Attachment Revision
What is an attachment?
What's attachments
Attachment is when two people develop a deep and lasting emotional bonds. Both
members of this emotional relationship seek closeness and feel more secure when close to
their attachment figure.
- Usually between children and their caregivers
- First relationships that babies form in their lives
- An attachment figure needs to look after the baby for long periods of time,
responds when they are hungry or need comforting and makes them feel safe
Features of attachment
To tell if a baby has an attachment to their caregiver you have to look at the behaviour of
the baby. There are three features of attachment that babies display:
- Safe base behaviour
➔ A safe base is safe base an individual can return to if they are feeling upset
and need comfort
➔ When children have an attachment to their caregiver they treat them as a
safe base when they feel scared or anxious
➔ This means that when their caregiver is nearby watching over them, they
are happy to explore their surroundings and move further away from the
caregiver as they know that their caregiver is always nearby to protect them
- Separation anxiety
➔ When the child is separated from their attachment figure they will become
distress and anxious until their attachment figure comes back
➔ Other people cannot comfort them, only the caregiver
- Stranger anxiety
➔ When babies feel attachments to their caregivers and start to like and
recognise them they also start to dislike people who are not their caregiver
➔ Babies who are attached to caregiver display stranger anxiety where they
display stress and anxiety around unfamiliar people and show a preference
to being with their caregiver rather than strangers
How do we form attachments?
Stages of attachments
,Attachments develop slowly overtime and over four stages (identified by Schaffer)
1. Asocial (Pre attachment)
➔ From birth to 2 months
➔ Don't show any preference for one person over another, treat all people the
same
➔ Babies display behaviours such as smiling or crying to caregivers
➔ They will also show the same behaviours to inanimate objects
2. Indiscriminate attachment
➔ From 2 months to 7 months
➔ Shows some preference to some people over others
➔ Recognised caregivers through smiling but also smile at other familiar
people
➔ Don’t show stranger anxiety or separation anxiety
➔ Don't have one specific attachment
3. Discriminate (specific) attachment
➔ From 7 months to 9 months
➔ Form a preference (attachment) to their main caregiver
➔ Display separation anxiety
➔ Display stranger anxiety
4. Multiple attachment
➔ 9 months onwards
➔ Are able to form attachment to other caregivers
Schaffer and Emerson
Investigated how babies develop attachments to their parents overtime
- They observed interactions with babies and their mothers, alongside other family
members
- Did it in naturalistic settings in their everyday lives (naturalistic observation)
- Longitudinal study every 4 weeks from birth
- 60 babies in total
- Measured the strengths of attachments formed by babies to their caregivers by
observing the behaviour of the baby to see if they displayed separation anxiety
and stranger anxiety
- They also conducted interviews with the families asking about the behaviours of
the baby and the relationships with the baby
- The results supported the existence of the four stages of attachments
- Showed at 87% of babies formed attachments to a least two adult figures
- 31% formed five or more attachments
, - The babies attachment figure wasn't always their caregiver or their mother
- Found that babies who formed the strongest attachment to their caregiver had
caregivers who were sensitive to their needs and responded quickly when the baby
tried to interact with them which they called sensitive responsiveness
One strength of Schaffers and Emerson's study was that it was a naturalistic observation.
This means that the participants were observed as they did their daily routine and in
places they usually interacted, e.g. at home, at the shop or in the park. Therefore the
results were more likely to have higher ecological validity and the results can be
generalised to how babies and their caregivers behave in everyday life
A weakness of Schaffers and Emersons study was that it may have had observer bias. The
researchers may have already had the hypothesis that greater sensitive responsiveness
would lead to stronger attachments. So when the researchers measured the strength of
attachment between the mother and her baby, they might have expected the mother who
displayed more sensitive responsiveness to have stronger attachments to their babies.
Therefore the researchers may have incorrectly measured the sensitive mothers of having
stronger attachments to their babies than they really did.
A weakness of Schaffer and Emerson's study was that social desirability might have been
shown in the interviewers. A disadvantage of using the interview technique is that
participants may have given inaccurate answers which they think are socially desirable to
avoid being judged negatively. Therefore they may have been an element of social
desirability bias. For example, the participants may have wanted to show off and appear
as the best parents so they may have provided answers that were not completely honest
like saying they spent more time with their baby than they really did. This could cause bias
in the data that would reduce the internal validity of the findings since natural behaviour
will not have been recorded about the stages of attachments
Another weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it lacks population validity.
