attachment

• attachment 


  a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security. It takes a few months to develop.
• proximity 


  staying close to people we are attached to
• seperation distress


  getting upset when the attachment figure leaves
• secure-base behaviour 


  regularly returning to the attachment figure
• reciprocity 


  when each person responds to the other and gets a response from them
• what is reciprocity also known as

  turn taking - an essential conversational skill
• alert phases


  times babies are ready for social interaction
• Feldman (2007) - reciprocity

  at 3 months, interactions get more frequent and there is closer attention to verbal signs and facial expression
• are babies passive?

  research suggests that babies have an active role and can initiate interaction and take turns just like the carer. not passive
• Brazelton et al (1975)


  the interaction between baby and carer is like a dance as each person responds to the others moves
• interactional synchrony


  two people are synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously

  carer and baby interact in a way their emotions and actions mirror each other
• Feldman (2007) interactional synchrony 


  interactional synchrony is the temporal co ordination of micro level social behaviour
• Meltzoff and Moore (1997) interactional synchrony 


  looked at how interactional synchrony begins in babies as young as 2wks

  adults display three facial expressions and one of three gestures to a baby

  this was filmed and showed that there was an association between the facial expression or gesture of the adult and the action of the child
• Isabella et al (1989)


  observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed degree of synchrony

  assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment

  found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-infant attachments
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) AIM

  investigate the formation of early attachments in a particular the age at which they develop emotional intensity at and to whom they were directed
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) PROCEDURE

  70 babies from working class families in Glasgow

  all children were studied in their own home monthly for a year and then again at 18 months

  mothers were asked about protest behaviours in everyday scenarios – separation anxiety and stranger anxiety
• seperation anxiety


  adult leaves the room, examine child response
• stranger anxiety


  observe child response to strangers
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) FINDINGS

  between 25-30 wks 50% showed separation anxiety (usually to mum) showing specific attachment

  attachment tended to be towards carer who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals or facial expressions

  40 wks 80% had a specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) CONCLUSION


  the results of the study indicates attachments develop in stages
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) EVALUATION

  - not generalisable, only for those 70 working class babies

  - questionable reliability

  + high external validity as it occurs in a natural environment

  + starting point to develop new theories – mother usual main attachment
• asocial stage of attachment 0-8wks

  recognise specific faces, happier with humans than alone, prefer familiar individuals, behaviour between humans and non-humans are quite similar, smile at anyone, prefer faces
• indiscriminate attachment stage 2-7 months


  recognise and prefer familiar people, smile at familiar faces rather than unfamiliar, accept any adults comfort, prefer people not objects
• specific attachments stage 7-12 months

  show separation anxiety, use familiar adults as secure base, primary attachment to one individual, show stranger anxiety
• multiple attachments 1+ year

  form secondary attachments to familiar adults who they spend time with (father, grandparents, etc)
• evaluate stages of attachment 


  - Cultural differences. In individualistic cultures, infant is often raised by mother with small input from the father and when parents divorce, child often given to the mother. In collectivist cultures, infants are raised by multiple caregivers. Schaffer and Emerson's research was on individualistic cultures so cannot generalise

  - poor evidence for asocial stage. young babies have poor coordination and are immobile

  + construct validity

  + track development and assess child if the infant doesn't develop attachments
• John bowlby critical period 


  he suggests that 0-5 years is a critical period for developing attachments
• what happens if an attachment isn't formed during the critical period

  irreversible developmental consequence such as reduced intelligence and decreased agression
• imprinting


  innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during the first few hours from being born – first moving thing it sees.
• Lorenz imprinting PROCEDURE


  - randomly selected goose eggs

  - half eggs (control group) hatched in their natural environment where the first moving thing they saw was their mother

  - other half (experimental group) hatched in an incubator where the first moving thing they saw was Lorenz
• Lorenz imprinting FINDINGS

  - incubator group followed Lorenz and the control group stayed with their mother

  - when the control groups were mixed, the control group followed their mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz

  - Lorenz proved imprinting and identified the critical period was needed for them to attach and if they didn't, they wouldn't have a mother figure
• Harlow maternal deprivation PROCEDURE

  tested the idea that soft objects serve the functions of a mother

  - 16 baby monkey with a wire 'mother' and a cloth 'mother'

  - one condition, milk was dispensed by the wire 'mother' and in another milk was dispensed by the cloth 'mother'
• Harlow maternal deprivation FINDINGS


  baby monkeys cuddled the cloth mother in preference to the wire mother even when the wire mother had the food the monkey sought comfort from the cloth mother when frightened.

  - contact comfort more important than food when it came to attachment
• evaluation of animal studies in attachments

  - Lorenz's study cannot be generalise to humans as the sample was based off of baby geese so the results can't be applied to humans.

  - Harlow's study is highly unethical as the monkeys were trapped and in distress and some even died

  + applicable as it helps social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse so they intervene. Has also helped take proper care of captive monkey who now have proper attachment figures in zoos

  + construct validity. study findings support Bowlby's theory that there is a critical period of attachment
• Schaffer and Emerson - attachment to fathers

  - the majority of babies became attached to their mothers around 7 months and only 3% of cases was the father the first sole object

  - in 27% cases the father was the joint first attachment

  - 75% of babies formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months
• Grossman et al (2002) longitudinal study


  babies attachments studied until they were teens

  researchers looked at both parent's behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the babies later attachments to others
• field (1978) fathers as PAF

  filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers

  - PAF spent more time smiling, imitating and holding the baby than SAF

  proves fathers have the potential to be the emotionally focused primary attachment figure
• hardy (1999) 


  believes fathers are less able than mothers to detect low levels of infant distress so they may be less suitable.

  - females have higher amounts of oestrogen means they have more caring behaviour
• Geiger (1996)


  males are more physical, exciting and unpredictable which provides more challenging scenarios for their children which can help development
• lamb (1987)


  found that interacting with fathers in a positive emotional state was preferred as they look for stimulation. mothers are preferred when children are distressed and need comfort