Attachment

Attachment

1. Animal Studies

   • Lorenz
     • Ducks and imprinting
       • Critical period, will attach to first moving objects
       • Imprinting is irreversible, do not ID with species, impacted mate preference (sexual imprinting)
   • Harlow
     • Two Studies
       • Study 1
         • Tested impact of privation
           • Isolated Rhesus monkeys for 3,6,9 or 12 months
             • Privation led to bizarre behaviour
               • Afraid initially, then aggressive to other monkeys
               • Unable to communicate/socialise
                 • Bullied
               • Self-Mutilation
               • Irreversible, length of privation determined severity
       • Study 2
         • Rhesus monkeys given two surrogate mothers, one wire, one cloth
           • 4 were given milk by the wire, the other 4 from cloth
             • Regardless of food, all 8 spent most time with cloth
               • Clung to them when frightened
               • When exploring, would keep one foot on cloth
               • Long term Effects of experience
                 • Abnormal development
                   • Social
                     • Froze/Fled other monkeys
                   • Sexual
                     • Irregular mating behaviour
                     • Do not cradle babies
                 • If they spent time with monkey peers before 3 months old, seem to recover

2. Strange Situation Ainsworth

   • Attachment types
   • Cultural Variations van Ijzendoorn

3. Bowlby

   • Theory of Maternal Deprivation
     • • Ground-breaking research, previously thought that a good standard of care was based on good food and physical care, if separation occurred, all that was needed was the maintaining of this standard
         • Showed the importance of a "warm, intimate and continuous relationship" with a mother figure to ensure normal mental health
       • Showed that there are long term consequences from separation
     • There is a CRITICAL PERIOD for all this (before two and a half) but continued risk till 5, and only risk if there is no substitute

4. Early Attachment

   • Reciprocity
     • Conversation between caregiver and infant
     • Foundation for attachment
     • Allows caregiver to respond and detect baby signals
   • Interactional Synchrony
     • Meltzoff and Moore
       • 4 stimuli (3 face gestures, 1 hand)
         • Infants would imitate caregiver
       • Piaget didn't believe real imitation could occur this early, was repetition of rewarded behaviour
       • Study supports M&M
         • 2 m/o interact with mother via screen
           • When this was switched to a pre-recorded film (thus no response) would try and gain attention, when unsuccessful, turned away
   • Development of Attachment
     • Schaffer & Emerson
       • Stage 1 - Indiscriminate Birth - 6 weeks
         • Stage 2 - Beginnings (up to 7 months) Enjoy people, more social
           • Stage 3 - Discriminate (7-11 months) Primary attachment figure, separation anxiety
             • 65% to mother, only 3% to fathers
               • 39% made to person who DIDN'T feed/change/bath
             • Stage 4 - Multiple Attachments (10-11 months) Soon after primary attachment build a network of attachments
               • Within a month of 1st, 29% of infants had multiple
                 • Within 6 months, risen to 78%
                   • By ≈ 1 year, 1/3 of infants had 5+ attachments
       • Role of fathers
         • Far less likely to be Primary Attachment figure
           • Biological - Lack oestrogen that drive caring behaviour of women
           • Social - Stereotype that sensitivity is feminine trait
           • Psychological - No difference in psychological response to a baby crying, not different between men and women
           • More likely to be secondary attachment figure
             • Father is an exciting playmate
               • Fathers lack of sensitivity fosters problem-solving by making greater communicative and cognitive comands

5. Explanations of Attachment

   • Monotropic Attachment
   • Learning Theory
     • Classical Conditioning
       • Baby derives pleasure from food (UCR) and by association with Mother (NS), the mother is associated with the UCS of pleasure
     • Operant Conditioning
       • Drive Reduction theory - hunger causes discomfort and a 'drive' to reduce this. Reduction leads to pleasure (positive reinforcer). Behaviour that led to this more likely to be repeated
         • Through CC, person who supplies food associated with avoiding discomfort, becomes secondary reinforcer

6. Effects of Attachment

   • Internal Working Model
     • Like a schema for future relationships
   • Behaviour later on in life
   • Hazan and Shaver
     • Love Quiz - published in paper, asks about current and past attachment history to identify current and childhood attachment type
       • Analysed 620 responses (205 from men, 415 from women)
         • Found self reported attachment types were similar to those in infancy (56% secure, 25% avoidant and 19% resistant)
           • +ve correlation between attachment type and love xp (secure described xp as happy, trusting and friendly, emphasised accepting partner in spite of faults)
             • Secure had more enduring relationships, averaging 10 yrs compared to 5 (resistant) and 6(aviodant)
               • Relationship between conception of love and attachment type
   • Romanian Orphans
     • RUTTER & SONUGA-BARKE
       • ERA study (English and Romanian Adoptees), 165 children who spent their early years in institutions (look at affects of institutionalisation)
         • Of this 165, 111 adopted before age of 2, and the other 54 by 4
           • Tested at ages of 4, 6, 11 and 15 assessing physical, cognitive and social development
           • Compared to control of 52 British children adopted before the age of 6 months
       • FINDINGS
         • At time of adoption, Romanian's lagged behind Brits across the board
           • Smaller and weighed less
           • Classed as mentally retarded
         • By age of 4, some caught up, true for almost all those adopted before 6 months
         • Follow-ups found significant deficits in a substantial minority of individuals who were institutionalised beyond 6 months
           • Many of those showed disinhibited attachment and struggled with peer relationships
             • Long-term consequences may be less severe than thought if children given opportunity to form attachment, but if they don't consequences likely to be severe
         • Other studies
           • LE MARE
             • Longitudinal study of 36 Romanian adopted in Canada, were measured on physical growth and health
               • At 4.5 yrs, lacked behind control group of Canadians, disappeared by 10.5 years, can recover from effects of institutionalisation
           • Effects
             • Physical underdevelopment - not just lack of nourishment, but lack of emotional care is cause of deprivation dwarfism
             • Intellectual under-functioning - also linked to emotional deprivation
             • Disinhibited Attachment - cannot distinguish between strangers and attachment figures (family) leading to over-friendliness and maybe attention seeking
             • Poor Parenting - Harlow monkey study, study showed that a group of 50 institutionalised women compared to 50 control, when looked at in their 20s, found that ex-institution struggled

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