Attachment KF

Attachment KF

1. Differences in attachment

   • Ainsworth's Strange Situation
     • Measure attachment - 8 stages
       • Secure = 62%
         • Avoidant = 15%
           • Resistant = 9%
     • + Reliability
     • - Lacks validity
       • - Ethics
   • Effects of attachment type
     • Longitudinal studies - secure attachment = +ve outcomes
     • Love quiz - Hazen & Shaver
   • What causes attachment type
     • Mother sensitivity
     • Maternal reflective functioning
     • Temperament
   • Cultural variations
     • Similarities
       • Tronick - monotropy
         • Fox - Israeli Commune
           • Primary attachment to mother
     • Differences
       • Grossman & Grossman
         • German more likely insecure avoidant as more independent
       • Takahashi - Japan, insecure resistant - rarely experience separation
     • Meta analysis
       • 32 studies - 2000 SS in 8 countries
         • Between countries, secure = most common
           • Then insecure avoidant (apart from Japan)
         • Within countries - variation 1.5x greater
     • EVALUATION
       • 1. Urban vs rural - Japan - can't assume whole country is the same

2. Attachment difficulties

   • Disruption of attachment (separation)
     • Robertson & Robertson
       • John, Laura, 4 other children
         • Coped better with emotional support
     • EVALUATION
       • + Skeels & Dye - children in home for adults coped better
         • + RWA - changed way hospitals work
       • - Lacks validity - case study
         • - ID - secure children cope better
   • Privation
     • Case studies
       • Genie - not reliable
     • Institutionalisation
       • Hodges & Tizard - all children had problems with peers
       • Rutter - Romanian orphans
         • Adopted early = normal emotional development
           • After 6 months = disinhibited attachment
             • Peer difficulties
     • EVALUATION
       • + Poor parenting
         • + Deprivation dwarfism
       • But some do recover

3. Attachment in everyday life

   • Daycare
     • Aggression
       • NICHD study - 1000 children - age 5 those with more time in daycare = more aggressive
       • EPPE study - longer in daycare = more anti-social
     • Peer relations
       • Minnesota - secure, more popular - daycare less secure
       • Belsky & Revine - more than 20 hours in DC before 1 = insecure
       • Psychologist - those in DC more advanced socially
       • Field - more time in DC = more friends in school
     • EVALUATION
       • 1. Reinterpret NICHD results
         • 2. Other factors e.g. mother's sensitivity
           • 3. Lack of causal relationships
     • Mediating factors
     • Implications of research
       • Influence of attachment research
       • Influence of DC research

4. Explanations of attachment

   • Learning theory
     • Behaviour is learnt
     • CC - food produces pleasure
       • Feeder ASSOCIATED with pleasure
     • OC - food = primary reinforcer
       • Feeder = secondary
         • Both reduce discomfort & are rewarding
     • + We do learn through association & reinforcement
     • - Harlow
       • - Schaffer & Emerson - Glasgow babies
   • Bowlby's evolutionary theory
     • Attachment is adaptive & innate
       • Caregiving is also adaptive
     • Sensitive period = 3-6 months
     • Secure base
     • Monotropy & hierarchy
     • Internal working model
     • Continuity hypothesis
     • + Universality - Tronick
       • + Continuity - Minnesota study
     • - Multiple attachments
       • - Temperament hypothesis