psych as

-lonigtudinal study to find out about development of attachment: over period of 2 years

- followed 60 infants

- working class area

- infants observed every 4 weeks until age of 1, then again at 18 months

MEASURED IN 2 WAYS:

SEPARATION PROTEST: infant left in room/left alone with other people/left in pram outside house/ left in pram outside shops/ left in cot at night/ put down after being held by an adult/ passed whilst sitting in cot/pram

STRANGER ANXIETY: researcher started every visit by approaching infant until it showed signs of distress/whimpered

BOTH SIGNS ATTACHMENT HAVE BEEN FORMED

-half ot the children showed first sign of attachment between 6-8 months

-developed fear of strangers a month later

- largely attached infants: mothers responded quickly/ large amounts of interaction

-weakly attached: mothers didn't interact

EVALUATION:

POSITIVE: one of the biggest longitudinal studies of infant attachment/ even though it was conducted 35 years ago

NEGATIVE;criticisms to methodology/ data collection- mostly direct observation/ collected by mother- inaccurate?

NEGATIVE: mothers may have felt need to manufacture results BUT more ecological validity than lab studies e.g. strange situation

STRONG: - healthy cognitive and emotional development

-optimal type of attachment/ child can act independently- carer= secure base

- infant is distressed in caregivers absence

- content when they return

INSECURE: 2 TYPES:

RESISTANT: insecure in presence of carer

-distressed when they leave

-resists contact

-wary of strangers

AVOIDANT: -

- infant doesn't seek contact with carer

-shows little distress when seperated

- avoids contact with carer on their return

- treats stranger same way

-AIMS: investigate individual variation in infant attachments

PROCEDURE: -Test last for 20 minutes

- american infants

- controlled observation

- EIGHT STEPS:

1) parent, infant play

2) parent sits while infant plays

3) stranger enters and talks to parent

4)parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort

5) parent returns, greets infant, stranger leaves

6) parents leaves

7) stranger enters, offers comfort

8) parent enters, offers comfort

- there are 2 seperations and 2 reunions

-seperation protest, infants willingness to explore, stranger anxiety and reaction to reunion are the key behaviours used to assess the security of the attachment relationship

- most toddlers displayed secure attachment (70%)

- 10%= anxious, resistant

- 20%= anxious, avoidant

CONCLUSION:

- strange situation is a good measure of attachment, allows us to distinguish between the different types

- concluded secure attachment is preffered

- links secure attachment to maternal responsiveness

POSITIVE:

-confirmed as useful

- reliable, if same child was tested, same results

- valid, securely attached infants seem to do better/ better adjusted

NEGATIVE:

- can't be generalised, likely to reflect norms and values of american culture

-artificial, may distort behaviour, they know they're being observed

- ethics are questionable, mothers/babies may become distressed/anxious

SECURE ATTACHMENT:

- willingness to explore, uses carer as secure base

-shows distress when carer leaves

-70% show this

INSECURE RESISTANT ATTACHMENT:

-remains close to mother, shows insecurity

INSECURE AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT:

- infant shows little or no concern when mother leaves/ little pleasure when she returns

-can be comforted/ calmed down by stranger as well as mother

-shows little preference between mother and stranger/ often avoids both

-20% showed this type

- American children mostly secure (71%) Anxious/resistant (12%) Avoidant (17%)

-German children, secure (40%) resistant (11%) avoidant (49%)

German children often taught to be independent/not clingy

PROCEDURE:

-used results of 32 studies that had been used in strange situation

- used research from 8 different countries

FINDINGS: 

- secure, most common in all cultures

- Western had more avoidant insecure attachments

- non western had more dominant insecure 

CONCLUSIONS:

- consistency in attachment leads to conclusion that there may be universal characteristics than underpin infant/ caregivers actions

-variations show universality is limited

-significant differences question validity of strange situation

-great variation shows its wrong to think of any culture as a whole. Be careful not to generalise results and assume one culture consists of same practices

-need to consider sub cultures, oversimplified to view britain or america as 1 single culture

-not representative of what they're meant to be, but of the sub cultures

-strange situation was created and tested in usa- ethnocentric, culturally biased: only reflects norms of usa

-** lacks ecological and population validity

POSITIVES: 

-only test of infant attachment thats been used in other countries

-Influenced by an evolutionary theory, believed attachment was an inate response, which evolved and served to promote survival in several ways:

safety- keeps child in close proximity

emotional relationships- teaches infant to form relationships. internal working model: a blueprint for all future relationships

secure base-fundemental for childs cognitive development

social releasers-bowlby argued it was innate and reciprocal. infant communicated through crying etc, results in parent showing affection

monotropy- relationship between child and carer is special/ unique

POSITIVE: - extremely influential

-idea of monotropy supported via cross cultural studies

-support for idea of social releasers

NEGATIVES:- IWM criticised, some children may just form relationships easier, better- not proof

-monotropy: what about multiple attachments?

-basis on evolutionary argument, not been possible to prove thats innate

-occurs when child is attached but then becomes separated

-short term: when infants are usually in day care/ carer has short stay in hospital etc

-long term: one parent gets custody etc

MATERNAL DEPRIVATION HYPOTHESIS: BOWLBY argues if main attachment bond is broken in early years (up to 3 years) adverse effect on childs emotional, social and cognitive development

EVALUATION:NEGATIVES-

-Rutter said Bowlby had assumed all types of deprivation were the same

-children may experience separation without bond disruption/substitute maternal care

-may never have formed attachments

- theory was not representative, vast majority of thiefs were not referred to clinics for treatment

- relied very much on mothers and songs, it could have inaccuracies

POSITIVE: - appears to support maternal deprivation hypothesis, idea that deprivation in earlier life results to psyc/ behavioural problems

RESULTS: bowlby diagnosed 32% of theives as affectionless psychopaths

-86% categorised as that had experienced maternal seperation before the age of 5

-only 17% not categorised had suffered maternal seperation

-investigate permanence of long term effects of privation

- tried to prove negative effects of privation could be reversed

-disprove bowlbys claim that maternal deprivation would cause permanent emotional damage

PROCEDURES:

-65 children formed opportunity sample

- natural experiment, using a matched pairs design- insitutionalised children compared with a control group of children raised at home

-longitudinal study, age of entering care to 16

- by age of 4, 24 had been adopted, 15 restored, rest remained

- assessed at ages 4, 8 and 16 on social competence

FINDINGS: -age of 4 children hadn't formed deep relationships, they were highly attention seeking

- By age 8, significant differences between adopted and restored children

-most adopted and restored children had formed close relationships with their caregivers and were as attached as control group. at school, very attention seeking, tended to be unpopular

- 16, adopted children were closely attached with adoptive parents, whereas restored children and parents, bond fragmented. Less likely to be part of a group/bully behaviour

-early privation had a negative effect on the ability of some of the children to form relationships outside of the home

-some privation effects are long lasting

-suggests a need for research in to why adopted children do better than restored

EVALUATION:NEGATIVE-

-drop off of study left a biased sample

-this may have distorted difference between adopted and restored children

- because of this may lack validity, reduces meaningfulness and generalisability

-IV cannot be manipulated, cause and effect not inferred

-misleading to assume restored children will always show less social adjustement

- considerable individual differences within each group