Attachment Case Studies

Method: 60 babies were observed in their homes in Glasgow every four weeks from birth to about 18 months. Interviews were also conducted with their families.

Results: Schaffer’s stages of attachment formation were found to occur. Also, at 8 months of age about 50 of the infants had more than one attachment. About 20 of them either had no attachment with their mother or had a stronger attachment with someone else, even though the mother was always the main carer.

Conclusion: Infants form attachments in stages and can eventually attach to many people. Quality of care is important in forming attachments, so the infant may not attach to their mother if other people respond more accurately to its signals.

Method: Harlow aimed to find out whether baby monkeys would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure. In a laboratory experiment rhesus monkeys were raised in isolation. They had two “surrogate” mothers. One was made of wire mesh and contained a feeding bottle, the other was made of cloth and contained no bottle. Results: The monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth surrogate and only used the wire mesh to feed. The cloth surrogate seemed to give comfort in new situations. When the monkeys grew up they showed signs of social and emotional disturbance. The females were bad mothers who were often violent towards their offspring.

Conclusion: Infant monkeys formed more of an attachment with a figure that provided comfort and protection. Growing up in isolation affected their development.

Evaluation: This was a laboratory experiment, so there was strict control over the variables. This means it is unlikely the results were affected by an unknown variable. However, it can be argued that you can’t generalise this to humans because they are qualitatively different. There was also ethical problems with this- the monkeys were put under stressful situations and later they showed signs of psychological damage. Monkeys are social animals, so it was unfair to keep them in isolation. This study lacked ecological validity and can’t be replicated due to ethical guidelines.  

Method: In a controlled observation, 12-18 month old infants were left in a room with their mother. Eight different scenarios occurred, including being approached by a stranger, the infant being left alone, and the mother returning. The infants reactions were constantly observed.

Results: About 15% of infants were “insecure-avoidant” (type A)- they ignored their mother and didn’t mind if she left. A stranger could comfort them

About 70% were “securely attached” (type B)- they were content with their mother, upset if she left and happy when she returned. They also avoided strangers.

About 15% were “insecure-resistant” (type C)- they were uneasy around their mother and upset if she left. They resisted strangers and were also hard to comfort when their mother returned.

Conclusion: Infants showing different reactions to their carers have a different type of attachment

Evaluation: The research method used allowed control of the variables, making the results reliable. However, the laboratory-type situation made the study artificial, reducing the ecological validity. The parents may have changed their behaviour, as they knew that they were being observed. This could have had an effect on the children’s behavior.

Method: Case studies were completed on the backgrounds of 44 adolescents who had been referred to the clinic where Bowlby worked because they’d been stealing. There was a control group of 44 “emotionally disturbed” adolescents who didn’t steal.

Results: 17 of the thieves had experienced frequent separations from their mothers before the ages of two, compared with 2 in the control group. 14 of the thieves were diagnosed as “affectionless psychopaths” (they didn’t care about how their actions affected others). 12 of these 14 had experienced separation from their mothers.

Conclusion: Deprivation of the child from its main carer early in life can have very harmful long-term consequences.

Evaluation: The results indicate a link between deprivation and criminal behaviour. However, it can’t be said that one causes the other. There may be other factors (e.g. poverty) that caused the criminal behaviour. Although case studies provide a lot of detailed information, the study relied on retrospective data which may be unreliable.

Method: In a naturalistic observation, several children who experienced short separations from their carers were observed and filmed. For example, a boy called John aged around 18 months stayed in a residential nursery for nine days while his mother had another baby.

Results: For the first day or two, John protested at being separated from his mother. He then started trying to get attention from the nurses, but they were busy with other children so he gave up trying. After another few days, he began to show signs of detachment- he was more active and content than he had been previously at the nursery. But, when his mother came to collect him, he was reluctant to be affectionate.

Conclusion: The short-term separation had very bad effects on John, including possible permanent damage to his attachment with his mother.

Evaluation: John’s reaction might not have been due to separation- it could have been down to his new environment or the fact that he was getting much less attention than he was used to. There will have been little control of variables, and it would be difficult to replicate each individual situation. However, as the study took place in a natural setting, the results will have ecological validity but will be less reliable.

Method: 111 Romanian orphans who were adopted by British families were compared with a group of 52 UK adoptees and followed over a prolonged period. Some of the orphans were adopted before they were 6 months old and some were older than 6 months. Each child was assessed at ages 4, 6 and 11.

Results: The children who were younger than 6 months when they were adopted had the same level of emotional development as other UK children who were adopted at the same age. However, the Romanian orphans who were older than 6 months at adoption showed signs of insecure attachments and social problems. The UK children who were older than 6 months at adoption didn’t show the same problems.

Conclusion: The effects of privation can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before 6 months. Long-term effects are more permanent if attachment doesn’t start to occur within 6 months. Maternal deprivation on its own doesn’t cause permanent effects because the UK adopted children had been separated but didn’t show any problems.

Evaluation: The results with the older children may be due to a lack of any stimulation in the orphanage. As a longitudinal study, Rutter was able to investigate the children over a long period of time, meaning the results provide a better insight into the long-term effects of privation. However, they collected mainly qualitative data which, although detailed, is more difficult to create generalised laws or theories from.

Method: This was a longitudinal (long-term) study of 65 children who had been placed in a residential nursery before they were four months old. They hadn’t had the opportunity to form close attachments with any of their caregivers. By the age of four, some of the children had returned to their birth mothers, some had been adopted, and some had stayed in the nursery.

Results: At 16 years old, the adopted group had strong family relationships, although compared to a control group of children from a “normal” home environment, they had weaker peer relationships. Those who stayed in the nursery or returned to their mothers showed poorer relationships with family and peers than those who were adopted.

Conclusion: Children can recover from early maternal privation if they are in a good quality, loving environment, although their social development may not be as good as children who have never suffered privation.

Evaluation: This was a natural experiment, so it had high ecological validity. However, the sample was quite small and more than 20 of the children couldn’t be found at the end of the study, so it’s hard to generalise the results. Because lots of institutionalised children are unfortunately underfed and malnourished, with a lack of stimulation, it could be these factors that influence their behaviour, rather than the lack of attachment itself.

Method: Hazan and Shaver conducted a “love quiz” in a local newspaper. The quiz had two parts. The first part assessed the attachment type of each person with their parents. The second part involved questions asking about their current beliefs about romantic love.

Results: The first 620 responses were analysed. They found that there was a correlation between the type of childhood attachment and people’s later views on romantic love. Secure children were more likely to have happy and trustworthy relationships. Insecure-avoidant children ended up fearing intimacy and insecure-resistant children were more likely to be worried that they weren’t loved in their relationship.

Conclusion: Hazan and Shaver concluded that their findings provided support for Bowlby’s internal working model- that early attachments do influence adult relationships.

Evaluation: The quiz relied on people thinking back to their childhood, which isn’t always accurate. Additionally, the study used a volunteer sample, so a certain type of person might be more likely to respond. Also, people may have answered untruthfully to show themselves in a better light. However, they did repeat the study in 2003, and found similar results.