Attachment

• Attachment Definition


  A strong emotional bond that forms between an infant and their primary caregiver.
• Common features of caregiver-infant interactions

  Sensitive responsiveness, Imitation, Interactional synchrony, Reciprocity, Motherese
• Sensitive responsiveness definition


  The caregiver responds to signals from infant.
• Imitation definition


  The infant copies and mimics the actions of the caregiver.
• Interactional Synchrony definition


  Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.
• Reciprocity definition


  The back-and-forth interaction between an infant and their caregiver (By responding to each other's cues).
• Motherese definition


  The caregiver adopts a slow, sing-song way of speaking to the infant.
• Proximity definition


  Infants tend to stay physically close with their primary caregiver if the attachment is strong.
• Separation Distress definition


  Infants become distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence.
• What is secure-base behaviour?

  When the infant regularly make contact with attachment figures, check if they're close etc.
• Feldman (2007)


  Said that from around 3 months interaction is more frequent and becomes reciprocity, and that mothers were typically more likely to respond 2/3 of the time.
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977)


  - Modelled tongue protrusion, mouth opening, lip protrusion and sequential finger movement to 18 newborns aged 12-21 days in two separate experiments.

  - The results of the study indicated that when infants viewed a modelled gesture, they produced significantly more matching responses to the modelled gesture than when viewing a different modelled gesture.
• Condon and Sander (1974)

  Found babies as young as one day synchronize their movements and responded to adult speech.
• Isabella et al (1989)


  Observed 30 mothers and their infants, they found the higher levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachments.
• Crotwell et al (2013)

  Found that a 10-minute parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) improved International synchrony in 20 low-income mothers and their preschool children.
• Abravenal and Young (1991)


  Found that infants did not show reciprocity with a doll as much as a human.
• Evaluation of infant-caregiver interactions:

  (+)Usually filmed observations so more than one observer can watch and make inferences, (-) Difficult to interpret infant behaviour, (-) Does not indicate developmental importance.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

  found babies tended to form their attachment to their mother regardless of weather she was the one to feed them. they found that the majority of babies first became attached to their mother at around 7 months. in only 3 present of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment. in 27% percent of the cases the farther was the joint first attachment of the child alongside the mother. however it appears that most fathers go on to be important attachment figures . 75% of the babies studied by Schaffer and Emerson formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months. this was determined by the fact that the babies protested when their fathers walked away- this is a sigh of attachment.
• Grossman (2002)


  Longitudinal study on how parent-infant attachment effected attachment into teens.

  Found:

  a) Quality of infant ATTACHMENT to mothers (not fathers) related to teens attachment

  b) Quality of fathers PLAY did relate to attachment in adolescents.
• Field (1978)


  Filmed 4-month old babies in face-to-face interactions with:

  - Primary caregiver mums (P.C.M).

  - Secondary caregiver fathers (S.C.F).

  - Primary caregiver fathers (P.C.F).

  The P.C.F's, like P.C.M's, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than S.C.F.

  This shows that its not about gender but being responsive.
• Evaluation of Field (1978)

  (+)Filmed observations do not affect the infant's behaviour as they are unaware, (-) Inconsistent research as researchers are looking for different things, (-) Important to consider that children without a father do not develop differently.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) Glasgow


  60 Babies (31 boys and 29 girls) were studied from working-class families in Glasgow, babies and their mothers were observed every month for a year and then once at 18 months. The mothers would self-report if their babies display seperation distress. At 25-32 weeks 50% of babies would show seperation distress. At 40 weeks 80% of babies had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments.
• Evaluations of Schaffer and Emerson (1964) Glasgow


  (+)Ecological validity, (+) Longitudinal study, (-) Self reports can be seen as unreliable, (-) Difficulty observing babies, (-) Sample seen as culturally biased.
• Schaffer's Stages of attachment

  1. Asocial

  2. Indiscriminate

  3. Specific

  4. Multiple
• Asocial phase of attachment


  0-3 months, babies learn to seperate humans from inanimate objects, with no displayed feeling about who provides for their basic needs.
• Indiscriminate phase of attachment

  6 weeks - 7 months, baby can distinguish between people and can display recognition signals to certain people, still no displayed feelings about who provides care.
• Specific attachment phase


  7-9 months, first true attachment, favor one person, secure base for exploration, display seperation anxiety.
• Multiple attachments phase


  10 months, infant can form multiple attachments.
• Harlow (1959)


  Investigated the importance of contact-comfort using 16 rhesus monkeys, the monkeys were serperated from their mothers and were given two artificial mother models, one made of wire that would dispense food and one made of cloth. On average monkeys would spend less than an hour with the wire mother and would seek comfort from the cloth mother. When the monkeys grew into adults they displayed severe psychological disturbance (any female monkeys in the study displayed violent behaviour towards their own children) however, monkeys before the age of 3 months could reverse the damage. He concluded that contact comfort was more important than food.
• Evaluation of Harlow (1959)


  (+) Theoretical value, (+) Howe (1998) social workers apply understanding to neglect and child abuse which leads to earlier intervention, (-) Confounding variable- cloth mother better resembled a monkey, (-) Ethics.
• Lorenz (1935)


  Investigated imprinting in greylag geese, he divided a clutch of eggs, leaving half with the mother and the other half in an incubator where the first moving thing they would see would be Lorenz, the geese would follow Lorenz everywhere and would start to display sexual imprinting on humans in adulthood. Lorenz stated there was a critical period when an attachment should be made (and that imprints couldn't be erased).
• Evaluation of Lorenz (1935)


  (+) Chicks displayed reciprocity, (+) Guiton 1966 showed how leghorn chicks imprinted on yellow gloves, (-) Humans do not imprint, (-)Guiton 1966 found that imprints could be reversed as the leghorn chicks spent more time with other chicks.
• Extrapolate definition


  How well animal research can be applied to humans.
• Dollard and Miller (1950)


  Proposed that caregiver-infant attachments can be explained through the learning theory. Emphasises importance of caregiver as a provider of food. (Drive reduction theory)
• Operant conditioning in attachment

  positive = baby's crying is reinforced as they are aware they will be fed as a result, negative = caregivers feeding babies to stop crying (unpleasant noise).
• Evaluations of the learning theory of attachment

  (+) Face validity, (-) Counter evidence from animal studies, (-) Ignores other factors, (-) Counter evidence from human studies (Schaffer and Emerson)
• What is Bowlby's monotropic theory?


  An evolutionary theory that argues infants have an innate instinct to form attachments to their mothers (for survival).
• What is a social releaser?


  A social behaviour or characteristic that elicits caregiving and leads to attachment, for example crying, smiling, vocalisations (which the mother instinctively finds cute or distressing).
• When does Bowlby suggest attachments must be formed?

  Within the first 30 months of birth.
• What is meant by the internal working model?

  Suggests that future relationships are based off of the child's schema for relationships, which originate from the attachment with a caregiver.