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attachment, 1.a caregiver infant interactions, ainsworths strange…
attachment
caregiver infant interactions
reciprocity
interactional synchrony
stages of attachment - schaffer
multiple attachments
role of the father
explanations of attachment
learning theory
bowlbys monotropic theory
critical period
internal working model
ainsworths strange situation
secure
insecure avoidant
insecure resistanct
attachment is a two way reciprocated emotional bond between two individuals, characterised by
proximity
separation distress
secure base behaviour
animal studies of attachment
lorenz
harlow
bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
romanian orphan studies
effects of institutionalisation
What is attachment?
An emotional relationship or bond between two people
In which each party seeks closeness and feels secure when they are together
influence of early attachment on child and adult relationships
role of an internal working model
cultural variations - van Ijzendoorn
1.a caregiver infant interactions
reciprocity
interaction is a two way mutual process
infant and caregiver take it in turns to respond to eachothers signal and sustain the interaction
the behaviour of each party elicits a response
serves to reinforce a bond
Quote from Brazil et on - describes reciprocity as a ‘dance’ responding to each others moves
alert phases and active involvement
alert phases -
at periodic times the baby will signal it is ready for an interaction, eg eye contact
this happens from about 3 months
active involvement
both caregivers and babies initiate interactions and take turns in doing so
both respond to other peoples moves
interactional synchrony
adult and infant mirror the actions of each other in a synchronised way - appearing as 'one person'
adults and infants respond in time to sustain communication
also serves to reinforce the attachment bond
MELTZOFF AND MOORE
observed begginings of interactional synchrony in babies from two weeks old
Video taped - can be rewatched and balaies micro expressions observed
an adult would display one of three facial experssions or one of three distinctive gestures
they found a significant association with the adult and the babies expressions and gestures
importance for attachment
isabella observed 30 mums + babies and research showed that the mire sychronised they are, the better attachment thry have
ISABELLA ET AL
Observed 20 mothers and children and observed how synchronised they were
Found the better the synchronisation, the stronger the attachment
stages of attachment - schaffer
procedure
longitudinal study of 60 new-born infants and their mothers in working class glasgow
studied in their own homes for the first year, followed up at 18 months
observations and interviews
attachments measured by - separation protest and stranger anxiety
findings
between 6-8 months 50% of babies showed specific attachment toward a particualr adult. 80% showed this by 8 months
primary attachments were formed with those who displayed reponsive sensitivity to the babies needs
most babies formed multiple attachments
stages
asocial (birth - 3 months) - babies become more attracted to humans, prefering them to objects
indiscriminate attchment (3-7/8 months) start to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar poeple, smiling more at known people - will allow strangers to look at them
specific (7-8 months onwards) - infants develop specific attachments becoming distressed when separated
multiple attachments ( 9 months onwards)
evaluation
+research takes place in a natural setting, caregiver and infant in home
high ecological validity however there is low control of extraneuous variables
reaearch is observational
may be observer bias and the obervers could be too subjective, the whole experiment will therefore be less valid because inferences would be drawn
multiple attachments and the role of the father - schaffer and emerson
75% of infanrs had formed an attachment with their father at 18 months
different attachments are formed with different people to fullfill different needs
attachment to the mother is for loving care/ food and attchment to the father is for exiting unperdicable play
Role of the father
Not important - grossman
Quality of attachment with dad is less influential in adolescence
Bowlby - father is economicallly important, not emotionally
ainsworths strange situation
strange situation
technique to identify type of attachment
controlled observation
how infants behaved under mild stress created by presense of a stranger and separation from caregiver
research room is a novel environment
observers recorded aspects of brhaviour every 15 seconds
ainsorth wanted to investigate
stranger anxiety
how the child used the mother as a safe base for exploration
stranger anxiety
separation anxiety
reunion behaviour
procedure
parent and infant introduced to the room
parent sits while infant plays
stranger enters and talks to parent
parent leaves, infant plays, stranger offers comfort if needed
parent returns, greets infant, offers comfort and stranger leaves
parent leaves infant alone
stranger enters
pareny returns
ainsworth discovered 3 types of attachment
66% secure attachment
happy to explore
anxious around strangers and uses caregiver as safe base
moderate stress when caregiver leaves
obvious joy when reuinited with caregiver
22% insecure avoidant
happy to explore caregiver not used as safe base
not anxious of stranger
indifference when mother leaves
shows little reaction on reunion
12% insecure resistant
low willingness to explore
extreme stranger anxiety
hard to soothe
parenting and attachment types
secure
strong attachment
as a result of sensitive responding by caregiver to needs
healthy cognitive and emotuonal development
insecure avoidant attachment
mothers who do not respond to their childs needs
insecure resistant
associated with inconsistent parenting where mother sometimes responds to and sometimes ignores
evaluation
standardised procedure
can be replicated and has been carried out successfully in many cultures, this has allowed researchers to compare
good predictor of later development
securely attached children have better outcomes in many areas
ethical issues
infants are deliberately stresses this means the infants may suffer psychological harm
animal studies - lorenz and harlow
lorenz
procedure
