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Summary A LEVEL ATTACHMENT NOTES
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ATTACHMENTSAttachment: a reciprocal, close emotional bond relationship between two people,
characterised by a desire to maintain proximity, separation distress, secure-based
behaviour and interactional synchrony and reciprocity.
Monotropic attachment: the concept that infants have an innate and inborn capacity
to attach primarily to a single caregiver or attachment figure. This concept was
proposed by John Bowlby.
Maccoby (1980) identified 4 characteristics of attachment:
1. Seeking proximity (especially if distressed)
2. Distress on separation
3. Pleasure when reunited
4. Behaviour oriented towards primary caregiver
Consequences of not having attachment:
1. Affectionless psychopath
2. insecure attachment type
Reciprocity: infant and caregiver are both active contributors in the interaction and
are responding to each other, they are demonstrating turn taking. It involves mutual
responsiveness, with both parties being able to produce responses from each other.
(reciprocity→responding)
Interactional synchrony; infants coordinate their actions with caregivers in a kind of
conversation. The infant and caregiver are able to anticipate how each other will
behave and can elicit a particular response from the other. (interactional
synchrony→temporal/timed like a conversation.
Two brief studies on attachment:
- Murray and Trevarthen (1985) asked mothers to adopt a “frozen face” and not
interact (no reciprocity). 2 month old babies were upset and tried to draw the
, mother back into interaction. Reciprocity is important because when the mother
did the ‘frozen face’ the baby was sad.
- Isabella et al (1989) found that securely attached mother (type B attachment)-
infant pairs had shown more instances of interactional synchrony in the first
few years of life. Interactional synchrony is important because it leads to a
type B attachment (best type).
DEVELOPMENT OF ATTACHMENT- SCHAFFER AND EMERSON (1964) KEY STUDY
Procedure: Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson conducted a longitudinal study on 60
Glasgow infants (5-23 weeks at the start of the study) from working-class homes at
monthly intervals for the first 18 months of their life. The children were all studied in
their own home and a regular pattern was identified in the development of attachment.
The babies were visited monthly for approximately one year, their interactions with
their caregivers were observed, and caregivers were interviewed. The mother were
asked to keep a diary of the infant's response to separation in seven everyday
situations; left alone in a room, left with other people, left in their pram outside the
shops, left in their pram outside the house, left in their cot at night, put down after
being held by an adult, passed while sitting on their cot or chair.
Results: they discovered that baby’s attachments develop in the following sequence:
- Up to 3 months of age: indiscriminate attachments. The newborn is predisposed
to attach to any human. Most babies respond equally to any caregiver.
- After 4 months: preference for certain people. Infants learn to distinguish
primary (parents) and secondary (grandparents, siblings) caregivers but
accept care from anyone.
- After 7 months: special preference for a single attachment figure. The baby
looks to particular people for security, comfort and protection. It shows fear of
strangers (stranger fear) and unhappiness when separated from a special
person (separation anxiety). Some babies show stranger fear and separation
, anxiety more than others, but nevertheless they are seen as evidence that the
baby has formed an attachment. This has usually developed by one year of age.
- After 9 months: multiple attachments. The baby becomes increasingly
independent and forms several attachments.
Conclusions: the mother was the main attachment figure for 65% of the children at 18
months old, whilst only 3% of the infants studied developed a primary attachment to
their father. By 18 months old, 31% of the infants had formed multiple attachments
(grandparents). The result of the study indicated that attachments were most likely
to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signals, not the person they
spent the most time with (quality of time > quantity of time). Schaffer and Emerson
called this sensitive responsiveness. The most important fact in forming attachments
is not who feeds and changes the child, but who plays and communicates with the child.
EVALUATION OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON (1964) KEY STUDY (evaluate)
Strengths:
1. High external validity because observations were carried out in families’ own
homes during normal activities.
2. It was a longitudinal study so the same children could be followed up and
observed over time which means more in-depth data is gathered.
3. The same children were studied so there were no participant variables, making
it more reliable.
Weaknesses:
1. The sample size was small (60 babies), so it lacks generalisability.
2. The sample was made up of families from the same area and social class, so it
lacks generalisability.
3. The study was done over 50 years ago and child care techniques have changed
since then, so the results lack temporal validity.
, EVALUATION COMMENTS OF SCHAFFER AND EMERSON (1964) KEY STUDY (discuss)
1. Problem studying the asocial change:
- The first few weeks of life are described as ‘asocial change’, even though
important interactions take place in those weeks.
- The problem is that very young babies have poor coordination and are
immobile, so it is wrong to make judgements based on their behaviour as
there is not much observable behaviour.
- This is a problem because the baby might be doing sociable things, they
just can’t display it because they are immobile.
2. Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments:
- Although children become capable of forming multiple attachments at
some point, it is not clear when.
- Some research indicates they have to develop an attachment to a
primary caregiver first.
- Whereas other research indicates that babies can form multiple
attachments from the start.
- This reduces the reliability because some research says primary is first,
other research says secondary is first- results are not consistent.
3. Measuring multiple attachments:
- There is a problem with how multiple attachments are assessed.
- Just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room
does not mean that the individual is a true attachment figure.
- This reduces internal validity because the baby might be crying due to
other reasons and not the reason of the attachment figure leaving the
room- we cannot establish cause and effect.
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