Attachment

• Reciprocity


  Two-way mutual process in which each party responds to the others signals to sustain interaction, as if they are taking turns in a conversation; the child has to bond with the mother, and the mother has to bond with the child for an attachment to form successfully. They must both be able to contribute to the relationship and generate a response
• Interactional synchrony


  When the infant and primary caregiver become synchronised in their interactions, with the way the two interact changing slightly according to the rhythm, pitch, volume etc of the adult's speech
• Research into infant-caregiver interactions has low ecological validity as research is often conducted in a different context/environment e.g. lab or hospital so the environment might influence the behaviour of the infant and/or parent. This means the findings cannot be generalised.
• Research into caregiver infant interaction cannot show a cause and effect relationship because it is ethically impossible to manipulate the amount or quality of caregiver-infant interaction. Therefore there is low internal validity.
• Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer

  • Asocial stage (0-6 weeks)
  • Indiscriminate attachments (6 weeks – 6 months)
  • Specific/Discriminate attachments (7 months +)
  • Multiple attachments (10/11 months +)
• Schaffer and Emerson found that 75% of the infants in their study formed a secondary attachment to their father by the age of 18 months, with 29% doing so within a month of forming a primary attachment
• Tiffany Field observed that primary caregivers, regardless of gender, were more attentive towards the infant and spent more time holding and smiling at them, suggesting that mothers are not always the primary attachment figure
• Lorenz demonstrated the concept of imprinting, where animals will attach to the first moving object or person they see directly after birth
• Harlow demonstrated the importance of contact comfort with rhesus monkeys, finding that baby monkeys would always seek comfort from the cloth-bound mother when scared, even if the wire monkey was dispensing milk
• Harlow also reported developmental issues associated with the infant monkeys, even those who had the option of choosing the cloth-bound mother, demonstrating the importance of a secure attachment to a primary attachment figure within the critical period
• Learning Theory of Attachment

  Views children as being born with blank slates, where everything is learned through experiences. Attachment is formed through classical and operant conditioning, where the caregiver becomes associated with the satisfaction of primary drives like hunger
• Harlow's research demonstrated that there is no unconditioned stimulus (of food) and even if there is, it has very little influence upon the formation of attachments
• Bowlby's Monotropic Theory of Attachment

  Proposes that infants are biologically predisposed to form attachments to a primary caregiver, usually the mother, as this increases the infant's chances of survival
• Response to crying


  1. Mother comes to comfort or feed the baby

  2. The more this happens, the more the action is reinforced as the child associates the mother with those rewards
• Stimulus


  Event that causes a response
• Response


  The action that happens as a result of a stimulus
• Innate


  Natural, from birth
• There is contradictory evidence from animal studies. For example, Harlow demonstrated that contact comfort was more important than food in the development of an attachment, where the baby monkeys formed a primary attachment to the cloth-bound mother, regardless of which mother was dispensing milk. This suggests that there is no unconditioned stimulus (of food) and even if there is, it has very little influence upon the formation of attachments.
• There is also contradictory evidence from human studies! For example, Brazleton et al emphasised the importance of interactional synchrony and reciprocity in the secure formation of attachments between a primary caregiver and infant - these are universal features of attachment. Attachments form not to the person who spends the most time with the infant, but rather the person who is most attentive to the infant and deals with their signals most skilfully. This means that the unconditioned stimulus of food is irrelevant in most cases!
• The focus on unconditioned and conditioned stimuli means that there is a loss of focus. Interactional synchrony and reciprocity are both universal features of attachment and should be treated as such, as demonstrated by Feldman and Brazleton. Learning theory does not account for these aspects and so is a limited explanation of only some aspects of attachment formation.
• Bowlby's Monotropic Theory of Attachment


  Evolutionary theory that attachments are innate
• ASCMI (acronym summarising Bowlby's theory)

  • Adaptive
  • Social releasers
  • Critical period
  • Monotropy
  • Internal working model
• Adaptive


  • Attachments are an advantage, or beneficial to survival as it ensures a child is kept safe, warm and fed
• Social releasers


