attachment

• Adaptive (Bowlby)


  - EVOLUTIONAL- infant rely on adults, they need them

  humans have evolved + are born with innate need to attach to one main attachment figure to increase chance o survival .

  Adults also attach to infant to ensure their genes get passed on.
• Critical Period (Bowlby)


  First 2 years of child's life, children who DON'T have opportunity to form attachment during CP have difficulty forming attachments later on in life.
• Social Releasers (Bowlby)


  Attachment is determined by PARENTAL SENSITIVITY to social releasers. SRS= smiling, crying and cooing to help child capture attention of carer and elicit a caregiving response from them.
• Monotropy (Bowlby)


  Infant will form a PRIMARY ATTACHMENT.

  Often infant's biological mother but not always.
• Internal Working Model (Bowlby)

  First attachment provides a TEMPLATE for future relationships. Based on first attachment, infant forms concept of what to EXPECT from future intimate relationships.

  CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS MENTION.
• Strength of Bowlby's monotropic theory (Continuity Hypotheis)

  Minnesota Parent-Child study (Sroufe et Al)

  - followed infants to adolescence and found continuity between quality of early attachment onto emo/social behaviour in later life.

  - SECURELY ATTACHED KIDS = HIGH RATED SOCIAL COMPETENCE , LESS ISOLATED , MORE EMPATHETIC.
• Strength of Bowlby's Monotropic Theory (Practical Application)


  Practical application regarding care of adoptive children.

  Knowing that it is vital to form attachment between 0-2 (CP), adoption agencies may prioritise the adoption of children between those ages to give them OPPORTUNITY to form POSITIVE INTERNAL WORKING MODEL.

  - Not purely theoretical.
• Weakness of Bowlby's Monotropic Theory 1

  TIZARD AND HODGES - found that studies of orphaned children who've been adopted between the ages of 3 and 4 were still capable of forming new attachments.
• Weakness of Bowlby's Monotropic Theory 2


  Refuting proof for monotropy - SCHAFFER AND EMERSON - found that by age of 10 months, 30% of babies had formed MULTIPLE attachments and 1/3 of them was with their FATHER.
• Lorenz's goslings procedure


  1. Took a clutch of goose eggs and divided them into 2 groups.

  Ctrl group = left with mother. EXP group = placed in incubator.

  2. When eggs hatched, first living thing they saw and had contact with was Lorenz.
• Lorenz' goslings findings


  Incubator group followed Lorenz around and showed no recognition of their natural mother.

  Young animal will form an attachment to first moving object it observes in its critical period.
• Harlow Monkeys procedure


  Raised two monkeys in isolation until they were 8 months old. Placed in cages with a wire mother , who dispensed food and a towel mother who's cloth provided the monkeys with comfort.

  Monkeys were frightened.

  
• Harlow Monkey Finding


  1 - Went to cloth mother despite fact that wire mother gives food, shows importance of contact comfort.

  2 - Follow up showed that monkeys developed abnormally - abnormal social interactions and mating behaviours towards other monkeys.
• Strength of animal research - Support for imprinting

  GUITON -

  (1) LEGHORN CHICKS exposed to YELLOW RUBBER GLOVES used to feed them, became IMPRINTING to the gloves. (2)Male chickens later tried to mate with the gloves.

  - shows animals have no predisposition to mate with specific type of animal, rather (explain imprinting).
• Weakness of Animal Research - Refuting for fixed view of imprinting.

  HOFFMAN - imprinting ' flexible' or 'plastic' mechanism.

  GUITON - found he could reverse imprinting in the chickens that tried to mate with a glove - spending time around other chickens - normal sexual behaviour.

  - EFFECTS OF IMPRINTING AREN'T FIXED - CAN BE CHANGED CUZ OF EXPERIENCE
• Weakness of Animal Research 1

  Problems extrapolating to humans as humans more complex.

  CP = Monkeys - 0-90 days, geese - 2 days. Humans = 2 years.

  Due to differences in attachment like CP, findings cannot be generalised.
• Weakness of animal research 2

  Ethical Issues - Harlow - monkeys scaring

  Monkeys are closest species so we feel empathy.

  - Damage to monkeys was LONG TERM and affected them past the study.

  CREDIBILITY DECREASES.
• Interactional Synchrony - FIRST WEEKS OF LIFE


  When child and parent are said to be 'synchronised' as they engage in same actions in UNISON.