The sample consisted of only 60 working class mothers and babies from Glasgow, who
may form very different attachments with their infants when compared with wealthier
families from other countries. Therefore, we are unable to generalise the results of this
study to mothers and babies from other countries and backgrounds as their behaviour
might not be comparable
Caregiver infant interactions
There are aspects of attachment that can vary across babies. The two important
caregiver interactions are reciprocity and interactional synchrony
, 1. Reciprocity
➔ Seen in infant caregiver interactions, their reciprocal interactions involve
gestures and sounds instead of conversations. E.g. a baby giggling in
response to their caregiver moving a toy around is also reciprocal
➔ A caregiver interaction is reciprocal if they both take turns in the interaction
➔ The more reciprocity shown in infant caregiver interactions, the stronger
their attachment bond
➔ Brezelton et al describes this interaction as a ‘dance’ because when a couple
dances together they respond to one another's movements and rhythm.
Likewise, reciprocity as a caregiver infant interaction is where the interaction
between both individuals flows back and forth
➔ Feldman says from around 3 months old reciprocity increases in frequency
as the infant and caregiver pay increasing attention to each other's verbal
and facial communication. It is suggested that showing this sensitive
responsiveness, whereby the caregiver pays attention sensitivity towards
the infants behaviour, will lay the strong foundations for attachment to
develop later between the caregiver and infant
2. Interactional synchrony
➔ Babies and caregivers display interactional synchrony
➔ They often mimic each other to display the same or similar actions and their
actions will be timed so they are both moving in the same or similar pattern
in the same time (they are in sync)
➔ E.g. they display interactional synchrony when the baby claps their hands in
time with the caregiver clapping their hands to a song
➔ Interactional synchrony helps strengthen the bond between babies and
caregivers
Sensitive responsiveness
The adult caregiver correctly interprets the meaning of the infants communication and is
motivated to respond appropriately. E.g. they provide milk or change a nappy when the
baby shows distress
Caregiver infant interaction study support
Researchers have observed caregiver infant interactions by recording their interactions on
camera and observing the interactions frame by frame to see the fine details of
behaviour
What is an attachment?
What's attachments
Attachment is when two people develop a deep and lasting emotional bonds. Both
members of this emotional relationship seek closeness and feel more secure when close to
their attachment figure.
- Usually between children and their caregivers
- First relationships that babies form in their lives
- An attachment figure needs to look after the baby for long periods of time,
responds when they are hungry or need comforting and makes them feel safe
Features of attachment
To tell if a baby has an attachment to their caregiver you have to look at the behaviour of
the baby. There are three features of attachment that babies display:
- Safe base behaviour
➔ A safe base is safe base an individual can return to if they are feeling upset
and need comfort
➔ When children have an attachment to their caregiver they treat them as a
safe base when they feel scared or anxious
➔ This means that when their caregiver is nearby watching over them, they
are happy to explore their surroundings and move further away from the
caregiver as they know that their caregiver is always nearby to protect them
- Separation anxiety
➔ When the child is separated from their attachment figure they will become
distress and anxious until their attachment figure comes back
➔ Other people cannot comfort them, only the caregiver
- Stranger anxiety
➔ When babies feel attachments to their caregivers and start to like and
recognise them they also start to dislike people who are not their caregiver
➔ Babies who are attached to caregiver display stranger anxiety where they
display stress and anxiety around unfamiliar people and show a preference
to being with their caregiver rather than strangers
How do we form attachments?
