Attachment

Attachment

1. Attachment: Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969).

2. Attachment does not have to be reciprocal. One person may have an attachment to an individual which is not shared.

3. Meltzoff and Moore interactional synchrony: The adult/CG pulls a face to a baby (e.g.tongue stick out), and the baby tends to copy this action (following their lead)

4. Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) studied 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life (this is known as a longitudinal study).

   • Asocial (0 - 6 weeks) - stage 1: Very young infants are asocial in that many kinds of stimuli, both social and non-social, produce a favorable reaction, such as a smile.
   • Indiscriminate Attachments (6 weeks to 7 months) - stage 2: Infants indiscriminately enjoy human company, and most babies respond equally to any caregiver. They get upset when an individual ceases to interact with them. From 3 months infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by a regular caregiver
   • Specific Attachment (7 - 9 months) - stage 3: Special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby looks to particular people for security, comfort, and protection. It shows fear of strangers (stranger fear) and unhappiness when separated from a special person (separation anxiety). Some babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety much more frequently and intensely than others, nevertheless, they are seen as evidence that the baby has formed an attachment. This has usually developed by one year of age.
   • Multiple Attachment (10 months and onwards) - stage 4: The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments. By 18 months the majority of infants have formed multiple attachments. The results of the study indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals, not the person they spent more time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness. Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands and, interacted with their child. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.

5. The role of the father

   • There is now an expectation in Western cultures that the father should play a greater role in bringing up children. Also, the no of mothers working full time has increased, and this has also led to fathers having a + active role. However, whereas mothers usually adopt a + CG and nurturing role compared to father, fathers adopt a + play-mate role than mothers. E.G, fathers are + likely than mothers to encourage risk taking in their children by engaging them in physical games. Most infants prefer contact with their father when in a positive emotional state and wanting to play. In contrast most infants prefer contact with their mother when they are distressed and need comforting.
   • Numerous factors effect the father's role and the impact he has on his child's emotional development. For example, culture, father's age, and the amount of time the father spends away from home. The existence of so many factors means it difficult to make generalisations about the father's role.
   • It is possible that most men are just not psychologically equipped to form an intense attachment because they lack the emotional sensitivity women offer. Oestrogen underlies caring behavior and there continues to be sex stereotypes which affect male behavior.

6. However, Field found that when fathers have the main caregiver role, they adopt behaviors more typical of mothers therefore the key to attachment is the level of responsiveness, not the gender of the parent.

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