Attachment (complete)

a close 2-way, reciprocal emotional bond between two people

• proximity (closeness)

• separation distress

• secure base behaviour (regular contact with each other)

two way mutual process

infant and caregiver take turns in responding to each others signals

behaviour of each elicits behaviour of the other

serves to reinforce the attachment bond

at periodic times, babies signal; (eg eye contact) when they need interaction

found that these interactions were increasingly frequent from 3 months onward.

involves mother and child paying attention to facial expressions and verbal signals

both caregivers and babies initiate interactions in turn

described it as a dance where each person responds to the others moves

• adult and infant mirror each others actions in a synchronised manor.

• respond in time to sustain communication

• reinforces attachment bond

observed babies from 2 weeks old

adult would display one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures

found significant association with adult and babies expressions and gestures

• observed 30 babies and mothers and assessed degree of synchrony and quality of mother infant attachment

• found high levels of synchrony associated with better quality of attachment

research in controlled environment

• means other activity that could distract ppts can be controlled

• inter-rater reliability of observations can be used

• increases validity and reliability of the research

• practical issues = babies spend long periods asleep which can limit data collection. can be dealt with by short, frequent observation periods.

• issues of intentionality = Feldman 2012 says there is no definition of why behaviour occurs, meaning it is difficult to conclude if behaviours are intentional or unconscious.

• better attachment

• reduced stress

• increased language and development

Schaffer and Emmerson (1964)

• asses whether there is a pattern of attachment common in all children

• identify the stages of attachment formation

• longitudinal study of 60 new-borns and their mothers in working-class Glasgow

• studied in their homes every month for a year (follow up after 6 months later)

• observations and interviews

• attachment measured by separation protest and stranger anxiety

1. antisocial/pre-attachment (birth-3 months)

2. indiscriminate attachment (3-7/8 months)

3. specific/discriminate attachment (7-8 months onwards)

4. multiple attachments (9 months onwards)

antisocial/pre-attachment

from 6 weeks infants become more attracted to humans, preferring them to objects or events

demonstrated by smiling at people

indiscriminate attachment

start discriminating between familiar and unfamiliar people

will allow strangers to look after them

specific/discriminate attachment

infants develop specific attachments, staying close to their primary attachment figure, separation distress, and protest handling by strangers.

multiple attachments

form attachments with other people like grandparents or siblings, fear of strangers weakens but attachment remains the strongest to the mother figure

• primary attachments were formed in people who displayed responsive sensitivity to a baby’s needs, not always their feeder/changers

• most babies formed multiple attachments: at 18 months 87% of babies had 2 attachments, 75% had attachment with the father, 31% had 5 or more

• natural setting = caregiver and infant usually observed in their home increasing external validity

• real-world applications = stages of attachment have been applied to child-care settings, the importance of having a familiar adult during specific attachment stage

• research is usually observational = and may be observer bias as babies cannot communicate (false inferences)

• lack of empirical evidence = limitation of the measures used to assess attachment in the asocial stage, babies are immobile and uncoordinated ,so findings may be inaccurate

different people to meet different needs

• mother = loving care

• father = exciting, play

carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parent’s behaviours and their relationship with the quality of the child’s attachment in their teens

found mothers’ attachment at a young age had an influence but not fathers

shows father attachment is less important however quality of play did have influence

• primary attachment figure = mother, caregiver

• the secondary attachment figure = father, economic provider and playmate

not all attachments are equivalent

(can be seen as an outdated and sexist point of view)

Geiger (1996)

• observational study showing fathers’ play interactions are exciting and mothers are nurturing

• fathers interactions aid physical and cognitive development

• supports the idea of fathers as playmates rather than caregivers

lamb (1987)

Sethna et al. (2017)

Scatliffe et al (2019)

• found fathers who become the main care providers quickly develop sensitivity to their child’s needs, meaning this is not a biological trait limited to women

