Attachment redo

• Bremner drew the distinction between behavioural response and behavioural understanding: just because an interaction appears to be reciprocal, does not mean that the child understands the purpose of either reciprocity or interactional synchrony
• Stages of the Strange Situation

  1. Caregiver enters room, places child on floor and sits on chair, does not interact unless child seeks attention

  2. Stranger enters room, talks to caregiver and approaches child with toy

  3. Caregiver exits room. Stranger observes, engages, comforts child as needed

  4. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves

  5. Caregiver may leave child alone briefly

  6. Stranger enters, repeats behaviour from step 3

  7. Stranger leaves, caregiver returns
• Reciprocity


  An interaction between caregiver and infant where both individuals respond to each others signals and elicit responses from each other
• Interactional synchrony


  A form of caregiver-infant interaction where both individuals mirror and synchronise behaviour
• Schaffer and Emersen: Stages of attachment - procedure


  60 babies from Glasgow

  Observed in longitudinal study for 18 months

  Mothers asked to keep diaries
• Schaffer and Emersen: Stages of attachment - findings


  Asocial stage (0-2 months)

  Indiscriminate stage (2-7 months)

  Specific attachment stage (7-9 months)

  Multiple attachments stage (9+ months)
• Schaffer and Emersen: Stages of attachment - findings


  87% formed secondary attachment to fathers after 18 months

  29% formed secondary attachment to fathers after 7 months
• Importance of caregiver-infant interactions

  • Brazleton found that children as young as 2 weeks attempt to copy caregiver facial expressions
  • Feldman found that caregivers respond to child's signals two thirds of the time
• Schaffer and Emersen: Stages of attachment - strengths


  Longitudinal study meant children were observed regularly, so results had less influence from confounding variables

  Natural observation meant observed behaviour was normal and results are more generalisable
• Schaffer and Emersen: Stages of attachment - weaknesses


  Cultural relativism - Only looked at babies in Glasgow

  Recordings made in diary mean results are susceptible to demand characteristics and the effects of social desirability

  Low temporal validity
• Stranger anxiety


  Signs of distress when baby as a response to presence of stranger
• Separation anxiety


  Signs of distress when carer leaves
• Research into role of the father


  Geiger - Father's interactions focussed more on play

  Hrdy - Fathers less able to pick up signs of distress

  Lamb - When fathers were primary cargeivers, they developed more sensitivity to child's needs
• Research into role of the father - strengths

  Real-life application - can contribute to improving parenting style and institutional care
• Research into role of the father - weaknesses

  Unclear research - Much of the research shows different results about importance of attachment to father

  Socially sensitive - Could end up blaming fathers or fatherless families for abnormalities in child's development

  Role is influenced by society - Mother is more commonly seen as primary caregiver and nurturing carer instead of the father so his role is seen as less important
• Animal studies of attachment

  Harlow - Rhesus monkeys

  Lorenz - Geese
• Lorenz: Animal studies - procedure


  Hatched half a clutch of goose eggs with incubator for himself to raise, and left other half with mother

  Lorenz became first moving thing that the goslings saw
• Imprinting


  Where animals attach to the first moving thing they see after birth
• Lorenz: Animal studies - results


  When goslings imprinted on him, they followed him, even after being mixed with the group of goslings hatched normally

  Sexual imprinting - Where animals display mating behaviour to the same animal as what they imprinted to after birth
• Harlow: Animal studies - procedure

  Orphaned baby rhesus monkeys and placed them in cages with surrogate mothers

  Wire mother - a wire frame that suspended milk

  Cloth mother - a wire frame covered by cloth

  Some monkeys placed with both, some with just the wire mother
• Harlow: Animal studies 


  Baby monkeys spent majority of time (18 hours) with cloth mother over wire mother

  If monkeys were scared, they would go to cloth mother for comfort (contact comfort)

  Monkeys grew into adults with developmental issues, were socially reclusive and had difficulties mating

  Monkeys without cloth mother were incredibly aggressive and even killed their own children
• Animal studies - strengths


  Practical application in improving zoos and animal care centres

  Lorenz supports the idea of a critical period of 30 hours

  Lorenz' study has been repeated experimentally and anecdotally
• Animal studies - limitations


  Very large ethical issues

  Very low generalisability as animals have less complex attachment behavior than humans

  Harlow's research is not replicable
• Critical period


  Time in which an animal must attach to something before losing the ability to and suffering severe disadvantages
• Bowlby's theory of attachment (ASCMI)


  Adaptive - attachment is an innate, evolutionary advantage

  Social releasers - 'cute' behaviour used to unlock caregivers innate need to care for them

  Critical period - time in which infant must attach

  Monotropy - idea that infants first, primary attachment is the most important one they'll make

  Internal Working Model - first attachment sets baseline for all others including later parenting
• Bowlby's theory of attachment - strengths


  Has research support

  - Rutter found that orphans found it difficult to form new attachments if without one for 6 months

  - Bowlby's 44 juvenile thieves study demonstrates effect of maternal deprivation

  Had significant influence of understanding of attachment
• Bowlby's attachment theory - limitations


  Monotropy is socially sensitive and puts pressure on working mothers who are blamed for abnormalities in child development

  Monotropy is not evident in all children - Schaffer and Emersen saw 29% of their participants had multiple attachments after 7 months

  Has some biological determinism
• Dollard and Miller: Learning theory of attachment


  Classical conditioning

  - Caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus:

  - Food = unconditioned stimulus/ Pleasure = unconditioned response/ Caregiver = neutral stimulus

  Operant conditioning

  - Baby cries and gains attention/food = positive reinforcement

  - Baby is fed and no longer feels hungry = negative reinforcement
• Learning theory of attachment - strengths


  Allows for multiple ways of learning

  Provides a clear testable explanation
• Learning theory of attachment - limitations


  Contradictory evidence from animal studies

  Does not account for aspects such as reciprocity and interactional synchrony

  Attachments appear to form with person who is the most attentive to infant rather than who gives most food
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation


  A test to examine the type of attachment an infant has to a caregiver
• Types of attachment


  Insecure-avoidant (type-A)

  Secure (type-B)

  Insecure resistant (type-C)

  Additional types:

  Disorganised (type-D)
• Insecure-avoidant attachment


  No separation anxiety

  No stranger anxiety

  May show anger or frustration towards caregiver

  Play independently

  Accounts for 20% of children
• Secure attachment


  Some separation anxiety

  Some stranger anxiety

  Easily comforted when reunited with caregiver

  Plays somewhat independently but returns to secure base

  Accounts for 65%
• Insecure-resistant attachment


  High separation anxiety

  High stranger anxiety

  Reject and seek social interaction

  Less inclined to play independently

  Accounts for 12% of children
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg: Cultural variations of attachment


  Meta-analysis of strange situation studies across 8 countries

  Includes 1990 children

  UK: highest securely attached children

  Germany: highest insecure-avoidant children

  Israel: highest insecure-resistant children
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation - strengths


  Highly controlled variables

  Replicable and reliable

  Controlled observation
• Ainsworth's strange situation - limitations

  Lacks population validity - suffers from cultural bias

  Ethical issues

  Conducted in lab setting so lacks ecological validity
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation


  Idea that there will be negative consequences if child is exposed to maternal deprivation for a period of time
• Bowlby's 44 juvenile thieves study - findings

  14/44 thieves were described as affectionless psychopaths

  12/14 of those were exposed to maternal deprivation