Attachment

Attachment

1. The Development of Social Attachments in Infancy - Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

   • Phases of Attachment
     • Pre-Attachment Phase (0-3mths)
       • Baby learns to separate people from objects but has no strong preferences as to who cares for it
     • Indiscriminate Attachment Phase (6wks-7mths)
       • Baby starts to distinguish between people, smiling more at those it knows, however there is no preference for who cares for it
     • Discriminate Attachment Phase (7-11mths)
       • Infant forms a strong attachment to an individual. Baby is content when this person is around and shows distress when they leave
     • Multiple Attachment Phase (9mths+)
       • Infant can form several attachments to several people. Some are stronger than others and may have different functions but there does not seem to be a limit to how many attachments the infant can have
   • Limitations
     • Limited Sample
       • There are different cultural ways of raising children therefore the results cannot be generalised to a wider population
     • Self Report Techniques
       • Its bias because you are answering in a way that is positive for you so that society doesn't see us negatively (Social Desirability Bias)
     • Temporal Validity
       • As the experiment took place in 1964, the same results will likely not be found now as there are other factors now such as attachment with the 2nd caregiver and families are nuclear

2. Imprinting - Lorenz (1935)

   • Lorenz studied imprinting in geese. He found that geese automatically attach to the first moving thing they see after hatching and follow it everywhere
   • Method: Randomly divide a clutch of Greylag Goose eggs into two groups. Leave one with mother and put the other set in an incubator. Be there when geese in incubator hatch
   • Findings: Lorenz found that the geese from the incubator followed him around the same way that the other set of eggs followed their (goose) mother. When Lorenz put all the geese together he found that the two groups would soon split up to find their respective mothers as they had imprinted on the first thing they had seen. It was found that imprinting happens 13 to 16 hours after hatching and this critical period is short due to imprinting being an automatic and fast process. After 16 hours it is too late for birds to imprint on to anything.
     • The findings cannot be generalised to humans as humans are more complex beings than geese are so the findings cannot be transferred

3. Evolutionary Theory of Attachment - Bowlby

   • Bowlby argued that imprinting happens in humans. He went on to develop several main claims for his theory of attachment
   • Attachment can be explained by evolution
   • We create one special attachment
     • Monotropy - being attached to one caregiver: the child's attachment to this one caregiver is different and more important than others
   • We create an Internal Working Model of Attachment
     • The child forms a mental representation of the relationship with their primary caregiver and this then reflects the relationships they have further on in life
   • There is a critical period of attachment
     • At around 2 years, when the infant attachment system is active, if an attachment is not formed in this time, a child will find it much harder to form one later

4. Measuring Attachment Types: The Strange Situation - Ainsworth (1970)

   • In 1970, Ainsworth conducted a controlled observation in a lab with the aim of identifying different forms of attachment which existed between the main caregiver (usually mother) and child
   • Aim: To observe key attachment behaviours as a way of assessing the quality of a child's attachment to a caregiver
   • Procedure: Seven episodes which last three minutes - 1) Child encouraged to explore (tests exploration + secure base) 2) A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child (tests stranger anxiety) 3) Caregiver leaves the child and stranger together (separation + stranger anxiety) 4) Caregiver returns and stranger leaves (tests reunion behaviour + exploration/secure base) 5) Caregiver leaves the child alone (separation anxiety) 6) The stranger returns (stranger anxiety) 7) Caregiver returns and reunites with child (response on reunion)
   • Attachment Types
     • Insecure Avoidant
       • Children explore freely, don't seek proximity or secure base, little or no reaction when caregiver leaves, little effort to make contact on return, don't require comfort at reunion - 20%-25% of toddlers
     • Secure
       • Children explore happily, regularly go back to caregiver for secure base, show moderate separation and stranger anxiety , require comfort and accept comfort at caregiver stage - 60%-75% of toddlers
     • Insecure Resistant
       • Children seek greater proximity and explore less, show huge stranger and separation distress but resist comfort when reunited - 3% of British Toddlers

5. Cultural Variations in Attachment - Van Ijzendoorn and Kjroonenberg (1988)

   • Carried out a meta-analysis of 32 studies across 8 countries which used the Strange Situation experiment to measure attachment
     • Great Britain
     • Germany
     • Netherlands
     • Sweden
     • Japan
     • Israel
     • United States
     • China
   • Research has found that Westernised Culture displays results of a high percentage of secure child and then a remaining split between insecure avoidant and insecure resistant whereas in other cultures due to the way their children are raised there is a more even split between the 3 attachment types or has a higher percentage of insecure avoidant and resistant - it was found in a study in Japan, 0% of Japanese toddlers had an insecure avoidant attachment, this is due to the fact that due to culture, Japanese children aren't left alone

6. The Role of Fathers

   • Goodsell and Meldrum (2009)
     • Found that those children with a secure attachment tot heir mothers also had a secure attachment to their fathers
   • Ross et Al (1975)
     • Found that those fathers who were actively involved in caregiving activities were more likely to develop a strong attachment
   • Grossman (2002)
     • Carried out a longitudinal study looking at parent behaviour, relationships and quality of children's attachment into their teens - quality of attachment with father is less important in long term emotional development
   • Field (1978)
     • Filmed 4 month old babies and found that the primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers

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