Attachment research studies

'Still face experiment'

Mother and child interact normally, and then the mother stops responding

When the mother does not respond, the baby becomes distressed, suggesting that when usual signs of attachment are broken, the baby becomes distressed

Filmed adults and babies; adults displayed one of three facial expressions to the babies

There was an association found between the expression and the action of the baby, suggesting babies respond to facial expressions from a young age

Interviewed the families of 60 babies - 31 male and 29 female - most from working class families in Glasgow; families were visited at home once a month for 18 months

Researchers interviewed mothers about the kind of protest babies showed in 7 everyday separations

Between 25 and 32 weeks, 50% of babies showed signs of specific attachment towards a particular adult

Attachment tended to be towards the person who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (reciprocity)

By 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments

Most babies show signs of specific attachment at 32 weeks, and at 40 weeks most have formed specific attachments

Found that primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time with their baby than secondary caregiver mothers, so it is responsiveness rather than gender that affects attachments

Found that the father plays an important role in play and stimulation rather than nurturing

Found that the quality of infant's attachment to the mother (but not father) is related to attachments in adolescence;

Found that growing up without a father figure as a secondary caregiver makes no difference to a child's development

Observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony

Also assessed the quality of mother-infant attachment

They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality attachment

Points out that synchrony and reciprocity simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time

These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, however, this may not be useful as it does not tell us their purpose

Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment (control) and half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz

Lorenz then observed and compared their behaviour

The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere; the control group followed the mother

When the two groups were mixed, the control group continued to follow the mother and the incubator group continued to follow Lorez

Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting takes place; this period depends on species, but it may be as brief as only a few hours

Lorenz investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences
In a case study, Lorenz described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects it saw after hatching were giant tortoises; as an adult, the bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises

This suggests that attachments as an infant  affect behaviour later in life: attachments teach infants appropriate behaviour

Conducted research with 8 rhesus monkeys which were caged from infancy with wire mesh food-dispensing and cloth-covered surrogate mothers, to investigate which of the two alternatives would have more attachment behaviours directed towards it.

Harlow measured the amount of time spent with each surrogate mother and the amount of time that they cried for their biological mother

Harlow's findings revealed that separated infant rhesus monkeys would show attachment behaviours towards a cloth-covered surrogate mother when frightened, rather than a food dispensing surrogate mother

Monkeys were willing to explore a room full of toys when the cloth-covered monkey was present but displayed phobic responses when only the food-dispensing surrogate was present

Suggests that 'contact comfort' was of more importance than food when it came to attachment

Harlow and his colleagues followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a 'real' mother into adulthood to see the effect

There were severe consequences: the monkeys reared with only wire mothers were the most dysfunctional, however, those reared with a cloth-covered mother did not develop normal social behaviour either

They were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and they bred less often than is typical as they were unskilled at mating

As mothers, some of the monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, some even killing them

This suggests that if babies are deprived of healthy attachments when they are younger, this impacts their ability to behave naturally when they are older

The idea of internal working models is testable because it predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed on from one generation to the next

Bailey et al tested this idea; they assessed 99 mothers with 1 year old babies on the quality of attachment to their own mothers, as well as the attachment of the babies to their mothers through observation

It was found that the mothers who reported poor attachment to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as having poor attachments during the observations

This supports the idea that, as Bowlby said, an internal working model of attachment is passed through families

There is clear evidence to show that ‘cute’ infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction, and that in doing so, is important to the baby in forming attachments

Brazelton et al observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence of interactional synchrony

Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies’ signals - in Bowlby’s terms, to ignore their social releasers

The babies initially showed some distress, but when the attachment figures continued to ignore the baby, some responded by curling up and lying motionless

The fact that the children responded so strongly supports Bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviours in eliciting caregiving

Said that this places too much responsibility on the mother to take the blame for anything that goes wrong and pushes women into lifestyle choices, such as not going back to work, so that they can care for their baby, even though they may need or want to

Proposed that attachment can be explained through learning theory

This is known as 'cupboard love' theory because the baby ends up loving the person that feeds them

It is a controlled observation to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. It takes place in an unfamiliar room. The original experiment observed 100 middle-class mothers and infants who were aged 12-18 months
The following behaviours are observed: proximity seeking; exploration and secure-base behaviour; stranger anxiety; separation anxiety; response at reunion
The procedure has 7 episodes which last three minutes each. Each part tests a particular behaviour:

