Attachment

• Attachment is a close two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security
• Reciprocity is a description of how two people interact.

  • Mother infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other
• Who carried out a study on caregiver infant interaction?

  Conder and Sander
• Conder and Sander's study into reciprocity

  • Analysed frame by frame recordings of infants movements while an adult was talking
  • Found that the infants coordinated their actions in sequence with the adult's speech to form a turn taking conversation
• Interactional synchrony is where the mother and infant reflect both the action and emotions of the other and do this in a co ordinated way
• Who carried out a study into interactional synchrony?

  • Meltzoff and Moore
  • Isabella
• Meltzoff and Moore's study into interactional synchrony

  • Observed on infants as young as 2 weeks old
  • Adult displayed 3 facial expressions or gestures and the child's response was filmed and identified by an independent observer
  • An association was found between the expression/gesture the adult displayed and the actions of the baby
• Isabella's study into interactional synchrony

  • Observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of mother infant attachment
  • Found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother infant attachment
• Caregiver infant interaction evaluation

  • Hard to know what is happening when observing infants
  • Studies are highly reliable and well controlled
  • Research has good validity
• The father is anyone who takes on the role of the main male caregiver
• The three roles of the father are:

  • Secondary caregiver
  • A playmate
  • Primary caregiver
• Who carried out research on the father as a secondary attachment?

  Schaffer and Emerson
• Schaffer and Emerson's study into the father as a secondary attachment

  • Found that most babies attach to their first at 18 months
  • 3% of cases: the father was the first sole object of attachment
  • 27% of cases: father was joint first object of attachment with the mother
  • 75% of cases: Attachment was formed with the father in 18 months (determined when infants protested when the father walked away)
• Who carried out research on the father as a playmate?


  Grossman
• Grossman's study into the father as a playmate

  • Longitudinal study looking at parents' behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children's attachment in their teens
  • Quality of father's play was related to the quality of adolescence attachments
  • Fathers have a role that is more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with nurturing and emotional development
• Who carried out research on the father as a primary attachment?


  Field
• Field's study into the father as primary carers

  • Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
  • Primary caregiver fathers were like primary caregiver mothers and spent more time smiling and holding infants
• Role of the father evaluation

  • Inconsistent research due to different interests
  • Benefits fathers who want custody of child
  • Nature vs nurture
  • Can offer advice
• Who carried out the study into the stages of attachment?

  Schaffer and Emerson
• Schaffer and Emerson: Stages of attachment aim

  • Investigate formation of early attachment, and the age at which they developed their emotional intensity and to whom the emotions were directed to
• Schaffer and Emerson: Stages of attachment procedure

  • 60 babies from Glasgow and from working class families
  • The babies and mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
  • Researcher asked what the infants did to protest during everyday separations to measure attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson: Stages of attachment findings

  • 25-32 weeks: 50% babies showed separation anxiety towards the mother (specific attachment)
  • Attachment tended to be the caregiver who was the most interactive and sensitive to infant signals
  • 40 weeks: 80% had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments
• Stages of attachment

  • Asocial stage
  • Indiscriminate stage
  • Discriminate stage
  • Multiple attachments
• Stages of attachment: Asocial stage

  • Baby is recognising and forming bonds with the caregiver
  • Behaviour towards humans and non-human objects is similar
  • Show preference to familiar adults in that those find it easier to calm them
  • Happier in the presence of other humans
• Stages of attachment: Indiscriminate stage

  • 2-7 months: Showed a preference for people rather than non-human objects and prefer familiar adults
  • Accept cuddles and comfort from any adult
  • DO not show separation or stranger anxiety
  • Behaviour is not different towards any one person
• Stages of attachment: Discriminate stage

  • 7 months: Display stranger anxiety
  • Become anxiety when separated from one particular adult (65% the biological mother)
  • Have a specific attachment
• Stages of attachment: Multiple attachments

  • After showing attachment to one adult, they extent their attachment to multiple attachments with other adults who they spend time with
• Schaffer and Emerson: Stages of attachment study evaluation

  • Good external validity (not artificial)
  • Longitudinal study (reduces confounding variables)
  • Large sample size (counterargument: doesn't consider other cultures)
• Schaffer and Emerson: Stages of attachment evaluation

  • Issues with asocial stage (poor co-ordination at 2 months)
  • Behaviour used to measure are crude (may involve more than 2 emotions)
  • Inconsistent research (criticises Bowlby as collectivists can have multiple attachments)
• Imprinting is the phenomenon whereby bird species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see
• Who observed the phenomenon on imprinting?


  Lorenz
• Animal studies: Lorenz - aim

  • Tested the idea of imprinting and how goslings attach to their caregivers
• Animal studies: Lorenz - procedure:

  • Divided a clutch of goose egg: half hatched with the mother in the natural environment and the other half in an incubator
  • The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz
• Animal studies: Lorenz - findings:

  • Once the goslings hatching, they followed the first moving object between 13-16 hours after hatching
  • Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere and the control group followed the mother
  • Marked the two groups and place the together in which the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group follow Lorenz
• Animal studies: Lorenz - conclusions:

  • There's a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place
  • If imprinting doesn't take place, the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure
• Implications of Lorenz's research:

  • Having a biological basis is adaptive as it promotes survival
• Animal studies: Harlow - Aim

  • Tested the idea that a soft object serves some functions of the mother and tested the importance of contact comfort on monkeys
• Animal studies: Harlow - procedure

  • Reared 16 monkeys with two wire model mothers
  • In one condition, milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother and in another condition, milk was dispensed from the cloth covered mother
  • Measured the amount of time that monkeys spent with each surrogate mother and the amount of time they cried for their biological mother
• Animal studies: Harlow - findings

  • Monkeys cuddled the soft object and sough comfort regardless of which dispersed milk
  • Monkeys were willing to explore a room full of toys when the cloth covered mother was present but displayed phobic responses when the wire mother was present
• Animal studies: Harlow - conclusion

  • Contact comfort was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour