ATTACHMENT

• Attachment is a two way emotional bond that sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
• Reciprocity is an interaction when each person responds to each other's needs and draws a reaction, for example, when a baby smiles, the caregiver may say something, drawing a response from the baby.
• Alert phases are when babies have alert phases and signal when they need attention, with ⅔ of mothers responding to these according to Feldman and Eidelman (2007).
• Interactional Synchrony is when the caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions are mirrored.
• One strength of the study is that it is filmed in a lab, increasing inter-rater reliability and allowing more than one observer to record data and establish the observations.
• A limitation of the study is demand characteristics, as mothers may not want to be embarrassed and portray themselves as bad mothers, therefore, they may do very good on purpose to help the study, when perhaps it is not their real way of behaving and parenting their children.
• Schaffer’s Procedure involves longitudinal observation, with 60 babies from Glasgow, mostly from working class families, and the researcher visiting the house every month for the first year, then every 18 months.
• Schaffer’s Procedure also involves asking the caregiver about any protests the baby had in everyday separation.
• Stage 1 of Schaffer’s Procedure is Asocial, where babies show the same behaviour towards inanimate objects and humans, and have small signs of preferences to some people, but prefer the company of those who comfort them.
• Stage 2 of Schaffer’s Procedure is Indiscriminate Attachment, where babies show more obvious social behaviours, have a clear preference to humans over inanimate objects, recognise the company of familiar people, and still don’t show stranger or separation anxiety.
• Stage 3 of Schaffer’s Procedure is Specific Attachment, where babies show specific signs of attachment to someone, show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, and have a strong connection with their primary attachment figure.
• Stage 4 of Schaffer’s Procedure is Multiple Attachments, where babies usually begin to form multiple attachments, these are known as secondary attachments, and Schaffer observed that 29% of babies have formed a secondary attachment 1 month after their primary attachment.
• One limitation of the study is that there is a cultural bias, as there was a small sample size and only observed from participants in the same area, therefore, it is difficult to generalise to other communities and backgrounds and caregivers have different ways of raising their children.
• Quality of attachments with mothers but not fathers were not related to attachments in adolescence.
• By 18 months, 75% of babies had formed an attachment with their fathers, as evidenced by signs of protesting when their fathers left the room, a sign of attachment.
• The findings vary according to the methodology used, as Grossman (2002) used a longitudinal study to show fathers as secondary caregivers who play a distinctive role, it should have an impact on the child’s life in a single-mother family or lesbian family.
• Children do not develop differently in heterosexual families, therefore the fathers role is still ambiguous.
• The Asocial Stage is the first few weeks of a baby’s life, characterized by poor coordination and immobility, making it difficult for mothers to feed back information and reports of the baby’s behaviour.
• Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study where babies' attachments were studied into their teens.
• Tiffany Field (1978) filmed 4 month year old babies face to face interactions with: primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
• 27% of the cases was the father the joint first object of attachment with the mother.
• Longitudinal observation is a research method where researchers examine individuals over a period of time, allowing an understanding and direction of the degree of change that babies have over time.
• Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time imitating smiling and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers, indicating their potential to be primary caregivers as they can provide the responsiveness required.
• From Schaffer’s attachment stages, only 3% of primary attachments were created with the father.
• The study has high ecological validity as the evidence can aid people in relationships, to justify who wants to be the primary caregiver, and it can remove societal stereotypes.
• Grossman found that the quality of father’s play was related to the quality of adolescent matters, suggesting that fathers have more development with play and simulation, rather than the emotional development.
• John Dollard and Neal Miller proposed the learning theory in 1950 as an explanation for attachment - the primary caregiver as a provider for food
• Miller and Dollard (1950) used classical conditioning to associate 2 stimuli together to respond in one way as we do to the other. Food is the unconditioned stimulus. Being fed gives us pleasure and we havent had to learn it, so it is an unconditioned response. The caregiver is a neutral stimulus, as it evokes no response. The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus as we now associate them with feeding us. Once the conditioning has taken place, we form a conditioned response of pleasure
• Operant conditioning is the process of learning through reinforcement and punishment. Crying leads to a response eg feeding, therefore crying is reinforced. The baby also directs crying for comfort from the caregiver who responds with 'social suppressor' behaviour. Therefore, to escape something unpleasant, the crying stops
• John Bowlby 1988 argued that the attachment is a biological process that is innate and universal
• Bowlby's theory in 1958 and 1969 is described as mono tropic, emphasising the attachment to one individual. It is more different and important than others. He stated that the more time spent with this mother figure, the better
• Bowlby 1958, 1969 stated there were 2 principles to clarify the amount of time spent with the mother figure.

  • Law of continuity = More constant and predictable a child's care, the better quality attachment
  • Law of accumulated separation = The effects of every separation add up and the safest dose is 0
• Bowlby suggested babies were born with cute behaviour, such as; smiling, cooing and gripping attention from adults. These are known as social releasers, and they activate attention from the adult to build the attachment
• Bowlby also recognised a critical period for attachment, where the child must be cared for by a primary caregiver. He proposed that this was 6 months, possibly extending till the age of 2. He viewed this period as the sensitive period. If an attachment is not formed in this time, it will be difficult in the future
• Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation with their primary attachment figure - this is known as the internal working model. The internal working model is a blueprint for later attachments in the future, therefore the better quality attachments as a child, the better you will form when you are older and are a parent.
• One limitation of Bowlby's mono tropic theory is that it lacks validity. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that a significant minority of babies formed multiple attachments. Although the first attachment does appear to have a strong influence on later behaviour, it does not mean it is stronger, but perhaps different. Therefore, Bowlby may be incorrect in stating the importance on just one single attachment
• What was the procedure of Rutter's Romanian study (2011)

  • Followed 165 Romanian orphans through the ERA study
  • Wanted to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
  • Physical, emotional and cognitive development were assessed at ages: 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25
  • Group of 52 UK kids served as a control group
• What were the Findings from Rutter (2011) ERA study

  • Half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development
  • Mean IQ before 6 months was 102, compared 86 from 6 months - 2 years
  • Children adopted after 6 months showed dis-inhibited attachment, with symptoms of: clinginess, attention seeking, in comparison to children adopted before 6 months showed no signs
• What was the procedure of of Zeanah's 2005 study

  • Wanted to investigate the effects of institutions on emotional development
  • Assessed 95 children, aged 12-31 months old
  • Compared to a control group of 50 kids
  • Used Mary Ainsworth's strange situation
• What were the findings and conlcusion of Zeanah's 2005 study

  • 74% of control group were securely attached, compared to only 19% of Romanian group
  • 44% of the Romanian Group had the dis-inhibited attachment type, compared to less than 20% of the control group
  • Early separation and institutional care affects attachments