Attachment 2022 exam(PSYCH 12)

Attachment 2022 exam(PSYCH 12) how old were the infants in ainsworth's the strange situation? {{ANS}}between 12 and 24 months what was ainsworth assessing? {{ANS}}the patterns of their responses across the different episodes, behaviour at separation and reunion are particularly important what was the information gained from ASS used to determine? {{ANS}}different types of attachment (not the amount of attachment). what type of observation is ASS? {{ANS}}It is a controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a baby displays towards a cake in. how is ASS a controlled observation? {{ANS}}controlled condition in a room, with two-way mirror which a psychologist can observe a baby's behaviour through. what do the behaviours used to judge attachment include? {{ANS}}- proximity seeking - exploration and secure base behaviour - stranger anxiety - separation anxiety - response to reunion. A (avoidant) description {{ANS}}- infant shows no sign of distress when mother leaves - treats mother and stranger the same - 15% B (secure) description {{ANS}}- happy in mother's presence but distressed when mother leaves - calm on mothers return - wary of stranger - 70% C (resistant) description {{ANS}}- fussy/difficult - cries a lot - distressed when mother leaves and not comfoted on her return - shows anger - resits stranger - 15% what is the additional type of attachment added by main and solomon in 1990? {{ANS}}D (disorganised) - erratic pattern of behaviour - links to severe neglect strange situation evaluation point 1 {{ANS}}P = it is ethnocentric E = it is not appropriate for measuring attachment in non western cultures; behaviour will depend on early childhood experiences E = for example, miyake 1985 found 35% Japanese infants to be ambivalent and Takahashi 1990 suggested that Japanese infants became distressed in the strange situation because they are seldom left alone. L = strange situation evaluation point 2 {{ANS}}P = another limitation is that it could be measuring temperament rather than attachment E= kagan 1984 suggested that avoidant infants behave as they do because they rarely become stressed, whereas ambivalent infants behave as they do because they are easily stressed counter = de wolff and van ijzendoorn 1997 meta analysis found that children can have different types of attachments to their mother and father L = this would suggest that the strange situation does measure attachment rather than stress as suggested by kagen. strange situation evaluation point 3 {{ANS}}P = one strength of the ss is that its outcome predicts a number of aspects of the babies later development E = a large body of research has shown that babies and toddlers assessed as type b (secure) tent to have better outcomes that others, both in later childhood and in adulthood. in childhood this includes better achievement in school and less involvement in bullying (mccormick et al 2016 and koinos 2007). E = securely attached babies also tend to have better mental health in adulthood (ward et al 2006) those babies assessed as having insecure resistant attachment and those not falling into types ab or c tend to have the worst outcomes. L = this suggests that the ss measures something real and meaningful in a babies development. who did the key research for cultural variation on attachment? {{ANS}}- van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg 1988 what did van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg do? {{ANS}}they did a meta analysis of ss data from 32 studiesin 8 countries (approx 2000 infants) what did van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg find? {{ANS}}they found differences within cultures in the distribution of types A,B,C - wide variation in proportions of attachment types in different studies - type B was most common cross culturally - type C was least common cross culturally but israeli and japanese infants showed the highest percentage of type C attachments - type A was the most common in germany and least common in japan - variations in results within countries were greater than between countries (USA research recorded type b attachment as 46% in one study and 90% in another) what was a second study of cultural variations? {{ANS}}- study done in italy by simonella et al 2014 - found 50% secure attachment (36% avoidant) using the strange situation - this is a lower rate of secure attachment and may be the result of increasing numbers of mothers of very young children working long hours and using professional childcare cultural variations evaluation point 1 {{ANS}}P = one strength of the research is that most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists. E = indigenous psychologists are those from the same cultural background as the ppts. e E = eg van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg included research by a german team (grossmann et al and keiko takahashi (who was japanese) this kind of research means that many of the potential problems in cross cultural research can be avoided, such as research misunderstandings of the language used by ppts or having difficulty communicating instructions to them. difficulties can also include bias because of ones nations stereotypes of another. L = this means that there is an