Attachment

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  • Created by: holly_u
  • Created on: 07-04-18 14:43

Care-giver human interactions

Humans are precocial meaning rely on caregivers to help them e.g eat. not mobile
Other animals are altricial meaning they're mobile from birth e.g lions

Caregiverese= modified language e.g high pitched
- All adults use caregiverese for children and sometimes animals. not to do with attachment

Interactional Synchrony= infants move their bodies in tune to caregivers voice like a conversation

Mimicking= infants imitate caregivers facial expressions e.g smiling
+ MELTZOFF AND MOORE- 2-3 week old infants imitated facial (smiling) and hand gestures, suggesting it's innate. - Confirmation bias (seeing what they wanted to see) as babies mouths in constant motion and many have tried to replicate with no success

Bodily contact= physical contact to enhance attachment

Reprocity= mutual behaviours, both producing responses

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Stages of attachment

SHAFFER
Pre-attachment (0-3m)- similar response to humans and objects but prefer humans
Indiscriminate attachment (3-7/8m)- no preference for caregiver, smile at familiar faces
Discriminate attachment (8+ )- seperation anxiety from primary caregiver and fear of strangers
Multiple attachment (9+) - formed multiple attachments e.g family, nursery staff

MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS- comfortable and safe withoin multiple peoples presence
Bowlby= first attachment is most important. an evolutionary response to survive
Rutter= all attachment bonds are equal

+ SHAFFER AND EMERSON
60 working class Glasgow mothers and infants. Measured seperation protest through interviews and observations and stranger anxiety through researcher making home visit. Found seperation anxiety at 6-8 months. Most went on to develop multiple attachments. Supports stages of attachment.- ethical issues stress to infants and not reprentative (working class, Glasgow) biased

- Cultural variations. Collectivist cultures share childcare so different forms of attachment

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Role of father

Things affecting relationship:
Marital intimacy- more intimate = stronger attachment with children
Type of attachment with own parents= single fathers form same attachments as with their own parents
Degree of sensitivity= more sensitive= more strong attachment
Supportive co-parenting= more support for partners= more strong attachment

+ Research support. Geiger suggested fathers are exciting playmates, whereas mothers are more nurturing and more conventional and Lamb found children prefer interacting with fathers when in good mood.

- Men are not psychologically equipped to form a strong attachment as lack of oestrogen which causes sensitive behaviour

+ Children with strong attachments with fathers have better relationships with peers and less behavioural problems.

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Animal studies

LORENZ- Geese
To investigate whether imprinting is to do with the first object the see. Split goose hens in half. One hatched naturally (mother goose), the other incubated and Lorenz being the first object they saw. Found natural goslings followed mother, whereas incubated followed Lorenz. The attachment was irreversible & occured between 4 & 25 hours of hatching.
+-Animal research is more ethical than using humans BUT may not produce the same findings as humans, as humans have complex concious brains.
+ Research support by Guiton. Found chickens exposed to yellow gloves became imprinted and males later tried to mate with them.

HARLOW- Rhesus Monkeys
16 baby monkeys. 4 conditions (both producing milk, towelling producing milk not wire, wire producing milk not towelling & towelling producing milk). Loud noises used to scare & larger box to see exploration levels. Found monkeys preferred towelling mother regardless of milk. Monkeys with wire were stressed e.g producing diarrhoea. So innate need for comfort-comfort
- ethical issues with seperation monkeys from mothers & causing stress
- cannot generalise to complex humans
- confounding variables. Towelling mother looked more like a monkey

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Explanations for attachment

Learning Theory (Behaviourist Approach)- association

Classical Condioning
Food (UCS) - Pleasure (UCR)
Caregiver (CS)- No response 
Food + Caregiver- Pleasure
Caregiver (CS)- Pleasure (CR)

Operant Conditioning
Any action with a pleasurable outcome is repeated. 
Positive reinforcement = pleasurable outcome
Negative reinforcement= avoiding an outcome, reducing a behaviour

Caregiver becomes positive reinforcement as when they feed they recieve pleasure (SECONDARY REINFORCER)

Hunger is negative reinforcement as they want to reduce the feeling
(PRIMARY REINFORCER)

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Learning Theory Evaluation

- Research evidence against. Harlow's Rhesus Monkeys. Had a need for contact-comfort not food.

