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Summary Attachment Knowledge Organiser
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Attachment = an emotional relationship between two people characterised by proximity seeking and ------ EVALUATION:------------------ resulting in the feeling of security when in the presence of each other Strengths:
The Value of the Research
RECIPROCITY: • the importance of this imitative behaviour is that it forms the basis for social development
= behaviour of one triggers response in the other – ‘two way’ (e.g. caregiver picks baby up when it cries) • Meltzoff (2005): developed a ‘like me’ hypothesis of infant development based on his IS research
• Tronick (1975): developed a procedure known as ‘the still face’ experiment → first there is the connection between what the infant sees and their imitation of this
→ Procedure: the caregiver is instructed to stop interacting with their child (simply staring at them) → second, infants associate their own act and their own underlying mental states
→ Findings: this causes distress in the child indicating that they were expecting reciprocity → third, infants project their own internal experiences onto others performing similar acts
→ as a result infants begin to acquire an understanding of what other people are thinking and
• Jaffe et al (1973): demonstrated infants coordinated actions with caregivers in a kind of conversation feeling – a so called ‘theory of mind’, which is fundamental for conducting social relationships
→ from birth, babies move in a rhythm when interacting with an adult almost as if they were taking • therefore a strength of this research is that it explains how children begin to understand what
turns, as people do when having a conversation (1 person leans forward and speaks, then it is the others think and feel, and thus are able to conduct relationships
other person’s turn) – this is an example of reciprocity
• Brazelton (1979): suggested that this basic rhythm is an important precursor to later communications Limitations:
→ regularity of an infant’s signals lets a caregiver anticipate infant’s behaviour and respond appropriately Problems with Testing Infant Behaviour
→ this sensitivity to infant behaviour lays foundation for later attachment between caregiver an infant • infants’ mouths are in fairly constant motion and the expressions that are tested occur frequently
(tongue sticking out, yawning, smiling)
INTERACTION SYNCHRONY: • this makes it difficult to distinguish between general activity and specific imitated behaviour
= behaviour is mirrored – ‘simultaneous action’ (e.g. caregiver and infant maintaining eye contact) • Meltzoff and Moore: to overcome these problems, measured infant responses by filming infants --
----------------------------- and asking an observer (unaware what behaviour imitated) to judge infants’
• Meltzoff and Moore (1977): infants as young as 2-3 weeks old imitated specific facial/hand gestures -------------------------------behaviour from the video
→ Procedure: an adult model who displayed one of three facial expression or hand movements where • this research highlights the difficulties in testing infant behaviour, but also suggests one way of
the fingers moved in a sequence increasing the internal validity of the data
- a dummy was placed in the infant’s mouth during the initial display to prevent any response
- following the display the dummy was removed and the child’s expression was filmed on video Failure to Replicate
→ Findings: found there was an association between the infant and that of the adult model • Koepke et al (1983): failed to replicate Meltzoff and Moore’s findings
→ Meltzoff and Moore counterargued this research failed because it was less carefully controlled
• Meltzoff and Moore (1983): demonstrated the same synchrony with infants only three days old • Marian et al (1996): replicated the study by Murray and Trevarthen
→ the fact that infants as young as this were displaying the behaviour would appear to rule out the → found that infants couldn’t distinguish live from videotaped interaction with their mothers,
possibility that the imitation behaviour are learned (e.g. the behavioural response must be innate) which suggests that the infants are actually not responding to the adult
→ Marian et al acknowledge that the failure to replicate may lie with the procedure
• therefore, the earlier studies’ findings were not replicated in later studies, although difference in
RESEARCH SUPPORT CONCLUSIONS: methodology may account for this
• babies seem to expect reciprocity (Tronick) Individual Differences
• babies seem to be hard-wired to engage in interactional synchrony (Meltzoff and Moore) • an important feature of interactional synchrony is that there is some variation between infants
• Isabella et al (1989): strongly attached infant-caregiver pairs = greater interactional synchrony
Therefore: • Heimann (1989): infants who demonstrate a lot of imitation from birth onwards have a better
• reciprocity and interactional synchrony may be innate (something babies are born with) quality of relationship at three months
• reciprocity + interactional synchrony may be needed for a healthy relationship to form between • however, it isn’t clear whether imitation is a cause or an effect of this early synchrony
infant + caregiver • this research therefore shows that there are significant individual differences but doesn’t indicate
