psychology-attachment

• Caregiver-infant interactions


  Deep and lasting emotional bonds between infants and caregivers, where both feel more secure when close
• Reciprocity


  • Mutual turn-taking form of interaction, where both caregiver and infant contribute by responding to each other's signals and cues
• Interactional synchrony


  • Simultaneous interaction between infant and caregiver, with matching coordinated behaviour and emotional states
• Imitation


  • Infant directly copies the caregiver's expressions
• Sensitive responsiveness


  • Adult caregiver correctly interprets and appropriately responds to the infant's communication
• Meto and mo study found that infants aged 12-21 days could observe and reciprocate facial gestures through imitation
• Cohn and Tronick study found evidence of interactional synchrony and coordination in videotaped interactions between adults and neonates
• Findings in caregiver-infant interaction research depend on inferences and assumptions about the infant's internal mental states, which are considered unscientific
• Social sensitivity is a concern when investigating child-rearing techniques, as some women may find their life choices criticised
• Stages of attachment


  • Stage 1 (0-6 weeks): Asocial, infants display innate behaviours to ensure proximity to any caregiver

  Stage 2 (6 weeks-7 months): Indiscriminate attachment, infants can tell familiar from unfamiliar individuals

  Stage 3 (7-9 months): Specific attachment, infants form strong attachment to primary caregiver, develop separation and stranger anxiety

  Stage 4 (9-10 months+): Multiple attachment, infants form attachments with other regular caregivers, stranger anxiety decreases
• Schaffer and Emerson's longitudinal study found that separation anxiety occurred in most babies by 25-32 weeks, with stranger anxiety starting one month later, and 87% had developed multiple attachments by 18 months
• The study by Schaffer and Emerson had high mundane realism as infants were observed in their own homes, but the sample and time period may limit generalizability
• Role of fathers


  • Fathers encourage more active play in infants, and if they are the primary caregiver, their interactional style becomes more sensitive and responsive like mothers
• A strong attachment to the father was the best predictor of the ability to make friends in school, suggesting an important role for fathers in socialization
• Research on the role of fathers could lead to legislation ensuring equal paternity and maternity leave, which may have economic implications
• Animal studies of attachment

  • Lorenz's studies on imprinting in geese, showing a critical period for forming strong bonds

  Harlow's studies on contact comfort in rhesus monkeys, showing infants' biological need for physical contact
• The generalization of animal behaviour to human psychology is problematic, as humans have very different biology and social/cultural experiences
• Learning theory


  Infants become attached to caregivers through classical and operant conditioning, as the caregiver becomes associated with the pleasure of being fed and their caregiving behaviour is reinforced
• Learning theory has face validity and is backed by well-controlled research, but may be environmentally reductionist in explaining the complexity of human attachment
• Bowlby's monotropy theory


  Infants have an innate instinctual drive to form a strong, exclusive attachment to their mother, which is vital for survival. This forms an internal working model for future relationships.
• Bowlby's ideas have been applied to early childcare practices, but his view of the father's role as secondary and the determinism of the internal working model have been criticised as reflecting outdated gender norms
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation and attachment types

  • Behaviours indicating attachment strength: proximity seeking, exploration, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion response, and sensitive responsiveness

  Attachment types: secure (Type B), insecure-avoidant (Type A), insecure-resistant (Type C)
• Rationality


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents will select the choice which presents the highest benefits
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• A firm increases advertising


  Demand curve shifts right
• Demand curve shifting right

  Increases the equilibrium price and quantity
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• e to think that they have complete conscious control over their relationships including responsibility for the success of relationships not that this is set in infancy
• Bobby argues the father's role is to provide resources for the family while the mother's monotropic role is crucial
• This is likely a reflection of 1940s worldview that is likely correct in its time but now lacks temporal validity
• Ainsworth identified behaviors that indicated attachment strength: proximity to the mother, exploration safe based Behavior, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion response and sensitive responsiveness
• Ainsworth's attachment types


  • Insecure avoidant type A
  • Secure type B
  • Insecure resistant type C
• Ainsworth's strange situation procedure was a structured observation of infant and mother pairs in a lab setting with 8 stages
• Ainsworth's findings provided evidence for three distinct attachment types that seem to correlate with a level of sensitive responsiveness shown by the mother
• Ainsworth found 66% of infants were secure, 22% insecure avoidant and 12% insecure resistant
• Ainsworth's research suggests that a secure attachment develops due to the attention of a consistently sensitive responsive mother