Attachment

Caregiver-infant interactions

• Attachment is the two-way communication between an infant and its caregiver. This process of each interacting with the other builds emotional bonds and ultimately results in the infant showing distress when separated.
• Interactional synchrony is adults and babies responding at the same time, mirroring each other's actions to sustain communication. Reciprocity is interaction flowing both ways, with adult and infant taking turns in responding to each other's actions.
• Other caregiver infant interactions include: sensitive responsiveness. The adult paying careful attention to infant, responding appropriately.
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977) recordings of 12-21 day old infants responding to an experimenter were rated. Ratings showed infants imitated gestures such as sticking tongue out, opening and closing the hand, mouth open in shock. Suggesting imitation is possible from an early age as attachment strategy.
• Modern studies use multiple observers providing inter-rater reliability and a system of video cameras to document and slow down micro-sequences of interactions between caregiver and infants (adds scientific objectivity).
• Inferences on internal mental states have to be made as infants are unable to communicate their thoughts, unscientific as open to observer bias, interpretations matching the observer's preconceptions.
• Social sensitivity, mothers who decide to return to work the may feel their life choices criticised.

The role of the father

• Schaffer (1964) 65% primary attachment figure was mother. 30% mother and another person (often father, only 3% just father. Either cultural and temporal reasons (1960's working class Glasgow) or biological reasons father have a less important role.
• Changing Cultural Roles: in modern western society the role of mothers and fathers have changed, mothers are more likely to take part in the workplace, fathers take on caring roles traditionally done by the mother. This is likely to change the attachment patterns of infants.
• Importance of Play: Fathers are seen to more consistently engage babies in "play" activities than mothers. Fathers interactions emphasise stimulation and encouraging risk taking behaviours, compared to the more comforting style of mothers.
• Verissimo et al (2011)- Observations of preschool children's relationships with mothers and fathers were assessed and compared with a follow assessment of later social interactions at nursery. A strong attachment to the father predicates high ability to make friends in school, suggesting an important role of fathers in socialisation processes.
• Findings that males can effectively take on a more maternal role (sensitive responsiveness) could provide confidence to fathers taking on the role of primary carer and single gender families that are more common in modern society.
• Social sensitivity: Some women may find their life choices criticised by research in this area, i.e. mothers who decide to return to the workplace shortly after giving birth. Or men that decide to take on the role of primary caregiver may feel they are biologically not capable of providing the same functions as a woman.

Attachment Stages-Schaffer and Emerson

• Stages: identified by Schaffer and Emerson from a longitudinal observation study.
• Asocial: 0-6 weeks. Babies respond to objects in a way similar to other humans, such as smiling.
• Indiscriminate: 6 weeks-7 months. Handled by strangers without distress. Discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar individuals, with a preference for familiar adults. No separation or stranger anxiety.
• Specific: 7+ months: Separation and stranger anxiety. Preference to primary caregiver/s such as mother.
• Multiple attachment stage: 9+ months: Attachment towards number of individuals, (siblings, grandparents, etc). Fear of strangers decrease.
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) Glaswegian babies study: 60 babies studied, Data collected monthly for 1 year (observations & home interviews) follow up at 18 months. Behaviour recorded, stranger distress showing ability to identify strangers and separation anxiety showing attachment bond. Found separation anxiety 25-32 weeks, stranger distress one month later. At 18 months follow up most had multiple attachments. Strongest attachment with mother who provided consistent interaction. Suggests development occurs in stages and quality of interaction leads to strength of attachment.
• Study included a high level of mundane realism, families visited in own homes, strangers visiting would be normal. By incorporating self-report researchers used process of triangulation.
• Lack of cultural and temporal validity human child rearing cultures are variable, (van Ijzendoorn).

Animal Studies; Lorenz

• Imprinting: When an animal (such as birds) will strongly attach to the first object (usually the mother) they encounter. The infant animal will then follow this object.
• Procedure: Half of a Greylag Gooses eggs hatched by Lorenz in an incubator. Other half hatched with the mother.
• Findings: Goslings hatched by Lorenz followed him, goslings hatched naturally, imprinted on the mother and followed her. When goslings were placed together, the half that had imprinted on Lorenz continued to follow him. Critical period (32 hours) if a gosling did not see a large moving object to imprint on in these first few hours it will not imprint at all.
• Suggests: Imprinting is a strong evolutionary/ biological feature of attachment in certain birds, and imprinting is with the first large object, not other potential cues (i.e. sound/smell).
• Lorenz' and Harlow's work influenced later researchers such as Bowlby in the development of the idea of a critical period and internal working model in humans.
• Geese are evolutionarily very different to humans, other models such as Harlow's use of monkeys may be a closer to human psychology.

