Attachment

• Why do we form attachments

  Infants are physically helpless and are born with primitive reflexes (E.G. sucking)

  Short term security

  Seeking interactions is innate and infants use social releasers

  Our first attachment is used as a template for future relationships
• Maccoby’s 4 main characteristics of attachment

  1)Seeking proximity

  2)distress if separated

  3)pleasure when reunited

  4)General orientation
• Attachment

  The formation of a strong, reciprocal, emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver
• Reciprocity

  The infant and their caregiver are able to reliably produce responses in each other

  Two-way and mutual

  BRAZLETON ET AL - describes the interactions as a dance as each partner responds to each others moves

  TRAVATHEN - suggests that turn taking is important for the development of social skills
• International Synchrony

  The baby mirrors the actions of another person, in terms of their facial expressions and body movements

  FELDMAN - “co-ordination of micro-level social behavior“

  MELTZOFF and MOORE - found associations between the expressions gesture and the infants response
• Evaluations of caregiver - infant interactions

  +ve - they use fully controlled observations, specifically filming of mother-child interactions which increases validity

  +ve - supporting evidence from Meltzoff and Moore

  -ve - it‘s difficult to understand infant behaviors so can’t be sure of cause and effect relationship

  -ve - doesn’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity but evidence shows they are helpful in the development in attachment
• Stranger anxiety

  The infant is distressed when a stranger approaches or interacts with it
• Separation anxiety

  The infant is distressed when they are separated from their caregiver
• Primary attachment

  The first bond the infant makes (usually the mother)
• Multiple attachments

  When the infant has more than one attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment

  1. Pre-attachment - up to 3 months, infants prefer humans to objects (IS, R, I)
  2. Indiscriminate-attachment - 3-7 months, separating familiar and unfamiliar
  3. Discriminate-attachment - 7-8 months, developing specific attachments with their primary caregiver
  4. Multiple attachments - 9 months onwards, developing many multiple attachments
• Schaffer and Emerson’s research

  A - investigate whether there are stages in attachment and development

  P - 60 infants, aged 5-23 weeks, working class, Glasgow mothers were visited every 4 weeks where they reported: response separation, protest from babies on separation, to whom the protest was directed, response to the interviewer at each visit

  R - 50 children at 8 months having more than 1 attachment, 20 had no attachments with mother or stranger attachment with someone else even though the mother was the main carer
• Schaffer and Emerson evaluation

  +ve - Ecological validity, done in homes therefore reflective of real-life situations so behavior is natural

  +ve - longitudinal research, same infants over a year long period so increases internal validity

  -ve - lacks generalizability, working class infants with same background so doesn’t represent the target population

  -ve - social desirability, mothers could lie so decreases the validity of the results
• Strengths of stages of attachment

  • Supporting evidence, e.g. Schaffer and Emerson, shows that the stages appear in the majority of people with quality of care playing an important role
  • Real-life application, e.g. day-care of infants, this means that parents use of day-care can be planned using stages to make sure children form attachments with their care providers as well as their primary carers
• Evaluation of stages of attachment

  • Self-report techniques, e.g. mothers may have lied to look better, this impacts the validity and results may not be accurate
  • Poor evidence for asocial stage, anxiety in babies may be hard to observe when young, this means they may b quite social which means validity is reduced
• Grossman research


  Carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents behavior and relationships to the quality of attachments in teen years
• Factors affecting relationships between father and child

  Degree of sensitivity

  Type of attachment with own parents

  Marital intimacy

  Supportive co-parenting
• Tiffany and Field’s research into fathers as primary caregivers

  Filmed 4 month old babies face to face with primary caregiver (mothers) and secondary caregiver (fathers) and primary caregivers (fathers)

  Primary caregivers (fathers) spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infant than eco diary caregivers (fathers)

  Shows a father can be a more nurturing attachment figure
• Cultural factors affecting father-infant relationship

  Hewlett - in many societies men spend their time keeping their children alive compared to other cultures where a lot more childcare take place
• Economic factors affecting father-infant relationships

  In many parts of the world, men work several hours away from their homes in order to provide an income to their family
• Social policies affecting father-infant relationships

  The child - boys are more likely to get on with their fathers and in late childhood / early adolescence (Freeman)

  Temperament - less likely to bond if child has a bad temperament (Manlove)
• What did Geiger's research find

  Fathers showed more playful interactions and are more exciting than mothers, while they are more nurturing

  This suggests that fathers are more playmates rather than caregivers
• Strengths to the Role of the Father

  • Real world application - can help prospective parents decide who the main caregiver should be, e.g. Field which means parental anxiety in fathers can be reduced
• Weaknesses to the Role of the Father

