aim: to identify stages of attachment/find a pattern in the development of an attachment between infants and parents

participants: 60 babies from Glasgow, all from the same estate

procedure: they analysed the interactions between the infants and carers, interviewed the carers and the mothers hhad to keep a diary to track the babies behaviours based on the following measures:

⭐ separation anxiety: signs of distress when the carer is leaving and how much the infant needs to be comforted when the carer returns

⭐ stranger anxiety: signs of distress as a response to a stranger arriving

⭐ social referencing: how often the infant looks at their carers to check how they should respond to something new

it was a longitudinal study lasting 18 months, they visited the infants on a monthly basis and once again at the end of the 18 month period

findings: they found that the babies of parents/carers who had 'sensitive responsiveness', (who were more sensitive to the babies signals), were more likely to have formed an attachment.

they found that sensitive responsiveness was more important than the amount of time spent with the baby, so infants formed more attachments with those who spent less time with them but were more sensitive to their needs than those who spent more time with them but were less sensitive

infants who had parents who responded to their needs quickly and spent more time interacting with the child had more intense attachments, those who had parents who didnt interact with their child at all had very weak attachments

reciprocal: two/both ways; the child has to bond with the mother, and the mother has to bond with the child for attachment for form successfully, they must both be able to contribute to the relationship and generate a response, suhc as when a parent smiles at the child, the child would smile too

it has been said that reciprocity is important in tecahing the child to communicate, it also allows the parent to better care for the child as they can detect certain cues from the baby and respond to their needs sooner and more effectively

interactional synchrony: when the infant and primary caregiver becomes synchronised in their interactions

Condon and Sander (1974) said that children can synchronise their movements with the sound of an adults voice

Brazleton et al demonstrated that young infants can copy the displayed distinctive facial expressions or gestures, the way the two interact changes slightly according to the rhythm, pitch, colume etc of the adult's speech, this has been found the lead to better communication between the parent and child when the child is older

✅ many of these studies used controlled observations, this ensures a high level of detail and accuracy creating a more valid study

⛔ the main issue with observations of such young children is that we do not know whether their actions are meaningful

stages of attachment:
Asocial stage (0-6 weeks): this is when the infant responds to objects and people similarly - but may respond more to faces and eyes

Indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks-6 months): this is when the infant develops more responses to human company, although they can tell the differences between different people, they can be comforted by anyone

Specific or discriminate attachment (7 months+): this is when the infants begin to prefer one particular carer and seeks for security, comfort and protection in parrticular people, they also start to show stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

Multiple (10/11 months+): this is when the infant forms multiple attachments and seeks security, comfort and protection in multiple people, they may also show separation anxiety for multiple people

⛔ lacks population validity
⛔ may lack internal validity
⛔ the asocial stage cannot be studied objectively

Schaffer and Emerson found that 75% of the infants in their study formed a secondary attachment to their father by the age of 18 months, with 29% doing so within a month of forming a primary attachment, as demonstrated by separation anxiety

this suggests that the father is important, but is unlikely to be the first person to which the child develops an attachment to

however, this does not mean that the father cannot become the primary attachment figure, as suggested by Tiffany Field, she observed interactions between infants and their primary caregiver mothers or fathers, and found that primary caregivers, regardless of gender, were more attentive towards the infants and spent more time holding and smiling at them

this suggests that although mothers are often expected to become primary attachment figures, this does not always have to be the case

⛔ there is still a lack of agreement over the extent of the influence of the father as a primary attachment figure
⛔ research into the importance of primary attach figures is socially sensitive
⛔ it could also be that the gender of the primary caregiver is laregly dictated by society

Lorenz demonstrated the concept of imprinting - this is where animals will attach to the first moving object or person they see directly after birth

imprinting/the formation of an attachment must occur within the critical period of attachment is not possible and the consequences of a failure to form an attachemnt are irreversible

Lorenz showed that imprinting occured in a clutch of goose eggs, where half attached to and followed Lorenz after seeing him as the first moving person after birth

⛔ significant issues with generalising animal studies to human behaviours

Harlow demonstrated the importance of contact comfort with monkeys and two fake mothers (one cloth mother, and one wire mother)

the researchers found that when the monkeys were scared, irrespective of which wire monkey was dispensing milk, the baby monkeys would always seek comfort from the cloth-bound mother, (the baby monkey spent 22 hours on the cloth mother)

this led to the conclsuion that contact comfort was more important than food in the development of attachments

Harlow also reported developmental issues associated with the infant monkeys, even those who had the option of choosing the cloth-bound mother, the researchers found that such monkeys were less skilled at mating, were aggressive towards their own children and would be socially reclusive, this also demonstrated the importance of a secure attachment to a primary attachment figure within the critical period

✅ Harlow's research has significant practical value
⛔ ethical issues

Mary Ainsworth designed a study called 'the strange situation' as a procedure to assess how securely attached a child was to its caregiver, and if it is insecurely attached, to assess which type of insecure attachment it has, this was a controlled observation conducted through a two-way mirror

There were seven stages which each lasted 3 minutes:
1. the caregiver enters a room, places the child on the floor and sits on a chair, the caregiver does not interact with the child unless the infant seeks attention

2. a stranger enters the room, talks to the caregiver and then approaches the child with a toy

3. the caregiver exits the room, if the infant plays the stranger observes without interruption, if the child is passive, the stranger attempts to interest them in the toy, if they show distress the stranger attempts to comfort them

4. the caregiver returns while the stranger then leaves

5. once the infant begins to play again, the caregiver may leave the room, leaving the child alone briefly

