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DEVELOPMENTAL AQA SUMMARY NOTES
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Covering all A01, A02 and A03 that could possibly come up in your exams! Developmental
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Caregiver-infant interactions Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment Role of the father Animal studies of attachmentAttachment: close two-way emotional bond between Stages of attachment: The key to the attachment relationship is the level of Lorenz 1952: Imprinting
two individuals in which each sees the other as essential Stage 1; Asocial stage/pre-attachment – 0-3 months. responsiveness not the gender of the parent. Procedure: Konrad Lorenz randomly divided a large
for their own emotional security. People display: Baby’s behaviour towards people and inanimate objects clutch of goose eggs. ½ hatched with their mother
- Proximity: staying physically close to attachment is quite similar. Some preference for familiar people goose in their natural environment whereas the
figure (more easily calmed by them). Babies are also happier Primary attachment: Schaffer and Emerson found that other ½ hatched in an incubator where the first
- Separation distress: being upset when an attachment in the presence of other people. most babies become attached to their mother first. In moving object they saw was Lorenz. Mixed all geese
figure leaves only 3% fathers was the first sole object of together to see who they would follow. Also observed
- Secure-base behaviour: babies leaving the attachment. In 27% of fathers was the joint first birds and later their courtship behaviour.
attachment figure but regularly returning to them when Stage 2; Indiscriminate attachment – 2-7 months. object with attachment with the mother.
playing Babies now display more observable social behaviour,
with a preference for people rather than innate objects. Findings and conclusions: Incubator group followed
They recognise and prefer familiar people. Babies Secondary attachment: In 75% of babies studied an Lorenz and the control group followed its mother. Lorenz
Reciprocity: achieved when baby and caregiver do not show stranger or separation anxiety. attachment was formed with the father by the age of identified a critical period in which imprinting needs
respond to and elicit responses from each other. Attachment is indiscriminate because it’s the same 18 months. This was indicated by the fact babies to take place eg ew hours after hatching. If imprinting
Babies have alert phrases and signal they are ready for towards its all. protested when their father walked away. did not occur during that time, chicks did not attach
interaction. Mothers successfully respond around 2/3 themselves to the mother figure.
of the time – Feldman and Eidelman 2007 Grossman et al 2002: carried out a longitudinal study Sexual imprinting also occurs whereby the birds
Traditional views of childhood have seen the baby in a Stage 3; Specific/discriminate attachment – 7+ acquire a template of the desirable characteristics
months. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety when (44 families) looking at parents’ behaviour and its
passive role receiving care from an adult. However, it relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into required in a mate.
seems that babies are active ptps. separated from one person. Baby has formed a specific
attachment with the primary attachment figure. Often their teens. Research found the quality of attachment
the person who offers the most interactions and with the father was less important for adolescent Harlow 1958: Importance of contact comfort
Feldman 2007: From 3+ months interaction tends to be responds to baby’s signals. Mother in 65% cases. attachment than the quality of attachment with the Procedure: Harry Harlow reared 16 rhesus monkeys
more frequent and involves close attention to each mother. Fathers may be less important in long-term with two wire model mothers.
other’s verbal signals + facial expression. emotional development. Condition 1: Milk was dispensed by the plain-wire
Stage 4; Multiple attachment – 9+ months. Secondary mother
attachments with other adults form shortly after. Schaffer Condition 2: Milk was dispensed by the cloth-
Interactional synchrony: mother and infant reflect both and Emerson study, 29% of babies had secondary Also found that the quality of the father’s play with
babies was related to quality of adolescent attachments. covered mother.
the actions and emotions of the other and so this a co- attachments within a month of forming a primary Harlow observed how the monkeys reacted when placed
ordinated (synchronised way). attachment. By the age of 1, many infants had multiple Suggests that fathers have a different role, one more
involved with play and stimulation and less with in frightening situations eg he added a noisy mechanical
secondary attachments. teddy to the environment. Harlow and his colleagues
emotional care.
