Attachment

Attachment

1. The Strange Situation

   • Stages
     • 1. Child Explores
       • 2. Stranger enters the room and interacts with child
         • 3. Caregiver leaves
           • 4. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves
             • 5. Caregiver leaves
               • 6. Stranger returns
                 • Caregiver returns and is reunited with child
   • Findings
     • Securely attached= 60-75%
     • Insecure avoidant= 20-25%
     • Insecure resistant= 3%
   • Behavioural catagories
     • Proximity seeking
     • Stranger anxiety
     • Separation anxiety
     • Response to reunion
     • Exploration and secure base behaviour
   • Evaluation

2. Bowlby

   • Theory of maternal deprivation
     • Separation vs. deprivation
     • Critical period
       • 30 Months
     • Effects on development
       • Emotional
       • Intellectual
     • 44 Thieves
       • 14/44 were affectionless psychopaths
         • Criminal teenagers
           • 12/44 suffered prolonged seperation
   • Monotropic theory
     • One main attachment
     • Social releases
       • Make caregivers feel love for the child
     • Internal working model
       • The mental representations we carry of our primary caregiver
   • Evaluation
     • Mixed evidence for monotropy
     • Support for social releasers
       • Brazleton et al. (1975)
     • Support for internal working models
       • Bailey et al. (2007)
     • Temperament may be as important as attachment

3. Schaffer's stages of attachment

   • 1. Asocial stage
   • 2. Indiscriminate attachment
     • 2-7 Months
   • 3. Specific attachment
     • 7+ Months
   • 4. Multiple attachments
   • Schaffer and Emerson
     • 60 babies= 31 male, 29 female
       • All from Glasgow
     • Visited at home every month for the first year than again at 18 months
       • Between 25 and 32 weeks 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother (specific attachment)
         • Bt the age of 40 weeks 80% of babies had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments
   • Evaluation
     • Good external validity
     • Longitudinal design
     • Limited sample chracteristics
     • Problem studying the asocial stage
     • Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments
     • Measuring multiple attachment

4. Animal studies of attachment

   • Lorenz's research
     • Imprinting
       • Divided goose eggs
         • Half hatched with mother half hatched with Lorenz
           • Groups stayed with respective parent even when mixed
     • Sexual imprinting
       • Brids that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans
     • Evaluation
       • Generalisibility to humans
       • Some of Lorenz's observations have been questioned
   • Harlow's research
     • Importance of contact comfort
       • 16 monkeys with two wire models
         • Both dispensed milk but one was covered in clothh
     • Maternally deprived monkeys as adults
       • Monkeys without the real mother suffered permanently
         • More aggressive, less sociable
         • As mothers some negelcted offspring
     • Critical period
       • 90 days
     • Evaluation
       • Practical value
       • Theoretical value
       • Ethical issues

5. Learning theory

   • Classical conditioning
     • Associated two stimuli together
       • US > UR
         • NS > UR
           • CS > UR
             • CS > CR
   • Operant conditioning
     • Learning to repeat behaviour, or not, depending on its consequences
     • Positive reinforcement
     • Negative reinforcement
   • Attachment as a secondary drive
     • Primary drive e.g. food (biological needs)
       • Secondary drive e.g. attachment as associated with food
   • Evaluation
     • Counter-evidence from animal research
     • Counter-evidence from human research
     • Learning theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachemnts

6. Cultural variations in attachment