Attachment

Characteristics of ASOCIAL STAGE

FIRST FEW WEEKS; Recognise & form bonds with carers, Behaviour to human&non-human objects is similar, preference for familiar adults

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Characteristics of INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT

2-7 MONTHS; prefer people to objects, recognise & prefer familiar people, accept comfort from ANY adult, dont usually show separation anxiety.

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Characteristics of SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT

7+ MONTHS; Stranger anxiety & Separation anxiety from 1 person, Primary attchment- the person who interacts & responds to baby signals not always who they spend the most time with.

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Characteristics of MULTIPLE ATTACHMENT

9+ MONTHS; Multiple attachments- develop a secondary attachment.

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What did Lorenz study?

Imprinting & critical period- Independant groups- 1 with mother, 1 in incubator

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What did Lorenz find?

Group with mother followed mother, incubated group followed Lorenz, even when mixed stayed with their 'mother figure',

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Research REJECTING Lorenz?

Found that chickens who imprinted on rubber gloves, were likely to imprint of them as adults BUT eventually would learn to mate with other chickens.

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What did Harlow study?

Rhesus monkeys- separated 16 babies from mothers, babies were raised with 2 model mothers; wire(feeding) & cloth(comfort)

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What did Harlow find?

Monkey spend 22 hours a day on comfort mother only went to wire mother for food.

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What happened to the monkeys as they grew up?(continued research)

They developed abnormally; socially abnormal- feared other monkeys, more aggressive than other monkeys, abnormal mating behaviour, do not craddle their own babies

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Harlows crirical period?

If motherless monkeys spent time with their monkey peers before 3 months, they seemed to recover.

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What did harlow do with a scary mechanical toy?

Placed scary toy near the cage, the scared monkeys ran to comfort monkey, when fear lessened, they began to explore the toy but still run back to the cloth monkey.

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Strengths of Harlows research

Theoretical value- helps us understand and recognise the importance of attachments, Practical value- monkeys in zoos

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Limitations of Harlows research

2 monkeys may have had slightly different faces (cloth may have been more attractive), question generalisability, ethics

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What are the 2 learning theories of attachment?

Classical conditioning (food=pleasure/ mother=pleasure) & Operant conditioning(infant learns that eye contact, smiling etc brings a positive response from adults)

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Strengths of learning theory of attachent

based on existing scientific theory (pavlovs dogs)

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Limitations of learning theory of attachent

Counter evidence from harlow- monkeys attached to comfort mother not feeding mother, Counter-evidence from Shaffer & Emerson- primary attachment to person who was most responsive, Ignores factors of reciprocity & interactional synchrony

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What is the internal working model? (Bowlby's theory of attachment)

a template/model of what relationships should look like

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What is the continuity hypothesis? (Bowlby's theory of attachment)

infants who are securely attached will cintue to be socially & emotionally competent

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What is Ainsworths Strange Situation?

100 middle class American mothers & children ages 12-28 months, observation through a 2 way mirror

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What are the 3 main types of attachment found by Ainsworth?

Secure, Insecure avoidant, Insecure resistant

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What is secure attachment?(60-75%)

Mother as a base to explore, moderate seperation anxiety, positive @ reunion, avoidant of strangers but friendly if mother is present

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What is insecure avoidant attachment?(20-25%)

Happy to explore without mother, unconcerned by mothers absense, little stranger anxiety, unresponsive @ reunion

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What is insecure resistant attachment?(3%)

Seek great proximity, intense seperation anxiety, intense stranger anxiety, conflicting reunion behaviour

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Strengths of Strange situation

Controlled observation (almost perfect inter rater reliability of 0.94), support for validity- pridictive of later development (secure attached have better outcomes eg. do well at school, friends but insecure resistant have worse outcomes eg. bullyin

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Limitations of strange situation

Cultural validity(culture bound)- only usa- different child rearing practices, ethics- infant distress, too simplist- only 3 types

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Further meta analysis of strange situation (van ijzendoorn & kroonenberg)

Meta analysis of 32 strange situations with 2000+ p's, secure attachment was most common in every country, insecure avoidant was 2nd most common in all countries apart from Israel & Japan

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Attachment

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