Attachment Exam Reflection Notes

Attachment Exam Reflection Notes

1. Role of the father

   • Schaffer and Emerson found that the father was the second most common attachment formed (After 18 months 75% of their sample had formed and attachment with their father).
   • Geiger(1996) found that fathers played a different role - one of which is more associated with fun and playing in comparison to the nurturing expected of a mother - a play mate.
   • Grossman(2002) conducted a longitudinal study in which looked into how the relationship of both parents effected teenage years, he found that the mothers attachment early on was more important than the fathers in later life, however he suggested that a strong bond in the play making of the fathers relationship strengthened both the mothers and fathers attachment.
     • This idea supports Geigar's work
   • Field(19780 also suggested that the role of the father can be maternal and caring if they were always the main attachment (caregiver) - demonstrates flexibility in the role of the father

2. Romanian Orphan studies AO3

   • Strengths
     • Due to research on institutions more information was known about the side effects and policies were made to help children in the development in such places, e.g. development of only have one or two caregivers per child to allow and attachment and help decrease the amount of disinhibited attachment.
     • There is a lack of confounding variables in such research as romanian orphans normally were not placed in the orphanages out of spite or force and were only placed in their due to monetary constraints on loving parents and so there is almost no trauma involved in most of their situations.
   • Weaknesses
     • The study lacks external validity as the quality of Romanian Orphanages were so bad that the conditions could have effected the children's lives as well as making it almost impossible to compare to normal orphanages with standard and safe conditions. The children's conditions could be caused by the conditions of the orphanage not institutions generally.
     • There is currently a lack of research into whether the majority of the effects of institutionalisation last into adulthood, as the latest data only looks into children into their early to mid 20's and so may not effect their entire life - as far as research suggests so far.

3. Bowlby's Monotropic Theory AO3

   • Strengths
     • Lorenz's study into goslings supports the idea of attachment being innate as the geese attached so quickly. Far before any mental drive could consciously tell them to do that, and so it must be innate.
     • There a points in a child's life in which biological milestones must be hit e.g. a baby must have developed limbs by day 28 and so why would we assume there aren't psychological ones - in the form of the critical period.
   • Weaknesses
     • Rutter(1998) found that children in his Romanian Orphanage study were able to attach perfectly fine to at ages 3 and above and so therefore the critical period if not completely disproven is not as rock solid as originally thought.
     • Van Ijzendoorn(1087) suggested that people can help the main caregiver enrich the infants life and so suggesting that the others may be able to assist where others may not be able to and so challenging the idea that the mothers attachment is more important than other attachments in an infants life.