attachment

• Reciprocity


  caregiver and baby respond to each other's signals and elicits a response from the other
• Interactional synchrony


  caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way
• Strange situation

  a controlled observation designed to test attachment security

  insecure avoidant , secure attachment and insecure resistant

  judging attachment = proximity seeking , stranger anxiety , separation anxiety and response to reunion.
• Evaluation of the strange situation

  one strength is that it has good inter-rater reliability

  one limitation is that it may not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultural contexts
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg procedure

  32 studies of attachment that were meta-analysed

  looked at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant attachment in 8 countries
• Findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's research

  75% showed a secure attachment in Britain and only 50% showed secure attachment in China

  China, Japan and Israel showed the highest rates if insecure-resistant

  variations within countries was larger
• Evaluation of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

  a strength is that most of the studies were done by indigenous researchers

  one limitation is the impact of confounding variables on findings
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation - 44 thieves

  44 thieves experiment studied the link between affectionless psychopathology and maternal deprivation

  compared with 44 non-thieves
• Findings of the 44 thieves research

  17/44 thieves had experienced early separation from their mothers

  15/17 were classified as affectionless psychopaths

  the findings indicate that disrupted attachment as a child can lead to criminal behaviour, low intelligence and emotional issues
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

  he proposed that a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with a mother is necessary for healthy psychological and emotional development.
• Evaluation of Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

  investigator effects - Bowlby conducted the self reports himself and as a result his presence might've influenced the outcome of the research.
• Institutionalisation

  The effects of growing up in an institution, such as a children's home or orphanage
• Research into institutionalisation

  Rutter et al - followed 165 Romanian orphans over a period of time

  findings - there was delayed intellectual development and undernourishment

  IQ was 102 for those adopted before 6 months

  Those adopted between 6 months - 2 years had an IQ of 86
• Evaluation of research into institutionalisation

  one strength is the lack of confounding variables = higher internal validity

  one limitation is the lack of current data about the orphans adult development
• Kerns research on relationships in childhood


  securely attached babies tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships
• Hazan and Shaver research into future relationships

  individuals internal working model affects two major adult experiences - romantic relationships and parental relationships

  Hazan and Shaver - love quiz

  56% securely attached

  25% insecure avoidant

  19% insecure resistant
• What were the correlations in Hazan and Shaver's love quiz?

  securely attached adults believe in long lasting love and were less likely to get divorced

  insecure types were more likely to report loneliness
• Evaluation of research into future relationships

  one limitation is the existence of confounding variables

  there are many factors that influence later relationships so it isn't just three attachment types
• Monotropy

  emphasis on a child's attachment to one particular caregiver
• Law of continuity and law of accumulated separation

  law of continuity - the more constant a child's care, the better quality of attachment

  law of accumulated separation - the effects of every separation from the mother add up
• Internal working model and critical period - monotropic theory


  internal working model - mental representation of their relationship with a primary attachment figure

  critical period - 6 months - 2 years
• Evaluation of Bowlby's monotropic theory

  the concept of monotropy lacks validity

  Brazelton - research support for the role of social releasers and suggests that they are more important for development of attachments
• Cupboard love approach - learning theory

  attachment figure as a provider of food

  drive reduction - hunger is a primary drive
• Classical and operant conditioning - learning theory


  classical - learning to associate two stimuli together so we respond in the same way

  operant - learning from the consequences of behaviour
• Evaluation of the learning theory of attachment

  there is a lack of support from studies of human babies and animals = there are other factors influencing attachment other than food
• Shaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment

  stage 1 - asocial stage (0-2 months)

  stage 2 - indiscriminate stage (2-7 months)

  stage 3 - specific attachment (7-9 months)

  stage 4 - multiple attachments (10-18 months)
• Asocial stage

  infant behaviour is directed at anyone and anything with a positive reaction
• Indiscriminate stage

  infants prefer people to inanimate objects, but not one person specifically
• Specific attachment

  infants prefer particular caregivers and look to them for comfort
• Multiple attachments

  infants become increasingly independent and form attachments with multiple people
• Evaluation of Shaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment

  good external validity - practical application in day care

  one limitation is that the mothers were the observers meaning that there may have been researcher bias
• Lorenz's research

  Imprinting - most birds attach to the first moving object they see when they are first born
• Evaluation of Lorenz

  can't generalise the findings with humans

  field study = high ecological validity
• Harlow's research

  researched infant rhesus monkeys attachment to their mother

  cloth mother and wired mother

  concluded that infants needed comfort more than food for attachment
• Evaluation of Harlow

  experiment is unethical because it affected the monkeys development

  psychological harm to the monkeys
• Role of the father - Schaffer and Emerson

  only 3% of babies had their father as their primary caregiver at 7 months. - by 18 months most babies are attached to both mother and father

  27% of cases the father was the joint object of attachment with the mother
• Evaluation of the role of the father

  can be used to offer advice to parents but the findings can vary according to the method used.