attachment

An emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure in the prescence of the attachment figure.

Reciprocity

Interaction flows both ways and they take turns while contributing.

Interactional synchrony

Two people move in the same pattern and speech/movement is coordinated. They share a sense of timing when they imitate ech other.

AIM: To investigate interactional synchrony.

Method: Controlled observation where they videotaped an infants response to an adult         reforming one of three facial expressions and one hand gesture. Watched video tape to record observations. The independent observer has not knowledge of what they had seen.

Results: Inter-rater reliability 0.92. Ifants 2-3 weeks imitated. 3 days old demonstrated synchrony. 

Conclusion- reciprocity and Interaction synchrony is innate

Murray and Trevarthen: Two month infant either interacted with their mother through a videotaped footage or in real time.

Isabella: Stronger attached mother-infant pairs showed greater interactional synchrony. IS is important for creating attachment.

Le Vine: Kenyan mother who have little contact with their babies still have strong attachment.

Klaus and Kennell: research into early bonding found mums who held their baby straight after birth were closer to their child and made greater eye contact. The babies scored higher on tests of mental and physical abilities. Had stronger bonds.

• Longitudinal study of sixty working class Glasgow babies at monthly intervals in the first 18 months of their lives. Observed in their own homes. Carers were interviewed at interactions. Measure in seperation protest and stranger anxiety.
• 65% had formed their first attachment with their mother.
• 3% main attachment was the father.
• 27% joint first attachment.
• 31% had 5 attachment by age 1.
• 39% of attachments were not to the main carer.
• Seperation protest showed at 6-8 months.
• Sensitive responsiveness important for attachments.

Conclusion: Attachment is biologically controlled and are based on sensitive responsiveness. Multiple attachments are the norm.

Birth- 3 months- pre attachment phase- prefer human rather than objects. 3-7/8 months-Indiscriminate attachment- Discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces. 7/8 months-Discriminate phase- Develop specific attachments by staying close to particular people. 9 Months- Form multiple attachments with major/ non-major caregivers.

• Geiger showed that fathers play interactions were most exiting and pleasurable than mothers whilst mums were nurturing and. Father is a play mate.
• Lamb argued that children prefer that children prefer father whem om a positive emotional and mental state and seek stimulation.
• Hrdy said fathers are less able to detect infant distressed which makes them less able to be suitable primary attachment figures.
• Lamb argued that fathers who are primary attachment figure adapt quick to become more nurturing. Fathers become a safe base to explore. Sensitive responsiveness is not limited to females.

• 39% of babies formed a primary attachment to the person who did the caregiving.
• Harlow said babies would not go to the wire mother ,so contact comfort is more important.
• Fox looked at Israeli Kibbutzim Could still form a strong attachment to the mother.
• Bowlby argued that it is not based around food and that attachments are formed around a constant need for social security.

• Control group went to the mother, whilst the othert went to Lorenz.
• Imprinting takes place between 4-25 hours.
• The goslings that went on imprint on lorenz tried to mate with humans as mature birds.

• All monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother.
• The monkeys returned to the cloth mother if the food was on the other monkey.
• If scared the monkies took refuge with the cloth mother.
• Signs of extreme anxety were shown if only the cloth mum was available.
• If left with surrogate mum for more than 90 days, social problem develop.
• If before 90 days the monkeys would form new attachments.

• Adaptive and Innate
• Monotropy- hierachy, social releasers.
• Critical Period- 3-6 months.
• Social releasers- characteristic or actions like smiling.
• Secure base.
• IWM
• Continuity hypothesis
• Maternal deprivation hypothesis

Criticsms

Harlows monkeys supports contact comfort.

Kagan- personality dependent attachmenths

Sroufe- longitudinal study research which found that children were rated highly for social competence  were more popular at adjusted later in life.

• Aim: Assess how 9-18 months old react under conditions. Mother-Infant pairs. Middle class. 106 pairs.
• Observed and videotaped. Eight episodes which were 3 minutes each except one. Covert observation. Time sampling. 16 squares. Rated on a scale of 1-7. 
• All present, then observer leaves. Mum and infant present, but mum passive. Mum and observer are silent, then have a conversation, then mum leaves. Stranger and infant. Mum enters. Infant alone. Stranger enters and tried to encounter the child. Mum enters.
• Found 70% secure, 15% insecure reistant/avoidant.

• Aim: To see if inter cultural variations and intra cultural variations existed between cultures. Meta analysis on 32 strange situations in 8 different countries. Each one had atleast 35 different mother and infant pairs with children below two years of age.
• Secure was the most common.
• Insecure avoidant was the second most common with the exception of Japan and Israel.
• China had the lowest percentage of secure attachment and Great Britain had the highest.
• Intra cultural variations 1.5 times greater than inter cultural variations.
• Con: There are difference in attachment types and these may be due to child rearing. Secure most common.