• fathers can be primary attachment figures

• found at age 2 children with fathers who were more engaged and sensitive showed increased cognitive development

• means fathers should be encouraged to have active involvement in their child’s development and spend more time with their young children

• meta-analysis demonstrating maternal and paternal oxytocin levels are equal

• fathers remaining at home - contribute to the economy less, and more mothers return to work contributing to the economy

• changing laws of paternal leave (government funded), impact on employers

• gender pay gap may be reduced if parental roles are regarded as more equal

• learning theory = conditioning, nurture, and behaviour based on how you were brought up and the environment

• Bowlby’s monotropic theory = nature, behaviour is based on your biology

UCS - UCR, NS + UCS - UCR, CS - CR

• person who feeds infant becomes associated with food

• infant attaches to this person due to the association

• based on reinforcement behaviours

• positively reinforced, for example conform from the mother when they cry strengthening the attachment bond

• care giver becomes a secondary reinforcer by association

• plausible and scientific explanation (confidence in the explanation) as it is founded in science and is likely that there is association between food and attachment

• evidence that challenges it (Harlow, comfort over food),

• other theories are more credible, eg. monotropic, with an emphasis on interaction and responsiveness

• simplistic, focus on basic processes are too simple to explain complex topics, not a full explanation

behaviour is based on biology and your behaviour is a result of innate characteristics (survival)

1. innate and adaptive

2. monotropy

3. social releasers

4. critical period

5. internal working model (continuity hypothesis)

• attachment is a biological process

• it is adaptive/essential for survival

• it is an innate drive

• attachment at first to a single specific caregiver

• seek proximity for safety ‘safe base behaviour’

• infants born with a set of behaviours to gain attention and responses from others

• ‘social releasers’

• designed to attract carer reciprocity for survival

• attachment occurs in a specific window of time

• 0-2 yrs

• attachment must occur otherwise child’s cognitive and emotional development may be flawed

• early life experiences will influence later life experiences ‘continuity hypothesis’

• infants have an internal template of their relationship with primary caregiver (IWM)

• gives infants expectations about what relationships should be like

• can have a negative or positive internal working model

• evidence from animal studies supports the role of the critical period, Lorenz and Goslings

• support for the internal working model = Kerns 1994 found securely attached infants have better quality relationships in childhood

• CP has been criticised for rigidity, replaced by the sensitive period where it more likely to occur at this time

• mixed evidence for monotropy = Shaffer and Emmerson found a minority of infants formed multiple attachments from birth (not an essential feature of attachment)

• outdated and sexist way of looking at attachment and role of the father (Lamb and Sethna)

imprinting

where young animals would follow and form an attachment, to the first, large moving object that they encountered

• took a clutch of gosling eggs, divided them into two groups

  • one group left with the mother

  • other in an incubator

• when incubated eggs hatched first thing they saw was Lorenz, following behaviour was recorded

• marked all goslings to define which groups

• all placed in an upturned box, box removed and behaviour recorded

• naturally hatched goslings followed their mother from birth, and the others followed Lorenz

• when box was removed naturally hatched goslings went to the mother and others went to Lorenz

• found imprinting only occurs within a time period of 4-25 hours after hatching

• goslings that followed humans would try to mate with humans in adulthood

• imprinting is irreversible, which implies it is under biological control

• The critical period influences other research, but was changed to the ‘sensitive period’

• the behaviour of birds in adulthood concludes there is continuity between early attachment and future relationships

whether baby monkeys need comfort or food more

to test whether attachments are formed through food (learning theory) or it it concerns emotional security

• two types of surrogate mothers made: wire mother and a soft cloth mother

• 8 infant monkeys were studied of 165 days, 4 of the milk bottle was on the cloth mother and the other 4 milk bottle was on the wire mother

• recorded how much time was spent with each mother

• monkeys were made scared to test which they would do to for comfort at a time of stress

• all 8 monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother whether or not it had the feeding bottle