Animal Studies; Harlow

• Tested "cupboard love", babies love mothers because they feed them. Suggested instead "contact comfort" babies have innate need for physical contact, this is basis of attachment.
• Procedure: 16 monkeys. Removed from biological mothers, placed in cages with surrogate mothers, combinations of wire and/or cloth mothers that provided milk. Monkeys with cloth surrogates demonstrated confidence in novel situations, returning to it when frightened. Monkeys without access to a cloth mother showed signs of stress related illness. Follow up studies the maternal deprivation resulted in permanent social disorders (difficulty in mating behaviour and raising their own offspring).
• Has been applied to early childcare, e.g. contact between mother and babies in the first few hours after birth, Social service workers investigating cases of infant neglect, benefits to millions of human infants may justify the study from a cost benefit analysis.
• Ethical concerns regarding suffering primates. Intentionally orphaning infants and subjection to high levels of stress, led to a negative view of psychology, but also to changes in ethical standards.
• Generalising to attachment in human infants is problematic, monkeys are similar genetically, but there are significant differences in both biology and cultural/social environments.

Explanations: Learning Theory

• Dolland and Miller (1950) Cupboard love theory: children become attached to their caregiver because they learn the caregivers meet physical needs like food. Based on learning theory; behaviour including attachment can be explained by classical and operant conditioning.
• Classical conditioning: learning by association. When two stimuli are presented together multiple times, e.g. food (unconditioned) and the mother (neutral). Pleasure (unconditioned response) starts to become associated with the mother (conditioned stimulus). Now the response of pleasure (conditioned) happens whenever the mother appears.
• Operant conditioning: learning by trial and error (consequences) . Pleasurable consequences (food) for crying behaviour acts as positive reinforcement, making crying behaviour more frequent. Stopping the crying when food is produced is negative reinforcement for the parents.
• Learning theories are supported by significant amount of well controlled research and has face validity, it "makes sense" that babies would cry more if they learnt it gained them attention/food.
• Environmentally reductionist, explaining the complex infant-caregiver interactions and emotions as the result of simplistic processes like S-R links and patterns of reinforcement.
• Harlow's infant monkeys did not attach on to the surrogate wire monkey that provided milk, but to a cloth mother that did not provide milk, but provided contact comfort (rejecting cupboard love).
• Contrast with Bowlby's Monotropic theory as evaluation.

Explanations: Monotropic Theory

• Evolution: Babies have an innate attachment drive to survive, security equals survival, babies will stay close to one carer (usually mother) for safety. Based on Lorenz's imprinting and Harlow's contact comfort theories. Termed Monotrophy: a unique strong attachment to a single care giver, the mother.
• Critical/sensitive period: attachment must happen in the first 2/3 years. Failing results in long lasting negative social consequences- From Lorenz's work
• Internal Working Model: attachment to mother provides a blueprint for future relationships. IWM is a guide on if people can be trusted/ if a relationships are loving.
• Strength of attachment: Strong if care is consistent and weaker if frequent/long separations. Shown by safe base behaviour, stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
• Social releasers: babies instinctively use signals. Adults are biologically programmed to find these behaviours cute or distressing giving attention/attachment.
• Based on Lorenz. Imprinting studies on geese demonstrate strength of attachment to a single care giver, explained evolutionally by significant survival advantages.
• Leads to the continuity hypothesis, Adult relationships are predicted by infant's attachment due to the development IWM. This is deterministic, people like to think that they have full conscious control over their relationships.
• Alpha Bias: may be exaggerating differences between father and mother. Suggests fathers role is resource production. Lacking temporal validity, men more equal in the home and women work.

Strange Situation

• Ainsworth suggests behaviours indicate attachment strength. Proximity to mother, Exploration/secure base, Stranger anxiety, separation anxiety, reunion response and the sensitive responsiveness of the mother to infants needs.
• Ainsworth (1970) The Strange Situation: Infants (12-18 months) and mothers. Structured observation in a controlled lab setting. Infants behaviours in response to a stranger and mothers' actions are recorded.
• Findings of the strange situation provided evidence for the three distinct attachment types, correlating with sensitive responsiveness.
• Strange Situation is a highly controlled observational study with a clear standardised procedure for replication.
• Strange Situation is well respected and is the standard diagnostic tool used to measure caregiver infant relationships.
• Observations only a snapshot of behaviour, not taking into consideration relationship with others, or home behaviour.

Types of Attachment

• As the attachment type more common in western or American/English culture is viewed as "secure" and types more common in other cultures labelled "insecure" the theory could suffer from culture bias.
• Type A: Insecure Avoidant- keeps a distance from mother, not using her as a secure base but exploring, low stranger anxiety & separation anxiety. Won't get comfort from mum when she returns. Little sensitive responsiveness from mum.
• Type B: Secure- Use mother as a safe base as they explore. High stranger anxiety and low separation anxiety, happy reunion response, then return to exploration. Caregivers show sensitive responsiveness.
• Type C: Insecure Resistant- Won't explore, inconsistent in wanting closeness or distance from mum. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety is high, unable to settle when reunited rejecting mum. Mothers inconsistent in sensitive responsiveness.