excellent chance that researchers and ppts communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected. cultural variations evaluation point 2 {{ANS}}P = one limitation of cc research, including meta analyses of patterns of attachment types, is the impact of confounding variables on findings. E = studies conducted in diff countries are not usually matted for methodology when they are compare in reviews or meta analyses. sample characteristics such as poverty, social class and urban/rural makeup can confound results as can the age of ppts studies in different countries. environmental variables may ables differ between studies and confound results. E = for example the size of the room and the availability of interesting toys these - babies might appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms with attractive toys compared to large, bare rooms. less visible proximity - seeking because of room size might make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant. L = this means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cc pattern of attachment. cultural variation evaluation point 3 {{ANS}}P = a further limitation of cc research is in trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context. E = cc psychology includes the ideas of emic (cultural uniqueness) and etic (cc universality). imposed etic occurs when we impose an idea or technique that works in one cultural context to another. E = an example of this in attachment research is in the use of babies response to reunion with the caregiver in the ss. In britain the the usa, lack of affection on reunion may indeed indicates an avoidant attachment. but in germany such behaviour would be more likely interpreted as independence rather than insecurity. therefore that part of the ss may not work in germany. L = this means that the behaviors measured by the ss may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts and comparing them across cultures is meaningless. Who proposed that caregiver-infant attachment can be explained by learning theory? {{ANS}}Dollard and Miller (1950). Why is Dollard and Millers explanation of attachment often called the 'cupboard love' approach? {{ANS}}Because it emphasises the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food (children learn to love who feeds them). Apply classical conditioning to attachment. {{ANS}}- food is the unconditioned stimulus - being fed beings pleasure; an unconditioned response - the caregiver starts a neutral stimulus but by providing food over time, the person becomes associated with the food, so becomes a conditioned stimulus - once conditioning has taken place, the sight of the caregiver produces a conditioned response of pleasure Apply operant conditioning to attachment. {{ANS}}- if an action has a pleasurable outcome (pos reinforcement) it will be repeated - the 'law of effect' - When a baby cries it receives comfort from a caregiver (pos reinforcement) . - the caregiver receives neg reinforcement in feeding/comforting the baby because they escape something unpleasant, the baby stops crying - this continual mutual reinforcement strengthens attachment - caregivers become associated with the reward of pleasant feelings - attachment occurs because the infant seeks the person who can supply the reward learning theory and attachment evaluation point 1 {{ANS}}P = one limitation of learning theory explanations for attachment is lack of support from studies conducted on animals E = eg lorenz's geese imprinted on the first moving object that they saw regardless of whether the object was associated with food. E = also if we consider harlow's research with monkeys, there is no support for the importance of food. when given the choice, the monkeys displayed attachment behavior towards a soft surrogate mother in preference to a wire which provided milk. L = this shows that factors other than association with food are important in the formation of attachments. learning theory and attachment evaluation point 2 {{ANS}}P = a further limitation of learning theory explanation of law of support from studies of human babies E = for example schaffer and emerson found that babies tended to form their main attachment to their mother regardless of whether she was the one who usually fed them E = in another study, isabella et al found that high levels of interactional synchrony predicted the quality of attachment. these factors are not related to feeding L = this gain suggests that food is not the main factor in the formation of human attachments. learning theory and attachment evaluation point 3 {{ANS}}P = one strength of learning theory is that some elements of conditioning could be involved in some aspects of attachment E = it seems unlikely that association with food plays a central role in attachment, but conditioning may still play a role. E = eg a bay may associate feeling warm and comfortable with the presence of a particular adult, and this may influence the baby's choice of their main attachment figure L = this means that learning theory may still be useful in understanding the development of attachments. what happened in Lorenz's research? {{ANS}}- Randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs - 1/2 were hatched with their mother in their natural