Introduction for attachment

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  • Created by: AK
  • Created on: 11-01-18 12:22
Reciprocity
a description of how two people interact. Mother-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other
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Interactional synchrony
Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way
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Caregiver-infant interactions : Reciprocity
Babies have 'alert phases' that signal they are ready for interaction. Mothers pick up on this and respond around two-thirds of the time. Both mother and child can initiate interactions and appear to take turns in doing so
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Caregiver-infant interactions : Interactional synchrony
'The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour' - Feldman 2007. Meltzoff and Moore (1977) saw the start of interactional synchrony in two weeks old infants. Isabella et al. found high synchrony is linked to good mother-infant attachments
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Parent-infant attachment
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found majority of babies are attached to mother first, and then after a few weeks/months formed secondary attachments. 75% formed attachment to father by 18 months
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The role of the father
Grossman(2002) carried out a longitudinal study of parent's behaviour and its link to quality of attachment in teens. Quality of infant attachment with mother was linked, but not fathers. Fathers play was linked-fathers have a different role of play
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Fathers as primary carers
Evidence to suggest when fathers take on role of main caregiver they adopt behaviours typical of mothers. Tiffany field (1978) filmed 4-month-old babies in face-to-face interaction with PC (mothers), 2C (fathers) and PC(fathers) = fathers can be PC
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Evaluation - it is hard to know what is happening when observing infants
Many studies involving watching interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same pattern of interaction (Gratier 2003) Merely hand movements or changes in expression observed. Can't know for certain behaviour in M-I interaction is special
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Evaluation - controlled observations capture fine detail
Observations of M-I interactions are generally well controlled, this allows very fine details of behaviour to be recorded and later analysed. Babies don't know they are being observed - problem for observational research. Strength - good validity
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Evaluation - observations don't tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
Feldman(2012) synchrony and reciprocity describe behaviours at the time - doesn't tell us their purpose. Recipricol interaction and synchrony are good for development of MI attachment, stress responses, empathy, language and moral development
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Evaluation - inconsistent findings on fathers
Some psychologists interested in fathers as secondary attachment figures, others as primary attachment , cannot answer what is the role of the father
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Evaluation - if fathers have a distinct role why aren't children without fathers different
Grossman found fathers as 2ndary attachment figures had important role in child's development. MacCallum and Golombok (2004) found children without fathers don't develop any differently. Suggests fathers role as 2ndary figure isn't important
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Evaluation - why don't fathers generally become primary attachments
Could be due to traditional gender roles, so father doesn't feel they should act like a mother does, or hormones like oestrogen could create higher levels of nurturing so women are biologically better at primary attachment figure
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Evaluation - socially sensitive research: working mothers
Suggests children may be disadvantaged by certain child-rearing practices e.g. mothers who return to work soon after birth - restricts chances for interactional synchrony - Isabella et al. showed to be important in developing IC attachment
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way

Back

Interactional synchrony

Card 3

Front

Babies have 'alert phases' that signal they are ready for interaction. Mothers pick up on this and respond around two-thirds of the time. Both mother and child can initiate interactions and appear to take turns in doing so

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

'The temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour' - Feldman 2007. Meltzoff and Moore (1977) saw the start of interactional synchrony in two weeks old infants. Isabella et al. found high synchrony is linked to good mother-infant attachments

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found majority of babies are attached to mother first, and then after a few weeks/months formed secondary attachments. 75% formed attachment to father by 18 months

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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