key studies and terms

• Meltzoff & Moore


  Infants as young as two weeks old were able to imitate specific facial and hand gestures by a caregiver model
• Brazelton et al


  Still face experiment
• Schaffer & Emerson

  Carried out a study on families in Glasgow and from their observations they developed a 4-stage model of attachment formation, such as indiscriminate and discriminate attachments
• Harlow


  Found that monkeys provided with two surrogate mothers (one made of wire that provided food and one covered in a cloth) were more attached to the one that gave comfort rather than food
• Lorenz


  Demonstrated 'imprinting' by being the first thing that baby geese saw. They treated him as a caregiver and followed him around until adulthood
• Bowlby


  Tested his Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis by studying juvenile thieves. Found a significantly high proportion of them had been maternally deprived in early life
• Ainsworth


  Created the Strange Situation Method, from which she categorised three attachment types (secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant)
• Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg

  Conducted a meta-analysis of different Strange Situation experiments from around the world and found secure attachment was always the most common, with variations between countries
• Rutter


  Carried out longitudinal research of Romanian orphans and found significant differences in the recovery and progress of those adopted before and after 6 months of age
• Zeanah


  Institutionalised (Romanian) orphans who had spent 90% or more of their lives in an institution were significantly more likely to show disinhibited attachment type than a 'normal' control who had not been in an institution
• Hazan & Shaver


  Conducted the 'love quiz', which was a retrospective questionnaire asking participants about their earliest attachments. Found a correlation between early attachment type and later romantic relationships
• Simpson


  Conducted a longitudinal study over 25+ years and found a positive correlation between participants' earliest attachments (using Strange Situation method) and future relationships, both friendship and romantic
• Reciprocity


  Parent and infant respond to the other's signals and each elicits a response from the other, like a sustained conversation. It is a two-way, mutual process involving turn-taking, from 3 months old
• Interactional Synchrony


  Mother and infant reflect / mirror both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way. Seen from two weeks
• Quality of fathers' play with infants (not their initial bond) is linked to quality of later attachments – therefore fathers have a different role to mothers, to be a stimulating play mate not meeting emotional needs

  Grossman
• Responsiveness


  Fathers can be effective primary caregivers (PCG). Research by Field shows PCG Fathers adopt behaviours typical of PCG mothers, e.g. smile more. So key to attachment is responsiveness of adult (e.g. smiling) not gender
• Stages of Attachment


  A child's development phases with regards to attachment. Who they respond to the most and how they respond to strangers. A longitudinal study conducted by Schaffer and Emerson
• Asocial stage of attachment


  In the first few weeks of life babies respond in the same way to humans and objects
• Indiscriminate attachment

  After 2-6 months, babies have a preference for familiar people but show no stranger/separation anxiety
• Specific attachment

  Around 7 months, babies have particular preferences for individual people and develop stranger anxiety shortly after
• Multiple Attachments


  Attachments to two or more people. This starts happening soon after specific attachment with one carer. For most babies they have multiple by 12 months
• Animal Studies


  Experiments carried out on non-humans, usually because it would be unethical to study humans experimentally in some behaviours. Influenced theories of attachment with people
• Imprinting


  Goslings follow whatever is the first large moving thing they see. Lorenz defined this
• Sexual imprinting


  The first bond (imprinting) affects mating preferences in later life. Lorenz found this with geese
• Critical period (animal studies)


  A key window of time in which the initial bond formed has long term impact on animals future. In geese if they didn't imprint in the first few hours they never would (Lorenz). In monkeys, the critical period was 90 days (Harlow)
• Contact comfort


  Infant monkeys preferred cloth covered surrogate wire monkeys to wire monkeys that provided milk. Harlow said it was because they provided comfort
• Learning Theory of attachments


  An approach to explaining why we form attachments that focuses on nurture - believes that children learn to associate parents with food, which is an unconditioned stimulus
• Cupboard Love


  The belief that children learn to love whoever gives them food (Dollard & Miller)
• Classical conditioning (attachment)


  UCS (food) produces UCR (feeling of pleasure). Caregiver (NS) is paired with food (UCS) and is associated with UCS. NS becomes CS, and produces pleasure (CR)
• Operant conditioning (attachment)


  Behaviours which bring the caregiver near (e.g. crying) are reinforced because produces caregiver response. Negative reinforcement – caregiver's response also reinforced as crying stops
• Primary / secondary reinforcers


  The association of the mother with the food (primary reinforcer) means the mother becomes reinforcing in her own right (secondary reinforcer)
• Drive reduction

  Infants are driven to reduce hunger (a primary drive). Attachment is secondary drive learned by association of caregiver with hunger satisfaction
• Monotropic theory


  The belief that we have an innate need to form attachments and that we must form a special attachment to one caregiver in particular, within a key window of time. This bond is influential in later relationships
• Adaptive


  Adaptive means when a trait gives a survival or reproductive advantage in a particular environment. In the context of monotropic theory, attachment gives a survival advantage
• Social releasers


  Innate 'cute' features and behaviours, which encourage attachment behaviour from parents
• Monotropy


  Special, intense bond with the mother (or ever present adult mother substitute) that is important for the development of internal working models
• Critical Periods (Bowlby)


  This refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all (2 years / 30 months in humans)
• Internal Working Models

  The mental representations / schema of relationships, based of our attachment to our primary caregiver. These affect our future relationships because they become our expectations for what relationships are like
• Continuity hypothesis


  The belief that your initial attachment will correlate with your future adult relationships. Furthermore, that this will affect parenting style and so attachment types will continue over generations
• Strange Situation

  A controlled observation to test attachment type devised by Ainsworth. Infants are assessed on their willingness to explore and reactions to being left alone, left with a stranger and reunion with a caregiver. Assigned as type A, B or C