How do attachments develop?

How do attachments develop?

1. 1. Imprinting as proposed by Konrad Lorenz

   • This idea comes from the work of ethologists on non-human animals, particularly birds
   • Just as physical characteristics of various species develop at certain stages of growth, the ethologists claim that perhaps attachments will only form during similar critical periods
     • Examples of this are birds forming attachments to the first thing they see upon hatching
   • Characteristics
     • It occurs during a critical period
     • It is irreversible: once the bond is formed it cannot be broken, nor can its effects
     • It has consequences both for short term survival and in the longer term forming templates for later relationships
   • Evidence
     • Konrad Lorenz (1935)
       • Split a clutch of goose eggs and got half to be hatched by their mother and the rest were placed in an incubator and saw Konrad on hatching
         • The second group subsequently followed Konrad everywhere and became distressed if they were separated from him
     • Immelmann (1972)
       • imprinted newly hatched zebra finches on Bengalese finches. Later in life the zebra finches ‘preferred’ to mate with Bengalese finches rather than their own species. Evidence for the long term effects.
   • Criticisms
     • Guiton et al (1966)
       • Disagreed with the irreversible nature of imprinting. They imprinted newly hatched chickens onto yellow rubber gloves
         • In later life, just as the theory predicts, they did indeed try to mate with the gloves. However, when they had chance to spend time with others of their own species, they developed a ‘taste’ for mating with these instead
     • Bowlby
       • The idea being that there is a time in an infant’s life when it is most likely to form an attachment, but it can continue to form them outside this period
       • Argued that our need to form attachments was innate and would occur in the sensitive period between the ages of 1 and 3 years

2. Skin-Skin hypothesis

   • Klaus and Kennel (1976)
     • Looked at two groups of newly born infants:
       • Group one allowed contact with mother during feeding in the first 3 days
       • Group two allowed extended contact with mother lasting several hours a day
     • One month later when they returned to the hospital mothers in group two were found to cuddle their babies more and make greater eye contact. The effects were still noticeable a year later.
       • Klaus and Kennel believed that this showed that greater contact led to stronger and closer bond formation between mother and child and provided evidence for the sensitive period.
     • This research led to a change in social policy with hospitals encouraged to room mother and infant together in the days following birth rather than the previous tendency to keep them apart. Also fathers were encouraged to be present at birth so that they too could form an early attachment
     • Evaluation
       • Durkin (1995)
         • Pointed out that most of the mothers were unmarried and from poor families so results may be difficult to generalise to the general population. Perhaps the closer bond was due more to the extra attention given to them during the experiment
       • De Chateau et al (1987)
         • Repeated the procedure on middle class Swedish mothers and found very similar results.

3. Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment: The Glasgow Babies

   • Evaluation
     • Since babies were observed in their own homes (a natural environment) we can assume that the study is high in ecological validity; the findings can be generalised to the real world.
     • Accuracy of data collection by parents who were keeping daily diaries whilst clearly being very busy could be questioned.
   • Human attachments develop in three distinct stages:
   • 1) Asocial (0-6 weeks)
     • Attention seeking behaviour such as crying and smiling is not directed at anyone. No attachments formed
   • Indiscriminate attachment (6weeks to 7 months)
     • Child seeks attention from anyone and is happy to receive attention from anyone, however preferences are shown to familiar faces
   • Specific attachments (7 to 11 months)
     • Child is primarily attached to the main caregiver. If they are separated the child becomes distressed and the child is wary of strangers