ATTACHMENT

REVISION

ATTACHMENT DEFINITION:
An attachment is a strong emotional relationship between two people that develops over time and is reciprocal. It is shown in their behaviour: y distress on separation y pleasure on being reunited y interactive engagement y a desire to maintain closeness

Attachment is measured according to: 1. Separation anxiety the child becomes anxious when the caregiver is absent 2. Reunion behaviour the child's response when the caregiver returns 3. Stranger anxiety the child's ability to distinguish between the caregiver and someone else 4. Exploring environment the child is comfortably attached and so feels secure exploring

SCHAFFER && EMERSON 1964

Longitudinal study in natural environment Observations & diary records Study consisted of 60 babies in Glasgow; visiting them monthly for the first year and then returning again at 18 months. Measured attachment via: (1) Separation Anxiety- If the baby showed anxiety or distress when the caregiver left them the baby had formed an attachment (2) Stranger distress- if the baby showed signs of distress when approached by someone thyme didn t know

FOUND:
First attachment usually formed by 8 months; Stranger anxiety usually one month later; Attachment strength peak during first month;  65% attached to mother only  30% attached to mother && other (usually father)  3% attached to father only

SCHAFFER && EMERSON 1964

DEVELOPMENTS OF ATTACHMENT

Pre-attachment (0-2 months): Little discrimination between familiar && unfamiliar people Attachment in the making (2-7 months): Recognition of familiar people but on stranger anxiety Specific attachment (approx. 7 months): Separation protest && stranger anxiety develops Multiple attach (soon after): One main attachment figure (monotrophy) but others too Reciprocal relationships: Predicting && controlling responses of caregiver

SCHAFFER && EMERSON 1964

CRITICISMS: Infants may have stronger preferences than Schaffer and Emerson allow for Infants show preference for mothers face within 24 hours of birth BUSHNELL ET AL Other evidence suggests recognition of mother s voice && scent in neonates

Theories of attachment

Evolutionary theory

Learning theories

The tendency to form attachments is INNATE This tendency is present in both infants and mothers

Infants have no innate tendency to form attachments They LEARN attachments because of FOOD

A01

LEARNING THEORY

Classical Conditioning:
Food (stimulus) produces pleasure (response) && person who does the feeding becomes associated with pleasure && is the attachment bond Association= Attachment

Operant Conditioning:
Hungry infant experiences discomfort && is driven to get rid if this feeling, when they fed discomfort goes && they get feeling of reward Rewardingness= Attachment

A02

DisadvantagesResearch has shown that infants are not necessarily attached to the person who feeds them- they were most responsive to the person who gives the attention Harlow further demonstrated that food isn t everything in his classical monkey study- babe monkeys became attached to (&& clung to when they were frightened) the cloth monkey even thought it was the wire money that provided the food However, this research was with monkeys && so may not be applicable to human infants REDUCTIONIST because it takes a complex human behaviour and tries to explain it in the simplest terms possible. It does not consider any internal processes or seek to explain the emotional nature of attachments simply how they arise as behaviours

Advantage Main support comes from the fact that we do learn through association && reinforcement BUT food may not be the main reinforcer- what about the care && attention that comes from the caregiver??

OPERANT CONDITIONINGIN DETAIL

Operant conditioning is learning through consequence (Reward && Punishment)
y

If you learn that a behaviour of theirs is rewarded then this behaviour is likely to be repeated more often If you learn that a behaviour of theirs is punished in some way then that behaviour is not likely to be repeated

There are two ways in which behaviour can be rewarded:

1. Positive reinforcement -> when the behaviour is encouraged because it is rewarded by something positive

2. Negative reinforcement -> when the behaviour is encouraged because it removes or stops something unpleasant

CLASSICAL CONDITIONINGIN DETAIL

This offers a similar but simplified explanation of how food provides attachment. The child simply associates food and mother together, much as Pavlov s dogs associated bell and food together. If you want this in technical terms:
y

Food is an unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned response (pleasure). At the outset, mother is a neutral stimulus who produces no response (pleasure) However, because she is continually paired with the unconditioned stimulus (food) she slowly becomes associated with it until eventually mother alone can produce pleasure. Mother has now become a conditioned stimulus and the pleasure she brings is a conditioned response.

