Attachment Revision
Attachment: An emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way process that occurs
over time, and leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking, serving
the function of protecting an infant
CAREGIVER-INFANT RELATIONS:
Caregiver: Any person who is providing care for a child.
Reciprocity: responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of
one partner elicit a response from the other
Interactional Synchrony: interaction between two people where they mirror (the same)
what the other person is doing in terms of body language and facial movements. Emotions
as well as behaviours may be mirrored.
How to investigate this?
OBSERVATION
CASE STUDY: Maccoby (1980)
4 characteristic signs of attachment:
1. Seeking proximity, especially at times of stress
2. Distress on separation
3. Pleasure when reunited
4. General orientation of behaviour towards the primary caregiver
There is a synchronised pattern of behaviour between caregiver and infant that has been
studied by developmental psychologists. Such behaviour is indicative of the quality of the
attachment.
CASE STUDY: Meltzoff and Moore (1997)
- Controlled observation. They selected different stimuli (three different faces plus a
hand gesture) and observed the behaviour of infants in response.
- To record observations an observer watched videotapes of the infant’s behaviour in
real-time, slow motion and frame by frame if necessary. This video was then judged
by independent observers who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen.
- Each observer was asked to note down all of the instances of infant tongue
protrusions and head movements using these behavioural categories:
❖ Mouth opening = abrupt jaw drops opening the mouth across the entire extent
of the lips
❖ Termination of mouth opening = return of lips to their closed resting position
(lips closed and touching across entire extent or there might be a small crack)
❖ Tongue protrusion = clear forward thrust of the tongue such that the tongue tip
crossed the back edge of lower lip
, ❖ Termination of tongue protrusion = retraction of the tip of the tongue behind
the back edge of the lower lip.
- Shows that 2-3 week olds imitate gestures and later found 2-3 day olds do as well
Each observer scored the tapes twice so that both intraobserver and interobserver reliability
could be calculated. All scores were greater than 92.
EVALUATION:
Strengths:
● They filmed observations of interactions and analysed them later, so they can
establish inter-rater reliability and the babies are not aware of them being observed
(adviods demand characteristics) - increases the validity.
● Research support - Social Learning Theory proposes the ideas of modelling and
imitation of behaviour in acquiring new behaviours
Weaknesses:
● Problems with testing infant behaviour – observations lack reliability as an infant’s
mouth is in a constant motion so it’s hard to distinguish between general and imitated
behaviours
● Developmental importance - just because behaviours can be reliably observed
doesnt mean that this reveals any importance/significance
STAGES OF ATTATCHMENT:
CASE STUDY: Shaffer & Emerson (1964)
- Longitudinal study (over many years) of working-class families in Glasgow in their
home (a natural environment)
- Done by observations and diary records (self-report)
- Measured attachment via separation distress and stranger anxiety
Aims: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) conducted a study on the development of attachments
Procedure:
- 60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow were studied.
- At the start of the investigation the infants ranged from 5 to 23 weeks of age. They
studied until the age of one year.
- Visited every 4 weeks. At each visit, each mother reported their infant's response to
separation in 7 everyday situations (such as being left alone in a room, or with other
people). The mother was also asked to describe the intensity of any protest (for
instance a full-blooded cry or a whimper) which was then rated on a 4-point scale.
- Finally the mother was asked to say to whom the protest was directed.
- Stranger anxiety was also measured by assessing the infant's response to the
interviewer at each visit.
Findings:
, STAGE AGE KEY FEATURES OF STAGE
RANGE
Asocial Stage 0-2 months - Produces similar responses to all objects (animate/inanimate)
- Towards the end infants show a preference for social stimuli (e.g. smiling
face, more content when with people)
- Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the
infants relationships with others
Indiscriminate 3-7 months - Become more social and prefer human company to inanimate objects and
Stage can distinguish between known and unknown people
- Still relatively comforted by anyone and do not show stranger anxiety
- General sociability (enjoyment of being with people)
Discriminate 7-12 - Separation anxiety but show joy at reunion with that person and are most
Attachment months comforted by this person (primary attachment figure)
- Begins to display stranger anxiety
- Primary attachments are not always with the person who spends the most
time with the child but those who respond to their ‘signals’. Infants who
were poorly attached had mothers who failed to interact.
- In 65% of children the first specific attachment was to the mother and a
further 30% the most was the first join object of attachment
- 3% of fathers are the first sole object of attraction and 275 of them were the
joint first object
Multiple 1 year + - Develops a wider circle of multiple attachments (depending on how many
Attachments constant relationships they have)
- They found that, within one month of 1st becoming attached, 29% of infants
had multiple attachments to someone else (parent, grandparent, siblings,
friends, relatives) called secondary attachments
- They also display separation anxiety in these relationships
- Within 6 months this had risen to 78%
- Basically by the age of one the majority of infants had developed multiple
attachments, with ⅓ of the infants having formed 5 or more secondary
attachments such as father, grandparent or older sibling.
EVALUATION:
Stregnths:
● Useful diagnostic tool for therapy
● Good external validity - mothers did the observing so babies were not stressed by the
presence of a researcher
● Real world applications - day care is okay in the asocial stage and indiscriminate
stages, starting daycare at specific attachment stage is undesirable
Weaknesses:
● Self reports from the mother make it more likely to change answers to seem more
socially desirable / better parents
● Biased sample – Study was conducted in the 1960s and a lot has changed since
then with more women at work and more stay at home dads than ever before
Attachment: An emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way process that occurs
over time, and leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking, serving
the function of protecting an infant
CAREGIVER-INFANT RELATIONS:
Caregiver: Any person who is providing care for a child.
