Attachment

Page 1

Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation

Hypothesis:

There

must be a continuous relationship between a child and mother/maternal figure.

Discontinuous relationships are unstable and disrupt the development of a

stable relationship.

The

relationship between a child and mother/maternal figure must develop before the

age of 2 and a half years. Otherwise there’s the risk of emotional disturbance.

Disruption to the relationship up to 5 years old can also be harmful.

The

relationship doesn’t have to be with the child's mother. A maternal substitute

is sufficient, but the child must develop a primary relationship with one

caregiver.

Critical period: If a young child is denied care

because or frequent or prolonged separation they may become emotionally

disturbed. This will only happen if it happens in the critical period (before 2

and a half) If there was no substitute available there was a continuing risk up

to the age of 5.

Value of maternal care: Before Bowlby it was

thought as long as a child is fed, kept warm and safe they were in good care. Bowlby

said infants need warm, intimate and continuous relationship they would

maintain good mental health.

Long term consequences of deprivation: Emotional

maladjustment or mental health problems such as depression.

+ Evidence: long

term effects of MD. A study found that women who had experienced separation

(deprivation) from their mothers for more than 1 year were more likely to

suffer from anxiety or depression. This was shown by 25% of those who had been

separated suffering from depression or anxiety disorders compared to 15% who

had not experienced separation. Furthermore, the mental health problems were

greater in women who had been separated before age 6. Therefore, supporting

Bowlby’s MDH and the importance of the critical period for influencing future

emotional adjustment.

- Evaluation: Individual

differences: Not all children respond to separations in the same way. Studies

found that securely attached children may cope better than insecurely attached

children because they can become extremely distressed. Bowlby’s study of 60

children under age 4 years suffering from TB, and suffering from prolonged

early separations while in hospital. In adolescence 63% were more maladjusted

than ‘normal’ children, but showed no significant signs of differences in their

intellectual development. Bowlby concluded that these differences appeared to

be linked to their early attachment types, with securely attached infants being

more resilient to the separation. Therefore, this suggests that individual

differences need to be taken into account when considering how a child will

respond to maternal deprivation long term.

44 Juvenile

thieves:

Procedure: Bowlby analysed case histories of his

patients in the child Guidance clinic in London where he worked. All children

there were emotionally maladjusted he studied 88 children 44 of which had been

caught stealing, the other half were a control group. Bowlby suggested some

children were affectionless psychopaths lacking a sense of responsibility.

Findings: Bowlby found that those diagnosed as

affectionless thieves had experienced early and frequent separations from their

mother. 86% experienced frequent separations compared to 17% of the other

thieves. Almost none of the control group pt.’s experienced early separation

whereas 39% of all thieves had. The early separations often consisted of

repeated stays at foster homes or hospitals, when the children were scarcely

visited by their families. Shows early separation is linked to affectionless

psychopathy.

Page 2

Infant interactions

An enduring, two way (reciprocal), emotional

bond to a specific other person, normally between a parent and a child.

Infants can’t talk, but communication between

career and infant can happen in many different ways: Bodily contact, Mimicking,

Interactional synchrony, Reciprocity and Caregiverese.

Interactions between a career and an infant

serve an important function of developing and maintaining an attachment.

Attachment bonds are characterised by an

infant’s desire to keep close proximity to a particular individual and an

expression of distress when separated from that person.

Motherese/ Caregiverese: the distinctive

language patterns demonstrated by mothers conversing with young children. It’s

usually slow, high-pitched, repetitive, varied in intonation and comprises

short simple sentences. One of the most distinctive characteristics of Motherese

is the ‘singsong’ nature of the communication.

+ Evaluation: Is the

behaviour intentional: Another study was done to see how infants respond to

inanimate objects. Psychologists observed infants interacting with 2 objects,

one stimulating tongue movement the other mouth opening and closing. Infants

aged 5-12 weeks made little response. Concluded that infants don’t imitate

anything, it’s a specific social response to other humans.

