crying is reinforced, crying = comforting social suppressor behaviour

  Positive reinforcement for the baby, negative reinforcement for parent who escapes unpleasant crying

  Hunger a primary drive, innate, biological motivator
• Robert Sears et al. (1957)

  As caregiver provide food the hunger drive is generalised to them

  Attachment a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of hunger primary drive
• Dale Hay and Jo Vespo (1988)

  Parents teach children to love them by modelling attachment behaviours

  Parents reinforce loving behaviours by showing approval when babies display their own attachment behaviours
• Heidi Bailey et al.

  2007

  Assessed attachment in 99 mothers and their 1 year old babies

  The researchers measured the mothers attachment to their own primary attachment figures and the attachment quality of the baby

  Mothers with poor attachment to their own primary attachment figure were more likely to have poorly attached babies

  Internal working model
• Erica Burman (1994)

  The law of continuity and accumulated separation suggests that mothers who work may negatively affect their child's emotional development

  Feminist

  This belief sets up mothers to take the blame for anything that goes wrong for the child in the future

  Gives people an excuse to restrict mothers activities
• Mary Ainsworth and Silvia Bell (1969)

  A Strange Situation

  Aim:

  Observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a baby's attachment to a caregiver

  Procedure:

  Controlled observation

  Measure security of attachment a baby displays towards a caregiver

  Room with controlled conditions and two-way mirror

  Caregiver and baby enter an unfamiliar playroom:

  The baby is encouraged to explore - exploration and secure base

  A stranger comes in, talks to the caregiver and approaches the baby - stranger anxiety

  The caregiver leaves the baby and stranger together - separation and stranger anxiety

  The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves - reunion behaviour, exploration and secure base

  The caregiver leaves the baby alone - separation anxiety

  The stranger returns - stranger anxiety

  The caregiver returns is reunited with the baby - reunion behaviour
• Mary Ainsworth et al. (1987)

  Type A: Insecure-Avoidant attachment (20-25%)

  Explore freely

  Do not seek proximity or secure-base behaviour

  No separation or stranger anxiety

  No reunion behaviour

  Type B: Secure attachment (60-75%)

  Explore freely

  Frequently seek proximity and secure-base

  Moderate separation anxiety and stranger anxiety

  Require and accept comfort in reunion behaviour

  Type C: Insecure-resistant attachment (3%)

  Less exploration

  Seek greater proximity

  High stranger and separation anxiety

  Resist comfort in reunion behaviour
• Jerome Kagan (1982)

  Genetically influenced anxiety levels could account for variations in attachment behaviour in the Strange Situation and later development

  Strange situation may not actually measure attachment
• Johanna Bick et al. (2012)

  Tested inter-rater reliability for the Strange Situation

  Team of trained observers

  Found agreement in 94% of cases

  Hugh level of reliability may be because the procedure takes place under controlled conditions and because behaviours involve large movements and therefore easy to observe

  Objective
• Keiko Takahashi

  (1986)

  Japanese

  Babies displayed very high levels of separation anxiety

  Disproportionate number were classified as insecure-resistant

  (1990)

  Anxiety response not due to high rates of attachment insecurity but the usual nature of the experience in Japan where mother-baby separation is very rare
• Mary Main and Judith Solomon (1986)

  Identified 4th category of attachment

  Type D: disorganised

  Mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours

  Unusual and generally experienced some form of severe neglect or abuse

  Most develop psychological disorders by adulthood
• van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg

  1988

  Meta analysis of the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments to assess cultural variation as well as within cultures

  Included German team and Japanese Keiko Takahashi

  Procedure

  Meta analysis

  32 studies that used the Strange Situation

  8 countries

  15 studies from the USA

  1990 children

  Findings

  Wide variation in the proportion of attachment

  All countries secure attachment most common

  75% Britain and 50% China

  Individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment similar to Ainsworth's original sample (all under 14%)

  Collectivist cultures (China, Japan, Israel) insecure-resistant rates above 25% and insecure avoidant reduced

  Variations between studies in the same culture 150% greater than those between countries

  USA one study found 46% securely attached and another 90%
• Simonelli et al.

  2014

  Italy

  75 babies

  12 months

  Strange Situation

  50% secure

  36% insecure-avoidant

  Lower rates of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure-avoidant attachment 

  Increasing mothers of very young children working long hours and using professional childcare
• Mi Kyoung Jin et al.

