Paper 1- Psychology

Paper 1- Psychology

1. Attachment - Caregiver interaction

   • Interactional Synchrony- when the mother and infant are carrying out actions at the same time. Meltzof and Moore observed that interactional synchrony occurred when the infant was even 2 weeks old.
     • Reciprocity- when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them. Brazleton et al. described the interaction as a 'dance' because it is just like how a couple would dance
       • Support for interactional synchrony - Isabella et al observed 20 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony and the quality of the mother infant care . Researchers found that higher levels of synchrony was associated with better quality mother infant connection.
         • Ao3- A strength to the research is that it uses well controlled procedures where they film the interactions from all angles so it has very fine detail, Furthermore, babies aren't aware that they are being filmed so they won't have an obserevation bias therefore improving the validity.
           • A03- a weakness to this would be the lack of meaning behind the movements, though all studies indicate a pattern to their movements we are not able to understant whether they are even deliberate or conscious. This means we aren't even aware if they have a special meaning or not.
             • A03-weakness the observations don't tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity. Feldman points out they may not be useful as they simply just describe a movement.
               • AO3- The mother infant interaction is socially sensitive, since it puts such an importance of the mother being apart of the babies upbringing , it may make mothers not go of to work sooner
                 • Ao3- Strength - Crotwell et al found that 10 minute paent childinteraction therapy improved the interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their pre school infants compared to a control group . Thsi research suggest that interactional synchrony can be beneficial for improving the relationships between parent and infant especially when they are a t risk

2. Role of the father

   • 75% of infants studie an attachment was formed in the first 18 moths, this was evident whe nt he baby would protest when the father walked away.
     • Grossman (2000) carried out a longitudinal study looking at parents behaviours and its relationship to the quality of children attachments into their teens. Quality of attachment with the father was less important for teengaers in compaison to the mums, therefore fathers may be less important in the childs development
       • Fathers play a different role in attachment instead of care and nurture they provide fun and stimulation.
         • Fathers can be primary caregivers, Field filmed 4 month old babies and found that the father would display 'mother' type behaviorus such as smiling and imataing, mroe so than a secondary caregiver would.
           • A03- A limitation is researchers are interested in different research questions ,some are interested in understanding fathers are a secondary caregiver and others primary caregiver, They both have different findings so it is a limitation because it does not allow psychologists to answer, " what is the role of the father ?"
             • Another limitation is that there is contradictory evidence as Grossman found that fathers as a secodary attachment figure was important when invovling the childs play and development whereas McCallum and Golombok found that kids growing up with single/ same sex families don't develop differently from two parent families. This suggests that the fathers role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.
               • A03- This research has economic implications, as mothers will feel guilted to stay at home which can have economic implications, so Grossmas and Fields study can give mothers comfort go work

3. Schaffers stages of Attachment

   • Asocial stage ( first few weeks) - Baby's behaviour towards inanimate objects and humans is quite similar , though some preference for familiar adults.
     • Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months) - Babies now prefer humasn over inanimate objects, they recognise and pefer familiar adults, but don't show stranger or separation anxiety. Attachment is indiscriminate because it is the same towards all.
       • Specific Attachment (from around 7 months) - Stranger and separation anxiety when seprated from one particular adult. Infant has formed an attachment with a specific primary attachment figure. ( Usually the biological mother, 65%,) this is due to more interaction.
         • Multiple Attachment ( by one year)- Secondary attachments with other adults a month after they made an attachment with their primary caregiver (29%)
           • Key study- 60 babies from Glasgow, working class families. Visited at home every month for a year and 18 months. They measured the stranger and separation anxiety by asking questions to the mother about their behaviour when strangers walk in or when they leave. FINDINGS : 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult between 25 and 32 weeks of age. The specific primary caregiver was the mother as they showed the most reciprocity.
             • A03: A strength of the study is that it has external validity, the observations were made during general activities as opposed to in a lab. There were no influences of behaviour that could have been affected by the observer.
               • A)3- another strength of this study was that it was carried out longitudinally, therefore it has internal validity as there isn't any confounding variables of individual differences between participants.
                 • A problem with how multiple attachment is assesed, Bowlby found that babies may children can be distressed when a playmate leaves the room but this doesn't signify attachment to them, therefore when an individual leaves the room it doesn't necessarily mean attachment. Does not distinguish behaviour to a playmate and secondary attachment figure.
                   • Problems studying the asocial year as babies are immobile and have poor coordination, so it is hard to make judgements based on observations of their behaviour, so it could mean that babies are quite social but, ebecasue of flawed methods they appear to be asocial.
                     • Bowlby argues that most ( if all ) babies form an attachment to a single main carer before a secondary, but Van Ijzendoorn argues that it depends on the culture whether if its the norm to make mltiple attachments or not.

