attachment essay plans

• discuss research into care-giver infant interactions

  Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

  - 12-27 day old babies

  - adult displayed a hand gesture or facial expression

  - child was observed by observers who didn't see the model

  - asked to record observation

  - found the babies imitated the facial and physical gestures

  
  

  AO3

  ✔*well controlled - videos so nothing missed; can rewatch

  
  

  ✔ *questionable reliability observing babies - contant moving - cannot tell if behaviour is intentional or not

  
  

  ✖*Individual Differences

  Isabella et al. (1989)

  - found that the more securely attached, the more interactional synchrony - not all children engage in interactional synchrony

  
  

  ✔*Nature/Nurture debate

  - infant-caregiver interactions from birth present (nature) interact with caregiver responses (nurture) interaction

  
  

  Tronick's Still Face

  - children become withdrawn with no interactional synchrony/reciprocity - may lead to insecure-avoidant attachment
• Describe and evaluate Schaffer's research into stages of attachment (16 marks)

  
  

  Method (4)

  Findings (2)

  
  

  Evaluation

  Method (4)

  Stages (3)

  Method

  - 60 babies (Glasgow)

  - visit once a month until 12mnth then again at 18mnths

  - Triangualtion (Observation, Questionairre, Interview)

  - parents also kept diary

  
  

  Findings

  - 4 Stages (asocial, indiscriminate, specific, multiple)

  - 75% mother PCG, by 18mnth attached to father

  
  

  Evaluation

  (Method)

  - Longitudinal > Cross-Sectional

  - Internal Validity (at home)

  - Diary difficult to keep/social desirability/no Demand Characteristics

  - Limited Sample Characteristics

  
  

  (Stages)

  - Asocial Observations

  - Conflict on Multiple attachments

  - Playmate vs. Attachment
• outline and evaluate the role of the father in attachment

  Father as a playmate

  Geiger (1996)

  - play interactions more exciting than mother's

  - mother more affectionate and nurturing

  - father's role is not as a sensitive parent

  
  

  Father cannot provide sensitive/nurturing attachment

  Hrdy (1999)

  - fathers less able to detect low levels of infant distress

  - supports biological explanations - men and women - innate differences

  
  

  Fathers CAN form secure attachment with children

  Belsky et al. (2009)

  - males with higher levels of marital intimacy displayed secure father-infant attachment

  - males with lower levels of marital intimacy displayed insecure father-infant attachment

  - suggests strength depends on father-mother relationship
• Describe and Evaluate Learning theory of attachment (16 Marks)

  
  

  AO1 (2)

  
  

  AO3 (4)

  - Classical Conditioning

  - Operant Conditioning - crying = food

  
  

  - Harlow Conflict

  - Animal research oversimplified

  - Evolutionary Explanation >>

  - Reductionist
• Describe and evaluate animal research into attachment (16 marks)

  Lorenz

  - divided goose eggs into two batches

  - incubated one batch, left the other with the mother

  - he was first large moving object the incubated saw after hatching

  - those with mother followed mother, those saw him followed him

  - persisted over time-irreversible

  
  

  ✖ not irreversible

  Guiton et al. (1966)

  - imprint on yellow washing gloves

  - in adulthood tried to mate with gloves

  - eventually with experience preferred mating with other chickens

  - shows not irreversible

  
  

  ✖ not generalisable

  - cannot be generalised to humans

  - birds and mammals very different

  - mammals show more emotional attachment thsn birds

  
  

  
  

  Harlow

  - investigated behaviour in monkeys

  - were kept in cages and raised by a cloth mother and wire mother with food

  - observed and behaviour was recorded

  - they found the monkeys spent much more time with cloth mother than wire mother

  
  

  
  

  ✔ real life application

  Howe (1998)

  - helped us to understand the effects of neglect on children

  - practical application for zoo animals in captivity and good attachment figures

  
  

  
  

  ✖ unethical

  - long-term bad effects

  - hurt or even killed their children

  - similarity to humans, same as doing so it a baby which is unethical
• outline and evaluate Bowlby's Monotropic Theory


  Innate

  Social Releasers

  Critical Period

  
  

  Monotropic

  Internal Working Model

  Continuity

  
  

  ✔ Hazan and Shaver

  - support continutiy

  
  

  ✔ Soufre et al. (2005)

  - Minnesota Parent-Child Study

  - early attachment type is projected onto expectations of subsequent relationships

  
  

  ✖ Schaffer and Emerson

  - some children can form multiple attachments simultaneously

  - goes against the monotropy theory

  
  

  ✔ Less deterministic than learning theory

  G x E interactions

  - gene (innate attachment drive/behaviours)

  - environment (infant-caregiver interactions)

  
  

  ✖ other explanations

  Kagan (1984)

