AQA A level psychology attachment revision/lesson notes
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book
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Attachment:
Caregiver-infant interactions
- There are two ways caregivers and infants interact: Reciprocity and Interactional synchrony
- Psychologists believe that these interactions are important for the child's social development
- Reciprocity: Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in which they both respond to each other's
signals and each elicits a response from the other - also known as ‘turn-taking’
- Reciprocity includes two parts: alert phases and active involvement
- Alert phase is when the baby is ready for interaction. They show this to the caregiver in different ways
such as making eye contact or crying
- 2/3 of the time the caregiver responds - Feldman and Eidelman (2007)
- Active involvement is when the baby responds to the caregiver
- Interactional synchrony is when the caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of each
other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way - also known as mirroring
- Meltzoff and Moore (1977) found that this can happen with babies as young as two weeks
- When the caregiver expressed 3 gestures to the baby they would repeat
- The baby's response was filmed and labelled by independent observers
- Isabella et al. (1989) believed interactional synchrony to be important for attachment to occur
- 30 mothers and babies together and assess degree of synchrony and quality of attachment
- High levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother-baby attachment
Evaluation:
- P: One limitation is that observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.
- E: ‘synchrony’ simply gives a name to the patterns of observable caregiver and baby interactions.
- E: Although they are reliably observed, they are not useful in understanding child development as it
does not tell us directly the purpose of these behaviours.
- L: Overall cannot be certain from observational research reciprocity and synchrony are important for a
child's development.
- P: However, other research support suggests that early interactions are important for development.
- E: For example, Isabella et al. (1989) conducted a study involving 30 mothers and their babies together.
She assessed the level of international synchrony and compared it to the quality of the mother and
babies attachment.
- E: High levels of interactional synchrony predicted development of a good quality attachment.
- L: This means that caregiver-infant interaction is most likely important in future development.
- P: One strength is that caregiver-infant interactions are usually filmed in a laboratory.
- E: This means that other activities that might distract a baby, can be controlled. By taking films it also
allows other people to observe which makes it easier to establish inter-rater reliability.
- E: Therefore it is very unlikely that researchers will miss seeing key behaviours. Babies don't know they
are being observed too so their behaviour does not change (Demand characteristics)
- L: Therefore the data collected in such research should have good reliability and validity.
- P: One limitation is that it is hard to interpret a baby's behaviour.
- E: For example, whether a baby is smiling or just passing wind
- E: Most of their bodies are immobile and any behaviour being observed are small movements or subtle
changes in expression.
- L: This means we cannot be certain that all behaviours seen in these interactions have a special meaning.
, Schaffer’s stages of attachment
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964) believe there were stages of attachment that could be seen with all babies
- Stage 1 (Asocial stage) Behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects are the same
- Babies show signs that they would rather be around humans preferably those they are familiar with
- Stage 2 (Indiscriminate attachment) 2-7 months babies display obvious social behaviours. At this stage
they accept cuddles and hugs from any person and do not show any stranger anxiety or separation
anxiety
- Stage 3: (Specific attachment) Babies show attachment towards one particular person known as the
primary attachment figure. This isn't the person they spend the most time with but someone who they
interact a lot with. They develop stranger anxiety and separation anxiety
- Stage 4: (Multiple attachment) After they have formed an attachment with the primary attachment figure
they tend to show attachment behaviour to others that they regularly spend time with. The relationships
can be known as secondary relationships. By the age of one most babies have multiple attachment
Evaluation:
- P: One strength of Schaffer and Emerson's research is that it has good external validity.
- E: Most of the observations were made by parents during activities and then reported to the researchers.
- E: The alternative would have been to allow the researchers to record observations. This might have
distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious.
- L: This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed.
- P: On the other hand there are issues with asking the mothers to be the observers
- E: For instance, they might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported
- E: They might not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or they may have perceived
the situation differently. By having the mother to observe it’s difficult to establish inter rater reliability
- L: This means that even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately
recorded.
- P: One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson's stages is the validity of the measures they used to assess
attachment in the asocial stage.
- E: For example, young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than two
months old felt anxiety they might have displayed this in quite subtle and hard-to-observe ways.
- E: This makes it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and
attachment in this age group.
- L: This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear
to be asocial.
- P: Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson's stages is that they have practical application in day care.
- E: In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages daycare is likely to be straightforward as babies
can be comforted by any skilled adult.
- E: However, Schaffer and Emerson's research tells us that day care with an unfamiliar adult may be
problematic during the specific attachment stage.
- L: This means that parents' use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson's stages.
, The role of the father
- Father: In attachment research is anyone who takes on the role of the main male caregiver.