• The child is encouraged to explore - tests exploration and secure-base behaviour
• A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child - tests stranger anxiety
• The caregiver leaves the child and stranger together - tests separation and stranger anxiety
• The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves - tests response at reunion
• The stranger returns - tests stranger anxiety
• The caregiver returns and is reunited with the child - tests response at reunion

Found that 60-75% of British toddlers have a secure attachment, 30-25% have an insecure-avoidant attachment and 3% have an insecure-resistant attachment

An Italian study, which found a lower rate of secure attachment in Italian babies compared to British babies

This could be because mothers of young children work long hours and use professional childcare

A Korean study that found that the majority of babies were secure

More were insecure-resistant than in Ainsworth's study and only one child was insecure-avoidant

This could be because of the collectivist culture in Korea

Located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation was used. These studies were conducted in 8 countries. Overall, the studies yielded results for 1990 children. The data from the studies was meta-analysed

Secure attachment was the most common classification in all countries

Insecure-resistant was the least common type, but the percentage ranged from 3% in Britain to 29% in Israel

Variations between results of studies within the same country were 150% greater than those between countries

Secure attachment is the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby's theory that attachment is innate; cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

Suggested that attachment type is more related to temperance than to the relationship with the primary attachment figure

He argued that the Strange Situation measures anxiety rather than attachment quality

Supports Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation as it shows that after a period of prolonged separation from their mother without a substitute primary caregiver, children may become distressed, detached, anxious or reject their mother when reunited

This has practical application as it has helped improve care for children separated from their mothers

The sample was 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. All were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (lack of affection, lack of guilt, lack of empathy) and their families interviewed to establish whether they had prolonged early separation from their mothers

A control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal deprivation occured in non-criminal children

14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths; 12 of these 14 had prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives. Only 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had experienced prolonged separation

Prolonged separation/deprivation is linked to affectionless psychopathy

Found lower IQ in children in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered

Showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development, though not other aspects of development

Partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a much larger scale and found that a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships

Reported the case of twin boys who were isolated from 18 months to 7 years

Subsequently, they were looked after by two loving adults and appeared to recover fully

This suggests that the critical period is actually more of a sensitive period.

Claimed Bowlby was confusing deprivation and privation (failure to form an attachment at all)

He claimed that the severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation was more likely to be the result of privation

Followed a group of Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development were tested at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15. A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time served as the control group

When they first arrived in the UK, half the adoptees showed signs of mental retardation and the majority were severely undernourished. The differences in IQ remained until age 16 (i.e. the mean IQ of those adopted before 6 months was 102 and it stayed this way). Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment (attention seeking, clinginess and and social behaviours directed indiscriminately towards all adults, familiar and unfamiliar). Children adopted before 6 months did not show signs of disinhibited attachment

Assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent about 90% of their lives in institutional care. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution. Their attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation, and carers were asked about unusual behaviour and signs of disinhibited attachment

74% of the control group  were securely attached compared to only 19% of the institutionalised group. 65% of the institutionalised group were classified with disorganised attachment. The description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of the institutionalised children but less than 20% of the control group

Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached infants tend to have the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants tend to have friendship difficulties

Assessed attachment type and bullying involvement. They used questionnaires to assess 196 children, aged 7-11 from London. Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying; insecure-avoidant children were most likely to be victims; and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies

Studied 40 women who had been assessed for their early attachment type. Securely attached adults had the best friendships and romantic relationships;  insecure-avoidant adults had problems maintaining friendships;insecure-avoidant adults struggled with intimacy issues in romantic relationships

Conducted a study into the association between attachment and adult relationships by analysing 620 replies to a 'love quiz' assessing love experiences and attachment types. They found that 56% of people were securely attached and more likely to have good and long-lasting relationships; 25% of people were insecure-avoidant and more likely to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy; 19% of people were insecure-resistant. Findings suggest patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships

Conducted a study into the association between attachment and adult relationships by analysing 620 replies to a 'love quiz' assessing love experiences and attachment types. They found that 56% of people were securely attached and more likely to have good and long-lasting relationships; 25% of people were insecure-avoidant and more likely to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy; 19% of people were insecure-resistant. Findings suggest patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships

Assessed infant attachment type and adolescent relationships to parents and found very little relationship to them

Describe the influence of infant attachments on later relationships as probabilistic, meaning that people are not doomed because of bad early attachments - they are just at greater risk of future problems