Attachment Handount

Session 6 Attachment

Goals:
1. To be able to understand and participate in psychology class discussions

2. To improve my grade from a D to a B grade by the end of this year.

3. To better understand different theories in psychology.

Session Plan

- Reviewed Schafferson and Emerson s 1964 study on the stages of attachment (20 minutes)

- Practice question on the stages of attachment (10 minutes)

- Reviewed the role of the father and cultural variations (10 minutes)

- Reviewed Ainsworth s strange situation study and evaluation (25 minutes)

- Practice question(s) on the strange situation (30 minutes)

- Review of concepts covered today and plan for next session (5 minutes)

Caregiver-infant interactions in humans

Definition: Attachment is defined as an emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure.

Interactions between very young babies and their parents are baby led and the adult responds to the behavior of the baby.

Key terms you needs to know how to describe and evaluate

1. Reciprocity

What is it? Reciprocity is a type of interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual responsiveness with both being able to produce a response from each other.

Example

o Smiling is an example of reciprocity when a smile occurs in the infant it triggers a smile in the caregiver and vice versa. (Meltzoff Moore, 1977)

What does it do?

o Reciprocity influences the child s physical, social and cognitive development, forms the basis for development of basic trust/mistrust and shapes how the child will relate to the world and form relationships throughout life.

2. InteractionalSynchrony

What is it?

o This is a form of rhythmic interaction between infant and caregiver involving mutual focus, reciprocity and mirroring of emotion or

behavior.

o Infants coordinate their actions with caregivers in a type of

conversation.

o Infant and caregiver are able to anticipate how each other will behave and can elicit a particular response from the other.

Example

o A caregiver who laughs in response to their infant s giggling sound and tickles them, is experiencing synchronised interaction.

o Studies of interactional synchrony, eg Condon and Sander

How does it develop?

o Most likely to develop if the caregiver attends fully to the infant s state, provides playful stimulation when the infant is alert and attentive and avoids pushing things when the infant is overexcited.

Evaluation of evidence base

Is imitation conscious and deliberate?

o Many studies involving observation of interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same patterns of interaction.

o However, what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression. It is extremely difficult to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant s perspective.

o Abravanel and DeYoung - observed infant interaction with two objects one stimulating tongue move and one mouth movements, found that infants had little response to the object therefore it is a specific response to other humans, therefore supporting its role in the formation of attachments.

Individual

o Isabella et al - found more strongly attached infant caregiver pairs showed greater interactional synchrony.

o Heimann showed that infants who generate a lot of imitation from birth onwards have a better quality of relationship at 3 months. Not clear if imitation is a cause or an effect of early synchrony.

Is the research valid?

o Observations of mother-infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles. This ensures that very fine details of behavior can be recorded and later analysed.

o Babies don t know that they are being observed so their behavior does differences change in response to controlled observation which is generally a problem for observational research. This is a strength of this line of research because it means the research has good validity.

The Stages of Attachment

Schaffer Emerson (1964) conducted a longitudinal observational study of 60 infants in Scotland at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life to understand how babies form and develop attachments.

o The infants were studied in their own home and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment.

o Their interactions with their carers were observed, and carers were interviewed.

o A diary was kept by the mother to examine evidence for the development of an attachment.

o The following measures were recorded:

• Stranger Anxiety - response to arrival of a stranger.
• Separation Anxiety - distress level when separated from carer, degree of comfort needed on return.
• Social Referencing - degree that child looks at carer to check how they should respond to something new (secure base).
• Stranger Anxiety - response to arrival of a stranger.
• Separation Anxiety - distress level when separated from carer, degree of comfort needed on return.
• Social Referencing - degree that child looks at carer to check how they should respond to something new (secure base).

They discovered that baby`s attachments develop in the following sequence:

STAGE 2: Indiscriminate Stage

(6 weeks to 7 months)

Babies can tell people apart, so start to develop a stronger attachment with familiar adults. Babies don`t yet show an aversion to strangers.

STAGE 4: Multiple Attachments

(10 months onwards)

Infants demonstrate a significantly increased interest in friends, grandparents and other familiar adults.

STAGE 1: Asocial Stage

(0-6 weeks)

Newborns don`t tend to discriminate between humans, but do demonstrate a preference for humans over non- humans.

STAGE 3: Specific Attachment

(7 9 months)

Infants demonstrate separation anxiety when separated from their primary attachment (usually a parent). Babies also begin to demonstrate a fear of strangers at this stage.

The results of the study indicated that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby`s signals, not the person they spent more time with. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness.

Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands and, interacted with their child Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.

The most important fact in forming attachments is not who feeds and changes the child but who plays and communicates with him or her. Therefore, responsiveness appeared to be the key to attachment.

Evaluation of the study

Low population validity: the infants in the study all came from Glasgow and

were mostly from working class families.

Small sample size of 60 families reduces the strength of the conclusion we

can draw from the study.

Accuracy of data collection by parents who were keeping daily diaries

whilst clearly being very busy could be questioned. A diary like this is also very unreliable with and being major issues. Mothers are not likely to report negative experiences in their daily write up.

END OF EXAMPLE