ATTACHMENT

Subdecks (3)

Cards (106)

  • Ainsworth investigated infant attachment types
  • The Monotropic Theory states that the first person who provides consistent care will be attached to more than anyone else.
  • Monotropy suggests that there can only ever be one primary attachment figure at any given time.
  • Bowlby's theory is that infants are born with an innate need to form attachments, which helps them survive by ensuring they stay close to their caregiver.
  • Secure Attachment - The child explores but returns to the parent if they are distressed.
  • Insecure Resistant/Anxious Attachment - The child shows signs of distress when separated from the parent and may not explore as much.
  • Attachment behaviour refers to behaviours such as crying or clinging onto someone when distressed.
  • Ainsworth identified three different patterns of attachment behaviour - secure, avoidant, and resistant/ambivalent.
  • Insecure-Avoidant Attachment - The child shows little distress when separated from the parent and does not seek comfort upon reuniting.
  • Disorganised Attachment - The child appears confused about how to respond to separation and reunification.
  • Attachment styles have been linked to adult relationships.
  • Stranger Anxiety occurs between six months and two years old, where children become wary of strangers and prefer familiar people.
  • Separation Anxiety is seen around nine months old, where babies show anxiety when left alone or out of sight of their mother.
  • Internal Working Models (IWM) refer to mental representations of relationships formed during early childhood experiences.
  • Ainsworth observed children aged between six months and two years old in a strange room with their parents present. She used the Strange Situation Procedure to assess attachment styles.
  • Critics argue that there are other factors besides attachment that contribute to adult personality development.
  • The Criticisms of Bowlby's Theory include the lack of control groups in his research, making it difficult to determine causation.
  • Ainsworth found that children who had secure attachments were more likely to have positive relationships later on.
  • The Strange Situation Procedure involves separating children from their parents and observing how they react upon reunion.
  • The quality of early relationships can have long term effects on adult mental health according to Bowlby.
  • Bowlby's theory suggests that infants form attachments based on proximity and responsiveness from caregivers.
  • Insecurely attached individuals may struggle with intimacy or experience difficulties in their relationships.
  • Attachment

    A strong emotional bond
  • Attachment
    A close emotional relationship between a child and their caregiver
  • Securely attached infants

    • Show a desire to be close to their primary caregiver
    • Show distress when separated, and pleasure when reunited
  • Features of caregiver-infant interaction

    1. Sensitive responsiveness - The caregiver responds appropriately to signals from the infant
    2. Imitation - The infant copies the caregiver's actions and behaviour
    3. Interactional synchrony - Infant reacts in time with the caregiver's speech and conversation
    4. Reciprocity - Taking turns in interaction flows back and forth between the caregiver and infant
    5. Motherese - The slow, high-pitched way of speaking to infants
  • Stages in attachment formation (Schaffer)

    • Pre-attachment asocial phase (0-3 months)
    • Indiscriminate attachment phase (6 weeks - 7 months)
    • Discriminate attachment phase (7-11 months)
    • Multiple attachment phase (from 9 months)
  • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) study

    • Found Schaffer's stages of attachment formation
    • Around 1/3 of infants had at least 5 attachments, though the original attachment was still the strongest
  • The father's role
    • The father plays an important role in attachment too
    • Infants may have their primary attachment to their father rather than their mother
  • Goodell and Meldrum (2000) found that infants with a secure attachment to their mother were also more likely to have a secure attachment to their father
  • The more involved a father is in caregiving, the stronger the attachment between father and child
  • A mother's relationship may be more focused on caring, while a father's relationship is more focused on play
  • Imprinting
    The automatic attachment of young animals to the first moving object they see after hatching
  • Lorenz's study on imprinting in geese

    1. Randomly divided a clutch of greylag goose eggs
    2. Observed that goslings from incubator eggs followed Lorenz around just like those from mother's eggs
    3. Determined imprinting occurs in a 'critical period' of 13-16 hours after hatching
  • Imprinting
    • Fast, automatic process
    • Unlikely to occur in humans, whose attachments take longer to develop
  • Using animals in psychological research

    • Findings may not always generalise to humans
    • Precocial species like Lorenz's geese are very different from human infants
    • Provides valuable information that may influence theories and policies, but raises ethical concerns
  • Learning theory of attachment
    Links attachment to pleasure and reward, through classical and operant conditioning
  • Strengths and weaknesses of learning theory

    • Supported by scientific research
    • Overly simplistic, doesn't fully explain complex attachment
    • Much evidence from animal research, not always generalizable to humans
    • Doesn't fully explain Schaffer and Emerson's findings
  • Bowlby's monotropic theory of attachment

    • An evolutionary theory - we have a biological need to attach to our primary caregiver
    • We form one special attachment, usually to our biological mother, which has evolutionary value for survival
  • Bowlby argued that attachment can be explained by evolution - it developed through natural selection to ensure child survival