environment. - The other 1/2 hatched in an incubator, where the first thing they saw was Lorenz. - He found that even when the 2 groups were combined the control group followed the mother goose and the experimental group followed Lorenz what were the long lasting effects of Lorenz's study? {{ANS}}- early importing affects later mating preferences, called sexual imprinting - animals will chose to mate with the same kind of object upon which they were imprinted What is imprinting (theory behind lorenz's study)? {{ANS}}An innate readiness to acquire certain behaviours during a critical or sensitive period of attachment critical period – Lorenz {{ANS}}- he identifies a critical period in which imprinting needed to take place which could be as brief as a few hours for some specified - if imprinting does not occur in the critical period, lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure. lorenz's research evaluation point 1{{ANS}}P = one strength of the research is the existence of support fo the concept of imprinting E = a study by Lucia Regolin and Giorgio Vallortigara supports lorenz's idea of imprinting. E = chicks were exposed to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a triangle with a rectangle in front. a range of shape combinations were then moved in front of them and they followed the original most closely. L = this supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint of a moving object present in the critical window of development, as predicted by lorenz. lorenz's research evaluation point 2{{ANS}}P = one limitation of lorenz's study is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans. E = the mammalian attachment system is quite different and more complex that just birds. E = eg in mammals, attachment is a 2 way process, so it is not just the young who become attached to their mothers but also the mammalian mother show an emotional attachment to their young L = this means that it is probable not appropriate to generalise lorenz's ideas to humans what was harlow's research for?{{ANS}}contact comfort what was harlows study?{{ANS}}- Reared 16 infant rhesus monkeys and studied them for 165 days. - For 1/2 of the monkeys a milk dispenser was placed on a wire monkey and another cloth monkey was present. - For the other 1/2 the milk was on the cloth monkey and the wire 1 had nothing. - They then measured how much time was spent on each monkey and observed what happened when they scared the monkeys with a loud mechanical teddy bear. What were the findings of Harlow's study?{{ANS}}- All the monkeys cuddled and spent the most time with the cloth monkey, even when it didn't have a bottle. - They all sought comfort from the cloth monkey when frightened. - If they were exploring new toys, the monkeys tended to keep 1 foot on the cloth monkey for reassurance. - this showed that contact comfort was more important that food What were the long-lasting effects on the maternally deprived monkeys in Harlow's study?{{ANS}}- They developed abnormally and were socially abnormal (more aggressive, less social, froze/fled when they saw other monkeys etc). - Sexually abnormal (unskilled at mating and mated less). - Neglected and sometimes even killed their children. - this showed that lack of attachment results in delinquency and antisocial behaviour what is the theory behind harlow's research?{{ANS}}infants do not develop attachment to the one who feeds them, but the one who provides contact comfort critical period - harlow{{ANS}}- there was a Critical period for these effects - suomi and harlow found that if younger therapist Monkeys were introduced into the care of privated Monkeys before the age 3-months, the privated monkey's seemed to recover. - If infant rhesus Monkeys spent more than 6-months with only a wire mother, they were unable to recover harlow's research evaluation point 1{{ANS}}P = One strength of Harlow's research is it important real-world applications. E = For example it has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding experience may be a risk factor in Child Development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor outcomes (howe 1998). E = we also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding programmes in the wild. L = This means that the value of Harlow's research is not just theoretical but also practical. harlow's research evaluation point 2{{ANS}}P = One limitation of harlow's research is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans. E = Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than lorenz's birds, and all mammals share some common attachment behaviours. E = however, the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys. L = This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise how harlows findings to humans explain bowlby's monotropy theory{{ANS}}- a child has an innate need to attach go one main attachment figure; a single and exclusive bond - the infant should receive constant and predictable care from this caregiver, ideally not experiencing any separation from them - bowlby did accept that there would be other attachments for a child but he believed that there should be a primary bond which was more important than any other what is the evidence for and against monotropy?