ATAR Psychology - Genie & Attachment Theory

attachment refers to the formation of a close or strong emotional bond or relationship between an infant and their primary caregiver, often the mother, that involves the exchange of comfort, care and pleasure.

The idea that children form a close attachment to their earliest caregivers and that this attachment pattern can affect aspects of the children’s later life.

• Suggests that children come into the world ‘biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with their primary caregiver (usually mother), to ensure they are cared for which will help them survive.

• Thus, seeking attachment is an innate (inborn) behaviour, not learned through reasoning or teaching.

• being close to their primary caregivers makes it easier for infants to be comforted, and all their needs to be met, such as being fed and protected from harm, thus avoiding predators - increases an organism’s chance of survival.

• His main idea was that attachment to mothers is comfort for infants.

A child has an innate need to attach from one exceptional, intense attachment with one individual termed monotropy.

• Behave in ways that elicit contact and proximity to the primary caregiver, usually the mother.

• To gain attention from their mothers, signal behaviours included crying and smiling, physically maintained proximity like clinging or following

  • Caregiver in attending to and responding to an infant’s signals or cues lays the groundwork for reciprocity. = forms the basis for the development of trust.

• Caregiver is perceived as a safe base.

Bowlby argues that a child forms many attachments, but one of these is qualitatively different. This is what he called primary attachment, monotropy.

Bowlby first claimed there is a critical period for developing attachment (~2.5 years).

• critical period, where infants have to form an attachment with their caregiver between birth to 2.5 years, if broken or disrupted no attachment would be formed.

• Maternal Deprivation - • suggests that continual attachment disruption, in particular the separation from or loss of a mother, could result in long-term irreversible effects on the child namely cognitive, social and emotional (socioemotional) difficulties for that infant.

  • To avoid long-term emotional difficulties for the infant, a mother and infant should not be separated for at least the first 2 years of the infant’s life.

A child must experience a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with its mother or permanent mother figure in order to experience satisfactory emotional and intellectual growth. Must happen between 1 - 3 years.

• if separation from the primary caregiver occurs during the critical period and there is no substitute emotional care, the child will suffer from maternal deprivation.

• Bowlby initially thought the effects to be permanent and irreversible, namely: delinquency, reduced intelligence, increased aggression, depression, affectionless psychopathy

  • Affectionless psychopathy is characterised by a lack of concern for others, a lack of guilt, and difficulties with forming meaningful relationships with others, as well as trust issues later in life i.e., they have difficulties forming ‘attachments’ later in life.

Bowlby suggested that the relationship with the mother acts as a prototype for future relationships via the internal working model.

• The child’s attachment relationship with their primary primary caregiver leads to the development of an internal working model (Bowlby, 1969) which is formed from the everyday interactions with their caregivers. So, it is based on how the child views the attachment relationship and represents the security of their base.

• Bowlby argued that the qualities of an infant’s own IWM would shape their way of behaving in future relationships and would ultimately shape their personality.

• Consequently, IWM explains how early attachment influences future socialisation, interactions and relationships, as well as how one views or perceives themselves as individuals. It forms the basis of an individual’s attachment style with others.

• Bowlby (1969) later revised his theory and proposed a ‘sensitive period’, where attachment can still form, although it takes longer, with varying degrees of ease and malleability.

• Bowlby (1969) suggested that the first 5 years of life were crucial as this was when children were developing one’s internal working model.

• NB: while attachment formation is crucial in the early years, relationships and attachments can still be formed and modified later in life, continuing into adulthood, albeit with more effort and potential challenges compared to the critical period. So, does not really have a specific fixed timeframe like the critical period and sensitive period.

Harlow conducted experiments to investigate whether physiological needs (food) or contact comfort played a more significant role in forming attachment bonds. He separated eight infant monkeys from their mothers at birth and placed them in cages with two surrogate mothers: one made of wire and one made of cloth. Four monkeys were fed from the cloth mother, while the other four were fed from the wire mother. Despite the wire mother providing food, all monkeys spent the majority of their time with the cloth mother. This demonstrated that contact comfort, provided by the cloth mother, was more crucial for attachment formation than physiological needs such as food supply. Harlow's study challenged the prevailing belief that attachment was solely based on satisfying physiological needs, highlighting the importance of emotional comfort in nurturing attachment bonds.

Despite being found at age 13, Genie's cognitive abilities align more with the pre-operational stage of Piaget's theory. In this stage, characterised by symbolic thinking, she could draw and express herself creatively. However, she struggled with reasoning and understanding concepts like conservation, which are typical in the concrete operational stage. Therefore, Genie's cognitive development suggests she was in the pre-operational stage rather than the formal operational stage, where idealistic thinking, such as forming idols, is a key accomplishment.

Enriched environment is described as having motor, sensory, cognitive, and social stimulation.

•Enriched environments provide opportunities to develop cognitive skills such as language and communication, learning, problem solving skills, social skills etc.

•Provide opportunity to develop schemata to aid their understanding of the world thus increasing brain activity (and neuroplasticity).

•Social stimulation in these environments also provides opportunity to develop attachments, leading to better social development/skills.

An enriched environment encompasses motor, sensory, cognitive, and social stimulation. Within such environments, individuals have opportunities to enhance cognitive skills such as language, communication, learning, and problem-solving. Additionally, enriched environments facilitate the development of schemata, which aid in understanding the world. Social stimulation within enriched environments fosters the formation of secure attachments, leading to improved social development and skills.

Deprived environment is described as having poor or no motor, sensory, cognitive, and social stimulation.

• Her scores for mental age showed improvement in line with years outside of confinement (E.g. 2 years out of isolation = 2-year progression on mental age).

In the "Genie: The Secrets of the Wild Child" documentary, we witness the profound impact of an enriched environment on Genie's cognitive development. Exposed to language stimulation, she began learning sign language and later spoken English, though her progress remained delayed. Social interactions with caregivers and peers contributed to her understanding of social norms and development of social skills. Engaging in cognitive tasks like object sorting demonstrated her improving cognitive abilities. Emotionally, she began expressing a range of feelings and learned appropriate expression. Encouragement of play and creativity further nurtured her imagination. Despite these advancements, Genie's cognitive development remained significantly delayed due to the severe neglect and isolation she endured during her early years.