attachment

• an attachment is a two way emotion bond between 2 individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own security
• long term benefits - template for future relationships, e.g. as a partner or parent
• reciprocity - how people interact with each other, e.g. mother and infant

  • babies have 'alert phases' and then the mother or father will interact with the baby's faces and expressions
  • Brazelton described it as a 'dance' as the baby and parent would respond to each others actions
• interactional synchrony - when baby and parent carry out an action at the same time. for example, similar facial expressions
• problems with baby research

  • newborns sleep most of the time
  • can't talk, so the researcher has to assume what facial expressions mean
  • theory puts pressure on the mothers to interact well with their baby's in the first few days of their life
• validity - how accurate the results are, and free from extraneous variables
• reliability - if the research can be repeated and achieve similar results
• role of the father

  Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - found that around 7 months the first attachment is formed and this will be the the primary caregiver (usually the mother)

  by 18 months 75% of infants had formed an attachment with their father

  • father is seen 'playmates' with more exciting interactions whereas the mother is seen for emotion and comfort (Geiger 1996)
  • men have a bigger role in parenting than they used to as women have more work opportunities now too
• role of the father

  Brown - found that intimacy between the mother and father can affect the type of attachment the child has

  • more intimate the mother and father relationship leads to a more secure father - infant relationship
• still face experiment

  parent plays with the child then will look away and turn back to the child with a still face

  • the child gets irritated almost immediately and starts crying
  • done with mothers and fathers and the child gave the same reaction for both
• research evaluation

  • biased, and assumes women are the primary caregivers
  • determined, women are biologically more ideal to nurture the baby
• animal research

  Lorenz (1935) - observed imprinting

  clutch of goose eggs and divided them into 2 groups (he left 1 group in an incubator and the other group with the mother)

  these geese hatched, Lorenz mixed the control group with the experimental group. the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz

  • imprinting happens between 12-17 hours of hatching
  • if the geese didn't see a moving object in the critical period it won't be able to imprint
  • irreversible, mates later on in life are chosen from who they were imprinted by
• animal research

  Harlow (1959) - demonstrates attachment isn't to do with food

  Harlow used 2 mothers, a cloth mother (comfort) and a wire mother (food). this was not a real attachment as it wasn't 2 ways

  Harlow would then scare the monkeys and they tested to see who they would run to; cloth or wire mother

  he found that deprived monkeys

  • didn't know how to act around other monkeys
  • showed aggressive and inappropriate behaviour
  • monkeys who were deprived from mothers struggled to form attachments with their own children - even ate them.
• Bowlby's theory of attachment is that attachments helps survival which is why we are born with the ability to form an attachment, attachments are innate
• bowlby's theory

  • Attachments are adaptive - infant has an attachment to a caregiver because they are kept safe, warm and given food. attachments provide a secure base for cognitive development
  • Social releasers - unlock the innate tendency for adults to care for them. Physical (features, proportions) and behavioural (crying, cooing)
  • Critical period - forms an attachment with a caregiver by 2 1/2 years. Bowlby viewed this as more of a sensitive period and if an attachment wasn't formed they'd find it harder later on in life. Identified the critical period as 5 years old
• bowlbys theory (part 2)

  • Monotropy - idea of one special relationship. infants have the tendency to form a single primary attachment to mother or mother figure
  • law of continuity - more consistent and predictable the childs care, the better quality of attachment
  • law of accumulated separation - effects of separation from the mother will eventually add up do therefore the safest dose is zero
  • internal working model - through monotropic attachments the infant would form an internal working model which forms a schema for all future relationships
• learning theory of attachment - children learn to become attached to their caregiver because they give them food.

  • learning can be due to associations (classical conditioning) or reinforcement, punishments and rewards (operant conditioning)
• learning theory of attachment (classical conditioning)

  food is an unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned response of pleasure.

  the caregiver is a neutral stimulus who gives no response.

  however the baby is continuously paired with food (unconditioned stimulus) so the mother then slowly becomes associated with food until eventually the mother alone can produce a response

  • the mother has now become the conditioned stimulus and the pleasure she brings is the conditioned response
• learning theory of attachment (operant conditioning)

  learning by reinforcement

  (Dollard and Miller - 1950) suggested that a hungry infant feels uncomfortable an this creates an urge to reduce the discomfort

