Attachment evaluation

Attachment: Evaluation

• Introduction to attachment:
• CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTION
• Observing infants- what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression. Purely, just based on these movements and expressions it is difficult to be certain what is taking place from the perspective of the infant(conscious and deliberate?) Cannot know for certain that behaviours in mother-infant interaction have a certain meaning.
• Controlled observations- observations of mother infant interactions are generally well controlled procedures with both mother and infant being filmed often from different angles capturing every detail. Babies do not know they are being observed which is usually a problem with observation. Means it has good validity.
• The purpose- simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time and does not tell us their purpose. Though there is some evidence to suggest that they can lead to better caregiver-infant attachment.
• ATTACHMENT FIGURES
• Inconsistent findings on fathers- different researchers interested in different things. Some interested in father as secondary attachment figure whereas some interested in primary attachment figure.
• People without fathers- if fathers have such a distinct role do people without fathers have normal development - children with same sex r single parents are no different as found by Maccallum.
• Why not primary attachment- fathers generally do not become the PAF perhaps due to traditional gender roles where the women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than the men.

Slide 2

• Schaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment
• The study-
• Good external validity- carried out in the families own homes and most of the observation was done by parents during activities and reported to the researcher later. This means the behaviour of the babies is unlikely too have been affected by the observers and therefore behaved naturally. This increases the external validity.
• Longitudinal design- Same children followed up and observed regularly(quicker alternative would have been cross-section design which is different children at each age). Longitudinal designs have higher internal validity because they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences.
• Limited sample- all babies and mothers observed from Glasgow and the same social class makes it difficult to generalise to everyone.
• The Stages produced-
• Asocial stage- described as asocial stage however important interactions take place within the first few weeks. Just difficult to observe behaviour at this stage as babies are very immobile.
• Conflicting evidence on multiple attachment stage- collectivist cultures believe babies form multiple attachment from outset, whereas Bowlby states babies cannot form multiple attachments until they have formed single attachment with the main caregiver.
• Measuring multiple attachment- mistakes made when distinguishing between the secondary attachment figure and a playmate. Babies may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room but this does not mean they have an attachment.

Slide 3

• Animal studies of attachment-
• Lorenz
• Generalisability to humans-Lorenz research focused on imprinting in birds and this creates the problem of generalising it to humans. Mammalian attachment to that of birds- mammalian show more affection and emotion.
• Questionable observations- Later researchers have questioned some conclusions such as the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour but Guiton found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with the gloves as adults but eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens.
• Harlow's Monkeys
• Theoretical value- showed attachment does not result due to feeding but instead contact comfort. Also showed the importance of early relationships on adult social development- monkeys less sociable than others and unskilled at mating and neglecting their young.
• Practical value- led to helping social workers provide the correct support for children experiencing neglect and mistreatment in order to intervene and prevent it. Also the application of Monkeys in zoo's now raised with proper attachment figures.

Slide 4

• Learning theory: An explanation for attachment
• Counter-evidence from animal research- Lorenz's geese imprinted before they were fed and Harlows monkeys chose contact comfort over food. This shows that attachment cannot be explained by food.
• Counter-evidence from human research- In Schaffer and Emersons study on the stages of attachment babies formed primary attachment not necessarily with the person who fed them.
• Learning theory ignores other factors- such as reciprocity and interactional synchrony as found by Isabella. Studies have shown best attachments form from the carers who respond well to the infants signals. If attachment purely based on feeding we would not expect to find this kind of relationship and interaction as there would be no point to it.
• Must not dismiss it- main reason learning theory gets dismissed is because it focuses on the attachment being formed purely as a result of feeding. However, it could in fact be that attachment is formed due to the conditioning between primary caregiver and the feelings of comfort and social interaction.