Meltzoff and Moore 1977: observed the beginnings of also continued to study the monkeys who had been
international synchrony in babies as young as 2 weeks. deprived of their real mother in adulthood.
Adult displayed one of three facial Primary attachment figures: Evidence suggests that
expressions/distinctive gestures. Filmed the baby’s when fathers to take on the role of being the main
caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of Findings and conclusions: Baby monkeys cuddled the
response. Babies’ expression and gestures were cloth-covered mother in preference to the plain-wire
more likely to mirror those of adults than chance mothers.
regardless of which dispensed milk. This suggests that
would predict. contact comfort was more important than food when
Importance of level of response: Smiling, imitating it came to attachment behaviour. Monkeys sought
and holding babies are behaviours that are important in comfort from the cloth-covered mother when
building a primary emotional attachment with a baby. So frightened.
it seems that the father can be the more emotional As adults, the monkeys who had been deprived of their
attachment figure. real mothers suffered severe consequences – they were
more aggressive, less sociable and less skilled in
mating other monkeys.
Brazelton et al 1975: Described interaction as a dance Schaffer and Emerson 1964: Field 1978: filmed 4-month-old babies and found that
because each partner responds to the other’s moves. Procedure: 60 babies from Glascow, most from primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more
working-class families. Researcher visited babies and time smiling, imitating and holding babies then
mothers at home every month for a year and again at 18 secondary caregiver fathers. Behaviours are related to
Isabella et al 1989: observed 30 mothers and babies months. Separation anxiety was measured by asking interactional synchrony and the formation of emotional
together and assessed the degree of synchrony. Also mothers about their children’s behaviours during attachment (Isabella et al)
assessed the quality of mother-baby attachment. Found everyday separations eg leaving the room.
that high levels of synchrony were associated better with Stranger anxiety was measured by asking mothers
quality mother-baby attachment. questions about their children’s anxiety response to
unfamiliar adults.
Findings and conclusions: Babies developed
attachments through a sequence of stages. Specific
, attachment tended to be the person who were
interactive and sensitive to babies’ signals. Was not
necessarily the person they spent more time with.
+ Filmed observations: Mother-baby interactions are + External validity: Most of the observations were - Confusion over research questions: Some + Evidence to support imprinting: Regolin and
usually filmed, often from multiple angles. Very fine made by parents during ordinary activities and psychologists want to understand the role of fathers as Vallortigara exposed chicks to simple combinations that
observations were recorded and can be analysed later. reported to researchers. The alternative would be to secondary attachment figures. But others are more moved. When shown a range of moving shapes the
Babies also do not know they are being observed, so have observers present in the babies’ homes. This may concerned with fathers as a primary attachment figure. chicks followed these in preference to other shapes.
their behaviour does not change in response to have distracted the babies or made them feel more The former have tended to see fathers as behaving This suggests that young animals are born with an
observation. This means the studies have good reliability anxious. This means it is highly likely that ptps behaved differently from mothers and having a distinct role. The innate mechanism to imprint on a moving object.
and validity. naturally whilst being observed. latter have found that fathers can take on a maternal CA: Guitan et al found that chickens imprinted on yellow
CA: Weakness social desirability: Mothers may have role. This means that psychologists cannot easily washing up gloves and would try to mate with them as
been biased in what they reported eg they might not answer the same question: what is the role of the father? adults. However in the end they found through
- Difficulty in observing babies: It is hard to observe have noticed when their baby was showing signs of experience, they preferred mating with other
baby’s behaviours as they are not co-ordinated. We just anxiety or may have misremembered it. Means that chickens.
observe small gestures and changes in expression. It is even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not - Different methodologies: Grossman et al suggest
also hard to interpret the meaning of babies’ movement have been accurately recorded. fathers have a distinct role in children’s development,
eg deciding if a hand movement is a response to the involving play and stimulation. However, McCallum - Generalisation of birds to humans: The mammalian
caregiver or a random twitch. This means we cannot be and Golombok found that children without a father do attachment system is quite different from imprinting in
certain that any particular interactions observed between - Poor evidence to support the asocial stage: not develop differently. This means the questions of birds. Mammalian mothers show more emotional
baby and caregivers are meaningful. Because of their stage of physical development, young whether fathers have a distinctive role remains attachment to their young. This means that it may not be
babies have poor coordination and are immobile. unanswered. appropriate to generalise Lorenz’s theories about
This makes it difficult for mothers to accurately report CA: Findings may not be in conflict. Fathers may imprinting to humans.
