Attachment

Attachment

1. Key concepts

   • Up until 6 months babies do not have attachments, after this point they do which is tested by:
     • Separation protest - If a child is distressed (sobbing, looking around) when left by primary caregiver. Stranger anxiety - The child will show distress (screaming, get tense) in the presence of a stranger.
   • Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation' procedure of attachment (1960s)
     • Mother and baby entered lab - played with toys - stranger enters mother leaves - stranger comforts baby - mother returns stranger leaves - mother comforts then leaves again - child alone for short time - stranger returns and interacts - mother returns picks up baby stranger leaves.
     • Secure (strong), 70% of infants: Explore and play, mother was a safe base, played with stranger but preferred the mother
     • Insecure avoidant (weak), 15%: Didn't pay attention to mother when there or left or came back, easily comforted by stranger.
     • Insecure ambivalent (poor), 15%: Stayed close to mother whilst resisting her, distressed when she leaves, not comforted by stranger, when mother returns happy ut alsopush her away.

2. An enduring strong and emotional bond with another person/thing

3. Core Theory: Bowlby's Theory

   • Monotropy: Infants bond with one key figure usually the mother. This has to happen in the first 3 years of life, critical period, otherwise there would be negative effects.
     • Privation: Forming no attachment with any significant person, children who were locked from/by parents show this. Deprivation: When an attachment is formed but is then broken later for a week or longer in the first 5 years, e.g. mother going to jail.
       • Studied criminal teens, most had gone through deprivation or privation ('affectionless psychopaths'), negative effects. Secure attachments=positive effects.
   • Criticisms
     • Monotropy flawed as children can have more than one bond
     • Critical period too extreme, more of a sensitive period as attachments can still be formed after (foster kids)
     • Deprivation effects are reversible: two Czech twins that were locked in a cellar later formed bonds
     • Attachment may not be instinctive but learnt instead.

4. Alternative Theory: Behaviourist Theory

   • Attachment not instinctive but is learnt.
   • Attachment is learnt through reinforcement, if positive the child will repeat that action, if negative they won't. Most attention given is positive reinforcement from parent to child and vise versa. Bonds are formed when both parties benefit from the relationship
   • Secure children: Caregivers sensitive to their needs Insecure avoidant: Caregivers uninterested in child Insecure ambivalent: Interested but misunderstand childs behaviour

5. Core Study: Hazen and Shaver (1987)

   • To see if infant attachment types affect adult relationships
   • Procedure: Questionnaire given to opportunity sample of ages 14-82 (USA), advertised as a love quiz in magazine. Two variables: Attachment type as a child by checklist, and Attitude towards love relationships now by multiple choice. 1200 replies, 620 analysed.
     • Results: Secure as babies were happy and supportive in relationships. Insecure avoidant, now afraid of intimacy highs and lows in relationships and jealous. Insecure ambivalent, prone to obsession extreme attraction but also jealousy. Clear relationship.
   • Limitations
     • Sampling method unrepresentative as only a certain type of person replies to a 'love quiz', also gender and culturally biased.
     • Questionnaire relies too much on honest answers, people likely lie.
     • Closed questions do not go into depth, especially considering complex things like relationships

6. Applications of Research: Care of Children

   • In Hospitals: Newborn babies used to to be taken away for up to a week after birth, new studies showed the importance of a bond that babies are now give straight to mothers. Children in wards used to go through despair, apathy then detachment rejecting caregivers; to prevent deprivation parents can visit children more
   • In Nurseries: Debate on whether nurseries impede child attachment development
   • In Family: More help for families in raising their child e.g. baby classes