types of attachement

• the strange situation technique was developed by mary ainsworth (1969). the aim was to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a childs attachment to their caregiver
• the strange situation is a controlled observation desgined to measure security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. it takes place in an unfamilar room with a two-way mirror. it observed 100 middle-class mothers and their infants who were 12-18 months
• there were 5 behaviours used to judge attachment:

  -proximity seeking

  -exploration and secure-base behaviour

  -stranger anxiety

  -separation anxiety

  -response to reunion
• the procedure consisted of 7 episodes all of which lasted 3 mins:

  1.child is encouraged to explore: tests exploration and secure base

  2.stanger enters and tries interacting with child: tests stranger anxiety

  3.caregiver leaves child and stranger: test separation & stranger anxiety

  4.caregiver returns and stranger leaves: tests reunion behaviour

  5.caregiver leaves child alone: tests separation anxiety

  6.stranger returns: tests stranger anxiety

  7.careguver returns and reunites with child: tests reunion behaviour
• from her investigations ainsworth identified three main attachment types: secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant
• secure attachment (b)- children explore happily but regularly go back to caregiver (proximity and secure-base). they usually show moderate separation distress and stranger anxiety. they require and accept comfort from caregiver in the reunion stage. 60-75% of british toddlers are classified as secure
• insecure avoidant attachment (A)- children explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. they show little to no reaction when their caregiver leaves and make little effort to make contact when they return. they also show little stranger anxiety and require no comfort at the reunion stage. about 20-25% of toddlers are classified as insecure-avoidant
• insecure resistant attachment (c)- children seek greater proximity than others so explore less. they show huge stranger and separation distress but resist comfort when reunited with caregiver. 3 % of toddlers are classifed as insecure-resistant
• ainsworth study is not generalisable due to the small limited sample of just Americans which makes it hard to generalise across other cultures
• ainsworths strange situation is not representative due to the gynocentric sample which only represents attachment between mothers instead of fathers
• culture is shared beliefs and values of members of a particular society.members may not share the same values and views which impacts types of attachment
• collectivists: individuals who believe in a group effort, interpersonal development and less any-social behaviour
• individualists: individuals who focus on personal achievement, praising initiative, independence and antisocial behaviour
• van ijzeindoorn and kroonenberg:

  -aimed to investigate proportions of types of attachment across cultures

  -procedure: completed met analysis of 32 studies using strange situation

  -over 1990 babies were studied from 8 countries
• metanalysis is a research method that involves combining studies that use similar methodology and combining and comparing results
• Vj and kroonenberg conclusion:

  -across countries results show that secure attachment is most consistent

  -however insecure resistant and avoidant aren’t as consistent. the distribution of these types of attachment is based on the type of parenting which is highly influenced by culture
• simonella et al:

  -conducted a study in italy to see wether the proportion of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies

  -assessed 76 12 month olds

  -found 50% had secure attachment and 36% insecure-avoidant.

  -lower rate of secure due to mothers working longer hours
• jin et al:

  -conducted a study to compare proportions of attachment types in korea to other studies

  -assessed 87 children using strange situation

  -most infants secure

  -insecure babies were similar to most countries however most were insecure resistant with only one avoidant

  -similar to japans patterns due to similar cultures
• maternal deprivation theory bowlby:

  -when mother is away from children for a prolonged period of time which means children form an attachment then lose it. damage due to maternal deprivation occurs during 6m-2 and 1/2 years but risk up to 5 years
• maternal deprivation effects:

  -intellectual: underdeveloped brain activity leading to low iq (goldfarb)

  -emotional: affectionless psycopath, someone who shows no emotion or empathy

  -social: disinhibited attachment, chatty friendly and sociable people who are unable to form deep attachment/ connection, due to iwm disturbed
• privation is different to deprivation as maternal privation is never having mother attachment whilst maternal deprivation is the loss of mother attachment
• bowlbys study 44 thieve (supporting maternal deprevation):

  -88 children from london guidance clinic

  -44 children were thieves and 44 were not

  -parents and child were interview testing for affectionless psychopathy
• bowlbys 44 thieves findings:

  -out of the 44 thieves group 14 children had affectionless psychopathy and 12 of those had maternal deprivation

  -in 44 non thieves group 0 children had affectionless psychopathy. only 2/44 were maternally deprived

  this supports the idea of maternal deprivation
• Bick et al. (2012) conducted a strange situation experiment and found that researchers agreed on attachment types around 94% of the time. And this is likely due to the standardised nature of the procedure.
• Hilda Lewis(1954) partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale,looking at 500 young people.In her sample a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships. which limits bowlby maternal deprecation theory