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Attachment Notes
Infant Attachments
2 way, emotional tie to a specific other person (parent), which develops in stages
Caregiver-Infant Interactions
- Bodily contact, mimicking facial expressions, caregiverese (mum-baby lang)
- Reciprocity: alert phase to signal readiness for interaction
o 3 months old → behaviour is mutual + predictable for certain things
- Brazelton et al: it’s a dance as each member responds to each other’s moves
- Interactional synchrony: Temporal co-ord of micro-level social behaviour
o Mum + baby mirror each other → move in tune with rhythm of lang
- Meltzoff & Moore: 1/3 facial expressions or 1/3 gestures → baby’s response filmed
o Association found between expression/ gesture of mum and action of baby
- Isabella et al: level of IS of 30 mothers and infants → assessed quality of attachment
o Higher IS → better mother-infant attachment
Evaluation
Practical Application
- Help understand how to develop good relationships + avoid trauma
o C/A observations don’t indicate cause/reason → not that useful
Experimental Design
- Lab study: high internal validity + very detailed + babies wont have demand characteristics
o C/A cant generalise to real life
Infants Perspective
- Association is not causality → perhaps random movement/ accidental imitation
o C/A lots of supporting evidence to show that there is a trend
Attachment Figures
- Mother-infant: Schaffer + Emerson → normally the first attachment figure
o Majority of kids s’attacher to their mum firth → within 7 months
Method: Schaffer and Emerson
- 60 babies → 31 male | 29 female → Glasgow →skilled working-class
- Every month for 1 yrs + at 18 months visited at home: asked abt distress when mum left room
o Attachment measured by level of separtion + stranger anxiety
Evaluation
Socially Sensitive Research
- Keep women in the home → men were seen as the head of house
- Or this occurred since only women were in the home → too old must be re-evaluated
o C/A too much supporting evidence for this to be true
Biological Cause
- Oestrogen + hormones = women nurture better → biologically predisposed to primary carer
o C/A kids in same-sex families don’t develop differently → gender not important
, 2
Experimental Design
- Longitudinal design → high IV: eliminated confounding Vs since same kids were followed
- Field study → high external validity: ordinary activities + at home
o C/A same area, small sample size, questionnaire -ives
Results: Schaffer and Emerson
- 25-32 weeks: 50% of babies showed separation anxiety with a particular person
- 40 weeks: 80% had a specific attachment + 30% had multiple attachments
Consequences: Schaffer and Emerson
1. Asocial: 6 weeks | prefer humans to objects
2. Indiscriminate Attachment: 2 - 7/ 8 months | discriminates between un/familiar
Allow strangers but prefer known people
3. Specific Attachment:7/8 months+ | distressed when separated from specific ppl
avoid unfamiliar people and protest strangers
4. Multiple Attachments: 9 months+ | attachments with others - grandparents/kids
Less scared of strangers but mother-infant still strongest bond
Evaluation
Asocial Stage
- Kid lacks co-ord + immobile so cant draw conclusions from observations
o Hard to make judgements even though this stage is important
- C/A does provide answers to parents who are anxious about why their babies are doing x,y,z
Measurement
- Hard to objectively measure distress + distress may not be linked to attachment
o Association is not causality!
