Psychology - Attachment - Revision Cards in A Level and IB Psychology

The Role of the Father

Primary Attachment;
- Schaffer & Emmerson - Majority of babies form primary attachments with mother first around 7 months
- Within a few weeks/months forming secondary attachment with father and/or other family members
75% forming secondary attachments;
- 75% of infants in study formed attachment with father by 18 months
Teen attachments;
- Grossman (2002) - longitudinal study found quality of relationship with mother more important than father in attachment type of teen
- Fathers less important in long-terrm emotional development
Father's play more important;
- Quality of father's play related to children's attachments
- Father's role more about play and stimulation than nurturing
Father's can be primary caregivers;
- Field (1978) filmed 4-month-old babies and found primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers

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Importance of food;
- Children learn to love whoever feeds them ('cupboard love')
Classical Conditioning;
- Learning through association
- UCS leads to UCR - food leads to feeling of pleasure
Baby learns mother produces sense of pleasure;
- Caregiver (NS) provides food which provides pleasure, over time mother becomes associated with pleasure (CS & CR)
Operant Conditioning;
- Crying leads to response from caregiver, and caregiver provides correct response so crying is reinforced by positive outcome
Negative Reinforcement;
- Caregiver recieves negative reinforcement because the crying stops (escaping from something unpleasant)
Drive reduction;
- Hunger is primary drive, motivated to eat to reduce the drive
- Attachment is a secondary drive learned by association between caregiver and primary drive

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Attachment innate like imprinting;
- Attachment innate system giving survival advantage
- Evolved from young animals staying close to parents and therefore protected from harm
Monotropic;
- Described as monotropic because focuses on primary attachment figure
More time with primary attachment figure beneficial;
- Law of continuity; the more constant the child's care the better the quality of attachment
- Law of accumulated seperation; Effects of every seperation adds up
Social releasers;
- Babies born with innate 'cute' behaviours that trigger love from the adult
Critical period;
- about 2 years
- If attachment not formed by this time, it will be very difficult for the child to form attachments later

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Continued emotional care from mother essential;
- Continuous emotional care from mother or mother-substitute necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development
Seperation from mother may lead to maternal deprivation;
Seperation vs Deprivation;
- Seperation; physical absence of PAF
- deprivation; losing emotional care from absence
Critical period;
- Extended seperation from mother within 30 months means inevitable psychological damage
Deprivation lowers IQ;
- Suffer mental retardation and abnormally low IQ
- Goldfarb (1947) - found lower IQ's in institutional kids compared to fostered kids
Deprivation linked to emotionless psychopathy;
- Inability to feel guilt or strong emotion for others
- unable to form relationships and linked with criminality

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165 Romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in Britain
Longitudinal study - tested the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions
Physical, cognitive & emotional development at 4, 6, 11 and 15 yrs
also looked at 52 adopted british kids

half the orphans showed mental retardation when they came to the UK
Those adopted before 6 months had mean IQ of 102
Those adopted between 6 months and 2 years had a mean IQ of 86
Those adopted after 2 years had mean IQ of 77
Disinhibited attachment apparent in children adopted after 6 months of age - clinginess, attention-seeking and indiscriminate affection to strangers
These findings support the view that there is a sensitive period in developments of attachments

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Used strange situation to assess attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who spent most of their lives in institutional care
Compared to control group of 50 children who had never experienced institutional care

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First attachment is template for future relationships;
- Quality of child's first attachment is crucial as it provides a template that will affect the nature of their future relationships
Good experience of attachment = Good relationship expectations;
- A child who's first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver assumes that is how all relationships are meant to be, so seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them
Bad experience of attachment = Bad relationship expectations;
- Children with bad experiences of attachment will struggle to form relationships or behave appropriately in them
Secure infants form better relationships and are less likely to bully;
- Securely attached infants go on to form the best quality childhood friendships (Kerns 1994)
- Less likely to be involved in bullying, whereas insecure-avoidant most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant to be bullies
Internal working models affect parenting;
- People base their parenting styles on working memory model so attachment types tend to be passed on through generations

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