Psychology - Attachment

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  • Created by: Bambih369
  • Created on: 23-06-19 15:09
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  • Attachments
    • Caregiver-Infant Interactions
      • Reciprocity
        • An interaction where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them
        • It has been describes as a 'dance'
      • Interactional Synchrony
        • Two people carry out the same action simultaneously and actions and emotions mirror one another
        • Meltzoff & Moore (1975)
          • Observed children as young at 2wks old. An adult displayed one of three facial expressions
            • An association was found between the expression of adult and the actions of babies
        • Isabella et al (1989)
          • Observed 30 mothers and infants and found the higher level synchrony the better the quality of attachment
      • Evaluation
        • It is difficult to know what is happening as babies are unpredictable and hard to read and observe
        • Observations are usually well controlled procedures which ensures very fine details of behavior can be recorded and analysed
        • Also babies do not care if they are being observed so their behavior does not change unlike other studies to it has goof validity
    • Attachment Figures
      • Schaffer & Emerson (1964)
        • Found most babies attach to their mother first and within a month attach to father. IN 75% of infants, an attachment was formed with father by 18mnths
      • Grossman (2002)
        • Longitudinal study on parent's behavior and quality of attachment
          • He found attachments with mothers were more important however that the quality of father's play was related to quality of attachments
      • Field (19780
        • Filmed 4mnth old babies in interactions with PCG mother, SCG fathers and PCG fathers
          • PCG fathers spent more time smiling than SCG which suggests the key to attachment is the level of responsiveness, not gender
      • Evaluation
        • Schaffer & Emerson study has low population validity as all babies from Glasgow and from working class families and small sample size
        • Longitudinal study- A strength as there is more time to see change so accurate
        • Social Implications - Fathers may feel more confident to stay off work with the child now this research has been done
    • Stages of attachment
      • Stage 1 - Asocial
        • Baby recognizes and forms bonds but doesn't differentiate between non-human objects and humans
        • Stage 2 - Indiscriminate Attachment
          • 2-7mnths- baby displays more observable behavior and show preference for people. They recognize faces but do not show stranger fear
          • Stage 3 - Specific Attachment
            • From 7mths, babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety and have formed a specific attachment
            • Stage 4 - Multiple Attachments
              • They extend to multiple attachments called secondary attachments by 1 yr old
      • Evaluation
        • Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments as some research suggests babies form secondary attachments after a primary one but others suggest different so is a problem as it is ethnocentric
        • Asocial stage is difficult to study as young babies have poor co-ordination so therefore evidence from the observation cannot be relied on
        • Measuring multiple attachments is an issue as even if a baby is distressed when an adult leaves, it doesn't mean it is a true attachment
    • Animal Studies
      • Lorenz
        • Randomly divided goose eggs and half hatched with mother and half in incubator with him
          • The incubator group followed him everywhere, even when the groups were mixed together
        • This was called Imprinting, whereby species attach to the first moving object they see within the critical period of a few hours
          • Sexual Imprinting - He investigated the relationship with imprinting and adult mating and found the birds would display courtship behavior towards  humans
        • Evaluation
          • His findings have been influential in development so has led to psychologists developing well recognized theories
          • A weakness is that it was done on animals so is not generalisable as humans and animals are physiologically different
      • Harlow
        • Took 16 rhesus monkeys into a room with two substitute mothers; a cloth monkey and a milk dispensing monkey
          • He found the monkeys chose the cloth monkey over the milk one which showed that comfort was more important than food in attachments
        • He followed the monkeys to adulthood and found they were dysfunctional and didn't develop normal social behaviour so concluded there was a critical period of 90 days
        • Evalution
          • It was conducted in a controlled lab setting so limited extraneous variables so it was measuring the intended factors leaving it with high internal validity
          • A weakness is that it was in an artificial setting so is not reflective of real life situations so is lacking ecological validity
          • It can be seen as unethical as the monkeys were removed from their biological mothers and suffered distress
    • Learning Theory (Explanations)
      • Classical conditioning
        • Caregiver starts as neutral stimulus but when they become associated with food they become a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response
      • Operant conditioning
        • Involves learning from consequences. If a behaviour produces a positive response it is likely to be repeated but if an negative response is produced it will be negatively reinforced
      • Secondary drive
        • Learning theory uses the concept of drive reduction. Hunger is a primary drive and as caregivers provide food the primary drive becomes generalised to the CG
      • Evaluation
        • Learning theory provides an explanation for how attachments form and is seen through real-life examples
        • Evidence against which suggests attachments aren't based on feeding e.g Shaffer and Emerson who found 39% of babies attachments were to those who didn't feed them so food isn't the main reinforcer
        • Evidence from Harlow's study as the monkeys chose comfort over food
    • Bowlby's Theory (Explanations)
      • Monotropy
        • He emphasized one attachment to a particular caregiver which is more important than others. He believed the more time the baby spent with the PCG then the better.
