A01

• Caregiver-Infant Interactions *RECIPROCITY*

  • Definition- Behaviour that aids development of caregiver-infant interactions is reciprocity, refers to fact that interactions are two-way mutual process, where each party responds to the others signals to sustain interaction, there is turn-taking.
  • Procedure- Tronick(1979)- Still Face Experiment, required mothers who had been enjoying dialogue with their baby to stop moving and maintain a static unsmiling expression.
  • Findings + Conc- Babies would tempt mothers into interaction by smiling and pointing, became distressed when didn’t provoke usual response, suggests babies anticipate reciprocity.
• *INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY*

  • Definition- Believed IS important for development of caregiver-infant attachment, describes simultaneous co-ordinated sequence of movements, communications, and emotions between caregiver and infant.
  • Procedure- Meltzoff and Moore(1977)- observed beginnings of IS in infants, adult displayed one of three facial expressions or gestures and child’s response was recorded.
  • Findings + Conc- Association found between expression/ gesture adult displayed and actions of 2-3 week old infants, suggested that IS is an innate ability to aid the formation of attachments.
• Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment

  • Aim + Procedure- Schaffer(1964)- Investigate formation of early attachments, studied 60 babies for first 18 months of life in homes in Glasgow, mothers asked questions about separation anxiety and researcher assessed stranger anxiety.
  • Findings + Conc- Research led to formulation of 4 distinct stages of developmental progress that characterise infants’ attachment formation.
  • ASOCIAL- First few weeks of life, babies behaviour towards objects and humans is quite similar.
• Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment

  • INDISCRIMINATE- 2-7 months, babies show preference to people rather than inanimate objects, do not yet show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety.
  • SPECIFIC- From about 7 months, infants start to display anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when separated from one particular adult, mother= 65%, father= 3%.
  • MULTIPLE- By age of one year, majority of infants have reached multiple stage, show separation and stranger anxiety towards two or more people, 75% of infants attached to father by 18 months.
• Multiple attachments/ Role of the father

  • Primary att figure- Findings and Conc: Schaffer (1964). 65% OF INFANTS FORMED THEIR FIRST ATTACHMENT TO THEIR MOTHER, father only sole object of attachment 3% of the time, suggests MOTHER MOST LIKELY/ father less likely to be primary att figure.
  • Secondary att- Findings and Conc: By 18 months, 75% infants in Schaffer‘s research had formed att with father, suggests they go on to become important secondary ATt figures.
  • Diff roles- Procedure and Findings: Grossman (2002) looked at both parent’s behaviour and its relationship to the quality of baby’s att, MOTHERS HAD MORE EMOTIONALLY SUPPORTING ROLE, father’s role more to do with play and stimulation.
• Multiple attachments/ Role of the father

  • Diff roles- Conc: Although father may fulfil a qualitatively diff role from that of the mother, role is just as crucial to child’s wellbeing.
  • Emotional role- Procedure and Findings: Field(1978) compared role of father and mother as primary and secondary att figures, primary CG fathers and mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregivers.
  • Emotional role- Conc: Suggests father AND THE MOTHER can fulfil emotionally supporting role, depends on whether they are primary or secondary att figure.
• Ainsworth’s SS/ Types of att

  • SS involves bringing infants and their caregiver into unfamiliar room, subject to same series of 3 min episodes- mother and baby, stranger enters, mother leaves, mother returns etc.
  • Every 15 seconds, category of behaviour displayed is recorded and scored on intensity of 1-7, categories included separation and stranger anxiety, proximity, exploration, and response on reunion.
  • Analysis of observations lead to measuring infant’s type of att- secure, insecure-avoidant/ resistant.
• Ainsworth’s SS/ Types of Att

  • Secure- Moderate separation and stranger anxiety, seek some proximity, explore happily, show joy on reunion.
  • IA- Low separation and stranger anxiety, low proximity, high/ free exploration, indifference on reunion.
  • IR- High separation and stranger anxiety, high proximity (clingy), low willingness to explore, ambivalence on reunion.
• Van Izjendoorn- Cultural Variations