Meltzoff and

Moore:

Controlled by observation. 4 stimuli were used

(3 faces and a hand gesture). To record observations, they watched videos of

the infant’s behaviour in real time, slow-mo. and frame by frame. The video was

judged by independent observers who had no knowledge of what the infant had

just seen. They used behavioural categories to record observations.

- Evaluation: Failure to

replicate: Others failed to replicate the findings, although M&M counter

acted that the research was less carefully controlled.

Page 3

Collectivist cultures: Focus on relationships

with others and doing what’s best for everyone. They encourage obedience, duty

and family integrity. E.g. Japan. Parents promote values such as helpfulness

and working together. Children grow up to be more agreeable and less extravert.

Individualist cultures: Cultures focus on

independence and achieving the best for you. Encourage assertiveness emotional

independence and privacy. E.g. Germany. Parents set boundaries and give freedom

with in them and intervening when necessary. Leaves children less agreeable and

more extravert.

Van IZjendoorn and

Kroonenburg:

The ‘Strange Situation’ has been done in many

countries, so they summarised 32 studies in a ‘meta-analysis’. They simply put

the findings of all the studies in a table

Secure is most common. Japan 5% insecure

avoidant, Germany 35% insecure avoidant. Germany was 8% insecure resistant and

japan was 27%. Proves there’s cultural differences.

- Evaluation: Issues

with generalisability: More studies in America compared to one study in china

and GB. Not repeatable.

+ Evaluation: Cross

cultural analysis includes 32 studies:

Allows comparisons to be made for attachment types.

Takahashi:

Cultural background:

The lack of avoidant behaviour in the sample

could be explained in cultural terms. Japanese children are taught that such

behaviour is impolite and would be actively discouraged from displaying such

behaviour.

Differences could be because Japanese infants

experience much less separation and generally sleep in the same bed as their

parents until the age of 2, are carried around on their mother’s backs and

often bathe with their parents.

The Strange Situation doesn’t mean the same

thing for the Japanese. The Strange Situation was only intended to cause mild

distress, but was much more stressful for the Japanese infants. This means that

the behaviours observed were reactions to extreme stress, which wasn’t the

original aim.

Procedure: 60 middle-class, Japanese infants,

aged 1 year, both boys & girls, and their mothers All were raised at home.

The infants and mothers were observed in the Strange Situation.

Findings: 68% were classified as securely

attached. There were no infants classified as avoidant-insecure. 32% were

classified as resistant- insecure. Japanese infants were much more disturbed

the ‘infant alone’ step was stopped for 90% of the infants because they became

so distressed. It is suggested that if the infant alone step had not been

stopped a higher % of infants would have been classified as securely attached,

possibly as high as 80%.

- Evaluation: Ethics:

The infants became very distressed at the left alone stage. 90%. Therefore,

other people want to take part.

Grossman &

Grossman:

Cultural background: This may be due to

different child-rearing practices and German cultural norms, as parents and

children generally keep a greater interpersonal distance and infants in the

Strange Situation do not engage in proximity-seeking behaviours and therefore

appear to be insecurely attached.

Therefore, in the strange situation German

infants may appear to be avoidant. So it’s

not a valid representation of their attachment type.

German infants tended to be classified as

insecure-avoidant rather than securely attached.

Page 4

Institutional care

Emotional privation: Children who are raised in

institutions often display signs of emotional privation. They have received a

good standard of physical care, but have not formed an attachment with a

caregiver.

Institutional care: Due to certain early

experiences in childhood, e.g. family breakdown or an inability of a caregiver

to look after their child, some children end up spending time in institutional

care (children’s homes or orphanages).

+ Evaluation: Value

of longitudinal studies: They're time consuming and take a lot of planning as

the children have to be studied for a number of years. Without these studies we

would conclude that there are major effects of institutional care, now we know

such affects disappear with time and high quality care.

- Evaluation:

Deprivation is only 1 factor: The Romanian orphans were faced with more than

emotional deprivation. The physical conditions were bad and impacted health.

