Revision Summaries

Revision Summaries

1. Schaffer's stages of attachment

   • Key study: Schaffer and Emerson
     • Aims
       • To investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with.
     • Method
       • Mother of 60 Glasgow babies reported monthly on separation anxiety.
     • Findings
       • Most babies showed attachment to primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this.
     • EVALUATION
       • Good external validity
         • Observations were in participants' natural environments.
       • Longitudinal design
         • Same participants were observed at each age, eliminating individual differences as a confound.
       • Limited sample characteristics
         • All families were from the same area and over 50 years ago, so may lack generalisability.
   • Stages of attachment
     • Asocial stage
       • Little observable social behaviour.
     • Indiscriminate attachment
       • Most observable attachment behaviour, accept cuddles from any adult.
     • Specific attachments
       • Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety in regard to one particular adult.
     • Multiple attachments
       • Attachment behaviour directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments).
     • EVALUATION
       • Asocial stage
         • Social behaviour is hard to observe in the first few weeks but this doesn't mean the baby is 'asocial'
       • Conflicting evidence
         • van Ijzendoorn et al.: research in different contexts has found multiple attachments may appear first.
       • Measuring multiple attachments
         • Just because a child protests when an adult leaves does not necessarily mean attachment.
       • Evaluation extra
         • Schaffer and Emerson used limited measures of attachment.

2. Introduction to attachment

   • Caregiver - infant interactions
     • Interactions
       • Babies have frequent and important interactions with their caregiver.
     • Interactional synchrony
       • Interactions become co-ordinated.
       • Isabella et al.: quality of attachment related to synchrony.
     • EVALUATION
       • Hard to know what is happening
         • Observe simple gesture and expression, and assume infant's intentions.
       • Controlled observations
         • Capture fine detail of interactions.
       • Purpose of synchrony and reciprocity
         • Feldman: just observations, purpose not entirely understood.
     • Recipriocity
       • From 3 months close attention between mother and infant.
       • Mothers respond to infant alertness.
   • Attachment figures
     • Parent-infant
       • Traditionally mother-infant, other attachment figures like the father may also be important.
     • The role of the father.
       • Grossman et al.: attachment to fathers less important but fathers may have a different role - play and stimulation.
     • Fathers as primary carers
       • Field: fathers as primary carers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers.
     • EVALUATION
       • Inconsistent findings
         • Different research questions overall picture unclear.
       • Children without fathers aren't different
         • Suggests the father role is not important.
       • Father's not primary attachments
         • May be due to traditional gender roles or biological differences.
       • Evaluation extra
         • Socially sensitive research: working mothers.

3. Animal studies of attachment

   • Lorenz's research
     • Procedure
       • Goslings saw Lorenz when they hatched.
     • Findings
       • Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting).
     • Sexual imprinting
       • Adult birds try to mate with whatever species or object they imprint on.
     • EVALUATION
       • Generalisability
         • Birds and mammals have different attachment systems so Lorenz's results may not be relevant to humans.
       • Some observations questioned
         • Guiton et al.: bird imprinting on rubber gloves did later prefer their own species.
   • Harlow's research
     • Procedure
       • Baby monkeys given cloth or wire 'mother' with feeding bottle attached.
     • Findings
       • Monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk.
     • Maternally deprived monkeys
       • Grew up socially dysfunctional.
     • The critical period
       • After 90 days attachments wouldn't form.
     • EVALUATION
       • Theoretical value
         • Demonstrated that attachment depends more on contact comfort than feeding.
       • Practical value
         • Howe: informs understanding of risk factors for child abuse.
       • Ethical issues
         • Suffering of monkeys would be human-like.

4. Explanations of attachment: Learning theory

   • Classical conditioning
     • Caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus.
     • Caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food (unconditioned stimulus).
   • Operant conditioning
     • Crying behaviour reinforced positively for infant and negatively for caregiver.
   • Attachment as a secondary drive
     • Attachment becomes a secondary drive through association with hunger.
   • EVALUATION
     • Animal studies
       • Lorenz and Harlow showed that feeding is not the key to attachment.
     • Human research
       • Schaffer and Emerson: most primary attachment figures were the mother even when others did most feeding.
     • Ignores other factors
       • Cannot account for the importance of sensitivity and interactional synchrony.
     • Evaluation extra
       • There is a newer learning theory explanation.
       • Some elements of conditioning could still be involved.

5. Explanations of attachment: Bowlby's theory

   • Monotropy
     • One particular attachment is different in quality and importance than the others.
   • Social releasers and the critical period
     • Innate cute behaviours in the first two years.
   • Internal working model
     • Mental representations of the primary attachment relationship are templates for future relationships.
   • EVALUATION
     • Mixed evidence for monotropy.
       • Suess et al.: other attachments may contribute as much as primary one.
       • Some babies form multiple attachments without a primary attachment.
     • Support for social releasers.
       • Brazleton et al.: when social releasers ignored babies were upset.
     • Support for internal working model.
       • Bailey et al.: quality of attachment is passed on through generations in families.
     • Evaluation extra
       • Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea.
       • Temperament may be as important as attachment.