Learning theory of attachment (e.g. Dollard & Miller) suggests that attachment is a set of learned behaviours. The basis for the learning of attachments is the provision of food. An infant will initially form an attachment to whoever feeds it. They learn to associate the feeder (usually the mother) with the comfort of being fed and through the process of classical conditioning, come to find contact with the mother comforting. They also find that certain behaviours (e.g. crying, smiling) bring desirable responses from others (e.g. attention, comfort), and through the process of operant conditioning learn to repeat these behaviours in order to get the things they want

BOWLBYS EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

ASSMIC
A01

A S S M I C

Adaptive Social Releasers

Attachment promotes survival in infants Mechanisms to promote attachment such as crying, smiling Sensitivity The need for the carer to be responsive to the child's needs Monotrophy Single carer who provides the sensitive care Internal Working Model is used by the infant based on the type on the Model attachment style the child has Continuity Whatever type of attachment infant has it is likely to have when older

Evolutionary theory of attachment (e.g. Bowlby, Harlow, Lorenz) suggests that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive. The infant produces innate social releaser behaviours such as crying and smiling that stimulate innate caregiving responses from adults. The determinant of attachment is not food but care and responsiveness. Bowlby suggested that a child would initially form only one primary attachment (monotropy) and that the attachment figure acted as a secure base for exploring the world. The attachment relationship acts as a prototype for all future social relationships so disrupting it can have severe consequences. This theory also suggests that there is a critical period for developing at attachment (about 2.5 years). If an attachment has not developed during this period then the child will suffer from irreversible developmental consequences, such as reduced intelligence and increased aggression

A02

DisadvantagesSchaffer && Emerson- provided evidence against Bowlby s claim of monotropy as they found that children can or may form multiple attachment && may not necessarily attach to their mothers Heavily reliant on animal research so therefore it can be generalised to humans? Harlow s monkey s- There are clear qualitative differences between humans and animals, we no longer have to behave in certain ways to survive and pass on our genes like animals do

Advantage Harlow s study- supports the idea that we evolved a need to attach, it also suggests that social && emotional development might be damaged if attachment isn t formed  Hazan && Shaver continuity through their research using the love quiz

HARLOW && ZIMMERMAN

RESULTS
The monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth surrogate and only used the wire surrogate when feeding. The cloth surrogate seemed to give them comfort in new situations. When the monkeys grew up they showed signs of social and emotional disturbance. The females were bad mothers who were often violent towards their offspring

PROCEDURES
Harlow aimed to find out whether baby monkeys would prefer a source of food or a source of comfort and protection as an attachment figure Lab experiment, monkeys raised in isolation They had two surrogate mothers. One made of wire mesh and contained a feeding bottle, the other was made of cloth but didn t contain a feeding bottle

HARLOW && ZIMMERMAN

A02

CONCLUSION
Infant monkeys formed more of an attachment with a figure that provided comfort && protection. Growing up in isolation affected their development

DISADVANTAGES
It can be argued that you can t generalise the results of this study to human beings, because humans and monkeys are qualitatively different There were also ethical problems with this study the monkeys were put in a stressful situation, and later they showed signs of being psychologically damaged by the experiment monkeys are social animals, so it was unfair to keep them in isolation. The fact that they were in isolation also means that the study lacked ecological validity the monkeys weren t in their natural environment, so the results can t be reliably applied to real life Lab experiments can usually be replicated, but ethical guidelines means you can t repeat this study to see whteher you d get the same results

ADVANTAGES
 This was a laboratory experiment, so there was strict control of the variables, this means that it s unlikely the results were affected by an unknown variable  The findings of the study were applied to real life. They led to a change in hospital procedure human babies in incubators are now given soft blankets

AINSWORTH: THE STRANGE SITUATION

AIMS:
 How to measure attachment  To find out if there are different types of attachment

PROCEDURES:
The sample comprised about 100 middle class American families. First year of child's lives they took part in a naturalistic observation every 3-4 weeks for 3-4 hours When infants reached 1 year old they were brought into a lab to do a controlled observation: The experiment is set up in a small room with one way glass so the behaviour of the infant and parent could be observed in 7, 3-minute situations:

