Aqa Psychology Attachment Key Studies

Front 1

Shaffer and Emerson-Glasgow Babies (1964)

Back 1

Involved 60 babies from working class families. Babies and mothers visited at home every month for first year then again at 18 months.

Front 2

Shaffer and Emerson findings

Back 2

Between 25 and 32 weeks of age, 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother.

By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.

Front 3

Shaffer and Emerson evaluation

Back 3

1. They used interviews so the parents may have gave biased answers (social desirability)

2. Only used babies from Glasgow and working class families so not representative.

3. Good ecological validity as it was carried out in their own home and observations taken by parents.

Front 4

Harlow-Monkeys (1958)

Back 4

Used 16 baby rhesus monkeys and put them in two conditions. In one condition,the food was provided by the wire surrogate mother and in the other condition, it was provided by a soft, cloth mother. The monkeys were then deliberately scared.

Front 5

Harlow findings

Back 5

The baby monkeys cuddled the soft cloth mother, especially when they were scared, regardless whether she dispensed food or not. This shows that comfort is more important than food.

Front 6

Harlow evaluation

Back 6

1. Ethical issues- the monkeys suffered a lot both short term and long term since the monkeys later had trouble forming relationships.

2. Real life application- we now know how important it is not to neglect babies and it helps social workers understand this. Also helps in the care of captive monkeys.

3. The experiment was carried out in a lab therefore procedure is repeatable and controlled.

Front 7

Bowlby 44 Thieves (1944)

Back 7

Interviewed 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing for signs of affectionless psychopathy. They also interviewed their families to establish any prolonged early separations from their mothers. A control group of non criminal but emotionally disturbed young people was also used.

Front 8

Bowlby findings

Back 8

14 out of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. Only 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had prolonged early separations. Of the control group, only 2 of the 44 had experienced long separations.

Front 9

Bowlby evaluation

Back 9

1. Bowlby used interviews with his participants therefore may have had biased responses from parents.

2. Bowlby himself carried out the assessment for affectionless psychopathy and the family interviews, knowing what he hoped to find.

3. Hilda Lewis (1954) replicated the study using 500 people and found no link.

Front 10

Mary Ainsworth- The Strange Situation (1969)

Back 10

Placed a child and caregiver in a room to play. A stanger then enters and the caregiver leaves.

The way which the child responds to this is recorded.

Front 11

Ainsworth findings

Back 11

She categoried the attachments into 3 separate groups. In Britain:

60-75% of toddlers were classified as securely attached.

20-25% of toddlers were classified as insecure-avoidant.

3% of toddlers were classified as insecure resistant.

Front 12

Ainsworth evaluation

Back 12

1. Standardised procedure therefore can be repeated many times across cultures.

2. Culture-dependent due to different experiences of childhood in different cultures. eg. Japanese mothers rarely separated from the babies.

3. Ethical issues as the child is being deliberately upset.

Front 13

Van Ijzendoorn and Pieter Kroonenberg (1988)

Back 13

Looked at 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation had taken been used.These 32 studies were conducted in 8 countries. Overall, the 32 studies yielded for 1990 children. The data for these 32 studies were meta analysed results being combined and weighted for sample size.

Front 14

Van Ijzendoorn findings

Back 14

-In all countries, secure attachment was the most common classification.

-Insecure resistant was the least common type although Israel had the highest at 30%

-Insecure avoidant attachment was most common in Germany.

Overall, there was larger differences within a country than between countries

Front 15

Van Ijzendoorn evaluation

Back 15

1. Large sample of 1990 babies.

2. The results may be unrepresentative of other cultures within a country.

3. The study was designed to be tested on a Western culture therefore the results for Eastern cultures may not be valid.

Front 16

Rutter (2011) - Romanian Orphans

Back 16

Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.

Physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15.

A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time was a control group.

Front 17

Rutter findings

Back 17

At the age of 11, the adopted children showed different rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption.

The mean IQ of the children adopted at ages:

Before 6 months- 102

6 months-2 years- 86

After 2 years- 77

Front 18

Rutter evaluation

Back 18

1. Romanian orphanages were not typical orphanages as they were very bad quality compared to others.

2. Czech twin study shows that the results of institutionalisation aren't as long term and permanent as Rutter suggests.

3. Real life application and has been used to improve orphanages by reducing the amount of workers each child is treated by so that they are able to have a bond with them.

Front 19

Grossman (2002)

Back 19

Carried out a longitudinal study into parents behaviour and the quality of children's attachments into their teens. Quality of the attachment with the mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence suggesting a fathers role is less important.

However quality of father's play within was was related.