Attachment

Attachment

1. An enduring, two way emotional tie to a specific other person, normally between a parent and child, which develops in set stages within a fairly set timescale. Each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.

2. Evidence by Maccoby

   • Secure-base behaviour
   • Seeking proximity
   • Separation anxiety

3. Caregiver Interactions

   • Serve to develop and maintain an attachment bond between babies and their caregivers.
     • Reciprocity
       • A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is recipriocol in the way they both respond to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other.
         • Supporting research by Melzoff and Moore
           • Found that infants aged 2-3 weeks tended to mimic adults' facial expressions and hand movements.
             • This supports that infant mimicry is an innate ability to aid the formation of attachment.
       • RESPONDING
     • Interactional synchrony
       • COPYING
       • The co-ordinated rhythmic exchanges (both physical and emotional) between carer and infant.
         • Supporting research by Condon and Sander
           • Analysed frame-by-frame video recordings of infants' movements to find that they coordinated their actions in sequence with adults' speech to form a kind of turn-taking conversation.
       • Reinforces the attachment bond.
   • Evaluation
     • Strengths
       • Research by Condon and Sander, and Melzoff and Moore.
     • Weaknesses
       • It is hard to know what is happening when observing infants.
       • Observations don't tell us the purpose of reciprocity or synchrony.

4. Stages of Attachment

   • By Schaffer
   • Based on research by Schaffer and Emerson.
   • Stage
     • 1) Asocial Stage
       • 2) Indiscriminate Attachment
   • Age
     • 1) First few weeks
       • 2) 3 to 7 months.
   • Description
     • 1) Infants become attracted to other humans more than objects and events. This is shown by them smiling at faces.