ATTACHMENT:
ATTACHMENT can be defined as:A close two way emotional bond
between individuals in which each individual sees the other as
essential for their own emotional security.
In humans, it takes a few months to develop and can be recognised by the
following behaviours:
● Proximity:people try to stay physically close to whom they are
attached
● Separation distress:people are distressed when their attachment
figure leaves
● Secure based behaviours:people will tend to make regular contact
with their attachment figure even when they are independent
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS:
Babies soon gain meaningful social interactions with their carers and it is
believed these interactions have important functions for a child's social
development,in particular the CAREGIVER-INFANT ATTACHMENT:
RECIPROCITY:
,DEFINITION:A description of how two people interact. Mother Infant
interaction is reciprocal because both the infant and mother respond
to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Mothers and babies spend lots of time interacting together. Babies have
alert phases that signal they are ready for interaction and mothers tend to
pick up on these phases ⅔ of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007).
From three months, this interaction is increasingly frequent and involves
close attention. A key element of the interaction is reciprocity. Traditional
views were that infants had a passive role, only receiving care from their
parents, however modern research shows that babies have an active role
as both mother and child can initiate interactions. BRAZLETON et al (2007)
described this interaction as a dance because each partner,in this case
mother and child, respond to each other's moves.
INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY:
DEFINITION:’The temporary coordination of micro level social
behaviour’(Feldman 2007)-Mother and infant reflect both the actions
and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way.
RESEARCH SUPPORT:MELTZOFF AND MOORE (1977):
They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as
young as two weeks old. An adult would display 1 of 3 facial expressions or
1 of 3 gestures. The child's response was then filmed and identified by
independent observers. The result was that there was a link between the
behaviour of the adults and the actions of the babies.
Interactional synchrony is believed to be important for the development of
mother infant attachments. ISABELLA ET AL (1989) observed 30 mothers
and assessed the degree of synchrony. The results found that those with
higher levels of synchrony had better quality mother infant attachment.
ATTACHMENT FIGURES:
One important area of attachment research concerns who infants become
attached to.
Parent Infant Attachment:
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that the majority of babies attach to their
mother first(around 7 months) and form secondary attachments to other
, family members weeks or months later. They found that 75% of infants
studied formed an attachment to their father within 18 months. This was
determined by how the babies reacted when their fathers walked away.
The Role of the Father:
Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents
behaviours and its relationship to the quality of attachment in teenage
years. He found that the quality of mothers attachment was important to
adolescence but not fathers,suggesting the fathers role was less important.
However, the quality of the fathers play with infants was important
suggesting their role in attachment is important in terms of play and
stimulation rather than nurturing.
Fathers as Primary Carers:
TIFFANY FIELD (1978) found some evidence to suggest that when fathers
are the primary caregivers they adopt behaviour associated with mothers.
She studied 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary
caregiver mothers and fathers and secondary caregiver fathers.Primary
caregiver fathers tended to smile and behave more like primary caregiver
mothers and this seems behaviour seems to be important when building
attachments. It seems the level of responsiveness not the gender of the
parent that is the key to the attachment relationship.
EVALUATION:
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS:
● Many studies involve observations of interactions between
mother and child that show the same patterns of interaction.
However, it is hard to tell if these interactions may simply be a
sudden hand movement or change of expression. It is
impossible to know the perspective of the infant and whether
their behaviour actually has any special meaning
● Mother infant studies often take place in controlled
environments which ensures that fine details about behaviour
can be recorded. As the babies do not know that they are being
studied their behavioural responses will not change,which
means the studies have good validity.
ATTACHMENT can be defined as:A close two way emotional bond
between individuals in which each individual sees the other as
essential for their own emotional security.
In humans, it takes a few months to develop and can be recognised by the
following behaviours:
● Proximity:people try to stay physically close to whom they are
attached
● Separation distress:people are distressed when their attachment
figure leaves
● Secure based behaviours:people will tend to make regular contact
with their attachment figure even when they are independent
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS:
Babies soon gain meaningful social interactions with their carers and it is
believed these interactions have important functions for a child's social
development,in particular the CAREGIVER-INFANT ATTACHMENT:
RECIPROCITY:
,DEFINITION:A description of how two people interact. Mother Infant
interaction is reciprocal because both the infant and mother respond
to each other's signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Mothers and babies spend lots of time interacting together. Babies have
alert phases that signal they are ready for interaction and mothers tend to
pick up on these phases ⅔ of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007).
From three months, this interaction is increasingly frequent and involves
close attention. A key element of the interaction is reciprocity. Traditional
views were that infants had a passive role, only receiving care from their
parents, however modern research shows that babies have an active role
as both mother and child can initiate interactions. BRAZLETON et al (2007)
described this interaction as a dance because each partner,in this case
mother and child, respond to each other's moves.
INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY:
DEFINITION:’The temporary coordination of micro level social
behaviour’(Feldman 2007)-Mother and infant reflect both the actions
and emotions of the other and do this in a coordinated way.
RESEARCH SUPPORT:MELTZOFF AND MOORE (1977):
They observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as
young as two weeks old. An adult would display 1 of 3 facial expressions or
1 of 3 gestures. The child's response was then filmed and identified by
independent observers. The result was that there was a link between the
behaviour of the adults and the actions of the babies.
Interactional synchrony is believed to be important for the development of
mother infant attachments. ISABELLA ET AL (1989) observed 30 mothers
and assessed the degree of synchrony. The results found that those with
higher levels of synchrony had better quality mother infant attachment.
ATTACHMENT FIGURES:
One important area of attachment research concerns who infants become
attached to.
Parent Infant Attachment:
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that the majority of babies attach to their
mother first(around 7 months) and form secondary attachments to other
, family members weeks or months later. They found that 75% of infants
studied formed an attachment to their father within 18 months. This was
determined by how the babies reacted when their fathers walked away.
The Role of the Father:
Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents
behaviours and its relationship to the quality of attachment in teenage
years. He found that the quality of mothers attachment was important to
adolescence but not fathers,suggesting the fathers role was less important.
However, the quality of the fathers play with infants was important
suggesting their role in attachment is important in terms of play and
stimulation rather than nurturing.
Fathers as Primary Carers:
TIFFANY FIELD (1978) found some evidence to suggest that when fathers
are the primary caregivers they adopt behaviour associated with mothers.
She studied 4 month old babies in face to face interactions with primary
caregiver mothers and fathers and secondary caregiver fathers.Primary
caregiver fathers tended to smile and behave more like primary caregiver
mothers and this seems behaviour seems to be important when building
attachments. It seems the level of responsiveness not the gender of the
parent that is the key to the attachment relationship.
EVALUATION:
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS:
● Many studies involve observations of interactions between
mother and child that show the same patterns of interaction.
However, it is hard to tell if these interactions may simply be a
sudden hand movement or change of expression. It is
impossible to know the perspective of the infant and whether
their behaviour actually has any special meaning
● Mother infant studies often take place in controlled
environments which ensures that fine details about behaviour
can be recorded. As the babies do not know that they are being
studied their behavioural responses will not change,which
means the studies have good validity.
