Attachment AO3

Attachment AO3

1. Caregiver-Infant Interactions

   • We don't know the purpose of behaviours, as we can't ask the baby
   • No demand characteristics
   • Controlled: high internal validity
   • Meltzoff and Moore
     • 3 day old babies imitated expressions, suggesting it is innate
   • Therapists can use caregiver-infant interactions with adopted children

2. Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

   • Field experiment: high external validity, but lack of control of extraneous variables
   • Natural environment
   • Longitudinal study: increases the internal validity
   • Difficult to generalise: sample from working class area in Glasgow
   • Cultural bias
   • Issues with temporal validity: childcare has changed

3. Stages of Attachment

   • Cultural bias: studies of cross cultural contexts suggest that multiple attachments are formed from birth
   • Unreliable evidence: difficult to measure as there isn't a lot of observable behaviour
   • The definitions of stranger and separation anxiety are too simplistic
   • Difficult to distinguish behaviours between caregivers and playmates