attachment

• Attachment - a deep and enduring emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure
• Reciprocity: Infant and caregiver take it in turns to communicate, with each individual responding to each other’s action, and communication flowing both ways. E.g., infant points finger and caregiver looks at direction that infant points. 
• Interactional synchrony: Infant and caregiver communicate at the same time, mirroring each other’s actions. This can include modulation of pitch and body language.
• From an early age babies have meaningful interactions with their carers.

  It is believed that these interactions have important functions for the child’s social development, in particular for developing caregiver-infant attachment
• Meltzoff & Moore, observations of 12-21 day old babies, responding to experimenters. Found evidence of interactional synchrony, with babies copying the experimenters in facial movements such as: 

  • Opening and closing their hands 
  • Sticking their tongue out 
  • Opening their mouth in a shocked expression 

  Research suggests interactional synchrony is possible from a very early age
• Meltzoff & Moore eval

  Study was later improved by adding multiple observers -> inter-rater reliability, and recording the observation with cameras. This allows micro-sequences to be slowed down and observed, allowing for greater accuracy in observations, increasing internal validity, as all behaviours are recorded, in order to get a better sense of what is happening,
• Meltzoff & Moore eval+ Lab experiment -> high levels of control of extraneous variables

  -cannot be sure why the baby is behaving as it is, as the baby cannot verbally communicate. This means researchers have to conclude themselves why such behaviour is displayed, which lowers the validity of the findings, as it becomes inherently subjective as different individuals would interpret the behaviours in different ways.
• Fathers have typically been involved in high stimulation play activities, which encourage risk-taking behaviour. 
• Fathers have also been linked to be involved in the development of socialisation processes 
• Verissimo et al, analysed the strength of relationships of pre-school children with mother and father. Found that those who had a stronger relationship with the father were more likely to make friends when starting school, suggesting that fathers have a role in teaching and developing a child’s ability to socialise with others. 

  + This research gives support to fathers, especially single fathers, or homosexual couples, that fathers can be involved in the child rearing, and are not limited by their sex. 
• Learning theory: cupboard love theory

  Classical conditioning, infant forms an association between the mother and the feeling of happiness, therefore becomes attached to mother. 

  Infant before learning: When hungry – Food (UCS) -> Happiness (UCR) 

  During learning: When hungry – Food (UCS) + Mother (NS) -> Happiness (UCR) 

  After learning: When hungry – Mother (CS) -> Happiness (CR)
• Attachment is maintained through operant conditioning, learning via reinforcement. 

  Baby cries -> receives food and love, therefore positive reinforcement 

  Baby stops crying when comforted and given food, therefore negative reinforcement for parents.
• learning theory eval

  + Face validity, it makes sense that we become attached to those that provide for us 

  -Environmentally reductionist, breaks down a complex process such as the formation of an attachment to simple stimulus-response explanations 

  -Harlow’s monkeys show that monkeys did not attach to wire surrogate mother that provided food but rather the cloth mother that did not, showing the importance of physical comfort in the formation of attachments 
• It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of mother-infant attachment

  Isabella et al 1989 observed 30 mothers and infants together to assess the degree of synchrony between them, while also assessing the quality of their attachment.

  They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment
• Caregiver-infant studies are usually conducted under well-controlled procedures. 

  For example, the activities are observed in a laboratory setting and filmed using cameras. This means that researchers can analyse the results multiple times and with different observers, ensuring that behaviours are unlikely to be missed. 

  This allows the researchers to establish high inter-observer reliability, as they can conduct the observations as many times are needed
• One limitation of research into caregiver-infant interactions is that it is hard to interpret a baby’s behaviour. Babies lack coordination and are mostly immobile, with most of the movements observed being primarily small hand movements or subtle changes in expressions. This may mean that it's harder to interpret their behaviour therefore leading to inferences being made that may be inaccurate. These inferences could be subject to researcher’s bias which reduces the validity of the researcher’s findings.