• monkeys who had wire mothers with bottle spent a short time getting milk and went back to cloth mother

• when frightened all monkeys went to cloth their mother

• did not develop normally, froze or fled when approached by other monkeys, did not cradle own babies

• CP = Later research showed that spending 6 months with wire mother was not something that could be recovered from

research may be justifiable

• Lorenz influenced Bowlby’s theory (CP found to be important in adoption)

• Harlow influenced Bowlby to develop the maternal deprivation hypothesis = which may justify the unethical nature of studies as the findings were fundamental

not possible to generalise animal findings to humans

• lorenz = nature and complexity of attachment in geese is different to humans, imprinting only occurs in precocial animals (animals mobile from birth

• Harlow = Humans have more complex attachments than monkeys, but extrapolation is more possible than in geese

the study may be considered unethical

• lorenz = geese suffered psychological harm as were taken away from their natural development

• Harlow = separation of monkeys from mothers caused sever stress and later psychological harm ( could not form relationships

• technique used to study types of attachment

• controlled observation

• how infants behave under mild stress due to presence of strangers and separation

• the research room is a covert environment (two-way mirror)

• time sampling

1. parent and infant enter room

2. parent allows infant to play

3. stranger enters and talks to the parent

4. parent leaves, stranger comforts infant if needed

5. parent returns, greets infant, gives comfort if needed, stranger leaves

6. parent leave infant alone

7. strangers comes to comfort

8. parent returns, greets infant and offers comfort

to investigate how the child used their mother for safe base behaviour, willingness to explore, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion behaviour

• happy to explore as careguver is safe base

• anxious of strangers and uses caregiver as safe base

• moderate levels of distress when caregiver leaves

• joy when reunited

• happy to explore but caregiver is not safe base

• not anxious of strangers

• indifferent when mother leaves the room

• shows little reaction when reunited and ignores/avoids

• low willingness to explore

• extreme stranger anxiety

• intense separation distress

• hard to soothe and sees and rejects contact

responding sensitively to an infant’s needs leads to healthy relationships and development

mothers who do not respond to their child’s needs

inconsistent parenting where mothers respond intermittently to their child’s needs

• secure

• insecure resistant

• insecure avoidant

• secure 66%

• insecure resistant 12%

• insecure avoidant 22%

standardised procedure

• can be replicated (high control) and successful across many cultures so allows comparisons

attachment type is a good predictor of later development

• securely attached children have better outcomes whereas insecurely attached infants are more likely to have mental health issues

ethical issues

• infants are deliberately stressed causing temporary psychological harm but if justifiable as no greater than being left with a babysitter

culture-bound test

• designed for use for the British/US. eg, Japanese mothers are rarely separated from child so normally terminate the study due to high stress (methods not always appropriate)

artificial

• carried out in a lab with people acting due to a script

• lacks ecological validity as acting differently from everyday life

knowledge beliefs and customs shared and passed down in a society

• individualist = value independence

• collectivist = value the group and interdependence on one another

• conducted meta-analysis of studies including 35+ mother and infant pairs (less than 2 years old)

• total mother infant pairs = 1990 (using strange situation)

• 8 countries included

• secure attachment most common (highest % in the UK and least common in china )

• there was a 1.5x greater variation in areas within one country than between countries .eg in usa % secure was 46% in one study to 90% in another)

• secure attachment most common

  • highest % in the UK

  • lowest % in China

• insecure avoidant highest in West Germany

• insecure resistance highest in Japan

• 1.5x larger variation in attachment within culture than between them

large sample sizes

• increases validity as anomalous results are less impactful

strange situation only test of attachment used in different countries

• allows comparison across cultures and suggests validity and reliability

more variation within cultures than between

• comparison between countries may be meaningless without taking into account subcultures

some studies are not representative of whole culture

• sample sizes from some countries were very small lowering the chance of a universal conclusion

methods biased towards British/UK cultures

• research therefore suffers from cultural bias

• applying the wrong technique for the culture

unique close attachment to one person - a primary caregiver

deprivation = extreme form of separation where no adequate care is provided

separation = often brief and there is usually substitute care

• continual presence of a mother figure (monotropy) is essential for emotional and cognitive development

