attachment

• Maccoby's characteristics of attachment

  1. Seeking proximity

  2. Distress on separation

  3. Joy on reunion

  4. Orientation behaviour (infant is aware of caregiver and makes contact for reassurance)
• Reciprocity


  Infants coordinate their actions with caregivers

  
  

  A 'non verbal conversation'

  
  

  From birth, babies move in a rhythm when interacting with an adult, taking turns
• Interactional synchrony


  Infants mirror the actions of another person.

  
  

  Infants move their bodies in tune with the rhythm of carers' spoken language to create a kind of turn-taking, as seen with two way conversations.

  
  

  When two people interact, they tend to mirror what the other is doing in terms of their facial expressions and body movements.

  
  

  Imitating emotions as well as behaviours
• + Supporting evidence for reciprocity

  Tronick et al asked mothers who had been enjoying a dialogue with their baby to stop moving and maintain a static, unsmiling expression on their face.

  
  

  Babies would try to tempt the mother into interaction by smiling themselves and would be puzzled and increasingly distressed when their smile did not provoke the usual response.

  
  

  This demonstrates how infants attempt to have non-verbal conversations with their caregivers and get confused if this reciprocity does not occur.
• + Supporting evidence for interactional synchrony

  Meltzoff and Moore found an association between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the baby.

  
  

  An adult model displayed 1 of 3 facial expressions or hand movements where the fingers moved in a sequence.

  
  

  When the infant's dummy was removed, the child's expression was filmed.

  
  

  Each observer scored the tapes twice so intra-observer and inter-observer reliability could be tested. All scores were greater than 0.92.

  
  

  Infants as young as 2-3 weeks old imitated facial and hand gestures.

  
  

  - Problems with testing infant behaviour: Infants mouths are constantly moving and the expressions that were tested occur frequently. This makes it difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitation.
• - Contrasting explanation for interactional synchrony


  Piaget believed that true imitation only developed towards the end of the first year and anything before this was 'response training'. The infant was repeating the rewarded behaviour (operant conditioning).

  
  

  For example, an infant may stick out its tongue after seeing a caregiver do this. The caregiver would then smile (rewarding/encouraging the behaviour).

  
  

  Piaget, therefore, believed that the infant was pseudo-imitating. They had not consciously translated what they were seeing into the matching movement.
• + Intentional behaviour


  Abravanel and Deyoung observed infants with two objects (one simulating tongue movement and the other mouth opening and closing).

  
  

  Infants between 5-12 weeks made little response to the objects.

  
  

  This concluded that imitation is limited. It is a specific social response to other humans.
• Internal working model


  The quality of a child's first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships.
• Positive experiences with attachment figures


  A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be.

  
  

  They will seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.
• Negative experiences with attachment figures

  A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to later life relationships.

  
  

  These individuals may struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may behave inappropriately when they have managed to form relationships.
• Hazan and Shaver's Love Quiz


  Hazen and Shaver placed a 'Love Quiz' in a newspaper.

  
  

  The quiz asked questions about current attachment experiences and about attachment history to identify current and childhood attachment types. The quiz also asked about attitudes towards love (an assessment of the internal working model).

  
  

  They found a positive correlation between attachment type and love experiences. Securely attached described their love experiences as happy, friendly and trusting. These relationships were more enduring.
• Hazan and Shaver's conclusions

  There was evidence to support the concept of the internal working model having a life-long effect.

  
  

  However, not everyone stayed true to their infant attachment style and some people did change as they grew older.
• Childhood friendships


  Individuals who were securely attached as infants were more socially competent, less isolated, more popular and more empathetic.

  
  

  The internal working model explains this, as securely attached infants expect others to be friendly and trusting, making them easier to get on with.
• Poor parenting


  The lack of an internal working model means that individuals do not have a reference point to help them form healthy relationships with their own children.
• Romantic relationships


  Hazan and Shaver showed securely attached individuals had longer lasting romantic relationships.
• - Evidence on continuity of attachment is mixed


  Some studies do appear to support continuity and so provide evidence to support internal working models.

  
  

  However, Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. The findings indicated that there was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment.

  
  

  This outcome is not what would be expected if the internal working models were important in development.
• - Lack of validity


  Most studies of the influences of early attachment on later relationships lack validity.

  
  

  Many

  assessments of early attachments and current day attachments rely on the use of questionnaires and interviews (self-report methods) as a means of categorising participants as a specific attachment type.

  
  

  This data is retrospective (data that relies on the participants memory, reporting events from the past that will be used as data in an experiment).

  
  

  There is a high chance that the data being collected in these studies is inaccurate and therefore calls into question the validity of the research findings.
• - Correlational research


  Research assessing the internal working model is that association between early and later life attachments does not always mean causality.

  
  

  There are alternative explanations for the continuity that is often observed between infant and adult attachments.

  
  

  A third environmental factor such as parenting style might have a direct effect on both attachment and the child's ability to form relationships with others.

  
  

  Alternatively, the child's temperament may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later life relationships.
• - Overly deterministic


  Determinism, in the context of the internal working model, is the idea that individuals have no choice but to have poor adult relationships if they had poor attachment experiences as children.

  
  

  This is clearly not true as researchers have found plenty of examples where participants have experienced happy adult relationships despite not having been securely attached as infants.
• Aim of Rutter's study


  To investigate the effects of early institutionalisation and deprivation on later life development
• Procedure of Rutter's study

  Rutter et al followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.

