Introduction to attachment

• Attachment is defined as a close two-way emotional bond in which 2 individuals form a reciprocal relationship and see each other as essential for their own emotional security
• What are the three characteristics of attachment?

  1. Proximity
  2. Separation distress
  3. Secure-base behaviour
• What is proximity in attachment?

  Physically staying close to the attachment figure
• What is separation distress?

  Showing signs of anxiety when an attachment figure leaves
• What is secure-base behaviour?

  Even when we are independent we tend to make regular contact with our attachment figure
• Define reciprocity

  A two-way interaction between individuals
• Define interactional synchronicity

  Caregiver and infant reflecting each others actions and emotions in a co-ordinated way at the same time
• High levels of synchrony shows a strong emotional intensity of relationship
• Brazelton described infant interactions as a dance as its like a couples dance where each partner responds to the other persons moves
• What did Meltzoff and Moore observe?

  Interactional synchronicity in infants as young as 2 weeks and they found that babies expressions mirrored the adults, showing significant association
• What did Schaffer and Emerson show?


  That the primary attachment figure is much more likely to be made with the mother than the father, fathers are secondary attachment figures
• What factors influence paternal involvement?

  1. Cultural factors (until recently men were expected to be breadwinners and not have direct involvement in children's care)
  2. Economic factors (In Africa men work several hundreds of miles away from their homes to provide for their family)
  3. Social policies (Until recently fathers weren't given paternal leave so the responsibility for child care was given to mothers)
  4. Biological factors (Women are biologically adapted to feed the infant and produce the nurturing hormone oestrogen)
• Freeman et al (2010) found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children
• Freeman et al (2010) found that children are more likely to be attached to their father during their late childhood to early adolescence. Infants and and young adults are less likely to seek attachment to their fathers.
• Manlove et al (2002) found that fathers are less likely to be involved with their infant if the infant has a difficult temperament
• Findings on attachment with the role of the father are inconsistent as children without fathers are no different from those with fathers suggesting that the fathers role is secondary, however this claim poses huge ethical issues as its socially sensitive research
• Grossman found that fathers have a role to do with play and stimulation and less to do with emotional development
• Limitation of caregiver infant interactions - hard to know meaning of small movements
• Strength of caregiver infant interactions - can be recorded through a screen and in camera in fine detail, baby won't be aware so acts natural
• limitation of caregiver infant interactions - observation doesn't tell us how important the behaviour is in development
• Strength of role of father - real world application, mother's may feel pressured to stay at home and fathers may feel pressured to go out, reassuring advice to parents
• Limitation of role of father - Grossman said father's are secondary attachment figures with a distinctive role, expectation that children with homosexual families would turn out different but studies show children didn't develop differently to heterosexual families, question whether father has distinctive role is unanswered
• Limitation of role of father - preconceptions lead to observer bias