This can be but is not necessarily the biological father
- By 18 months babies formed an attachment to their fathers
- 3% of the time it was found that fathers take on the primary attachment figure
- Grossmann et al (2002) found that fathers mainly carry a play and stimulation role
- A primary attachment figure has an special emotional significance
- When fathers are a primary attachment figure they can adapt the role of being emotional where this
would be associated with the mother
- Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies face to face with their primary attachment figure mothers,
secondary attachment figure fathers and primary attachment fathers
- Like the mothers the primary attachment figure, fathers were able to smile, imitate and hold the baby the
same way. This shows that fathers have the potential to adapt a more emotional focused role if given the
opportunity to be a primary attachment figure
Evaluation:
- P: One limitation of research into the role of fathers is lack of clarity over the question being asked
- E: The question, 'What is the role of the father?' In the context of attachment is complicated
- E: Some researchers attempting to answer this question actually want to understand the role of fathers as
secondary attachment figures. But others are more concerned with fathers as a primary attachment
figure
- L: This makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as to the 'role of the father’. It really depends what
specific role is being discussed.
- P: A further limitation is that findings vary according to the method used.
- E: Grossmann et al has suggested that fathers as secondary attachment figures have an important role in
their children's development involving play and stimulation.
- E: If fathers did have a distinctive and important role we would expect that children growing up in
single-mother and lesbian-parent families to turn out in some way different from those in two-parent
heterosexual families. In fact McCallum and Golombok (2004) consistently show that these children do
not develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families.
- L: This means that the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered.
- P: On the other hand, these lines of research may not in fact be in conflict.
- E: For example, it could be that fathers typically take on distinctive roles in two-parent heterosexual
families, but in single-mother and lesbian-parent families they adapt the role played by fathers.
- E: If fathers can adopt an emotional role to become the primary attachment figure, essentially anyone can
also adopt a play and stimulation role for the baby.
- L: This means that the question of a distinctive role for fathers is clear after all.
- P: One strength of research into the role of the father is that it can be used to offer advice to parents
- E: For example, prospective parents sometimes agonise over decisions like who should take on the
primary caregiver role. Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home because of stereotypical views of
their role. Equally, fathers may be pressured to focus on work rather than parenting. In some families this
may not be economically the best solution.
- E: Research into the role of the father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents. Heterosexual
parents can be informed that fathers are quite capable of becoming primary attachment figures. Also
lesbian-parent and single-mother families can be informed that not having a father around does not
affect a child's development.
- L: This means that parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced.
, Animal studies of attachment
- Animal studies: In psychology are studies carried out on animal species rather than on humans, either for
ethical or practical reasons
- Lorenz (1952) first discovered imprinting when he observed a newly hatched duck
- Procedure: He set up a classical experiment in which he randomly divided a large clutch of eggs. Half
were hatched with the mother in their natural habitat and the other half in an incubator with Lorenz
- Findings: The ducks that saw Lorenz followed him everywhere. In the control group the ducks followed
their mother. When they were mixed the control continued to follow their mum and the experimental
group continued to follow lorenz (Imprinting: following the first moving object)
- Lorenz identified a critical period which could be as short as a few hours. If imprinting did not occur then
the ducks would not attach themselves to a mother figure later on
- Sexual imprinting: When birds imprint on humans they show courtship behaviour towards them
- Lorenz (1952) described a peacock where the first moving object they saw were giant tortoises. When it
was an adult they showed only courtship behaviour towards these tortoises
- P: One strength of Lorenz's research is the existence of support for the concept of imprinting.
- E: Regolin and Vallortigara (1995) exposed chicks to simple shape combinations that moved, such as a
triangle with a rectangle in front.
- E: When shapes were mixed with other combinations the chicks followed closely what they saw first.
- L: This supports the view that young animals are born with an innate mechanism to imprint on a moving
object present in the critical period, as predicted by Lorenz.
- P: One limitation is it is difficult to generalise findings and conclusions from birds to humans.
- E: For example, in mammals attachment is a two-way process, so it is not just the young who become
attached to their mothers but also the mammalian mothers also show an emotional attachment.
- E: The attachment system is different and more complex than that in birds.
- L: This means that it is probably not appropriate to generalise Lorenz's ideas to humans.
- Harlow 1958 found that newborns often died when alone but survived if given something soft like a cloth
- Procedure: He designed 2 conditions to be present using wired models to present mothers. In both
models the mothers would provide milk - one condition was covered by a cloth and the other was plain
- Findings: When frightened by noise the monkeys would look for comfort in the mother covered with a
cloth even if the wired one offered milk. This shows in attachment contact is more important than food
- Further on in life monkeys that were raised with the wired mother were most dysfunctional out of the
two groups. They were more aggressive, less sociable and bred less than the typical rhesus monkey
- Harlow concluded that there was a critical period of 90 days and if an attachment was not formed by then
it was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible
- P: One strength of Harlow's research is its important real-world applications.
- E: For example, it has helped social workers and clinical psychologists understand that a lack of bonding
experience may be a risk factor in child development allowing them to intervene to prevent poor
outcomes (Howe 1998).
- E: We also now understand the importance of attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and breeding
programmes in the wild.
- L: This means that the value of Harlow's research is not just theoretical but also practical.
- P: One limitation is the ability to generalise findings and conclusions from monkeys to humans.
- E: Rhesus monkeys are much more similar to humans than Lorenz's birds, and all mammals share some
common attachment behaviours.
- E: However, the human brain and human behaviour is still more complex than that of monkeys.
- L: This means that it may not be appropriate to generalise Harlow's findings to humans.
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