attachment

• what is involved in caregiver Infant interaction


  reciprocity: alert phases & active involvement, interactional synchrony: synchrony Begins& importance of attachment
• What is reciprocity?


  a strong human tendency to respond to another's action with similar behavior
• What is an alert phase?


  When the baby signals that they are ready for interaction.
• what is active involvement


  Babies as well as caregivers take active role where both initiate interactions + take turns. Brazelton: dance where each partner responds to the other's moves
• what is interactional synchrony


  temporal coordination of microlevel social behaviour- takes place when caregiver and baby interact in such a way that actions and emotions mirror each other
• When does synchrony begin?


  meltzoff & moore: observe interactional synchrony in babies - adult display 3 facial expressions babies response was filmed and labelled - babies expression more likely to mirror adults than expected
• What is the importance of synchrony an attachment

  Isabella et al observd 30 mothers and babies and degree of synchrony - also assessed quality of mother baby attachment. Found high levels of synchrony associated with better attachment
• Positive evaluation of caregiver infant interactions


  films observation- analyse later and no behaviour missed - interrater reliability. Babies don't know that being observed to no change in behaviour
• Two limitations of caregiver infant interactions


  difficulty observing babies - lack coordination, difficult to be sure where the smiling or passing wind. Can't determine from babies perspective.

  
  

  developmental importance - Feldman: ideas like synchrony simply gives names to patterns and not helpful in understanding child development and purpose of behaviour
• What are the stages of attachment


  1. Asocial stage

  2. Indiscriminate attachment

  3. Specific attachment

  4. Multiple attachments
• What is a social stage


  -first weeks

  behaviour towards humans and inanimate object similar
• What is indiscriminate attachment?


  - 2 to 7 months

  preference for humans over inanimate objects, no separation/stranger anxiety
• What is specific attachment


  - seven months

  stranger/separation anxiety, form primary attachment figure
• What is multiple attachments


  - after seven months

  form secondary attachment
• what was schaffer and emerson's research


  60 Glasgow WC babies- visited homes every month for first year and again at 18 months - ask mothers questions about protests and separation.
• 2 positive evaluation of stages of attachment


  good external validity - observations made by parents during ordinary activities, babies not distracted or feeling more anxious with the researcher.

  
  

  Real world application- practical application in daycare to plan how to comfort baby
• Negative evaluation about stages of attachment


  Poor evidence for a social stage - babies less than two months felt anxiety in everyday situations but display it subtly so hard to research
• Things involved in the role of a father


  Attachment to fathers, distinctive role of fathers, father is a primary attachment figure
• What does attachment to father say

  schaffer and emerson: 3% of fathers were primary attachment figure, 27% father joint primary attachment figures. 75% form detachment with father by 18 months
• What does distinctive role for Father's say

  Grossmann et al: longitudinal study- where babies attachment studied into teens - looked at parents behaviour and relationship to quality of attachment. Found father is less important than mothers and father has distinctive role of play and stimulation
• What does fathers as primary attachment figure say

  feild - filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregivers/fathers, secondary caregiver fathers. found primary caregiver fathers spent same amount of time reciprocating and international synchrony showing have potential to be emotion focused primary caregiver
• Two limitations of role of the father

  confusion over research questions - researchers answer different questions concerning fathers as primary and secondary attachment figures

  
  

  conflicting evidence - Grossmann suggests distinct distinct role in play but children with single mother and lesbian parent families develop normally
• Strength of the role of the father


  Real world application - offer advice to parents, stay at home mums, lesbians, single mums can get advice on role of the father to reassure them
• Who are the two people in animal studies

  Harlow and Lorenz
• what did Lorenz study and procedure


  Imprinting- divided goose eggs half hatch with mother in natural environment in half an incubator first seeing Lorenz
• findings of Lorenz research


  incubator group: followed lorenz everywhere, hatch group followed mother. Imprinting - bird species attach to 1st moving object they see. critical period: few hours after birth, if imprinting doesn't occur then no mother figure
• Positive evaluation of Lorenz

  research support - chicks exposed to shape combinations that moved, they followed original shape most closely
• Negative evaluation of Lorenz

  not generalisable to humans - mammal attachment different to humans
• what does harlow research and procedure


  contact comfort - 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers one condition milk dispensed bye-bye mother and another condition by cloth mother
• What did harlow find

  in both conditions monkey preference cloth mother showing comfort more important than food.
• Strength of Harlow's research


  Real world value - help social workers understand child development and prevent poor outcome
• Limitation of Harlow's research

  not generalisable to humans - human more complex than monkey
• Who proposed learning theory and what conditioning did it involve


  Dollard and miller - classical and operant conditioning
• What is classical conditioning?


  Learning tthroughAssociation: food=US, caregiver= NS, when caregiver provides food they become associated with it. NS becomes CS and the site of caregiver produces condition response.
• What is operant conditioning?


  Learning through consequence - unpleasant consequence=less likely to be repeated. Explains crying for comfort as leads to positive reinforcement
• Two limitations of learning theory

  counter evidence from animal studies - harlows monkeys choose comfort over food at any point

  
  

  Count evidence from human studies - schaffer and emerson found babies mainly attach to mothers regardless of who feed them
• Strength of learning theory

  some conditioning involved - unlikely association with food place central role in attachment but conditions still plays a role so useful in understanding development of attachment
• what is Bowlbys mono Tropic theory and what does it involve

  Placing emphasis on child attachment one particular caregiver- monotropy, social releases and the critical period, Internal working model
• Monotropy (Bowlby)


  Child attachment to one caregiver different more important "mother ", two principles: -

  the law of continuity- more constant and predictable childcare better quality of attachment.

  The law of accumulated separation - effects of every separation from mother add up
• Social releases and the critical period


  babies born with a set of innate behaviours: smiling, cooing, gripping that encourage attention from adults.

  critical period of six months where if attachment isn't formed child find it much harder to form one later