took a clutch of gostling eggs and divided them into two groups
one group was left with their natural mother, the other group with an incubator
when the incubator eggs hatched, the first living thing they saw was lorenz
findings
immediately after birth the naturall hatched gostlings followed their mother about, incubated gostlings followed lorenz
found that imprinting only happened between 4 and 25 hours after hatching
the gostlings that imprinted on humans, would as matured adult birds, attempt to mate witg humans
conclusions
because imprinting is irreversible it implies it is under biological control
the behaviour of the birds in adulthoof show there is a continuity between early attachment and future relationships
harlow
procedure
two types of surrogate mother were constructed - a wire mother and a soft cloth mother
8 infant monkeys were studied for 165 days
for 4 monkeys the milk bottle was on the cloth monkey, for 4 it was on the wire mother
harlow recorded how kuch time eas spent with each mother
the monkeys were also made afraid to test for mother preference during stress
findings
all 8 monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother only, whether or not this mother had the feeing bottle
monkeys who fed with the wire mother only used it for milk
when frightened they all clung to the cloth
the monkeys did not develop normally
spending more than 6 months with just a wire mother was something that the monkeys could not recover from
conclusions
infant monkeys attach to the mother who offers comfort rather than food
suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security rather than food
evaluation lorenz
not possible to extrapolate from animals to humans
nature and complexity of attachment bond in geese is different to humans
the study could be considered unwthical
imprinting geese on a human prevented normal relationships for them - psychological harm
the research may be justifiable
influenced bowlbys monotropic theory
critical periods important in adoption
evaluation harlow
not possible to extrapolate
humans have more complex attachment than monkeys, but monkeys are closer to humans than geese so it may be possible
study may be considered unethical
separation of the monkeys caused stress and psychological harm - they could not form relationships
research may be justifiable
influenced bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis
justifies unethical nature
explanations of attachment
learning theory of attachment
attachment is learned through classical and operant conditioning
classical conditioning
the person who feeds the infant becomes associated with the food
infant then attaches to this person because the infants learn to associate the caregiver with the feeling of happiness
operant conditioning
based on reinforcement
food satisfies the infant and ,akes it feel confortabke
food acts as a rewards and therefore becomes a primary reinforcer
the caregiver us linked with food because they provide it and it becomes a secondary reinforcer. infant becomes attached to the caregiver
learning theory evaluation
it is plausable and scientific as it is founded un established theory
association between provision of needs and the person providing those needs can lead to strong attachments - valid
there is evidence that challenges
lorenz imprinting geese
theory is too simplistic
focuses on basic processes which are too simple to explain such as complex process
bowlbys monotropic theory
attachment is inate, a result of nature
the first attachment relationship is a template for future relationship
inate and adaptive
infants have an innate drive to survive and being securely attached equals survival
monotropy
attachment is at first to a single specific caregiver, they seek proximity to this caregiver for safety
social releasers
infants are born with a set of behaviours/ characteristics that provoke a response from others
critical period
attachment occurs within a specific window of time known as the critical period - 0 to 2 years
attachment must happen otherwise it will not occur and the childs emotional and cognitve development will be negatively affected
internal working model
earlt life experiences will influence later experiences
bowlby evaluation
lorenz supports bowlbys theory
shcaffer and emerson challenges bowlby
bowlbys theory relies on the fact that a baby will only form one strong attachment
shcaffer showed that multiple attachments can be formed in the first 18 months
implications for mothers and the economy
bowlbys theory would say that a mother returning to worl would be bad because the more time spent together the better the baby will be at forming attachments.
can make mothers feel guilty
cultural variations
van ijzendoorn meta analysis
all studies included at least 35 mother infant pairs with infants aged below 2 years
using strange situation
findings
secure attachment was most common across all cultures, highest% in uk and lowest in china
insecure avoidant highest % in west germany and was rare in japan
insecure resistant was high in japan and low in the uk eand sweden
evaluationg cross cultural research
sample size
nealry 2000nmother infant pairs were atudied
large samples increase validity - reduce the impact of anomalous results caused by poor methodology or unusual ppts
strange situation is only test of infant attachment
allows comparisons making it more valid and reliable
researchers studued countries not cultures
attachment types varied across japan, tokyo were similar to western studies and rural japan was different
generalisations from one study to the whole country isnt possible
culture
individualist
value independance - uk and usa
collectivist
japan value the group and interdepence on one another
influeence of early attachment
bowlby
suggested that early attachment provides the template for later relationships - iwm
the child forms a mental representation or schema of thier first attachment
this affects later relationships as well as the childs own success as a parent
relationships in later childhood
attachent type is associated with quility of peer relationships
securely attached infants have high quality relationships in childhood wheras insecurely attached infants have friendship difficultues in childood
secure children are unlikely to bully or be bullied
insecure avoidant children are more likely to be bullied
insecure resistant children are more liekly to become a bullt