- Distressed when playmate leaves → cant distinguish between that and secondary carer
- C/A good sample size + logical framework to work with
Conflicting evidence
- Collectivist cultures: families work together so kids have multiple attachment
o These studies contradict → cant generalise findings
- Bowlby: most/all babies form primary attachments before multiple attachments
o Unclear when multiple attachments can form
The Role of the Father
- Grossman: behaviour of parents + quality of attachment in teens → only related for mom-
kid
o Fathers level of play with infants was related to teen relationship
- Role of father is the playmate not nurturing (Geiger supported this)
- Schaffer + Emerson → 3% of babies primary attachment to father (27% joint attachment)
o By 18 months: 75% of babies in S+E study formed an attachment to father
Father As Primary Carers
- Field → filmed 4 month old babies faces with primary + secondary moms/dads
o Primary caregivers: >time imitating, smiling + interacting
- Fathers displayed this so can play the nurture role → no innate disability
Attachment Notes
Infant Attachments
2 way, emotional tie to a specific other person (parent), which develops in stages
Caregiver-Infant Interactions
- Bodily contact, mimicking facial expressions, caregiverese (mum-baby lang)
- Reciprocity: alert phase to signal readiness for interaction
o 3 months old → behaviour is mutual + predictable for certain things
- Brazelton et al: it’s a dance as each member responds to each other’s moves
- Interactional synchrony: Temporal co-ord of micro-level social behaviour
o Mum + baby mirror each other → move in tune with rhythm of lang
- Meltzoff & Moore: 1/3 facial expressions or 1/3 gestures → baby’s response filmed
o Association found between expression/ gesture of mum and action of baby
- Isabella et al: level of IS of 30 mothers and infants → assessed quality of attachment
o Higher IS → better mother-infant attachment
Evaluation
Practical Application
- Help understand how to develop good relationships + avoid trauma
o C/A observations don’t indicate cause/reason → not that useful
Experimental Design
- Lab study: high internal validity + very detailed + babies wont have demand characteristics
o C/A cant generalise to real life
Infants Perspective
- Association is not causality → perhaps random movement/ accidental imitation
o C/A lots of supporting evidence to show that there is a trend
Attachment Figures
- Mother-infant: Schaffer + Emerson → normally the first attachment figure
o Majority of kids s’attacher to their mum firth → within 7 months
Method: Schaffer and Emerson
- 60 babies → 31 male | 29 female → Glasgow →skilled working-class
- Every month for 1 yrs + at 18 months visited at home: asked abt distress when mum left room
o Attachment measured by level of separtion + stranger anxiety
Evaluation
Socially Sensitive Research
- Keep women in the home → men were seen as the head of house
- Or this occurred since only women were in the home → too old must be re-evaluated
o C/A too much supporting evidence for this to be true
Biological Cause
- Oestrogen + hormones = women nurture better → biologically predisposed to primary carer
o C/A kids in same-sex families don’t develop differently → gender not important
, 2
Experimental Design
- Longitudinal design → high IV: eliminated confounding Vs since same kids were followed
- Field study → high external validity: ordinary activities + at home
o C/A same area, small sample size, questionnaire -ives
Results: Schaffer and Emerson
- 25-32 weeks: 50% of babies showed separation anxiety with a particular person
- 40 weeks: 80% had a specific attachment + 30% had multiple attachments
Consequences: Schaffer and Emerson
1. Asocial: 6 weeks | prefer humans to objects
2. Indiscriminate Attachment: 2 - 7/ 8 months | discriminates between un/familiar
Allow strangers but prefer known people
3. Specific Attachment:7/8 months+ | distressed when separated from specific ppl
avoid unfamiliar people and protest strangers
4. Multiple Attachments: 9 months+ | attachments with others - grandparents/kids
Less scared of strangers but mother-infant still strongest bond
Evaluation
Asocial Stage
- Kid lacks co-ord + immobile so cant draw conclusions from observations
o Hard to make judgements even though this stage is important
- C/A does provide answers to parents who are anxious about why their babies are doing x,y,z
Measurement
- Hard to objectively measure distress + distress may not be linked to attachment
o Association is not causality!
- Distressed when playmate leaves → cant distinguish between that and secondary carer
- C/A good sample size + logical framework to work with
Conflicting evidence
- Collectivist cultures: families work together so kids have multiple attachment
o These studies contradict → cant generalise findings
- Bowlby: most/all babies form primary attachments before multiple attachments
o Unclear when multiple attachments can form
The Role of the Father
- Grossman: behaviour of parents + quality of attachment in teens → only related for mom-
kid
o Fathers level of play with infants was related to teen relationship
- Role of father is the playmate not nurturing (Geiger supported this)
- Schaffer + Emerson → 3% of babies primary attachment to father (27% joint attachment)
o By 18 months: 75% of babies in S+E study formed an attachment to father
Father As Primary Carers
- Field → filmed 4 month old babies faces with primary + secondary moms/dads
o Primary caregivers: >time imitating, smiling + interacting
- Fathers displayed this so can play the nurture role → no innate disability