4. AO3 for Animal studies- The mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in bids, mammalian mothers show each more emotional attachment to their young.

   • A strength is support for the concept of imprinting Guiton chicks would imprint on a yellow glove, which shows that they have an innate mechanism to imprint on the fist moving object in the critcal period
     • Lorenz conclusion can be questioned as Guiton found that the ducks who imprinted on the yellow glove and wanted to mate with gloves but he later found that with experience they learned to mate with their own kind, therefore imprinting is not long lasting.
       • Harlows research has important practical application, Howe et al said that it helped social workers understand risk factors in child abuse and so intervene to prevent it. Also it showed how important attachment figures of for baby monkeys in zoos are.
         • Harlow faced several criticism as monkeys are similar to hmans therefore they can suffer similar and he refered to the wire mothers as 'iron maidens' which harlow knew would cause harm. Though you can argue his reseach was sufficiently impotant to justify the procedures

5. Children learn to love the ones who feed them and known as cupobad love. This is because hunger a primary drive, which is an innate biological motivator. Attachment is a secondary drive as it becomes associated with the caergiver and the satisfaction of the primary drive. This is supported by Sears.

   • Learning Theory
   • Classical condition takes place where the mother turns from the neutral stimulus to the conditioned stimulus, through the unconditioned stimulus of food.
     • Operant conditioning take place, when the baby cries it receives comfort, therefore that is postively reinforced but for the parent it is negatively reinforced as the baby stops crying when they provide it comfort.
       • AO3- Animal studies provide evidence against the idea of food causing attachment, which is proved by both Lorenz geese and Harlows monkeys.
         • Ao3- Also Schafer and Emerson showed that for many babies food was not the main source of primary attachment, instead it was other factors such a reciprocity and other factors.
           • As previously mentioned, this idea does not support previous ideas of attachment as it ignores reciprocity and synchrony
             • A strength to it is that many aspects of human development are affected by conditioning so it seems plausible that it could till play a role in attachment.
               • Hay and Vespo suggest that parents teach their children to love them through modelling attachment behaviours e.g hugging them or other family members.

6. Bowlbys theory

   • Bowlby believes attachment is innate like imprinting i, this is so young animals are able to survive when they are young as caregivers will provide them with protection.
     • Bowlbys monotropic theory emphasises how the infant has one attachment to the caregiver which differs from the attachment they may have with other people.
       • He believed the more time the mother spent with the child the better. This is due to 1) law of continuity- where the more constant a childs care is the better the quality of attachement. 2) law of accumulted separation- the effects of separation so separation should be 0
         • Babies are born with social releasers which means they are born with innate cute behaviours such as smiling to encourage attention from adults. The purpose is to activate the adult attachment system which makes them love the baby and attachment is a reciprocal system.
           • Bowlby found that there is a sensitive that lasts about two years, in which if they dont find attachment in they will struggle in the future to do so.
             • The first attachment works as an internal working model, which serves as an expectation of what future relationships are going to be like.
               • AO3- Mixed evidence for monotropy as Schaffer and Emerson found that most babies did attach to one person at first, but a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time.
                 • AO3: Clear evidence of social releasers from Brazelton when the primary caregiver was told to ignore the social releasers, the baby just lay motionless and curled up.
                   • AO3- Bailey et al found that 99 mothers who has poor attachment to their parents had a poor attachment with their child, which supports internal working model.
                     • AO3- Monotropy is socially sensitive as it has implications with the mothers lifestyle as feminists such as Burman argue that this thoery puts the burden on the mum to ensure the upbringing of the child. Especially when you consider the law of accumlated separation. However, this wasn't in Bowlbys intentions instead he wanted to empower women and their status on the uprbringing of infnats
                       • Ao3- Temperament researcher s suggest that some babies ae more anxious and social due to their genetic make up, this can later explain their social behaviour.

