Psychology Attachment

• what is attachment?


  - emotional bond between a caregiver and a child

  - reciprocated and withstands over time
• What is reciprocity?


  - each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
• what are alert phases?

  - Babies signal that they are ready for interaction
• what did Feldman and Eidelman find about alert phases?

  mothers pick up and respond to these signals 2/3rds of the time
• what happens to reciprocity at 3 months?

  - increases in frequency

  - infants and caregivers pay more attention to each others facial and verbal communication
• what does sensitive responsiveness in reciprocity do?

  lays foundations for later attachment
• what did Brezalton et al describe reciprocity as


  couple dancing together responding to each others rhythm
• what is interactional synchrony?


  - caregivers and babies reflect each others actions/emotions in coordinated way

  - important for caregiver infant interaction development
• what was the procedure in Isabella et al's interactional synchrony study?

  observed 30 mothers and infants together to assess the synchrony and relationship quality
• What did Isabella et al find?

  -high levels of synchrony associated with better attachment
• What did Meltzoff and Moore investigate?

  - observed interactional synchrony in babies

  - adults displayed one of three facial expressions

  - babies responses were filmed
• What did Meltzoff and Moore find?

  - clear association between infant and adult behaviour with same results in 3 day old infants

  - findings suggest interactional synchrony is innate and reduces strength of claim that it's learnt
• what is a strength of caregiver infant interactions?

  - filmed observations in lab

  - can be analysed later and factors controlled

  - high inter observer reliability

  - no demand characteristics as observation is covert
• what is a limitation of caregiver infant interactions?

  meltzoff and moore has methodological issues

  - research may have been interpreted behaviour in a biased way

  - research hasn't been able to replicate findings so it's unreliable
• what is a second limitation of caregiver infant interactions?

  hard to interpret baby behaviour as they're immobile and uncoordinated so can't fully establish cause and effect
• what is a third limitation of caregiver infant interactions?

  observing behaviour doesn't tell us developmental importance

  - feldman: interactional synchrony and reciprocity are just names given to patterns of observable behaviour

  - can't see how it affects attachment later in life
• what was the procedure in Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment study?

  - longitudinal observational study of 60 babies from skilled working class glasgow families

  - visited home once a month until one year old then at 18 months

  - asked mother questions about babies disapproval during everyday separation
• What did Schaffer and Emerson find?

  stages of attachment
• what is the first stage of attachment?

  Asocial stage - 2 months

  - similar responses to objects and people

  - prefer familiar people

  - form bonds with certain people (basis for later attachment)
• what is the second stage of attachment?

  Indiscriminate attachment - 2-7 months

  - clear preference for people

  - accept affection from anyone

  - no stranger/separation anxiety
• what is the third stage of attachment?

  Specific attachment - 7-12 months

  - display attachment to primary attachment figure

  - show separation/stranger anxiety
• what is the fourth stage of attachment?

  Multiple attachments - 1 year+

  - attachment to multiple people (secondary attachments)
• what is a strength of the stages of attachment?

  schaffer and emerson have good ecological validity

  - carried out in families homes

  - no distracted babies and see babies everyday natural behaviour
• what is a second strength of the stages of attachment?

  schaffer and emerson's study was longitudinal

  - have better ecological validity than cross sectional design

  - no counfounding variables so increased internal validity
• what is a third strength of the stages of attachment?

  practical use in deciding children's daycare
• what is a limitation of the stages of attachment?

  - schaffer and emerson's study lacks validity in asocial stage

  - babies have poor coordination and are immobile

  - hard to objectively observe signs of anxiety and attachment
• What did Schaffer and Emerson find about the role of the father?

  - father is the babies closest male caregiver

  - less likely to be the first attachment figure (3%)

  - 27% were first joint with the mother

  - 75% babies at 18 months showed separation anxiety with father as second attachment figure
• what did Grossmann et al investigate about the role of the father?

  - longitudinal study (babies to teens)

  - looked at both parents behaviour/relationship with quality of babies attachment to others
• what did Grossmann et al find about the role of the father?

  - quality of mothers attachment is related to adolescent attachments

  - fathers role is to do with play and stimulation
• what did Field investigate about the role of the father?

  - filmed 4 month old babies looking at face to face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers, and primary caregiver fathers
• what did Field find about the role of the father?

  - primary caregiver fathers spend more time smiling, imitating, and holding babies than secondary

  - fathers have potential to be primary caregiver but only express if given the role
• what is a limitation of the role of the father?

  lack of clarity over question being asked

  - are they understanding role of the father as secondary or primary attachment figure
• what is a second limitation of the role of the father?

  research has methodological issues

  - if fathers have a distinctive and important role, single mothers children would have different outcome than others when they don't
• what is a strength of the role of the father?

  research support

  - researchers found fathers play is more exciting than mothers

  - mothers role was affectionate

  - shows fathers play a different role
• what is a second strength of the role of the father?

  offers advice to parents for leaving children at daycare, homosexual/single parent families, etc
• what did Lorenz investigate in animal studies?

  - imprinting in offspring

  - divided geese eggs into 2 batches: control group hatched by mother and second hatched in incubator and saw Lorenz as the first large moving object

  - marked geese based on condition and put them in an upside down box
• what did Lorenz find in animal studies?

  - when box removed, natural geese went to mother and incubated geese wen to Lorenz

  - imprinting occurred in critical period (4-25 hours after hatching)

  - relationship is long lasting and irreversible
• what did Harlow investigate in animal studies?

  - extent of comfort contact and food influence in monkeys attachment

  - constructed surrogate mothers: wire and soft cloth covered

  - sample of 16 monkeys

  - milk dispensed from either wire or cloth mother (2 conditions)
• what did Harlow find in animal studies?

  - monkeys preferred cuddling with cloth mother for comfort regardless of milk

  - 90 day critical period

  - attachment is impossible and damage is irreversible if attachment not formed

  - contact comfort is more important than food
• what did Harlow conclude were the long term consequences of the monkeys being maternally deprived?

  - caused dysfunctional, abnormal, asocial behaviour: more aggressive and less sociable

  - bred less than typical and unskilled in mating

  - when mothers, some neglecting offspring, attacked, or killed their children