Attatchment

Attatchment

1. Natural

   • Learning
   • Classical conditioning - Care giver is associated with food - the food is unconditioned and are a primary reinforcer - the care giiver is conditioned and a secondary rienforcer (security
     • Studies to support - Harlows monkeys, procedure; Four main IVs; one room with wire mother producing milk and cloth mother not, one with wire not and cloth yes, one with wire mother, one with cloth mother
     • Evaluation - conditioning does explain some behaviours however attachments are more complicated than this - babies do not live to eat but eat to live - Bowlby says babies only periodicaly need food but still need emotional care after - Behavourism doesnt explain anything comples or internal theories just how they come out as behaviour making this theory flawed
   • Operant conditiong - Where behaviour is rienforced eg. reducing hunger and therefore becoming a source of rienforcement (reward)
     • Studies that disagree - Fox found that children in a kibutz were still more attached to their mother even though the metapelets did all the feeding and they rarely saw their parents

2. Evolutionary

   • Bowlby
   • Emotional attachments have evolutional and biological functions
     • Babies behave in a way that ensures survival
       • Social releasers - infant social behaviours stimulating adult interaction and care giving - crying (attracts parents attention) - looking and smiling etc (maintians parents interest) - following or clinging (to maintian or gain physical closeness)
       • all of this is to gain survival chances, protection, secuirity, warmth etc - attachments like these help to teach children to form other attachments later in life which will be vital for reproduction and maternal feelings...its a circle really
       • Studies that disagree - Lamb found that babies do form different and alot of attachments with other people eg the father for play the mother for comfort, going against bowlbys idea of monotropy
         • Evaluation - imprinting mainly applies to animals who can move around etc straight after birth, we are not one of those animals - Fathers can be mother too - his theory suffers from bias, it has been champoined by those who belive woman should not work but stay at home etc :L
     • Imprinting - following the first large object that is moving
       • Critical period - a specific time where an attachment must form
         • Monotropy - a specific attachment towards a particular adult
           • Bowlby says - mothering is useless for most children after 12 months and all children after 2 and a half to 3 years
           • its a unique attachment but will form a model for relationships for others (internal working model)

3. Phases of attachment

   • Pre-attachment phase (0-3months) babies prefere humans to objects, smiling at them etc
     • Indiscriminate attachment phase (3-7/8months) babies will allow strangers to look after them and hold them but smile and prefer familiar people
       • Discriminate attachment phase (7/8+) babies begin to grow attached to specific people, becoming distressed etc if taken from them, they avoid unfamiliar people and protest if unfamiliar people handle them
         • Multiple attachments phase (9+) babies form strong emotional bonds with major caregivers eg grandparents etc and non caregivers like other children, the fear of strangers weakens but the attachment to the mother is the strongest