psych attachment

• Interactional synchrony 


  infant and caregiver are mirroring each other
• Reciprocity 


  Responding to an action with a similar one (not the same)
• Lorenz outline 


  Took clutch of goslings and divided into two

  One went to mother other was incubated to observe imprinting
• Lorenz findings 


  incubated goslings imprinted on the first moving object they saw, him and showed no recognition of mother
• Lorenz proposition based on findings 


  animals must imprint during a critical period around 16 hours after hatching
• What long term effects did Lorenz propose

  Irreversible + imprinting impacts mate preference -sexual imprinting
• Harlow procedure 


  8 rhesus monkeys - 4 with milk on wire mother - 4 with milk on cloth mother - observing time spent with each mother as result of milk placement
• Harlow findings 


  all 8 monkeys spent most time with cloth mother - went to her when scared or exploring - infants form attachments with the person that offers contact comfort not food
• long lasting effects proposed by Harlow

  monkeys were socially abnormal + sexually abnormal, they recovered if reintroduced to other monkeys within 3 months of age, after 6 months changes were irreversible
• lorenz eval research support

  study found that chicks ,given a rubber glove for feeding them during first few weeks of life, imprinted on the glove and later tried to mate with it
• Lorenz eval criticisms of imprinting 


  it became criticised that imprinting was irreversible, rubber glove study showed that after being reintroduced to chickens the chicks engaged in normal sexual behaviour over time, like any learning it is a plastic and forgiving mechanism
• Harlow eval confounding variable

  Mothers heads were different which could have impacted the attractiveness of the mothers, damaging the internal validity and varied the independent variable
• Harlow eval generalising animal studies to humans 


  Human actions are governed by conscious choice.

  studies have shown that infants are not most attracted to who feeds them.

  Animal studies may indicate Human behaviour but it is not always certain and human studies should be conducted
• Harlow eval ethics 


  animal study was cruel as it created lasting emotional damage

  But it lead to big impacts in human childcare and primate care
• Behaviourists explanation for behaviour

  All behaviour is learnt through classical or operant conditioning
• classical conditioning 


  learning through association

  ucs + ucr

  ns + ucs = ucr

  cs = cr
• operant conditioning 


  learning through reinforcement
• social learning theory 


  learning through modelling attachment behaviours and being rewarded for appropriate attachment behaviours
• learning theory is based on research with animals 


  may not be valid, but is process shares stimulus / response building blocks for humans and animals so it should be able to be generalised
• contact comfort is more important than food ( learning theory eval )


  Harlow proved food has nothing to do with attachment
• drive reduction theory is largely reduced today

  a limited amount of behaviours can be explained but it, many people do activities that increase discomfort eg bungee jumping
• alternative explanation for formation of attachments

  bowlbys theory can explain why attachments form
• Continuity hypothesis 


  Idea that emotionally secure children go on to become emotionally secure trusting, caring adults
• internal working model 


  a mental model of schemas based on personal experiences used to view and interpret the world
• monotrophy 


  an infant will have one special attachment
• social releaser 


  social behaviour that elicits caring and leads to attachment
• Bowlby - why does attachment form 


  important for survival - being cared for when one is vulnerable
• bowlby eval continuity hypothesis study

  parent - child study followed children to late adolescence found positive continuity between early attachment and later emotional / social behaviour
• Bowlby eval - multiple attachment 


  secondary attachments are also vital in development but research points to one person higher than all being key to healthy development
• Bowlby eval - sensitive period 


  Rutter showed attachment can still be formed outside of 3-6 month period. It’s more of a sensitive period
• strange situation procedure 


  8 infants in room with/ without mother, with stranger, alone. to record separation anxiety, reunion behaviour, stranger anxiety, exploration behaviours. data recorded every 15 seconds using 5 behavioural categories, on scale of 1-7
• ainsworth findings 


  A insecure avoidant 22%

  B secure 66%

  C insecure resistant 12%
• ainsworth eval other types

  D insecure disorganised, from meta analysis of strange situation style study video tapes
• ainsworth Eval - observation reliability

  high because there was high interobserver reliability 0.94
• ainsworth eval - real world application

  caregivers can better understand signals of distress - improving childrens lives
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg outline

  meta analysis of 32 strange situation style attachment studies in 8 countries
• van and kroonenberg findings

  secure attachment most common

  insecure resistant second ( sauf japan and israel - collectivist )

  insecure avoidant third

  found more intra cultural differences compared to inter cultural
• Cultural differences found in van and kroonenberg study

  German children found to be more insecure avoidant - childrearing methods - more interpersonal distance

  Japanese children more insecure resistant - rarely experience separation
• van and kroonenberg eval similarities may not be innately determined 


  mass media exposes all to similar influences
• van and kroonenberg eval nation rather than culture 


  urban envrios perform in a more western way whereas more rural parts of eg japan show overrepresentation of insecure resistant attachment