Attachment
Attachment = Two-way emotional bond where each person sees the other as essential for emotional
security.
Caregiver- Infant interactions
Early age babies have meaningful social interactions with carers. These are important for their
child’s social development, particularly of caregiver- infant attachment
Reciprocity:
Babies and mothers spent time in intense pleasurable interactions
‘Alert phases’ show readiness for interaction, Mothers pick up on the alert 2/3 of the time
(Eidelman)
3 months – interaction more frequent and close attention to verbal signs and expressions
(Feldman)
Reciprocity – respond to each other and elicits response from them
Baby takes active role too – Brazelton et al said it’s like a ‘dance’ as they respond to each
other’s moves
Interactional synchrony:
Where the mother and child act simultaneously
Meltzoff and Moore – parent makes one of three faces, baby is observed, association found
between mothers’ expression and the babies following action (AO3)
Isabella et al – 30 mothers and infants, better quality attachment caused higher levels of
synchrony. (A01)
Eval – Difficult to be certain if the babies’ actions are deliberate, so don’t know if they have meaning.
Furthermore Feldman – even if deliberate, it doesn’t tell us its purpose.
Eval + However some evidence that it helps develop the infant- mother attachment and for
stress responses
Internal validity as often filmed to be later analysed, the babies don’t change behaviour as don’t care
if being filmed
Socially sensitive
, Attachment figures:
Parent infant attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson – mothers usually attach to the babies first, secondary attachments
made after however.
75% attached to father by 18 months – protest when apart
Role of father
Grossman – longitudinal study of both parents’ behaviours effect on attachment in babies
teens.
Fathers’ behaviour effect seen less important, therefore attachment less too
But fathers play was related to
attachment in adolescence, different role in attachment
Fathers are primary carers
Field – primary caregivers acted like mothers, different to how secondary attached fathers
do
Father can be the nurturing care, shows attachment is to do with responsiveness not gender
Eval role of the father:
One strength is research on importance of father role to social abilities.
- Observations of preschool children’s relationships with mothers and fathers were assessed
and compared with a follow assessment of later social interactions at nursery. A strong
attachment to the father predicts high ability to make friends in school.
- This suggests that father role is important in socialisation processes.
Another strength:
- Findings that males can effectively take on a more maternal role could provide confidence to
fathers taking on role of primary carer and single gender families that are more common in
modern society.
One limitation is social sensitivity:
- Some women may find their life choices criticised by research in this area. Such as mothers
who decide to return to work shortly after birth. Or men that decide to take on role of
primary caregiver may feel they are biologically not capable of providing the same functions
as women
, Schaffer’s Stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson investigation on formation of early attachment:
Method – 60 babies from skilled middle-class families, visited with mother every
month until 18 months. Mothers asked about protests to daily separations
(separation anxiety) and stranger anxiety
Finding – Separation anxiety at 25-32 weeks to mother (specific attachment), to
person who interacts the most. At 40 weeks most had specific, a fraction had
multiple
Eval:
External validity (mundane realism)– Done in their homes so behaviour of babies was
unaffected as information was only reported to observers, they weren’t present.
Longitudinal design – the same children were observed at each ‘stage’, takes longer but
higher internal validity as no individual differences (confounding variables)
Limited sample characteristics – All babies from same city and social class so not easy to
generalise to other social classes and cultures (limitation)
Stages:
1. Asocial (first few weeks) – Starts forming bonds with carers, but behaviour to objects
and humans is similar. Preference to familiar adults, but no stranger anxiety
Eval – babies immobile at this stage so hard to judge behaviour, may be unreliable
1. Indiscriminate (2-7 months) – Observable social behaviour, preference to humans
and recognise familiar ones. No separation or stranger anxiety (accept attention) so
is indiscriminate
2. Specific – stranger and separation anxiety (to one person), said to have specific
attachment to primary attachment figure (responds to ‘signals’ the most)
3. Multiple – attach to secondary attachment figures, in the study above a fraction had
this, most have by 1 year.
Eval – Just because the baby gets distressed when one leaves room doesn’t mean they are
an attachment figure. Bowlby – may be playmates so get distressed. Issue for S + E stages as
doesn’t allow distinction between behaviour shows towards playmate and attachment
figure
Bowlby – if not attached to a main carer, are capable of forming multiple attachments.
Others who studied in cultures where multiple caregivers (Ijzendoorn) saw multiple
attachments from the outset
Attachment = Two-way emotional bond where each person sees the other as essential for emotional
security.
