Attachment

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Attachmnet definition
The close emotional relationship between an infant and caregiver. Securely attached infants will show a desire to be close to their primary caregiver and they'll show distress when they're separated and pleasure when reunited
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sensitive responsiveness
The caregiver responds appropriately to signals from the infant
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Imitation
The infant copies the caregivers actions and behaviour
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Meltzoff and Moore
Infants between 2 and 3 weeks of age appeared to imitate the facial expressions and hand movement of experimenter
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interactional synchrony
Infants react in time with the caregiver's speech resulting in a conversation dance
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Condon and Sander
Provided evidence by showing how babies do appear to move in time with adult conversation
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Reciprocity/turn-taking
interaction flows back and forth between the caregiver and infant
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motherese
The slow, high-pitched way of speaking to infants. There is no evidence that this influneces the strength of an attachment between parent and infant
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Schaffer's stages of attachment
Pre-attachmnet, indiscriminate attachment phase, discriminate attachment phase, multiple attachment phase
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Pre-attachment phase
from 0-3 months of life the baby learns to separate people from objects but has no preference about who cares for it
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Indiscriminate attachment phase
6 weeks and seven months the infant begins to distinguish and recognise different people, smiling at peopleit know rather than strangers. No preferences about who cares for it
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Discriminate attachment phase
seven to eleven months , infant becomes able to form a strong attachment with an individual. They are content when the person is around, distressed when they leave and happy when they return. May be scared of strangers and avoid them
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The multiple attachment phase
from nine months, infant can form attachments to multiple different people, Some attachments are stronger than others and have multiple different functions. Doesn't seem to be a limit to number of attachments it can make.
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Schaffer and Emerson-evidence of attachment stages (method)
60 babies were observed in their homes in Glasgow every four weeks from birth to about 18 months. Interviews were also conducted with their families
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Schaffer and Emerson-evidence of attachment stages (results)
Schaffer's stages of attachment formation were found to occur. At 8 months about 50 of the infants had more than one attachment. About 20 of them either had no attachment with their mother or had a stronger attachment with someone else
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Schaffer and Emerson-evidence of attachment stages (conclusion)
Infants form attachment in stages and can eventually attach to many people. Quality of care is important in forming attachments so the infant may not attach to their mother if other people respond better to its signals
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Schaffer and Emerson-evidence of attachment stages (evaluation)
limited samples, evidence from interviews may be biased and unreliable. There are cross-cultural differences to considered. Tronick et al found infants in Zaire had a strong attachment to their mother of six months of age despite multiple carers
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Goodsell and Meldrum
large study into relationships between infant and father. Fund infants with secure attachment to their mother were more likely to have a secure attachment to their father
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Ross et al
Showed that the number of nappies a father changed was positively correlated to the strength of their attachment.
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Caldera
supported Ross et al, investigated 60 fathers and mothers and their 14-month old infants. He found that when the father was involved in care-giving activities, they were more likely to have strong attachment with the child
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Geiger
suggest the role a mother and father play can be different. He suggested that a mothers relationship is primarily nurturing and caring, but fathers relationship is more focused around play
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Lorenz study into geese (method)
Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs into two groups and left one group with the mother while he incubated the other group. He was the first moving thing they saw and noticed the goslings followed him around like the others followed their mother
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Lorenz study into geese (findings)
He put the two groups together and observed that the first group went to the mother and the other group wen to him. . Imprinting was most likely between 13-16 hours after hatching.After this period it was to late for young birds to imprint.
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Harlow study into monkeys (method)
Aim was to find out if monkeys would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure. The monkeys were raised in isolation and had two surrogate mothers, one mesh wire one with feeding bottle and a cloth one
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Harlow study into monkeys (results)
Monkeys spent most of their time clinging to cloth mother and only used the wire mother to feed. Cloth surrogate gave comfort. When monkeys grew the showed signs of social and emotional disturbance.Females were bad mothers and violent to offspring
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Harlow study into monkeys (conclusion)
Infant monkeys formed more an attachment with a figure that provided comfort and protection. Growing up in isolation affected their development
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Harlow study into monkeys (evaluation)
lab experiment so results were not likely to be affected by variables. Can't generalise results to humans. Ethical issue as the monkeys were stressed and later showed signs of mental damage.Lacked ecological validity as monkeys weren't in natural hom
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Harlow added a fear factor
When a fearful object was placed in the cage, the monkey would cling to the cloth surrogate first before exploring the object. Monkeys in cages with only a wire surrogate would remain frozen or run wildly around the cage.
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Why not to use animals in experiment?
findings should be interpreted carefully as it is hard to generalise the findings from one species to another. Lorenz used animals that can open their eyes and walk from the moment they are born.
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Ethic consideration
some research could not be carried out on humans ethically but some see it unethical to carry them out on animals because of the inflicted stress and they can't give consent
