Attatchment

Attatchment

1. a strong, emotional, reciprocal bond between two people, speciffically an infant and a caregiver.

   • reciprocal - one person recieves a benefit from another and the other person recieves an equal benefit. proximity - the physical distance between the infant and caregiver. subsequent - something that happens as a result of something else.

2. LEARNING THEORY

   • Classical Conditioning -
     • Pavlov's dogs
       • UCS -> UCR
         • NS -> no innate response
           • NS + UCS -> CR
             • CS -> CR
       • Learning through assosication, babies are born with reflex response. Milk produces a feeling of pleasure due to the relief of hunger. The person feeding the baby quickly becomes assosiated with the feeling of pleasure. Over time simply the presence of the person produces pleasure.
   • Otherwise known as behaviourist, this believes that all of our behaviour is learned from our upbringing and our environment. our behaviour is not INNATE nor does it depend on genetic factors.
   • Operant Conditioning - any behaviour that is rewarded will be repeated (SKINNER'S RATS)
     • Linked by Dolland & Miller (1950)
       • 1. A person is driven to seek food to satisy hunger. This is "DRIVE REDUCTION"
         • 2. According to operant conditioning any behaviour that is rewarded will be repeated (learned/conditioned)
           • 3. The primary caregiver (normally the mother) produces the food that reduces the drive, therefiore becomes the secondary reinforcer. (FOOD IS PRIMARY REINFORCER)
             • 4. From then on the infant will want to be with the secondary reinforcer (mother) as they become a reward in themselves.
       • According to the learning theory of attacthment, the baby has to learn to form an attatchment with its mother. In the process of operant conditioning, the mother rewards the infant by feeding it. The infant assosciates the mother with the reward and repeats any action that brings her close. This happens because the food brings a feeling of pleasure to the baby. Food is the primary reinforcer by removing discomfort. It reinforces the behaviour that let to its arrival. Food never comes without the mother, so the mother becomes the secondary reinforcer, even without bringing food the prescence of the mother brings a feeling iof pleasure so the baby will therefore repeat any action (e.g. crying) which brings the mother close.
   • Evaluation of learning theory
     • Schaffer & Emerson's study (1969)
       • 39% of babies first attatchment was not with the person who carried out the physical care (e.g. feeding/changing). Challenges learning theory because 39% of attatchments made were with a non-parent.
     • Harry Harlow (1959)
       • demonstrated that food isn't everything.
         • young rhesus monkeys that were taken from their mothers at birth and put in a cage with "2 wire mothers" one was covered in cloth and the other had food. The monkeys went to the soft mother as their instinct is to seek comfort for when they are distressed.
           • experimental expectancy - assosiation with previous cloth wire monkey that provided food.
           • ethics - not protected from harm, not in a natural environment, no social skills.
     • REDUCTIONIST
       • BROKEN DOWN SO SMALLEST AMOUNT OF ASSUMPTIONS.
         • does not consider reasoning/development (on animals).
         • ignores emotion. broken down to stimulus repsonse.

3. THE STRANGE SITUATION CLASSIFICATION

   • aim: investigate individual variations in infant attatchment and the differences between secure and secure infants
     • findings: Ainsworth found that around 66% were securely attatched and upset on seperation, 22% were insecure avoidant and had no distress on seperation. and 12% weer insecure resistant and were very distressed on seperation.
       • conclusion: because the majority of abbies were securely attatched and Ainsworth believed this was dependant on how reciprocal their mother was
         • measured - 1. infants seperation anxiety 2. willingness to explore 3. stranger anxiety 4. reunion behaviour.
         • EVALUATION
           • not representative - only north american infants, therefore the findings are culturally biased, cannot be generalised for other cultures
           • experienced judges - panel went through trained, inter rate reliability of 0.94 between them. They agreed on 94% of cases
           • HAZAN & SHAVER - "love quiz" peoples attitudes to loved and early childhood experience, results were similar. THIS SUGGESTS MAGIC IS RIGHT.
           • the scc might not be completely valid - some infants did not fit a pattern and were just put into a group. (main and solloman saw this as disorganised attatchment.) react different to one parent(?) scc measures particular attatchments rather than attatchment types
           • scc was carried out in a lab - lacks ecological validity, artificial environment and parents/child could have been acting differently. demand characteristics as observation
         • ethical issues
           • unneccsesary distress, infants not necessarily protected
             • valuable research shows more than one attatchment, 1 year - 18 months so wont remember, only 20 minutes so no persistant harm
   • responsive mothers (respond to needs) : type B (secure)
   • impatient and unresposnive mothers (don't attend when child calls): type A (insecure avoidant)
   • inconsistent mothers (sometimes respond, sometimes don't): type C (insecure resistant)
     • NURTURE
       • Caregiving sensitivity hypothesis
         • the mothers ^
       • NATURE
         • Kagan proposed the "temperament hypothesis"
           • babies are born with innate personality types, this effects their relationship with their caregiver. some support for this - show that babies that are easily startled were less likely to become securely attatched

4. Cross Cultural differences

   • VAN IJZENDOORN & KROONENBERG
   • Japan
     • babies rarely leave their mothers, very close relationships
     • Germany
       • encourage independence in children
       • Israel
         • community raised (KIBBITZUM)
         • UK
           • close to mothers but also value independence
           • African Tribes
             • monotropy exists but people share mother's responsibility
   • Takahasi (1990)
     • aim: to consider if the scc is valid measurement in Japan.
       • procedure: compared 60 middle class japanese children in the strange situation.
         • findings: securely attatched - 68%, 32% resistant insecure. no avoidant. if not so distressed 80% would have been secure
           • japanese teach that it is very impolite to not interact with other people, this accounts for no avoidants. japenese children spend 100% of their time with their mothers.
   • ethnocentricsm
     • tendancy to believe one's ethnic group is centrally important, all measurements are in relation to one's own.
   • individualist cultures - emphasis on personal development, develop initiative, mothe value independance ( UK USA GERMANY(+)
   • collectivist - emphasis cooperative, focus on interpersonal development, less antisocial behavior