Attachment

• What is attachment?

  • an emotional tie or bond between two people
• What is reciprocity?

  • when a caregiver and infant elicit a response from each other
  • Alert Phase - babies start showing signs that they are ready for interaction. Could be gurgling, bubbling and kicking
  • Active Involvement - infant can be the one to start an interaction.
• What is interactional synchrony?

  • when the caregiver or infant mirrors a response from the other
• What was Meltzoff and Moores' research?

  • researched interactional synchrony
  • observed 15 babies at the age of 2 weeks old
  • procedure - caregivers had to show 1/3 facial expression or gesture
  • findings - infants were more likely to mirror these expressions
• What was Isabella et al research?

  • research into the quality of mother child interactions on attachment
  • observed 30 mothers and babies
  • findings - those who had a high quality of mother child interaction were more likely to show higher levels of synchrony
• What is a strength of the interactional synchrony research?

  • One strength is that the observations tended to be in a lab meaning all extraneous variables were controlled and any distractions were gone. This means babies produced natural behaviour.
• What is a limitation of the interactional synchrony research?

  • one limitation is that the responses babies gave are very hard to measure as responses to synchrony. Babies may be kicking legs because they are hungry.
  • socially sensitive - if mothers return to work, it places the blame on them if their child does not develop properly. Practical vs ethical issues
• How do we measure attachment?

  1 - Proximity

  2 - Secure base behaviour

  3 - Seperation/Stranger anxiety
• What was Grossmans' research?

  • research into the role of the father
  • carried out a longitudinal study where attachments with mothers and fathers were observed till teens.
  • Findings - mothers attachment were more important but fathers had a more play and stimulation role
• What was Fields' research?

  • observed 4 month old babies with primary mother, primary father and secondary father. Measured synchrony
  • findings - primary mothers and fathers tended to touch more, smile more and make them feel happy. Shows that fathers can be the primary figure
• What is a limitation of the role of the father?

  • one limitation is that it is very hard to measure what the role of the father is as it may differentiate across different households. Low validity
  • the methodology used in Grossman was a longitudinal study meaning that the research may not be applicable now.
• What is a strength of the role of the father?

  • a strength is that is it can provide real life advice. Fathers can actually be the primary figure. Advice to single fathers
• Who came up with the stages of attachment?

  • schaeffer and emerson
• Stages of attachment

  1. Asocial stage

  2. Indiscriminate attachment

  3. Specific attachment

  4. Multiple attachments
• Asocial stage


  Few weeks old, babies show the same interest towards objects and humans, specific people can make them happy and comfortable
• Indiscriminate attachment

  1. 7 months, babies show preference in humans over objects, accept comfort from anyone, rarely show stranger/seperation anxiety
• Specific attachment


  7 months, babies show a preference to a specific attachment. This is the primary attachment figure. 65% of cases it is the mother
• Multiple attachments


  1 year, babies have multiple attachments, these are the secondary attachment figures
• What was Schaeffer and Emersons research?

  • observed 60 glaswegian babies
  • observed for 1 year and 18 months, mothers were told to note down any signs of attachment such as seperation anxiety.
  • findings - stages
• What is a strength of Schaeffer and Emersons' research?

  • a strength is it has good external validity. This is because the moms reported everything so babies would display natural behaviour.
  • real life application - advice to parents, mothers who have to go work and lesbian couple families
• What is a weakness of Schaeffer and Emersons research?

  • a weakness is there could be a bias in the mothers reporting everything
  • another weakness is that there is poor evidence for the asocial stage. the gestures babies show may be because they are hungry
  • may be a culture bias as it was 1960's working class babies, collectivist cultures are more able to form attachments
• What was Lorenzs' research into attachment?

  • procedure - split up geese eggs, half grew up with mother and half grew up in an incubator. The incubator group followed Lorenz even when mixed up with the other geese
  • findings - the geese had imprinted on Lorenz as he was the first moving object they had seen
  • Lorenz concluded that there was a critical period that could be up to a few hours but depends on the species
• What was Lorenzs' research on sexual imprinting?