{{ANS}}for = lorenz found that goslings followed the first single moving thing from an early age as they are imprinted on them. this is reflected in human attachment to one primary caregiver against = schaffer and emerson found that multiple attachments was the norm for babies explain the critical period theory{{ANS}}- babies instinctively exhibit social releasers to elicit responses from adults - this is part of the innate predisposition for attachments to develop - a child should receive the continuous care of this single most important attachment figure for about the first 2 years of life - if the attachment is not formed in this time then a child will find it much harder to form an attachment relationship later what is the evidence for and against the critical period?{{ANS}}for = lorenz found that geese had a window of opportunity to imprint (2-3 days). bowlby used this information to develop the critical period for human attachment at 2.5 years against = hodges and tizard found children adopted as late as 7 years old established strong affectionate relationships with adoptive parents. at 16, these relationships were found to be as strong as those of children who were raised continuously in their own families. explain the internal working model theory{{ANS}}- a mental representation of the relationship with the primary caregiver; a child with secure and loving attachment would have a mental representation of the caregiver as responsive and sensitive - as the child comes into contact with more people, the IWM can be used as a framework on which to build other similar relationships - this first relationship sets the scene for all future relationships; it forms a model for all future relationships - the `iwm affects the child's ability to be.a parent themselves what is the evidence for and against the IWM?{{ANS}}for = continuity hypotheses: main's adult attachment interview found that children on mother's measured as having autonomous adult attachment types develop secure attachment to their mothers. this suggested that the mother uses the IWM in her pattern of relating to her infant against = freud and dann found that with substitute care, children raised in a concentration camp could avoid the negative outcomes of maternal deprivation bowlby's theory evaluation point 1{{ANS}}P = One limitation of Bowlby's theory is that the concept of Monotropy lacks validity. E = Schaffer and Emerson found that although most babies did attach to one person at first, a significant minority formed multiple attachments at the same time. Also, although the first attachment does appear to have a particularly strong influence on later behaviour, this may simply mean it is stronger, not necessarily different in quality and the child's other attachments. E = For example other attachments to family members provide all the same key qualities. L = This means that he may be incorrect that there is a unique quality and importance for the child's primary attachment Bowlby's theory evaluation point 2{{ANS}}P = one strengths of bowlby's theory is the evidence supporting the role of social releasers. E = There is clear evidence that cute baby behaviours are designed to elicit interaction from caregivers. E = T berry brazelton et al observed babies trigger interactions with adults using social releasers. The researchers then instructed the baby's primary attachment figures to ignore their babies social releasers. Babies (who were previously shown to be normally responsive) became increasingly distressed and some eventually curled up and lay motionless . L = this illustrates the role of social releasers in emotional Development and suggest that they are important in the process of attachment development bowlby's theory evaluation point 3{{ANS}}P = A further strength of Bowlby's theory is support for the internal working model. E = The idea of the internal working model predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed from one generation to the next. E = Heidi bailey at al assessed attachment relationships in 99 mothers and their one-year-old babies. attachment attachment figures were more likely to have poorly attached babies. L = This supports the idea that mother's is ability to form attachments to their babies is influenced by their internal working models (which in turn comes from their own early attachment experiences) what did bowlby say about the importance of a single unbroken attachment relationship?{{ANS}}- that it was essential for the future mental health of a child - he believed that many mental health problems and behavioural problems could be directly attributed to early childhood experiences what was bowlby's hypothesis of maternal deprivation?{{ANS}}- that there would be a negative long term effect for children deprived of contact with their mother when the first attachments are being formed - and that if the child does not have continuous, unbroken care from the mother during the critical period, their socla, emotional and cognitive development will be impaired what did bowlby say about separating from mothers in the critical period?{{ANS}}that brief separations with suitable care are not problematic for development but extended separations can lead to deprivation which, by definition, causes harm what did bowlby say were the consequences if a child did not have continuous care from one main attachment in the critical period?