Attachment

Front 1

Define attachment + example

Back 1

An emotional bond between two people. Leads to behaviour such as clinging and proximity seeking

Front 2

Define the evolutionary theory and example

Back 2

For survival we attach, food and protection - Lorenz

SURVIVAL ADVANTAGE

Front 3

Learning theory

Back 3

The name given to how classical and operant conditioning explain behaviour, explains behaviour in terms of learning rather than high order thinking

Front 4

What are the two main theories of attachment?

Back 4

Learning Theory

Evolutionary theory

Front 5

Who conducted the experiment of imprinting and when?

Back 5

Lorenz 1952

Front 6

What was the aim of Lorenz's 1952 imprinting study

Back 6

How did animals imprint in order to survive

Front 7

Procedure of Lorenz's study

Back 7

12 geese eggs split into two groups

6 imprinted on the biological mother

6 imprinted on Lorenz himself

Placed under a cardboard box and re released with both imprinted parents there

Front 8

Findings of Lorenz's study

Back 8

Critical period was 36 hours for someone they could follow for more than 10 mins

Geese followed their main caregiver

Front 9

Conclusions of Lorenz's study

Back 9

Imprinting occurs on the first moving object the geese saw

Critical period

Front 10

One weakness for Lorenz's study

Back 10

- Animal studies cannot be generalised to humans

- We are far more complex and do not need to imprint + emotional attachment

- The study lacks external utility for psychologists to apply to everyday life

Front 11

Define interactional sychrony

Back 11

When babies mirror themselves to their primary care givers motions

Front 12

What study was carried out that researched into interactional synchrony?

Back 12

- Meltzof and Moore observed interactional synchrony in infants as young as two years old

- An adult displayed one of three facial expressions and one of three gestures the child's response was filmed

- there was a clear association with both the adults and child's facial and physical movements

Front 13

Define reciprocity

Back 13

- When one person responds to another e.g smiling back

Front 14

What are some limitations of care giver interactions

Back 14

P- It is hard to observe babies due to their constant movements

E - It is difficult to be sure what is going on from the infants perceptive e.g are the action deliberate or subconscious

E - We cannot be sure that behaviours seen in mother infant interactions are special or just subconscious

Front 15

What are some strengths of care giver interaction studies

Back 15

P - well controlled experiments

E - the babies cannot show demand characteristics and the Melzoff and Moore study used many different camera angles

E - High validity

Front 16

What did Shafer and Emerson find about the role of the father through their research?

Back 16

3% of infants primary care giver was their father

27 % the father was joint with the mother as the primary care giver

Front 17

What did Grossman learn about the role of the father

Back 17

Attachment with the mother was more important for future relationships than the attachment with the father

It was a longitudinal study

He concluded that fathers were less important concerning long term emotional development

Front 18

Outline the role of the father

Back 18

P - prmiary 3 %

S - secondary 75%

L - Later life mothers importance

P - Primary other studies

P - Play - fathers diffrent role in attachement

R - Response when father takes up role of primary care giver

Front 19

Outline care giver - infant interactions

Back 19

A - Alert phases - notify mother

I - Interactional synchrony - Mirroring

S - Supporting research Melzoff and Moore

H - High IS = High attachment - Isabella et al

R - Reciprocity - Responding

B - Babies are not passive roles but actually active

Front 20

What's one limitation of the role of the father research?

Back 20

P - Social biases prevent observation

E - stereotypes are assigned to father roles as being more playful which may cause an unintentional researcher bias

E - conclusions are hard to disentangle from social biases

Front 21

What are Schaffers stages of attachment

Back 21

Asocial - first few weeks

Indiscriminate - 2 - 7 months

Discriminate - 7- 1 year

Multiple - 1 year +

Front 22

Define a social attachment

Back 22

Behaviours is similar towards objects and humans

Easily calmed by familiar adults

Happier in the presence of humans

Front 23

Define indiscriminate attachment

Back 23

More observable social behaviour

Recognise and prefer familiar adults

No stranger or separation anxiety

Front 24

Define discriminate attachment

Back 24

Form a monotropic connection with the mother 65% of the time

Show separation and stranger anxiety

Front 25

Define multiple attachment

Back 25

Secondary attachments are formed

29% of babies had a secondary attachment in Shaffer and Emerson's study within a month of forming a primary attachment

Front 26

Outline the procedure for Shaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment

Back 26

60 working class babies from Glasgow were visited at home every month for one year and again at 18 months

SEPARATION ANXIETY - measured through mother leaving the room

STRANGER ANXIETY - measured through questioning the mother

Front 27

Outline the findings and conclusions of Shaffer and Emerson's stages of attachment

Back 27

50% of babies showed separation anxiety at 8 months

Primary attachment was mostly the mother

Attachment occurred with care giver that was most interactive and showed reciprocity not necessary the person who spent the most time with the child

Front 28

What was the procedure of Harlows experiment

Back 28

16 rhesus monkeys in two conditions one with a cloth mother who dispensed milk and another with the wire mother

they would frighten the monkey to see how they reacted

Front 29

What were the findings of the Harlow and Harlow study?

Back 29

- Monkeys cuddled the cloth mother more even if the wire mother dispensed milk which proves that we crave love and affection as much as food

- Those who had been deprived of a mother were more aggressive and ant social in later life compared to other monkeys

Front 30

One strength of Lorenz's study?

Back 30

P - support for the concept of imprinting

E - A study showed chicks could imprint on yellow washing up gloves and would try and mate with them as adults

E - There is an innate mechanism to form attachment as a young child supporting the evolutionary theory

Front 31

One strength of Harlow's research?

Back 31

P - Application to real life

E - Social workers could use it to understand the risks of child abuse and so to intervene and prevent it

E - The usefulness of this research increases its external validity

Front 32

One weakness of Harlow's research?