The lack of cognitive stimulation would also affect their development. More

likely that damage occurred when there were multiple risk factors. For many

institutionalised children, poor care in infancy is followed by poor subsequent

care, such as living in poverty etc.

Rutter and

Sonuga-Barke (ERA English and Romanian Adoptees).

Procedure: 165 Romanian children spent their

early lives in institutions and have suffered from institutionalisation. Of

that group 111 were adopted before the age of 2 and a further 54 by the age of

4. The adoptees were tested at regular intervals (ages 4, 6, 11 and 15) to

assess their physical, cognitive and social development. Info was gathered from

teachers and parents. Their progress was compared to a control group of 52

British children who were adopted in the UK before the age of 6 months.

Findings: At the time of adoption the Romanian

orphans lagged behind their British counterparts in all aspects. They were

smaller, weighed less and were classes as mentally retarded. By the age of 4

some children had caught up with their British pair. This was the case for most

adopted before 6 months. Many orphans adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited

attachments and had problems with peer relationships. Long term consequences

may not be severe if a child is in care but if the infant doesn’t make an attachment

then consequences could be severe.

Page 5

Bowlby’s monotropic theory

Monotropy is a special intense attachment.

Bowlby believed that infants form 1 attachment with their mother. If the mother

isn’t available, the infant could bond with another ever-present, adult,

mother-substitute

Attachments are Adaptive: They give our species

an advantage making us more likely to survive because if an infant has an

attachment to a caregiver, they are kept safe, given food, and kept warm.

Babies have Social releasers, which ‘unlock’ the

innate tendency of adults to care for them. These Social releasers are both:

Physical – the typical ‘baby face’ features and body proportions and

Behavioural – e.g. crying, cooing.

The evolutionary perspective The main concept of

this theory is that attachments serve an adaptive purpose to survive.

Babies have to form the attachment with their

caregiver during a Critical period. This is between birth and 2½ years old.

Bowlby said that if this didn’t happen, the child would be damaged for life –

socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically.

Continuity hypothesis: The view of relationships

you develop in early childhood continues into adulthood.

Through the monotropic attachment, the infant

would form an Internal working model. This is a special mental schema for

relationships. All the child’s future adult relationships will be based on

this.

- Evaluation: A

sensitive period rather than a critical one: Studies have been carried out on

children who fail to form attachments during the critical period between 3-6

months. According to Bowlby it’s not possible to form attachments past this point.

Studies have shown this is true to an extent. Its less likely that attachments

will occur but it’s not impossible.

+ Evaluation:

Continuity hypothesis: Bowlby states one outcome of attachment is subsequent

relationships. A study followed pt.’s from infancy to late adolescence and

found continuity between early attachment and later emotional/ social

behaviour. Infants classified as securely attached had the highest rates for

social competence later in childhood, were less isolated and more popular and

more empathetic. Supporting the continuity hypothesis as there’s a link between

early and later attachments.

Page 6

Learning Theories

Behaviourist approach believe we are born as a

blank slate and all behaviour is learnt. Behaviour can be learnt 3 ways: 1.

Classical Conditioning – learning via association 2. Operant conditioning –

learning via consequences of your actions (i.e. reinforcement, punishment). 3.

Social Learning – learning via observation and imitation.

Operant conditioning: Learning by reinforcement

and punishment. Behaviour is influenced by the consequences of our actions

Positive Reinforcement - Behaviour is rewarded and thus strengthened – The

behaviour is repeated. Negative Reinforcement - Behaviour switches off

something unpleasant – The behaviour isn’t repeated.

Classical conditioning:

1. Unconditioned

stimulus (UCS) - something that illicit a natural response, it is innate.

2. Unconditioned

response (UCR) – the natural response to the UCS.

3. Neutral

stimulus (NS) – A stimulus that evokes no natural response.

4. Conditioned

stimulus (CS) – A stimulus that you have learnt to respond to, via association

(was previously the NS).

5. Conditioned

response (CR) – The learned response to the previously neutral stimulus.

