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Attachment
Topics:
● Caregiver-infant Interactions
● Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment
● The role of the Father
● Animal Studies of Attachment
● Explanations of Attachment
● Types of Attachment
● Cultural Variations in Attachment
● Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment
● Romanian Orphan Studies
● Influence of Early Attachment on Later Relationships
Caregiver-infant Interactions
An attachment is a two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each
individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security. Attachment in
humans takes a few months to develop. Attachment can be recognised when they
display – proximity seeking behaviours, separation distress and secure base
behaviour.
RECIPROCITY INTERACTIONAL SY NCHRONY
Recipr ocity → Taking turns in an interaction. In ter action al syn chr on y → The temporal
● Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal coordination of micro-level social behaviours,
in that both caregiver and baby respond whereby the baby and caregiver carry out the
to each other’s signals and each elicits a same activities simultaneously. Often, the baby
response from the other. mirrors the expressions and gestures of the adult.
● Each person in the interaction elicits a ● Caregiver and baby reflect both the
response from the other person in order actions and emotions of the other in a
to sustain the interaction. synchronised way.
● Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed this
Aler t ph ase → the baby gives a signal that they in two week old babies! The adults gave
are ready for an interaction (for example, cry or a happy, sad or still expression and the
babble, make eye contact – these are called social babies mimicked the adults.
releasers)
● Feldman and Eidelman (2007) found Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and
that mothers typically picked up on babies together and assessed the degree of
alertness during the ‘alert phase’ of synchrony/how much they mirrored each
, interactions ⅔ of the time, although this other’s behaviour. The researchers also
skill varies according to the mother. assessed the quality of mother-baby
attachment They found that high levels of
Active ph ase → Babies and caregivers take turns synchrony were associated with better quality
in initiating interactions. mother-baby attachment
Fr om th r ee m onths → becomes increasingly Interactional synchrony is very important for
frequent and involves both mother and baby the development of attachment
paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals
and facial expressions.
Brazleton et al. (1975) describes reciprocity as a
‘dance’ because it is like a dance between two
people where each partner elicits a response to
the other person’s moves.
One feature of caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocity where the baby and
caregiver take turns in their interaction. Each person in the interaction elicits a
response from the other person in order to sustain the interaction. For example,
‘Tasneem smiles, Aisha smiles back’ shows the reciprocity between the two in their
interactions as Tasneem smiles and Aisha sends a signal – or social releaser – back to
the caregiver to continue the interaction between the two.
Another example is interactional synchrony which is the temporal coordination of
micro-level social behaviours. This is seen when ‘Tasneem moves her head, Aisha
moves hers’ as the baby mirrors the expressions and gestures of the adult to help
develop an attachment.
4 marks!!!!! :D
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
Procedure Researchers wanted to investigate whether or not an imitation of a caregiver was innate
or learned. To do this, they used a sample of babies and put them in a controlled
observation. An adult model would display ⅓ different facial expressions and the
babies’ responses were recorded and then analysed.
Findings It was found that the babies would imitate the adults.
This finding was discovered again in a replication of the study which used babies only
three days old.
Conclusion babies have evolved to have interactional synchrony to help develop attachments.
Evaluations
+ One strength of the research conducted into caregiver-infant interactions is
that it uses a controlled observation due to it being set in a lab environment.
Both the mother and the child are observed continuously from multiple angles
using cameras or several observers in a highly controlled setting which means
, it can be watched at a later date. Additionally, it allows researchers to control
extraneous variables such as the baby getting distracted by other stimuli. This
means that the researcher can establish inter-rater reliability of observations
as they are unlikely to miss any important behaviours. Therefore, this is a
strength because the data collected should have good reliability and internal
validity as the behaviours observed are an accurate reflection of caregiver-
infant interactions.
- However, it is difficult to be certain that the conclusions drawn are accurate.
For example, young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are
almost immobile. The movements being observed are just small hand
movements or subtle changes in expression. . The data relies solely on the
researcher making inferences about behaviour which could be inaccurate or
influenced by researcher bias. This is a limitation as it makes it difficult to
understand how significant each of the behaviours are in contributing towards
the caregiver-infant interaction and whether they do have a special meaning.
This therefore significantly reduces the internal validity of the research into
the caregiver-infant interaction.
+ Although it is difficult to draw conclusions accurately, it has been shown to
have practical applications in the real world. For example, Crotwell et al
(2013) found that a 10 minute Parent-Child interaction Therapy (PCIT)
improved interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their
preschool children.
- On the other hand, research into caregiver-infant interaction is socially
sensitive because it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to
work soon after having a baby this may risk damaging their baby’s
development. Therefore, research into caregiver-infant interactions
needs to be done with caution due to the risk of it encouraging
discrimination of working mothers.
+ It can be argued that the practical value outweighs the social sensitivity of the
research because it has given us insight into how infants develop attachments
to their primary caregiver.
Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment
In fan ts behaviour
STAGE 1: Its observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar.
Asocial However, Schaffer and Emerson did not believe that this is entirely asocial
(0-6 w eeks) because even at this stage babies show signs that they prefer to be with other
people/familiar people and are more easily comforted by them. The baby is
forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachments
STAGE 2: Babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours. They now
In discr im in ate show a clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate
, (6 w eeks - 7 objects They also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people. However,
m on ths) at this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person. They do
not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or
stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
STAGE 3: The majority of babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one
Specifi c particular person. These signs include anxiety directed towards strangers,
(7-9 m on th s) especially when their attachment figure is absent, and anxiety when separated
from their attachment figure. This person with whom the attachment is formed is
called the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily the person
who the child spends the most time with but the one who offers the most
interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill. 65% of the time
this person is the mother.
STAGE 4: They extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom
Multiple they regularly spend time. These relationships are called secondary attachments.
(10 m on ths +) Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary
attachments within a month of forming a specific primary attachment By the age
of 1 year the majority of babies have developed multiple attachments.
Evaluations
+ One strength of the stages of attachment theory is that there are practical
applications of the theory to the real world via daycare. Within the stages of
attachment it explains how the babies will react to strangers in each stage. For
example, in the indiscriminate stage they start to prefer being with humans,
but in the specific stage they attach to one person. This infers that babies are
more likely to be comforted by any skilled adult in the indiscriminate stage,
however starting daycare at the specific stage would be very anxiety-inducing
for the baby. This can help inform when the parents put their baby in daycare
depending upon what stage their child is in order to reduce the amount of
anxiety the baby will have. This is a strength because it shows research in
psychology has helped our understanding and applied it to real-world
scenarios outside of psychology by helping to reduce levels of stranger anxiety
in children in daycare. This therefore increases the credibility of the stages of
attachment and increases the external validity of the theory.
- However, there are weaknesses to this theory which include issues around the
research upon certain stages of attachment, like the validity of the measures
they use to assess attachment in the asocial stage. Young babies have poor
coordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than 2 months old felt
anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite a subtle
hard to observe way. This makes it difficult for the mother to observe and
report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age
group as the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed
methods, they appear asocial. This is a limitation to the theory because the
way it was measured may have caused the theory- or at least a certain stage it
is- inaccurate which means the theory lacks internal validity because the
Attachment
Topics:
● Caregiver-infant Interactions
● Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment
● The role of the Father
● Animal Studies of Attachment
● Explanations of Attachment
● Types of Attachment
● Cultural Variations in Attachment
● Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment
● Romanian Orphan Studies
● Influence of Early Attachment on Later Relationships
Caregiver-infant Interactions
An attachment is a two way emotional bond between two individuals in which each
individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security. Attachment in
humans takes a few months to develop. Attachment can be recognised when they
display – proximity seeking behaviours, separation distress and secure base
behaviour.
RECIPROCITY INTERACTIONAL SY NCHRONY
Recipr ocity → Taking turns in an interaction. In ter action al syn chr on y → The temporal
● Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal coordination of micro-level social behaviours,
in that both caregiver and baby respond whereby the baby and caregiver carry out the
to each other’s signals and each elicits a same activities simultaneously. Often, the baby
response from the other. mirrors the expressions and gestures of the adult.
● Each person in the interaction elicits a ● Caregiver and baby reflect both the
response from the other person in order actions and emotions of the other in a
to sustain the interaction. synchronised way.
● Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed this
Aler t ph ase → the baby gives a signal that they in two week old babies! The adults gave
are ready for an interaction (for example, cry or a happy, sad or still expression and the
babble, make eye contact – these are called social babies mimicked the adults.
releasers)
● Feldman and Eidelman (2007) found Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and
that mothers typically picked up on babies together and assessed the degree of
alertness during the ‘alert phase’ of synchrony/how much they mirrored each
, interactions ⅔ of the time, although this other’s behaviour. The researchers also
skill varies according to the mother. assessed the quality of mother-baby
attachment They found that high levels of
Active ph ase → Babies and caregivers take turns synchrony were associated with better quality
in initiating interactions. mother-baby attachment
Fr om th r ee m onths → becomes increasingly Interactional synchrony is very important for
frequent and involves both mother and baby the development of attachment
paying close attention to each other’s verbal signals
and facial expressions.
Brazleton et al. (1975) describes reciprocity as a
‘dance’ because it is like a dance between two
people where each partner elicits a response to
the other person’s moves.
One feature of caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocity where the baby and
caregiver take turns in their interaction. Each person in the interaction elicits a
response from the other person in order to sustain the interaction. For example,
‘Tasneem smiles, Aisha smiles back’ shows the reciprocity between the two in their
interactions as Tasneem smiles and Aisha sends a signal – or social releaser – back to
the caregiver to continue the interaction between the two.
