attachment

• Attachment?

  • close 2 way emotional bond between 2 individuals.
• early interactions are meaningful - quality of interactions is associated with successful development of attachment.
• Reciprocity?

  • baby and caregiver respond to and elicit responses within each other.
• alert phases - babies have periodic alert phases where they signal they are ready for a spell of interaction.

  • mothers respond 2/3 of time
  • 2/3 depends on skills and external factors
• babies have active involvement - also initiate interactions
• Interactional Synchrony?

  • Feldman - temporal co-ordination of micro level social behaviour
  • baby and caregivers actions and emotions mirror each other
• Meltzoff and Moore

  • IS begins in babies as young as 2 weeks
  • adults displayed 1/3 facial expression or gestures
  • babies mirrored more than chance would predict - significant association
• Isabella - 30 mothers and children?

  • higher levels of interactional synchrony was associated with better attachment i.e. relationship had greater emotional intensity.
• Caregiver Infant Interactions?

  • Strength - filmed observations. details are picked up and less likely to miss out on key behaviours. babies don't know they are being observed. studies have high reliability and validity.
  • Weakness - difficulty observing babies are not very co-ordinated, have to observe small gestures. hard to interpret meanings behind responses. cannot be certain they are meaningful.
• Caregiver Infant Interactions?

  • Weakness - difficult to infer developmental importance. robust phenomena in the sense they can be reliably observed but they don't tell us purpose of behaviour.
  • Strength - evidence linking interactions and successful attachment development.
• 3% father is primary attachment

  27% joint first

  75% of babies formed attachment with father by 18 months - protest
• Grossman

  • longitudinal study assessing parents behaviour and relationship with chid to child's later attachments.
  • quality of attachment with mother was essential for later attachments.
  • father has important role in play and stimulation - related to adolescent attachment.
• babies relationship with primary figure forms basis all later close emotional relationships.
• Field

  • filmed 4 month old babies and found primary fathers spent more time interacting and holding babies.
  • have potential to take a more emotion focused role.
• Role of Father

  • Weakness: confusion over research questions. Secondary sees distinct role. Primary sees more maternal role.
  • Weakness: varies on methodology used. Grossman - important in play and stimulation but children without fathers do not develop differently. do they have distinctive role. HOWEVER fatherless families may just adapt.
  • Strength: mothers feel forced to stay at home - stereotypical views. research offers advice and reassures fathers can become PAF. fatherless households can be informed development isnt affected, reduce anxiety.
• Asocial Stage - first few weeks

  • behaviour towards people and objects is similar
  • not entirely asocial - still show preference for people - calmed
  • happier in presence of others
  • forming bonds which are basis of later attachment
• Indiscriminate Stage - 2-7 months

  • display more observable behaviour - preference to people
  • recognise and prefer familiar faces
  • no stranger or separation anxiety
  • indiscriminate - accept cuddles from anyone
• Specific Attachment - 7-11 months

  • specific attachment with primary attachment figure - stranger and separation anxiety
  • person who offers most interaction with skill
  • mother - 65% of cases
• Multiple Attachment - by one year

  • secondary attachment - 29% formed within month of first
  • behaviour is extended onto others
  • by 1 the majority had formed multiple attachments
• S+E - procedure

  • 60 babies from Glasglow working families
  • visited every month for a year then again at 18 months
  • Separation - several everyday separations
  • Stranger - response to unfamiliar adults
• S+E - results

  • 40 weeks - 80% had a specific attachment
  • 25-32 weeks - 50% showed signs of separation anxiety
  • 10 months - majority had several attachments
• S+E - eval.

  • Strength - EV, observation made during ordinary activities, babies less likely to be anxious so behave naturally.
  • CP: mothers may have been biassed - not noticed/ misremembered. Natural behaviour but inaccurately recorded.
  • Weakness - poor evidence for asocial stage - immobile due to stage of development. Difficult to report signs of anxiety from age group. may have been social but flawed methods appear asocial.
  • Strength - RWA to daycare, starting late may cause distress.
  • Weakness - generalisability issues, multiple attachments are the norms in collectivist cultures.
• Imprinting - species immobile from birth attach to and imprint on the first moving object they see.
• Sexual Imprinting - birds acquired template of desirable characteristics.
• + Support for Imprinting - Regolin and Vallortigara exposed chicks to moving shape combination. Followed imprinting shapes over alternatives. Imprinting must be an innate mechanism.

  W: generalisability - differences in mammalian attachment systems. differences in nature and complexity of the bond.
• Harlow

  + RWA, understand how lack of bonding can be risk factor in development allowing intervention to prevent poor outcomes. Important for baby monkeys in zoos. practical and theoretical value.

  W: generalisability, human brain and behaviour is still more complex.

  W: ethical issues - those monkeys deprived in long term became more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in mating.
• Bowlby - evolutionary explanation stating attachment is an innate system that gives survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment occur so young organisms stay close to caregiver and this protects them from hazards.
• Monotropy - one particular attachment that is different from others and of central importance to child's life.
• Law of Continuity: the more constant the care the better the quality of attachment.

  Law of Accumulated Separation: effects of every separation adds up, best dose = zero dose.
• Social Releasers - babies borns with set of cute innate behaviours that encourage interaction. Activate adult social interaction.
• Critical Period - about 2 years - when attachment system is most active. If attachment hasn't formed then child will find it much more difficult to form one later.
• Internal Working Model - child forms mental representation of relationship with primary caregiver which serves as a template for all future relationships.
• Bowlby

  • W: monotropy lacks validity, may be stronger rather than different in quality. other members develop similar qualities e.g. comfort & secure base. wrong to suggest unique quality.
  • S: support for social releasers, when ignored babies laid curled up and motionless, supports importance in attachment.
  • S: Lorenz found goslings naturally imprinted for survival.
  • S: support for IWM, Bailey 99 mothers and children - those who had poor relationships with mothers were likely to have poor relationships with one year olds.
  • W: feminist concerns - contribute to oppression of women.
• Positive Reinforcement: crying leads to caregiver response which becomes reinforced because it results in pleasurable consequences (cuddles).
• Negative Reinforcement: caregiver receives negative reinforcement as they escape crying - avoiding something unpleasant.
• hunger is the primary drive.

  attachment is secondary drive and is learned through association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive.
• Learning Theory

  • S: elements of conditioning involved. unlikely association with food is central to attachment. conditioning could play role in choice of caregiver i.e. who do they associate with warmth and comfort.
  • W: ignores babies taking active role, child also produces interactions for attachment. LT cannot explain all aspects of attachment.
• Learning Theory

  • W: conflicting evidence from animal studies. Lorenz found gosling imprinted on first object they saw. Harlow found monkeys favoured cloth mother even when she didn't provide food.
  • W: conflicting evidence from Schaffer, Emerson and Isabella, babies attached to one who responded with most skill.
  • W: highly reductionist - only looking at food.
• What categories of behaviour was Ainsworth investigating?

  • Proximity Seeking
  • Exploration and Safe Base - good attachment makes baby confident to explore but use caregiver as point of safety.
  • Stranger Anxiety
  • Separation Anxiety
  • Response on Reunion
• 1. Baby is encouraged to explore.
  2. Stranger enters and chats to baby.
  3. Caregiver leaves (testing stranger anxiety)
  4. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves.
  5. Caregiver leaves (testing separation anxiety)
  6. Stranger returns.
  7. Caregiver returns.