Attachments (A2)

A01

Reciprocity - coordination of actions in a sort of conversation essential for future communication and attachment.

Interactional synchrony - mirroring a caregivers actions, key study of Meltzoff and Moore.

Real or Pseudo-Imitation - Piaget suggested infants repeated behaviour due to encouragement.

A03

• Problems with testing infant behaviour.
• Questions into whether the behaviour is intentional.
• Individual differences in synchronisation.
• Other study's failed to replicate the results shown by Meltzoff and Moore.

Stage 1 - Indiscriminate - 0-2 months, animate & inanimate objects, reciprocity & interactional synchrony play a role in relationships.

Stage 2- Beginnings - 2-4 months, prefer human contact, distinguish between familar and unfamilar faces and show general sociability.

Stage 3 - Discriminate - 4-7months, stranger & separation anxiety, primary attachment forms

Stage 4 - Multiple Attachments

Key Study: Schaffer and Emerson - 60 infants, Glasgow, 65% to mother and 25% to the father.

Role of the Father and Secondary Attachments.

A03

• Schaffer and Emerson study was bias.
• Questions into whether multiple attachmets are equal.
• Stages are inflexible
• Collectivist cultures place a greater importance on multiple attachments.

A01

Imprinting - takes place during a specific time usually within the first few minutes.

Split gosling eggs, tested this by putting together all the goslings.

Long lasting effects - imprinting was irreversible and long lasting and had effects on sexual imprinting.

A03

• Research supports the idea of imprinting
• Dispute over whether the characteristics of imprinting were irreversible.

A01

Two mother wire monkey, all 8 monkeys spent most of the time with the cloth mother.

Long lasting effects - socially and sexually abnormal, if placed back with other monkey before 3 months they recovered

A03

• The two mothers may have differed in more than one way.
• Hard to generalise animal behaviour to humans.
• Ethical issues with the treatment of the monkeys

A01

Classical conditioning 

Operant conditioing - drive reduction theory

Social Learning Theory - children observe parental affection and imitate this.

A03

• The learning theory is based on studies with animals
• It suggests that the main explanation for attachment is food but this isnt support by Harlow
• The learning theory doesn't provide a complete explanation for attachment
• Drive reduction theory is largely ignored today.

A01

Attachment is important for survival

Innate drive to attach occuring up to 2 years and state the idea of monotrophy.

Attachment is due to mother sensitivity and social releasers.

Forms an internal working model about expectations of relationships.

Continuity hypothesis proposes infants are more socially and emotionally competent.

A03

• Although attachment is important it may be less critical for survival
• The critical period may be too harsh
• The multiple attachment model may not be as different from what Bowlby intended
• Attachments have effects on later relationships.

A01

Placed in a room, consisted of 8 episodes (stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion behaviour and use of a parent as a safe base), recorded every 15 seconds using behaviour catergories.

66% were securely attached - cooperative interactions, distress but easily comforted, use caregiver as a safe base to be independant.

22% insecure avoidant -avoid intimacy, no response to separation, no resistance to being put down.

12% insecure resistant - conflicting behaviors and extreme distress upon leaving.

A03

• Possibility of a fourth attachment type
• Study had low internal validity
• Observations have high validity (0.94 agreement)
• Many real world applications.

A01

Van Ijenzendoorn and Kroonenburg - meta anaylsis from 8 countrires, found secure attachment is the most common and insecure avoidant was second except in Israel and Japan.

Grossman - german infants were insecurely attached as german culture involves personal distance

Takahasi - Japense infants were insecurely attached as infants very rarely experience early separations

Tronick -Efe tribe and found infants still slept with their mother.

A03

• However, universal similarities may be down to other factors rather than an innate drive
• They compared countries not cultures
• Issues with the tools that have been used.
• The theory of attachment is not relevant to other cultures.

A01

Believe infants nned intimate and continuous relationships not just warmth and food.

Children who experience frequent prolonged separations between 2-5 become emotionally distrubed.

Key Study: 44 Juvenile Thieves - emotional psychopaths who lacked normal signs of affections, shame or responsibility, 86% experienced early separations suggesting a lack of continual care lead to emotional problems.

A03

• People tend to assume it is just physical separation
• Experiencing early maternal separation doesn't always lead to a negative outcome.
• Has real world applications.
• Not all children are affected by separation in the same way.

A01

Key Study - Rutter et al - 165 Romanian orphans, lagged behind in cognitive, physical and emotional development, by 4 most orphans had caught up, after 6 months adoptees showed disinhibited attachments.

Effects of institualtionalisation - physical underdevelopment, intellectual under development, dishinbited attachments and poor parenting.

A03

• It may not be true that infants who don't attached in the sensitive period are unable to recover
• Research helps improve the care of children.
• Importance of longitudinal studies
• Romanian orphans were faced with much more than emotional distress.

A01

Key Study: Hazen and Shaver - love quiz, analysed 620 responses, found similar attachment types, positive correltaiton between attachment and love experiences

Behaviours Influenced by the internal working model - childhood relationships, poor parenting, romantic relationships, mental health problems.

A03

• Research links together the internal working model and later relationships
• Most studies rely on retrospective classification
• Researchers suggest that very early experiences have fixed effects on later life
• Adult relationships may be guided by a self-verification processs (tendency to seek out people who confirm your expectations)