Summary AQA A level Psychology: Attachment Condensed Notes
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Course
Attachment
Institution
AQA
This document summarises the entire topic of Attachment AQA A Level. AO1 is condensed into bullet points and is reinforced with AO3 strengths and also weakenesses to show examiners that you are able to counter and critique your evaluations. Easy to revise with on the way to school or use for last m...
Attachment: an emotional bond between caregiver and infant that is a two-way reciprocal
process
Caregiver infant interactions
Interactional synchrony:
● they respond to each other’s signals simultaneously IN TIME to sustain
communication. E.g.mother soothing noise, baby gentle movement
Reciprocity:
● a form of turn-taking, they elicit responses to each other’s signals
Imitation:
● infant mimics the adult’s behaviour exactly, e.g. smiling
Sensitive responsiveness
● adult pays careful attention to infant communications and responds in an appropriate
manner (e.g. by providing milk)
Caregiverese:
● adult changes their voice e.g. high pitch, akin to baby talk
RESEARCH:
➢ Meltzoff and Moore interactional synchrony (12-21 days infant) (suggests interacional
synchrony is a biologically-preprogrammed act)
➢ Experimenter displayed facial movements (tongue protrusion and tongue closing,
mouth opening and closing)
➢ blind observers 0.92 inter-rater reliability, infants imitated the experimenter
➢ Isabella et al. (1989) found that caregivers and infants who showed greater
interactional synchrony had stronger attachments. (positive correlation) {no
causation}
➢ Suggests reciproticty is a key predictor in the development of later relationships
➢ Recsearchers suggest reciprocity occurs after 3 months where caregivers and infants
pay close attention to each other’s verbal and facial expressions
Evals:
● Meltzoff and Moore supporting evidence (controlled observation, video cameras etc)
● Pseudo-imitation (infants can’t communicate, findings depend on inferences
[unscientific]), they may be ‘response training’ (repeating behaviour bc of
reinforcement(OC))
● SS suggests one form of child rearing techniques, parents may feel criticised;
parents may feel pressure to regularly interact to avoid long term negative impact
● Alternate factors: child’s temperament or caregiver’s personality
Schaffer’s stages of attachment
Pre-attachment:
● 0-2 months
● Babies respond to humans the same way as objects
● Towards the end they prefer social stimuli (smiling face)
, ● Interactional synchrony and reciprocity are key in establishing infant’s relationships
Indiscriminate attachment:
● 4 months
● General socialabiiltiy (enjoy being with people)
● Prefer animate to inanimate objects
● No stranger anxiety (distress shown with presence of unfamilar person)
Discriminate attachment:
● 7 months
● Closest bond with infant, highly sensitive
● Show separation anxiety (distress shown when separated from caregiver) and
reunion behaviour to primary attachment figure
● Show stranger anxiety Schaffer and Emerson (65% mother, 3% father)
● Use primary attachment figure as a safe base; willingness to explore in novel
situations
Multiple attachments:
● Can form more than one attachment (secondary attachments)
● Still have stranger/ separation anxiety
RESEARCH:
➢ Shaffer and Emerson: (1964)
➢ 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow in real homes (natural observation)
also used self-report to ask mothers how their infants dealt with separation etc.
➢ Follow up visit after 18 months
➢ Stranger distress (differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar people) and
separation anxiety (shows development of attachment bond)
➢ FOUND: stronger attachment was with mothers showing consistent caregiver-infant
interaction
➢ FOUND: separation anxiety in approximately 5-7 months and stranger anxiety soon
after
➢ After 18 month follow up, 87% developed multiple attachments
➢ 75% likely to have father as secondary attachment
Evals:
● Scahffer and Emerson (supports stages, mundane realism but 1960s glasgow)
● Cultural variations e.g in collectivist cultures, more likely to have shared upbringing
and value multiple attachments(ethnocentrism)
● Different cultures may go through stages in a different order, this suggests inflexibility
● Ss as it suggests fathers cannot be main caregivers
● Social desirability in Schaffer and Emerson’s research
● Refutes Bowlby’s monotropic as individuals form multiple attachmetns
The role of the father
● 3% primary attachment (Shaffer and Emerson)
, ● Changing cultural and societal roles (mothers work)
● Importance of play: encouraging risk-taking behaviours, mothers more comforting
● Fathers as primary caregivers can adapt to have more sensitive responsiveness
● Societal roles may view motherly aspects such as being sensitive as too feminine
and thus receive judgement
As secondary attachments:
● Seen as a playmate
● More physicalaly active
● Encourage risk-taking behaviours
➢ RESEARCH:
Verissimo found that a strong attachment to father was best predictor of ability to
make friends, fathers have social links
➢ Field found that primary father showed higher levels of sensitive responsiveness than
secondary fathers (similar levels to mothers)
➢ Gottesman research found that fathers were not as important during development in
adolesence but had a quality of play aspect
➢ Schaffer and Emerson: 3% primary attachment, 75% secondary attachment
Evals:
● Provides confidence to fathers (positive implications) more encouraging
● SS: research that shows women as more likely to be primary caregivers can cause
low confidence in fathers or ciriticse mothers if they return to work
● Refutes monotropy, other attachments may be equally as important for a child (e.g. a
father’s social aspect)
● Methodological issues: vague and different research questions; natural/ quasi/ animal
studies either suffer from lack of controlling extraneous variables or generalisability to
human
● P.a. paternity pay (but it ignores maternal, biological demands)
● Small sample size as fathers are les slikely to be PAF due to: traditional societal roles
and also biological differences (higher levels of oestrogen may increase nurture and
caring aspects) also breastfeeding,mothers may be biologically pre-programed to be
PAF
● Gottesman’s research: emphasises that roles are differnet not one is superior
Animal studies of attachment
Lorenz
● Imprinting- animal forms a strong attachment to the first object they see
● Grelag geese hatched in incubator, imprinted on Lorennz, other half imprinted to
mother
● Irreversible, has to happen shortly after birth (e.g. 32 hours)
Long lasting effects:
● Links to sexual imprinting, animals (esp birds) may choose to mate with that of which
they imprinted
Evals:
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