  • imprinting could also have an effect on your sexual partners when older. A duck who seen a human as its first moving object, made sexual advances towards humans
  • Lorenz - followed a peacock who grew up in a reptile house and the first moving object it seen was a giant tortoise. It then made sexual advances towards giant tortoises
• What was Harlows' research?

  • researched the effect of contact comfort
  • reared 16 monkeys to a wire mother or cloth covered mother which the wire one gave milk
  • findings - monkeys tended to go towards the cloth covered monkey showing that contact comfort is more important then food
• What was Harlows' research on maternal deprivation?

  • followed the monkeys who chose the wired mother and they showed dysfunctional behaviour
  • cloth covered monkeys showed social problems - more aggressive, less sociable and did not know how to look after their own children. In some cases, they killed their children
  • CRITICAL PERIOD = 90 DAYS
• Evaluation for Lorenz -

  • a strength is that there is research support for the concept of imprinting. Psychologists showed a moving shape to ducks. They then walked in that shape
  • a limitation is that bird species behaviour cannot be applied to humans
  • a strength is the link to humans and some show 'baby duck' syndrome and are attached to their computer screens
• Evaluation of Harlow -

  • one strength is their is real life application as it gives advice towards social workers. This is because they can understand the effects of maternal deprivation on orphans/children
  • a limitation is the lack of generalisabilty to humans
• What did Dollard and Miller say about attachment?

  • explanation of attachment
  • 'cupboard love' - importance of attachment figure as a provider for food
• How does classic conditioning affect attachment?

  • learning through association
  • UCS = Food - brings pleasure
  • NS = caregiver
  • make an association with food and the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus
• How does operant conditioning affect attachment?

  • learning through outcomes
  • explains why babies cry for comfort as they get picked up or fed
  • two way process - negative reinforcement - babies getting picked up stops the crying which is an unpleasant behaviour
  • positive reinforcement - babies get comforted or fed when crying
• What is the drive reduction theory?

  • hunger - primary, innate drive
  • babies start to assosciate caregivers with food and an attachment forms
  • attachment figure - secondary drive
• Evaluation of the learning theory on attachment -

  • one strength is that it provides explanations to why babies cry for comfort and why they cry for food - they associate a warm, fuzzy feeling with the caregivers who feed them
  • a limitation is there is limited research support for animals. Lorenz and Harlow found infants tended to seek contact comfort rather than food
  • another limitation is that Isabella et al found that babies focus more and want their mothers rather then food
• What does Bowlby mean by monotropy?

  • his theory is described as monotropic because he puts emphasis on one significant attachment. This attachment is the mother.
  • Bowlby believed the more time an infant spent with their mother, the better
• What are social releasers?

  • these are signs such as smiling, gurgling and cooing that a baby signals when they want to SOCIALISE. This is why they are called SOCIAL releasers
• What is the critical period in Bowlby's monotropic theory?

  • 6 months
• What is an internal working model?

  • a child forms a mental representation of their primary attachment figure.
  • this affects the child's later ability to form relationships and attachments
• Evaluation of Bowlby's monotropic theory -

  • A strength is the evidence for social releasers. Brazelton et al investigated babies and caregivers. He told the caregivers to ignore the social releasers and they were distressed.
  • Another strength is the research support for internal working model. Assessed attachments with 99 mothers and one year old babies and the mothers of the mother. Found their parenting style was dependent on their internal working model
• Evaluation of Bowlbys monotropic theory-

  • a limitation is that the theory lacks validity. Schaffer and Emmerson said that infants can form multiple attachments.
  • Feminists believe that it places blame on the mothers
• What was the procedure for Ainsworths' strange situation?

  • controlled observation to measure attachment. Assessed:
  • 1 - Proximity seeking and exploration
  • 2 - Secure base behaviour
  • 3 - Seperation anxiety
  • 4 - Stranger anxiety
  • 5 - Response to reunion
• What were the findings of Ainsworth?

  • Type B - secure - these babies explore happily but regularly go back to caregiver. Show moderate seperation and stranger anxiety. Accept comfort. (60 - 75)
  • Type A - insecure avoidant - these babies explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. Little reaction to stranger/seperation. (20 - 25)
  • Type C - insecure resistant - seek greater proximity and explore less. Higher levels of stranger and seperation anxiety. (3)