1. Parent and infant alone 2. Stranger joins parent and infant 3. Parent leaves infant and stranger alone 4. Parent returns and stranger leaves 5. Parent leaves; infant left completely alone 6. Stranger returns 7. Parent returns and stranger leaves

FINDINGS: Secure attachment- 70% of pairs Insecure avoidant 15% of pairs Insecure resistant 15% of pairs

Secure Attachment Separation anxiety

Resistant Attachment

Avoidant Attachment Infant shows no sign of distress when mother leaves Infant is okay with the stranger and plays normally when stranger is present Infant shows little interest when mother returns. Mother and stranger are able to comfort infant equally well 15

Distressed when mother Infant shows signs of leaves intense distress

Stranger anxiety

Avoidant of stranger when alone but friendly when mother present.

Infant avoids the stranger - shows fear of stranger

Reunion behaviour

Positive and happy when Child approaches mother returns. mother but resists contact, may even push her away Will use the mother as a safe base to explore their environment. 70 Infant cries more and explores less than the other 2 types 15

Exploration behaviour

% of infants

TYPES OF ATTACHMENTS

Secure Attachment

The type of attachment that is optimum for healthy emotional development, strong bond between child && its caregiver due to sensitive responding

When separated the infant becomes distressed but it easily comforted at reunion. Able to use caregiver as a secure base && show willingness

TYPES OF ATTACHMENTS

INSECURE AVOIDANT ATTACHMENT

Babies do not behave same way towards the mother. Show some distress at departure but do not seek comfort from her && reject strangers attempts to comfort them. Babies kept their distance && avoided closeness

TYPES OF ATTACHMENTS

INSECURE RESISTANT ATTACHMENT

Babies very upset at separation but were not easily comforted when mother returned. Appear to be angry && reject attempts to be comforted. Alternated between seeking comfort && rejecting it Resisted strangers

AINSWORTH:
Advantages

THE STRANGE SITUATION CONTINUED..

 First study of its kind && therefore used for other research

CONCLUSIONS Found a good way to measure attachment Found that there are 3 types of attachment

Disadvantages Sample was limited, which is harder to generalise Low ecological validity, unrelated to real life Ethics - socially sensitive (telling mothers their attachment) & can be stressful for the children being put in the situations

VAN IJZENDOORN && KROONENBERG: THE STRANGE SITUATION

META ANAYSIS
This is where psychologists look at all the other pieces of research that have been carried out on a topic && try to see if there are any patterns to the findings Used only studies that had used the strange situation to look at mother Altogether looked at 32 studies involving over 2000 infants

VAN IJZENDOORN && KROONENBERG: THE STRANGE SITUATION

FOUND
Different cultures- there was a small difference Most common form of attachment was secure Difference within cultures was 1.5 times greater than between cultures The global pattern across cultures seems similar to the US so secure attachment is the norm && supports idea that its best for healthy development

VAN IJZENDOORN && KROONENBERG: THE STRANGE SITUATION

EVALUATION
Strange situation might not be a valid measure as it is very dependent on being based in an individualistic culture Western cultures value the idea of independence so this might work against Japanese children who are rarely separated from their parents which would explain huge levels of distress these infants showed (Takahashi) Huge differences within cultures could be explained by the different classes (such as differences between working class && middle class

JOHN BOWLBY44 THIEVES STUDY

A01

AIM
Investigate the effects of maternal deprivation on people From his theory you would expect to find that people who have suffered an interruption to their maternal bond are more likely to commit crime

PROCEDURE
Bowlby interviewed 44 juveniles who had been referred to a child protection programme in London because of stealing, (they were thieves). He selected a CONTROL group of 44 other children who had also been referred to the child protection programme but who had NOT committed any crimes. He interviewed the parents of all the children to see whether their children had experiences separation during the critical 5 year period && for how long

LONG TERM EFFECTS

JOHN BOWLBY44 THIEVES STUDY

CONCLUSION
Affectionless psychopaths are unable to form relationships. Bowlby concluded that the reason for the anti-social behaviour && emotional problems suffered by the 44 thieves was MATERNAL DEPRIVATION