Back 32

P - Generalising to human

E - Human babies develop speech-like communication which may influence attachment

E - Psychologists disagree with the extent that primates can be generalised to humans

Front 33

One weakness of learning theory?

Back 33

P - Animal studies prove evidence against food as a basis for attachment

E - Harlow found that monkeys preferred the cloth mother even when food was not available showing out innate drive for comfort and love

E - Therefore, learning theory is less valid as it can be disproved by the evolutionary theory

Front 34

Second weakness of learning theory?

Back 34

P - Human research shows that feeding is not the most important factor

E - A study found that babies primary attachment was not always with the person who fed them most but the person who interacted with them
E - Other factors are more important than food for attachment

Front 35

What is Bowlbys monotropic theory?

Back 35

A - Adaptive (survival advantage)

S - Social releasers (crying to get mother attention)

C - Critical period (2.5 years)

M - Monotropy (one single primary attachment figure)

I - Internal Working model (continuity hypothesis)

Front 36

What is one strength of Bowlbys theory?

Back 36

P - Lorenz

E - Geese show innate imprinting so attachment is innate

E - supports critical period and survival advantage

Front 37

What is a second strength of Bowlbys theory?

Back 37

P - Hazan and Shaver

E - Love quiz showed pos correlation between childhood attachment and future relationships

E - Supports the internal working model

Front 38

What is the procedure of the strange situation?

Back 38

- Children were judged in 5 categories e.g proximity seeking and stranger or separation anxiety

- The child was encouraged to explore by CG and then a stranger enters and CG leaves. CG returns and the stranger leaves and CG leaves so child is alone then both CG and stranger return

Front 39

What were the aims of the strange situation

Back 39

To assess the quality of a child's attachment to their caregiver

Front 40

What were the three attachment types?

Back 40

Secure

Insecure - avoidance

Insecure - resistant

Front 41

What were the findings of the strange situation?

Back 41

Secure - 66% of infants, child explores but sees mother as secure base, moderate separation anxiety, accepts on caregiver reunion

Insecure - avoidance - 22%, child explores but mother is not secure base, no stranger anxiety, no comfort at reunion

Insecure - resistant - 12%, child does not explore, considerable strange anxiety, resists comfort on return

Front 42

One weakness of strange situation?

Back 42

P - May be culture bound

E - Cultural differences mean infant's may respond differently and caregivers will interact differently

E - Takahishi found that mother are rarely separated from their mothers so showed high separation anxiety

Front 43

A second weakness of strange situation

Back 43

P - There may be other attachment types

E - Research has found that there are other attachment types such as disorganised attachment who do not fit a category

E - Questions the utility of Strange situation

Front 44

A strength of strange situation

Back 44

P - Predicitve validity

E - Attachment types can predict later life development eg bullinging for children who are insecure resistant

E - high validity

Front 45

What were the procedures of Van Ijzendoorn's study of cultural variations

Back 45

- He conducted a meta analysis of attachment types in different countries and also within the countries to look at cultural attachment

- He used 13 studies from across the world

Front 46

What were the findings of Van Ijzendoorn's meta analysis?

Back 46

- Individualist cultures had similar results to Ainsworth (12%)

- Collectivists culture had far higher insecure resistant like China where rates were above 25% - Inter country differences were greater than those between countries

Front 47

Discuss Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation

Back 47

- Define deprivation

- No warm attachment before critical period = emotional and behavioural problems in later life (internal working model)

- E.g problems are emotional - emotionless psychopaths. Behavioural - delinquency

Front 48

One positive evaluation of Bowlbys theory of MD? STUDY

Back 48

P - 44 Juvenile thieves

E - 16 thieves were affectionless psychopaths and 86 % had experienced separation

E - Supports the behaviour and emotional problems

Front 49

One positive evaluation of Bowlbys study of MD? NON STUDY

Back 49

P - Application for real life

E - Changed the way children are cared for in hospitals and allowed longer visiting hours plus more flexibility

E - External validity

Front 50

One negative evaluation of Bowlbys study of MD?

Back 50

P - He does not highlight the difference between privation and deprivation

E - Studies show that the long term damage of the thieves is actually due to privation not deprivation

E - Lacks internal validity

Front 51

Two effects of institutionalisation?

Back 51

- Dis-inhibited attachment - equally affectionate to everyone due to adaptation of multiple caregivers

- Damage to intellectual development - mental retardation

Front 52

What was the procedure of Rutter's Romanian Orphan study?

Back 52

- Longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted and were assessed at various points in their childhood e.g 6, 11 and 15 years

- There was a control group of 50 British children

Front 53

What were the findings of the Romanian Orphan study?

Back 53

- Those adopted before 6 months had an average IQ

- Those adopted after 6 months had an IQ of around 86

- Children adopted after six months experienced dis-inhibited attachment and attention seeking

Front 54

What were the conclusions of the Romanian Orphan study?

Back 54

There is a critical period during attachment is that is around 6 months and a failure to form attachment before this causes long term damage

Front 55

What did Zeanah et al research?

Back 55

- They conducted the strange situation with children who were in care and had never attached and compared it with a control group

- 65% showed disorganised attachment and 19% showed dis-inhibited attachment

Front 56

What was Hazan and Shavers procedure?

Back 56

Analyse 620 replies to a love quiz in a newspaper which studied three aspects of relationships; Current relationships, love experiences and attachment type

Front 57

What were the findings and conclusions of Hazan and Shaver's love quiz

Back 57

56% of responders were securely attached

25% insecure avoidance and 19% insecure resistant

Secure tended to be in longer lasting romantic relationships and insecure avoindant were more likely to be jealous