attachment

• What is attachment?


  a close emotional bond between two people
• What is reciprocity?

  both the caregiver and baby respond to each others signals and each elicits a response form the other
• interactional synchrony

  Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.
• Alert Phases (Reciprocity)


  they signal using eye contact they they are ready for a spell of interaction.

  
  

  (feldman and eidelman 2007)
• Active Involvement (Reciprocity)


  babies have an active role and can initiate interactions.

  
  

  (keith moore)
• Importance for attachment


  for development of the attachment it is vital to have a better quality relationship through interactional synchrony.

  
  

  (isabella et al)- 30 mothers, assessed synchrony and quality of relationship
• filmed observations (AO3)


  strengths

  - other activity which may distract a baby is controlled

  - observations can be recorded and analysed later

  - unlikely researchers will miss seeing any key behaviors

  - more than one observer can record data and establish inter-rarer reliability

  - babies don't know they are being observed so their behavior doesn't change when being recorded

  - good reliability and validity
• Difficulty observing babies (AO3)


  limitation

  
  

  - babies lack co-ordination and must of their body is immobile

  - movements are subtle expression changes and hand movements

  - relies on inference, can't actually see from the baby's perspective

  - may not have special meaning
• developmental importance (AO3)


  limitation

  
  

  - (ruth feldman)

  - synchrony gives names to patterns of observable behaviors but doesn't tell us the purpose or reasoning

  
  

  counter

  - (isabella et al)

  - important for good quality attachment
• Schaffer's stages of attachment


  Asocial (first few weeks)

  indiscriminate (2-7 months)

  specific (7 months)

  multiple (1 year)
• Schaffer and Emerson

  -60 babies- 31 male, 29 female

  -Glasgow

  -visited at home

  -every month for the first year and then at 18 months

  - researcher asked mother questions about kind of protest

  -Between 25 and 32 weeks, babies should seperation anxiety towards specific attachment

  -40 weeks,80% had specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments
• good external validity (AO3)


  strength

  - observations made by parents during ordinary activity's

  - researchers observing behaviors may make the babies distracted or anxious

  - natural behaviour

  
  

  counter

  - unlikely to be objective

  - biased- can't recall accurately or as much, may want to seem like they are more attached to seem like a better mum
• poor evidence for asocial stage


  limitation

  
  

  - hard to record baby behavior- immobile, poor co-ordination, subtle

  - babies might be social but appear asocial
• real world application


  strength

  
  

  - tells us that starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic at the start of the child's life

  - this can help parents plan day care
• attachment to fathers

  Most babies attach to their father (75% by 18 months) but rarely as the first attachment (only 3% first sole attachment) (Schaffer and Emerson)
• distinctive role of fathers


  - grossman et al

  - longitudinal study

  - babies attachment studied to teen years

  - play and stimulation rather than emotional development
• Fathers as primary caregivers


  -they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers

  - tiffany field

  -when 4 mnth old babies were filmed face to face with primary caregiver father they spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver mothers.
• confusion over research questions (AO3)


  limitation

  
  

  - lack of clarity

  - some researchers study fathers as a secondary attachment figure (look into difference) whilst others focus on as a primary (look into maternal role)
• conflicting evidence (AO3)


  limitation

  if fathers have a distinctive role that children growing up with a single parent or two lgbt parents would have different development however this is the case

  
  

  counter

  the parents may have distinctive roles but adapt to the roles of the other
• Real world application (AO3)

  strength

  
  

  - mothers may feel pressured to stay at home

  - fathers may feel pressured to work

  - this research can be reassuring for parents, gives advice, anxiety is reduced
• Imprinting


  the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
• sexual imprinting


  the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate from who they imprinted on
• Lorenz's research

  - classic experiment

  - control group

  - gosling eggs - imprinted on him
• Harlow's Monkeys


  - 16 monkeys

  - two wire mothers- cloth vs food

  - monkeys preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother than the one with the food

  - monkeys had long term effects
• research support (AO3)

  strength

  
  

  - regolin and vallortigara replicated study with simple shape combinations that moved
• Generalisability to humans (AO3)


  limitation

  
  

  - both studies are animals not humans

  - humans are more complex- two way attachment process not just the young to mother
• real world value (AO3)

  strength

  
  

  - harlows monekys helped social workers and clinical psychology understand the risk factors of children with a lack of bonding experience
• learning theory

  - classical conditioning

  caregiver = neutral stimuli with no response

  when caregiver gives food the baby associates them with food and the feeling they get when they eat the food

  
  

  - operant conditioning

  negative (for caregiver to stop crying) and positive reinforcement (for baby getting food)

  
  

  - secondary drive

  attachment second, hunger first

  innate biological motive
• counter- evidence from animal studies (AO3)

  limitation

  
  

  - lorenz's geese imprinted regardless of food

  - harlow's monkeys preferred comfort over food
• counter evidence from human studies (AO3)

  limitation

  
  

  schaffer and emerson

  - babies form to mother regardless of who feeds them

  
  

  isabella et al

  - to do with synchrony not food
• some conditioning may be involved (AO3)


  strength

  - food may not be the main role but conditioning might be

  
  

  counter

  - conditioning sees the baby in a passive role which is incorrect
• Bowbly's monotropic theory

  - singular caregiver attachment- important and different to others

  - law of continuity: caregiver needs to give constant and predictable care to better their quality

  - law of accumulated separation: effects of the caregivers separation will add up
• Social releases (Monotropic Theory)


  innate cute behaviors like smiling coping and gripping to get more attention from adults
• critical period (monotropic theory)


  - 6 months

  - sensitive period

  - attachment must form for good development/ attachments later on
• internal working model


  A set of beliefs and expectations about how people behave in social relationships, and also guidelines for interpreting others' actions, and habitual responses to make in social settings.
• validity of monotropy challenged (AO3)


  limitation

  
  

  - schaffer and emerson found that most babies attach to one person at first but will attach to others too eventually

  - first attachment may be important as it is stronger but isn't necessarily different
• support for social releases (AO3)

  strength

  
  

  - brazelton et al

  - observed babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers

  - ordered them to ignore social releasers

  - babies became distressed
• Support for internal working model (AO3)


  strength

  - bailey et al

  - 99 mother daughter relationships and their quality (3 gens)

  - those with poor attachments to mother are more likely to be poorly attached to daughter

  
  

  counter

  other important influences: genetic differences in anxiety and sociability
• Ainsworth Strange Situation


  - a sequence of staged episodes that illustrate the strength of attachment between a child and (typically) his or her mother

  - proximity seeking behaviour

  - exploration and secure base behaviour

  - stranger anxiety

  - separation anxiety

  - response to reunion
• secure attachment


  Infants use the mother as a home base from which to explore when all is well, but seek physical comfort and consolation from her if frightened or threatened