  • Aim- Investigate proportions of secure, i-a, i-r, attachment across and within countries.
  • Procedure- Conducted meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 different countries that had used SS. Results of 1,990 infants were included in the analysis.
  • Findings- Higher rates of IA children among German infants (35%0, due to fact that German mothers encourage independence in their children.
• Van Izjendoorn- Cultural Variations

  • Highest rates of IR in collectivist cultures, due to fact that Israel (29%) and Japan (27%) babies Are rarely separated from mothers as dependence is valued.
  • Another interesting finding was sub-cultural variation, in the US, one study found 46% securely attached and another found 90%.
  • Conc- Suggests there is a difference in the pattern of attachment types across cultures, additionally there was more variation within countries than between countries (1.5X greater).
• Lorenz

  • Aim- To investigate whether geese imprint on the first moving object they see.
  • Procedure- Randomly divided up large clutch of goose eggs, one half hatched with mother present (natural environment), the other half hatched in incubator with Lorenz present (he ensured he was the first moving object encountered).
  • Marked all of goslings so he could determine which environment they hatched in, following behaviour bias recorded, also varied time between birth and seeing moving object, so he could measure the critical period for imprinting.
• Lorenz

  • Findings- Lorenz found that incubator group followed him everywhere, whereas control group followed the mother everywhere.
  • Conc- Suggests newborns imprint on first moving object that they see when they are born, as this influenced their following behaviour.
  • Study also suggests that there was a critical period for geese to imprint, as it would only occur within 4 and 25 hours after hatching.
• Harlow

  • Aim- To investigate the role of food and comfort in attachment.
  • Procedure- In controlled environment, infant rhesus monkeys rearmed with two mother surrogates: a plain wire mother dispensing food, and a cloth-covered mother with no food, time spent with each mother was recorded.
  • Fear condition- noisy mechanical toy was placed in cage with monkey, who it ran to when scared was recorded, long-term effects of study also recorded, e.g. sociability and relationship to offspring.
• Harlow

  • Findings- More time spent with cloth-covered mother, monkeys also sought comfort from soft mother when frightened.
  • Conc- Study suggests that att develops through contact comfort rather than food, as monkeys showed preference to cloth-covered mother across diff conditions in experiment.
  • Study suggests that att must form within 90 day window otherwise there will be negative long-term consequences, monkeys who had not attached within 90 days went on to be less sociable, also neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring.
• Animal Studies- Lorenz + Harlow

  • Lorenz randomly divided large clutch of goose eggs, half hatched with mother present (natural environment), other half hatched in incubator with Lorenz present, following behaviour was recorded.
  • Found that incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere, control group followed mother everywhere, suggesting that newborns imprint on first moving objects they see when born.
  • Study suggests there was a critical period for geese to imprint, would only occur within 4 and 25 hours after hatching.
• Animal Studies- Lorenz + Harlow

  • In Harlow’s research, infant rhesus monkeys were reared with two mother surrogates: plain wire mother dispensing food and a cloth-covered mother with no food, time spent with each mother was recorded, so was their response to a loud mechanical toy.
  • More time spent with cloth-covered mother, monkeys also sought comfort from soft mother when frightened, suggesting attachment forms through contact comfort rather than food.
  • Suggests att must form within 90 day window otherwise there will be negative long-consequences, monkeys who had not attached within 90 days went on to be less sociable, also neglected and sometimes killed their own offspring.
• Romanian Orphans

  • Aim- Rutter’s research aimed to investigate to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
  • Procedure- Followed group of 165 Romanian orphans, who were adopted in Britain, their physical, cognitive, and emotional development was assessed at 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years old, a matched British control group was also studied.
  • Findings- Found marked differences in their intellectual development at age 11, those adopted before the age of 6 month had much higher IQ (102), than those adopted after 2 years (77), these differences remained at 16.
• Romanian Orphans