FINDINGS
More than half of the 44 thieves had been separated from their mothers for longer than 6 months during their first 5 years. In the control group only 2 had experienced such a separation. In addition to this, 32% of the thieves showed affectionless psychopathy (this means they were not able to care about or feel affection for others)

JOHN BOWLBY44 THIEVES STUDY

A02

EVALUATION- CRITICISMS Bowlby conducted the interviews himself. There is the problem of experimenter bias Bowlby has been criticised for his MONOTROPY (his focus on the mother as the most important person) Bowlby ignored EXTERNAL FACTORS that could explain the criminality of the 44 thieves. He has ignored other factors like diet/education/social class/peer pressure Bowlby s conclusions are supported by Harlow, whose researched monkeys, found that monkeys reared in isolation from their mother suffered social && emotional problems in older age. They never formed an attachment grow up to be aggressive around other monkeys

DISRUPTIONS OF ATTACHMENT

SEPARATION Being physically set apart from something. In the context of attachment it means being apart from someone you love

DISRUPTIONS OF ATTACHMENT

DEPRIVATION
The loss of care that is normally provided by the primary caregiver. This is more to do with the care being disrupted through long or short separations && can occur when the caregiver is still present. Bowlby suggested that this would have a detrimental effect on the child s development

DISRUPTIONS OF ATTACHMENT

PRIVATION
This is the complete lack of care that is normally provided by the primary caregiver && is in contrast to deprivation which is just the loss of care. Can occur through physical separation or when the caregiver is present. Consequences tend to be much more severe than for deprivation

DISRUPTION OF ATTACHMENT

SEPARATION

DEPRIVATION

PRIVATION

AWAY FROM CAREGIVER FOR A RELATIVELY SHORT TIME (HOURS-DAYS)

LOSS OF MOTHER/ACTTACHM ENT FIGURE (LONGTERM OR PERMANENT)

MOST SEVERE INFANTS NEVER EXPERIENCE ANY FORM OF ATTACHMENT

BOWLBY S MATERNAL DEPRIVATION HYPOTHESIS

Based on Bowlby s ideas - Attachment is important for survival - Prototypes for later relationships The theory predicts developmental difficulty if the attachment relationship goes wrong - General developmental problems - Specific issues with social development

LONG TERM EFFECTS

BOWLBY S MATERNAL DEPRIVATION HYPOTHESIS

MDH stated the belief that if an infant was unable to develop a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with their mother (or permanent substitute) then the child would have difficulty forming relationships with other people && be at risk of behavioural disorders BASED ON 3 PRINCIPLES:

3. The relationship did not have to be with the mother, the term maternal was used to describe mothering from a mother or any permanent mother substitute. He did believe a child needed one special relationship, (monotropy) for healthy emotional development

2. This relationship must develop in the critical period (before the age of 21/2). If the child experiences repeated separations before this age then they are likely to become emotionally disturbed Bowbly said there was a continuing risk up until the age of 5, after this age they were more able to cope with separation

1. A continuous relationship between the child && a mother figure is important. Discontinuous relationships disrupt the development of the relationship && cause problems for the child`

SUPPORT MDH
Bowlbys own 44 thieves study (see above). Spitz (1945) study of orphanages in S. America. The children showed little affection with many showing all the symptoms of anaclitic depression e.g. loss of appetite and apathy. Spitz & Wolf (1946) study of 100 children who had become depressed after hospitalisation. A full recovery was made if stay in hospital was less than 3 months. Note this study was carried out in the 1940s when hospital care of children was very different to that found today

BOWLBY PDD MODEL 1952

The research for the PDD model was carried out on children aged between 1 and 4

DETACHMENT
The child cries less and is more interested its surroundings. Onlookers may think that the child is getting over the separation, whereas in fact the child is hiding its feelings. When the mother returns the child shows little interest and may even be angry or push the mother away. However, the attachment is soon rebuilt

P ROTEST D ESPAIR D ETACHMENT

PROTEST
This is an immediate reaction which could involve crying, screaming, kicking this demonstrates that a child feels anger, fear, confusion etc. it is a direct expression

DESPAIR
This is slightly calmer behaviour but the child will still feel angry. They may begin to comfort themselves through thumb sucking, or rocking themselves to sleep

