Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Attachment (An attachment is a particular type of emotional bond between…

- - - - Reciprocity is where the mother and infant respond to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other. For example when the mother smiles it triggers a smile in the child. Whereas with interactional synchrony the mother and infant reflect both of the actions and emotions of the other AND they do this in a coordinated, synchronised way.
  - - - LIMITATION: There are problems with testing infant behaviour - infant's mouths are constantly in motion and the expressions tested occur frequently which makes it difficult to distinguish between general activity and imitated behaviours
        
        Meltzoff and Moore overcame these limitations by asking an independent observer who did not know what behaviour was being imitated to judge the infant's expressions. This increased the internal validity of the data (INTEROBSERVER RELIABILITY)
      - SUPPORT: Abravanel and DeYoung (1991) observed infant behaviour wth babies between 5 and 12 weeks old "interacting" with two objects simulating tongue movement and mouth opening/closing. Infants made little response to these objects. This suggests that infants do not imitate anything they see and only respond to specific social stimuli.
    - - Isabella and Belsky (1991) hypothesised that caregiver-baby pairs that developed secure attachment relationships would display more synchronous behaviour than babies with insecure relationshios. Babies were observed at 3 and 9 months and the secure group interacted in a well-timed, reciprocal, and mutually rewarding manner
        In contrast, caregiver-baby pairs classed as insecure were characterised by interactions that were minimally invlved, unresponsive, and intrusive. Avoidant pairs displayed maternal intrusiveness and overstimulation, while resistant pairs were poorly coordinated, under-involved, and inconsisted.
        Isabella and Belsky concluded that different interactional behaviours predicted attachment quality
        
        STRENGTH: Real world application.
        If interactional synchrony and reciprocity form the basis of social development as this is how they begin to understand how others feel and think, it is important to make sure that caregivers understand this and can be given support early on to provide them these interactions. This can have implications for the infant's attachments and potential future relationships
        
        A* ELABORATION: The "like me" hypothesis.
        The "like me" hypothesis proposed by Meltzoff suggests that infants understand the behaviours of others through their own body movements. This process, called self-other mapping, allows infants to learn new actions and to interpret the intentions of others. This system of representation appears to be innate and has implications for human social development and empathy as well as related neural processes, such as mirror neurons, and dsorders such as autism
  - - - Children were all studied in their own homes and interactions with their carers were analysed to establish if and when infants started to display separation anxiety. Results revealed that attachments were most likely to form with carers who were sensitive to the baby's signals, rather than the person they spent time with
      - By 10 months old, most of the bbies had several attachments, including attachments to mothers, fathers, siblings, and extended family. It was observed that the mother was the main attachment figure for roughly half of the babies when they were 18 months old and the father for most of the others
      - Based on thsi finding, this would suggest that being sensitive and responsive (including playing and communicating with an infant) is more instrumental in attachment than physical care.
        Schaffer's observational research led to the formation of four distinct stages of developmental progress that characterises infant's attachments
      - STRENGTH: Schaffer and Emerson's study involved observations carried out by the parents in the home.
        
        The observations did not take place in controlled lab conditions
        
        this means that the babies were not distracted by the presence of unfamiliar researchers
        
        This means that the babies were simply "being babies" in their home environment
        
        This means that there is high external validity to the research
      - STRENGTH: The findings of Schaffer and Emerson's study has good real-world application
        
        The stages of attachment can be applied practically to daycare settings such as nurseries and preschools
        
        Parents can use the sages of attachment to help understand the development of their child
        
        This means that they may avoid starting their child in daycare around seven months due to the liklihood of the infant being in the specific attachment phase
      - LIMITATIONS: Schaffer and Emerson's relied on the mothers making observations
        
        Some mothers may be more or less sensitive to their child's distress at separation and so report findings differently and with less accuracy than other families
        
        Some mothers may have under-reported what they percieved to be the less positive aspects of their child's experience
        This means that the results may be unrelaibale
      - LIMITATION: The data collected by Schaffer and Emerson was from a biased sample
        
        Schaffer and Emerson only used families from a working-class population in Glasgow, Scotland (an individualistic culture)
        
        This means the findings may not be applicable to other socioeonomic and cultural groups
        
        The findings may not be generalisable beyond the immediate demographic
      - LIMITATION: The data was collected in the 1960s
        
        Parental care has changed in the UK since then because...
        
        fewer mothers stay at home
        
        the primary caregiver role may be divided between parents and even grandparents
        
        there are more "blended" families; many children these days have wider, extended families to attach to
        This means the findings lack temporal validity
  - - - There is evidence that men are less sensitive to infant cues than mothers:
        Children with secure attachents to their fathers go onto have better relationships with ppers, less problem behaviours, and are more able to regulate their emotions.
        This suggests that a father is important in developing good social and emotional skills
    - - Field (1978) conducted research which compared the behaviours of primary caretaker mothers with primary and secondary caretaker fathers. face-to-face interactions were analysed from video footage with infants at 4 months of age. Overall, it was observed that fathers engaged more in game playing and held their infants less. HOWEVER, primary caretaker fathers engaged in significantly more smiling, imitative gimaces, and imitative vocalisations than the secondary caretaker fathers, and these were comparable with mother's behaviour.
        
        This suggests that fathers an be just as attached as mothrs. Fathers can be the primary nurturing figures. i.e. it is more about responsiveness rather than genders
      - Frank et al in 1997 said that he found fathers can become the joint primary caregivers. This challenges the perspective that men are only helpful for cognitive stimulation.
    - - Research has found that fathers are seen as playmates rather than carers and that children require their mother and father in different circumstances.
        
        Children who grow up without fathers have often been seen to do less well at school and have higher levels of risk-taking and aggression, especially in boys. this shows that children may overcompensate with adventurous activities if a father figure is not present to form an attachment to, suggesting that the absence of adventurous, challenging traits the father supposedly brings to a child's early life may have an effect on their later-life.
- - - - Usually occurs within 12-17 hours, must happen within first 30 hours of hatching
    - - Condition 1:he was the first moving object seen by the goose chicks after they hatched
      - Condition 2: The mother goose was the first moving object seen by the chicks after they hatched
      - He then placed all the goslings into a box and found that they followed whomever they had imprinted on, so some followed their natural mother while others followed Lorenz
  - - - Some of the monkeys were isolated for three moths, some for six, some for nine, and some for a whole year. They were then placed with other monkeys to see what effect their failure to form attachment had on behaviour.
      - The results showed monkeys engaged in bizarre behaviour such as clutching their own bodies, rocking compulsively, and pulling out their hair. They were then placed back int he company of other monkeys
      - To start with, the babies were scared of the other monkeys, and then bevacame very aggressive towards them. They were also unable to communicate or socialise with other monkeys. The monkeys raise din isolation began to exhibit signs of self-mutilation such as tearing their hair out and scratching/biting their own arms and legs.
      - Harlow created a state of anxiety in female monkeys which had implications once they became parents. such monkeys became so neurotic that they indulged in harming their infants
      - The extent of abnormal behaviour reflected the length of the isolation. Those kept in isolation for three months were the least affected, but those in isolation for a year never recovered from the effects of privation.
      - Harlow was able to conclude that privation (i.e. never forming an attachment bond) is permanently damaging (to monkeys)