attachment

• what is attachment?


  an intense emotional relationship that is specific to two people
• reciprocity


  the interaction between two people where they respond to each others signals one after the other - seen as turn taking
• interactional synchrony 


  carrying out the same action simultaneously

  when infants move their bodies in tune with the rhythm of the carers spoken language

  actions & emotions mirror each other
• evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions pt 1

  • supporting evidence - found infants ages 2-3 weeks tended to mimic adults facial expressions

  • isabella et al - observed 30 mothers and infants together - high level of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachment

  • however behaviour does not seem to be universal - not consistently found across cultures - weakens idea that it is necessary for attachment formation
• evaluation of caregiver-infant interactions pt 2

  • behaviour being observed is simply hand movements or expressions - cannot be certain what is taking place from infants perspective - can’t know if it is deliberate or accidental

  • research prone to observer bias - some researchers may record more interactions than others - what 1 researcher views as interactional synchrony another may not
• what are schaffer’s stages of attachment

  pre attachment phase

  indiscriminate attachment phase

  specific attachment phase

  multiple attachments phase
• pre attachment phase


  0-3 months

  babies produce similar responses to all objects, living or not living

  around 6 weeks begin treating humans differently
• indiscriminate attachment phase 


  3-7/8 months

  can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people however still easily comforted by anyone
• specific attachment phase


  7/8 months onwards

  shows separation anxiety from one specific person - show special joy at reunion - most comforted by this person

  formed their primary attachment

  develops stranger anxiety
• multiple attachments phase


  9 months

  develops a wider circle of multiple attachments e.g siblings & grandparents - ‘secondary attachments’
• evaluation of stages of attachment pt 1

  • supporting evidence from schaffer & emerson - interviewed mothers of 60 infants in glasgow - found within one month of forming primary attachment 29% formed multiple attachments

  • however based on flawed research - mothers reports on their infants may be biased - some may portray a happier relationship

  • may lack temporal validity - findings collected in the 1960s - parental care changed since then e.g mothers working - also more single parent families

  • ethnocentric - some cultures have multiple attachments before primary attachment
• role of the father


  less likely to be primary attachment than mother - spend less time with their infants - less sensitive to infants cues than mothers

  • fathers more playful, physically active & better at providing challenging situations - encourages children to develop problem solving skills
• evaluation of role of father pt 1

  • role of father crucial for healthy development - found children who grow up without fathers often do less well in school & have higher levels of risk taking & aggression, especially in boys

  • evidence from grossman - longitudinal study of both parents behaviour - found quality of infant attachment with mothers was related to childrens attachment in adolescence but quality of fathers play related to quality of adolescent attachments suggesting a playmate role

  • evidence from Geiger - fathers play interactions more exciting and pleasurable than mothers
• evaluation of role of father pt 2

  • issue as consider role of mothers & fathers to be unequal - research assumes only one parent can provide most valuable care - lamb found children prefer interacting with fathers when in a positive emotional state, mothers preferred when distressed

  • affected the economy - led to pressure on gov to change paternity pay so fathers have more time off work - also means fathers could stay home while mothers work
• lorenz’s research in imprinting

  • aimed to observe formation of attachment in greylag geese

  • divided goose eggs randomly into two groups - half given back to mother & half placed in incubator where first thing they saw is lorenz

  • started following lorenz around - marked the two groups and placed them with the mothers & himself - divided themselves up and went back to lorenz

  • concluded animals imprint a mental image of first moving object they see within hours of being born
• evaluation of lorenz


  • support from guiton - exposed chicks to a yellow rubber glove that fed them during first weeks after hatching - glove imprinted on the chicks

  • difficult to extrapolate to humans - human behaviour governed by conscious decisions unlike animals
• harlow - rhesus monkeys

  gave 8 baby moneys 2 wire model mothers - one mother plain wire which gave milk & one cloth covered with no milk

  • recorded time spent with each mothers

  • all 8 monkeys spent most time with cloth covered mother & ‘reached over’ to wire one for food

  • concluded contact comfort was more important than food when developing attachments
• evaluation of harlow 


  • ethical issues - created lasting emotional harm on money

  • high control over variables

  • practical applications - now understand importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos
• what are the 2 parts of the learning theory of attachment

  classical & operant conditioning
• classical conditioning


  • learning by association

  • food (unconditioned stimulus)

  produces response of pleasure (unconditioned response)

  • caregiver = neutral stimulus

  child learns to associate caregiver with the pleasure so caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus bringing conditioned response of pleasure
• operant conditioning


  learning through reinforcement

  positively reinforced behaviour is more likely to be repeated

  child cries - mother gives food - positive reinforcement

  negative reinforcement of baby stop crying for mother
• evaluation of learning theory

  • criticising evidence from harlow

  • criticising evidence from lorenz

  • criticising evidence from schaffer & emerson - observed infants in glasgow - not always most attached to person who fed them

  •scientific & plausible explanation - can explain how humans develop behaviours in response to environment - e.g phobias develop when associate certain situations with danger

  • criticising evidence from tronick - studied african tribes - tradition for infants to be looked after & breastfed by diff women in the tribe - still showed primary attachment to mother
• bowlby’s monotropic theory


  • infants are innately programmed to form an attachment from birth

  • attachment is adaptive

  • born with an attachment gene

  • social releases e.g smiling increases chances of receiving care

  • critical period - 6 months - 2.5 years

  • if no attachment formed during this, difficult later in life

  • monotropy - significant relationship & one main attachment

  • form an internal working model

  • continuity hypothesis - attachment behaviours carried on with your future children
• evaluation of bowlby’s monotropic theory