Another example is interactional synchrony which is the temporal coordination of
micro-level social behaviours. This is seen when ‘Tasneem moves her head, Aisha
moves hers’ as the baby mirrors the expressions and gestures of the adult to help
develop an attachment.
4 marks!!!!! :D
Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
Procedure Researchers wanted to investigate whether or not an imitation of a caregiver was innate
or learned. To do this, they used a sample of babies and put them in a controlled
observation. An adult model would display ⅓ different facial expressions and the
babies’ responses were recorded and then analysed.
Findings It was found that the babies would imitate the adults.
This finding was discovered again in a replication of the study which used babies only
three days old.
Conclusion babies have evolved to have interactional synchrony to help develop attachments.
Evaluations
+ One strength of the research conducted into caregiver-infant interactions is
that it uses a controlled observation due to it being set in a lab environment.
Both the mother and the child are observed continuously from multiple angles
using cameras or several observers in a highly controlled setting which means
, it can be watched at a later date. Additionally, it allows researchers to control
extraneous variables such as the baby getting distracted by other stimuli. This
means that the researcher can establish inter-rater reliability of observations
as they are unlikely to miss any important behaviours. Therefore, this is a
strength because the data collected should have good reliability and internal
validity as the behaviours observed are an accurate reflection of caregiver-
infant interactions.
- However, it is difficult to be certain that the conclusions drawn are accurate.
For example, young babies lack coordination and much of their bodies are
almost immobile. The movements being observed are just small hand
movements or subtle changes in expression. . The data relies solely on the
researcher making inferences about behaviour which could be inaccurate or
influenced by researcher bias. This is a limitation as it makes it difficult to
understand how significant each of the behaviours are in contributing towards
the caregiver-infant interaction and whether they do have a special meaning.
This therefore significantly reduces the internal validity of the research into
the caregiver-infant interaction.
+ Although it is difficult to draw conclusions accurately, it has been shown to
have practical applications in the real world. For example, Crotwell et al
(2013) found that a 10 minute Parent-Child interaction Therapy (PCIT)
improved interactional synchrony in 20 low income mothers and their
preschool children.
- On the other hand, research into caregiver-infant interaction is socially
sensitive because it can be used to argue that when a mother returns to
work soon after having a baby this may risk damaging their baby’s
development. Therefore, research into caregiver-infant interactions
needs to be done with caution due to the risk of it encouraging
discrimination of working mothers.
+ It can be argued that the practical value outweighs the social sensitivity of the
research because it has given us insight into how infants develop attachments
to their primary caregiver.
Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment
In fan ts behaviour
STAGE 1: Its observable behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar.
Asocial However, Schaffer and Emerson did not believe that this is entirely asocial
(0-6 w eeks) because even at this stage babies show signs that they prefer to be with other
people/familiar people and are more easily comforted by them. The baby is
forming bonds with certain people and these form the basis of later attachments
STAGE 2: Babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours. They now
In discr im in ate show a clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate
, (6 w eeks - 7 objects They also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people. However,
m on ths) at this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person. They do
not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or
stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
STAGE 3: The majority of babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one
Specifi c particular person. These signs include anxiety directed towards strangers,
(7-9 m on th s) especially when their attachment figure is absent, and anxiety when separated
from their attachment figure. This person with whom the attachment is formed is
called the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily the person
who the child spends the most time with but the one who offers the most
interaction and responds to the baby’s signals with the most skill. 65% of the time
this person is the mother.
STAGE 4: They extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom
Multiple they regularly spend time. These relationships are called secondary attachments.
(10 m on ths +) Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary
attachments within a month of forming a specific primary attachment By the age
of 1 year the majority of babies have developed multiple attachments.
Evaluations
+ One strength of the stages of attachment theory is that there are practical
applications of the theory to the real world via daycare. Within the stages of
attachment it explains how the babies will react to strangers in each stage. For
example, in the indiscriminate stage they start to prefer being with humans,
but in the specific stage they attach to one person. This infers that babies are
more likely to be comforted by any skilled adult in the indiscriminate stage,
however starting daycare at the specific stage would be very anxiety-inducing
for the baby. This can help inform when the parents put their baby in daycare
depending upon what stage their child is in order to reduce the amount of
anxiety the baby will have. This is a strength because it shows research in
psychology has helped our understanding and applied it to real-world
scenarios outside of psychology by helping to reduce levels of stranger anxiety
in children in daycare. This therefore increases the credibility of the stages of
attachment and increases the external validity of the theory.
- However, there are weaknesses to this theory which include issues around the
research upon certain stages of attachment, like the validity of the measures
they use to assess attachment in the asocial stage. Young babies have poor
coordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than 2 months old felt
anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite a subtle
hard to observe way. This makes it difficult for the mother to observe and
report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age
group as the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed
methods, they appear asocial. This is a limitation to the theory because the
way it was measured may have caused the theory- or at least a certain stage it
is- inaccurate which means the theory lacks internal validity because the
