Attachment

Attachment

1. definition: an emotional bond formed between two people. A two way process that endures over time. May feel distress when separated from one another. It leads to certain behaviours such as proximity seeking and serves the function of protecting the infant.

2. Learning Theory

   • behaviourists
     • suggests that food is the many drive for formation of relationships
   • operant conditioning
     • the drive to reduce any feelings of discomfort
       • infant is fed
         • drive is reduced
           • this produces sense of pleasure (rewards)
     • caregiver (secondary reinforcer
     • food (primary reinforce)
   • classical conditioning
     • learning through association
       • food (US)
         • pleasure (UR)
           • caregiver (CS)
             • +
               • food (US)
                 • pleasure (UR)
     • caregiver (CS)
       • pleasure (CR)
   • issues
     • reductionist
     • focusses solely of food as main factor
     • research is mainly animal based and therefore cannot be generalised to humans
     • harlows monkeys: rhesus monkeys separated from their mother. Two substitute mothers, cloth mother provided comfort and wire mother provides food. Mother who provided comfort is preferred over mother who provides milk, unless very hungry. challenges learning theory
       • cannot be generalised to humans
     • schaffer and emerson: 60 Glasgow infants, interview with mother. 65% of children - mum is first attachment, 3% - dad, 30% - joint. the study showed that it is not the person who feeds the child, but the person which interacts and plays with the children most.
       • small sample size

3. evolutionary theory - bowlby

   • social releasers - big eyes, cooing noises etc to encourage caregiving
   • innate, instinctive
   • monotropy
     • single most important bond
       • tronnick, African tribes, although children shared carers, and often fed by different mothers, their true attachmenet lies only with their biological mother
   • adapative, key for survival
   • schaffer and emerson
     • mum - monotropy
   • internal working model) childhood relationships provide a blue print for adult relationships - schemas
     • hazan and shaver - love quiz, analysed 620 replies from a quiz put in the local newspaper the rocky mountain, it involved questions on childhood and present relationships aswell as pts attitudes to love
       • only from one area, not representative, westernised
       • memories may not be accurate
       • volunteer bias, self report bias
       • demand characteristics
   • continuity hypothesis - early attachments are an indicator for future relationhships
   • Lorenz's geese - took eggs from mother and when they hatched imitated duck noises, they followed him around suggestion attachment is innate - first figure they see is their 'mother'
   • critical period is 0 -2.5 years, becomes increasingly hard to form bonds outside this period
   • mary ainsworth - SS
     • 100 middle class American families were tested. infants were aged 12-18 months
       • securely attached) distressed when M leaves avoidant of stranger when alone but friendly when M is present. positive and happy when M returns. uses M as a safe base for exploring the enironment
         • 66%
       • insecure resistant
         • intensely distressed when M leaves, avoids S, approaches M when she returns but resists affection, infant cries more and explores less
           • 12%
       • insecure avoidant) infant shows no distress when M leaves. infant is OK with S and plays normally. shows little interested in M when she returns
         • 22%
     • highly artifical
       • western cultures
         • imposed etics
           • unthethical

4. cultural variations

   • collectivist cultures work as a whole, reliant on others, encourage shared roles and jobs through community
   • individualist cultures encourage independancy
   • ijzendoorn and kroonenberg
     • meta analysis, research methods in which research team collates and analyses data from many diff studies carried out by diff researches: the most common attachment type was secure, Israel and japan had the highest rate of insecure resistant, Germany and china had the highest rates of insecure avoidant. japan and Israel had very low insecure avoidant
       • within cultures, variation was 1.5 times greater than between.
       • only one study in china - not representative
       • Takahashi) none classified as insecure avoidant, 32% insecure resistant, experiment could not continue in many cases as children became too distressed
       • grossman and grossman) Germany - high rates of insecure avoidant, greater interpersonal distance