Attachment

Attachment

Types of Attachment
1. Caregiver-infant interaction
  1. Interactional synchrony- mirroring; coordinated rhythmic exchanges; the infant reacts in time with the caregiver's speech, resulting in a 'conversational dance'.
  2. Reciprocity- Mutual behaviours; interaction flows back and forth between caregiver and infant.
  3. Sensitive responsiveness- caregiver responds appropriately to the signals from the infant.
  4. Caregiverese- Modified language; slow, high pitched tone when talking to infants
  5. Imitation- Innate ability of the infant to copy the caregivers actions such as facial expressions.
  6. Meltzoff and Moore- found infants between 2 and 3 weeks of age appeared to imitate the facial expressions and hand movements of the experimenter.
  7. Condon and Sander- showed how babies do appear to move in time with adult conversations.
  8. Hard to measure the behaviours. Just observing hand movements or changes in expression. It may be concluded that the movement was in response to the caregiver, but it may have just been a coincidence. We cannot be certain the behaviours seen have a special meaning.
    1. Good validity- the mother-infact interactions are often filmed, meaning fine details can be recorded and analysed later. Babies don't know they're being studied, meaning their behaviours don't change as a result of observation.
      1. good practical applications- it helps to form high-quality attachments which improve mother-infact relationships which could help low-income mothers. (crotwell.)
2. Developmental attachment (Schaffer and Emerson)
  1. Pre-attachment- (0-3months) Infants are attached to humans, preferring them to objects and events. This is shown by smiling at faces.
  2. Indiscriminate attachment phase- (3-7months) Infants begin to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar faces, smiling at known ones. However there are still no preferences for who cares of it.
  3. Discrimination attachment phase- (from 7 months) Infants develop specific attachments, staying close to particular people and becoming stressed when left with strangers.
  4. Multiple attachments- (from 9 months) Infants from strong emotional bonds with other significant carers such as grandparents.
  5. Schaffer & Emerson- 60 babies from a working class area in Glasgow were observed and had their parents interviews for 18 months. The identified stages of attachment formation occured clearly. Strongly attached infants had mothers who responded to their needs quickly. Weak attachments had mothers who responded less quickly. 87% had at least 2 primary attachments, 31% having 5. In 39% of cases the primary attachment was not the primary care giver.
    1. High external validity. observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and were reported to researchers. This means the behaviour of the babies was not affected by the presence of observers.
      1. Just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room does not mean that the individual is a 'true' attachment figure. Bowlby pointed out that children get distressed when a playmate leaves the room, does not signify an attachment to them.
        Bowlby argues that most (or all) babies form attachments to a single main carer before they develop multiple attachments. But multiple attachments appear from the outset in cultures where multiple attachments are the norm (van ijzendoorn), collectivist cultures where families work together jointly in everything.
  6. +longitudinal study- gathers wide range of detailed information. -Low population validity- small sample of scottish. -Parents may have lied in the interviews to give socially desirable answers.
3. Role of the Father
  1. Father-infant attachments are influenced by: degree of sensitivity, type of attachment with their own parents, marital intimacy, supportive co-parenting.
    1. Grossman carried out a longitudinal study looking at parent's behaviour and found that the quality of attachment with the father was less important in teenagers than the attachment with the mother. Fathers are less important in long-term emotional development.
  2. Schaffer and Emerson found 1/3 of infacts primary attachment was their father. 3/4 form them as a secondary attachment at 18 months.
    1. Field filmed 4 month old babies and found that primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers.
  3. Father's have a different role in attachment, one that is more to do with play and stimulation rather than nurturing.
4. Security attachments (Mary Ainsworth)
  1. Type A: Insecure avoidant. Very little separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. Little interest in reunion with mother. Mother and stranger can comfort equally.
  2. Type B: Secure. Distressed when mother leaves. Avoidant when alone with stranger but okay when mother present. Happy when reunited with mother. Uses mother as a secure base for exploration.
  3. Type c: Insecure resistant. Intense separation and stranger anxiety. resists at mothers reunion- is inconsolable. Little exploration behaviour.
