A03

• * study carried out in families homes?

  • was carried out in natural environment
  • most observations were done by parents then reported later to researchers
  • behaviour is likely to be natural & true to real life
  • no demand characteristics as babies are unaware
  • ecological
  • means that att behaviour displayed is more realistic so can generalise to real life att
• X culturally relative?

  • psychologists who work in cultural contexts where multiple cgs are norm believe babies form multiple att from outset
  • collectivist cultures work together in child rearing
  • ? population
  • some cultures multiple att may be formed at earlier stage than 12 months
  • so cannot generalise stages of att to all cultures
• X problem with how multiple att are formed?

  • just because baby gets distressed when individual leaves room does not mean that person is true att figure
  • bowlby 1969 pointed out that kids also get distressed when playmate leaves room does not signify an att
  • ? internal
  • difficult to establish cause & effect relationship between separation anxiety & having an att to that figure
  • baby may be upset due to other factors e.g hunger
• X ignores individual differences?

  • this is stage theory suggests all children will go through stages in same order & same age
  • too narrow to believe every child will develop in same exact way
  • are all different & might progress at different rates
  • too simplistic to suggest everyones stages of att are same
  • may be other factors that influence our att
  • e.g single parent/income/working mothers
• X research was unrepresentative?

  • sample was working class from same district in scotland
  • 1960s
  • parental care changed - more mothers go to work
  • child rearing practices vary from diff cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds & time periods as researcher only focused on 1 certain group
  • interactions may be diff in another culture
  • children may develop diff primary att figure as fam dynamics change from traditional nuclear fam
  • ? population/temporal
  • not generalisable to all cultures & modern time periods as stages of att may differ in diff cultures & todays society