6. Ainsworth's strange situation

   • Procedure
     • Assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety, response to reunion.
     • 7-stage controlled observation.
   • Findings
     • Infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour.
   • Types of attachment
     • Secure: enthusiastic greeting, generally content.
     • Avoidant: avoids reunion, generally reduced responses.
     • Resistant: resists reunions, generally more distressed.
   • EVALUATION
     • Support for validity
       • Attachment type predicts later social and personal behaviour, e.g. bullying.
     • Good reliability
       • Different observers agree 90%+ of the time on children's attachment types.
     • Culture-bound
       • Attachment behaviour may have different meanings in different cultures so the Strange Situation may be measuring different things.

7. Cultural variations in attachment

   • Key study: van Ijzendoorn
     • Compared rates of attachment type in 8 countries.
     • Found more variation within than between countries.
   • Other studies
     • Simonella et al.: Italian attachment rates have changed, may be due to changing practices.
     • Jin et al.: Korean attachment rates similar to Japan, could be due to similar child-rearing styles.
   • Conclusions
     • It appears that attachment is innate and universal and secure attachment is the norm.
     • However cultural practices affect rates of attachment types.
   • EVALUATION
     • Large samples
       • Reduce the impact of anomalous results so improve internal validity.
     • Samples unrepresentative of culture
       • Countries do not equate to cultures nor to culturally specific methods of child rearing so can't make generalisations.
     • Method of assessment is biased
       • Research using the Strange Situation imposes a USA test on other cultures (imposed etic).
     • Evaluation extra
       • Alternative explanation for similarity.
       • The Strange Situation lack validity.

8. Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

   • Separation versus deprivation
     • Physical separation only leads to deprivation when the child loses emotional care.
   • Critical period
     • The first 30 months are critical and deprivation in that time causes damage.
   • Effects on development
     • Goldfarb: deprivation causes low IQ.
     • Bowlby: emotional development, e.g. affectionless psychopathy.
   • 44 thieves study (Bowlby)
     • Many more affectionless psychopaths than controls had a prolonged separation.
   • EVALUATION
     • Evidence may be poor
       • Orphans have experienced other traumas.
       • Bowlby may have been a biased observer.
     • Counter-evidence
       • Lewis: sample of 500, no link between early separation and later criminality.
     • A sensitive period
       • Bowlby exaggerated the importance of the critical period.
     • Evaluation extra
       • Animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation on social development.
       • Failure to distinguish deprivation from privation.

9. Romanian orphan studies: Effects of institutionalisation.

   • Rutter's ERA study
     • 165 orphans adopted in Britain.
     • Some of those adopted later show low IQ and disinhibited attachment.
   • Bucharest early intervention project
     • Random allocation to institutional care or fostering.
     • Secure attachment in 19% of institutional group versus 74% of controls.
   • Effects of institutionalisation
     • Disinhibited attachment and delay in intellectual development if institutionalisation is prolonged.
   • EVALUATION
     • Real-life application
       • Both institutional care and adoption practice have been improved using lessons from Romanian orphans.
     • Fewer extraneous variables
       • Romanian orphans had fewer negative influences before institutionalisation than e.g. war orphans.
     • Romanian orphanages not typical
       • Conditions were so bad that results may not generalise to better institutions.
     • Evaluation extra
       • Ethical issues, especially Bucharest Early Intervention project.
       • Practical applications to adoption and institutional care practice.

10. Influence of early attachments on later relationships

    • Internal working model
      • Bowlby's idea that the primary attachment relationship provides a template for later relationships.
    • Relationships in later childhood
      • Kerns: securely attached children have better friendships.
      • Myron-Wilson and Smith: securely attached children less likely to be involved in bullying.
    • Relationships with romantic partners
      • McCarthy: securely attached adults have better relationships with friends and partners.
      • Hazan and Shaver: secure responders had better and longer-lasting relationships, avoidant responders had fear of intimacy.
    • Parental relationships
      • Bailey et al.: mothers' attachment type matched that of their mothers and their babies.
    • EVALUATION
      • Evidence is mixed
        • Zimmerman et al.: found little relationship between quality of attachment and later attachment.
      • Low validity
        • Most studies assess infant attachment by retrospective self-report which lacks validity.
      • Association does not mean casuality
        • A third factor like temperament might affect both infant attachment and later relationships.
      • Evaluation extra
        • The influence of attachment is probabilistic.
        • Self report is conscious but working models are not.