6. the stranger enters the room again and repeats behaviour mentioned in step 3 (observing, engaging, comforting as needed)

7. the stranger leaves and the caregiver returns

the 'strange situation' places the child in a mildly stressful situation in order to observe 4 different types of behaviour which are separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, willingless to explore and reunion behaviour with the caregiver

Ainsworth was able to identify 3 types of attachment:

Secure: this was the most popular attachment type, this was found when the infant showed some separation anxiety when the parent/caregiver leaves the room but can be easily soothed when the parent/caregiver returns, a securely attached infant is also able to play independently but their parent/caregiver as a safe base to explore a new enviornment, this usually accounts for 65% of children

Insecure resistant: this is when the infant becomes very distressed and tries to follow them when the parent/caregiver leaves, but when they return, the infant repeatedly switches from seeking and rejecting social interaction and intimacy with them, they are also less inclined to explore new enviornments, this usually accounts for 3% of common attachment type

Insecure avoidant: this is when the infant shows no separation anxiety when their carer leaves the room and shows no stranger anxiety when a stranger enters the room, they may show anger and frustration towards their carer and actively avoiding social interaction and intimacy with them, they are able to explore and play independently easily, no matter who is present, this accounts for around 20% of children

this is the theory that an attachment is essential for healthy psychological and emotional development, it states that there will be many negative consequences of maternal deprivation (being deprived/separated from a mother-like figure) such as:
⭐ an inability to form attachments in the future
⭐ affectionless psychopathy
⭐ delinquency
⭐ problems with cognitive (brain) development

attachments are commonly distrupted in situaions when a child is put in day care, has prolonged stays in hospital care or were put in institutional acre to be separated from abusive/neglectful or unintentionally absent parents, this can have temporary effects on the child, or permanent but fairly mild harm

privation is when a child fails to form any attachments at all, this has been said to be more harmful to a child, one of the most common causes of privation has been institutional care

in order to assess the effects of maternal deprivation, Bowlby conducted his 44 juvenile thieves study:
he found that out of 44 thieves, 14 displayed signs of affectionless psychopathy and 12 of these has suffered from maternal deprivation during the critical period of attachment, this was compared to only 5 affectionless psychopaths in the remaining 30 thieves, therefore, on this basis, Bowlby believed that early maternal deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy and consequently, criminality

⛔ Lewis et al. disagreed with Bowlby's conclusion that affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation caused criminality, through collecting qualitative data from interviews conducted with 500 juveniles, the researchers found no link between maternal deprivation and a difficulty in forming relationships
⛔ 44 thieves study suffers from researcher bias, Bowlby was aware of what he wanted to find, so may have phrased the questions in a certain way

children in institutional care are very likely to experience privation, a number of such studies into children in care all show that young children admitted to institutional care usually respond with acute distress, an example of a study is by Hodges and Tizard

aim: to observe the effects of institutionalisation on how infants form attachments and the quality of attachments they form

procedure: they followed a group of 65 british children from early life to adolesence,

the children had been placed in one institution when they were less than four months old, at this age children have not yet formed attachments

there was an explicit policy in the insitution against the 'caretakers' forming attachments with the children

an early study of the children founf that 70% were described as not able 'to care deeplly about anyone'

thus we can conclude that most, if not all, of these children had experienced early emotional privation

findings: the children were assessed at regular intervals up to the age of 16

some of the children remained in the institution, but most had left it, and had either been adopted or restored to their original families

the 'restored' children were less likely to have formed attachments with their mothers, but the adopted children were as closely attached to their parents as both groups of ex-institutional children had problems with peers

they were less likely to have a special friend and less likely by other children

they were also more quarrelsome and more likely to be bullies, and also sought more attention from adults

conclusion: these findings suggests that early privation had a negative effect on the ability to form relationships even when given good subsequent emotional care

this supports Bowlby's view that the failure to form attachments during the critical period of development has an irreversible effect on emotional development

the children cope well at home, when the other person in the relationship was working hard on their behalf, but the same was not true for peer relationships

wars in eastern europe have provided more oppotunities to study the effects of institutionalisation on attachment, as many children have been left homeless and put into care, one example was a study by Rutter et al in a romanian orphanage

aim: to investiagte the effects of institutionalisation in a group of 165 romanian orphans

procedure: studied a group of about 165 romanian orphans and assessed them at four, six and eleven years old, in terms of psychological, emotional and physical development

these results were compared to 50 children adopted in britain at roughly the same time, which acted as a control group

findings: the majority of orphans were malnourished

the mean IQ was dependent upon the age of which the orphans were adopted, for example, those adopted before 6 months of age had an IQ of 25 points higher than those adopted after 2 years of age, also demonstrated by Goldman

those adopted after 6 months displayed signs of disinhibited attachment (a type of disorganised attachment), whereas those adopted before 6 months rarely showed such signs

this is characterised by attention-seeking and affectionate behaviour being shown towards any or all aduls and is thought to be the result of having too many caregivers within the critical period of attachment formation, so a secure attachment cannot be developed

conclusion: Rutter et al demonstrated the importance and effects of adopting orphans at different ages, which was directly related to their rate of recoveries

a full recovery could be made if adoption occured before the age of 6 months, this includes both emotional and intellectual developmental recoveries

these conclusions were supported by the Bucharest Early Intervention project carried out by Zeanah et al (2005), who demonstrated that 65% of their sample of 95 orphans displayed signs of disorganised attachments, compared to only 20% of the healthy, non-deprived control group

✅ Rutter could study the effects of institutionalisation through removing CV and EV of PTSD and trauma
⛔very low ecological validity as the conditions of the orphanage were especially poor