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How does learning theory link attachment to pleasure?
Dollard and Miller claimed that babies feel discomfort when hungry and so have a desire to get food to remove discomfort. They find that if they cry their mother will come and feed them- so discomfort is removed. Mother is associated with food
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Learning theory strength and weaknesses
support from scientific research. Reductionist- tries to explain complex attachment with simple stimulus response processes. Uses animals and findings cannot be generalised.
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Bowlby monotropic theory
We have evolved a biological need to attach to our main caregiver. This biological need has dveloped through natural selection to ensure the survival of the child to maturity.
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Bowlby monotropic theory#2
We form a main attachment because it has a survival value as staying close to the mother provides food and protection
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Bowlby's model of attachment
forming an infant attachment gives us a template for all future relationships. The model is a working model because it can change and develop over time depending on how the persons relationships change
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Bowlby's critical period
The first three lives are the critical period for attachment to develop otherwise it might never do so. If the attachment doesn't happen it may damage the childs development
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secure attachment
strong bond between child and caregiver. If separated the infant becomes distressed and when united the child is easily comforted by caregiver. Associated with healthy cognitive and emotional development
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Insecure avoidant
If separated from caregiver the child doesn't become particularly distressed and can usually be comforted by a stranger. Shown by children who avoid social interaction and intimacy with others
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Insecure resistant
Child is uneasy around their caregiver but becomes upset if their separated. Comfort can't be given by strangers and it's also resisted from the caregiver. These children both accept and reject social interaction and intimacy
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Ainsworth et al strange situation (method)
In a controlled observation 12-18 month old infants were left in a room with their mother. 8 different scenarios happened including being approached by a stranger, the infant being left alone and the mother returning. Infants reactions are watched
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Ainsworth et al strange situation (results)
insecure avoidant- 15% of infants, they ignored the mother and didn't mind if she left, they were easily comforted by a stranger. securely attached-70% of infants, content with mother, upset when she left & happy when she returned, avoided strangers
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Ainsworth et al strange situation (results 2)
insecure resistant- 15% of infants , uneasy around their mother and upset when she left. They resisted strangers and were also hard to comfort when their mother returned
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Ainsworth et al strange situation (conclusion)
infants showing different reactions to their carers have different types of attachment
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Ainsworth et al strange situation (evaluation)
all the variables were controlled making it reliable but it was artificial reducing ecological validity. Parents may have changed their behavior because they knew they were being watched which could have affected childrens behavior.
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Ainsworth et al strange situation (evaluation #2)
Mother may not have been childrens main attachment figure
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Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg cross cultural studies- method
They carried out a meta analysis of 32 studies of the strange situation in different countries. They were analysed to find the overall pattern
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Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg cross cultural studies- results
% of children classified as secure or insecure were similar across the countries tested, there were more differences within the actual countries than between them. Secure attachments were the most common type of attachment in the countries studied.
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Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg cross cultural studies- results #2
some differences were found in the distribution of insecure attachment. In western culture avoidant was the most popular type of insecure attachments, highest proportions coming from Germany. Resistant was popular in non-western cultures
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Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg cross cultural studies- conclusion
there are cross-cultural similarities in raising children with common reaction to the strange situation
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Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg cross cultural studies- evaluation
Cultural differences may results in different types of attachment so strange situation may not be suitable for studying cross-cultural attachment. Using a different type of study may have revealed different patterns/types of attachments.
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Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg cross cultural studies- evaluation #2
Study assumes that different countries are the same thing as different cultures. One problem with the research is that meta-analysis can hide individual results that show an unusual trend
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Findings from strange situation research
Grossman et al claimed there were more avoidant infants found in Germany cause of the value Germans put on independence. The cause of different attachmnet types could be because of the sensitivity of carers or inborn temperament. .
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Findings from strange situation research #2
The experiment only shows the child's relationship with a specific person so they may react differently to different carers or later in life. Attachment type may influence later behaviour
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Separation
A child is away from a caregiver they're attached to. The term's used when it is a relatively short time, just hours or days- not a longer or permanent separation
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Deprivation
The loss of something that is wanted or needed. So maternal deprivation is the loss of the mother. A more long term or even permanent loss is implied
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

sensitive responsiveness

Back

The caregiver responds appropriately to signals from the infant

Card 3

Front

Imitation

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Meltzoff and Moore

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

interactional synchrony

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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