ATTACHMENT

ATTACHMENT

1. CARE-GIVER INFANT INTERACTIONS

   • Reciprocity
     • Any behaviour that is produced as a response to the other person's behaviour. It is always two way, both the infant and care-giver are active contributors in the interaction.
     • Meltzoff and Moore (1977)- carried out observations on babies as young as 2 weeks old. Adults displayed one of three facial expressions to the baby and the baby's reaction was recorded and shown to independent observers. Each observer scored the tapes twice so inter-observer reliability could be calculated. An association was found between the expression of the adult and the babies actions, indicating the existence of reciprocity from a very young age.
   • Interactional synchrony
     • Relates to the timing and pattern of the interaction. This means that the interaction is reciprocal but also rhythmic and has mutual focus. Can include infant and caregiver mirroring each others behaviour and emotions.
     • Isabella et al (1991)_ observed mother-infant interactions at 3, 9 and 12 months. The quality of the attachment was assessed using the strange situation method: stranger and mother entering and leaving in different orders. Results showed that good interactional synchrony lead to secure attachment. Both unresponsive mothers and overstimulating mothers lead to an insecure attachment as neither is honouring interactional synchrony.

2. SCHAFFER'S STAGES OF ATTACHMENT

   • 1st stage pre-attachment- birth to 3 months. Start to smile and is more sociable from around 6 weeks. They can tell people apart and want to be in human company. Only the beginning of stronger attachments. No fear of strangers is shown at this time.
   • 2nd stage indiscriminate attachment- 3 months to 7/8 months. Infants recognise the carers and are beginning to form stronger bonds with them. However, their behaviour towards inanimate and animate objects is quite similar. They are now more easily calmed by familiar adults.
   • 3rd stage discriminate attachment- 7/8 months onwards. Infant begins to show separation anxiety and protests their primary caregiver leaving. They have now formed a specific attachment and are beginning to show fear of strangers.
   • 4th stage multiple attachments- 9 months onwards. Begins to make multiple attachments.

3. THE ROLE OF THE FATHER

   • Bowlby- suggests the concept of monotropy meaning that babies need constant care from their mothers. Therefore fathers should only provide economical support rather than emotional.
   • Field- the primary caregiver spends more time with the baby than the secondary caregiver. The father is just as capable as the mother in being this attachment.Fathers tend no to be the primary caregiver not because they can't but because of traditional gender roles in society.
   • Lamb- characteristics of the father are much less important than the relationship established.

4. ANIMAL STUDIES ON ATTACHMENT

   • Lorenz (1935)- investigated the mechanism of imprinting. He split a clutch of goose eggs into two batches: one naturally hatched and one hatched in an incubator with human contact being their first interaction. The incubator group followed the initial human around everywhere, whereas the control group followed their mother. There was a critical period between 4-25 hours in which if imprinting didn't take place then the chicks wouldn't attach to a primary figure.
   • Harlow (1959)- testing to see whether food or close comfort was the more important factor in attachment. 16 rhesus monkeys were split into 4 conditions: wire mother producing milk and towel mother no milk, wire mother no milk and towel mother producing milk, wire mother producing milk, towel mother producing milk. The monkeys preferred contact with the towel mother regardless of whether she produced milk. Monkeys with only the wire mother showed signs of distress. When frightened, the monkeys clung to the towel mother when available. Shows the importance of comfort in attachment.