- Evaluation: Drive

reduction is ignored today: There’s a limited number of behaviours people do

things to increase and decrease comfort. It also doesn’t explain how secondary reinforces

work as they don’t directly reduce discomfort yet they are reinforcing.

+ Evaluation: it has

some explanation: It doesn’t supply a complete explanation but has some value.

Infants do learn through association and reinforcement, but food may not be the

main reinforcer. It may be the attention and responses given from the caregiver

are important rewards and assist in the formation of attachment. This wasn’t

considered in the learning theory.

Page 7

Developments of attachments

Stages of attachments:

·

0-2 months – pre attachment phase Preference for

people over objects, but no discrimination between people.

·

3-7 months – indiscriminate attachment phase

Apparent preference for familiar people (e.g. smiling more at some people).

·

7 months – discriminate attachment phase True

emotional attachment. Multiple attachments by about 9 months.

·

9 months- Multiple Attachment phase - Infants

form strong emotional bonds with others, e.g. grandparents.

Schaffer &

Emerson:

It’s a Longitudinal study using a variety of

methods. Conducted in Glasgow. 2 behaviours measured were separation protest

and stranger anxiety.

Findings: Most infants started to show

separation protest when parted from their attachment figure at between

6-8months Strongly attached infants had mothers who responded to their needs

quickly and who provided more opportunities for interaction at 18 months 87%

had at least two attachments, with 31% having 5 or more. 39% of infants’ prime

attachment was not to the main career.

+ Evaluation:

Mundane realism is when an activity/study is similar to an activity/process one

would complete in day to day life. It was achieved because the study was

conducted under everyday conditions so has high validity.

- Evaluation: unreliable

results: The data collected may be unreliable because it was based on mothers

reports of their infants. Some mothers

might have been less sensitive and therefore were less likely to report them.

This would create systematic bias and would challenge the validity of the

study.

Page 8

Strange Situation

Ainsworth:

4 types of behaviour:

1. The infant’s willingness to explore.

2. Stranger anxiety

3. Reunion anxiety

4. Separation anxiety

Aim: Mary Ainsworth devised a technique called

the Strange Situation (SS) in order to investigate how attachment types vary

between children.

Method – She used a controlled observation She

assessed 106 middle class American infants and their primary caregivers.

Procedure: The SS comprised of 8 episodes. Each

lasting 3 minutes, apart from the first which only lasted 30 secs. Every aspect

of pts’ behaviour was observed & recorded.

Particular attention was paid to reunion behaviours. The testing room

was an unfamiliar environment – hence ‘Strange situation’

Procedure: The 8 steps allowed the researchers

to assess the following behaviours: Separation from the caregiver (Separation

anxiety). Reunion with the caregiver (Reunion behaviour). Response to the

stranger (stranger anxiety). If the child used the mother as a secure base to

explore the new environment.

Procedure: Data was collected using video

recordings and a one-way mirror. 5 categories were recorded: A) Proximity- and

contact seeking behaviours B) Contact maintaining behaviours C) Proximity – and

interaction- resisting behaviours D) Contact- and interaction resisting

behaviours E) Search behaviours. Every 15 seconds the category of behaviour

displayed and recorded on an intensity score of 1-7.

Page 9

Influence of early attachment:

Mental health: lack of attachment during

critical period would mean a child lacks in their IWM. Children who aren’t

attached don’t have a specific attachment figure stopping them relating with

others.

Poor parenting: Harlow’s monkeys lack of care as

a child makes it difficult to parent in later life lack of attachment with a

parent will cause a lack of attachment with their child.

Childhood friendships: individuals classified as

securely attached in infancy have the highest rate of social competence in

later childhood, less isolated, more popular and more empathetic.

The role of the Internal Working Model (IWM): An

IWM is a mental model of the world which enables individuals to predict and

control their environment. In the case of attachments, the IWM refers to a

person’s expectations about relationships. The infant learns what relationships

based on how parents behave towards each other and the infant themselves. It is

‘operable’ as it is used to predict the behaviour of partners in relationships

in the future.