  • Found that children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited att, whereas those before 6 months very rarely displayed this att.
  • This is characterised by being equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well and strangers, it is an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period.
  • Conc- His research suggests that good subsequent care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions, if intervention takes place before 6 months.
• Learning Theory of Attachment

  • Emphasises the idea of ‘cupboard love’, children forms attachments to caregiver, via classical conditioning because they give them food.
  • Initially the caregiver (NS) does not elicit a response (No UCR), it is the food (UCS) that causes pleasure (UCR).
  • Infants learn to associate the caregiver with being fed, overtime just seeing the caregiver (CS) gives the infant a feeling of pleasure (CR).
• Learning Theory of Attachment

  • Operant conditioning strengthens the attachment, a child’s crying leads to a response from the caregiver such as feeding, child then continues to cry whenever they see the caregiver due to positive reinforcement, as they expect to receive the same response.
  • When caregiver gives the child food, they avoid the discomfort of their child crying, so continue this behaviour due to negative reinforcement.
  • As well as conditioning, the theory draws on the concept of drive reduction, hunger is a primary drive, attachment is a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and satisfaction of the primary drive.
• Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory of Attachment

  • Theory suggests that infants have an innate drive to attach to one adult, usually the biological mother, bond with the mother is unique and special, more time spent with this primary attachment figure the better.
  • Babies possess inborn social releases such as smiling, cooing and crying to attract reciprocity from this specific adult, helps form attachment.
  • Bowlby believed we have evolved this way to survive, proximity to mother keeps baby safe, and security aids survival.
• Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory of Attachment

  • However, there is a specific time period within which an attachment must form if it is to form, Bowlby suggested the time limit in humans is up to 3 years.
  • Also suggests from this monotropic attachment, infants form an internal working model, mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, which serves as a model for their later child and adult relationships.
  • A child whose first relationship is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to form expectation that all relationships are loving and reliable, will bring these qualities to future relationships, tend to form more successful relationships with peers, romantic partners and their own children.
• Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

  • Is an explanation of what happens when a child is separated from their mother (monotropic attachment), and then deprived of emotional care during the critical period.
  • Critical period is a specific time period, within which an attachment must form, time limit in humans according to Bowlby is up to 3 years.
  • Deprivation can occur if mother hospitalised with mental/ physical health issues, from parental divorce, mother being imprisoned, death.
• Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

  • One way maternal deprivation affects psychological development is delayed intellectual development, Goldfarb (1947), found lower IQ in children who remained in institutions (avg. 68), opposed to those who were fostered, and therefore had a higher standard of emotional care (avg.96).
  • Also affects children’s emotional development, been linked to affectionless psychopathy, this is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion to others, consequently been associated with criminality, as psychopaths can not appreciate the feelings of their victim.
  • Bowlby (1944) found 14/44 teenage thieves were affectionless psychopaths, 12/14 (86%) of these psychopaths had childhood separations in comparison to 5/30 (17%) of the other thieves, suggesting association between prolonged early deprivation and affectionless psychopathy.
• Influence of Early Attachments on Later Relationships

  • Bowlby suggests that from their montropic attachment infants form an internal working model, mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver, which serves as a model for their later relationships.

  Childhood Relationships:

  • Attachment type associated with quality of peer relationships in childhood, e.g. Kerns (1994) research shown that secure infants form the best quality childhood friendships, have high expectations that others are friendly and trusting, so find it easier to form relationships than secure infants.
  • Wilson (1998) research shown that IA children are more likely to be victim of bullying, and IR are more likely to be the bully, as they are modelling behaviours from their childhood.
• Influence of Early Attachments on Later Relationships

  Adult Relationships:

  • Early attachment can similarly impact later romantic relationships, Hazen and Shaver (1987) found that securely attached adults had more enduring relationships than adults with insecure attachments, as they report being able to accept and support their partner despite faults.
  • IA adults were still quite fearful of intimacy and IR adults tended to seek out unfunctional relationships, e.g. where there was controlling or argumentative behaviour.
  • Attachment type also associated with parenting style, Bailey (2007), found that majority of women studied had the same attachment classification both to their babies, and their own mother.