Attachment

• Attachment


  A close two-way bond between two individuals
• Attachment


  • Takes a few months to develop
  • Essential for emotional security
• Attachment behaviours


  • Proximity
  • Separation anxiety/distress
  • Secure base behaviour
• Proximity


  An individual tries to stay physically close to the person they are attached to
• Separation distress/anxiety


  People are distressed when an attachment figure leaves
• Secure base behaviour


  An individual explores the environment but returns to the attachment figure for comfort
• Reciprocity


  How two people interact; the primary caregiver and infant respond to each other almost like a conversation
• Interactional synchrony


  How both the primary caregiver and the infant mirror each other's actions and emotions in a synchronised way
• Interactional synchrony research


  • Meltzoff & Moore conducted a controlled observation where they found that when adults did a particular gesture or facial expression, it was mirrored by the infant
• Infants aged 5-12 weeks


  Showed very little response when interacting with two objects to stimulate mouth movements
• Koepke et al. (1983)


  Failed to replicate Meltzoff & Moore findings, as the infants did not copy the behaviour in their study
• Greater levels of interactional synchrony


  In mothers and babies that were more strongly attached
• Stages of attachment


  • Asocial (0-8 weeks)
  • Indiscriminate (2-7 months)
  • Specific (7-12 months)
  • Multiple (12 months+)
• Babies have very few movements & behaviours in the asocial stage, making it difficult to observe accurately if they are attached or not</b>
• Research done in families' own homes & most observations (other than stranger anxiety) done with actual parent, providing ecological validity
• 60 babies, most working class background, same area e.g. Glasgow; not representative of target population, limiting generalisability
• Most data from mothers, therefore could suffer from social desirability bias
• Mothers


  Biologically more nurturing and respond to baby's needs better
• Fathers


  Usually the secondary caregiver, play a different role in attachment for play and stimulation purposes
• Fathers who are primary caregivers experience an increase in oxytocin (love hormone) and testosterone is reduced, resulting in better bonding with the baby
• Women are often more likely to be primary caregivers due to factors such as maternity leave v paternity leave, socialisation, unequal gender pay gap
• Role of the father


  • Playmate rather than primary caregiver
  • More exciting play interactions compared to mothers
  • Less affectionate and nurturing play interactions compared to mothers
• Mothers take on a nurturing role
• Fathers' ability to provide sensitive and nurturing attachment


  • Less able to detect low levels of infant distress compared to mothers
  • Lack of oestrogen means fathers are not equipped innately to form close attachments with their children
• Fathers' role is, to some extent, biologically determined and restricted because of their makeup
• Fathers are unable to detect stress in their children
• Fathers can form secure attachments with their children


  If they are in an intimate marriage
• Males who reported higher levels of marital intimacy displayed a secure father–infant attachment
• Males with lower levels of marital intimacy displayed insecure father–infant attachments
• The strength of the father-child attachment depends on the father and mother relationship
• Learning theory explanation of attachment

  Infants learn to become attached to their primary caregiver through classical conditioning or operant conditioning
• 'Cupboard love' theory


  The main principles of this explanation for attachment focuses on food
• Infants will form an attachment


  To whoever feeds them
• Classical conditioning


  1. Associating two stimuli together to condition (learn) a response

  2. Food is an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response (reflex) in the child

  3. Caregiver is a neutral stimulus, who produces no conditioned response at all from the child

  4. Child associates the caregiver who feeds them (the neutral stimulus) with the food (the unconditioned stimulus)

  5. Through many repeated pairing, the caregiver becomes a conditioned stimulus who is associated with the pleasure from feeding
• Operant conditioning


  1. Behaviour is learned through consequences (reward or punishment)

  2. When a behaviour is rewarded (through positive or negative reinforcement) it is repeated

  3. When a behaviour is punished the behaviour stops

  4. Infant feels hunger, has a drive to reduce these unpleasant feelings and discomfort so is likely to cry in order to receive comfort

  5. When the caregiver provides food, a feeling of pleasure is produced for the infant which is rewarding and this is called positive reinforcement

  6. The behaviour which elicited the reward, i.e. crying, will be repeated

  7. Reinforcement is a reciprocal process since the caregiver also experiences a reward in the form of negative reinforcement when the infant stops crying, so they too will repeat the caregiving behaviour again in the future
• Secondary reinforcer


  Caregiver who provided the food
• Infant will seek the person who can supply the reward

  The caregiver
• Learning theory is undermined by research by Harlow
• Harlow found that baby rhesus monkeys spent more time with a soft towelling monkey which provided no food, in comparison to a wire monkey that provided food
• This shows that baby monkeys do not form attachments based on presence of food alone and prefer contact comfort