- Inferring developmental importance: Feldman signs of anxiety and attachment for this age group. This typically take on roles in two-parent heterosexual CA: However, the concept of imprinting can explain
(2012) points out that synchrony and reciprocity describe means that babies might actually be quite social but families. Other family structures adapt to not having some human behaviour. For example, baby duck
behaviours that occur at the same time. These are because of flawed methods, they appear to be fathers. This means that findings may be clear after all – syndrome, in which computer uses become
robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably asocial. there may be a distinctive role for fathers when present, attached to their first operating system. This means
observed, but this may not be useful as it does not tell but families adapt to not having one. that imprinting is a meaningful process in humans as
us their purpose. This means that we cannot be certain well as birds.
from observations that reciprocity and synchrony are + Real-world application to day care: In stages asocial
important in development. and indiscriminate babies can be comforted by any + Findings can be used in parenting advice: Mothers
CA: There is some evidence from other sources eg skilled adult. But if a child starts daycare later, during may feel pressured to stay home and fathers to focus on + Harlow’s research has real-world value: It has
Isabella et al, to support that good levels of reciprocity the specific stages, care from an unfamiliar dress may work. This may not be the best solution for all families. helped social workers to understand risk factors in
and synchrony are associated with good quality cause distress and longer-term problems. This means Research on the flexibility of the role of the father can be child abuse and thus intervene to prevent it (Howe
attachments. Early interactions are likely to have that Schaffer and Emerson’s stages can help parents used to offer reassuring advice to parents. This means 1998). We also now understand the importance of
importance for development. make daycare decisions. that parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and
reduced and parenting decisions made easier. breeding programmes. This means that Harlow’s
research has been beneficial to both animals and
Practical value vs ethics: Research into early Generalisability: Schaffer and Emerson based their humans.
interactions has allowed psychologists to improve the stages on a single but large-scale study of babies’ + Evidence to support the importance: Whole children
quality of caregiver-infant attachment eg Parent Child development conducted in working-class Glasgow. with secure attachments to their fathers go on to have
Interaction therapy. However, this kind of research is However, child-rearing practices vary considerably better relationships with peers, less behaviour problems - Generalisation of monkeys to humans: Monkeys are
socially sensitive because it could be argued that according to cultural and historical contexts eg and more able to regulate their emotions. Children who clearly more like humans than Lorenz’s geese, and all
mothers should focus on interacting with the baby multiple attachment in collectivist cultures (van grow up without fathers tend to less well in school, have mammals share some similarities in their attachment
and not return to work. This means that the practical IJzendoorn). This means that some observations from higher levels of risk taking and aggression especially systems. However, they are not human and is some
value may be outweighed by it’s negative social this study may not generalise to other populations. boys. ways the human mind and behaviour are much more
consequences. complex. This means that it may not be appropriate to
generalise Harlow’s findings to humans.
Bias: Preconceptions about how fathers behave are
created by discussions about mother’s and father’s
parenting behaviour. Stereotypes eg fathers are more Ethics: Harlow’s procedure caused severe long-term
playful may cause observer bias and may led to distress to his monkey ptps, though the research led to
inaccurate observations. This means that observational useful applications. However, his findings and
studies of fathers may lack validity and conclusion conclusions have important theoretical and practical
cannot be trusted. applications. This suggests that in spite of its benefits,
Harlow’s research perhaps should not have been
conducted.
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