  - Important for dev of mother-infant attachment.

  IRST WEEKS OF LIFE :
• Isabella et al AO1

  High levels of synchrony was associated with better quality attachment between mother and infant.
• Reciprocity - AROUND 3 MONTHS


  TWO-WAY PROCESS of comm between infant and caregiver.

  Each party responds to the other's signal to sustain the interaction and ELICIT A RESPONSE from the other.

  - Regularity of infant's signals allow a caregiver to anticipate baby's behaviour and respond accordingly.

  - Allows for dev of healthy attachment.
• Strength of Reciprocity


  MURRAY AND TREVARTHEN - asked mothers to videocall their2 month old infants through real time. THEN babies were shown VIDEO of their mother's interactions. Pre-recorded video meant babies could not get attention of their mother which led to acute distress.
• Strength of Interactional Synchrony

  GRATIER - studied timing of vocal interactions of 30 mothers and their 2-5 month old infants from India, France and US. Mothers and infants from all countries had coordinated their spontaneous vocalisations with each other - showing IS is universal.
• Weakness of our understanding of CI

  We don't understand the purpose behind how interactions like IS lead to attachment.

  
  

  FIELDMAN - simply DESCRIBES behaviour that occurs between carer and infant. Only describes observable beh, thus not useful as don't explain PURPOSE.

  WB - Doesn't explain how IS contribute to t he improvement of quality of attachments.
• Weakness with our understanding of CI 2

  Issues with interpreting the behaviour of infants - infants MOUTHS are in CONSTANT MOTION (yawn, smile). Difficult to distinguish between general activity a child engages in or directed expressions within a convo.
• Grossman (2002)


  Longitudinal study - quality of father's play and NOT SECURITY OF ATTACHMENT was related to quality of adolescent attachments.

  Father's role is to do with PLAY and STIMULATION.
• Field (1978)


  Observed 4 month old infants in face to face interactions with primary caregiver mum/dad or secondary caregiver father. Primary caregiver dads - like MUMS- spent longer smiling, imitating and holding infant than 2nd caregiver dads.

  - Fathers can take NURTURING ROLE not just mums.
• Strength of the role of the father

  Practical Applicstion - Rearing responsibilities can be divided evenly between two parents. Mother return to work and father can look after infant. SWEDEN - PATERNITY LEAVE - 90 DAYS to help assist with childcare.

  - Not purely theoretical.
• Weakness of the role of the father 1

  MACCALLUM AND GOLOMBOK - children growing up in single or same sex parent family may not develop ANY differently from those in 2 parent heterosexual families.
• Weakness of role of father 2

  Learning theory refuting evidence - attachment emerges due to ASSOCIATION between mother and pleasure derived from breastfeeding. - Fathers play no part here.
• Schaffer and Emerson Method

  60 babies from working class area of Glasgow observed every month for a year then 18 months,

  mothers questioned about child's response to separation anxiety related situations.

  
• Schaffer and Emerson findings at 25-32 weeks


  50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety usually towards the mother

  - attachment usually towards caregiver who was MOST interactive an sensitive to infant signals
• Schaffer and Emerson findings at 40 weeks


  30% displayed multiple attachments.
• AISM - Stages of Attachment

  Asocial stage, Indiscriminate att, Specific and Multiple
• Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)


  Behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is similar. -Show preference for familiar adults.
• Indiscriminate Attachment (


  6 weeks- 6months)Clear preference for people over objects. Recognise familiar adults. NO SEPARATION/STRANGER ANXIETY
• Specific Attachment


  (7 months onwards)Majority showseparation/stranger anxiety. Form attachment to those MOST SENSITIVE TO SIGNALS.
• Multiple Attachments


  (11month onwards)Extend attachment behaviour to multiple adults they spend most time with.
• Strength of stages of attachment

  Longitudinal - every month for a year and again at 18 months. IN-DEPTH DATA - rather than SNAPSHOT observation.
• Weakness of stages of attachment

  Issues with interpreting the behaviour of infants - infants have POOR COORDINATION - Difficult to make ANY judgements about them based on observations.
• Weakness of stages of attachment 2

  Cross-cultural refuting research- whenmultiple caregivers are the norm, babies form multiple attachments from the outset.- Collectivist cultures often have emphasis on children being raised in families where childcare responsibilities are shared. eg the KIBUTZ COMMUNITY in ISRAEL.