{{ANS}}- delinquency - increased aggression - 'affectionless psychopathology' - impairments in the ability to form later relationships - reduced intelligence - separation anxiety Bowlby's 44 thieves study{{ANS}}- 44 teenage 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathology. - Their families were interviewed in order to establish whether the 'thieves' had prologues early separation from mothers. - A control group of non-criminals but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/ deprivation occurred in children who were not thieves. - Bowlby found that 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. - Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation form their mothers in their critical period. - This shows failing to form an attachment can lead to affectionless psychopathology case studies to support maternal deprivation{{ANS}}genie - she was severely neglected, isolated and maltreated. by her parents, given minimal amount of food and virtually no communication directed at her - when discovered age 13, she was malnourished, underdeveloped, could not speak and showed inappropriate emotional responses - despite fostering and intellectual stimulation, little progress was made - she never recovered from years of privation - this shows the effects of privation are permanent maternal deprivation evaluation point 1{{ANS}}P = One limitation of the theory is Bowlby's idea of the critical period. E = For Bowlby, damage was inevitable for children if they had not formed an attachment in the first 2 1/2 years of life. Hence this is a critical period. However, there is evidence to suggest that in many cases good quality after care can prevent most of all of this damage. E = for example, jarmila koluchova reported on the case of the czech twins. The twins experienced very severe physical and emotional abuse from the age of 18 months up until they was 7-years old. They received excellent care and by their teens they had fully recovered. L = This means that lasting harm is not inevitable even in cases of severe privation. The critical period is therefore seen as a sensitive period Maternal deprivation evaluation 2{{ANS}}P = Another limitation of the theory of maternal deprivation is the poor quality of the evidence it is based on. E = Bowlby's 44 thieves study is flawed because it was Bowlby himself who carried out both the family interviews and the assessments for affectionate psychopathy. This left him open to bias because he knew in advance which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy. E = Other sources of evidence are equally flawed. For example, goldfarb's research on the development of deprived children in wartime orphanages. This study has problems of confounding variables because the children in Goldfarb study had experienced early trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation from their Primary caregivers. L = This means that Bowlby's original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had serious Flaws and would not be taken seriously as evidence nowadays. Maternal deprivation evaluation 3{{ANS}}P = However, a new line of research has provided some Modest support for the idea that maternal deprivation can have long term effects. E = Frederic levy et al 2003 Shows that separating baby rats from their mothers or as little as a day have permanent effect on their social development through not other aspects of development. L = This means that, although Bowlby relied on flawed evidence to support the theory of maternal deprivation, there are other sources of evidence of his ideas who led the romanian orphanage studies?{{ANS}}rutter what did rutter do?{{ANS}}- he investigated the progress of 165 romanian orphans broughts to the uk for adoption in the 1990s to test whether good quality care could negate the effects of poor early experiences in instituations what ages were the orphans development assessed?{{ANS}}4,6,11,15 - physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed was there a control group?{{ANS}}yes - a group of 52 uk adoptees intellectual development{{ANS}}- in terms of intellectual development, the earlier a child was adopted, the higher IQ they had - eg before 6 months = 102, after 2 years 77 attachment{{ANS}}- those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment eg attention seeking and social behaviour to everyone - these traits not show by those adopted before 6 months - adopted after 6 months - showed quasi - autistic features and 1/3 showed emotional difficulty that required professional help Zeanah bucharest early intervention project (2005){{ANS}}- using the strange situations, he assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spend most (90%) of their lives in institutional care. - they were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution - carers were also asked about inappropriate social behaviours directed at strangers (such as attention seeking/clinging) what were the results of the zeanah study?{{ANS}}- 74% of control group were securely attached - only 19% of institutionalised group were - 65% of ig were disorganised attachment - 44% of ig were disinhibited attachment - 20% of control