Attachment

• Attachment can be defined as a two-way emotional bond between two individuals where each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
• A caregiver is any person who provides care for a child.
• An infant is usually taken to refer to a child’s first year of life, although some psychologists also include the second year.
• Caregiver-infant interaction refers to the communication between a caregiver and infant. It is believed that these interactions have important functions for the child’s social development and form the basis of the attachment between the two. Particularly, the more responsive or sensitive they are to each other‘s signals, the deeper the bond.
• Reciprocity is a caregiver-infant interaction. It is a two-way or mutual process - each party responds to the other’s signals to sustain the interaction (turn-taking).
• Reciprocity is thought to be an important precursor to later communications. Additionally, as infant signals are regular, this enables the caregiver to anticipate the infant’s behaviour and responds appropriately. This sensitivity lays the foundation for later attachment. This starts to occur from around 3 months. The signals become more frequent as the child develops.
• Cohn and Tronick - Still face experiment

  AIM - to investigate whether young infants can show signs of reciprocity

  PROCEDURE - mothers were asked to play with their child for 2 minutes and then show a still face for a further 1-2 minutes (unless the child showed severe distress)

  FINDINGS - the children tried to get the mothers attention by pointing and babbling, when they couldn’t they cried and lost body posture

  CONCLUSION - children were used to a two-way interaction taking place and therefore the child is trying to show reciprocity with the adult.
• Interactional synchrony is when a caregiver and infant reflect the actions and emotions of the other in a coordinated way. They mirror each other in terms of their facial and body movements.
• Interactional synchrony is different to reciprocity as in reciprocity the responses aren’t necessarily similar. It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of mother-infant attachments. Isabella et al observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony. They found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother-infant attachment.
• Meltzoff and Moore - Imitation of manual gestures by human neonates

  AIM - to investigate whether infants showed signs of interactional synchrony

  PROCEDURE - a male researcher pulled faces at an infant including sticking out his tongue and yawning, the infant responses were recorded.

  FINDINGS - they found that children as young as two or three weeks old copied the researcher

  CONCLUSION - interactional synchrony is present in children from a young age and is used as a way of interacting with adults.
• Strengths of caregiver-infant interactions:

  • observations of mother-infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both the mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles.
  • Many studies involving observation of the interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same patterns of interaction.
• Weaknesses of caregiver-infant interactions:

  • Feldman points out that synchrony and reciprocity simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time.
  • Research into mother-infant interaction is socially sensitive because it suggests that children may be disadvantaged by child-rearing practices.
• A primary attachment figure is the person to whom an infant is most intensely attached. They are the person a responds to most intensely at separation. This is usually the mother but other people can fulfil the role.
• A secondary attachment figure is a person that an infant receives additional support from. They provide an emotional safety net.
• Schaffer and Emerson found most babies did become attached to their mother first (around 7 months). Therefore, the primary attachment figure is much more likely to be the mother than the father.
• Schaffer and Emerson found that within a few weeks or months of the primary attachment, the infants formed secondary attachments to other family members, including the father. In 75% of infants, an attachment was formed with the father by 18 months. This was determined by the fact that the infants protested when their father walked away. Therefore, fathers are likely to be secondary attachment figures.
• Grossman carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Quality of infant attachment to mothers, but not fathers, was related to children’s attachments in adolescence. However, the quality of fathers’ play with infants related to the quality of adolescent attachments.
• Lamb also suggested that the mothers and fathers play different roles in the attachment of a child. The mother is traditionally seen as the nurture who shows sensitivity. On the other hand, the father is seen as a play mate.
• There is some evidence that when fathers do take on the role of primary attachment figure, the adopt behaviours more typical of mothers.
• Field filmed 4-month old babies in face-to-face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers. This behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with the infant.
• Social reasons why the role of mother and father differ:

  Fathers spend less time with the children due to reduced parental leave. This means that he has more opportunity to play with the child rather than complete daily chores.
• Biological reasons why the tole of mother and father differ:

  The mother carries the child and often breastfeeds the child. This means the mother is seen as having a more nurturing role and therefore the father is not important for survival so is a secondary attachment figure.
• Strengths of Attachment figures and the role of the father:

  • There is supporting evidence that the role of the father has a gender difference. Freeman found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children.
• Weaknesses of attachment figures and the role of the father:

  • Research into the role of fathers in attachment is confusing because researchers who study them ask different research questions. Some focus on fathers as primary attachments and others focus on fathers as secondary attachments.
  • The claim that children without fathers are no different from those with fathers suggests that the father’s role is secondary. This poses huge ethical implications as it is socially sensitive research.
• Schaffer and Emerson - AIM


  To investigate the formation of early attachment, in particular the age at which they developed their emotional intensity and whom they were directed at.
• Schaffer and Emerson - SAMPLE


  They used a sample of 60 babies from Glasgow (31 boys, 29 girls) from working class families.
• Schaffer and Emerson - PROCEDURE


  This was a longitudinal study where the babies and mothers were studied every month for the first year and then again at 18 months. They used observations and interviews with the mothers. They asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday scenarios. They assessed separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
• Schaffer and Emerson - FINDINGS


  They found that between 25-32 weeks, about 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult. Equally they showed joy at reunion and were most comforted by that person. 65% of children had the mother as the first specific attachment, in 30% the mother was the joint first object of attachment. The father was the first object of attachment in only 3% of children.
• Schaffer and Emerson - CONCLUSION


  This suggests that there is a pattern of attachment common to all infants which is biologically controlled. Furthermore, attachments are more easily made with those who are sensitive to the infants needs rather than those spending the most time with the child. Primary attachments are more likely to be with the mother than the father.
• Schaffer‘s stages of attachment:

  • asocial stage (first few weeks)
  • indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
  • specific attachment (7-12 months)
  • multiple attachment (12 months+)
• The asocial stage:


  During this stage, the baby recognises and starts to form a bond with its carer who becomes the primary caregiver. However, the baby’s behaviour towards human and non-human objects is quite similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults, in that those individuals find it easier to calm them. During this stage, reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in them forming relationships.
• Indiscriminate attachment


  They show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults. They can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people. At this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, and they do not show stranger or separation anxiety.
• Specific attachment


  The majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become anxious when separated from one particular adult. Equally, they show especial joy at reunion with that particular adult and are most comforted by them.
• Multiple attachment


  Shortly after babies start to show attachments behaviour to one adult, they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults with whom they regularly spend time. These people are secondary attachments.
• Strengths of Schaffer and Emerson‘s study

  • The study was carried out longitudinally. This means that the same children were followed up and observed regularly.
  • The behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of the observers. The study was carried out in the families own homes and most of the observations was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researcher later.
• Weaknesses of Schaffer and Emerson’s study

  • The sample was biased in a number of ways. All the families were from the same district and social class in the same city, at a time over 50 years ago.
  • The data was based on mothers’ reports of their infants. Some mothers may have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore were less likely to report them. They may also have wanted to appear to be good mothers and so report behaviour differently to how it actually occurred.
• Weaknesses of Schaffer’s Stages of attachment:

  • In collectivist cultures, people are more focused on the needs of the group rather than the individuals, (unlike individualist cultures like ours). In such societies, we might expect multiple attachments to be more common.
  • One difficulty with stage theories is that they suggest that development is inflexible. In this case, it suggests that normally specific attachments come before multiple attachments.
• Ethology is the study of animal behaviour.
• Imprinting is an innate readiness to develop a bond with a mother, this usually happens in the first few hours after birth.
• Sexual imprinting is the idea that imprinting can affect adult mate preferences.