Paper 1: All description
Attachment revision notes CP = counter
Caregiver-infant interactions
Description:
1. Quality of interactions with caregivers affects development of attachments. Two kinds
of interaction: reciprocity (taking turns to respond) and interactional synchrony
(simultaneous imitation).
2. Reciprocity = responding to elicit responses from each other e.g. responding to a
baby’s smile by saying something, and baby responds by making sounds of pleasure.
Mothers successfully respond around 2/3 of the time. After three months interaction
becomes more intense and reciprocal.
3. Traditionally babies thought to have a passive role receiving care from the adult.
Now, babies seen as active participants. Both people can initiate interactions and take
turns to do so.
4. Interactional synchrony (IS). Same actions carried out simultaneously, e.g. caregiver
and baby mirror each other’s behaviour.
5. Beginning of IS, Meltzoff and Moore observed IS in two weeks old + babies. Adults
did one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures. Babies response filmed.
Babies’ expressions and gestures more likely to mirror adults.
6. Importance for attachment. Isabella observed 30 mothers and babies together and
assessed degree of synchrony. Also assessed quality of attachment. Findings = High
levels of synchrony associated with high quality attachment (e.g. emotional intensity
of relationship).
Schaffer’s stages of attachment
Description:
1. 1 – Asocial stage (first few weeks) babies behaviour similar towards people and
inanimate objects. Some preferences for familiar people (more easily calmed by
them). Happier in the presence of other people.
2. 2 – Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months) babies display more observable social
behaviour, with a preference for people over inanimate objects. Recognises and prefer
familiar people. Don’t show separation or stranger anxiety. Attachment
indiscriminate = same towards all.
3. 3 – Specific attachment (from around 7 months) shows stranger or separation anxiety
when separated from one particular person. Baby has a primary attachment figure, in
most cases with the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s
‘signals’ with the most skill (65% of cases = mother).
4. 4 – Multiple attachments (by one year). Secondary attachments form shortly after.
Schaffer and Emerson’s study – 29% of babies had multiple secondary within a
month after primary. By one year majority of infants had multiple secondary
attachments.
5. Schaffer and Emerson’s procedure – 60 babies from Glasgow, most from working
class families. Researchers visited homes every month for a year and again at 18
, months. Separation and stranger anxiety measured by asking mothers questions and
children’s behaviour during certain situations.
6. Found that babies developed attachments through a sequence of stages and their
specific attachment tended to be to the person who was most interactive and sensitive
to babies’ signals and facial expressions (i.e. reciprocity), not necessarily the person
the baby spent the most time with.
Role of the father
Description
1. Primary attachment usually with mothers (attachment formed at around 7 months).
3% of cases father was primary attachment figure, 27% both.
2. 75% eventually form secondary attachments with father (by around 18 months). This
was indicated by the fact that babies protested when their father walked away, a sign
of attachment.
3. Grossmann – longitudinal study looked at parents’ behaviour and its relationship to
the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Found quality of attachment
with father = less important for adolescent attachment.
4. However, quality of fathers’ play with babies related to quality of adolescent
attachments. Suggest fathers have a different role (more to do with play and
stimulation, less to do with emotional care).
5. Fathers can be primary attachment figures. When fathers take on role, they adopt
typical mother/primary caregiver behaviour. Field – filmed 4-month-old babies, found
primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating, and
holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers. Isabella - these behaviours related to
interactional synchrony and formation of an emotional attachment.
6. Level of response is important. Smiling, imitating, and holding babies (interactional
synchrony) = important behaviours in building a primary (emotional) attachment with
baby. Fathers can be ‘emotional’ attachment figure. Key to attachment is
responsiveness, not gender.
Animal studies of attachment
Description:
1. Lorenz, imprinting – large clutch of goose eggs split into two groups, one hatched in
their natural environment and one hatched in an incubator where the first moving
object they saw was Lorenz. All goslings mixed together to see whom they would
follow. Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour.
2. Incubator group followed Lorenz; control group followed their mother. Critical period
identified where imprinting needs to take place, e.g. a few hours after hatching. If
imprinting didn’t occur in that time, chicks did not attach to mother figure.
3. Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable
characteristics required in a mate.
4. Harlow, importance of contact comfort. 16 rhesus monkeys reared with two wire
model ‘mothers’. Condition 1 – milk dispensed by plain-wire ‘mother’, condition 2 –
milk dispensed from cloth-covered ‘mother’. Monkey’s preferences measured.
, 5. To measure attachment-like behaviour, Harlow looked at reactions of monkeys in
frightening situations. E.g. Harlow added a noisy mechanical teddy bear to the
environment. Monkeys continued to be studied into adulthood.
