Psychology Attachment

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  • Created on: 16-09-16 12:35
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  • Attachment
    • Caregiver- infant interactions
      • Reciprocity
        • An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to each other and elicits a response form them.
    • Attachment Figures
      • Parent- infant attachment
        • Schaffer and Emerson found that the majority of babies became attached to their mothers first.
          • After a few weeks/months, secondary attachments are formed with other family members including the father.
      • The role of the father
        • Grossman
          • Longitudinal study looking at both parents behavior and its relationship to the quality of children's attachments into their teens.
            • Findings: Quality of attachment with only mothers was related to children's attachment in adolescence.
              • Suggests father attachment was less important.
        • The quality of fathers' play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachment.
          • This suggests fathers have a different role in attachment- more to do with play and stimulation and less nurturing.
    • KEY STUDY
      • Aim to investigate the formation of early attachments; the age at which they developed, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed.
      • Method: 60 babies. 31 male, 29 female. All from Glasgow and majority from working class families.
        • Babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months.
          • Mothers were asked about the protest the babies showed in seven everyday separations. (stranger and separation anxiety)
      • Findings: between 25-32 weeks of age about 50% of the babies showed siigns of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother
        • Called specific attachment.
        • Attachemnt tended to be twoards the caregiver who was engaged in the most reciprocity.
      • Findings: by the age of 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachment.
    • Stages of Attachment
      • Stage 1: Asocial stage (first few weeks) Baby recognises and forms bonds with its carers. cant tell difference between human and non-human objects.
      • Stage 2: Indiscriminate stage. From 2-7 months they show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects, and recognise familiar adults. Usually accept comfort from any adult, and do not usually show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety.
      • Stage 3: Specific attachment. From around 7 months majority of babies show anxiety towards strangers and experience separation anxiety to one specific adult.
        • At this point the baby would have formed a specific attachment who is the primary attachment figure. This is the person who usually has the most interaction and responds to the baby's 'signals'.
      • Stage 4: Multiple attachments. Babies extent the attachment behavior to other adults with whom they regularly spend time with. these are secondary attachments.After 1 year, majority of infants had formed multiple attachments.
    • Animal Studies
      • Lorenz
        • Imprinting
        • Procedure: Lorenz set up an experiment where he divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half were hatched with the mother goose and half in an incubator where the 1st moving object they saw was lorenz.
        • Findings: Incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group continued to follow the mother. This happened even when the two groups were mixed up.
      • Harlow
        • Importance of contact comfort.
          • Tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother.
        • Procedure: In one experiment he put 16 baby monkeys with 2 wire model mothers. In the condition,milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother and in the second, milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother.
        • Findings: The baby monkeys cuddled the soft mother and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened in preference to the wire one regardless of who dispensed the milk.
        • Maternal deprivation: Monkeys that had been deprived of a real mother were found to have serious consequences.
          • They were dysfuntional, agressive and less sociable.
        • The critical period: Harlow concluded that a mother figure was to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form.
    • Learning Thoery
      • Operant conditioning
      • Classical conditioning
    • Bowlby's Monotropic Theory
      • A  child has an innate need to attach to one main attachment figure. This is called monotropy.
        • One relationship which is more important than all the rest.
      • This theory suggests that there isa critical period for developing attachment 0-2 years.
      • The childs relationship with a primary caregiver provides an internal working model which influences later relationships.
    • The Strange Situation
      • Ainsworth and Bell
        • Conducted a controlled observation recording the reactions of a child their caregiver.
          • 100 middle class American infants and their mothers took part. The infants behaviour was observed during a set of activities.
      • The ** involved the child experiencing 8 'episodes'. They observed from the other side of a one way mirror so the children didn't know they were being observed.
      • Findings:
    • Cultural Variations
      • Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg
        • Wanted to investigate if attachment styles are universal across cultures.
        • They used a method called meta-analysis. They used 32 studies from 8 countries..
        • Findings: Secure attachment was prominent in most  infants.
    • Maternal Deprivation
      • Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory suggests that continual disruption of the attachment between infant and primary caregiver could result in long term difficulties.
      • Afffectionless psychopathy is the inability to show affection or concern for others.
      • 44 Thieves
        • The aim was to investigate the long-term  effects of maternal deprivation.
        • Procedure: 44 criminals were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. their families were also interviewed.
        • Findings: 14 of the 44 thieves could be affectionless psychopaths. 12 of the 14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives.
    • Roman Orphan Studies
      • Rutter
        • He studied 165 romanian orphans who had been placed in orphanages, aged 1-2 weeks old.
        • Longitudinal study
        • Findings: half the adoptees showed signs of mental retardation. Before 6 months=102. Between 6 months and 2  years= 86. After 2 years= 77. Children adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment- attention seeking, clinginess.
      • Zeanah
        • Assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care, compared to a control group of 50 who never lived in an institution. Attachment type was measured using the **.
        • Findings: 74%= securely attached.
    • Attachment and later relationships
      • Internal Working Model
        • A childs first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of this relationship. It acts as a template for future relationships.
      • Relationships in later childhood
        • Securely attached make the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely have difficulties.
      • Relationships with romantic partners
        • McCarthy studied 40 women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish attachment type.Secure= best. Resistant= trouble maintaining. Avoidant= struggled with intimacy.
        • Hazan and Shaver: studied association between attachment and adult relationships.
          • Procedure: analysed 620 replies to a love quiz from the local newspaper. It assessed 3 things.
          • Findings: 56% of the respondents were identified as secure with 25% avoidant and 19% resistant.
            • Those that were secure, had good longer lasting romantic experiences. Avoidant revealed jealousy and fear of intimacy.
      • Relationships as a parent
        • The internal working model also affects the childs ability to parent their own children. people base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type is usually passed through generations.
          • Women had the same attachment to both their babies and their mothers.

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