Psychology - Topic 3 - Attachment

• Reciprocity


  The child and the parent pay attention to each other's verbal and non-verbal signals, taking it in turn to initiate the sequence
• Interactional Synchrony


  The child and parent are in harmony with their verbal and non-verbal signals, mirroring each other
• Caregiver-infant interactions - Research

  Isabella et al. (1989) - better quality of maternal care was associated with higher levels of mother-infant synchrony
• Stages of attachment


  Schaffer and Emerson

  Asocial (0-6 weeks): Infants respond to people and objects the same

  Indiscriminate Attachment (6 weeks-6 months): Preference begins to now be shown for familiar faces

  Specific Attachment (7 months +): The attachment between the Primary Care Giver is formed

  Multiple Attachment (10/11 months): This is usually with the father but can be grandparents ect.
• Role of the father

  Schaffer and Emerson - multiple attachments form

  Geiger (1996) - The dad is more about fun and playing with the child

  Grossman (2002) - the father is less important to later development than the mother in terms of nurture. Also found that if the father had engaged in active play with the child when they were young, the adolescent relationship with both parents is strengthened
• AO3 - Role of the father


  + Practical applications

  - Different research seems to state different facts about fatherhood
• Animal studies - Lorenz

  Studied imprinting with goslings, he ensured that he was the first adult that newborn goslings saw. Proved a critical period in which beings attach to another being
• AO3 - Lorenz

  - Cannot generalise to humans

  + Supports Bowlby's critical period
• Animal studies - Harlow

  Baby monkeys deprived of food preferred a cloth 'mother' to a milk-dispensing 'mother'

  Subsequently went on to shows signs of maternal deprivation as they had been reared without any real contact with an adult monkey
• AO3 - Harlow

  - Serious ethical issues due to high levels of stress

  + Real world applications
• Explanations of attachment - Learning theory


  This is based on the classical conditioning idea that we learn via association and operant conditioning idea that we learn via punishment and rewards.
• Primary and secondary drive


  Primary drive: is something the infant needs, biologically, to survive, such as food

  Secondary drive: is a stimulus that reinforces behaviour after it has been associated with the primary drive
• AO3 - Explanations of attachment - Learning theory


  - Animal studies don't support the learning theory

  - Highly reductionist

  - Over-simplistic by ignoring reciprocity, sensitivity and innate qualities
• Bowlby's Monotropic Theory


  - Born with the innate ability to form attachments

  - Critical period between 9 months and 3 years

  - Period we must form an attachment

  - If an attachment does not form, then the infant will never form one

  - Continuity where your attachment type will impact future relationships

  - Social releasers are behaviours that the infant willperform to attract attention

  - Schemas

  - Monotropy is the idea that only one main attachment will form
• AO3 - Bowlby's Monotropic Theory


  + Lorenz supports innate idea

  + Biological evidence for critical period

  + Ainsworth supports monotropy

  - Critical period found to be too strict - attachment over 3

  - Monotropy may be given too much importance
• Ainsworth's Strange situation

  Lab observation designed to measure the quality of attachment and the differences in attachment styles in infants.

  1) The mother and infant are left to play and the child is encouraged to explore

  2) The stranger enters the room and attempts to interact with the infant

  3) The mother leaves whilst the stranger is in the room

  4) The mother returns and the stranger leaves

  5) The mother leaves

  6) The stranger returns

  7) The mother returns and the stranger leaves
• Secure attachement


  Type B, show some anxiety when the PCG leaves but they are easily soothed and happy when reunited with their PCG.

  70% of infants
• Insecure avoidant attachment


  Type A, low anxiety in the presence of strangers and absence of the PCG. Upon reunion with the PCG, the child shows no interest in receiving comfort

  15% of infants
• Insecure resistant attachment


  Type C, become distressed as the PCG leaves and rush to them when they return

  15% of infants
• AO3 - Strange situation

  + High reliability

  + Inter-rater reliability

  - Population validity is low

  - Lacks ecological validity

  - Cultural differences
• Strange situation - Cultural differences - Research

  Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

  Conducted a meta-analysis of strange situation experiments that other researchers had conducted across the globe

  In countries like Sweden or Germany, infants are more likely to be insecure avoidant because of their culture (independence is valued more)
• AO3 - Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

  + Allows data collections from countries where language or cultural barriers could be an issue

  + Reliable and easily replicated

  + Large sample size

  - Hard to check validity

  - Not all countries covered

  - Cannot necessarily be generalised

  - Child - rearing practices not considered
• Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation


  What happens when an attachment is broken between an infant and their PCG

  Consequences of deprivation: Delayed social development - behaviour is often delinquent and outside of social norms, Delayed intellectual development - children often have low cognitive functions, Delayed emotional development - could not experience guilt or strong emotion is known as affectionless psychopathy
• Affectionless psychopathy


  Lack any remorse for their actions, and as the condition is untreatable, it can have serious consequences for those around the sufferer
• Maternal Deprivation - Research

  44 thieves study by Bowlby

  44 participants, consisting of teenage criminals accused of stealing were interviewed for signs of AP

  Also interviewed the participant's families to see if there was prolonged early separation

  14/44 were AP and 12/14 had been deprived within the first 2 years of their lives
• AO3 - 44 thieves

  + Lead to policy changes

  + Research support

  + Improved child welfare

  - Researcher bias

  - Links to animal research

  - Confuses deprivation and privation (inability to form attachments)
• Romanian Orphan Studies - Institutionalisation


  Rutter et al - a longitudinal study on 165 Romanian orphans

  Age 6:Those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment (overly friendly behaviour towards unknown adults)

  Age 11: 54% of those children who were adopted after 6 months, that had shown disinhibited behaviour, still showed disinhibited attachment

  Those adopted before 6 months, showed signs of a secure 'normal' attachment, whereas those older than 6 months displayed disinhibited attachment
• Romanian Orphan Studies - Institutionalisation - Conclusions


  Adoption after the first 6 months of life, means the child will have longer-term effects of institutionalisation

  However, recovery is possible if they are able to form attachments

  This challenges Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation as Rutter shows recovery is possible

  It has been found that children as old as 9 or 10 made a good recovery if they were adopted by sensitive, loving parents
• AO3 - Romanian Orphan Studies

  + Lead to policy changes

  + Lack of confounding variables

  + Studies cause and effect

  - Suggested that side effects of institutionalisation can be reversed in effective families

  - Adoption isn't randomly allocated (more sociable adopted first)

  - Could lack external validity
• Influence of Early Attachment on Childhood & Adult Relationships

  Internal working model - The continuity hypothesis: Suggests future relationships will follow the pattern based on this template

  Secure attachment: will seek out functional relationships and be functional within these relationships

  Insecure-avoidant: emotionally Closed and/or uninvolved in their relationships

  Insecure-resistant: Controlling and argumentative in their relationships
• Influence of Early Attachment on Childhood & Adult Relationships - Research

  Hazan and Shaver (1987) Conducted a 'love quiz' study completed questions on their childhood relationships and romantic relationships

  Secure: Balanced

  Avoidant: Avoiding closeness

  Anxious: Clingy

  Securely attached adults believe in long-lasting love and were less likely to get divorced, insecure types were more likely to report loneliness

  Suggests link between childhood attachment and adult romantic relationships
• AO3 - Internal working model

  + IWM has real life applications

  + May help insecure attached people

  - Self report techniques used

  - Bias (type of person that will respond to a newspaper ad)

  - Difficult to establish cause and effect