Attachment

Attachment

1. Caregiver-infant interactions

   • reciprocity
     • responding with a similar action
     • research (Jaffe) found that infants coordinated their actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation
   • Interactional synchrony
     • when behaviour is mirrored
     • Meltzoff and Moore - found that infants as young as 2 weeks old imitated specific behaviour
   • AO3
     • problems - infants mouths are in constant motion - difficult to distinguish between general and specific behaviour
     • inanimate objects - little response - imitation is a social response
     • individual differences - strongly attached = greater interactional synchrony

2. The development of attachment

   • 4 stages of attachment
     • stage 1- asocial
       • from birth to 2 months infants produce similar response to all objects
       • end of the stage - show greater preference for social stimuli
     • Stage 2 - indiscriminate attachment
       • 4 months - infants become more social
       • prefer human company
       • can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
     • stage 3 - specific attachments
       • 7 months - formed primary attachment figure
       • display separation and stranger anxiety
       • Schaffer and Emerson
         • 60 infants from w/c homes in glasgow - ranged from 5-23 weeks old and were studied until they were 1. Mothers were visited every 4 weeks and reported infant's responses to everyday situations.
         • found that the quality, not quantity of the relationship mattered most in attachment formation. In 65% of the children, the first attachment was the mother
     • stage 4 - multiple attachments
   • The role of the father
     • less likely to be primary attachment figure - lack emotional sensitivity
     • important secondary attachment figures - they are more playful and provide challenging situations
   • AO3
     • data may be unreliable - some mothers may have been less sensitive = less likely to report behaviour
     • biased sample - w/c and in the 1960s - changed roles in the family
     • multiple attachments - some may have more significance

3. Animal studies of attachment

   • Lorenz
     • gosling eggs divided in 2 groups - one left with their mother, one left in incubator. When they hatched, they followed the first living thing they saw. He then placed the 2 groups together and they quickly divided themselves, following their 'mother'
     • imprinting is restricited to the critical period
     • if an animal isn't exposed to a moving object in the critical period, it won't imprint
     • AO3
       • research support - chicks and gloves