  • any behaviour that results in rewards (food) is 'stamped in' or reinforced
  • any behaviour that results in punishments is 'stamped out'

  when the infant is fed it then reduces the discomfort

  the food is the primary reinforcer as it directly satisfies the hunger and the caregiver is the secondary reinforcer as he/she is associated with giving the food
• Ainsworth strange situation

  • done in 1978 in the US with 106 middle class infants ages 18 months to 3 years
  • involved 3 people (mother, infant and stranger)
  • the aim was to see if different children had different attachment types
• Ainsworth put the children into 3 different categories

  • secure attachment - not different with the stranger when the mother is present but ignore stranger when left alone. is happy when mother returns and will easily calm and explore again
  • insecure avoidant - plays with the stranger whether the mother is there or not, won't check for the mothers presence. shows no interest in the mothers return
  • insecure resistant - shows fear of the stranger and avoids the stranger regardless of the mothers presence. when the mother returns the infant seeks comfort from the mother but may push her away
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) criticised Ainsworth's study and said it was not representative of the general population in other cultures.

  • they found 32 studies of the strange situation (8 different countries)
  • overall sample size was 1990
  • the data collected from all 32 countries was meta analysed to compare the findings. they found that different cultures have different child bearing practices which meant the attachment types would differ. (in Japan infants are rarely separated from their mothers so aren't used to being left with strangers so high levels of insecure resistant)
• imposed etic - use a procedure developed in one culture to test another culture
• meta analysis - statistical test to compare findings
• culture - refers to shared beliefs and values of members of a particular society. different cultures may not share the same norms and values as other cultures
• ethnocentrism - negatively judge another culture based on your own cultures values
• maternal deprivation hypothesis - effects of separating infants from their mothers

  • Bowlby argued that if the child doesn't have a proper attachment figure they will be affected for the rest of their lives and can have an impact on future relationships
• separation - temporary separation from the main attachment figure
• deprivation - had an attachment figure but the attachment figure went away permanently
• privation - child never had an attachment figure, failure to form an attachment
• intellectual development - growth of a childs ability to think and reason. how they organise their minds. deprived from the main attachment figure during the critical period means they can suffer from mental retardation
• emotional development - importance of a childs emotional bond with their caregiver. loss of this bond can affect a child emotionally and psychologically and into their adulthood which can have an impact of future relationships
• PDD model - short term consequences of separation

  • protest - the child will scream, cry and angrily protest when the caregiver leaves
  • despair - child begins to stop and appear calmer but still upset. refuses comfort and is very uninterested
  • detachment - if separation continues the child will start to engage with other people again. will reject the caregiver upon return and show strong signs of anger
• Rutter (1981) - argued if a child fails to form an attachment, this is privation
• Bowlby 44 thieves study used 44 delinquent teenagers and 44 non criminal teenagers

  • procedure - interviewed the teenagers (who were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy) and the families (who were interviewed to see if there was early separation)
  • results - 14/44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths (12/14 experienced maternal deprivation within the first 2 years of their life) in the control group 2/44 had maternal deprivation and 0/44 were categorised as affectionless psychopaths.
  • conclusion - prolonged separation can cause affection less psychopathy
• Rutter's orphanage study (2011)

  • aim - find out whether good care provided through adoption in Britain could make up for poor early experiences of institutions
  • procedure - physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 in the Romanian orphans. a group of 52 British adopted children made up the control group
• Rutter's orphanage study (2011)

  • findings - at first the 165 Romanian orphans showed signs of delayed intellectual development. at the age of 11 the children showed different rates of recovery that was related to the age they were adopted.

  the IQ rates of children adopted before 6 months was 102 compared with 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years. and those who were adopted after 2 years had an IQ rate of 77 which was extremely low compared to the others.

  this shows that the age children were adopted has an effect on the development of the child
• children who were adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment. symptoms include: attention seeking, clinginess, and social behaviour to those who they have just met, familiar and unfamiliar

  children adopted after 6 months rarely showed sigs of this
• disinhibited attachment - effect of living in an institution. friendly to those who they have just met. unusual because most children would show stranger anxiety.

  Rutter explained this as an adaptation to living with multiple people in an institution
• in an institution there would often be around 50 carers but none of them spent enough time around the children to form an attachment