attachment

• Attachment


  A reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver which serves to meet the needs of the infant
• Caregiver-infant interactions


  The communication between a caregiver and infant. It is believed that these interactions have important functions for the child's social development, and form the basis of the attachment. Particularly, the more responsive or sensitive they are to each other's signals, the deeper the bond
• How attachments are recognized

  • Proximity - people try to stay physically close to those they are attached to
  • Separation distress - people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence
  • Secure-base behaviour - even when we are independent, we tend to make regular contact with our attachment figures. An infant seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure
• Reciprocity


  A two-way interaction between an infant and caregiver in which each responds to the other's signals to continue the interaction (turn-taking). More frequent from around 3 months old. An important precursor to later communications
• Interactional synchrony


  The caregiver and infant mirror each other's actions and emotions in a coordinated way
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old
• Meltzoff and Moore (1983) demonstrated interactional synchrony in three-day old babies which rules out the possibility this behaviour is learned and suggests it is therefore innate
• Meltzoff and Moore proposed that the infants' imitation were intentional i.e. they were deliberately copying what the caregiver was doing
• Meltzoff suggested that through interactional synchrony, infants begin to acquire an understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling which is fundamental for social relationships
• Isabella et al (1989) found high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality of mother-infant attachment
• Primary attachment figure


  The person to whom an infant is most intensely attached. They are the person a child responds to most intensely at separation. This is usually the mother, but other people can fulfil the role
• Secondary attachment figure


  A person that an infant receives additional support from. They provide an emotional safety net
• Schaffer and Emerson found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mother (around 7 months). Therefore, the primary attachment figure is much more likely to be the mother than the father
• Schaffer and Emerson found that within a few weeks or month of the primary attachment, the infants formed secondary attachments to other family members including the father. In 75% of the infants studied, an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months
• Reason for different mother and father roles

  It is possible that most men are just not psychologically equipped to from an intense attachment because they lack the emotional sensitivity that women offer. This may be due to biological or social factors
• Geiger (1996) found that a fathers' play interactions were more exciting in comparison to a mothers', but the mothers' play interactions were more affectionate and nurturing
• Hrdy (1999) found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress, in comparison to mothers
• Belsky et al. (2009) found that males who reported higher levels of marital intimacy also displayed a secure father-infant attachment, whereas males with lower levels of marital intimacy displayed insecure father-infant attachments
• Grossman (2002) found that the quality of mother-child attachment was important when assessing the quality of attachment into adolescence, but this was not the case for father-child attachment
• Field (1978) found that fathers who were primary attachment figures acted in very similar ways to mothers who were primary attachment figures towards their children
• Fathers' role


  • Infants turn to fathers for play. Fathers are more physically active and provide challenging situations for their children. Fathers encourage children to take risks and learn to be brave. Fathers tend to be secondary attachment figures
• MacCallum and Golombok (2004) found that children growing up in single-parent (or same-sex) families do not develop any differently from those who grow up in more 'conventional' families, suggesting that the role of the father is not significant in attachment
• Freeman et al. (2010) found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children
• Four stages of attachment

  1. Stage 1: Asocial - Babies recognize their carers, like the company of humans, but do not act much differently towards human than non-human objects. During this stage, reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the infant's relationship with others

  2. Stage 2: Indiscriminate - From around 2-7 months old, babies start to recognize prefer familiar adults, accept comfort from any adult, and show little or no stranger/separation anxiety. They show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects

  3. Stage 3: Specific - From around 7 months, babies start to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety from one particular carer (usually the biological mother in 65% of cases). This adult becomes the specific attachment figure, and is the person who responds most sensitively to the baby (so not necessarily the person the child spends the most time with)

  4. Stage 4: Multiple - Babies extend their attachment behaviour to other adults, forming multiple attachments. For most babies, this has happened by the time they are 1 year-old
• Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that at 25-32 weeks, 50% showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult. By 40 weeks, 80% had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments
• Imprinting


  The idea that species that are mobile from birth attach to and follow the first moving object they see. It is an innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother, which takes place during a specific time in development. If it does not happen at this time, it probably won't happen i.e. there is a critical period. It is irreversible and long-lasting
• Lorenz (1935) found that goslings hatched either with their mother (control group) or in an incubator followed the first moving object they saw, which for half was Lorenz himself
• Bowlby (1969,1988) suggested the critical period for developing an attachment for humans is 2 years. If the child doesn't form an attachment in this time, they will suffer from irreversible developmental consequences e.g. reduced intelligence, increased aggression
• Guiton (1966) found that chickens fed by yellow rubber glovers during the first few weeks became imprinted on the gloves and would try to mate with them as adults, contradicting Lorenz's conclusion that imprinting is irreversible
• Harlow's (1959) study reared infant rhesus monkeys and studied them for 165 days, finding that monkeys preferred the cloth-covered 'mother' over the wire 'mother' with the milk bottle
• Chickens fed by yellow rubber gloves during the first few weeks became imprinted on the gloves and would try to mate with them as adults
• With experience, the chickens eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens
• This contradicts Lorenz's conclusion that imprinting is irreversible
• It undermines the idea that imprinting is irreversible because the effects do not last and the chickens can mate with things that they did not imprint
• Harlow's study


  1. Reared infant rhesus monkeys

  2. Studied them for 165 days

  3. Half had milk bottle on wire 'mother', other half had milk bottle on cloth-covered 'mother'

  4. Measured time spent with two different 'mothers'

  5. Observed monkey infants' responses when frightened by a mechanical teddy bear
• Infant monkeys cuddled the cloth-covered mother in preference
• All monkeys spent most of their time with the cloth-covered mother whether or not they had the bottle
• They sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which mother dispensed milk
• These findings suggest that

  Infants do not develop an attachment to the person who feeds them but the person offering contact comfort
• Contact comfort is more important than food when it comes to attachment behaviour