Hazan and Shaver

love quiz:

·

- Evaluation: Questions don’t

apply to everyone e.g. people with split up parents.

·

- Evaluation: Self

report studies- people could lie, so no best fit.

·

- Evaluation: socially

sensitive people could think their relationship is their parents fault.

Page 10

Animal studies:

Attachment-like behaviour is similar in a range

of species and we can apply to human attachments.

Practical – because animals breed faster and

researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of

animals.

Imprinting: An innate readiness to develop a

strong bond with the other which takes place during a specific time in

development (critical period) If it doesn’t happen in this time it probably won’t

happen.

Lorenz's study:

Procedure: Took gosling eggs and divided them

into 2 groups. 1 group was left with their natural mother the other eggs were

in an incubator. When the incubator eggs hatched the first living thing they

saw was Lorenz and soon started following him around. Lorenz marked the groups to

distinguish them when they were put together to test imprinting, both Lorenz

and the natural mother were present.

Findings: The goslings dived themselves, one following

the natural mother the other following Lorenz. Lorenz's brood show no recognition

of their natural mother. Lorenz noted imprinting is restricted to a definite period

of the young animal’s life, the critical period. If a young animal isn’t

exposed to a moving object during the critical period, an animal will not be

able to imprint. Suggests can imprint on a persistently present moving object seen

within the first 2 days. This attachment binds a young animal to its care giver

to create a special bond.

Long lasting effects: the process is irreversible

and long lasting. Lorenz said a goose that imprinted on him used to sleep on

his bed every night. He also noted that early imprinting had an effect on later

mate preferences called sex imprinting. animals will choose to mate with the

same kind of object upon which they were imprinted.

+ Evaluation:

research supporting: Guiton exposed leghorn chicks to yellow rubber gloves

which fed them during their first few weeks. The chicks imprinted on the

gloves. Shows animals aren’t born with a predisposition to imprint on a

specific type of object but on any moving thing present in the critical period.

Guiton also found the male chicks tried to mate with the gloves showing

imprinting is linked to later reproductive behaviour.

- Evaluation: Criticisms

of imprinting: It was thought that the original concept of the object imprinted

was stamped irreversibly on the nervous system. However, Guiton found he could

reverse imprinting in the chickens who had initially tried to mate with the

rubber glove, found after time spent with their own species they were able to

engage in normal sexual behaviour.

Harlow’s study:

Procedure: wire mothers with different heads.

One wire mother was wrapped with cloth. 8 infant monkeys were studies over a period

of 165 days. for 4 monkeys the milk bottle was on the cloth mother for the

other 4 it was on the plain wire one. During that time measurements were made

for the amount of time each infant spent with the 2 different mothers.

Observations were also made when the infant was frightened by a mechanical

teddy bear.

Findings: All 8 monkeys spent more time with the

cloth monkey whether it had the feeding bottle or not Monkeys with the bottle

on the wire other fed then went back to the cloth mother. When frightened all

monkeys hung to the cloth mother and when playing with new objects the monkeys

often kept one foot in the cloth mother seemingly for reassurance. Shows

infants develop an attachment for a person offering comfort over on that offers

food.

Long lasting effects: Harlow continued the study

as they grew up the consequences were motherless monkeys developed abnormally even

with comfort, they fled when approached by other monkeys, they didn’t how any

normal mating behaviour and didn’t cradle their own babies.

- Evaluation: Ethics:

the study created lasting emotional harm as the monkeys later found it difficult

to form relationships with their peers.

- Evaluation:

Confounding variable: Criticisms have been made as the 2 stimulus objects vary in

more than on being cloth covered and the other not. The heads were different,

acting as a confounding variable because its varied systematically with the

independent variable (whether the mother was cloth covered or not) Study lacks

internal validity as the monkey could have preferred the head.

+ Evaluation: Generalising animal studies to

humans: Human behaviour is governed by conscious decisions. Schaffer and

Emerson's support this as they found infants were not attached to the person that

fed them. Animal studies can be useful pointers in understanding human

behaviour but we should seek confirmation by looking at research with humans.