Attachment

Attachment

1. Animal Studies

   • Lorenz
     • Ducks and imprinting
       • Critical period, will attach to first moving objects
       • Imprinting is irreversible, do not ID with species, impacted mate preference (sexual imprinting)
   • Harlow
     • Two Studies
       • Study 1
         • Tested impact of privation
           • Isolated Rhesus monkeys for 3,6,9 or 12 months
             • Privation led to bizarre behaviour
               • Afraid initially, then aggressive to other monkeys
               • Unable to communicate/socialise
                 • Bullied
               • Self-Mutilation
               • Irreversible, length of privation determined severity
       • Study 2
         • Rhesus monkeys given two surrogate mothers, one wire, one cloth
           • 4 were given milk by the wire, the other 4 from cloth
             • Regardless of food, all 8 spent most time with cloth
               • Clung to them when frightened
               • When exploring, would keep one foot on cloth
               • Long term Effects of experience
                 • Abnormal development
                   • Social
                     • Froze/Fled other monkeys
                   • Sexual
                     • Irregular mating behaviour
                     • Do not cradle babies
                 • If they spent time with monkey peers before 3 months old, seem to recover

2. Strange Situation Ainsworth

   • Attachment types
   • Cultural Variations van Ijzendoorn

3. Bowlby

   • Theory of Maternal Deprivation

4. Early Attachment

   • Reciprocity
     • Conversation between caregiver and infant
     • Foundation for attachment
     • Allows caregiver to respond and detect baby signals
   • Interactional Synchrony
     • Meltzoff and Moore
       • 4 stimuli (3 face gestures, 1 hand)
         • Infants would imitate caregiver
       • Piaget didn't believe real imitation could occur this early, was repetition of rewarded behaviour
       • Study supports M&M
         • 2 m/o interact with mother via screen
           • When this was switched to a pre-recorded film (thus no response) would try and gain attention, when unsuccessful, turned away
   • Development of Attachment
     • Schaffer & Emerson
       • Stage 1 - Indiscriminate Birth - 6 weeks
         • Stage 2 - Beginnings (up to 7 months) Enjoy people, more social
           • Stage 3 - Discriminate (7-11 months) Primary attachment figure, separation anxiety
             • 65% to mother, only 3% to fathers
               • 39% made to person who DIDN'T feed/change/bath
             • Stage 4 - Multiple Attachments (10-11 months) Soon after primary attachment build a network of attachments
               • Within a month of 1st, 29% of infants had multiple
                 • Within 6 months, risen to 78%
                   • By ≈ 1 year, 1/3 of infants had 5+ attachments

5. Explanations of Attachment

   • Monotropic Attachment
   • Learning Theory
     • Classical Conditioning
       • Baby derives pleasure from food (UCR) and by association with Mother (NS), the mother is associated with the UCS of pleasure
     • Operant Conditioning
       • Drive Reduction theory - hunger causes discomfort and a 'drive' to reduce this. Reduction leads to pleasure (positive reinforcer). Behaviour that led to this more likely to be repeated
         • Through CC, person who supplies food associated with avoiding discomfort, becomes secondary reinforcer

6. Effects of Attachment

   • Internal Working Model
   • Behaviour later on in life
   • Hazan and Shaver