Attachment Paper 1

• What is meant by 'attachment'

  A strong, long-lasting emotional bond between two people
• What is 'reciprocity'?

  When the actions of one person gets a response from the other, e.g. baby cries and mother picks it up. From 3-4 weeks infants begin communicating with mothers through smiles
• What is 'interactional synchrony'?

  Behaviour that is carried out at the same time, e.g. mother and baby both smile at each other at the same time
• What did Meltzoff and Moore's study find?


  - They conducted a controlled observation with infants between 3-4 weeks old

  - The adult model displayed one of three distinct facial expressions and one hand gesture

  - The behaviours and expressions of infants in response to these was observed

  - An 'association' was found between the behaviour of the infant and the model
• Evaluation of Meltzoff and Moore

  + Highly controlled and filming means its reliability can be checked

  + Later studies found the same levels of interactional synchrony in 3 day old infants

  - Not all replications have found this
• What did Tronick et al find?

  - Conducted controlled observations of mothers and their infant to observe changes in infant behaviour during a 'still face' episode where reciprocity stops

  - Researchers found an increase in pick-me-up gestures, gate aversion, and physiological stress indicators
• Evaluation of Tronick et al

  + Highly controlled, thus internally valid

  - The artificial environment may have impacted the infant's behaviour

  - Issues with ethics, as babies were caused distress

  + Practical implications for infants whose carers cannot always be responsive to them
• What did Schaffer and Emerson's study find?

  - Their longitudinal study on 60 Scottish infants aged 5-23 weeks measured attachment using separation and stranger anxiety

  - 50% infants 25-32 weeks showed separation anxiety to a particular adult

  - 80% of infants over 40 weeks had specific attachments, and 30% had multiple attachments
• What do Schaffer and Emerson say the 4 stages of attachment are?

  1) Birth - 2 months = Asocial Stage

  2) 2 - 7 months = Indiscriminate Attachment Stage

  3) 7 - 12 months = Specific Attachment Stage

  4) 12 months = Multiple Attachments Stage
• Evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson

  - Infants aren't 'asocial', they just have poor mobility and co-ordination

  - In some cultures, multiple attachments occur before the specific ones

  - All participants were from the same socio-economic background, so there may be issues with population validity

  - Child-rearing practices have changed since the 1960s, so may lack temporal validity
• What did Field's research into the role of the father find?

  - He filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interactions and found primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies, than secondary caregiver fathers

  - Therefore, fathers can be emotion-focused primary attachment figures, but only if they have the role of primary caregiver.
• Evaluation of Field

  -/+ Controlled study means it is likely internally valid, but means fathers may have acted artificially

  + Supported by Lamb who found fathers who were primary attachment figures can quickly develop sensitive responsibilities

  - Hardy found fathers couldn't detect low levels of stress like mothers
• What did Grossman's research into the role of the father find?

  - The longitudinal study followed infants' attachments into their teens and found attachment with mothers was limited to relationship behaviour in adolescence

  - Quality of father's play was related to quality of adolescent relationships, suggesting fathers have a role in play and stimulation, rather than with emotional development
• Evaluation of Grossman et al

  + Geiger also found that fathers have a playmate role, and mothers have a more nurturing role, suggesting the findings are valid

  - The study is correlational, so it is not possible to conclude that parenting caused later attachment behaviour in children
• What did Lorenz's laboratory experiment find about imprinting in Greylag geese?


  - He raised half the goslings with the real mother, and the other half with himself

  - They went to their respective 'mothers' and followed them, which Lorenz determined was imprinting

  - It is genetically determined and species specific, occurring within the 'critical period' of 24 hours

  - He also stated it was directly linked to later sexual behaviour
• Evaluation of Lorenz

  - Geese are less complex than humans, so behaviour may not be generalisable

  + Very influential in informing the work of Bowlby, who suggested there was a sensitive period for human attachments

  - Lorenz may have overstated the permanence of imprinting, as Guiton et al found that chickens who imprinted on yellow gloves would engage later in normal sexual behaviours
• What did Harlow's laboratory experiments on rhesus monkeys find about attachment?

  Monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother than the wire mother, even when the wire mother provided food, indicating infants are attached to the person who offers the most comfort
• What is a monotropy?


  A main and special bond with an attachment figure that is more important than anything else, ideally with a female
• How does attachment have a survival value?

  Infants have evolved to behave in a way that ensures their survival, using social releasers, such as crying, to get their attention
• What is the critical period?

  After 12 months with no attachment, it is useless to most babies, after 3 years, it is useless to all
• What is the internal working model?


  The blueprint for future relationships - based off of attachment as an infant
• Evaluation of Bowlby:

  • Practical applications in the way young children are looked after, particularly a move away from institutionalisation
  • Support from Hazan and Shaver that attachments form an internal working model affecting relationships
  • Ignores the role of the father
  • In other cultures, infants form multiple attachments first
• Who developed the Strange Situation?

  Ainsworth
• What did the Strange Situation measure?

  • exploratory behaviour using the mother as a safe base
  • stranger anxiety
  • separation anxiety
  • reunion behaviour
• What were the three attachment types found?

  • Secure (70 %) - mothers were sensitive, infants used mother as a secure base, prefers mother to stranger
  • Insecure avoidant (20 %) - mothers ignored infants, infants showed little stranger anxiety and payed little attention to the mother, no real preference for mother or stranger
  • Insecure resistant (10 %) - mothers were inconsistent, infants were very distressed, ignored stranger and exploration was limited
• Evaluation of Strange situation:

  • Test itself may be an ethnocentric tool, only valid in Western cultures
  • Main and Solomon argued that disorganised attachment was not identified
  • Not moderately strange for all babies, e.g. day care
  • High inter-observer reliability
  • Highly controlled environment, so likely to be internally valid
  • May be unethical
• Van ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg

  • completed a meta-analysis on 32 studies in 8 different countries using the Strange Situation, using around 2000 babies
• What did cultural variations in attachment show?

  • Secure attachment was most common
  • Highest avoidant of 35 % in West Germany, because infants are brought up to be independent
  • Highest resistance of 27 % in Japan, because babies rarely separated from mothers
• Most studies on cultural variations

  • Carried out in the US
  • 27 out of 32 conducted in individualistic cultures
• The studies may have low population validity
• Strange situation

  A culturally relative tool that falsely interprets certain behaviours as showing insecure attachment types, e.g. Japanese babies
• The studies assume that samples were representative of a particular culture, e.g. assumes Japan forms a single culture
• Takahashi study


  • Used the strange situation to assess 60 Japanese infants
  • Found similar rates of secure attachment, but no insecure avoidants
  • Infants became so distressed, but if they had not, possibly more than 80 % would be classified as securely attached
• Bowlby's Theory of Maternal deprivation

  If a child is deprived of a monotropy for an extended period during the critical period, there is a high chance of psychological damage
• Effects of maternal deprivation

  • mental retardation
  • affectionless psychopathy
  • delinquency
  • increased aggression
  • depression
• Support for Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation?

  44 Juvenile Thieves Study - Some exhibited signs of affectionless psychopathy, and found that over 80% of the affectionless thieves had suffered maternal deprivation
• Evidence against Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation?

  • Lewis - partial replication of 44 thieves study and found deprivation did not predict later criminality or disturbance
  • Bowlby - children in TB hospitals with no chances of forming attachments showed no differences in terms of delinquency or social relationships
  • Rutter - Bowlby did not separate between the affects of deprivation and privation
• What did Hodges and Tizard find?

  • At age 4, institutionalised children were more attention seeking and indiscriminately affectionate
  • At age 8, most had close attachments with parents, institutionalised children were more attention seeking and less successful in making friends
  • At 16, adopted children were more closely attached than restored children
  • All ex-institutionalised children had difficulties with peer relationships
• Conclusions from Hodges and Tizard?

  • Given good quality, loving environments, children can recover and form attachments; however, privation did seem to have long-term negative effects on peer relationships at 8 and 16
• Evaluation of Hodges and Tizard

  • small sample and participant attrition, meaning study may lack validity
  • Natural experiment means we cannot be sure that the type of subsequent care was the only factor affecting social development
  • Longitudinal research with semi-structured interviews gives rich and detailed view of their development