Slide 5

• Bowlby's Monotropic Theory
• Mixed evidence for monotropy- Bowlby believed that babies attachment to primary caregiver was special and different to any other later attachments. However, evidence from Schaffer and Emerson's study showed that a significant minority appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time. Evidence to suggest that attachment to PCG is stronger but not different in quality.
• Support for social releasers- Brazleton observed babies and mothers during interactions, reporting interactional synchrony. The study was extended to an observation where the caregiver was told to ignore their babies signals (social releasers). Initially showed distress before lying motionless. This highlights the strong effect of social releasers in caregiving.
• Support for internal working models- Bailey assessed 99 mothers with one year old babies on quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview process in addition to observing the attachments they had with their own babies. Mothers who reported poor attachments to own parents more likely to have poor attachment with own children.
• Socially sensitive- major implications for the lifestyle choice of mothers. Law of accumulated separation and continuity states that time apart from the baby can cause poor quality attachment and go onto disadvantage the child in later life. Feminists believe this can push mothers to miss out on opportunities such as work.

Slide 6

• The Strange Situation- Mary Ainsworth
• Support for validity- Strongly predictive of later development. Babies classified as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in terms of romantic relationships and schooling whereas insecure attachment holds involvements with bullying and mental health problems. This increase validity because it explains subsequent outcomes.
• Good reliability- good inter-rater reliability, different observers watching the same children agree on the classification of them. This means we can be confident the attachment types identified in the SS are not just dependent on the people observing them.
• Culture-bound- Cultural differences in childhood experiences mean babies are unlikely to react the same to SS in different countries as well as caregivers from different cultures. Takahashi noted test does not work in Japan because the mothers are so rarely separated from the babies that there are high levels of separation anxiety. During reunion stage mothers rushed to baby and made it difficult to observe behaviour.
• Disorganised (Atypical) attachment- mix of avoidant and resistant.

Slide 7

• Studies of cultural variations-
• Large samples- Ijenzdoorn's meta-analysis combined results of 2000 babies which is a large sample size; increasing the validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results.
• Samples tend to be unrepresentative of culture- Ijzendoorn claimed to study cultural variations but in fact studied variations between countries rather than cultures. One sample might over represent people living in poverty thus affecting patterns of attachment. This means comparisons between countries may have little meaning unless culture is specifically specified.
• Imposed etic- Strange situation designed by an American psychologist and there is debate over whether Anglo-American theories can be applied to other cultures. For example, in America the insecure-resistant behaviours may be seen as a bad thing whereas in Germany the behaviours may be seen as a sign of independence and not a sign of insecurity.

Slide 8

• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation
• Evidence may be poor- 44 thieves study had major design flaws such as researcher bias as Bowlby carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathy and family interviews knowing the hypothesis of the study.
• Counter-evidence- Hilda Lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves study. In her sample of 500 those with a history of prolonged separation from mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships (affectionless psychopathy).
• Critical period is more likely 'sensitive'- Bowlby believed prolonged separation inevitably caused damage however later research has countered this. Twin boys in Czechoslovakia isolated from age of 18 months to age 7 locked in cupboard. Afterwards, looked after by two loving adults and appeared to recover fully.
• Animal studies- Harlow's monkeys struggled in later life when released into the wild.

Slide 9

• Romanian Orphan Studies
• Real-life application- Enhanced understanding of the effects of institutionalisation and allowed improvements in the way children are cared for within them. Now most orphanages try to avoid a large number of caregivers and try to keep it to a minimum for each child-having a key worker. Helping to avoid disinhibited attachment(equally friendly to people they know well and people they just met).
• Fewer extraneous variables than other studies- before Romanian orphans most institutionalised children had experienced loss or trauma making it hard to isolate the effects of institutions. The children were dealing with a number of factors (confounding participant variables). Romanian orphans did not have these confounding variables increasing the internal validity.
• Romanian orphans not typical- conditions historically bad and not like most institutions around the world. Hard to generalise the study.

Slide 10

• Influence of early attachment on later relationships
• Mixed evidence for continuity of attachment type- support comes from Mcarthy's love quiz where those with poor attachment type formed damaging relationships but other evidence counters this. Zimmerman assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. Very little relationship between quality of infant attachment and adolescent- not what we would expect.
• Issues of validity- Most studies do not make use of SS but instead use interviews or questionnaire in later years creating validity problems. Self-report relies on honesty from ppts and inaccurate recollections from adults.
• Association does not mean cause- could be a third factor involved such as parenting style or temperament may affect later relationships. Limitation of internal working model being the cause.