- Reductionist. Simplifies complex behaviours down to feeding, it doesn't consider mental (cognitive) processes or emotional nature of attachments.

- Research against. Shaffer and Emerson. Glasgow newborn babies, found 39% infants the main carer (mother) was not the babies main attachment figure. Suggesting feeding not primary expanation

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Bowlby's Monotropic Theory

Attachment is crucial for survival because humans are precocial

1) Infants have an innate drive to form an attachment. It's biologically programmed. 

2) Infants elicit caregiving through specific behaviours called social releasers such as crying, smiling and vocalising. It makes the caregiver close to the child

3) They form one bond. MONOTROPY. They're primary caregiver and help emotional development
+ Tronick found children in Zaire, Africa had a preference for their mothers at 12 months even though breastfed by other women.

4) The attachment forms a template/ schema for future relationships. INTERNAL WORKING MODEL.

5) Securely attached infants form more secure social relationships than insecurely attached. CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS.

6) There's a CRITICAL PERIOD for it to form. Up to 2 1/2 years. But later sensitive period. 5 yrs

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Evaluation Monotropic Theory

+ Research support for Monotropy. Tronick et al found infants in Zaire, Africa at 12 months had a preference for their mother even though they were breastfed by other women (Individualist culture)

+ Research support. Shaffer and Emerson, Glasgow babies. Even though nearly all infants formed multiple attachments, they had one primary caregiver. 

- Alternative explanation to Internal Working Model. The TEMPERAMNET HYPOTHESIS suggests infants with 'easy' temperament more likely to be strongly attached than 'difficult'. Therefore not to do with caregiver sensitivity. 

+ Research support for Continuity Hypothesis (securely attached infants forming more secure social relationships later in life), Hazen and Shaver's 'Love Quiz' found securely attached infants had longer lasting romantic relationships.

- Critical period is inaccurate. Sensitive period more appropriate (5 years not 2 1/2)

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Ainsworth's Strange Situation study

Different styles of mothering have consequences on a child's development

1) Parent and infant play (30 seconds) every 15 seconds behaviour recorded
2) Parent sits and child plays
3) Stranger enters room and talks to parents (stranger anxiety)
4) Parent leaves, stranger offers comfort (stranger anxiety)
5) Parent returns offers comfort and stranger leaves (reuinion)
6) Parent leaves infant alone (seperation protest)
7) Stranger enters, offers comfort (stranger anxiety)
8) Parent returns and offers comfort (reuinion)

Found 3 main types of attachment
Securely attached- (B) keen to explore, high stranger anxiety, easy to soothe, enthusiastic reuinion behaviour. Caregiver is sensitive. 70% securely attached due to sensitivity.
Insecure-resistant-(C) not willing to explore, high stranger anxiety, seek and reject contact. Caregiver is ambivalent (contradictory behaviour) 15%
Insecure- avoidant-(A)willing to explore, low stranger anxiety, unconcerned, avoid contact on reuinion. Caregiver is indifferent (no sympathy)     15%

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Strange Situation Evaluation

+ Strange Situation has become a paradigm for assessing attachment

- Laboratory based meaning conditions are artificial. Leaving a child alone wouldn't normally occur. Lacks ecological validity. 

- Unethical. Psychological harm to infants as causing stress. 

- Low internal validity. It's not measuring what it's supposed to be measuring. Only looks at one relationship. but research suggests attachment is different with different caregivers. Low validity.

- Lacks population validity. Small sample meaning cannot be generalised to whole population. 

- Simplistic, categories are too restrictive. Research to suggest Type D attachment (confused behaviour with physical signs of stress e.g rocking)

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Cultural Variations

Bowlby believed attachments evolve due to evolution, suggesting the same across cultures. Different child rearing styles vary, suggesting not the case.