  4. Strange situation: 106 infants were observed and videoed in an unfamiliar environment. There were 8 episodes, each 3 mins long, apart from the first being 30 secs. Behavioural categories studied included; proximity, contact, avoidance, resistance and exploration. 1)Mother and infant are introduced to environment. 2) Mother and infant play together. 3) Stranger enters and talks to mother. 4) Mother leaves, leaving stranger and infant alone to play. 5) Mother returns and comforts infant and stranger leaves. 6) Mother then leaves, leaving infant alone. 7) Stranger returns and tries to comfort the infant. 8) Mother returns. 20% were type A. 70% were type B. 10% were type C.
    1. good inter-rater reliability and replicability- controlled conditions and behavioural categories are easy to learn.
      1. Culture bound- might not have the same meaning outside western cultures. cultural differences mean they respond differently and so do carers. Japaneze mothers are rarely separated from infants.
5. Cross-cultural attachments
  1. Imposed etic- using a technique which is only relevant to one culture to study and draw conclusions about another.
  2. Van Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg: Meta-analysis of studies across 8 countries using the strange situation procedure. Intra-cultural differences were greater than inter-cultural differences. Type B was the most common over all countries. Individualist (western) countries had higher % type A. (Germany 35% and lowest in Japan). And collectivist (non-western) countries had higher % type C. (Israel 29% and lowest Britain.)
  3. +High population validity -Results may not be representative (compares countries not cultures).
Animal studies
1. Lorenz
  1. 12 greylag goose eggs, half was hatched with the mother goose and half was in an incubator, hatched with Lorenz. All behaviours were observed when hatched. All goslings were marked according to birthing conditions and were put into an up-turned box. Goslings hatched by their mother immediately followed her. Those who had be hatched by Lorenz, followed him. The goslings imprinted on the first thing they saw, and this had to occur in the first 24hrs. Goslings imprinted on humans, when mature, tried to mate with them.
    1. Difficult to generalise- mammalian attachment is quite different from that in birds. Mammals show much more emotional attachment to young.
      1. Guiton found that chicks imprinted on yellow washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as adults. This supports the idea that young animals are born with the innate want to imprint on the first thing they see.
      2. but, the effects aren't so long-lasting. Guiton found that with time and experience, the chicks learnt to mate with their own kind. This suggests imprinting is not as long lasting as lorenz believed.
2. Harlow
  1. 16 baby rhesus monkeys separated from their mothers, put in four conditions. 1)Wire mother produced milk and cloth mother didnt. 2) wire mother produced milk, cloth mother producing too. 3) wire mother producing milk 4) Cloth mother producing milk. Time spent feeding and with each mother was recorded, as well as their response when frightened with a stimulus. Monkeys preferred contact with the cloth mother when given the choice, regardless of if she had milk or not. Monkeys with only the wire mother had diarrhoea and signs of stress. When frightened the infant would cling to cloth mother if available. Infants with cloth mother explored more.
  2. Practical applications- It has helped social workers understand the risk factors in child abuse and so do more to prevent and stop it. Also now understand the importance of attachment figures in young monkeys in zoos .
    1. Generalisation issues, ethical issues
Explanations for Attachment
1. Learning theory
  1. Classical conditioning
    1. Behaviours are learnt through association. It suggests that infants form attachments by making an association with the mother and food/pleasure.
    2. UCS = Food. UCR= Pleasure. NS=Mother. CS=Mother. CR=Pleasure. The Mother is paired with the food, and after repeated pairings, the pleasure is associated with the mother even when she is not providing food.
  2. Operant Conditioning
    1. Baby is negatively reinforced by the mother taking away the uncomfortable experience of hunger and replacing it with food. The mother gives a pleasure response. Milk is the primary reinforcer, Mother is the secondary reinforcer. Crying is reinforced because it provides a pleasurable consequence.
  3. Dollard and Miller found that babies are fed approximately 2,000 times in the first year, providing many opportunities to associated caregiver with food.
  4. The importance of food in attachment is often called 'cupboard love', suggesting that children learn to love whoever feeds them.
  5. Lorenz's imprinted geese maintained attachments regardless of who fed them, Harlow's monkeys attached to a cloth mother when a wire one was producing milk. This challenges the theory, showing attachment is not due to food.