the cause of the difference
, Schaffer and Emerson (1964): carried out a study on 60 Glaswegian infants and their families EVALUATION:
→ they visited once a month for a year and again when the babies were 18 months
→ they realised that babies passed through four stages of attachment Limitations:
Unreliable Data
Stage 1: Indiscriminate Attachments (0-2 months) • the data collected by Schaffer and Emerson may be unreliable
• from birth until about 2 months infants produce similar responses to all objects (animate or inanimate) • this is because it was based on mothers’ reports of their infants
• towards the end of this period, infants are beginning to show a greater preference for social stimuli, such as a • some mothers may have been less sensitive to their infants’ protests and therefore less likely to
smiling face, and to be more content when they are with people report them
• during this period of time reciprocity and interactional synchrony play a role in establishing the infant’s • this would create a systematic bias which would challenge the validity of the data
relationships with others
Stage 2: the Beginnings of Attachment (4-7 months) The Sample Was Biased in a Number of Ways
• around the age of 4 months infants become more social • first, it was from working-class population, findings may apply to that social group but not others
• they prefer human company to inanimate objects and can distinguish between familiar + unfamiliar people • second, the sample was from the 1960s – parental care has changed considerably since that time
• however, they’re still relatively easily comforted by anyone, and don’t yet show anxiety stranger anxiety → more women go out to work so many children are cared for outside the home, or fathers stay
• the most distinctive feature of this phase is their general sociability (enjoyment of being with people) at home and become the main carer
• Cohen et al (2014) = research shows that the number of dads who choose to stay at home and care
Stage 3: Discriminate Attachment (7-10 months) ----------------------------for their children and families has quadrupled over the past 25 years
• by 7 months old most infants begin to show a distinctly different sort of protest when one particular person put • therefore, if similar study to Schaffer and Emerson’s was conducted today, findings may be different
them down (called separation anxiety)
• equally, they show special joy at reunion with that person and are most comforted by this person Challenging Monotropy
• they are said to have formed a specific attachment to one person, their primary attachment figure • one of the central discussions relating to multiple attachments is whether all attachments are
• around same time, infant begins to display stranger anxiety, another sign of specific attachment forming equivalent or whether one or two have some special significance
• Schaffer and Emerson: primary attachments weren’t always formed with person who spent most time with child • Bowlby’s view was that an infant forms one special emotional relationship
→ intensely attached infants = mothers responded quickly and sensitively to ‘signals’ + offered most interaction • subsidiary to this are many other secondary attachments which are important as an emotional
→ poorly attached infants = mothers who failed to interact safety net or to meet other needs
• concluded that it’s quality not quantity of the relationship, that mattered most in formation of attachment → e.g. fathers may offer a special kind of care, relationships with siblings are important in learning
• in 65% of the children the first specific attachment was to the mother, and in a further 30% the mother was the how to negotiate with peers
first joint object of attachment • Rutter (1995) = by contrast has argued that all attachment figures are equivalent, with all ------------
• fathers were rarely the first sole object of attachment (3%) but 27% of them were the first joint object -------------------- attachments being integrated to produce an infant’s attachment type
• this suggests that Bowlby may have been wrong about the idea of a hierarchy of attachments
Stage 4: Multiple Attachments
• very soon after the main attachment is formed, the infant also develops a wider circle of multiple attachments
Stage Theories Suggest Development Is Inflexible
depending on how many consistent relationships he/she has
• proposes that there is a fixed order for development
• specifically, they found that, within 1 month of first becoming attached, 29% of the infants had multiple
→ e.g. it suggests that, normally, single attachments must come before multiple attachments
attachments to someone else (to other parent, grandparents, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbours
• these are called secondary attachments
• in some situations and cultures multiple attachments may come first
• infants also display separation anxiety in these relationships • therefore the use of stage theories may be problematic if they become a standard by which
families are judged and lead to them being classes as abnormal
• within 6 months this had risen to 78%
• by the age of about 1 year the majority of infants had developed multiple attachments, with one-third of the
infants having formed 5 or more secondary attachments, such as their father, grandparent, or older sibling
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