6. Baby monkeys preferred cloth-covered mother in all conditions regardless of which
dispensed milk suggesting contact comfort more important than food when it came to
attachment behaviour. As adults, monkeys deprived of their real mother suffered
severe consequences – more aggressive, less socialable and less skilled in mating.
Explanations of attachment: Learning theory
All research from Dollard and Miller
1. Importance of food – sometimes called ‘cupboard love’ as it emphasises importance
of food in attachment formation. Children learn to love whoever feeds them.
2. Role of classical conditioning – in attachment: UCS (food) > UCR (pleasure). This
response not learned so it is an unconditioned response (unlearned)
3. Baby learns that mother produces a sense of pleasure. A caregiver starts NS, caregiver
provides food over time, they become associated with food. NS = CS. After
conditioning: sight of caregiver produces CR of pleasure. According to learning
theorist, conditioned pleasure response is the basis of love. Now attachment has
formed, and caregiver becomes an attachment figure.
4. Operant conditioning – explains why babies cry for comfort. Babies crying leads to
response from caregiver (e.g. feeding). As long as the caregiver provides the correct
response, crying is reinforced as it produces a pleasurable consequence.
5. Negative reinforcement – when the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver
receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops (negative reinforcement =
escaping from something unpleasant, which is reinforcing). The interplay of
positive/negative reinforcement strengthens an attachment.
6. Drive reduction. Hunger = primary drive (an innate biological motivator) we are
motivated to eat to reduce hunger drive. Attachment = secondary drive learned by
association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive. Sears – as caregiver
provides food, primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them.
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory
All research from Bowlby and his monotropic theory
1. Attachment is innate, like imprinting (evolutionary explanations), attachment gives a
survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment evolved because they ensure young
animals stay close to their caregivers which protects them from hazards.
2. Monotropic = having a primary attachment figure. This attachment is different from
others and more important.
3. Bowlby believes the more time a baby spent with primary attachment figure, the
better for two reasons: 1 – law of continuity – the more constant a child’s care, the
better the quality of attachment, 2 – law of accumulated separation – the effects of
every separation add up, so, ‘the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’.
4. Babies are born with social releasers, a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours (e.g. smiling,
cooing, gripping) that encourage attention from adults. The purpose of these is to
Attachment revision notes CP = counter
Caregiver-infant interactions
Description:
1. Quality of interactions with caregivers affects development of attachments. Two kinds
of interaction: reciprocity (taking turns to respond) and interactional synchrony
(simultaneous imitation).
2. Reciprocity = responding to elicit responses from each other e.g. responding to a
baby’s smile by saying something, and baby responds by making sounds of pleasure.
Mothers successfully respond around 2/3 of the time. After three months interaction
becomes more intense and reciprocal.
3. Traditionally babies thought to have a passive role receiving care from the adult.
Now, babies seen as active participants. Both people can initiate interactions and take
turns to do so.
4. Interactional synchrony (IS). Same actions carried out simultaneously, e.g. caregiver
and baby mirror each other’s behaviour.
5. Beginning of IS, Meltzoff and Moore observed IS in two weeks old + babies. Adults
did one of three facial expressions or one of three gestures. Babies response filmed.
Babies’ expressions and gestures more likely to mirror adults.
6. Importance for attachment. Isabella observed 30 mothers and babies together and
assessed degree of synchrony. Also assessed quality of attachment. Findings = High
levels of synchrony associated with high quality attachment (e.g. emotional intensity
of relationship).
Schaffer’s stages of attachment
Description:
1. 1 – Asocial stage (first few weeks) babies behaviour similar towards people and
inanimate objects. Some preferences for familiar people (more easily calmed by
them). Happier in the presence of other people.
2. 2 – Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months) babies display more observable social
behaviour, with a preference for people over inanimate objects. Recognises and prefer
familiar people. Don’t show separation or stranger anxiety. Attachment
indiscriminate = same towards all.
3. 3 – Specific attachment (from around 7 months) shows stranger or separation anxiety
when separated from one particular person. Baby has a primary attachment figure, in
most cases with the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s
‘signals’ with the most skill (65% of cases = mother).
4. 4 – Multiple attachments (by one year). Secondary attachments form shortly after.
Schaffer and Emerson’s study – 29% of babies had multiple secondary within a
month after primary. By one year majority of infants had multiple secondary
attachments.
5. Schaffer and Emerson’s procedure – 60 babies from Glasgow, most from working
class families. Researchers visited homes every month for a year and again at 18
, months. Separation and stranger anxiety measured by asking mothers questions and
children’s behaviour during certain situations.