Criticisms

• Takahashi studied 60 middle class infants in Japan and found similar rates to the ones in the strange situation, but no evidence of insecure avoidant type.
• Grossman and Grossman found German infants tend to be classified as insecure as they do not seek proximity because they have a different culture.

• Case histories of 88 children in this clinic were analysed and compared.
• Thief Group: 31 boys 13 girls.
• Control group: 34 boys 10 girls
• Matched by IQ and age
• Interviewed by a psychiatrist, psychologist and a social worker focusing on earlier life.
• Thief group: 14 of the thieves group were identified as affectionless psychopaths and 12 had experienced prolonged seperation.
• Non of the controll group are psychopaths and two have experienced prolonged seperation.
• Early seperations are link to affectionless psychopathy. Lack of emotional care leads to emotional maladjustment.

Barrett found securely attached children can cope better with emotional distress, so not everyone is affected by emotional disruption in the same way.

• Physical underdevelopment
• Disinhibited attachment.
• Poor parenting
• Intellectual underfunctioning.

Quality of care in institution.

Age of child.

Quality of care after

Follow on experiences in later life.

• Conducted a longitudinal study to look at the effects of institutionalisation care and whether these results can be reversed.
• 165 Romanian children who were in three groups: adopted before 6 months, adopted between 6 months and 2 years and after 2 years.
• Compared to 52 british children adopted by 6 months.
• Children tested at ages 4,6,11 and 15 for physical, social and cognitive development and interview were done with parents and teachers.
• They were classified as: mentally retarded, weighed less and they were smaller.
• Those who had been adopted by 6 months had caught up.
• Those after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment and had difficulties with peer relationships.
• They concluded that the earlier the later a child is adopted the more likely they are to suffer the effects of institutionalisation. 

• Discovered in the 1970s when she was 13.
• Underdeveloped.
• Taken away to a hospital. learned to play and trust.
• 1971-1977- IQ went to 38-74.
• Genie's father Clarke grew up in foster homes and was controlling.
• Wiley brutalised his kids.

• Hodges and Tizard: studied children who have been institutionalisaed by 4 months old and suffered from privation. 3 group Those who were: institutionalised, adopted or went back to their natural home. Children were assessed at ages 4,8 and 16. Compared to a controll group. Those who stayed had not strong attachments, the adopted children formed strong attachments, but still had problems forming relationships and those who returned to families had poor peer relationships,but also had behavioural problems.
• Spitz: studied children raised in poor quality south USA orphanages. Staff were overworked and untrained. Children displayed anaclitic depression. They also showed signs of fear, sadness, withdrawral.
• Freud and Dann: Looked at 6 children who were placed in concentration camps and were orphaned at a few months old. They had privation, but at 3/4 yeras they were taken to a centre in West Sussex. They had little language and were hostile to adults, but gradually became attatched and showed rapid, emotional, social and psychological development.

• Infant attachment affect subsequent chilldhood attachments. There are different characteristics of secure and not securely attached children.
• If a child does not form an attachment this can lead to a lack of the internal working model.
• Attachment disorder DSM-5
• Belsky found that securely attached children were more empathetic, resilient and were more likely to form close relationships.
• Sroufe found continuity between early childhood and later childhood or later in life.

Aim: Investagated the effect that early attachment styles have on later adult relationships.

Procedure: Published 'the love quiz' in the Rocky Mountain News, a local newspaper. The respondents were given statments about love and relationships and said chose the one which most matched with their attitude.This assessed their attachment type. They also completed a questionnaire to assess their childhood attachment history which looked at their relationships to their parents. 620 responses. 205 men and 415 women. Age range 14-82.

Results: Attachment styles were similar to those found in infancy. 56% secure, 25% avoidant 19% resistant. There were different beliefs towards relationships. Secure- had longer lasting relationships and tended not to get a divorce. Described their most important relationship as 'happy, friendly and trusting.' Avoidant- Had a fear of intimacy and reported jealousy and romantic love never lasts. Resistant- obssession and jealousy and were doubtful about the exsistence of romantic love. Rarely found real love.

Conclusion: Differences in internal working models. Secure more optimistic. Correlation between childhood attachments and later adult relationships.

• Self select: only people who read the newspaper. Can get a wide variety of people.
• Relied on retrospective data.
• Correlation- cause and effect.
• Large sample
• Questionnaires can be relatively cheap.
• Freud and Dann- participants were able to recover from from the effects of privation. Formed an attachment with carers in the UK in a centre in Sussex. When they were adults, they could form adult relationships.