Cultural Variations

• Van Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988): Meta-analysis, 2000 infants, 32 studies, 8 countries.
• Findings: in all countries secure attachment was the most common type. Generally insecure resistant was the least common type. Type A (avoidant) was more common in western cultures, Type C (resistant) in non-western. There was more variation between studies within a country than between cultures. Germany (35%), most Type A (insecure avoidant) attachments. Japan (27%) and Israel (29%), with the most Type C attachments (insecure resistant), china had the least secure Type B attachments at 50%. UK had 22% type B and 3% type C.
• Conclusion: globally preferred attachment style of secure attachment (type B), but cultural differences in parenting styles with high levels of insecure types in some cultures. Examples: German families value independent/non-clingy children and more Type A reflects self-reliance. Japanese mothers spend a significant amount of time with their infants, explaining extreme reactions to separation.
• Simonelli (2014) Strange situation on 76 modern Italian families. Lower secure (B) rate than in historical Italian families, down to 50% and a much higher rate (36%) of insecure-avoidant (A) attachment. Suggests a healthy shift to more independent children that can cope with the changing demands of modern life (complex childcare).
• This was a meta-analysis, these include very large samples, any poorly conducted study or unusual result will have only have a smaller effect on the overall results, increasing validity of the findings.
• As the dominant attachment style was "secure" this supports Bowlby's theory that there is a biological instinctive drive to parent in a way that produces secure attachments.

Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory

• Monotrophy: Unique attachment bond that develops between infant and mother. Needed for healthy psychological development of infants. Maternal deprivation is not receiving suitable emotional care from a maternal figure.
• Critical period: if adequate attachment is disrupted/not formed within 30 months of birth, negative intellectual and emotional consequences due to deprivation.
• Consequences: Delinquency: Due to delayed social development behaviour is often outside acceptable norms, such as petty crime. Affectionless psychopathy: Due to delayed emotional development, children are unable show caring behaviour to others or empathy. Having little guilt for harmful actions. Low IQ: Due to delayed intellectual development general cognitive abilities are lower than peers.
• Continuity Hypothesis: Lack of internal working model/template for relationships. Leading to unsuccessful childhood, adult relationships and issues with own parenting skills.
• Bowlby (1944) interviewed 44 older children accused of theft and a control group of 44 emotionally disturbed non-thieves. Affectionless psychopathy assessed, and parents contacted identify periods of separation from mothers. Found in the group that 14 matched the criteria for affectionless psychopathy, none of control group. 12 of the 14 affectionless psychopaths experienced prolonged separation compared to 2 of the control group. Suggesting affectionless psychopathy that led to criminal/delinquent behaviour and is liked to maternal deprivation.
• Led to changes to child welfare policies of many institutions, such as visiting time for mothers in hospitals.
• 44 thieves study is correctional, may be third factor such as extreme poverty, family history of poor mental health.

Romanian Orphan Studies

• Institutions include children's homes (orphanages), hostels and hospitals. Extended stays can alter normal functioning such as adopting rules and norms (institutionalisation). Resulting in loss of personal identity, deindividuation and factors identified by Bowlby: affectionless psychopathy, delinquency and low IQ.
• Deprivation is loss of damage to an attachment, so not receiving suitable emotional care from the primary caregiver. Privation is the total lack of development of any attachment bond.
• Research resulted in changed policies around adoption and care in orphanages and other institutional settings.
• Goldfarb (1947) showed early fostering in British children led to higher IQ and social skills.

Romanian Orphan Studies continued...

• The fall of the communist government in 1989 revealed conditions of 300,000 Romanian orphans suffering privation. They lacked physical and emotional care from staff. Many of the children were malnourished and abused.
• Rutter (2011) Longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans adopted into UK families. Adopted under 6 months, 6 to 24 months or over 24 months and compared to a control group of British adoptees. Assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years.
• Age 6: If adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment, an overly friendly behaviour to strange adults.
• Age 11: If adopted after 6 months, showed significant delayed intellectual development. Average IQ if adopted after 24 months was of 77. Some cases of quasi-autism, problems understanding the meaning of social context.
• Suggests adoption within 6 months avoids effects of privation. But recovery suggests sensitive not critical period.

Early attachment effects

• Internal Working Model, a schema based on attachment to the primary caregiver as an infant. This acts as a template for how relationships work, such as if people can be trusted, or if relationships are loving. The Continuity Hypothesis suggests future relationships, e.g. childhood friendships, adult partners and even their own parenting relationships with their children will be shaped by this template.
• Hazen and Shaver suggest adults relationship types are a continuation of Ainsworth's infant types (A, B, C).
• Children with a secure attachment type (B) will go on to be more socially capable in childhood relationships.
• Main et al: Developed adult attachment interview to identify IWM. Types are dismissing, autonomous, preoccupied and unresolved (childhood trauma), these types predict relationship style with own children.
• Verissimo et al (2011) showed a strong attachment to the father predicts high ability to make friends in school.
• McCarthy (1999) showed adult women assessed as type B in infancy had the most stable adult relationships.
• Practical applications in schools, altering IWM to address issues such as bullying and loneliness in childhood. Even helping children achieve relationship stability in later adulthood.
• Kagan suggests the alternate temperament hypothesis. Infants have an innate biological personality i.e. to be passive or challenging. This resulting in infant-caregiver and adult relationships.
• The continuity hypothesis is highly deterministic. This theory could make people feel doomed to poor relationships.