  2012

  Korea

  Strange situation assessed 87 babies

  Most secure and similar secure and insecure to other countries

  Most insecurely attached were resistant and only one avoidant

  Distribution similar to Japan

  Japan and Korea similar child rearing styles 
• Gilda Morelli and Edward Tronick

  1991

  Outsiders from America studied child-rearing and patterns of attachment in the Efe of Zaire
• John Bowlby (Theories)

  (1988) - Monotropy

  Rejected learning theory 'were it true, an infant of a year or two should take readily to whomever feeds him and that is clearly not the case'

  Attachment innate, evolutionary survival advantage 

  Attachment to caregiver different and most important, more time with them the better

  Law of continuity and accumulated separation

  (1953) - Maternal Deprivation

  Continual care from mother figure essential for normal emotional and intellectual development

  'Mother-love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health'

  Critical period up to 2 and 1/2 years, continued risk up to 5, if separated from their mother without a suitable substitute, psychological damage inevitable

  (1969) - Internal Working Model

  First relationship with primary attachment figure leads to a mental representation, template for future relationships
• John Bowlby (Experiment)

  1944

  Procedure:

  44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing

  All thieves interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy

  Families interviewed in order to establish whether they had early prolonged separation from their mothers

  Compared to a control group of 44 non-criminal emotionally-disturbed young people

  Findings:

  14/44 describable as affectionless psychopaths

  12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives

  Only 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separation

  Only 2 participants in the control group had experienced long separations
• Goldfarb (1943)

  Development of deprived children in wartime orphanages

  Followed up 30 orphaned children to the age of 12

  Half of the original sample had been fostered by 4 months of age whilst the other half remained in an orphanage

  At 12 their IQ was assessed using a standard IQ test called Stanford-Binet test

  Fostered group had an average IQ of 96, group that remained in the orphanage averaged only 68 (below cut-off used to define intellectual disability)

  Confounding variables - early trauma, institutional care and prolonged separation from primary caregiver
• Frederic Levy et al. (2003)

  Separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had permanent effect on their social development though not other aspects of development
• Jamilia Koluchova (1976)

  Czech twins

  Experienced severe physical and emotional abuse from the age of 18 months up until 7 years old

  Severely damaged emotionally

  Received excellent care and by teens fully recovered
• Hilda Lewis (1954)

  500 young people

  Found no association between early separation and later psychopathy
• Michael Rutter - Theory

  (1981)

  Deprivation - loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment has developed

  Privation - the failure to form any attachment in the first place, may take place when the child is brought up in institutional care

  Severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation more likely privation

  Children studied by Goldfarb may have been prived rather than deprived

  44 thieves study had disrupted early lives and may have never formed strong attachments

  
  

  (2006)

  Disinhibited attachment is an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation and Bowlby's critical period for attachment
• Michael Rutter (2011) - Procedure

  Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romanian adoptee study

  The orphans had been adopted by British families

  Aim to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

  Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25

  52 children from the UK adopted around the same time were a control group
• Michael Rutter (2011) - Findings

  (2011)

  When they first arrived in the UK half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and severe undernourishment

  Aged 11 showed different rates of recovery related to the age of adoption

  The mean IQ of those adopted before the age of 6 months was 102

  86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years

  77 for those adopted after 2 years

  These differences remained at 16

  More common in 15 and 22-25 samples

  Children adopted after six months showed signs of a particular attachment style called disinhibited attachment

  Symptoms: attention-seeking, clinginess, social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar

  Those adopted before age 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment

  Negative correlation between age at adoption and intellectual development at age 4
• Charles Zeanah et al. (2005)

  Bucharest Early Intervention Project Assessing attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months 

  Spent most of their life in institutional care (90% on average)

  Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never been in institutional care

  Their attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation

  Carers were asked about unusual social behaviour directed inappropriately at adults

  74% of the control group classed as securely attached

  19% of the institutional group were securely attached

  Description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of control
• Rowan Myron-Wilson and Peter Smith (1998)

  Assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires

  196 children aged 7-11 from London

  Secure children unlikely to be involved in bullying

  Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims

  Insecure-resistant more likely to be bullies
• Cindy Hazan and Philip Shaver (1987)

  The Love Quiz

  Analysed 620 replies to a love quiz printed in an American local newspaper

  Quiz had 3 sections: 1, assessed their current or most important relationship; 2, general love experiences; 3, assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of 3 statements best described their feelings

  56% identified as securely attached

  25% insecure-avoidant

  19% insecure-resistant

  Secure most likely to report longer-lasting romantic experiences

  Avoidant tend to be jealous and fear of intimacy