        • The law of continuity stated the more constant care, the better the attachment
        • The law of accumulated seperation stated that the effects of every separation from mother adds up
      • Social Releasers
        • These are innate features and behaviours that encourage attention from adults
        • He found a critical period of 2 yrs old
      • Internal Working Model
        • He claimed children form a mental model of their relationship with PCG called IWM. It has a powerful effect on future relations and has impacts on how they will treat their children
      • Evaluation
        • Lorenz's imprinting supports his theory as is shows attachment is innate as the geese followed him after a few hrs
        • Supported by Hazen and Shaver who found through their love quiz that childhood relationships affected adult ones
        • Deterministic as suggests peope can't change their past so may have negative impacts socially
    • Ainsworth's strange situation
      • A controlled laboratory observation designed to measure the security of an attachment
      • It tested for Proximity seeking, Exploration and safe-base behaviour, Stranger fear, Separation distress, Joy on reunion
      • Secure - about 60-75% of UK toddlers. These were happy to explore but went back regularly and showed moderate separation anxiety
      • Insecure-avoidant -About 20-25% of UK toddlers. They show little joy on reunion, and do not require comfort
      • Insecure-resistant - About 3% of UK toddlers. These seek greater proximity and show huge distress and stranger anxiety
      • Evaluation
        • Ethnocentric- This is based upon British and American ideas of attachment however doesn't  consider other cultures values
        • One strength is that it is easy to replicate as it follows a standardized procedure
        • Another criticism is that is has low ecological validity as the results may not be applicable in the outside world
    • Cultural Variations
      • Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenburg (1988)
        • Assessed 32 studies of attachment in 8 countries using the **
          • They found that secure attachments was the most common in all countries. Insecure- resistant was highest in Japan and insecure- avoidant most common in Germany
      • Simonella et al (2014) found 50% secure and 37% insecure-avoidant in Italy which suggests cultural changes had a difference on attachment patterns
      • Evaluation
        • Large samples are a positive as it increases internal validity
        • Using the Strange Situation may be ethnocentric as is labels other cultural values as bad so therefore may lack validity
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    • Maternal Deprivation
      • There is a difference between separation and deprivation. It only becomes an issue if the child is subjected to continuous loss of care
      • Bowlby saw the first 2 yrs of the child's life as the critical period and if an attachment wasn't formed then it cause psychological damage
      • Intellectual development: - He believed that if a child was deprived for too long they would suffer mental retardation and have a low IQ
      • Emotional developments: - He identified 'affectionless psychopathy' as the inability to feel guilt and lack remorse
      • 44 thieves study examined the link between affection less psychopathy and maternal deprivation. 14/44 were described as 'affectionless psychopaths'
      • Evaluation
        • Further research supports; Goldfard followed 30 war children and had two groups; fostered and unfostered. The fostered group had higher IQ's
        • The 44 thieves study can be criticized as it is Top down. He carried out the investigation himself so may be bis, therefore lacks validity
        • Research from Lewis challenges maternal deprivation. He replicated Bowlby's study and found other factors may affect the outcome of early deprivation
    • Romanian orphans studies
      • Rutter et al (2001) followed 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain. A group of 52 British children were adopted at the same time for a control group
        • He found at first they showed signs of mental retardation and most were malnourished. those adopted before 6mnths was higher than those adopted after. Children adopted after 6mnths showed disinhibited attachment.
      • Mental retardation- It appears that damage to intellectual development can be overcome by adopting before 6mnths
      • Evaluation
        • A strength is that it has enhanced psychologists understanding of institutionalization and can be imple,ented into social situations e.g orphanages.
        • Fewer extraneous variables than other orphan studies as they didn't have lots of trauma so it was easier to observe - therefore high internal validity
        • However they were not typical as they had particular standards of care so isn't generalisable so cannot be applies to the understanding of institutions
    • Influence of Early attachments on later relationships
      • Internal working model- Bowlby claimed a child's relationships creates a model for later life to it is vital that it is secure
      • Hazen &Shaver (1987)
        • Analysed 620 replies to a 'love quiz' they posted in a US newspaper
        • They found that 56% of pts were secure with 25% insecure-avoidant and 19% insecure-resistant
      • Evaluation
        • The evidence on continuity is mixed. E.g some studies support continuity but others disagree -Zimmerman (2000)
        • Most studies have issues of validity e.g the love quiz relies on self reporting  which means the data is retrospective so has a high chance of being inaccurate
        • Correlation not causation- A third environmental factor may have a direct affect on both attachment and the child's ability to form relationships in later life so is therefore a limitation

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