Attachment

• Attachment is defined as a close 2-way emotional bond between 2 individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for emotional security
• reciprocity is the 2 way interaction between caregiver and infant, in which they respond to each other’s signals to sustain interaction
• interactional synchrony is when the infant and caregiver are in synchrony with each other, reflecting each other’s actions and emotions
• the purpose of interactional synchrony and reciprocity is to help the child to develop secure attachments with caregiver
• asocial stage- 0-8weeks old, baby’s behaviour between objects and humans are similar, they’re happier in the presence of humans and will simile at anyone
• Indiscriminate stage- 2-7months, babies are able to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces and will simile at more familiar people, They don’t usually show stranger or separation anxiety
• specific attachment stage- 7-12months, primary attachment to 1 individual has formed, starting to show stranger and separation anxiety , uses familiar adults for secure base behaviour
• multiple attachments- 12months onwards, forming secondary attachments with familiar adults which whom they send a lot of time with
• In bowlby’s 44 thieves study, 14 if the thieves showed traits of affectionless psychopathy, of these, 12 had experiences maternal separation in the first 5 years
• Contradictory evidence to bowlby’s monotropic theory is Schaffer and Emerson’s study that shows the importance of multiple attachments
• a limitation of Harlow and Loren’s studies are that they have low generalisability as they compare animals to humans
• the learning theory of attachment emphasises the importance of the attachment figure being the provider of food (cupboard love)
• contradictory evidence for learning theory of attachment is harlows research which showed monkeys sought comfort over food
• van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg conducted a meteanalysis of 32 studies of the strange situation
• van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg found that china had the lowest % of securely attached children and the uk had the highest
• van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg found that Germany had the highest % of insecure avoidant children and japan+Israel had the lowest
• a limitation of van ijzendoorn and kroonenbergs study into cultural variations of attachment is that its a meta analysis, meaning its hard to know how reliable the results are as they didnt produce them
• cultural differences may be due to different parenting styles or child rearing practices rather than culture itself
• The 5 key behaviours that are used to measure attachment are: proximity seeking, secure base, response to reunion, stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
• ainsworths strange situation is a controlled observation that used time sampling to observe the behaviour of infants across 5 behavioural criteria
• a limitation of ainsworths strange situation is that it has low external validity due to he controlled, artificial conditions
• field (1978) found that fathers do have the potential to be more emotionally-focused and can take on the role of primary caregiver
• grossman et al. found fathers play different roles to mothers in a child’s emotional attachment, they are more involved with play
• Schaffer ad Emerson found that majority of babies did not have their father as their 1st attachment figure
• what is the internal working model?


  a blueprint/mental representation for future attachments, based off of how their relationship with their primary caregiver is
• give 3 effects of institutionalisation:

  • low IQ
  • disinhibited attachments
  • quasi-autism
• institutionalised children show disinhibited attachments because they will form an attachment with anyone who shows them attention or affection
• hazan and shaver found that adults who had a secure attachment in childhood were more likely to have long-lasting positive relationships in adulthood
• hazan and shaver found that adults who had a insecure resistant attachment in childhood were more likely to view love as a compulsive commitment and feared abandonment
• hazan and shaver found that adults who had a insecure avoidant attachment in childhood were more likely to fear close relationships and believe that they don't need love