Caregiver- Infant interactions
Early age babies have meaningful social interactions with carers. These are important for their
child’s social development, particularly of caregiver- infant attachment
Reciprocity:
Babies and mothers spent time in intense pleasurable interactions
‘Alert phases’ show readiness for interaction, Mothers pick up on the alert 2/3 of the time
(Eidelman)
3 months – interaction more frequent and close attention to verbal signs and expressions
(Feldman)
Reciprocity – respond to each other and elicits response from them
Baby takes active role too – Brazelton et al said it’s like a ‘dance’ as they respond to each
other’s moves
Interactional synchrony:
Where the mother and child act simultaneously
Meltzoff and Moore – parent makes one of three faces, baby is observed, association found
between mothers’ expression and the babies following action (AO3)
Isabella et al – 30 mothers and infants, better quality attachment caused higher levels of
synchrony. (A01)
Eval – Difficult to be certain if the babies’ actions are deliberate, so don’t know if they have meaning.
Furthermore Feldman – even if deliberate, it doesn’t tell us its purpose.
Eval + However some evidence that it helps develop the infant- mother attachment and for
stress responses
Internal validity as often filmed to be later analysed, the babies don’t change behaviour as don’t care
if being filmed
Socially sensitive
, Attachment figures:
Parent infant attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson – mothers usually attach to the babies first, secondary attachments
made after however.
75% attached to father by 18 months – protest when apart
Role of father
Grossman – longitudinal study of both parents’ behaviours effect on attachment in babies
teens.
Fathers’ behaviour effect seen less important, therefore attachment less too
But fathers play was related to
attachment in adolescence, different role in attachment
Fathers are primary carers
Field – primary caregivers acted like mothers, different to how secondary attached fathers
do
Father can be the nurturing care, shows attachment is to do with responsiveness not gender
Eval role of the father:
One strength is research on importance of father role to social abilities.
- Observations of preschool children’s relationships with mothers and fathers were assessed
and compared with a follow assessment of later social interactions at nursery. A strong
attachment to the father predicts high ability to make friends in school.
- This suggests that father role is important in socialisation processes.
Another strength:
- Findings that males can effectively take on a more maternal role could provide confidence to
fathers taking on role of primary carer and single gender families that are more common in
modern society.
One limitation is social sensitivity:
- Some women may find their life choices criticised by research in this area. Such as mothers
who decide to return to work shortly after birth. Or men that decide to take on role of
primary caregiver may feel they are biologically not capable of providing the same functions
as women
, Schaffer’s Stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson investigation on formation of early attachment:
Method – 60 babies from skilled middle-class families, visited with mother every
month until 18 months. Mothers asked about protests to daily separations
(separation anxiety) and stranger anxiety
Finding – Separation anxiety at 25-32 weeks to mother (specific attachment), to
person who interacts the most. At 40 weeks most had specific, a fraction had
multiple
Eval:
External validity (mundane realism)– Done in their homes so behaviour of babies was
unaffected as information was only reported to observers, they weren’t present.
Longitudinal design – the same children were observed at each ‘stage’, takes longer but
higher internal validity as no individual differences (confounding variables)
Limited sample characteristics – All babies from same city and social class so not easy to
generalise to other social classes and cultures (limitation)
Stages:
1. Asocial (first few weeks) – Starts forming bonds with carers, but behaviour to objects
and humans is similar. Preference to familiar adults, but no stranger anxiety
Eval – babies immobile at this stage so hard to judge behaviour, may be unreliable
1. Indiscriminate (2-7 months) – Observable social behaviour, preference to humans
and recognise familiar ones. No separation or stranger anxiety (accept attention) so
is indiscriminate
2. Specific – stranger and separation anxiety (to one person), said to have specific
attachment to primary attachment figure (responds to ‘signals’ the most)
3. Multiple – attach to secondary attachment figures, in the study above a fraction had
this, most have by 1 year.
Eval – Just because the baby gets distressed when one leaves room doesn’t mean they are
an attachment figure. Bowlby – may be playmates so get distressed. Issue for S + E stages as
doesn’t allow distinction between behaviour shows towards playmate and attachment
figure
Bowlby – if not attached to a main carer, are capable of forming multiple attachments.
Others who studied in cultures where multiple caregivers (Ijzendoorn) saw multiple
attachments from the outset
