attachment

• Attachment


  A two-way, enduring, emotional bond between two individuals, in which the following behaviours are displayed: 1. Seeking proximity, especially at times of stress. 2. Distress on separation and pleasure when reunited 3. Secure base behaviour-so infants are happy to explore but regularly return to attachment figure.
• What the specification says you have to know

  • Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony
  • Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer
  • Multiple attachments and the role of the father
  • Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow
  • Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby's monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model
  • Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation'. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant
  • Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn
  • Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation
  • Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation
  • The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model
• Reciprocity


  Any behaviour that is produced as a response to the other person's behaviour. It is always two-way, like a conversation (often without words) between the infant and caregiver.
• Interactional synchrony


  The timing and pattern of the interaction. Any interaction that has interactional synchrony is also reciprocal but here the interaction is rhythmic, has a mutual focus and can include infant and caregiver mirroring each other's behaviour and emotions.
• Traditional views of childhood believed that a baby took a passive role, simply receiving care from an adult however research shows us that a baby is very active and that parent child interactions are like a "dance".
• It is these early social interactions that are so important for a child's social development throughout their whole life.
• Knowing that a child and caregivers interactions are reciprocal doesn't tell us anything about the quality of those interactions. A child shrieking, throwing their toy at the caregivers head and the caregiver responding by shouting at the child is technically a reciprocal interaction as it is two-way but may not be an interaction that improves the attachment bond.
• Interactional synchrony does tell us about the quality of the interaction.
• Reciprocity is just about turn taking, whilst synchronicity is a richer and broader concept and is about being in tune with each other so is actually more about emotion than behaviours.
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

  • Observed babies as young as two weeks old and found an association between the expression or gesture the adult displayed and the babies actions, suggesting that the baby was imitating the adult.
• Good interactional synchrony (well timed, reciprocal and mutually rewarding)


  Leads to secure attachments
• Minimally involved mothers who were unresponsive or intrusive and over stimulating

  Led to insecure attachment
• An over stimulating mother (i.e. one who is showing too much reciprocity) leads to insecure attachment.
• It's not as simple as saying reciprocity= secure attachments as this isn't the case.
• Most of the research uses controlled observations.
• Research such as Koepke et al (1983) have failed to replicate the findings of Meltzoff and Moore's study.
• Marian et al (1996) found that infants could not distinguish between live and videotaped interactions with their mothers, suggesting that they were not actually responding to the adult.
• Research into caregiver-infant interactions has said to be socially sensitive.
• Interactional synchrony suggests that in order for secure and strong attachments to be formed then the mother needs to present from birth in order to develop this sensitive responsiveness to their child.
• Children whose mothers return to work soon after the child's birth however then restrict the opportunities for achieving interactional synchrony.
• Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer

  • Pre-attachment (Birth-3 months): Babies start to smile and become more "sociable" and from around 6 weeks. They can tell people apart and like to be in human company so begin to form stronger attachments however these do not progress much until the next stage as can be easily comforted by any individual. At this stage, Schaffer and Emerson found that they did not show a fear of strangers.
  • Indiscriminate attachment (3 months to 7/8 months): Infants are recognising and forming bonds with their carers through reciprocity and interactional synchrony however their behaviour towards animate (faces) or inanimate objects (teddies) is quite similar. Towards the end of the phase they start to be more content when in the presence of other people and can be more easily calmed by familiar adults but will allow strangers to handle and look after them.
  • Discriminate attachment (Usually 7/8 months onward): The key things about this stage are that the infant begins to show separation anxiety and "protests", usually by crying, when their primary attachment figure leaves (the biological mother in 75% of cases) They are said to now have formed a specific attachment. The second key behaviour is that they begin to show fear of strangers.
  • Multiple Attachments (9 months onwards): Shortly after infants show specific attachments they begin to make multiple attachments (29% within a month according to Schaffer's study). This is usually towards friends, grandparents and child-minders/ nursery staff.
• Bushnell (1989) presented 2 day old babies with either their mothers face or the face of a female stranger until they had spent a total of 20 seconds focusing on one of them. They found that 2/3 of the infants preferred their mothers face over that of a stranger.
• Schaffer's research was only carried out on 60 working class babies from Glasgow, so only in one country and on children from a limited background.
• In some cultural contexts where multiple caregivers are the norm, for example, many psychologists believe that babies form multiple attachments from the outset (so from the pre-attachment stage) and so for these children then the stages would not apply.
• There has been an increase in mothers returning to work soon after the child's birth.
• This then supports the suggestion that the stages and do not in fact generalise to all babies and families and so makes us question the universality of Schaffer's stages of attachment
• Role of the father


  What is the role of the father in today's society?
• Traditionally research has looked at mother-child interactions de-emphasising the father's role, for example Bowlby's concept of monotropy (included in the 1950s World health organisation report) suggested that babies needed constant care of the mother for healthy social development and that fathers should provide an economic rather than an emotional functional
• However, there is an increasing recognition that father's play a much greater role in the emotional development of their children than in previous years
• Why this change?


  • Increase in mothers with dependent children in work, up from 3.7million in 1996 to 4.9 million in 2017
  • Cultural expectations in many western cultures are changing to expect fathers to play a bigger part
• Fathers


  • More likely to foster risk taking behaviour in their children than mothers by engaging in more physical play and enjoyable games
  • Preferred when children are in a positive emotional state and want stimulation, whereas mothers are preferred when children are distressed and seeking comfort
  • Less able than mothers to detect low levels of infant distress
• All of these findings would suggest that they are key differences in the roles and capabilities of mothers and fathers however other research suggests this is not because fathers aren't as capable as mothers just that they aren't given the opportunity to develop these skills
• If fathers are given the chance

  They can be just as sensitive as mothers
• Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. They found that primary caregiver fathers like mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than the secondary caregiver fathers and that this behaviour is important in the building of attachments
• This is suggesting the father is as capable as the mother of being a sensitive and caring primary caregiver if given the chance and that it is the level of responsiveness and not the gender of the parent that is the key to the attachment relationship
• Father's don't tend to be in this primary care-giver role then not because they aren't capable but perhaps because of traditional gender roles in society
• How important is the role of fathers in a child's development?

  Lamb (1997) said that the characteristics of individual fathers (e.g., masculinity, intellect) are much less important than the quality of the relationship established; children who have secure, supportive, reciprocal, and sensitive relationships with their fathers (or mothers) do better on every measure of child development
• However other research (see evaluation) section disagrees and questions the importance of the role of the father
• There's not enough research to make a firm conclusion!
• Some research suggests maybe Dads aren't that important!