Attachment

• What is attachment?


  A strong emotional and reciprocal bond between an infant and its caregivers that develops and endures over time
• Who proposed the four behaviors of attachment?

  Maccaby
• What are Maccaby's four behaviors of attachment?

  - Seeking proximity to primary caregiver

  - Distress on seperation

  - Pleasure when reunited

  - General orientation of behavior towards primary caregiver
• What are the two caregiver-infant interactions?

  Reciprocity and interactional synchrony
• What is reciprocity?


  An interaction between the infant and the caregiver that is a two way mutual process where they both respond to eachothers signals to sustain interaction (turn taking) and the behavior of each elicits a response from the other
• Reciprocity research 1 (Feldman idleman):

  • Observed mothers and babies interacting
  • Suggested babies had 'alert phases' and signal they are ready for interaction with the caregiver
  • Belived that the mothers/caregivers pick up on these signals and respond to the infant about 2/3 of the time
• Reciprocity research 2 - Still face experiment:

  • Mum reciprocates with baby and baby continues laughing, pointing etc
  • Mum turns around and gives no response with a still face and baby becomes distressed
  • Baby continues pointing/laughing then starts to cry when mum dosent reciprocate
  • Mother goes back to normal and baby continues to play
  • Reciprocity is importan ad it develops and maintains the attachment
• What is interactional synchrony?


  The coordination of micro and macro level behavior between the caregiver and the infant where they interact in such a way that their actions/emotions start to mirror one another
• Interactional synchrony Research 1 - Meltzoff and moore:

  • Experimenter sat in-front of 2 week old infants
  • Researcher displayed one of three facial expressions: Tongue out, Pursed lips or mouth open
  • The babies reactions were video recorded and shown to an independent observer who was asked to judge what face they were pulling (no knowledge of what they had just seem)
  • Findings: Babies just days old could imitate both facial and manual gestures
  • Conc: The ability to imitate is genetic and likely and important process in developing attachments as a baby and later in life
• Interactional synchrony Research 2 - Isabella et al:

  • Observed 30 mothers and infants interacting together
  • Assessed the degree of synchrony between them aswell as the quality of the bond
  • Found higher levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother infant attachments
  • Shows that interactional synchrony must be an important behavior in the development of attachments
• Caregiver infant interactions - EVALUATION

  • Strength 1 - Scientific Evidence -> higher validity and reliability
  • Strength 2 - Benefits for society -> more interaction between mothers and infants means they'll be a happier and healthier person in the long term
  • Limitation 1 - Problems interpreting the babies as we dont know why they are acting in a certain way
  • Limitation 2 - Research can be considered socially sensitive as it may have wider implications
• • Schafer and Emmerson investigated the development of early attachments
  • They investigated:
  • The ages which development occurs
  • The level of emotion shown by children at those stages
  • To whom these emotions were directed
  • Their study is often called the 'Glasgow baby study'
• 'Glasgow Baby Study':

  - 60 Infants and mothers took part from skilled working class families

  - Study was longitudinal and took 18 months

  - Researcher visited family home every month till 12 months then at 18 months

  - Researcher observed and recorded attachment behaviours including:

  • How the child when alone in the room = Separation anxiety
  • How the child acted with stranger = Stranger anxiety
• Findings of 'Glasgow baby study' -

  • 6-8 months = 50% of infants showed separation anxiety from the primary caregiver
  • 10 months = 80% of infants had specific attachment to their primary caregiver and almost 30% had created multiple attachments
  • 18 months = Mum was main attachment figure for 50% of babies and dad was for most of others
  • Infants fist specific attachment was not formed to the person who spent most time with or fed them but the person who was most interactive with and sensitive to the infants signals and facial expressions (often same person but not always)
• 'Glasgow baby study' conclusion:

  • Schaffer and Emmerson concluded that all infants go through a series of stages in development of their attachments
• Stages of attachment (S&E) -

  • Asocial
  • Indiscriminate attachment
  • Specific attachment
  • Multiple attachments
• Asocial stage -

  • First few weeks after birth
  • Responds to humans and objects in the exact same way
  • Some recognition for people they've seen more often, maybe even preference
  • Happier in presence of humans
• Indiscriminate attachment -

  • 2-7 months
  • Display more social behaviour (reciprocity)
  • Prefers humans over objects especially familiar adults
  • Usually accept comfort from any adult
  • Don't usually display separation or stranger anxiety
• Specific attachment -

  • Around 7 months
  • Shows separation and stranger anxiety
  • Infant has now formed specific attachment with someone
  • Baby attaches to the person who interacts with them and responds to their signals
• Multiple attachments -

  • About a month after stage three
  • First specific attachment is extended to other poeple they spend time with resulting in multiple attachments
  • These are called secondary attachments
  • By ages of 1 baby usually has formed multiple attachments with parents, grandparents, siblings etc.
• Stages of attachment evaluations:

  • Strength 1 - High ecological validity due to done in their own homes
  • Limitation 1 - Lacks population validity due to only done in Glasgow
  • Limitation 2 - Possibility of demand characteristics in the questionnaire for the mothers
  • Limitation 3 - Flaw with asocial stage as babies might be social at young age but don't have the motor function to show it, Schaffer also acknowledged that important social interactions take place at this stage
• Role of the father -

  • S&E found that 75% of infants had formed and attachment with their farther by 18 months, this was often a secondary attachment - Therefore the fathers have an important role but less important than the mothers
  • Researchers suggest fathers fulfil the play and stimulation role where the mothers fulfil the caring nurturing role
  • Grossman suggested the quality of attachment with the father may be less important during adolescence
  • Mothers important for long term emotional development whereas father more important for social development
• • Recent research shows that fathers who take over the maternity role adopt behaviours shown by mothers (nurturing, interacting)
  • Research shows the more nurturing a father is the closer the attachment to the infant
• Role of the father - evaluation:

  • Strength 1 - Supporting evidence for specific roles - Geiger's research into parents playing with their children
  • Strength 2 - Benefits the economy as now the parent who makes the most money will go back to work
  • Limitation 1 - Potential of researcher bias due to preconceptions of how fathers should behave may influence observations when studying fathers. Might result in 'seeing what they expect to see'
  • Limitation 2 - Nomothetic approach problems as it draws conclusions to all fathers when for others there may be personal or cultural differences
• Lorenz imprinting:

  • Species that are mobile from birth e.g birds will attach to and follow the first moving object they spend time around (=imprinting)
  • Lorenz conducted a famous experiment based on this using goslings
• Lorenz method:

  • Divided goose eggs into 2 groups
  • Half he left in the nests to imprint of the mother geese
  • Half he took to hatch in his incubator with Lorenz being the first thing they saw
  • Behaviour was recorded in terms of who they went to when allowed to mix in a box then left to follow either Lorenz or the goose mother
• Lorenz findings:

  • Both groups followed their respective 'mother figure' so...
  • Naturally hatched goslings followed the mother goose
  • The incubated geese followed lorenz
  • In box study the group followed their respective mothers
• Lorenz conclusions:

  • Geese imprint on the first large thing that they see but...
  • This doesn't happen immediately after hatching
  • There is a critical period during which imprinting must occur otherwise it is unlikely to occur, for geese it is from 1 - 32 hours
• Harlow's procedure:

  • Raised baby monkeys in laboratory setting away from their natural mothers
  • Given access to two surrogate mother options (IV)
  • A wire mother with food
  • A soft cloth mother without food
  • They measured the amount of time the monkey spent with each one
• Harlow's findings:

  • Monkeys spent 23/24 hours with cloth mother compared to wire mother
  • Monkeys ran to cloth mothers for comfort when frightened but didn't run to wire mother
  • The monkeys had severe problems in later life becoming aggressive, unable to socialise and less interested in mating which often led to neglect and death of offspring
  • Attachment must be reciprocal
• Harlow's conclusions:

  • Contact comfort is more important than food when it comes to attachment behaviour
  • There is a critical period for normal attachment to develop in monkeys which occurs within 3 months from birth, after this attachment is impossible
  • Missing the critical period can have damaging long term effects
• Evaluations of animal studies into attachment (Harlow and Lorenz):

  • Strength 1 - Use of scientific laboratory based methods
  • Strength 2 - Significant positive implications for society
  • Limitation 1 - Difficulty generalising results
  • Limitation 2 - Research could be deemed unethical
• Explanations for attachment:

  • Learning theory
  • Bowlby's monotropic theory of attachment
• Learning theory - classical conditioning

  
• Operand conditioning - Positive reinforcement:

  • Babies cry when need something (e.g food) -> they get fed by the parents
  • If correct response if provided, crying is rewarded as it has produced a pleasurable outcome
  • Caregiver rewarded by baby not crying
• Operand conditioning - Negative reinforcement :

  • Infant - Thanks the caregiver because the unpleasant situation has been removed
  • Caregiver - By removing hunger, crying stops = Removal of something unpleasant
  • Since the reinforcement process is reciprocal it strengthens the attachment
• Operand conditioning - Drive reduction:

  • Hunger is the primary drive (innate) and we are all motivated to reduce this drive
  • Attachment is therefore a secondary drive learnt by associating the caregiver with the reduction in their primary drive and therefore -> attachment bond
• Learning theory of attachment Evaluation -

  • Strength 1 = Theory is plausible and based upon scientific principles
  • Limitation 1 = Animal studies into attachment criticise the learning theory
  • Limitation 2 = Additional criticising research (Glasgow baby study)
  • Limitation 3 = Learning theory is reductionist
• What are the 6 parts of Bowlby's monotropic theory?

  Innate, Social releasers, Critical period, Internal working model, Monotropy, Laws
• Bowlby's Monotropic theory - Innate:

  • Attachments are an innate (inborn) process where-by infants and caregivers are "preprogramed" to become attached to each other
  • Attachments are good for the short term -> In terms of ensuring survival (food, protection etc)
  • Attachments are also good for the long term for emotional and psychological developments as well as developing and internal working model