attachment

• Attachment


  When two people develop long and lasting emotional bonds, in this case the infant and their caregiver. Both the infant and caregiver seek closeness to each other and feel secure when close to their attachment figure.
• Reciprocity


  A mutual turn-taking form of interaction, like a conversation with each person playing close attention and responding to the other's signals and cues.
• Interactional synchrony


  Simultaneous, coordinated matching of behavior and emotional states between the infant and caregiver.
• Sensitive responsiveness


  The caregiver carefully paying attention to the infant's communication and responding appropriately.
• Child-directed speech


  A sing-song voice with variable tone, used to keep the infant's attention. Also known as motherese (MES).
• Bodily contact, including breastfeeding, is seen as vital for developing attachment.
• Stages of attachment (Schaffer)

  • Stage 1 (birth-6 weeks): Asocial stage - no preference for caregiver
  • Stage 2 (6 weeks-7 months): Indiscriminate attachment - can distinguish familiar from unfamiliar adults
  • Stage 3 (6-9 months): Specific attachment - strong connection to primary caregiver, usually mother
  • Stage 4 (9-10 months): Multiple attachment - additional attachments to other caregivers
• Father's role


  • Initially less important than mother, but by 18 months most infants had developed attachment to father
  • Fathers provide more active play, encouraging risk-taking, while mothers provide sensitive responsiveness
• Types of caregivers (Field)

  • Primary caregiver mothers
  • Primary caregiver fathers
  • Secondary caregiver fathers
• Primary caregiver fathers and mothers

  Showed more sensitive responsive behavior than secondary caregiver fathers
• Animal behavior


  Fascinating, psychologists study why animals act the way they do
• Psychological findings on animal behavior are often applied to human behavior
• Animal research can be problematic both ethically and considering the very different mental experiences of animals and humans
• Attachment research


  Influential researchers: Konrad Lorenz, Harry Harlow
• Konrad Lorenz's research on imprinting


  1. Randomly divided goose eggs, half hatched naturally, half hatched in incubator with Lorenz as first thing goslings saw

  2. Tested limits of imprinting by delaying goslings' exposure to moving objects

  3. Goslings imprinted on Lorenz followed him, goslings imprinted on mother followed her

  4. Found critical period of around 32 hours for imprinting
• Lorenz's research


  • Provides evidence for biological aspect of attachment behavior in birds, imprinting process based on vision
• Harry Harlow's research on attachment

  1. Removed infant monkeys from mothers, placed in cage with wire mother with milk bottle and cloth mother without food

  2. Recorded time spent with each, frightened infants to see which surrogate they ran to

  3. Infants spent most time with cloth mother, ran to cloth mother when frightened
• Harlow's research


  • Rejected contact comfort theory, argued animals have innate need for physical contact
• Harlow's research was unethical, caused suffering to primates
• Harlow and Lorenz's research

  Informed later researchers like John Bowlby, influenced policies around infant care
• While Harlow's research was unethical, the data collected was valid and influenced later understanding of importance of early attachment
• Attachment


  The strong bond that develops between an infant and their primary caregiver, usually their biological mother
• Infant and primary caregiver

  Develop a strong bond quickly
• Biological psychologists' view on attachment

  • Attachment bond is innate, babies are primed with the need to attach to their mother figures, and caregivers have an innate response to care for them
• Behaviorist view on attachment

  • Babies just really need to be fed, and they love their mother because she is the best way to get food, not because of anything special about her, and a parent's love for infants is more relief that the baby has stopped crying
• Classical conditioning explanation of attachment

  Neutral stimulus (mother) becomes associated with unconditioned stimulus (food), resulting in a conditioned response (pleasure)
• Operant conditioning explanation of attachment

  Crying behavior is positively reinforced when the parent provides care, and the parent's behavior is negatively reinforced when the crying stops
• Primary drives


  Instinctual desires required for survival and reproduction, such as sleep, hunger, thirst, and sex
• Secondary drives


  Learned desires that can ultimately satisfy primary drives, such as money
• Attachment as a secondary drive

  Infants seek attachment with their mothers because they learn the mother will ultimately satisfy their primary drive of hunger
• Bowlby's Monotropic Theory


  • Infants are naturally driven to form a strong bond with their primary caregiver, usually their mother, which is crucial for survival, and this bond shapes future relationships
• Bowlby's concept of "social releases"


  • Innate infant behaviors like crying, smiling, and vocalizing that are designed to draw the caregiver's attention
• Bowlby's concept of "internal working model"

  • A relationship blueprint formed in infancy that shapes how we perceive and behave in future relationships
• Variations in how even young children interact with the world and their mothers

  • Some children are very independent, not needing their mothers for reassurance
  • Others are excessively clingy
• Mary Ainsworth's attempt to categorize the early attachment styles of infants


  To find the best adapted style
• Ainsworth's technique for assessing attachment

  The Strange Situation
• The Strange Situation has been used all around the world, finding similarities and differences in attachment styles between cultures
• The Psych Boost flashcard app has a new feature - test yourself with over 1,500 multiple choice questions including every topic on A Level and GCSE psychology
• Infants maintaining closeness to their mother


  Using the mother as a secure base for exploration, frequently returning to her
• Infants demonstrating anxiety around strangers


  Showing distress when separated from their mother, and their reaction when reunited with their mother