Stages of attachments
,Attachments develop slowly overtime and over four stages (identified by Schaffer)
1. Asocial (Pre attachment)
➔ From birth to 2 months
➔ Don't show any preference for one person over another, treat all people the
same
➔ Babies display behaviours such as smiling or crying to caregivers
➔ They will also show the same behaviours to inanimate objects
2. Indiscriminate attachment
➔ From 2 months to 7 months
➔ Shows some preference to some people over others
➔ Recognised caregivers through smiling but also smile at other familiar
people
➔ Don’t show stranger anxiety or separation anxiety
➔ Don't have one specific attachment
3. Discriminate (specific) attachment
➔ From 7 months to 9 months
➔ Form a preference (attachment) to their main caregiver
➔ Display separation anxiety
➔ Display stranger anxiety
4. Multiple attachment
➔ 9 months onwards
➔ Are able to form attachment to other caregivers
Schaffer and Emerson
Investigated how babies develop attachments to their parents overtime
- They observed interactions with babies and their mothers, alongside other family
members
- Did it in naturalistic settings in their everyday lives (naturalistic observation)
- Longitudinal study every 4 weeks from birth
- 60 babies in total
- Measured the strengths of attachments formed by babies to their caregivers by
observing the behaviour of the baby to see if they displayed separation anxiety
and stranger anxiety
- They also conducted interviews with the families asking about the behaviours of
the baby and the relationships with the baby
- The results supported the existence of the four stages of attachments
- Showed at 87% of babies formed attachments to a least two adult figures
- 31% formed five or more attachments
, - The babies attachment figure wasn't always their caregiver or their mother
- Found that babies who formed the strongest attachment to their caregiver had
caregivers who were sensitive to their needs and responded quickly when the baby
tried to interact with them which they called sensitive responsiveness
One strength of Schaffers and Emerson's study was that it was a naturalistic observation.
This means that the participants were observed as they did their daily routine and in
places they usually interacted, e.g. at home, at the shop or in the park. Therefore the
results were more likely to have higher ecological validity and the results can be
generalised to how babies and their caregivers behave in everyday life
A weakness of Schaffers and Emersons study was that it may have had observer bias. The
researchers may have already had the hypothesis that greater sensitive responsiveness
would lead to stronger attachments. So when the researchers measured the strength of
attachment between the mother and her baby, they might have expected the mother who
displayed more sensitive responsiveness to have stronger attachments to their babies.
Therefore the researchers may have incorrectly measured the sensitive mothers of having
stronger attachments to their babies than they really did.
A weakness of Schaffer and Emerson's study was that social desirability might have been
shown in the interviewers. A disadvantage of using the interview technique is that
participants may have given inaccurate answers which they think are socially desirable to
avoid being judged negatively. Therefore they may have been an element of social
desirability bias. For example, the participants may have wanted to show off and appear
as the best parents so they may have provided answers that were not completely honest
like saying they spent more time with their baby than they really did. This could cause bias
in the data that would reduce the internal validity of the findings since natural behaviour
will not have been recorded about the stages of attachments
Another weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it lacks population validity.
The sample consisted of only 60 working class mothers and babies from Glasgow, who
may form very different attachments with their infants when compared with wealthier
families from other countries. Therefore, we are unable to generalise the results of this
study to mothers and babies from other countries and backgrounds as their behaviour
might not be comparable
Caregiver infant interactions
There are aspects of attachment that can vary across babies. The two important
caregiver interactions are reciprocity and interactional synchrony
, 1. Reciprocity
➔ Seen in infant caregiver interactions, their reciprocal interactions involve
gestures and sounds instead of conversations. E.g. a baby giggling in
response to their caregiver moving a toy around is also reciprocal
➔ A caregiver interaction is reciprocal if they both take turns in the interaction
➔ The more reciprocity shown in infant caregiver interactions, the stronger
their attachment bond
➔ Brezelton et al describes this interaction as a ‘dance’ because when a couple
dances together they respond to one another's movements and rhythm.
Likewise, reciprocity as a caregiver infant interaction is where the interaction
between both individuals flows back and forth
➔ Feldman says from around 3 months old reciprocity increases in frequency
as the infant and caregiver pay increasing attention to each other's verbal
and facial communication. It is suggested that showing this sensitive
responsiveness, whereby the caregiver pays attention sensitivity towards
the infants behaviour, will lay the strong foundations for attachment to
develop later between the caregiver and infant
2. Interactional synchrony
➔ Babies and caregivers display interactional synchrony
➔ They often mimic each other to display the same or similar actions and their
actions will be timed so they are both moving in the same or similar pattern
in the same time (they are in sync)
➔ E.g. they display interactional synchrony when the baby claps their hands in
time with the caregiver clapping their hands to a song
➔ Interactional synchrony helps strengthen the bond between babies and
caregivers
Sensitive responsiveness
The adult caregiver correctly interprets the meaning of the infants communication and is
motivated to respond appropriately. E.g. they provide milk or change a nappy when the
baby shows distress
Caregiver infant interaction study support
Researchers have observed caregiver infant interactions by recording their interactions on
camera and observing the interactions frame by frame to see the fine details of
behaviour
