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Summary Attachment AQA A Level Psychology
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Detailed notes on AQA A Level psychology attachment unit
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AttachmentAttachment is a close two-way emotional bond between individuals in which each individual
sees the other as essential for their own emotional security.
Caregiver-infant interactions
Reciprocity
Babies and their mothers spend a lot of time interacting with each other
An interaction is said to show reciprocity when each person responds to the other
and elicits a response from them
Interactional synchrony
Two people are said to be synchronized where they carry out an action at the same
time. It takes place in such a way where the infant and the mother mirror their
actions in some way
Research support: Meltzoff and Moore (1977)
o Aim: to investigate the age at which interactional synchrony occurs between
mother and child
o They videotaped 12 21-day old babies as they watched an adult experimenter
perform three different facial expression
o The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers
o They observed interactional synchrony un babies as young as two weeks old
o An association was found between the expression of the gesture and the
action of the baby
o Evaluation:
Filmed observations: One strength of the research M&M conducted
is that the interactions are recorded on film. This means that the
interactions may be viewed more than once allowing researchers to
not miss any important details. Additionally more than one observer
can watch the footage and the results can be compared to see if there
is inter-observer reliability (consistency between results). If a
correlation of over +0.8 is found the observations can be said to have
high validity - be an accurate measure of interactions.
Difficulty observing habits: One limitation is that it is hard to interpret
a baby's behaviour. Young babies lack co-ordination and much of their
bodies are almost immobile. Movements being observed are just
small hand movements or subtle changes in expression, its difficult to
be sure (e.g. whether a baby is passing wind or just smiling), its also
difficult to determine what is taking place from a baby's perspective
(e.g. whether a hand movement is a random twitch or triggered by
something the caregiver has done). Therefore we cannot be certain
whether their behaviours have a special meaning.
Developmental importance: Another limitation is that simply
observing a behaviour does not tell us its developmental importance.
Feldman (2012) points out ideas like synchrony simply give names to
, patterns of observable caregiver and baby behaviours. These are
robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed,
but they still may not be particularly useful in understanding child
development as it does not tell us the purpose of these behaviours.
This means we cannot be certain from observational research alone
that reciprocity and synchrony are important for a child's
development.
Aim/procedure
They aimed to investigate the formation of early attachment, in particular the age at
which they developed, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed.
They used a sample of 60 babies (31m and 29f) from Glasgow, with the majority
being from working-class families. This was a longitudinal study where the babies
and mothers were studied every month for the first year and then again at
18 months. They used observations and interviews with the mothers. They
assessed separation anxiety/protest; through infant being left alone in a room, left in
the pram outside the shops, left in the cot at night etc. Also they assessed
stranger anxiety with the researcher starting home visits by approaching the infant,
to see if they got distressed
Findings/conclusion
They found between 25-32 weeks about 50% of babies showed separation anxiety
towards their caregiver (usually the mother). Attachment tended to be to the
caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to the infants’ signals and facial
expression (reciprocity). This wasn’t necessarily the person with whom the infant
spent most time. By 40 weeks 80% of babies had a specific attachment (to the
primary caregiver) and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments e.g. father,
grandparents etc. This suggests that there is a pattern of attachment common to all
infants which is biologically controlled. Furthermore, attachments are more easily
made with those who are sensitive, for example recognising and responding
appropriately to an infant’s needs, rather than those spending the most time with a
child.
Schaffer’s stages of attachment
Stage Age Description of behaviour
Stage 1: 0-8 weeks Behaviour between humans and non-
Asocial human objects quite similar
Happier in presence of humans than
when alone
Preference for familiar individuals
Stage 2: 2-7 months Smile more at familiar than
Indiscriminate attachment unfamiliar faces
Recognise specific faces
Prefer faces to non-faces
Recognise and prefer familiar people
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