Attachments

Attachments

1. Evolutionary explanations

   • Bowlby's Theory
     • 1958
     • Adaptive
       • Attachments are adaptive. It gives us an 'adaptive advantage' making us more likely to survive. Because if an infant has an attachment to a caregiver, they are kept safe warm and are given food.
     • Critical period
       • Between birth - 2 1/2 year old, if a baby does not form an attachment with a caregiver, the child would be damaged emotionally, socially, intellectually and physically for life.
     • Social releasers
       • Social releasers 'unlock' the tendency of adults to care for them. Physical- the typical 'baby face' features and body proportions Behavoural- crying, cooing
     • Monotropy
       • An intense attachment that if the mother isn't around, the baby could bond with another ever-present adult/ mother-substitute.
     • Internal working model
       • Through the monotropic attachment the infant would form an Internal Working Model. This is a model for relationships. All the child's future relationships will be basd on the mother.
   • Harlow
     • Baby monkey was separated from mothers.
       • Unable to recover and developed illnesses
         • They would then go and neglect their own babies.
   • Schaffer
     • 1996
     • 'Horizontal relationships'
       • With parents or teachers
     • 'Vertical relationships'
       • With a friend or sibiling
   • Koluchova
     • Twin boys raised in isolation without a mother were able to form secure attachments to their adoptive family, once found.
   • Lorenz
     • Imprinting
       • Critical periods of development where babies attach to any caregiver
     • Two groups of geese
       • One went followed mother goose
         • Both groups of geese imprinted on the mother goose and Lorenz equally and saw them as their primary caregiver
       • One followed Lorenz

2. The Strange Situation

   • Investigation of the quality of attachment between a caregiver and child
     • Aim to see how an infant behaves under conditions of mild stress
     • Participants = 106 middle-class infants
     • Observed mothers and baby in a built playroom laboratory to assess
       • Exploration behaviour
       • Separation anxiety
       • Reunion behaviour
       • Stranger Anxiety
   • Ainsworth
     • 1978
   • Findings
     • Found similarities between the way children react in the Strange Situation
       • She categorised these reactions into two insecure attachments and one secure attachment
         • Secure Attachment
           • 70% of children were found to be securely attached
           • The baby will play happily while the mother is present (Exploration Behaviour)
           • Clearly distressed when mother leaves (Separation Anxiety)
           • Distressed when stranger is present (Stranger Anxiety)
           • Baby happy when mother returns (Reunion Behaviour)
         • Insecure Avoidant
           • 15% of children fall into this category
           • Baby largely ignores mother due to indifference
           • No or little signs of distress when the mother is absent and ignores her on her return
           • Distress is caused by being alone and the infant can be comforted easily
         • Insecure Resistance
           • 15% fall into this category
           • Baby is fussy while mother is wary and cries more than usual (has no safe base)
           • Baby very distressed when mother leaves and seeks no contact on return
           • Baby also resists stranger

3. Cultural Variation in Attachment

   • Van Ljzendoorn & Kroonberg
     • 1988
     • Completed a meta-analysis on 32 studies, using Ainsworths Strange Situation
       • Over 2,000 babies were studied
     • Attachment types both between and within cultures
     • There was 1 and 1/2 times greater variation within a culture than between a culture
       • For example; 1 German sample was different from another German sample
     • The results not only varied though different countries, but also through different counties. For example; Different parts of America would have different results
   • Ethnocentrism
     • The tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to ones own.
   • An individualist culture
     • Is one which emphasises personal independence and achievement at the expense of group goals resulting in a strong sense of competition.,
   • A collectivist culture
     • Is one which emphasises family and work goals above individual needs and desires, there is a high degree of interdependence between people.

4. Privation

   • Privation is the lack of something. So emotional Privation is the lack of an attachment and physical privation is the lack of basic physical needs such as food or shelter
     • Koluchova (The Czech Twins)
       • Locked away in unheated cellar away from human company, starved and beaten.
         • When found they had no speech, were terrified of people and has serious health problems due to early malnutrition
           • After being discovered, they were put into care, where they attended a school for people with learning difficulties.
             • After being adopted, they were able to form strong emotional bonds and were now averagely intelligent. They developed into happy, sociable boys who attend a mainstream school.
       • Twins from the age of 18 months to 7 years old neglected by father and step-mother
     • Genie
       • Genie is a study on a seriously malnourished girl who was strapped onto a potty chair or in an over sized cot for almost 13 years of her life. She was barely fed and was had very limited vocabulary, and she was unable to walk. She hissed and spat at anyone who would come in contact with her and had the mannerisms of an animal.
         • After many years in care, she was able to walk but her language skills did not develop properly

5. Institutionalisation

   • Disinhibited Attachement
     • A behavior pattern shown by some children who have been raised in institutions
   • Dontals et al
     • 2 studies on babies in Greek orphanage
       • Wanted to see if institutionally raised children could develop attachments in a normal way.
       • Study 1
         • 15 babies (7-9 months old)
           • • Found babies adjusted well
       • Study 2
         • 16 babies (5-12months)
           • Each child had a specific caregiver
             • Their behaviour showed none of the apparent effects of institutionalisation
       • Evaluation
         • The research shows how important it is for children in institutions to be able to develop attachments to staff at the age of 7 & 8 months
   • Rutter et al
     • To study the effects of institutionalization and whether good care could compensate for the privation children had suffered before the overthrow of the communist dictator Ceausescu
       • Romanian Orphanage- he studied different ages of adopted infants
         • The children that were adopted younger than 6 months old developed normally, whereas those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachments and had problems forming peer relationships.
           • This suggests that the affects of privation can be overcome if an attachment is formed within the first 6 months, but after 6 months the negative effects tend to be more permanent.

6. Disruptions in Attachment

   • Hospitals in the 1950's...
     • Only 25% of hospitals allowed daily visiting.
       • 12% prohibited visiting all the time
       • Visiting was said to be bad for the child because it caused them distress.
   • Robertson & Robertson
     • 1940's
     • Aims
       • To investigate short-term effects of deprivation by examining children in hospital.
     • Procedures
       • They examined children in a hospital, looking particularly at how the children coped with the separation from their mothers.
     • Findings
       • During the separation, children were extremely distressed, and on their return home they were less attached, less affectionate and less happy then they have been before
     • PDD
       • Protest Despair Detachment
       • The stages in which the child loses the attachment

7. AN ATTACHMENT IS A STRONG, ENDURING, EMOTIONAL AND RECIPROCAL BOND, CHARACTERISED TO MAINTAIN PROXIMITY

   • Learning Theory
     • Classic conditioning
       • Pavlov
         • Before conditioning
           • Food= unconditioned stimulus Dog drools= unconditioned response Bell= neutral response
             • Dog does not respond to the bell
               • But when pairing the bell with the food, the dog relates the bell to the food and now drools
                 • After conditioned
                   • Bell= conditioned stimulus Dog drools= conditionedresponse
         • Using Pavlov's theory, a baby would create the attachment with it's mother with this
       • Skinner's Box
         • Kept hungry animals in a box
           • Watched them learn how to feed theirself by pressing a lever to get food
     • Operant conditioning
       • Positive reinforcement
       • Negative reinforcement
   • Day Care
     • Types
       • Nursery
       • Creche
       • Babysitter
       • Nanny
       • Childminder