  • e.g. a cute face on a baby. These unlock the innate tendency for adults to care for a child because they activate the mammalian attachment system
• Critical period


  • Time in which an attachment can form i.e. up to 2.5 to 3 years old. If an attachment is not formed in this time, it never will. If an attachment does not form, you will be socially, emotionally, intellecturally and physically stunted.
• Monotropy


  • You can only form one special intense attachment (this is typically but not always with the mother). This attachment is unique, stronger and different to others.
• Internal working model


  • Mental schema for relationships where information that allows you to know how to behave around people is stored. Internal working models are our perception of the attachment we have with our primary attachment figure.
• There is supporting evidence for the importance of internal working models, as presented by Bailey et al. Through the observation of 99 mothers and the recording of their children's attachment type using the Strange Situation, the researchers found that poor, insecure attachments coincided with the mothers themselves reporting poor attachments with their own parents. Therefore, this suggests that internal working models are likely to be formed during this first, initial attachment and that this has a significant impact upon the ability of children to become parents themselves later on in life.
• Monotropy is an example of socially sensitive research. Despite Bowlby not specifying that the primary attachment figure must be the mother, it often is (in 65% of cases). Therefore, this puts pressure on working mothers to delay their return to work in an effort to ensure that their child develops a secure attachment. Any developmental abnormalities in terms of attachment are therefore blamed on the mother by default. This suggests that the idea of monotropy may stigmatise 'poor mothers' and pressure them to take responsibility.
• Monotropy may not be evident in all children. For example, Schaffer and Emerson found that a small minority of children were able to form multiple attachments from the outset. This idea is also supported by van Izjendoorn and Kronenberg, who found that monotropy is scarce in collectivist cultures where the whole family is involved in raising and looking after the child. This means that monotropy is unlikely to be a universal feature of infant-caregiver attachments, as believed by Bowlby, and so is a strictly limited explanation of some cases of attachments.
• Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation'


  Procedure to assess how securely attached a child is to its caregiver, and if it is insecurely attached, to assess which type of insecure attachment it has
• Stages of the Strange Situation

  1. Caregiver enters, places child on floor and sits

  2. Stranger enters, talks to caregiver and approaches child

  3. Caregiver exits, stranger observes/engages child

  4. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves

  5. Caregiver leaves child alone briefly

  6. Stranger enters, repeats previous behaviour

  7. Stranger leaves, caregiver returns
• Purpose of the Strange Situation

  • To observe separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, willingness to explore and reunion behaviour with the caregiver
• Types of attachment identified

  • Secure
  • Insecure resistant
  • Insecure avoidant
• Secure attachment


  Infant shows some separation anxiety when parent/caregiver leaves but can be easily soothed when they return. Securely attached infant is able to play independently but uses parent/caregiver as a safe base to explore
• Insecure resistant attachment


  Infant becomes very distressed and tries to follow when parent/caregiver leaves, but when they return, the infant repeatedly switches from seeking and rejecting social interaction and intimacy with them. Less inclined to explore new environments.
• Insecure avoidant attachment


  Infant shows no separation anxiety when carer leaves and no stranger anxiety when a stranger enters. May show anger and frustration towards carer and actively avoid social interaction and intimacy with them. Able to explore and play independently easily, no matter who is present.
• Van Izjendoorn and Kronenberg (1988) conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies using 8 countries, all investigating the patterns of attachment across a variety of cultures.
• Simonella et al demonstrated that the proportion of securely attached children in Italy was only 50%, which was lower than expected and lower than the predictions formed across a variety of different cultures. The researchers suggested that these changes may be due to changing cultural and social expectations of mothers - more mothers are working and are choosing to use professional childcare to enable them to do so, thus decreasing the likelihood that their children will be able to form a secure attachment with a consistent primary caregiver.
• Jin et al (2012) found that when the Strange Situation was used to assess 87 Korean infants aged 6 months old, the vast majority of insecurely attached children were actually classed as insecure resistant, as opposed to insecure avoidant. Therefore, since this pattern is similar to that of Japan, this suggests that similarities in child-rearing practices are influential in establishing patterns of attachment.