Attachment
10 January 2024 11:46
What is attachment?
An emotional tie or bond between two people, usually a primary caregiver and a child. The relationship is usually reciprocal,
which means it is a two way relationship that endures over time.
Attachments begin with the interactions between the infant and their care giver (responsiveness of caregiver is key).
Babies have meaningful interactions with their caregiver from the very start.
This is important for:
- Social development
- Development of a good quality of attachment (reciprocity and interactional synchrony)
Reciprocity
From birth, babies and their mothers spend a lot of time engaged in intense and pleasurable interactions.
Reciprocity is when each person responds to another and elicits a response from them.
- For example if a baby smiles the mother laughs in response.
- Motherese - also known as infant-directed speech or 'baby talk'
- Teaching 'turning taking'
Alert phases
Babies have a periodic alert phase.
- They signal that they are ready for interaction
- Mother picks up and respond to this around 2/3 of the time
- Is however also affected by external factors (if a mum is on her phone and doesn't realise the baby is trying to interact).
Feldman (2007) from around three months old reciprocity increases in frequency.
Active involvement
Traditionally (before) babies have been seen as passive recipients of care.
However, it seems that both babies and carers can take an active role.
Brazelton et al (1975) compared reciprocity to a dance, where the behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other
teaching the infant turn taking
Interactional synchrony
Two people are said to be synchronized when they carry out the same actions simultaneously.
'Temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour' (Feldman, 2007)
Caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
Research
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
Observed interactional synchrony as young as 2 weeks.
- Adults displayed 1/3 faces
- Babies were filmed and independently observed
- Expressions and gestures were significantly to mirror
Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies
Compared amount of interactional synchrony with quality of attachment
High levels of synchrony associated with better quality attachment
E.G high emotional intensity
New Section 2 Page 1
,Evaluation
STRENGTH
Filmed observations
Filmed in a laboratory
Great for many reasons:
- Other activities that might distract the baby can be controlled.
- Observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours.
- More than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations.
- Finally, babies don’t know they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation, which is
an advantage compared to other overt observation
- Therefore the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
WEAKNESS
Difficulties observing babies
It is hard to interpret baby's behaviour.
- Lack of coordination
- Immobile
- Observation are mainly hand movements or subtle changes in expression, hard to know what is going on/ what the meaning
is and what is going on from the baby's perspective.
- Therefore we can't be sure that the behaviours observed in caregiver infant interactions have any special meaning.
Developmental importance
Observing a behaviour does not tell us it's developmental importance.
Feldman - synchrony and reciprocity are just names given to patterns of behaviour
They clearly exist but are not particularly useful in understanding development because we don't know the purpose of the
behaviours.
Observational research alone can't tell us whether they are important for an infant's development.
COUNTERPOINT to this - ISABELLA from outline. He says the more you do this stuff the better the development.
New Section 2 Page 2
, Schaffer's stages of attachment
15 January 2024 10:52
Section 1: Schaffer and Emerson (1964):
They wanted to know how these attachments develop
They sought to investigate the development of early attachment particularly at an age in which they develop emotional intensity. ( a good
quality relationship)
Method and findings
Method:
- 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) aged between 5-23 weeks at the start of the investigation.
- The majority were from skilled working class families in Glasgow
- Babies and mothers were visited at home once a month for a year, then again at 18 months.
- Asked mothers about protest (e.g. screaming/ crying) in 7 separation situations. e.g. Mother leaving the room - separation anxiety. Stranger
anxiety.
Findings:
Attachment was about
quality of time, not
quantity.
Furthermore by 40
weeks, 80% of the
children had a specific
attachment and 30%
had started to form
multiple attachments.
Conclusion - the results provide some support for Schaffer's stages of attachment and suggest the attachment develops through a series of stages
across the first year of life.
Section 2: Schaffer's stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson proposed that attachment develops in 4 stages:
- Asocial stage (first few weeks)
- Indiscriminate attachment (2-6 months)
- Specific attachment (7-12 months)
- Multiple attachment (1+ years)
Asocial stage
Recognising and forming bonds; behave towards objects and humans similarly, some preferences for familiar adults; happier in the presence of
other humans.
Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months; more social behaviour; preference for people and recognise familiar people, accept comfort from any adult.
Specific attachment:
7 months - stranger and separation anxiety; specific attachment with primary caregiver.
Multiple attachment
Attachment behaviour is expanded to familiar adults. Formation of secondary attachments; by 1 year, most of the infants had formed secondary
attachments.
Evaluation:
STRENGTH
High external validity
- Most of the observations were made by parents during everyday activities and reported to the researchers.
- The alternative would have been to have researcher at present to record observations.
- This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally whilst being observed and that the results can be generalised to
everyday situations.
New Section 2 Page 3
10 January 2024 11:46
What is attachment?