• saw the first 30 months as essential for the development

• in this time (and up to 5 years) if separated for long period and deprived of attachment will cause irreversible psychological harm

• child will have an inadequate working model

problems with…

• intellectual development = low IQ

• emotional development = emotionless psychopathy, inability to experience guilt or strong emotions (criminal behaviour)

• social development =poor relationships including in adulthood

supporting evidence (Bowlby’s 44 thieves study 1944)

• 44 thieves compared with control of non-thieves

• 32% of thieves showed affectionless psychopathy, 0% of control

• 86% of psychopaths had experienced maternal deprivation but thieves who were not 17% maternal deprivation

real-world applications

• theory has lead to changes in

  • hospital visiting policies (encouraged to stay with child

  • adoption policies (adopted as young as possible)

contradictory evidence

• lewis 1954 replicated 44 thieves on larger scale

• found a history of separation not able to predict criminality

challenges to critical period

• koluchora 1976 twins isolated from 18 months to 7 years

• looked after by loving family and recovered fully

• sensitive rather than critical

difference between deprivation and privation

a place where children live for a number of years (eg. orphanage or care home)

historically have provided limited care

studies on this allow psychologists to investigate effects of deprivation

• former president of Romania banned abortion, contraception and required women to have 5 kids

• families could not afford this so many went to orphanages

• after 1989 revolution many were re-homed and adopted by British parents

• a longitudinal study of 111 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test if they could recover from deprivation

• 52 British children of the same age adopted at the same time were the control group

• they were assessed at the ages of 6 and again at 11

• the children adopted before 6 months had caught up socially, emotionally and cognitively. at 11 they had caught up with British children

• children adopted after 6 months had impaired language, social, skills and attachment. at 11 deficits remained, poor relationships and development intellectually.

• 95 children who spent most of life in institution compared to control group of 50

• attachment types measured using strange situation.

• carers also asked about if they had disinhibited attachment

74% of control securely attached

19% of institutional securely attached

44% of the insitutional group showed disinhibited attach compared to 20% of control

disinhibited attachment = multiple caregivers in a sensitive period

didn’t make a secure attachment so no/unhealthy internal working model

practical applications

• early adoption leads to the best outcomes

• improvements to institutional care eg careworkers

long term effects are still being discovered

• studies are still ongoing

studies lack validity

• children not randomly assigned to conditions (age of adoption) in the Rutter study

• means findings must be interpreted with caution

problems with generalising from studies

• standard of care was extremely poor

• findings not applicable for all institutionalised children

methodology makes drawing conclusions difficult

• children not studied while in the orphanage

• not possible to conclude what aspects were most influential to the effects

that childhood attachment type will influence adult attachment type

will have high quality relationships

gave questionaires to 196 children 7-11 years. assessed attachment type and experiences of bullying

secure = unlikely to be a bully or bullied

insecure avoidant = more likely to get bullied

insecure resistant = more likely to be a bully

suggest that attachment can predict bullying behaviour later in life

love quiz published in local USA paper

• early attachment experiences

• current romantic attitudes and experiences

620 replies aged 14-82

there is a correlation between early attachment and later adult relationships

questionnaires as research methods

• depends on respondants being honest and having a realistic view or their relationships

• data gathered retrospectively so may have trouble remembering their early attachment styles

study is correlational

• cannot conclude cause and effect

• third factor has a direct effect (eg. parenting style)conclusions are limited

research it deterministic

• negative implications of assuming insecure attachment will have negative effects on adulthood

• means people feel they have no control over their future

continuity doesn’t always occur

• zimmerman et al 2000, studied German children and found little relationship between the two variables

• life events had greater influence

• not complete explanation