attachment

• Schaffer + Emerson


  Researchers who investigated the formation of early attachments and the age they are formed
• Study (schaffer + emerson)

  • Identified stages that children go through
  • Studied 60 babies from Glasgow over 18 months
  • Mostly working class families
• Stages of attachment


  • Asocial stage (less than 6 weeks)
  • Non-discriminate stage (2 months to 6 months)
  • Discriminate again stage (7 months to 12 months)
  • Multiple attachments (1 year)
• Asocial stage


  Infant shows similar responses to objects and people, towards the end they display a preference for eyes and human faces
• Non-discriminate stage

  Infant shows a preference for human company over non-human, can distinguish between different people but are still comforted indiscriminately and don't yet show any stranger anxiety
• Discriminate stage

  Infant shows a preference for caregiver, displaying separation and stranger anxiety, looks to a particular person for security and protection, shows joyful reunion behaviour
• Multiple attachments


  Infant develops secondary attachments to multiple people, depends on the size of the social circle they are exposed to
• Procedure


  1. Infants and parents were visited once a month for 1 year and then again at 18 months

  2. Researchers asked parents to observe their children in different circumstances (left alone, with a stranger)

  3. Parents kept a diary of their observations and reported back to the researchers
• Measures (strange situation)


  • Stranger anxiety
  • Separation anxiety
• Harlow


  Studied monkeys in 1959 to investigate attachment from an evolutionary approach
• Harlow's study


  1. Raised rhesus monkeys in isolation with 2 surrogate mothers - one wire and one dispenses food

  2. Infants spent more time with the cloth mother and all drank the same amount of milk from the wire mother

  3. Went to the wire mother for food, then returned to the cloth mother for comfort

  4. Also went to the cloth mother when faced with a stressful situation
• Lorenz


  Studied geese in 1935 and discovered imprinting - the process where young geese follow the first moving object they see
• Lorenz's study


  1. Divided a clutch of goose eggs into two groups: one group placed under a mother goose (control group), the other group hatched in an incubator

  2. The geese in the incubator group imprinted on Lorenz as he was the first moving object they saw
• Learning theory


  Assumes behaviours are formed through association and consequence (operant and classical conditioning)
• Operant conditioning


  • Baby's cry for comfort = getting picked up (response from caregiver) - positive reinforcement
  • Baby stops crying - negative reinforcement for the caregiver
• Classical conditioning


  Pairing of a neutral stimulus (mother) with an unconditioned stimulus (food) leads to the neutral stimulus becoming a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response (content baby)
• Learning theory assumes babies are born as a tabula rasa (blank slate)
• Bowlby's attachment theory


  • Attachments are adaptive and innate - have an evolutionary advantage that promotes survival
  • Monotropy - emphasis on a special bond with one caregiver
  • Law of Continuity - the more constant and predictable a child's care, the better the quality of attachment
  • Law of Accumulated Separation - ideal separation = zero, high separation = affectionless psychopathy
• Social releasers


  Behaviours that encourage caregiver interaction and trigger the attachment system in a parent (e.g. cooing, smiling)
• Critical period


  Attachments need to form before the infant is around 2 years old, leads to long lasting damage to child development if missed
• Sensitive period


  Extended critical period, after this age a child will find it more difficult to form secure attachments
• Internal working model


  Child forms a representation of their relationship with a primary caregiver, forms the basis of future relationships
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation


  • Aimed to classify and measure the security of attachment in 100 12-18 month old children
  • Observed in a laboratory playroom with 2-way mirrors
  • 8 stages of 3 minutes each (120 minute study)
  • Measured separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, and reunion behaviour
• Attachment types identified


  • Secure type B (66%)
  • Avoidant type A (22%)
  • Resistant type C (12%)
• Secure attachment


  Distressed when mother leaves, positive when mother returns, avoidant when alone with stranger, uses mother as a safe base
• Avoidant attachment


  Intense distress when mother leaves, shows fear of stranger, then avoids mother, cries more explores less
• Resistant attachment


  No distress when mother leaves, acts normal with the stranger, shows little interest on mother's return, comforted by anyone equally
• Ainsworth's conclusion
• Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg meta-analysis

  • Analysed 32 studies and 2000 infants from UK, USA, Sweden, Japan, China, Holland, Germany, and Israel
  • Looked at universality of attachment types
• Attachment types found


  • Secure (65%)
  • Avoidant (21%)
  • Resistant (14%)
• Conclusions from meta-analysis
• Reciprocity


  Reacting to each others social cues, baby learns to associate their caregiver with pleasure / comfort
• Brazelton (1975): still face experiment


  • Babies have an active role in their attachments forming with caregivers
• Interactional Synchrony


  The co-ordination of emotions, babies and caregivers reflect each others actions and mirror each other
• Meltzoff Moore (1977): video recorded 12-21 day old babies watching an adult perform 3 facial experiments


  It was observed that the beginnings of interactional synchrony in babies are shown as young as 2 weeks old
• Role of the Father

  The most common second attachment was the father (Schaffer Emerson), at 18 months old 15% had formed an attachment with their father
• Role of the Father

  • Mum = care and nurture, dad = play and fun, both parents have a role in attachment
• Early attachment with a mother


  Was a better predictor of what their future attachment would be (Grossman, 2002)
• If the father had engaged in active play

  Both parental relationships were strengthened (Grossman, 2002)
• Field (1978): if the father was the primary care giver before 6 months


  Then they took on a more "maternal" role, more caring and nurturing, the role of the father is flexible to meet the needs of the infant