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Attachment - Coggle Diagram
Attachment
Influence of early attachment on later relationships
Relationships in later childhood: Bullying behaviour can be be predicted from attachment type. 196 children aged 7-11 years were given questionnaires about bullying. Secure children were unlikely to be involved in any bullying, avoidant were most likely to be victims and resistant the bullies.
Relationships in adulthood with romantic partners: Hazan and Shaver created the love quiz that assessed ptts current relationship, their number of love experiences and their attachment type. 56% of ptts were secure, 25% insecure avoidant and 19% insecure resistant. Secure ptts were most likely to be in a long last romantic relationship. Avoidant tend to be jealous and fear intimacy. Resistant were less likely to be single and have experienced divorce.
As a young infant (2.5 years): the relationship between the monotropy and infant provides the infant with an IWM of relationships. This is a template of self worth and they will apply to all future relationships. A child who has a responsive and sensitive primary care giver will be secure and develop a positive IWM. It explains how early attachment experiences are mirrored in later relationships.
Relationships in adulthood as a parent: IWM affect the child's ability to parent their won children.. Research found that adults base their parental style on their IWM meaning attachment type is passed on. Research on 99 mothers and babies showed that most mothers had the same attachment to their babies as they did to their own mothers.
Evaluation
:( retrospective nature of research
:( alternative explanation: temperament
:( issues of validity
:( contradictory research about the role of the IWM
Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation
The Critical Period
First 2.5 years. If separation occurs here and the child is deprived of emotional maternal care for a long time, psychological damage was irreversible
Effects on development
Intellectual development: If deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period children could suffer from mental retardation with low IQ. Research found lower IQ in children who remained in institutions compared to those who were fostered.
Emotional development: Children who are deprived of maternal emotional care show affection-less psychopathy (when children cannot experience guilt). Prevents them from forming normal relationships
Separation vs Deprivation
Separation means the child is no longer in the presence of the mother. If this is brief it won't be harmful to the development of the child. But extended separations can lead to deprivations where attachments that have formed can be broken, causing harm to the child.
Bowlby's research investigating Maternal Deprivation
44 thieves and the link between affection-less psychopathy and maternal deprivation
Procedure: 44 criminal teens were interviewed for signs of affection-less psychopathy (lack of affection/remorse). Families were also interviewed to see whether the thieves had any prolonged early separations from their mothers.
Findings: Bowlby found that 14/44 thieves were AP's. Of the 14, 12 had experienced long term separation from their mothers during their critical period. Only 5/30 of the remaining thieves had experienced separations. In a control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed individuals, only 2/44 had experienced long term separation.
Conclusion: Prolonged early separation caused affection-less psychopathy.
Evaluation
:( susceptible to researcher bias as Bowlby carried out the interviews himself
:( contradictory evidence from Lewis
:( poor supporting evidence as it is methodologically flawed
:( critical period is more a sensitive period
Romanian Orphan Studies: Effects of institutionalisation
Institutionalization: When children spend a period of time within an institution e.g. an orphanage. There is often very little emotional care provided
Effects
Reactive detachment disorder: an extreme lack of sensitive responsiveness from a parent in early life can lead to a child growing up unable to trust or love others. They become isolated, very selfish, lack empathy and aggressive.
Disinhibited attachment disorder: a condition in which children select attachment figures indiscriminately and behave in an overly familiar fashion with complete strangers. It can be caused by long periods of institutional care in early life.
Rutter's English and Romanian adoptee study
Procedure: A longitudinal natural experiment method was used with a sample of 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted in Britain to investigate what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15 years. A control group of 52 British children were adopted at the same time.
Findings: 50% of the Romanian children showed signs of mental retardation and were malnourished. Children adopted before 6 months had the highest mean IQ of 102. Those adopted bewteen 6 months and 2 years had an IQ average of 86, and after 2 years an IQ of 77.
Hodges and Tizard
Procedure: a longitudinal study with 65 children who had been in institutional care before they were 4 months old. At the age of 4, 24 children were adopted, 15 were returned to their biological parents and 26 remained in institutional care. The children were assessed for their development at ages of 4, 8 and 16
All of the institutionalized children showed DAD and RDD. They concluded that early effects of institutionalized care can be overcome if the child has a supportive environment as they could still form strong attachments.
Evaluation
:) practical applications in orphanages
:( social desirability due to self report techniques
:( longitudinal study so findings are susceptible to attrition
:) research includes many confounding variables