Attachment

• Attachment- cloee two way emotional bomd between caregiver and infant in whcih each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security, this develops over the first year and endures
• Reciprocity


  A two-way mutual process where each party responds to the other's signals to sustain interaction, so there is turn-taking
• Still face experiment

  1. Researcher Tronick

  2. Mothers stop moving

  3. Maintain static unsmiling expression
• Tronick investigated reciprocity in 1979
• Babies tempt their mothers into interaction


  By smiling and pointing
• Babies became distressed when their attempts did not provoke the usual response
• This suggests that babies anticipate reciprocity
• Interactional synchrony


  Simultaneous co-ordinated sequence of movements, communication and emotions between caregiver and infant
• Research into interactional synchrony - procedure

  1. Adult displays facial expressions or gestures

  2. Child's response recorded
• There was an association found


  Between the expression/gesture the adult displayed and the actions of the 2-3 week old infants
• This suggests that interactional synchrony is an innate ability to aid the formation of attachments
• Schaffer (1964) - procedure


  1. Studied 60 babies for 18 months

  2. Mothers asked questions about separation anxiety

  3. Researcher assessed stranger anxiety
• Schaffer's research led to the formulation of four distinct stages of developmental progress that characterise infants' attachment formation
• Stages of attachment formation

  • Asocial stage
  • Indiscriminate stage
  • Specific stage
  • Multiple attachment stage
• Asocial stage


  First few weeks of life; infants' behaviour towards objects and humans is similar
• Indiscriminate stage


  1. 7 months; preference for people over inanimate objects; no separation or stranger anxiety
• Specific stage

  From about 7 months; anxiety towards strangers and separation from one particular adult
• Multiple attachment stage


  By age one; separation and stranger anxiety towards two or more people
• 65% of infants formed their first attachment to their mother
• The father was the sole object of attachment 3% of the time
• This suggests that the mother is most likely to be the primary attachment figure
• By 18 months, 75% of infants had formed an attachment with their father
• This suggests that fathers go on to become important secondary attachment figures
• Different roles - procedure

  Research looked at both parent's behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the baby's attachment
• Mothers had a more emotionally supporting role
• A father's role was more to do with play and stimulation
• This suggests that although the father may fulfil a qualitatively different role from that of the mother, this role is just as crucial to a child's wellbeing
• Emotional role - procedure


  Compared the role of the father and mother as primary and secondary attachment figures
• Primary caregiver fathers and mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregivers
• This suggests that the father and the mother can fulfil the emotionally supporting role, depending on whether they are a primary or secondary attachment figure
• Strange situation - procedure

  1. Infants and caregiver in unfamiliar room

  2. Subject to series of 3-minute episodes

  3. Behaviour recorded every 15 seconds
• Categories of behaviour displayed

  • Separation anxiety
  • Stranger anxiety
  • Proximity
  • Exploration
  • Response on reunion
• Types of attachment

  Secure attachment<|>Insecure-avoidant attachment<|>Insecure-resistant attachment
• Secure attachment

  Moderate signs of separation and stranger anxiety; seeks proximity; explores happily; shows joy on reunion
• Insecure-avoidant attachment


  Low levels of separation and stranger anxiety; low proximity seeking; high exploration; indifference on reunion
• Insecure-resistant attachment


  High levels of separation and stranger anxiety; clingy; low willingness to explore; ambivalence on reunion
• Van Ijzendoorn - procedure


  Conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries using Ainsworth's strange situation
• He found higher rates of insecure-avoidant children among German infants (35%)
• This may be due to German mothers encouraging independence in their children
• The highest rates of insecure-resistant attachments were in collectivist cultures