Paper 1 psychology

• Attachment


  Strong, enduring, emotional, and reciprocal bond between two people, especially an infant and caregiver. The infant seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure.
• Caregiver-Infant Interaction in Humans

  • The more sensitive each is to the other's signal, the deeper the relationship
• Reciprocity


  Based on the assumption that caregiver-interaction is a two-way/mutual process and is where each party responds to the other's signals to sustain interactions through turn-taking. The behaviour from each party elicits a response from the other (e.g., caregiver smiles- baby smiles back).
• Research to Support


  • Tronick- asked mums who had been babbling to their children to stop moving and maintain and unsmiling expression. When this happened, a baby would try to tempt them into interacting with them again (they would smile to try and get their mum to smile back). When this did not happen, the baby would become distresses. Babies come to expect appropriate responses to their smiles.
• Interactional Synchrony


  Where an infant mirrors the actions of typically, the primary caregiver.
• Meltzoff and Moore (caregiver interaction)


  Babies aged 6-27 days old were presented with 4 different stimuli, 3 facial (smiling, sticking tongue out, sad) and 1 manual. They were observed and recorded to see the infants' responses. Independent observer used a coding scheme to check for things like tongue protrusion and head movement. Then checked against video, to test for reliability.
• Babies aged as young as 12 days could imitate both facial expressions and manual gestures. Therefore, the ability to imitate serves as an important building block for later social and cognitive development.
• Stages Of Attachment (Schaffer & Emerson)

  • Stage 1 (0-3 months): Asocial- pre-attachment stage: baby does not recognise individual people and reacts to objects and people in much the same way
  • Stage 2 (3-7 months): Indiscriminate attachments: The baby now shows a clear preference for people and smiles at people
  • Stage 3 (7-9 months): Discriminate attachment: shows a clear preference for attachment figure, shows fear of strangers and separation anxiety
  • Stage 4 (9+ months): Multiple attachment: follow soon after first attachment is made, baby shows attachment behaviours towards several different people (e.g., siblings, grandparents)
• Cernoch & Porter put breast pads either side of a baby's head, one with their mother's milk and another with stranger's milk, babies turned their head towards the breast pad with their mother's milk, showing clear preference and recognition.
• Bowlby did not agree with Schaffer & Emerson, he argues during the indiscriminate attachments stage infants do show preference for their primary caregiver.
• Within one month of first becoming attached, 29% of infants had multiple attachments to somebody else and display separation anxiety in these relationships. Within 6 months, 78% of babies had developed secondary attachment.
• AO3 of Schaffer & Emerson's study

  • External validity- naturalistic observation, behaviour was studied in the environment where it most naturally occurs
  • Problems with sample- only used Glaswegian babies therefore results cannot be generalised to the wider target population as it is not representative
  • Demand characteristics- parents asked to observe their children and keep a diary, therefore may give socially desirable answers therefore may lack internal validity
• Research into the role of the father

  • Not biologically equipped to form attachments
  • 'Playmate' role
  • Sensitive responsiveness
• Research into fathers as the primary attachment figure

  • Field (70's)- Filmed babies in their face-to-face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver father, primary caregiver fathers with infants at 4 months of age. Primary caregiver fathers play a nurturing role as fathers spent a greater amount of time smiling and holding infants.
• Research into fathers as secondary attachment figures

  • Schaffer & Emerson- babies attach to mother's first and found that additional attachments developed in the proceeding months following the 4th stage. 75% babies formed attachment with father by the age of 18 months.
  • Grossman- what role does the father play? - Looked at babies' attachment until they were teens, the quality of their attachment to their father was not related to later attachments in adolescence but their mother was however the quality of fathers play with their fathers was linked. Shows fathers have a unique role that is different from the mother's role; fathers' role is more about play and stimulation rather than emotional development; fathers are important to child's development in a different way to the mothers.
• Lack temporal validity (Schaffer & Emerson)- More women are now in work, research was conducted in the 60's therefore stereotypes and difference in gender work existed, the gap now is smaller. Apx. 30% of women in the 60's worked compared to 75% of mothers working now. Therefore, inaccuracy of results.
• The increase of same sex couples, previous research is outdated due to changes in society over time.
• Precocial animals


  Animals born late in their development and can move around shortly after birth and can move themselves (e.g. horses)
• Imprinting (Lorenz)


  Lorenz divided gosling eggs into two groups. One group was left with their natural mother while the other eggs were placed in an incubator. Once hatched, the two groups were mixed and Lorenz observed who they followed He varied the time between birth and seeing a moving object so he could measure the critical period for imprinting. When the incubator eggs hatched the first living thing they saw was Lorenz.
• Lorenz discovered that the incubated goslings followed him around (no interest in the mother goose) and the non-incubated goslings followed their mother around and therefore concluded that they would immediately form an attachment to the first thing they see. (process= imprinting).
• The geese are born with a hardwired instinct to follow the first thing the see- usually the mother goose. Supporting the idea that there is an innate programming that keeps young animals of any species safe by staying close, meaning they are less likely to become prey to predators. Lorenz argued there is a critical period too- imprinting must occur within 2 days or an attachment will not form.
• Harlow's Monkeys


