Summary Attachment Psychology notes AQA

ATTACHMENT

CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS

Attachment: a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals
where they see the other as essential for their own emotional security. It
endures over time + serves to protect the infant

Attachment is recognised through:
 Proximity: people try to stay physically close to those they’re
attached with
 Separation distress: people are distressed when an attachment
figure leaves them
 Secure-base behaviour: tend to make regular contact with
attachment figure

Caregiver: any person who provides for a child

Caregiver-infant interactions: communication between caregiver +
infant- have important functions for child’s social development + form
basis of attachment

RECIPROCITY

 Infants + caregivers spend a lot of time interacting from birth.
 Infants have alert phases + signal they’re ready for interaction
 Both caregivers + infants initiate interactions + take turns doing so
 Brazelton et al. (1975): described reciprocity ‘like a dance’ as
each person responds to the other’s moves
 Reciprocity is a two-way mutual process- each party responds to the
other’s signals to sustain the interaction (turn-taking)

INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY

 When a caregiver + infant reflect the actions + emotions of the
other in a coordinated way
 Mirror each other in terms of facial + body movements
 Meltzoff + Moore (1977): first systematic study of interactional
synchrony- found infants imitated specific gestures from an adult
model
 Isabella et al. (1989): observed 30 mothers + babies together +
assessed degree of synchrony between them
o Assessed quality of mother-baby attachment
o Found that high levels of synchrony was associated w better
quality of attachment
o Interactional synchrony is an important part of healthy
developing relationship

Evaluation

,STRENGTH
Well-controlled procedures
 Observations of mother-infant interactions use generally well-
controlled procedures
 Ensures that details of behaviour can be recorded + later analysed
+ checked for inter-observer reliability
 Babies don’t know or care that they are being observed
 Their behaviour doesn’t change in response to controlled
observations
 Shows the research has good validity

LIMITATION
Hard to know what is happening when observing infants
 Behaviour observed is merely hand movements or changes of
expression
 Infant’s intentions are being assumed on part of observer
 Difficult to know whether behaviour is conscious
 Synchrony + reciprocity used to describe behaviours, not the
purpose
 We don’t really understand the behaviours seen in interactions +
whether they have a special meaning

COUNTERPOINT
 Evidence from other research to suggest early interactions are
important
 Isabella et al. (1989): found achievement of interactional
synchrony predicted development of good quality attachment
 Interaction is probably important in development

STRENGTH
Potential value to society
 Idea of encouraging formation of high quality attachments could
have practical applications
 Crotwell et al. (2013): found a 10 minute parent interaction
therapy improved interactional synchrony in 20 low-income mothers
+ infants compared to control group
 Could lead to valuable methods of improving attachments

LIMITATION
Socially sensitive
 Research into mother-infant interactions suggest children may be
disadvantaged by particular child-rearing practices
 Mothers who return to work too early risk poor interactional
synchrony
 Comes with idea that mothers should not return to work too early +
has socially sensitive implications

,THE ROLE OF THE FATHER

 Infants turn to mothers to seek comfort + nurturing
 They turn to fathers for play
 Fathers excite children, encouraging them to take risks while
keeping them safe
 Provides them with a secure environment to learn to be brave
 Fathers tend to be a secondary attachment figure

 Most men may not be psychologically equipped to form an intense
attachment as they lack emotional sensitivity
 Oestrogen underlies caring behaviour in women- more orientated
towards interpersonal goals
 Cultural expectations- sex stereotypes that affect male behaviour

MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS

Primary attachment: the person who responds most sensitively towards
the infant
Secondary attachment: the people the infant spends time with

The father as a primary attachment figure

 Schaffer + Emerson: babies usually become attached to their
mothers first + then form secondary attachments to other family
members
 In only 3% cases the father only primary attachment figure
 In 27% cases the father was joint primary attachment figure w
mother
 Fathers can therefore be a primary attachment figure

The father as a secondary attachment figure

 In 75% of infant studied, attachment formed w father by age of 18
months
 Shown by separation protest when father walked away
 Fathers therefore tend to be secondary attachment figure

The purpose of the role of the father

 Grossman (2002):
 Longitudinal study on parent’s behaviour + relationship to quality of
children’s attachment into their teens
 Found quality of infant attachment to mothers but not fathers was
related to children’s attachment in adolescence
 Suggests father attachments are less important in long term
emotional development
 Quality of father’s play + physical interaction with infants also
related to quality of adolescent attachments

,  Suggests fathers are important secondary attachment figures who
have different role to mothers

CULTURAL FACTORS

 In western society it’s the role of the mother to be primary caregiver
+ father to be breadwinner
 Stereotypical view doesn’t reflect reality- father’s involved in factors
like play + guidance
 Office of National Statistics: in 2013 5.3 mil British mothers were in
employment- males compromised 10% of those who care for
children while partner works

ECONOMIC FACTORS

 Much of increase in men’s domestic violence has been a result of
shifting labour force patterns that include increase in female labour
force
 Increase in opportunities that allow both mothers + fathers to be
active as parents
 Might facilitate an attachment to be formed between father + infant

SOCIAL POLICIES

 From 2014 in the UK fathers entitled to paternal leave
 May change the attachment children make w their fathers
 Not the case in every country so pattern of attachment between
fathers + children might be culturally different

BIOLOGICAL FACTORS

 Some argue males are biologically unsuitable to raise children
 Men lack emotional sensitivity to infant cues that women offer
 However, Frodi et al. (1978) found men’s physiological response
was the same as women’s


Evaluation

STRENGTH
Supporting evidence
 Evidence to support distinctive role of fathers in attachment
 Geiger (1996): showed that fathers’ play interactions are more
exciting + pleasurable than mothers’
 Mothers are more nurturing + affectionate
 Supports idea of fathers being playmates rather than caregivers

COUNTERPOINT