SHORT TERM EFFECTS

CYCLE OF PRIVATION

May lead to bad parenting which causes the child to be deprived of attachment which means as an adult they feel unable to emotionally respond to anyone sensitively including their children

HODGES && TIZARD 1974

METHOD
AIM
To investigate effects of early institutionalisation (privation) in particular, they wanted to investigate the effects on social development, which means how they act around other people Longitudinal study - Natural experiment 65 mixed gender children placed in a child home before 4 months old children weren't able to form attachment with carers because of the high staff turnover by 4 years old, all children fell into one of 3 categories:  Adopted 24/65 children  Stayed institutionalised 26/65 children  Restored to original family 15/64 children

There was also a control group, who were never institutionalised Children were measured at 4,8,16 years old Measures used include:  Wide range interviews  Questionnaires  Observation

HODGES && TIZARD 1974

EVALUATION
Advantages
 Reliability - valid  High ecological validity  Ethical  Use of control group for comparison

FINDINGS
Short-term effects  2 years - disinhibited attachment Long-term effects  Adopted && controlled, had stable family relationships. half restored families were stable  All institutionalised children had difficulties

Disadvantages
High attrition (dropping out) Making sample biased Extraneous variables Low replicability

GENIE

Genie (as reported by Curtiss 1977) Found at the age of 13, she had been kept tied to a potty chair for much of her life. She had been severely punished for making a noise. When found she had the appearance of a six or seven year old. Curtiss described her as unsocialised, primitive and hardly human. Following her discovery she continued to be mistreated at the hands of doctors and psychologists who were more interested in furthering their own careers than in Genie s welfare. She never acquired full language skills and failed to adjust socially. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing whether Genie was, as her father suggested, brain damaged at birth. If this had been the case this could partly explain her lack of progress.

CZECH TWINS
PM and JM (as reported by Koluchova 1976). PM and JM were male identical twins born in the former Czechoslovakia 1960. Their mother died at birth. They spent 11 months in a children's home before being reared by their father and stepmother. The father was of low intellect and the stepmother was particularly brutal in her treatment of the twins. They were kept in a small closet or cellar. They were discovered at the age of 7. Their speech was poor and they had rickets (due to vitamin D deficiency caused by poor diet), so consequently could not walk. They were subsequently adopted by two sisters and were well cared for. They were tested at the age of 14 and showed no long term ill effects. In later life they both found employment and enjoyed warm relationships. Clearly the outcome of these two cases is very different. However, it does appear that given favourable care a near full recovery from early privation is possible. There are a number of reasons why Genies outcome was not good: The possibility that she may have been brain damaged at birth as her father had suggested The later age at which she was discovered. She had been reared alone whereas the twins had each other. The better care the twins received after being rescued.

Factors that determine whether the effects of privation will be permanent or not are:

GENIE
Suggests there is no recovery from privation

CZECH TWINS
Recovery possible (but had each other, they were not deprived from birth && found earlier

 Amount of time spent in privation  If someone else is there (suffering with them)  Quality of care afterwards

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION && PRIVATION

 Affectionless Psychopathy (Bowlby)  Less likely to have a special/best friend (Hodges && Tizzard)  More likely to be bullied (Hodges && Tizzard  Depression- Loss of appetite; isolation; sleeplessness; impaired social && intellectual development  Deprivation Dwarfism- physical underdevelopment due to emotional deprivation

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION && PRIVATION

Reactive attachment disorder

A rare, but serious condition which children are permanently damaged by their early experiences, caused by privation. The symptoms mean an inability to give or receive affection, poor social relationships, dishonestly && criminal behaviour

MICHAEL RUTTER
STUDY 111 Romanian orphans adopted into the UK before the age of 2

Bowlby had made a serious error in confusing cause && effect Early separation does not necessarily cause problems Instead, families may have other factors such as: Poverty Domestic violence That may lead to delinquency

On the arrival in the UK, they were physically undersized, by the age of 4 they caught up

The later they were adopted the slower the process they made

DAY CARE

DAY CARE
v

Is a form of care for infants && children offered by someone other than close family, taking place outside the home, children spend all, or part of the day in care but return home at night
Includes:
   Nursery Childminders Crche

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Involves the growth of a child s abilities to interact with others && behave in a pro social manner. E.G. comforting, befriending, helping && also sharing It is ongoing through life && includes relationships with friends, families, negotiating with peers, popularity, aggressiveness etc.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AGRRESSION

Day care negative- not getting any individual attention needed so may lead to do bad things for attention

Day care positivearound other children && adults to learn what's behaviour is acceptable

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PEER RELATIONS

Day care negativejealously, anxious attachment effect friendships? Children feeling left out?

