ALL Attachment

ALL Attachment

1. Caregiver-infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony. Stages of attachment identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments and the role of the father.

   • Attachment = a strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary care giver
   • Reciprocal = two/both ways; the child has to bond with the mother, and the mother has to bond with the child for an attachment for form successfully.
     • The importance of reciprocity was demonstrated by Brazleton et al, who found that children as young as 2 weeks old can attempt to copy their caregiver, who in turn responds to the child’s signals two-thirds of the time (Feldman).
   • Interactional synchrony = when the infant and primary caregiver becomes synchronised in their interactions.
   • Schaffer and Emerson 1964 - identify stages of attachment
     • 60 babies from Glasgow
     • interview carers
     • Separation anxiety, Stranger anxiety
     • longitudinal
     • Asocial, indiscriminate, specific, multiple
     • lacks population validity
     • lacks internal validity
   • Role of the father
     • Schaffer and Emerson found that 75% of the infants in their study formed a secondary attachment to their father by the age of 18 months, with 29% doing so within a month of forming a primary attachment, as demonstrated by separation anxiety. This suggests that the father is important, but is unlikely to be the first person to which the child develops an attachment to
     • research can be used as advice
     • research suggests fathers are not as equipped as mothers to provide a sensitive and nurturing attachment

2. Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow.

   • Lorenz demonstrated the concept of imprinting - this is where animals will attach to the first moving object or person they see directly after birth. Lorenz showed that imprinting occurred in a clutch of goose eggs, where half attached to and followed Lorenz after seeing him as the first moving person after birth. Imprinting/ the formation of an attachment must occur within the critical period of attachment development, which is usually the first 30 months of life, after which an attachment is not possible and the consequences of a failure to form an attachment are irreversible
     • lacks generalisablity to humans
     • practical value
   • Harlow demonstrated the importance of contact comfort with rhesus monkeys and two ‘Iron Maidens’ (as pictured). The researchers found that when the monkeys were scared, irrespective of which wire monkey was dispensing milk, the baby monkeys would always seek comfort from the cloth-bound mother. This led to the conclusion that contact comfort was more important than food in the development of attachments!
     • controlled setting
     • unethical

3. Explanations of attachment: learning theory and Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model.

   • Bowlby's Monotropic Theory of Attachment
     • Adaptive
     • Social releasers
     • Critical period
     • One carer
     • Bowlby demonstrated this in his 44 juvenile thieves study, where maternal deprivation was associated with affectionless psychopathy and mental retardation.
     • support for internal working model
     • support for social releasers
   • LT
     • By the process of classical conditioning, the baby forms an association between the mother (a neutral stimulus) and the feeling of pleasure that comes with being fed (an innate unconditioned response) ● At first, the baby feels comforted by food ● However, each time it is fed, the mother is also present (e.g. breast feeding) ● It quickly associates the mother with the pleasure of being fed ● Before long, the mother becomes a conditioned stimulus and also causes pleasure for the child ● This means that the baby feels happier when the mother is near ● This is the beginning of the formation of an attachment
     • The child carries out an action such as crying, which triggers a response, such as the mother coming to comfort or feed the baby ● The more this happens, the more that the action is reinforced, as the child associates the mother with those rewards ● i.e the reward for crying encourages the child to cry more to receive more rewards like attention and food ● Food is the primary reinforcer ● The mother is the secondary reinforcer
     • counter evidence from Harlow and Lorenz

4. Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn.

   • Mary Ainsworth designed a study called ‘the strange situation’ as a procedure to assess how securely attached a child was to its caregiver, and if it is insecurely attached, to assess which type of insecure attachment it has. This was a controlled observation conducted through a twoway mirror. There were seven stages which each lasted 3 minutes
     • Secure = this was the most popular attachment type
     • Insecure resistant = this is when the infant becomes very distressed and tries to follow them when the parent/caregiver leaves,
     • Insecure avoidant = this is when the infant shows no separation anxiety when their carer leaves the room and shows no stranger anxiety
     • Ethical issues
     • lacks population validity
     • lab
   • Van Izjendoorn and Kronenberg (1988) conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies using 8 countries, all investigating the patterns of attachment across a variety of cultures
     • lacks ecological validty
     • culture bound
     • reliable due to large sample size
     • imposed etic

5. Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation.

   • Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation
     • An inability to form attachments in the future (see the Internal Working Model) ● Affectionless psychopathy (being unable to feel remorse) ● Delinquency (behavioural problems in the child’s teenage years) ● Problems with cognitive (brain) development
       • real world application
       • counter evidence
   • Romanian orphan studies
     • Rutter et al 2007
     • 165 Romanian orphans studied at 4,6,11 compared to 50 children adopted in Britain
     • Rutter et al demonstrated the importance and effects of adopting orphans at different ages, which was directly related to their rate of recovery. ● A full recovery could be made if adoption occurred before the age of 6 months. This includes both emotional and intellectual developmental recoveries. ● These conclusions were supported by the Bucharest Early Intervention project carried out by Zeanah et al (2005), who demonstrated that 65% of their sample of 95 orphans displayed signs of disorganised attachments, compared to only 20% of the healthy, non-deprived control group.
     • real life application
     • individual differences
     • not typical, and unethical

6. The influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model.

   • Bowlby suggested that there will be continuity (a similarity or connection) between your experiences as a baby/your attachment type or quality, and your relationships later in life (in childhood and adulthood). These relationships include friendships, romantic relationships and family relationships etc. He said that when we form our first main attachments, we form an internal working model, which is a mental template for what a relationship is and how to behave.
   • rsearch lacks validity