Attachment AQA
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28 questions
| 🇬🇧 | 🇬🇧 |
| Attachment | Attachment happens when a strong emotional connection is formed between two individuals. Attachment is an important milestone for infants. |
| Interactional synchrony | Infant moves body in time with the rhythm of the carer's spoken language, creating form of turn taking |
| Reciprocity | Interactions lead to mutual behaviour between carer and infant with both being able to produce responses with each other |
| Isabella et al | Found that infants with secure attachment demonstrated interactional synchrony during the first year of life |
| Meltzoff and moore | Discovered that infants at ages two to three weeks displayed tendency to mimic adults facial expressions and hand movements. indicating that mimicry is an innate ability that helps to form attachment |
| Schaffer and Emerson aim | To find the age at which attachment starts and how intense these were |
| Method of Schaffer and Emerson | - studied 60 babies from working class area - observing them every four weeks for a year and again at 18 months - as well as observations, interviews were conducted with the mothers - variables measured : seperation anxiety, stranger anxiety |
| Stages of attachment suggested by Schaffer and Emerson | 1. Asocial (0-6 weeks) baby responds to inanimate objects and people the same way 2. indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months) babies dont show preference for individuals 3. specific attachment (7-12 months) babies show preference for one individual, separation and stranger anxiety present 4. multiple attachment (12 month onwards) babies will form attachments with multiple people, by 18 months baby can have as many as 5 attachment figures |
| Evaluation of schaffer and emerson | - high ecological validity - social desirability bias from mother as they are reporting themselves |
| Grossman et Al research into fathers | Carried out a longitudinal study (repeated observations of the same variables for a long period of time) where the babies were studied till they were teenagers. They found that the quality of attachment in adolescence was related to the baby's attachment to their mothers, not their fathers. Fathers role is more to do with play and stimulation, not emotional development of the child. |
| Schaffer and Emerson research into fathers role | Found that only 3% of the cases were where the father was the sole attachment figure. In 27% of the cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother. This was the attachment situation at around 7 months, by around 18 months 75% of the babies studied by Schaffer and Emerson formed an attachment to their father. This was observed as babies showed signs of separation anxiety when the fathers left. |
| LIMITATION of Grossman et al | Conflicting evidence : A limitation of the research support for the role of father is that findings change according to the methodology of the study. Grossman et Al found that fathers do have a role in children's development. If this was the case, children with single mothers or lesbian mothers would be negatively affected by the lack of a father figure. However, studies show that these children do not develop differently from those children with hetrosexual parents. |
| Harlow | - separated newborn monkeys and their mothers - each monkey was presented with either a wire mother a cloth mother - the wire monkey dispenses milk - research found that the newborns preferred the cloth mother even if she didn’t produce milk - displayed the importance of contact comfort |
| Lorenz | - made the conclusion that imprinting needs to take place 13-16 hours after hatching. if imprinting doesn’t occur during this critical period then imprinting does not occur. imprinting is irreversible |
| Maternally deprived monkeys | Harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a real mother into adulthood to see if this is early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. they didn’t develop social skills, and were more aggressive and bred less often. when they became mothers, some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children |
| Harlow’s conclusion on critical period for attachment | For monkeys critical period was 90 days, after this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation was irreversible |
| LIMITATION of Lorenz research | T you can’t generalize findings from birds to humans. the mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex than that in birds. |
| STRENGTH of Harlow’s research | Real world application, it can help social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes. Harlow’s research is not just theoretical but practical |
| LIMITATION of Harlow’s research | Is the lack of generalizability to humans. rhesus monkeys are more similar to humans than Harlow’s goslings. However the human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys. |
| Social releasers | Crying, smiling and clinging. behaviors that babies do innately to attract the attention of their caregiver |
| Bowlby critical period | Attachment must be formed before the child becomes 2 1/2 year olds |
| Internal working model | Our first attachment forms a model for our future relationships |
| Limitation of bowlby monotropic theory | Schaffer and emerson’s research stated that multiple attachments are possible lamb found that infants formed attachments to individuals for different reason. |
| Ainsworth strange situation method | 1. mother and baby in room alone with toys 2. stranger enters room, mother leaves room 3. few minutes later mother returns to comfort baby |
| Criticism of strange situation | - individual characteristics could have effected the findings of the study - attachment varies within cultures |
| Secure attachment | - children have secure base to explore environment without stress - secure children were distressed when their mother left the room but happily reunited with them |
| Avoidant attachment | - child is unresponsive with parent - does not use parent as a secure base - low separation anxiety and low stranger anxiety |
| Resistant attachment | - children had high stranger and separation anxiety - hard to comfort during reunion |