  Harlow raised 8 baby rhesus monkeys and studied them for 165 days. Four of the monkeys were fed by a 'surrogate mother' that was made from a bare wire frame and the other four were fed by a 'surrogate mother' that was covered in terry towelling (warm but did not always provide food). Harlow recorded how long the monkeys spent with the two different mothers. Observations were also made of the monkey infants' responses when frightened.
• All the baby monkeys clung to the terry towelling covered monkeys and only went to bare wire monkey when hungry. When frightened all monkeys clung to the cloth-covered monkey. This challenges the learning theory of attachment as it suggests that food is not that important when forming attachment- contact comfort is. Some monkeys were left severely distressed with symptoms such as diarrhoea.
• Problems with extrapolating- results cannot be generalised, questionable whether finding can apply to complex human behaviours
• Research is unethical- protection from harm, monkeys taken away from their biological mothers may not be ethical.
• Bowlby's Monotropic Theory of Attachment


  Adopts an evolutionary perspective, suggests attachment is an adaptive survival mechanism, infants are innately programmed to form an attachment using social releasers, biological process takes place during critical period, child's relationship with a primary caregiver provides an internal working model influencing future relationships.
• Social Releasers


  Innate behaviours that trigger the want to form attachments, social releasers are exhibited the most when a child reaches an age when they crawl (e.g., crying, looking, smiling, clinging and following).
• Critical Period


  Bowlby believed that babies must form an attachment with their caregiver during the critical period (birth-2 ½). Otherwise, the infant would fail to form attachments in the future and be damaged.
• Monotropy


  Bowlby believed that the bond that a child forms with their primary attachment figure is the most important one. This bond specifically with a mother is known as monotropy. Provides a main foundation for the child's emotional development, self-esteem and later relationships with others.
• Internal Working Model


  Mental representation of our relationship with our primary caregiver that becomes a template for future relationships and allows individuals to predict, control and manipulate their environment.
• The continuity hypothesis suggests people's attachment behaviour will be consistent in later life with their primary attachment.
• AO3 of Bowlby's explanation

  • Evidence to support, critical period (Hodges & Tizard)- carried out a longitudinal study of attachment in children, those children who had not formed an attachment early in life seemed to lack ability to form meaningful attachments as they got older. This supports, once a critical period has passed it is difficult for children to form an attachment.
  • Contradictory research of the importance of critical period (Koluchova)- found a badly neglected pair of Czech twins were able to develop normally, and form attachments well after the sensitive period has passed This suggests that Bowlby's theory may be inaccurate when it comes to explaining the consequences of not developing attachments from a young age.
  • Temporal validity- some ideas were motivated by a situation where politicians wished to get women back into the home after working in factories during WW2, this suggest implies that Bowlby may have purposely shaped his research so the mother was necessary primary attachment, therefore research may be outdated due to changes in society.
• Learning Theory- Behaviourism (Dollard & Miller)

  All infants are born TABULA ROSA- blank state, and that therefore all our behaviours are learnt from our experiences. Theory disregards innate biological factors, states they have nothing to do with behaviour, none of our behaviours are genetically inherited. Attachment is developed through classical and operant conditioning.
• Operant Conditioning


  Learning behaviours through the consequence of actions (either reinforcement or a punishment). The two reinforcers, primary and secondary, are what shapes the child's behaviour. Primary reinforcers- rewards such as food and warmth, those which bring physical satisfaction to the child and are associated with the secondary reinforcers- the caregiver which provides the child with the food or warmth.
• If it is the caregiver providing the food, she becomes the secondary reinforcer and becomes a source of reward (the caregiver takes away the feeling of negativity and gives one of pleasure, infant sees them as a source of reward and therefore more likely to form an attachment to them). This suggests that infants will form an attachment to whoever feeds it.
• Classical Conditioning


  Learning through association, associating food with pleasure and therefore the caregiver who provides the food becomes associated with pleasure.
• Operant Conditioning


  Learning behaviours through the consequence of actions (either reinforcement or a punishment)
• Primary reinforcers


  Rewards such as food and warmth, those which bring physical satisfaction to the child
• Secondary reinforcers


  The caregiver which provides the child with the food or warmth
• How operant conditioning works

  1. Food satisfies hunger (takes away the negative feeling) and make it feel comfortable (feeling of pleasure)

  2. If it is the caregiver providing the food, she becomes the secondary reinforcer and becomes a source of reward (the caregiver takes away the feeling of negativity and gives one of pleasure, infant sees them as a source of reward and therefore more likely to form an attachment to them)