Attachment

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  • Created by: Hema
  • Created on: 26-04-15 19:33
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  • Attachment
    • Learning Theory
      • attachment is learned - NURTURE
      • people are born as blank slates + all behaviour is learnt
      • classical conditioning- child associates carer with pleasure of needs being met
      • FOOD (unconditioned stimulus) = PLEASURE (unconditioned response) - mother is associated with pleasure (conditioned stimulus)
      • WEAKNESS: Harlow - found that when newborn monkeys were sperated from mother + put with 2 wire mothers - one with bottle and just wire and one with cloth and no bottle - monkey spent most time with cloth
      • WEAKNESS: learning theory explains simple behaviours but attachment is vey complex so cannot be explained by this
    • Bowlby's Evolutionary Explanation
      • children are biologically pre-programmed to form attachments - NATURE
      • Lorenz - found that attachment is innate in young ducklings so has a survival value
      • aids survival - attachment behaviours are activated when separated from mother (a direct threat to survival)
      • also parents instinctively protect children during critical period - a window when attachment must occur - if not must develop relationship by 12 months
      • bowlby says most babies display monotropy - showing an innate tendency to attach to one adult (the person who provides them with emotional security)
      • mother-child relationship is important for future relationships
      • STRENGTH:Hazen + Shaver found that there was a strong correlation with childhood attachment and adult relationships - children follow relationship templates into later life
      • WEAKNESS: Rutter et al found that adoption studies show kids can form attachment bonds outside critical period
    • Individual Differences: Ainsworth + Bell
      • developed strange situation to see how children differ in attachment.
      • Lab experiment - structured interviews
      • 100 American middle class infants (9-18months)
      • SECURE- 66%  use mother as safe base, avoidant of stranger, distressed when mum leaves, happy on return
      • Observe: Willingness to explore, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion behaviour
      • INSECURE AVOIDANT: 22% Happy to explore, okay with stranger, no separation anxiety, little interest on return
      • INSECURE RESISTANT 12% - Explores less than others, avoids stranger, intense distress on separation, rushes to her on return but gets angry + resists contact.
      • WEAKNESS: low ecological validity, controlled, artificial, unlikely to happen in real life
      • WEAKNESS: low population validity - male American middle-class
      • STRENGTH: reliable, easy to repeat
    • Cultural Differences
      • Grossman et al - used strange situation to test german children + found 49% insecure avoidants, 33% secure attachment (compared to America -22% + 66%)
      • Van ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg - conducted meta analysis of 32 studies of attachment - 8 different countries - found diference between cultures were small, secure was most common in every one
      • Kyoung - Korean infants didn't want to stay close to mums and on return - mothers more likely to play with infant - so different childrearing strategies can lead to secure attachment
    • Disruption of Attachment: BOWLBY
      • Aim: identify the effects of disruption of attachment
      • Naturalistic observations of children ages 1 - 4 years. one was john 17 months old put in residential nursery while mum as in hospital
      • over 9 days he went from happy to so distressed that on renion wh mum he rejected her
      • johns distress was because of: loss of mother, strange environment, new routines, multiple care takers, lack of mum sub
      • in conclusion most young children who experienced separation suffer severe, short term distress
      • effects f disruption: PDD:
        • Despair- become calmer, show little interest in anything + self comfort too.
        • Protest- initial response at being left show distress, fear and anger.
        • Detachment- coping with separation, more interested in surroundings emotionally unresponsive, avoid new attachments no interest on mums return
      • STRENGTH: There are practical applications - led to changes in hospital rules regarding children staying over, nurses also had regular contact with kids
      • WEAKNESS: observer bias - behaviour is subjected and researchers may have interpreted it in the way they wanted to
      • WEAKNESS: Boys react more strongly to separation than girls so there are individual differences
    • Privation + Institutional care HODGES + TIZARD
      • Aim- to investigate whether a lack of emotional care had permanent and irreversible effects on emotional and social development
      • 65 children institutionalised before 4  months old - it had a policy no caretakers to form attachments (privation)
      • Children, parents + teachers interviewed about behaviours and attitudes
      • at age of 4 - 15 were returned to mum and dad + 24 were adopted
      • at 8 - interviewed mum + again at 16 + children aswell at 16
      • at 4 + 8 children tend to be over friendly and seek attention from adults rather than peers + more approval seeking and less popular with peers
      • at 16 most adopted mums say the kid is deeply attached - half bio mums said kid was deeply attached
      • kids who suffered privation had more problems with siblings than control group
      • it is possible for children who suffer privation in first years of life to make close and lasting attachments later but depends on adults too
      • WEAKNESS: attrition - longitudinal study - gradually drop out, reducing sample size so less representive so un-generalisable
      • WEAKNESS: natural experiment - lacks control over ex variables, so cannot establish cause n effect - low int validity
    • Day Care + Aggression
      • NICHD - longitudinal study, america, 100 children, diverse families, 10 locations, assessed regularly, by 5- more time spent at day car - more aggressive
      • EGELAND + HEISTER - securely attached - react negative to day care - insecure attachement responded well. indiv diffs
      • BORGE ET AL - maternal questionaire on 3431 canadian mums w/ kids ages 2-4, families matched, agg is more common in kids raised at home, especially if mum had low education and low socio-economic status
      • WEAKNESS: attrition longitudinal study, reduce sample size, low representive
      • WEAKNESS questionaire demand characteristics - social desirability
    • Day Care on Peer Relations
      • Shea - naturalistic observation, recording 3 - 4 year olds in playground during first 10 weeks at nursery, found a decrease in distance from nearest child and decrease in aggression, increase in peer social interactions
      • Gunnar et al - measured cortisol levels as an indicator of stress and found day care was more challenging for less sociable kids
      • WEAKNESSDiLalla - corellation - doesnt establish cause and effect maybe 3rd variable
      • DiLalla - compared the amount of time children spend in day care to levels of pro-social behaviour, found a negative correlation. kids in day care are less sociable
      • STRENGTHSGunnar et al -  uses cortisol levels to measure stress - objective so easy to replicate - reliable

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