  
  

  Physical, Cognitive and Emotional development was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years old.

  
  

  A group of 15 English children adopted around the same time served as a control group.
• Findings of Rutter's study

  When they first arrived in the UK, half the adoptees showed signs of mental retardation and were undernourished. At the age of 11, the children showed differential rates of recovery that were linked to their age of adoption.

  
  

  Children adopted before 6 months had an average IQ of 102. Children adopted between 6 months and 2 years had an average IQ of 86. Children adopted after 2 years had an average IQ of 77.

  
  

  Those children who were adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment (attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults (familiar and unfamiliar). Those infants adopted before the age of 6 months rarely displayed this type of attachment.
• + Enhanced psychologist's understanding of the effects of institutionalisation

  Langton has suggested that such knowledge developed through this research has changed the way children in institutions are cared for.

  
  

  Orphanages and children's homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people, (perhaps only one or two people/keyworkers) play a central role for the child.

  
  

  Having a key worker means that children have the chance to develop normal attachments and helps to avoid disinhibited attachment types.

  
  

  Research into institutionalisation has been immensely valuable in practical terms.
• + More controlled study

  There were fewer extraneous variables in the Romanian orphan studies in comparison to other orphan studies where infants involved had experienced a lot of trauma before they were institutionalised.

  
  

  For example, the children may have experienced neglect, abuse of bereavement. These children were often traumatised by their experiences. It was very hard for psychologists to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation because the children were dealing with multiple factors which functioned as confounding participant variables

  
  

  Rutter studies institutionalisation without these confounding variables, which means that the findings have high internal validity and a cause and effect relationship can be established.
• - Individual differences


  Research suggests that those children that fail to form an attachment in the sensitive period never recover.

  
  

  However, some children who fail to form an attachment do recover and develop. In all studies, some children are more strongly affected by deprivation than others. These are individual differences.

  
  

  Rutter suggests that children in the institution that tended to smile more may have received special attention and, therefore, may have experienced attachment.
• Maternal deprivation


  Continual attachment disruption between the infant and primary caregiver can result in long term cognitive, social and emotional difficulties for the infant.
• Maternal deprivation and nurture

  The continued presence of nurture from a mother or mother-substitute is essential for normal psychological development, both emotionally and intellectually.
• Separation


  Not being in the presence of a caregiver for a short period of time
• Deprivation


  A permanent loss of emotional care, normally provided by the caregiver
• How long is Bowlby's critical period?

  30 months
• Effects of maternal deprivation

  Psychological damage is inevitable if a child is separated from their mother and there is no suitable substitute care for a long time during the critical period.

  
  

  Deprivation during the critical period would lead to mental retardation characterised by abnormally low IQ.

  
  

  Maternal deprivation might affect emotional development, risking the child becoming an 'affectionless psychopath'.
• Affectionless psychopath


  Someone who is unable to experience guilt or strong emotion for others

  
  

  This prevents them from forming normal relationships and is linked with criminality.
• Bowlby's 44 thieves


  Aim:

  To examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation

  
  

  Procedure:

  44 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the 'thieves' had prolonged early separation from their mothers.

  These were then compared to a control group of non-criminals who were emotionally disturbed to see how maternal deprivation occurred in children who were not thieves.

  
  

  Findings:

  14/44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths.

  12/14 had experience separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives.

  Only 5 out of the remaining 30 'thieves' had experienced separation.

  2/44 in the control group had experienced long term separations.
• + Real-world applications


  In the past, children were separated from their parents when they spent time in hospital. Visiting was discouraged or even forbidden.

  
  

  Bowlby's research led to social change in the way that children were cared for in hospital.
• + Supporting evidence


  Research studies tend to support the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects.

  
  

  Bifulco et al studied women who had experienced separation from their mothers at an early age because of maternal death or temporary separation of more than a year. Bifulco et al found that about 25% later experienced depression or anxiety, compared to 15% in a control group. The effects were much greater when the separation occurred before the child was 6.

  
  

  This supports the idea that maternal deprivation leads to a vulnerability in terms of negative outcomes later in life.

  
  

  It also supports Bowlby's notion of a critical period.
• - Too simplistic


  Rutter argued that Bowlby's view of deprivation was too simplistic.

  
  

  The term does not take into account whether the child's attachment bond had formed but been broken, or in fact had never formed in the first place. He argued that if the latter, the lack of emotional bond would have more serious consequences.

  
  

  Rutter used the term 'privation' to refer to the failure to form attachment and 'deprivation' to refer to when one had formed but been lost.
• - Individual differences


  There are individual differences in the reaction to separation.

  
  

  Barrett reviewed various studies on separation and found that securely attached children sometimes cope reasonably well, whereas insecurely attached children become especially distressed.

  
  

  The effects of maternal deprivation are not experienced in the same way and do not affect children in a uniform way.
• Individualistic cultures


  Value independence with each working toward their own individual goals

  
  

  Examples: USA, Europe (western cultures)
• Collectivist cultures


  Value cooperation with each other, working towards the family or group goals

  
  

  Examples: Japan, Israel (eastern cultures)
• Aim of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's study

  To investigate attachment types across cultures

  
  

  To investigate if attachment styles (secure, insecure resistant and insecure avoidant) are universal across cultures, or culturally specific