Reciprocity: responding to the action of another with a similar action, where the actions of
one partner elicit a response from the other
Interactional Synchrony: interaction between two people where they mirror (the same)
what the other person is doing in terms of body language and facial movements. Emotions
as well as behaviours may be mirrored.
How to investigate this?
OBSERVATION
CASE STUDY: Maccoby (1980)
4 characteristic signs of attachment:
1. Seeking proximity, especially at times of stress
2. Distress on separation
3. Pleasure when reunited
4. General orientation of behaviour towards the primary caregiver
There is a synchronised pattern of behaviour between caregiver and infant that has been
studied by developmental psychologists. Such behaviour is indicative of the quality of the
attachment.
CASE STUDY: Meltzoff and Moore (1997)
- Controlled observation. They selected different stimuli (three different faces plus a
hand gesture) and observed the behaviour of infants in response.
- To record observations an observer watched videotapes of the infant’s behaviour in
real-time, slow motion and frame by frame if necessary. This video was then judged
by independent observers who had no knowledge of what the infant had just seen.
- Each observer was asked to note down all of the instances of infant tongue
protrusions and head movements using these behavioural categories:
❖ Mouth opening = abrupt jaw drops opening the mouth across the entire extent
of the lips
❖ Termination of mouth opening = return of lips to their closed resting position
(lips closed and touching across entire extent or there might be a small crack)
❖ Tongue protrusion = clear forward thrust of the tongue such that the tongue tip
crossed the back edge of lower lip
, ❖ Termination of tongue protrusion = retraction of the tip of the tongue behind
the back edge of the lower lip.
- Shows that 2-3 week olds imitate gestures and later found 2-3 day olds do as well
Each observer scored the tapes twice so that both intraobserver and interobserver reliability
could be calculated. All scores were greater than 92.
EVALUATION:
Strengths:
● They filmed observations of interactions and analysed them later, so they can
establish inter-rater reliability and the babies are not aware of them being observed
(adviods demand characteristics) - increases the validity.
● Research support - Social Learning Theory proposes the ideas of modelling and
imitation of behaviour in acquiring new behaviours
Weaknesses:
● Problems with testing infant behaviour – observations lack reliability as an infant’s
mouth is in a constant motion so it’s hard to distinguish between general and imitated
behaviours
● Developmental importance - just because behaviours can be reliably observed
doesnt mean that this reveals any importance/significance
STAGES OF ATTATCHMENT:
CASE STUDY: Shaffer & Emerson (1964)
- Longitudinal study (over many years) of working-class families in Glasgow in their
home (a natural environment)
- Done by observations and diary records (self-report)
- Measured attachment via separation distress and stranger anxiety
Aims: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) conducted a study on the development of attachments
Procedure:
- 60 infants from mainly working-class homes in Glasgow were studied.
- At the start of the investigation the infants ranged from 5 to 23 weeks of age. They
studied until the age of one year.
- Visited every 4 weeks. At each visit, each mother reported their infant's response to
separation in 7 everyday situations (such as being left alone in a room, or with other
people). The mother was also asked to describe the intensity of any protest (for
instance a full-blooded cry or a whimper) which was then rated on a 4-point scale.
- Finally the mother was asked to say to whom the protest was directed.
- Stranger anxiety was also measured by assessing the infant's response to the
interviewer at each visit.
Findings:
, STAGE AGE KEY FEATURES OF STAGE
RANGE
Asocial Stage 0-2 months - Produces similar responses to all objects (animate/inanimate)
- Towards the end infants show a preference for social stimuli (e.g. smiling
face, more content when with people)
- Reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the
infants relationships with others
Indiscriminate 3-7 months - Become more social and prefer human company to inanimate objects and
Stage can distinguish between known and unknown people
- Still relatively comforted by anyone and do not show stranger anxiety
- General sociability (enjoyment of being with people)
Discriminate 7-12 - Separation anxiety but show joy at reunion with that person and are most
Attachment months comforted by this person (primary attachment figure)
- Begins to display stranger anxiety
- Primary attachments are not always with the person who spends the most
time with the child but those who respond to their ‘signals’. Infants who
were poorly attached had mothers who failed to interact.
- In 65% of children the first specific attachment was to the mother and a
further 30% the most was the first join object of attachment
- 3% of fathers are the first sole object of attraction and 275 of them were the
joint first object
Multiple 1 year + - Develops a wider circle of multiple attachments (depending on how many
Attachments constant relationships they have)
- They found that, within one month of 1st becoming attached, 29% of infants
had multiple attachments to someone else (parent, grandparent, siblings,
friends, relatives) called secondary attachments
- They also display separation anxiety in these relationships
- Within 6 months this had risen to 78%
- Basically by the age of one the majority of infants had developed multiple
attachments, with ⅓ of the infants having formed 5 or more secondary
attachments such as father, grandparent or older sibling.
EVALUATION:
Stregnths:
● Useful diagnostic tool for therapy
● Good external validity - mothers did the observing so babies were not stressed by the
presence of a researcher
● Real world applications - day care is okay in the asocial stage and indiscriminate
stages, starting daycare at specific attachment stage is undesirable
Weaknesses:
● Self reports from the mother make it more likely to change answers to seem more
socially desirable / better parents
● Biased sample – Study was conducted in the 1960s and a lot has changed since
then with more women at work and more stay at home dads than ever before