  - temperament theory

  - personality traits affects attachment

  - some are more sociable others are more difficult

  - ignores individual personality/dispositional features
• outline and evaluate Ainsworth's strange situation as an explanation for attachment


  Ainsworth

  - observational study in a novel environment

  - 4 key behaviours - exploration - separation anxiety - stranger anxiety - behaviour upon reunion

  - 66% securely attached - 22% insecure-avoidant - 12% insecure-resistant

  
  

  AO3

  ✖ Low internal validity

  - parents knew they were being watched

  - altered behaviour thus altered child's behaviour

  - demand characteristics

  but

  - children not socially aware

  - no expectations

  - do not alter behaviour

  - no demand characteristics

  
  

  ✖ Culture Bias

  - optimised for Western behaviours

  - imposed etic

  - ethnocentrism

  - Japan more insecure-resistant/Germany more insecure avoidant

  
  

  ✔High reliability

  - strictly controlled environment

  - predetermined categories - focused observation

  - no bias

  - Ainsworth et al (1978) - high inter-rater reliability 94% agreement between observers

  ✖ low ecological validity - lab experiment
• outline and evaluate research into cross-cultural variations in attachment


  van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

  - meta-analysis of 32 studies - over 1990 infants

  - secure attachment most common

  - Japan and Israel (insecure-resistant) - Germany (insecure-avoidant)

  
  

  AO3

  ✖ Biased Sample

  - 27/32 were from individualist cultures

  - lowers the population validity of study

  
  

  ✖ Culture Bias

  - SS was optimised for western attachment behaviours

  - imposed etic

  - ethnocentrism

  
  

  ✔ High internal validity

  - large sample size

  - reduces effects of the anomalies

  
  

  ✖ Other factors

  - not country/culture but socio-economic background

  van Ijzendoorn and Sagi (2001)

  - more secure attachments in urban area Tokyo similar to Western - in rural sample more insecure-resistant

  - poverty may affect attachment type
• outline and evaluate Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation


  - Prolonged loss of emotional care from a maternal figure

  Bowlby - continuity - 44 thieves - affectionless psychopathy

  
  

  Bowlby - 44 thieves study

  - children ages 5-16

  - identified 14 were affectionless psychopaths

  - 86% of the affectionless psychopaths experienced early and prolonged attachment (17% of other thieves and 4% control group

  
  

  
  

  ✖Lewis (1944)

  - replicated the study with a lager sample

  - found no correlation with criminal behaviour and maternal deprivation

  
  

  ✖ other factors may affect attachment

  Barrett (1997)

  - securely attached are more resistant to the effects of maternal deprivation than insecurely attached children

  
  

  ✔ interactionist

  - nature - critical period

  - nurture - maternal care

  - less deterministic than learning theory
• outline and evaluate research into the effects of institutionalisation

  Rutter

  - longitudinal study of 165 Romanian Orphans

  - control of 52 british children

  - some adopted before 2yrs old, some after

  
  

  - before adoption the romanian orphans showed delayed development, were physically smaller and many classified as mentally retarded

  - almost all the orphans adopted before 6 month caught up developmentally with the control group

  - those adopted after 6 months showed significant deficits in all areas of development; difficulty forming peer and adult relationships

  
  

  AO

  ✔longitudinal study

  - short and long-term effects could be seen

  - valid representation of the effects of institutionalisation and then receiving quality emotional caregiving

  
  

  ✖ other factors affect development

  - emotional deprivation is only one factor in development

  - the orphans were in poverty, little mental stimulation, often malnourished

  - not all had the same negative effects from being institutionalised so an idiographic approach is needed

  - extraneous variables make it difficult to conclude that deprivation is the only thing that influenced the children's' development
• outline and evaluate research into the influence of early attachment on adult relationships

  Childhood Relationships

  Kern (1994)

  - securely attached infants more likley to have good quality peer relationships during childhood

  - insecurely attached infants more likely to have difficulties forming or maintaining attachments with peers

  
  

  
  

  Adult relationships

  Hazan and Shaver

  - self-report questionnaire, The Love Quiz

  - positive correlation between early attachments and adult experiences

  
  

  - secure attachments more likely to have loving and lasting relationships

  - insecure-avoidant more likely to report disliking intimacy

  - insecure-resistant more likely to have shorter relationships

  
  

  ✖ Self-report

  - may not have been honest

  - social desirability - may have responded with what they think is socially acceptable

  - low internal validity

  
  

  ✖Retrospective

  - relies on memories from infancy which may be distorted or decayed

  - lacks accuracy

  
  

  overall

  ✖ Correlational Research

  - cannot establish cause and effect

  - may be other factors e.g. temperament

  Fraley et. al (2002)

  - weak correlations +0.1 - +0.5

  - unreliable