Attachment

Attachment

1. Introduction

   • Caregiver-infant interactions
     • Interactions
       • Babies have frequent and important interactions with their caregiver
     • Reciprocity
       • Mothers respond to infant alertness
       • From 3 months
     • Interactional synchrony
       • Interactions become coordinated
       • Isabella et al
         • Quality of attachment is related to synchrony
   • Attachment figures
     • Parent-infant
       • Traditionally mother-infant; other attachment figures eg father may be important
     • Role of the father
       • Grossman et al
         • Attachment to father less important, but may have a different role
           • Play and Stimulation
     • Father as primary carer
       • Field: fathers as primary caregivers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers

2. Schafer's stages of attachment

   • Schaffer and emerson
     • Aim: to investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with
     • Method: Mothers of 60 Glasgow babies reported monthly on separation anxiety
     • Results: Most babies showed attachment to primary caregiver by 32 weeks, developed multiple attachments soon after
   • Stages
     • Asocial stage
       • Little observable social behaviour
     • Indiscriminate attachment
       • More observable attachment behaviour, accepting cuddles from any adult
     • Specific attachment
       • Stranger anxiety / separation anxiety in regard to one adult
     • Multiple attachments
       • Attachment behaviour directed towards more than one attachment figure (secondary attachments)

3. Animal studies of attachment

   • Lorenz
     • Method: Goslings saw Lorenz when they hatched
     • Findings: Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting)
     • Sexual imprinting: Adult birds try to mate with whatever species or object they imprint on
   • Harlow
     • Method: Baby monkeys given cloth / wire 'mother' with feeding bottle attached
     • Findings: monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire, regardless of which dispensed milk
     • Maternally deprived monkeys: grew up socially dysfunctional
     • Critical period: Attachment wouldn't form after 90 days

4. Explanations of attachment: learning theory

   • Classical conditioning
     • Caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food (unconditioned stimulus). Caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus
   • Operant conditioning
     • Crying behaviour reinforced positively for infant and negatively for caregiver
   • Attachment as a secondary drive
     • Attachment becomes a secondary drive through association with hunger

5. Explanations for attachment: Bowlby's theory

   • Monotropy
     • One particular attachment is different in quality and importance than others
   • Social releasers and critical period
     • Innate 'cute; behaviours in the first 2 years
   • Internal working model
     • Mental representations of the primary attachment relationship are templates for future relationships

6. Ainsworth's strange situations

   • Procedure: 7-stage observation. Assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger / separation anxiety, response to reunion
   • Findings: infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour
   • Types of attachment
     • Secure: enthusiastic greeting, generally consistent
     • Avoidant: avoids reunion, generally reduced responses
     • Resistant: resists reunion, generally more distressed

7. Cultural variations in attachment

   • Van Ijzendoorn
     • Compared rates of attachment type in 8 countries
       • Found more variation within than between countries
   • Simonella et al
     • Italian attachment rates have changed, perhaps due to changing practises
   • Conclusions
     • It appears that attachment is innate and universal and secure attachment is the norm
     • However cultural practices affect rates of attachment types

8. Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

   • Separation versus deprivation
     • Physical separation only leads to deprivation when the child loses emotional care
   • Critical period
     • The first 30 months are critical and deprivation in that time causes damage
   • Effects on development
     • Goldfarb: Deprivation causes low IQ
     • Bowlby: emotional development e.g. affectionless psychopathy
   • 44 thieves study (Bowlby)
     • Many more affectionless psychopaths than controls had a prolonged separation

9. Romanian Orphan Studies: Effects of institutionalisation

   • Rutter's ERA study
     • 165 orphans adopted in Britain
     • Some of those adopted later show low IQ and disinhibited attachment
   • Bucharest Early Intervention Project
     • Random allocation to institutional care / fostering
     • Secure attachment in 19% institutional group vs 74% controls
   • Effects of institutionalisation
     • Disinhibited attachment and intellectual retardation if institutionalisation is prolonged

10. Influence of early attachments on later relationships

    • Internal working model
      • Bowlby's idea that the primary attachment relationship provides a template for later relationships
    • Relationships in later childhood
      • Kerns: securely attached children have better friendships. Myron-Wilson + Smith: securely attached children less likely to be involved in bullying
    • Relationships with romantic partners
      • McCarthy: Securely attached adults have better relationships with friends and partners. Hazan + Shaver: Secure responders had better and longer lasting relationships, avoidant responders has a fear of intimacy
    • Parental Relationships
      • Bailey et al: Mothers' attachment type matched that of their mothers and babies