Collectivist- value interdependence (working together with childcare) e.g Japan, Israel
Individualist- value independence e.g UK, USA

+ Research. Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg. Meta-analysis (lots of research compiled) of 32 studies in 8 countries. Interested in intra-cultural (within) and inter-cultural (between) differences. Found inter-cultural differences small. Secure-attachment most common. Intra-cultural differences were 1.5x greater than inter-cultural. 
- Differences within may be due to socio-economic reasons.
- Not all cultures used e.g Africa, so would need to do all to make universal conclusions

+ Research. Takahashi replicated Strange Situation in Japan. 60 Middle class infants. Found 68% securely attached but shown extreme signs of anxiety when along. 90% had to be stopped. Japanese infants sleep with parents etc.. so different cultures
- Unethical. Psychological harm.
- Lacks population validity. 60 middle class, not representative.

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Bowlbys Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

Explains what happens when attachments between mothers and infants are broken.
He thought a permanent mother figure was vital for normal mental health.
Deprivation has to occur in the critical period to have an effect e.g depression

SHORT-TERM SEPERATION (being left with a babysitter)
PDD Model
Protest- immediate reaction of crying, screaming
Despair-Little response to comfort. Anger felt inwardly
Detachment- Rejection of caregiver. Respond to people again

+ Little John. 17 months old, mother had to go to hospital. Left with carers. Protest- Overwhelmed and clung to teddy. Despair- Became withdrawn. Detachment- After 9 days his mother returned and he tried to get away.

- Research is correlational as unethical to test. Doesn't establish cause & effect

+ Real-world applications. Children now allowed to visit hospitals.

+ Roberton and Robertson. Took children into their homes & normal routine. No bad effects.

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BMDH- Long-term

LONG TERM SEPERATION (divorce/ death of parent)

Bowlby's Juvenile Thieves
44 jevenile thieves background compared to control group of children
Found 86% of thieves diagnosed as 'affectionless psychopaths' had early seperation from mother. Suggests link between seperation and anti-social behaviour.
- Retrospective data. Recalled from the past. Not accurate.
- Correlational. Cannot establish cause & effect.
+ Shaffer found nearly all children are negatively affected by divorce

PRIVATION (Children who have never formed an attachment bond)

+ Case study support. Genie denied human interaction, locked into potty seat and beaten. At 13 discovered. Couldn't speak, spitting a lot.  At 18 returned to mother, then foster home, abused further and mental & physical health detiorated.
- Dependent on retrospective memories. Genie's mother had conficting memories.

- Case study support. Identical twins , mother died, father re-married. Locked in cellar for 5 1/2 years. At age 7 underdevloped, couldn't speak. By 14 after speech therapy normal.

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BMDH- Institutionalisation

INSTITUTIONALISATION- the effects of attachments of care provided by orphanages and children's homes. 

+ Rutter et al- Romanian Orphanage
During the time of research, the government in Romania banned abortion, so more births.

3 conditions:
children adopted before 6 months
children adopted 6-2 years
children adopted after 2 years.

The measured childrens height, head circumference and cognitive functioning. Found 50% were retarded in cognitive functioning. After 4 years most improved phsyical and cognitive functioning. So negative effects can be overcome by long-term care.

- Ongoing research. Cannot make full conclusions.
- Only some children recieved detailed clinical investigations. So hard to generalise.

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Early Attachment

Continuity Hypothesis- children's attachment types being reflected in later relationships.

Influence on childhood relationships:
+ Mullis et al found relationships that children form in late childhood reflect those made to parents in infancy. Backing up Coninuity Hypothesis. 

Influence on adult relationships:
Continuity between early attachment styles and quality of later adult relationships.

+ Hazen and Shaver - 'Love Quiz'
An advert for a 'Love Quiz' in news. Participants asked which description best described their romantic relationships (relating to securely attached, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant). 
Found attachment similar to infancy. 56% secure- described as happy, loving, trusting. 10 years duration. Insecure= 5-6 years. 
- correlational. lack of cause and effect. 
- retrospective accounts. Not accurate

As a whole: - Temperament hypothesis critisism. To do with temperament not attachment.       - Internal working model not supported. 

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