Attachment AS level revision.

• Attachment


  An emotional relationship between two people (reciprocal) in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure
• Attachment


  • Proximity seeking
  • Distress on separation
  • Pleasure on reunion
  • Orientation of behaviour towards the attachment figure
• The first attachment to form is between the infant and his/her primary caregiver (usually the mother)
• Caregiver-infant communication


  • Reciprocity - two-way nature of caregiver-child interaction, involving imitation and mimicry
  • Interactional synchrony - timing of communications between parent and child, where the two are reacting to one another's actions and emotions in a rhythmical manner
• Children don't start talking until about 18 months of age (the word 'infant' comes from the Latin meaning 'unable to speak')
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) found that babies seemed to imitate the expressions and gestures performed by the experimenter, even at three days old
• The age at which voluntary imitation begins remains controversial, and Meltzoff's findings have proved difficult to replicate
• It has been argued that the apparent matching is not 'really' imitation, and that tongue protrusion is just a baby's way of demonstrating interest in something
• There is always uncertainty in research using infants, as their behaviour needs to be interpreted by the researcher, which leads to possible investigator bias
• Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Stage

  Asocial/pre-attachment stage

  Indiscriminate attachments

  Specific attachments 

  Multiple attachments
• Asocial/pre-attachment stage = 0-6 weeks

  Newborn babies can’t see very well, and don’t discriminate between objects and people, but towards the end of this stage, they start showing a preference for looking at people.
• Indiscriminate attachments = 6 weeks to 6 months

  Babies prefer to be with people, and are beginning to be able to tell people apart, for example, smiling more at familiar people.  However, they can be held and easily comforted by strangers without protest.  
• Specific attachments  = From 7 months

  Babies clearly prefer certain people, and begin to show separation anxiety when their preferred caregiver leaves. They also reject strangers. 
• Multiple attachments = 9/10 months +

  Very soon after the first attachment, babies develop further ones: according to Shaffer, 28% of infants have developed an additional attachment within 1 month of the first. Within 6 months, 78% of babies have multiple attachments. 
• Multiple attachments and the role of the father Babies are difficult to study – they can’t tell you what they’re thinking. In the lab, a number of techniques such as preferential looking, eye-tracking and EEG recordings. In naturalistic settings, psychologists typically use self-reports (from parents and caregivers) and observations to study babies,
• Schaeffer and Emerson


  "Glasgow babies" (1964)
• To document the process of attachment formation, and see if all infants developed attachments in the same way. To identify and describe the stages of attachment
• This was a longitudinal study


  1. Researchers visited the families at home (naturalistic setting) once a month until the babies were a year old, and then again at 18 months

  2. They used multiple data collection techniques, including naturalistic observations and interviews with the mother

  3. They were particularly interested in measuring separation protest and stranger anxiety, two important attachment behaviours
• Infants begin to show separation protest from 6-8 months. Stranger anxiety usually appears about 1 month later
• Most infants developed multiple attachments, which were apparent in 87% by 18 months of age. 30% of infants had more than 5 attachments
• They noticed that some infants were securely attached, and that this was associated with maternal sensitivity
• Evaluation

   Researcher bias is a problem with this kind of study. When researching babies, you need to be objective in recording their and not try to guess what they are thinking, or interpret their behaviour based on your theory. Cultural bias (ethnocentrism) is another problem. The families all came from the same area of Scotland, and this may limit the generalisability of the research to other cultures where childcare is different. 
• The role of the father

  For very young children, the mother is usually the primary caregiver, as breastfeeding is the primary source of nutrition. However, fathers can also take on the role of primary caregiver. In the UK 10% of single parent families are fathers with their children. Additionally, in families where one partner works and the other stays at home with the children, the stay-at-home partner is increasingly the father. 
• Although some people argue that women are biologically better equipped for parenting, due to the influence of the hormone oestrogen, there is no good evidence to support this
• Frodi et al (1978)


  • Found the same physical response to their children in men and women
  • Both sexes can develop the sensitive responsiveness that characterises a good caregiver
• Feldman


  • Studied gay male couples who raised a child from the first day of life
  • Found that oxytocin dependent changes in the brain, that had previously been thought to be specific to females, also happened in men who had primary caregiving responsibilities
• However, in traditional families, mothers and fathers are seen to have different roles. One of the most common patterns is for the father’s interactions with the child to be more playful, physical and exciting than the mother’s. However, this seems to be culturally- and subculturally-specific. For example, one study showed that middle-class Indian fathers were less likely to engage in this type of play than others. 
• Although fathers, and other secondary attachment figures may be important influences on children’s development, evidence suggests that children raised by single parents and same-sex couples are no different to others in terms of social and emotional development (MacCallum and Golombok, 2004). 
• Animal studies of attachment

  Lorenz and Harlow
• Human babies are born incredibly immature compared to other animals, and we are dependent on our parents for many years
• We are a highly social species, with a complex network of attachments and social contacts that develops over years
• Learning from others – language, skills etc - is very important to us
• There is a limit to how far animal studies of attachment can be generalised to human beings
• Some important insights have come from studies of other species
• Animal studies of attachment

  • Attachment is an instinct that is 'hard-wired' into the brains of animals who need it
  • Attachment behaviours are adaptive
• Lorenz


  Imprinting in greylag geese
• Lorenz's investigation


  1. Divided a clutch of greylag goose eggs into two

  2. One group left with mother

  3. Rest placed in incubator

  4. Lorenz made sure he was the first thing they saw when they hatched

  5. All goslings marked according to group
• Lorenz and his students conducted many such experiments over the years
• Lorenz's geese


  • Followed him as if he were their mother
  • In a test, geese immediately rushed to the correct 'parent' when mixed up and hidden
  • Imprinting could only occur between 4 and 24 hours of age
  • Bond formed was permanent and irreversible
  • When mature, geese performed mating displays towards humans, rather than other geese
• Imprinting is not the same as attachment