7. Ainsworths strange situations findings- Secure attachment = 60-75%. Insecure Avoidant: 20-25% Insecure Resistant attachment 3%

   • AO3- there is predictive validity as it can help us predict later development as insecure resistant are associated with the worst outcomes e.g bullying and adult mental problems ( Ward) so it can help explain future outcomes.
     • Ao3- the strange situtation has great inter rare reliaility- as different observers watching the same chilldren generally agrred on the attachment type. This may be because the strange situation takes place under controlled conditions as the behaviour categegories are easy to observe
       • A limitation is that the strange situation is culture bound as Takahashi notes that Japanese babies are rarely separated from their mothers so they would exhibit high separation anxiety.
         • Temperament may be a confounding variable as Ainsworth asummed that the main influence on separation and stranger anxiety however it could be that genetically they are more anxious. as suggested by Kagan
           • AO3- another limitation is That Main and Solomon found another attachment type which is disorganised attachment which is a combination of avoidant and resistant

8. Cultural variations in attachment

   • Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg meta analsyed 32 studies of attachment looking into the different attachment types as well as within the country to see variations within culture
     • Their findings are Secure attachment were the most common within the country but it ranged from 50% in China, to 75% in Britain
       • It depends on individualistic cultures and collectivist as the individualistic results were similar to 14% like Ainsworths original study however for collectivistic cultures they were higher for insecure resitant and a lot lower for insecure avoidant, this does suggest cultural differences between attachment types
         • Variations within countries were 150% higher than between countries .
           • Simonelli et al foind that his 2014 study had less secure attached but more avoidant and his explanation behind this was that mothers work longer hours therefore it is becoming more normalised.
             • AO3- Meta analysis allows you to analyse large samples as Van Ijzendoorn anaysed over 2000 babies and both studies have a large internal validity by educing the impact of biased metodology or very unusual participants.
               • A03- a limitation of this would be they dont explore cultures enough as they Izjendoorn had found that in Tokyo and rural japan they have different child rearing practices and different results, so what this means is that if you compare two countries it may be useless as within the country it could be extremely diffeent
                 • As the strange situation was done by an american based on english theories, to apply this specific experiment is known as imposed etic which disregards the notion of cultual emic ( cultural uniqueness )
                   • An alternate explanation found for similarity between cultures would be that the media plays a role with it as many books and tv are distrubuted across the word which could infuence the parenting norms.
                     • Temperament can be a confounding variable as Kagan suggests that the genetic makeup can infuence the behaviour exhibited.

9. Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory

   • Beleives continuous emotional ( maternal) care from a mother or mother substitute is necessary for normal and intellectual development.
     • Separation can lead to deprivation but they are two separate things, separation is the child not physically being in the presence of the primary attachment figure. Deprivation means losing emotional care as a result of the separation. Deprivation can be avoided if alternative emotional care is offered, therefore separation does not always mean deprivation.
       • Bowlby believed if the child is separated from the mother with no alternate care during the first 30 months, known as the critical period , then pyschological damage is inevitable.
         • Goldfarb found that children from institutuions found lower IQs as opposed to Fostered.
           • He furtered believed that lack of emotional care as a child let affectionless psychopathy. This was supported by Bowlbys 44 thief study where 14 of the 44 thieves were said to be affectionless psychopaths and 12 of them has prolonged separation from their mother. In contrast 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had experienced separrations.
             • Goldfarb studied war- orphans who were traumatised and often had poor after care, which could have played. Furthermore , kids in institutions may have had a lack of others factors to. Bowlby could be biased as he did the experiment by himself.
               • .Counter evidence is Lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves but a larger scale looking at 500 young people, and he found that prolonged maternal separation did not predict criminalty or diffuculty forming close relationships
                 • Czech twin boys case study where they were locked in a closer for 18 motnhs but received good after care and they has positive outcomes. Bowlbys critical period may just be a sensitive period.A
                   • A strength is the support from animal studies where Levy found that even a day separation in baby rats can affect their social development, however there is always some doubt over the extent in which animal studies can be generalised to humans.
                     • A limitation is that Bowlby didn't distuingish between deprivation and privation. As deprivation is the loss of an already formed attachment but privation is not being to make one at all. This would explain Bowlbys findings as privation may be the cause of the affectionless psychopathy as they never had an attachment formed in the first place. (RUTTER)

10. EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION Disinhibted attachment- the child is equally friendly and affectionate towards people they have know well or who are strangers. This may be an adaption to multiple caregivers. Damage to intellectual development- institutionilised children often show signs of mental retardation. This effect is not as pronounced if the children are adopted before 6 months of age.

    • Romanian Orphan study
    • Rutter did a longitudinal study of 156 Romanian orphans Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at 4, 6 ,11, 15 and had a control grop of 52 british children. The findings were that those adopte dbefore six months had a ma IQ of 102, the ones adopted between six months and 2 years had a mean IQ of 86. Those adopted after two years had a mean IQ of 77 . These FINDINGS prove that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments- a failure to form an attachment befoere sixth months appear to have long lasting effects .
      • Zeanah et al Used the strange situation to assess attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who spent most their lives in institutional care. They found that only 19% of the insitutionalised were securely attached. Whereas 65% classified disorganised attachment
        • Studying romanian orphans has important practical applications as it has led to improvements in the way children are cared for as Langton 2006 states and this is evident in carehomes as they have two key workers as opposed to multiple caregivers as it stops disinhibited attachment
          • In the case of the Romanian orphans, there are far less confounding variables such as bereavement or abuse, instead they can observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation and they were abadnoned at birth so it has great internal valdity.
            • There would be issues with generalisability as the orphanges in Romania had terrible conditions, this mean that it would be difficult to apply it practically as they didnt form proper relationships with the children.
              • The children were not randomly assigned to conditions, as Rutter did not interfere with the adoption process so the first few children that were adopted may be more sociable. To control these vvariables, the Bucharest early interventio study randomly assigned orphans to parents however you can question the ethics behind this.
                • WE arent aware of the long term effects as this is still a relatively new study.

11. Infleunces of early attachment on later relationships

    • Internal working model
      • First attachment is a template of future relationships and this is crucial as it affects future relationships and this is due to the influences of the internal working model.
        • Good experience of attachment leads to good positive expectations in the future, this means that they would seek out positive and functional relationships and ultimately behave funtionally to them. If it is a bad relationship the opposite will occur aand they will seek bad funtioning relationships and behave in a negative manner towards it
          • Kerns found that those who are securely attached go on to form positive better and long lasting relationships whereas Wilson and Smith found that insecure avoidants became the victims of bullying and insecure resistant ended up bullying.
            • Internal working model affects parents as their parenting skills and technique will be shaped of how they were treated by their parents.
              • .Hazan and Shavers love quiz assessed three aspects of a relationship; current and most important relationships, general love experiences and attachment type.... What he found was that 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached, with 25% insecure avoidant and 19% insecure resistant and the conclusion was that secure resepondents had happy and long lasting relationships but insecure avoidant tended to be jealous and feared intimacy
                • ao3- A limitation would be that Zimmerman assessed the infant attachment type to parents and found very little connections between quality of infant and adolescent attachment. This is not what we expect if internal working models were important in development.
                  • AO3- most attachment type studies lack validity as they use questionaires and since this method is being used, you can question how honest and reliable their recall to their memory and looking back is not reliable at all.
                    • AO3- several studies indicate assocaiation but not causation... there can be alternate reasons their later relationships actions suhc as thier temperment and this is a counter point to Bowlbys view of the internal workiing model.
                      • the influence described by Clarke and Clarke is over exaggerating as they dont always have to cause a problem with future relationship but they are just at a greater risk, therefore this is too pessimisitc.
                        • The internal working model gives us indirect evidence on how we think so using self report methods is unreliable as we are relying on the concious to give us a reliable outlook on it