6. Found that babies developed attachments through a sequence of stages and their
specific attachment tended to be to the person who was most interactive and sensitive
to babies’ signals and facial expressions (i.e. reciprocity), not necessarily the person
the baby spent the most time with.
Role of the father
Description
1. Primary attachment usually with mothers (attachment formed at around 7 months).
3% of cases father was primary attachment figure, 27% both.
2. 75% eventually form secondary attachments with father (by around 18 months). This
was indicated by the fact that babies protested when their father walked away, a sign
of attachment.
3. Grossmann – longitudinal study looked at parents’ behaviour and its relationship to
the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Found quality of attachment
with father = less important for adolescent attachment.
4. However, quality of fathers’ play with babies related to quality of adolescent
attachments. Suggest fathers have a different role (more to do with play and
stimulation, less to do with emotional care).
5. Fathers can be primary attachment figures. When fathers take on role, they adopt
typical mother/primary caregiver behaviour. Field – filmed 4-month-old babies, found
primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating, and
holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers. Isabella - these behaviours related to
interactional synchrony and formation of an emotional attachment.
6. Level of response is important. Smiling, imitating, and holding babies (interactional
synchrony) = important behaviours in building a primary (emotional) attachment with
baby. Fathers can be ‘emotional’ attachment figure. Key to attachment is
responsiveness, not gender.
Animal studies of attachment
Description:
1. Lorenz, imprinting – large clutch of goose eggs split into two groups, one hatched in
their natural environment and one hatched in an incubator where the first moving
object they saw was Lorenz. All goslings mixed together to see whom they would
follow. Lorenz also observed birds and their later courtship behaviour.
2. Incubator group followed Lorenz; control group followed their mother. Critical period
identified where imprinting needs to take place, e.g. a few hours after hatching. If
imprinting didn’t occur in that time, chicks did not attach to mother figure.
3. Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds acquire a template of the desirable
characteristics required in a mate.
4. Harlow, importance of contact comfort. 16 rhesus monkeys reared with two wire
model ‘mothers’. Condition 1 – milk dispensed by plain-wire ‘mother’, condition 2 –
milk dispensed from cloth-covered ‘mother’. Monkey’s preferences measured.
, 5. To measure attachment-like behaviour, Harlow looked at reactions of monkeys in
frightening situations. E.g. Harlow added a noisy mechanical teddy bear to the
environment. Monkeys continued to be studied into adulthood.
6. Baby monkeys preferred cloth-covered mother in all conditions regardless of which
dispensed milk suggesting contact comfort more important than food when it came to
attachment behaviour. As adults, monkeys deprived of their real mother suffered
severe consequences – more aggressive, less socialable and less skilled in mating.
Explanations of attachment: Learning theory
All research from Dollard and Miller
1. Importance of food – sometimes called ‘cupboard love’ as it emphasises importance
of food in attachment formation. Children learn to love whoever feeds them.
2. Role of classical conditioning – in attachment: UCS (food) > UCR (pleasure). This
response not learned so it is an unconditioned response (unlearned)
3. Baby learns that mother produces a sense of pleasure. A caregiver starts NS, caregiver
provides food over time, they become associated with food. NS = CS. After
conditioning: sight of caregiver produces CR of pleasure. According to learning
theorist, conditioned pleasure response is the basis of love. Now attachment has
formed, and caregiver becomes an attachment figure.
4. Operant conditioning – explains why babies cry for comfort. Babies crying leads to
response from caregiver (e.g. feeding). As long as the caregiver provides the correct
response, crying is reinforced as it produces a pleasurable consequence.
5. Negative reinforcement – when the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver
receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops (negative reinforcement =
escaping from something unpleasant, which is reinforcing). The interplay of
positive/negative reinforcement strengthens an attachment.
6. Drive reduction. Hunger = primary drive (an innate biological motivator) we are
motivated to eat to reduce hunger drive. Attachment = secondary drive learned by
association between caregiver and satisfaction of primary drive. Sears – as caregiver
provides food, primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them.
Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory
All research from Bowlby and his monotropic theory
1. Attachment is innate, like imprinting (evolutionary explanations), attachment gives a
survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment evolved because they ensure young
animals stay close to their caregivers which protects them from hazards.
2. Monotropic = having a primary attachment figure. This attachment is different from
others and more important.
3. Bowlby believes the more time a baby spent with primary attachment figure, the
better for two reasons: 1 – law of continuity – the more constant a child’s care, the
better the quality of attachment, 2 – law of accumulated separation – the effects of
every separation add up, so, ‘the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’.
4. Babies are born with social releasers, a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours (e.g. smiling,
cooing, gripping) that encourage attention from adults. The purpose of these is to