  • Inconsistent findings - researches being interested in different research questions, e.g. secondary or primary caregiver, this means they can't answer the question
  • Doesn't explain why children without fathers develop no differently - e.g. MacCallum and Golombok, this suggests the role of the secondary caregiver is not important
  • Numerous influences that affect a childs emotional development - e.g. culture, age, beliefs, sensitivity, this means it is hard to draw conclusions about the role of the father
• Secure attachment

  There is a strong bond between infant and caregiver

  Separated - infant is distressed

  Reunited - infant is easily comforted by caregiver

  Willingness to explore - are willing when caregiver is present

  Stranger anxiety - not much when caregiver is present, are friendly
• Insecure - Avoidant attachment

  Separated - infant doesn't become distressed and can be comforted by a stranger

  Reunited - they do not tend to orientate towards their mother nor are they concerned by her return

  Stranger anxiety - avoid social interaction and intimacy with others
• Insecure - Resistant attachment

  Separated - infant is upset when separated, comfort can not be given by stranger

  Reunited - infant can't be comforted when reunited

  Stranger anxiety - show some distress around strangers
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation study

  A - To produce a method for assessing quality of attachment by placing an infant in a situation of mild stress and novelty

  P - 100 middle class American infants, lab experiment in a playroom, 7 stages, 3 mins each: mother and child in room, stranger enters, mother leaves, mother returns and stranger leaves, mother leaves child alone, stranger returns, mother returns

  R - 66% secure attachment, 22% insecure - avoidant, 12% insecure - resistant
• Strengths to Ainsworth's study

  Reliability - e.g. standardized procedures, lab experiment, inter-rater reliability. This means variables were controlled and there was limited bias
• Weaknesses to Ainsworth's study

  Generalisability - e.g. middle-class, Americans. This means we cant generalise the results to target population. Lacks population validity

  Ecological Validity - e.g. lab experiment, artificial tasks and environment. This means the interactions may have not been representative of the outside world

  Ethical issues - e.g. secure attachment infants shows distress. This means that ethical implications occur
• Cultural Variations

  The differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups and cultures
• Van Ijzendoorn study (cultural variations)

  A - Looking at proportions of types of attachment in several countries

  P - 32 studies in 8 countries, 1990 children, strange situation, used meta-analysis

  R - Secure attachment was most common in all countries, individualistic cultures - insecure-avoidant was 2nd common, collectivist cultures - insecure-resistant was 2nd common, within culture studies were 1.5 times greater than those between countries
• Takahashi's study (cultural variations)

  A - Strange situation to identify types of attachment in Japan

  P - Strange situation

  R - clear differences in how infants act when alone then in other cultures, this could be due to Japanese children being separated less, they are taught that it is rude to ignore others
• Evaluation to cultural variations

  Positives -

  Meta-analysis allows researchers to draw conclusions from a very large scale. This means we can generalise the results and increases the external validity

  Negatives -

  Samples can be unrepresentative, e.g. 8 of 15 were in America. This affects population validity

  Strange situation is an American study so may not work in other cultures. Ethical implications, e.g. Takahashi's resarch caused kids distress

  Findings suggest that other cultures are raising there kids wrong. This is not right
• Lorenz's research (animal study)

  A - Investigate how geese form an attachment

  P - Divided goslings into two groups, one was left to the mother, the other left with Lorenz which was the first moving object they saw

  R - Gosling group with Lorenz followed him around in the same way the other group followed their mother, once they were put back together they both reformed and found their mothers

  C - Infants are affected by imprinting, attach to the first moving object they see in the first 13-16 hours, after is the critical period and it may be too late for them to imprint
• Harlow's research (animal studies)

  A - investigate whether baby monkeys would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort

  P - 16 baby rhesus were raised in isolation, there were two surrogate mothers: one made of mesh wiring containing a feeding bottle, the other with a soft cloth

  R - most of their time clinging to the cloth mother (comfort contact) and only used wire mother for food

  C - infants form more of an attachment with a figure who provides comfort and protection, 90 day critical period, consequences of this study: more agressive, less maternal, breadless
• Learning theory of attachment

  Theory suggest that attachments are learnt through our environment by linking pleasure with attachment

  'cupboard love'

  Classical Conditioning

  • NS, CS (mother)
  • UCS (food)
  • UCR, CR (pleasure)

  Operant Conditioning

  • Mother takes away discomfort (negative)
  • crying, feeding response (positive)
• Strengths of the learning theory of attachment

  Supporting evidence - Harlow, seeking comfort rather than food, negative reinforcement
• Limitations of the learning theory of attachment

  Contradictory evidence - Lorenz, attachment is innate and formed at birth, therefore not learnt from the environment

  Usefulness - research is based on animal, so we can't generalize the results

  Other theories - Bowlby's theory, process of evolution and is not learned from the environment
• Bowlby's monotropic theory of attachment

  A warm and continuous loving relationship with one person, its a two way process

  Adaptive, Social releasers, Critical period, Monotropic, Internal working period