Day care positiveopportunity to build friendships with people their own age

POSITIVE EFFECTS

Shea (1981) video-taped 3- and 4-year old children at playtime during their first 10 weeks at nursery school. Results showed children became more sociable the longer they were in day care. They stood closer together and engaged in more rough-and-tumble play, and moved further away from teachers. A strength of the study is that it is a well-structured observation, looking at measurable behaviour (distance, frequency of interaction ).

POSITIVE EFFECTS CLARKE-STEWART ET AL

FOUND:
The 2-3yr olds who had experienced day care were good && negotiating with each other && in the SS those with high && low intensity day care were equally stressed at being left, in other ways there was no difference between them

Experiment 1: looked at the peer relationships of 150 children (2-3yrs) who came from diff social backgrounds Experiment 2: looked at the strength of attachment in a group of 18 month old children. These children has atleast 30 years of daycare per week. The strange situation was used. The results were compared to children who had low insensity day care (less than 10yrs per week)

EVALUATION  Controlled observation means easily replicabe It is artificial so it lacks ecological validity

TEMPORARY SEPARATION DID NOT AFFECT ATTACHMENT

NEGATIVE EFFECTS

Belsky (2002) conducted a longitudinal study researching the development of 1083 children across the USA. He noted that children who had averaged less than 10 hours of day care (per week) in the first 4 years were 5% more likely to have higher levels of aggression. Whereas, children averaging 30 hours or more showed a 16% increase in aggressive behaviour.

NEGATIVE EFFECTS BELSKY && ROVINE

Used the strange situation to assess levels of attachment Children under the age of 1 in 20+ hours of daycare were compared to children not in daycare. Those in day care were most likely to be insecurely attached. Those not in daycare more likely to be securely atttached

SO IT WOULD SEEM, DAYCARE HAS A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

CONSISTENCY OF CARE

Children find it difficult to form attachments if either there is a high turnover of staff or if the carers are looking after larger numbers of children. The same applies to the adult carer.

If they know they will be spending more time with a child they will be prepared to put more effort into caring for the child. Tizard (1977) concluded that one of the reasons children did not form attachments during institutionalisation was because of the number of carers they had, an average of 50!

QUALITY OF CARE

Small group size and low student-to-staff ratios (e.g. for 1-2 year-olds, 6-12 per group) Small group size and low student-to-staff ratios (e.g. for 1-2 year-olds, 6-12 per group)

The quality of day care varies enormously, but there is general agreement on what counts as quality. According to Clarke-Stewart (1984), particularly important are:
Adequate and nutritious meals

Opportunities for parents to observe the setting and to discuss the child s needs before and during time at the centre

A planned daily programme of activities that are appropriate for the developmental level of the child and are designed to promote cognitive and social development

A health record for each child Caregivers with specialised training in child care (particularly in health and safety)

EVALUATION OF DAY CARE

Different studies have focused on different forms of day care (e.g. nursery, child minders etc.) Each form of day care may have a different effect on social development. Many studies on day care have used American infants (Culture Bias). Therefore any conclusions drawn from such research may not apply to other cultures. Cause (day care) and effect (social development) relationships cannot be drawn from the studies. Other external variable could effect social development outside of the day care environment. For example, physical deprivation of child, mother s sensitivity, income and education of the parents. Much of the research seems to lead to contradictory findings, and that these disagreements are difficult to resolve because research is still at an early stage.

EFFECTS ON SOCIETY

Research has led to steps being taken to ensure daycare is providing the best for children && has focused on: Adopting a key worker approach that meets the emotional needs Having a low adult to child ratio Having small group sizes Having well trained staff Having low staff turnover Having appropriately challenging age based activities Having enough room && a clean && safe environment