Attachment

Attachment 

Reciprocity 

Interactional synchrony 

Primary caregiver attachment 

Role of father

Father as primary caregiver

Evaluation 

+controlled observation

+ Grossman- role of father affects children’s attachment in adolescence

+high validity controlled variables

-Fledman- doesn’t tell us the purpose of reciprocity and interactional synchrony

-working mothers

-children without fathers are not different than the ones who have fathers

Schaffer and Emerson- stages of attachment

60 babies, 31 male and 29 female, all from Glasgow, working-class families. Babies and mothers were visited often at 18 months and asked the mothers questions

Between 25 and 32 weeks 50% showed separation anxiety, tended to be with the person who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals (reciprocity). By 40 weeks, 80% of babies had specific attachment and 30% had multiple attachments

Asocial- first few weeks (same behaviour towards everything even objects)

Indiscriminate- 2-7 months (preference for people rather than objects, recognise and prefer familiar adults)

Specific- around 7 months (show separation anxiety)

Multiple- around the age of 1 children have multiple attachments

Evaluation

+good external validity as study was carried out in own homes

+longitudinal study same children were observed over a longer period of time

-limited sample design, only 60 children all from the same place and background

-mothers might have not reported some behaviours shown by the child

-Bowlby suggests not all babies form just one specific attachment before forming multiple attachments

Animal studies 

Lorenz- Goslings

Divided 2 groups of eggs that were about to hatch one group was left with the mother and the other with Lorenz

Found that the incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group followed the mother. 

Imprinting- bird species attach to and follow the first moving object they see. 

Critical period- imprinting takes place during this period which is till a few hours after birth. If imprinting does not occur during this time, they do not attach to a mother figure.

Sexual imprinting- relation between imprinting and adult mate preferences. Case study of a peacock who was imprinted to giant tortoises. As an adult bird, it was sexually imprinted towards giant tortoises. 

Evaluation

+imprinting was seen as irreversible which led to other psychologists to develop well recognised theories of attachment suggesting that attachment formation takes place during a critical period and is a biological process.

-animal studies, cannot be generalised to humans 

-sexual imprinting is not permanent (yellow glove imprinting)

-ethical issues

Harlow- monkeys

Reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model mothers. One had a milk dispenser and another was wrapped in cloth.

Found baby monkeys cuddled the cloth model for comfort when frightened. This showed that contact comfort was more important than food when it came to attachment behaviour. 

Maternally deprived monkeys as adults

Monkeys with wired mothers were more dysfunctional, did not develop normal social behaviour, more aggressive and less sociable, unskilled for mating

Critical period- both Lorenz and Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour. A mother…