These notes are mainly focused on the content rather than exam techniques, etc. However, all key studies are summarised in specially designed tables that link AO1 and AO3 in exactly the same way as you would write on your exam. There are also small studies that serve as supporting / challenging evi...
Attachment - a close emotional relationship between two people, characterised by mutual
a ection and a desire to maintain proximity.
Features:
• Separation anxiety
• Seeking proximity
• Attachment gure = safe base → allows to explore
• Joy at reunion
• Stranger anxiety
Scha er & Emerson: collected data by considering separation anxiety + stranger anxiety → 4
stages in the development of attachment:
1) Asocial stage (0 - 6w) - similar responses + no speci c people
2) Indiscriminate attachments (6w - 6m) - more sociable, prefer human company yet no speci c
individuals + no stranger distress
3) Speci c attachments (7m…) - show all features
4) Multiple attachments (10/11m) - after the rst one is made (e.g. siblings)
* It is not the mother but the one who gives the most care.
LEARNING THEORIES OF ATTACHMENT
A. Classical Conditioning - learning through association, no thinking
Food → Pleasure
UCS UCR
Food + Person → Pleasure
UCS NS UCR
Person → Pleasure → Attachment is formed
B. Operant Conditioning - baby cries in response to feelings of discomfort. For a parent: crying =
unpleasant, parent feeds + cuddles → negative reinforcement. For a baby: crying → reward →
positive reinforcement. It is the relief from discomfort / the pleasure of feeding that is
rewarding for the baby but over time the caregiver comes to produce the same feelings via
association.
AO3:
+ -
Useful for parenting skills Scha er & Emerson: babies don't always
attach to person who feeds them
Does not explain attachment
Attachment is innate (e.g. Bowlby)
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, Unit 3 Section A Developmental Psychology
Lorenz’s gees: gees follow the rst moving object they see during a 12-17 hr critical period after
hatching (imprinting) → suggests that attachment is innate + preprogrammed genetically.
Harlow’s monkeys
1) Infant monkey reared in isolation
- Engaged in bizarre behaviour (e.g. clutching their own bodies)
- Aggression towards other monkeys when placed together
- Unable to communicate/socialise + being bullied
- Indulged in self-mutilation, tearing hair out, scratching, biting themselves
Conclusion: Privation (never forming an attachment bond) is permanently damaging
2) Infant monkeys reared with surrogate mothers
- More time spent with cloth mother (wired if only hungry)
- Refuge with the cloth mother if frightened (= safe base)
- Explore more when with cloth mother
- Compared to those reared with normal mothers: more timid, no interaction, were easily bullied,
di culty with mating, females = inadequate mothers themselves (only if more than 90 days →
less than 90 days e ects could be reversed if placed in a normal environment)
Conclusions: early maternal deprivation → emotional damage but its impact could be reversed if
an attachment was made before the end of critical period.
O’CONNOR’S IDEAS ABOUT ATTACHMENT: SLT
• SLT emphasises on the role of imitation - children see parents & other siblings in a loving way →
imitates their behaviour
• Hay & Vespo: attachments develop because parents teach their children to love them through:
- Modelling: copying the a ectionate behaviour that they see
- Direct instructions: parents teach their children to be a ectionate
- Social facilitations: parents watch their children + encourage appropriate behaviours
AO3:
+ -
Harlow’s monkeys: those who grew up without Durkin: SLT cannot explain why attachments
parents were bad at parenting BUT still got are so emotionally intense
better over time with no instruction
Useful → parents can learn how to be a better Lorenz: innate
role model
2
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, Unit 3 Section A Developmental Psychology
O’CONNOR’S STUDY ON SLT INTERVENTIONS IN PARENTING
AO1 AO3
All pre- and post treatment parent-child + did not know if it was experimental / control
interaction data were collected by 2 trained group → reduced researcher bias, which
developmental researchers blind to makes the study more valid
intervention status
Home-visits: 3 tasks videotaped, e.g. in one 10 - arti cial environment → demand
min task parent + child were instructed to characteristics from parents
construct LEGO (only verbal instruction was
allowed)
Sample: randomised controlled trial (randomly + very likely to be representative sample, as it
assigns ptts into groups); 672 children + 174 was chosen randomly → generalisable to the
parents; strati ed sampling (2:1 high risk, 1:2 target population (e.g. children and parents)
low risk)
DV = likert scale (level & intensity of parent - Might be inaccurate measure of attachment
child interaction quality), role play (The → everything was interpreted subjectively →
Manchester Attachment Story Task) decreases validity of the study
Results:
• Parents from treatment group became more sensitive in their responses to the children
• Showed more positive responses to the children
• NO e ect on the attachment narrative of the children
Conclusions:
• SLT interventions can improve attachment behaviour of parents which may have an e ect on
the quality of the relationship between a parent + a child.
BOWLBY’S THEORY OF ATTACHMENT (BASED ON DARWIN, FREUD)
The evolutionary approach
• Infants are born with a drive to become attached to a caregiver because attachment is adaptive
and good for reproduction + survival, because:
1) The infant is more likely to be well cared for when young + defenceless
2) Attachments form the basis for later social relationships → provide a template for how to have
relationships with other people and this promotes survival + reproduction (The Continuity
Hypothesis)
• Infants have innate social releasers (e.g. smiling/crying) → elicit caregiving
• Attachments form because infants and caregivers interact
• Monotropy - one special attachment to primary caregiver who responds to infants’ social
releasers and interacts the most.
• This leads to an internal working model - attachment with primary caregiver is important for
emotional and social development as it has emotional intensity → develops an internal working
model of relationships based on this rst attachment (=schema). The infant internalises this
model - primary caregiver’s behaviour will be expected from others.
• Attachment is a biological process, which takes place during a critical period of development
( rst 2.5 years) or not at all.
3
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