Attachment

Attachment

1. section 1

   • Attachment is an emotional bond between two individuals
     • Reciprocity is a description of how two people act in terms of attachment
       • I.e. A mother and their child will respond to signals from one another and create a response
   • Interactional synchrony
     • Mother and infant reflect and replicate the actions & emotions of each other in a co-ordinated manner
   • Attachment figures
     • Parent-Infant attachment
       • While mother-infant is considered traditional, it was found that babies form a secondary attachment to other family members, e.g. father
         • Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
           • 75% of infants formed an attachment to the father by the age of 18 months
     • Role of the Father
       • Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study
         • Attachment to the mother during adolescence was found to be related to attachment at infancy
           • It was found fathers were more important in terms of play & stimulation rather than nurture
   • AO1 - Blue AO3 - Green
   • It is not actually know what infants are thinking making them hard to observe
     • Studies such as Gratier (2003) merely observe gestures or expression - Therefore making it difficult to know what the child is thinking
   • FIne detail from both the mother & child is captured increasing internal validity
   • Inconsistency
     • Research on fathers is confusing as different researchers are interested in different things
       • Some may be looking for the father as a secondary attachment figue, while others look for a primary attachment figure

2. Section 2

   • AO1 - Red AO2 - Green
   • Schaffer's study
     • Schaffer and Emerson investigated the formation of early attachments
       • They mainly investigated what age they developed, intensity and to whom they were directed
       • The study involved 60 babies. 31 boys and 29 girls.
         • All were from Glasgow, and the majority were from skilled working-class families
         • The families were visted monthly. The mother was asked questions about how the child reacted in seperations
           • This was a measure of seperation anxiety
             • They also measured stranger anxiety
           • It was found that between the ages of 25 and 32 weeks, 50% of babies showed seperation anxiety
             • Attachment tended to be towards the caregiver
             • By 40 weeks, 80% of babies had attachment and 30% had multiple attachments
   • Evaluation
     • Good external validity
       • Most observation was done by parents rather than experimenters
     • Longitudinal design
       • Children were observed regularly rather than once meaning there is better internal validity
     • Limited sample characteristics
       • Due to the sample size, and the small range of different classes and social statuses, it is more difficult to generalise
     • Difficult to study each stage
       • Due to the young age, it can be difficult to study the children as the only thing that can be done is observation
     • Measuring multiple attachment
       • Just because someone leaves the room doesnt mean the baby may necessarily be attached. Bowlby pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures.
   • There are 4 stages of attachment
     • Asocial stage
       • Babies treat humans and objects the same but forms preference for familiar adults
     • Indiscriminate atttachment
       • From 2-7 months, they recognise familiar adults, does not show stranger or seperation anxiety
     • Specific attachment
       • From 7 months babies display anxiety towards strangers
         • The baby has formed a specific attachment to an adult
     • Multiple attachments
       • Babies form multiple attachments and with multiple people, this is called secondary attachments.