An emotional tie or bond between two people, usually a primary caregiver and a child. The relationship is usually reciprocal,
which means it is a two way relationship that endures over time.
Attachments begin with the interactions between the infant and their care giver (responsiveness of caregiver is key).
Babies have meaningful interactions with their caregiver from the very start.
This is important for:
- Social development
- Development of a good quality of attachment (reciprocity and interactional synchrony)
Reciprocity
From birth, babies and their mothers spend a lot of time engaged in intense and pleasurable interactions.
Reciprocity is when each person responds to another and elicits a response from them.
- For example if a baby smiles the mother laughs in response.
- Motherese - also known as infant-directed speech or 'baby talk'
- Teaching 'turning taking'
Alert phases
Babies have a periodic alert phase.
- They signal that they are ready for interaction
- Mother picks up and respond to this around 2/3 of the time
- Is however also affected by external factors (if a mum is on her phone and doesn't realise the baby is trying to interact).
Feldman (2007) from around three months old reciprocity increases in frequency.
Active involvement
Traditionally (before) babies have been seen as passive recipients of care.
However, it seems that both babies and carers can take an active role.
Brazelton et al (1975) compared reciprocity to a dance, where the behaviour of each party elicits a response from the other
teaching the infant turn taking
Interactional synchrony
Two people are said to be synchronized when they carry out the same actions simultaneously.
'Temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour' (Feldman, 2007)
Caregiver and baby interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other
Research
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
Observed interactional synchrony as young as 2 weeks.
- Adults displayed 1/3 faces
- Babies were filmed and independently observed
- Expressions and gestures were significantly to mirror
Isabella et al (1989) observed 30 mothers and babies
Compared amount of interactional synchrony with quality of attachment
High levels of synchrony associated with better quality attachment
E.G high emotional intensity
New Section 2 Page 1
,Evaluation
STRENGTH
Filmed observations
Filmed in a laboratory
Great for many reasons:
- Other activities that might distract the baby can be controlled.
- Observations can be recorded and analysed later. Therefore it is unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours.
- More than one observer can record data and establish the inter-rater reliability of observations.
- Finally, babies don’t know they are being observed, so their behaviour does not change in response to observation, which is
an advantage compared to other overt observation
- Therefore the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
WEAKNESS
Difficulties observing babies
It is hard to interpret baby's behaviour.
- Lack of coordination
- Immobile
- Observation are mainly hand movements or subtle changes in expression, hard to know what is going on/ what the meaning
is and what is going on from the baby's perspective.
- Therefore we can't be sure that the behaviours observed in caregiver infant interactions have any special meaning.
Developmental importance
Observing a behaviour does not tell us it's developmental importance.
Feldman - synchrony and reciprocity are just names given to patterns of behaviour
They clearly exist but are not particularly useful in understanding development because we don't know the purpose of the
behaviours.
Observational research alone can't tell us whether they are important for an infant's development.
COUNTERPOINT to this - ISABELLA from outline. He says the more you do this stuff the better the development.
New Section 2 Page 2
, Schaffer's stages of attachment
15 January 2024 10:52
Section 1: Schaffer and Emerson (1964):
They wanted to know how these attachments develop
They sought to investigate the development of early attachment particularly at an age in which they develop emotional intensity. ( a good
quality relationship)
Method and findings
Method:
- 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) aged between 5-23 weeks at the start of the investigation.
- The majority were from skilled working class families in Glasgow
- Babies and mothers were visited at home once a month for a year, then again at 18 months.
- Asked mothers about protest (e.g. screaming/ crying) in 7 separation situations. e.g. Mother leaving the room - separation anxiety. Stranger
anxiety.
Findings:
Attachment was about
quality of time, not
quantity.
Furthermore by 40
weeks, 80% of the
children had a specific
attachment and 30%
had started to form
multiple attachments.
Conclusion - the results provide some support for Schaffer's stages of attachment and suggest the attachment develops through a series of stages
across the first year of life.
Section 2: Schaffer's stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson proposed that attachment develops in 4 stages:
- Asocial stage (first few weeks)
- Indiscriminate attachment (2-6 months)
- Specific attachment (7-12 months)
- Multiple attachment (1+ years)
Asocial stage
Recognising and forming bonds; behave towards objects and humans similarly, some preferences for familiar adults; happier in the presence of
other humans.
Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months; more social behaviour; preference for people and recognise familiar people, accept comfort from any adult.
Specific attachment:
7 months - stranger and separation anxiety; specific attachment with primary caregiver.
Multiple attachment
Attachment behaviour is expanded to familiar adults. Formation of secondary attachments; by 1 year, most of the infants had formed secondary
attachments.
Evaluation:
STRENGTH
High external validity
- Most of the observations were made by parents during everyday activities and reported to the researchers.
- The alternative would have been to have researcher at present to record observations.
- This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally whilst being observed and that the results can be generalised to
everyday situations.
New Section 2 Page 3
