Attachment

Attachment

1. Learning Theory

   • Classical Conditioning
     • Baby learns to attach to the mother because they associate the mother with food. The baby wants food, and as the mother has the food, the baby ends up wanting the mother without needing the food as a stimulus
     • Pavlov
       • Associated a bell with food, so bell caused dogs to salivate
         • Noticed dogs salivated when seeing food
     • New response is learned when a neutral stimulus is associated with an unconditioned stimulus
   • Operant Conditioning
     • Positive reinforement
       • the baby is rewarded with food when their mother feeds them
     • Punishment
       • When the baby is not with the mother they are punished because they are not fed, so they are hungry
     • Negative reinforecement
       • Mum picks up the baby and feds the baby and the baby stops crying
     • Behaviour is learnt through trial and error and in response to consequences
     • Support
       • Little Albert 1920
         • Explains how we learn behaviour
         • reinforcement and punishment applies in real life
   • Evaluation
     • Harlow's monkeys
       • careful when generalising because this research was done with monkeys
       • It doesn't show the attachment between the baby and the monkey that feeds. Instead it shows attachment between the babby monkey and the fluffy fake monley
   • Behaviour is learnt

2. Emotional bond between two people, eduring over time

3. Bowlby's Theory

   • Infant becomes attached to person providing them with basic needs to survive
   • Features
     • Attachment develops during sensitive period
       • After this it becomes difficult to form attachments, if one hasn't been formed in this period
     • Infants have innate drive to attach and have social releasers to elicit caregiving
     • Continuity- securely attached infants go on to be securely attached
     • Infants have primary attachment (monotropy) and secondary attachment (heirarchy)
     • Early attachment creates expectations about later relationships- internal working model
   • Support
     • Cultural Studies suggest attachment must be innate
     • Lorenz
       • Infant geese imprinted on Lorenz as he was the first thing they saw and he kept them alive
     • Schaffer and Emerson's study found infants had one primary attachment and secondary atttachment
     • Carlson
       • Found insensitive caregiving led to disorganised attachment
   • Limitations
     • Rutter
       • Several primary attachments may be desirable for healthy emotional development

4. Types of Attachment

   • Ainsworth 1978
     • Strange situation
       • Infant and Parent in a 'Strange' environment with a stranger
       • Infants behaviour observed as mother leaves and returns and when a stranger is president
       • Measures attachment in terms on stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
     • R: 66% displayed secure attachments
       • High stranger anxiety
       • Willing to explore with mother as a secure base
       • Easily comforted by mother
     • R: 22% were insecure avoidant
       • Willing to explore without caregiver
       • Did not seek proximity on return
       • Low stranger anxiety
       • parent's absense unnoticed
     • R: 12% were insecure resistant
       • Distressed on mother absence
       • High stranger anxiety
       • Unwilling to explore
       • Seeks and rejects caregiver on return
   • Support
     • Main and Soloman
       • Analysed tapes of children in strange situation
       • Found disorgainised attachment
         • Lack of consistency in behaviour
     • Disinhibited attachment results from privation
       • Infants try to form attachment to anyone, but they are superficial
   • Limitations
     • Validity
       • Strange situations measures the way two people interact, not personality quality of individual
     • Hazan and Shaver
       • Found that people who were securely attached in early life, were more likely to form eduring relatonships later on
     • Strange Situation has ethical concerns
       • Situation may have caused infants to behave differently

5. Cultural Variations

   • Culture
     • Rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that blind members of society together