5. EXPLANATIONS OF ATTACHMENT

   • Learning theory- a behavioural theory that suggests attachment can be explained by the concepts of classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
     • Classical conditioning- attachment is formed partly through association. An unconditioned stimulus (food) produces a sense of pleasure or a 'unconditioned response'. Over time the neutral stimulus (the person feeding) becomes associated with the positive unconditioned response therefore turning them into a conditioned stimulus that is associated with the pleasure or 'conditioned response'.
     • Operant conditioning- human primary motives (hunger, thirst) are are satisfied by two drives: primary reinforcers and positive reinforcing. When a primary care-giver provides the primary drive (food) they become the secondary reinforcer. This means they now become a source of reward and the infant seeks this person. The infant learns behaviours such as crying maintain the caregiver's attention so attachment behaviours such as serration distress are developed.
   • Bowlby's monotonic theory- attachment is an innate system that is biologically programmed to help humans survive. Infant's have one special emotional bond and the more time spent with this primary attachment figure the better.
     • Critical period- if the monotropic attachment hasn't occurred by the age of 2 then the child will have difficulty forming attachments later in life.
     • Internal working model- the primary attachment forms a model for what relationships should be like for the infant. It can therefore have a powerful effect on the infants relationships/attachments later in life. Infants with poor attachments are likely to develop a negative internal working model.
     • Social releasers- include crying, smiling, clinging, etc. They are important for the develop of the parent-infant attachment as they elicit caregiving from the parent.

6. AINSWORTH'S 'STRANGE SITUATION'

   • Procedure- the experiment took place in a lab. All infant participants where American and between 12-18 months old. Researcher and caregiver come into the room. Researcher (stranger) leaves. Stranger comes back into the rooms. After a while the caregiver leaves, leaving 'stranger' and infant together. Stranger tries to interact with infant. Caregiver returns and stranger leaves. Caregiver leaves and infant is left alone. Stranger comes back in and then after 3 minutes caregiver comes back.
   • Secure attachment results- high willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, enthusiastic on reunion with caregiver, some separation anxiety but can be soothed. Insecure- avoidant attachment results- high willingness to explore, low stranger anxiety, little separation anxiety, avoids contact on reunion with caregiver. Insecure-resistant attachment results- low willingness to explore, high stranger anxiety, very distressed on separation, seeks and rejects reunion with caregiver.

7. CULTURAL VARIATIONS

   • Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)- a meta-analysis was carried out across 8 different countries with 32 different studies. Secure attachment was most common in all nations. In western cultures, the dominant insecure attachment was avoidant. In non-western cultures, the dominant insecure attachment was resistant. Variation within cultures was 1 1/2 times greater within cultures compared to between countries.
   • There may be universal and potentially innate characteristics in infant-caregiver attachments. However there is suggestion that culture must play some part in the development.

8. MATERNAL DEPRIVATION THEORY

   • Bowlby- when a bond that has been formed with the mother is broken for a long period of time. If the separation occurs before the age of two and half years, without a substitute the effects can be severe. These effects include: risk of low IQ, low internal working model and risk of affection less psychopathy.
     • Bowlby studied 88 children (age 5-16), and half of this group were referred for stealing: this was the studied group. 16 of the 44 were diagnosed affectionless psychopaths. 86% of these 16 had experienced prolonged separation from their mother in their early years compared to only 4% from the control group.

9. ROMANIAN ORPHANGE STUDIES

   • Institutionalisation refers to when a child is in living arrangements outside the family home that lead to them adopting rules of the institution.
     • Rutter (1988)- 165 Romanian children adopted by Uk families before the age of 3 1/2 where assessed on a variety of things at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15. When they first arrived they were commonly found to be: underweight, shower than the norm, lack of wariness of strangers and social functioning issues. The catch up of the physical effects seemed complete by age 4 however the emotional development gap was harder to overcome. Those adopted when they were slightly older (after 2 years) recorded to have a lower IQ than those adopted sooner. 52 British adopted children were also tested and exhibited far less developmental issues.

10. THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY ATTACHMENT ON CHILDHOOD AND ADULT RELATIONSHIPS

    • The internal working model is developed by an infant's first relationship with their primary attachment figure, This forms a mental representation for all future relationships.
      • Prototype perspective- a child's internal working model is fairly consistent and helps us predict their future relationships.
      • Revisionist perspective- adult internal working models can differ greatly from infant ones therefore this allows for changes in a person's relationship patterns as they grow up.
      • Securely attached children were more likely to have better friendships and were less likely to be bullied. Belsky (1999) also found they were also more curious, resilient and self-confident.