    1. Shaffer and emerson showed that for many babies their primary attachment was not the person who fed them. Suggesting that other factors are more important than food in the formation of attachment
      1. research shows that quality of attachment is associated with developing good reciprocity, and attentive, sensitive carers. It is very hard to reconcile these findings with the idea that attachment develops through feeding.
      2. Studies into modelling suggest that children learn to love parents by modelling attachment behaviours such as seeing them hug and smile at each other. Thus is rewarded with approval when they display it e.g (thats a lovely smile). This version, where babies learn attachment as a result of their interactions, fits with the research on interactional synchrony
2. Evolutionary theory
  1. Bowlby suggests that attachment can be explained by evolution. We have evolved a biological need to attach to our main caregiver. This is to ensure that we survive until sexual l maturity.
  2. Monotropy- The innate tendancy to form attachment with one main caregiver- usually the mother.
    1. Bowbly believed that the more time a baby spent with the primary attachment/mother, the better. This ensures a better quality of attachment and ensures the child spends the most amount of time in safety.
  3. Social releasers- Attachment behaviours that are innate and species specific. They aim to gain and maintain the attention and proximity of their mother. Such as crying and smiling.
  4. Critical Period- The period where attachments between infants and caregivers must form or they will never. This is the first couple years.
  5. Internal working model- Cognitive framework/blueprint to help us understand ourselves and others. Used as a template for future relationships an is based on our primary attachment.
  6. Attachments are adaptive in three ways:
    1. proximity- attachments result in a desire to seek proximity with a carer in order to stay safe and grow up to reach sexual maturity.
    2. Emotional relationships- Attachments allow an infant to learn how to form and maintain healthy emotional relationships.
    3. Secure base for exploration- Development of cognitive skills and intelligence whilst still staying safe.
  7. Shaffer and emerson found that most babies did attach to one person at first, but a significant amount formed multiple attachments. This contradicts Bowlby's assertion that babies form one attachment.
    1. The idea of an internal working model is supported. Bailey studied mothers, finding that those with poor attachment to their own parents were more likely to have infants that were poorly attached.
      1. Monotropy is socially sensitive. The findings that a primary care giver having time away from the infant will affect attachments and disadvantage the child has had some effects. it has highlighted the importance of maternity leave, leaving less pressure on mums to get back into work. However it is argued that it blames the mothers for anything that goes wrong in a child's life and prohibits them from having time away.
3. Secure attachments to a sensitive caregiver = secure future relationships. Insecure attachments with a less sensitive caregiver = insecure future relationships.
Disruption of Attachment
1. Maternal deprivation
  1. Privation
    1. When the infant has never had he chance to form attachments. Occurs in extreme abuse occasions.
      1. Genie suffered from extreme cruelty from her parents, and never formed any attachments.She was kept in a room on her own and was strapped to a potty chair. She was beaten if she made any sounds. She was physically underdeveloped and made animal-like sounds. She never developed social and intellectual skills.
  2. Deprivation
    1. Loss of the mother (or attachment figure) for a long-term or even permanent time.
      1. Bowlby's 44 thieves- delinquent teenagers accused of stealing. Families were interview to establish any prolonged separations from mothers. All thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy, lack of guilt, and empathy. 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths, 12 of these had experienced deprivation.
  3. Separation
    1. When a child is away from the caregiver for a relatively short amount of time.
      1. Robertson & robertson- John aged 18 months stayed in residential nursery whilst his mother had another baby. For the first day, he protested being separated from his mother. He started trying to get the attention of the other nurses. He began to show signs of detachment- he was reluctant to be affectionate when his mother returned. Separation has bad effects for john, maybe even permanent damage to their relationship.
  4. PDD Model
    1. Protest (crying, kicking.) Despair (self soothing.) Detachment (treats everyone warily)
      1. Mother infant continuous emotional care is crucial for normal emotional and intellectual development. Lack of emotional care leads to affectionless psychopathy.
  5. Institutionalisation
    1. Rutter- 111 Romanian orphans who were adopted by british families were followed over a prolonged period. Some were adopted before they were 6 months old, and some were after 6 months. The children who were younger than 6 months had the same level of emotional development as the British adopted children. However those who were adopted after 6 months showed signs of insecure attachments and social problems. The effects of privation can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before 6 months.

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	Created by Laura Louise about 8 years ago