  • suppot from lorenz

  • support from hazen & shaver love quiz - strong correlation between childhood attachment and adult relationships

  • support from tronick - african tribe - tradition to be looked after by different women - still showed primary attachment to mother

  • schaffer and emerson criticise - infants in glasgow had many attachments & often main attachment as father

  • researchers criticised critical period - not impossible to form attachments after this period - should be called a sensitive period
• ainsworth’s strange situation 


  • 106 middle class american infants aged 12-18 months

  • observed in a lab setting to assess attachment type

  • sequence of 8 short episodes - mother and stranger take it in turns to enter the room, interact with child & leave

  • four key behaviours: separation anxiety, reunion behaviour, stranger anxiety & exploration behaviour

  • found 3 different types of attachment:

  secure = 66%

  insecure avoidant = 22%

  insecure resistant = 12%

  sensitivity of caregiver had an impact on attachment type of infant
• key behaviours in secure attachment


  • distressed when mum leaves

  • play happily with stranger when mum is present - not comforted when mum leaves

  • easily comforted by mum on return

  • keen to explore
• key behaviours in insecure avoidant

  • no or few signs of distress when mum leaves

  • easily comforted by strangers

  • ignore mum on return

  • willing to explore
• key behaviours in insecure resistant

  • very distressed when mum leaves

  • extreme stranger anxiety - distress at presence of stranger

  • will not be comforted at reunion

  • not willing to explore
• evaluation of strange situation

  • lacks ecological validity

  • easy to replicate cross culturally

  • ignores the father - gives an inaccurate view on child’s attachment type as may have secure attachment to father

  • ethical issues

  • classification system doesn’t fit all infants - some children showed behaviour inconsistent to the 3 types - main & solomon added a fourth type ‘disorganised attachment’

  • demand characteristics
• cultural variations - van ijzendoorn

  test intercultural & intracultural differences - did a meta analysis of 32 studies across 8 countries

  germany had highest insecure avoidant at 35%

  britain had highest secure at 75%

  israel and japan had highest insecure resistant at 29% and 27%
• what did van ijzendoorn find

  found inter-cultural differences were small.

  secure most common in every country

  intra-cultural differences were 1.5 times greater than inter-cultural differences
• takahashi research into cultural variations

  • tested 60 middle class japanese infants and their mothers

  • found similar rates of secure attachment as ainsworth

  • japanese infants showed no evidence of insecure avoidant but high levels of insecure resistant (32%)

  in 90% of cases the study was dropped when infants left alone due to distress
• evaluation of research into cultural variations

  • meta analysis shows most countries have similar pattern of attachment - supports that secure is best

  • easy to replicate cross culturally

  • ethnocentric - the idea that behaviour of all children in all cultures can be interpreted from same viewpoint may not be true - germany encourage children to be independent so = insecure avoidant attachment

  • meta analysis could be seen as biased - unequal numbers of studies from each country so could be more representative of some countries than others

  • ethical issues - takahashi 90% stopped
• bowlby & maternal deprivation

  • prolonged emotional deprivation has long term consequences for healthy child development

  • continual nurture from mother is essential for psychological development

  • extended separations can lead to deprivation

  • if child is separated from their mother and deprived of her emotional care for extended period of time during critical period then psychological damage is inevitable

  • could be intellectual, emotional or both

  intellectual - can suffer mental retardation with abnormally low IQ

  emotional - affectionless psychopathy (inability to feel guilt)
• evaluation of maternal deprivation pt 1

  • support from bowlby’s 44 thieves - interviewed 44 teenagers & their families - 14/44 could be described as affectionless psychopaths - 12/14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in first 2 years of life

  • support from genie - genie locked in room by her father til she was 13.5 - found physically underdeveloped & couldn’t stand or talk - didnt fully recover, only learned a few words & didn’t form strong attachments

  • researchers criticised idea of critical period
• evaluation of maternal deprivation pt 2

  • criticism from case of czech twins - locked up for 7 years by stepmother - couldn’t talk when found - looked after by 2 loving sisters - by age 14 had normal intellectual and social functioning - by 20 were above average intelligence & formed strong attachments

  • negative impact on economy - may have led to women being prevented from career opportunities & being socially disadvantaged - prevented from contributing to economy
• rutter’s romanian orphan study

  aimed to test whether good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

  • longitudinal study

  • followed 165 romanian orphans adopted in britain - tested at regular intervals assessing physical, cognitive & social development

  • assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15
• findings of romanian orphan study

  • half adoptees originally showed signs of mental retardation & most under nourished

  • age 11 - showed different rates of recovery related to their age of adoption

  • mean IQ of children adopted before 6 months was 102 - adopted between 6 months & 2.5 years was 86 - adopted after 2 years was 77

  • adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment
• la mere’s romanian orphan study

  longitudinal study of 36 romanian orphans

  • adopted orphans were physically smaller than control group at age 4.5 but this difference disappeared by 10.5
• evaluation of romanian orphan studies

  • practical applications - improved children’s care in institutions e.g avoid having large number of caregivers for each child - gave ‘keyworkers’

  • supporting evidence - romanian children who spent 90% of their lives in an institution showed disinhibited attachment by age 1-2.5 years

  • praised for studying long term effects - longitudinal study - however didn’t follow up after 16

  • lack control over conditions in orphanages - children may have had different levels of care

  • criticised for attrition - longitudinal - people likely to drop out