Attachment
• Attachment: a long lasting, two-way, emotional bond between two people.
• Primary attachment: the quality has a consequence in later adulthood.
Caregiver-infant interactions in humans
• Attachment bonds: necessary with adults who will protect and nurture them. Developed by
reciprocal process. An emotional connection develops. Influences the child’s physical, neurolog
cognitive, psychological development. It shapes how the child will relate to the world, learn an
form relationships throughout life.
Reciprocity
• Reciprocity: interactions between two people where they produce responses from each other
turn-taking.
• Examples: caregiver reacts and responds to the baby, smiling back, giving a cuddle when the
cry.
• Negative reciprocal: can occur, ignore the signals and don’t respond to the baby.
Interactional synchrony
Interactional synchrony: social communication where behaviours are synchronised. Thy reflec
the actions and emotions of each other.
Examples: smiling at the same time, mirroring each others facial expressions.
,Stages of attachment
• Pre-attachment phase (0-3 months): prefer humans to objects, smile at people’s faces.
• Indiscriminate attachment phase (3-7/8 months): discriminate between familiar and
unfamiliar attachments, still allow strangers to handle them.
• Discriminate attachment phase (7/8 months+): develop specific attachments, show
separation anxiety, avoid unfamiliar people.
• Multiple attachment phase (9 months+): form strong emotional ties with major caregiv
fear of strangers weaken but attachment to mother remains the strongest.
Multiple attachments
• Multiple attachments: children form multiple attachments which is important for differe
future attachments.
The role of the father
• Relationship between father and children: is impacted by several factors (degree of
sensitivity, type of attachment with own parents, relationship intimacy, supportive co-
parenting)
• Degree sensitivity: more sensitive the father, better quality of attachment.
• Type of attachment with own parents: replicate attachment to the child.
, • Relationship intimacy: the closer emotionally the parents are, the better the quality of attachm
• Supportive co-parenting: if parents work as a team, it has a more positive effect on the child.
Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and
Harlow
• Lorenz (1935): studied imprinting in geese. Goslings imprint on the first thing they see once
hatched. Its an important survival mechanism.
• Procedure: took the batch of eggs and split them into the control group- saw the mother first, a
the experimental group- saw him first. He observed the results.
• Findings: goslings followed him (experimental group), control group acted as predicted. He mixe
the two groups, they separated to their ‘mothers’. The goslings imprinted on him, it was a natura
process.
• Critical period: 32 hours. After 32 hours, they are very unlikely to imprint. Most probable time fo
imprinting was 13-16 hours.
• Evaluation: field experiment- high ecological validity, the concept of a critical period has validity
see that in humans. We cant extrapolate to humans, they are too complex.
• Harlow (1959): carried out experiments using monkeys.
• Procedure: separated monkeys from their mothers soon after birth and reared them in a cage w
two ‘wire mothers’. One mother had a feeding bottle, the other was wrapped in a soft cloth.
• Findings: spent the vast majority of the time clinging to the cloth monkey, only went to the bott
when hungry.
• Attachment: a long lasting, two-way, emotional bond between two people.
• Primary attachment: the quality has a consequence in later adulthood.
Caregiver-infant interactions in humans
• Attachment bonds: necessary with adults who will protect and nurture them. Developed by
reciprocal process. An emotional connection develops. Influences the child’s physical, neurolog
cognitive, psychological development. It shapes how the child will relate to the world, learn an
form relationships throughout life.
Reciprocity
• Reciprocity: interactions between two people where they produce responses from each other
turn-taking.
• Examples: caregiver reacts and responds to the baby, smiling back, giving a cuddle when the
cry.
• Negative reciprocal: can occur, ignore the signals and don’t respond to the baby.
Interactional synchrony
Interactional synchrony: social communication where behaviours are synchronised. Thy reflec
the actions and emotions of each other.
Examples: smiling at the same time, mirroring each others facial expressions.
,Stages of attachment
• Pre-attachment phase (0-3 months): prefer humans to objects, smile at people’s faces.
• Indiscriminate attachment phase (3-7/8 months): discriminate between familiar and
unfamiliar attachments, still allow strangers to handle them.
• Discriminate attachment phase (7/8 months+): develop specific attachments, show
separation anxiety, avoid unfamiliar people.
• Multiple attachment phase (9 months+): form strong emotional ties with major caregiv
fear of strangers weaken but attachment to mother remains the strongest.
Multiple attachments
• Multiple attachments: children form multiple attachments which is important for differe
future attachments.
The role of the father
• Relationship between father and children: is impacted by several factors (degree of
sensitivity, type of attachment with own parents, relationship intimacy, supportive co-
parenting)
• Degree sensitivity: more sensitive the father, better quality of attachment.
• Type of attachment with own parents: replicate attachment to the child.
, • Relationship intimacy: the closer emotionally the parents are, the better the quality of attachm
• Supportive co-parenting: if parents work as a team, it has a more positive effect on the child.
Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and
Harlow
• Lorenz (1935): studied imprinting in geese. Goslings imprint on the first thing they see once
hatched. Its an important survival mechanism.
• Procedure: took the batch of eggs and split them into the control group- saw the mother first, a
the experimental group- saw him first. He observed the results.
• Findings: goslings followed him (experimental group), control group acted as predicted. He mixe
the two groups, they separated to their ‘mothers’. The goslings imprinted on him, it was a natura
process.
• Critical period: 32 hours. After 32 hours, they are very unlikely to imprint. Most probable time fo
imprinting was 13-16 hours.
• Evaluation: field experiment- high ecological validity, the concept of a critical period has validity
see that in humans. We cant extrapolate to humans, they are too complex.
• Harlow (1959): carried out experiments using monkeys.
• Procedure: separated monkeys from their mothers soon after birth and reared them in a cage w
two ‘wire mothers’. One mother had a feeding bottle, the other was wrapped in a soft cloth.
• Findings: spent the vast majority of the time clinging to the cloth monkey, only went to the bott
when hungry.
