Year 2/A2 AQA A-Level Psychology exam revision notes for the option attachment. This is on an A3 sized paper digital paper. This has been simplified to make it easier to pick out important information and revise key notes.
Reciprocity: To reciprocate is to return in kind or to give and take mutually. Explanations of attachment:
This is a type of caregiver-infant interaction it refers to responding to the action Learning theory: Measuring attachments
of another with a similar action such as alert phases where they signal they are Classical conditioning – UCS = food UCR = baby feels Strange situation: Ainsworth
ready for interaction. Facial expressions and verbal signals. pleasure. 100 middle class American infants and their mothers
NS = mother + food (UCS) UCR = From this she categorised different types of attachment; secure, insecure -
Synchronised: If two things are synchronised they happen at the same time. pleasure avoidant and insecure-resistant
This is a type of caregiver infant interaction, interact by mirroring. CS = mother CR =baby feels
pleasure Behavioural categories were used to identify attachments
Meltzoff and Moore: UCS = naturally occurring; reflex response Observations were made and recorded by Ainsworth
Controlled observations were infants as young as 2-3 weeks old were shown an Mother is associated with pleasure
adult model who displayed one of three facial expressions or hand movements. Baby now feels pleasure in the mother’s presence even without Behavioural categories; exploration, separation behaviour, stranger anxiety and
Initially dummy = in mouth, then dummy removed and expression was filmed food reunion behaviour
Association between the infant behaviour and that of the adult model.
So young rules out the possibility of this response having been learnt and suggest Operant – ‘CUPBOARD LOVE’ 8 stages each of 3 minutes
it is innate.
Primary drive; hunger Secure: is associated with healthy emotional and social development
Motivation = to reduce these drives Insecure: show disturbed behaviour during separation and reunion. Tend to have
Stages of attachment:
Food = pleasure (positive reinforcement) and reduces less successful relationships with peers, lovers and their own children. 2 types
Schaffer and Emerson:
discomfort hunger (drive reduction) 1. Type A; avoidant
Longitudinal study on 60 working-class, Glaswegian infants (5-23weeks).
Food = primary reinforcer and reduces primary drives 2. Type C: resistant
Visited every 4 weeks for roughly a year.
Mothers asked questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven Food = doesn’t come without mother
everyday separation (demonstrate separation anxiety) and stranger anxiety. Mother = secondary reinforcer – even without food, reduces
discomfort Secure (B) Insecure Avoidant (A) Insecure Re
25-32 weeks yro, 50% babies = specific attachment towards a particular figure
(C)
40 weeks 80%babies had a specific attachment and 30% = multiple
Willingness to High, but seek High, but don’t show a Low
Developed 4 stages Explanations of attachment: explore proximity and secure secure base or don’t
Bowlby monotropic theory: base/regularly return seek proximity
Stage of Age Description Key A – Adaptive (important for survival) Stranger anxiety Moderate Low High
attachment terms S – Social releasers, elicit caregiving from adults
I – innately programmed to form attachments, process is Separation Moderate Low High
1 Asocial stage First few weeks - Similar response to human Recipro
biological to engage in social behaviours such as crying. anxiety
and non-humans city
- Reciprocity and interactional Interacti Innate physical features such as big eyes/cute faces Behaviour on Pleasure, seeking Ignore Rejecting,
C – occurs during in the critical period, which is the first 2 reunion seeking
synchrony onal
years of life (ambivalent
synchro
M – Monotropic attachment is the first and most important behaviour)
ny
attachment according to Bowlby. First relationship is at the Likely caregiver’s Comforting, sensitive Rejecting Inconsistent
2 Indiscriminate 2-7 months - Prefer humans to non-humans Stranger
top of the baby’s hierarchy behaviour
attachment - Distinguish between familiar anxiety
and non-familiar objects Separati I – internal working model, is created and is a template for Percentage of 66% 22% 12%
- Do not show stranger or on future relationships. An infant’s experiences can cause a children in
separation anxiety anxiety negative internal working model this means that the infant Ainsworth’s study
3 Specific From 7 months - Specific attachment to their Primary will go to have difficulty with relationships in later
childhood and as an adult
attachment primary attachment figure attachm Attachment Caregiver behaviour
- Stranger (begins to show) and ent C – schema about how to conduct relationships and what
separation anxiety figure to expect which is the continuity hypothesis meaning that Secure Sensitive, emotionally responsive, supportive
- Joy when PAF returns very early life experiences during infancy have an impact
upon the later child and adult behaviour Insecure Rejecting – often does not respond adequate to
4 Multiple After the primary - Form 2ndary attachments Second
attachments attachment is - Separation anxiety when ary E – evolutionary process avoidant eh child’s needs.
formed, usually 2ndary attach leaves attachm INADEUATE OR LACK OF MONOTROPIC ATTACHMENT Insecure Inconsistent – sometimes responds to the child’s
about one year ents CAUSED PROBLEMS IN LATER LIFE
resistant needs
INTERNAL WORKING MODEL: AN INTERNAL MENTAL
Maternal de
Animal studies: REPRESENTATION OF RELATIONSHIPS IT ACTS AS A TEMPLATE
Lorenz: FOR ALL FUTURE RELATINSHIPS
Bowlby’s ma
Imprinting: An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother Without warm
which takes place during a specific time in development CRITICAL PERIOD: A PERIOD OF TH EFIRST 2 YEARS OF LIFE template ne
Procedure: WHICH BOLWBY SAID IT WAS CRITICAL FOR FORMING developmen
Clutch of geese eggs and divided them into two groups. ATTACHMENTS IF IT IS NOT FORMED IT CAN HAVE NEGAITVE 1. D
1. Mother – imprinted on Mother COSEQUENCES 2. C
2. Incubator – imprinted on Lorenz 3. A
Cultural variations in attachment
Findings: 4. P
Cultural bias
1. Imprinted on mother, followed mother around 5. A
Universal or etic (apply to everyone)
2. Imprinted on Lorenz followed Lorenz around. No recognition of
Cultural bound or emic (one culture)
biological mother, geese called Martina used to sleep on his bed First 2 years =
every night. Mate preferences = mating displays to humans over
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
geese Bowlby’s 44
Strange situation to measure attachment types
Conclusion: group of 44 c
32 studies from 8 different countries – meta-analysis
Is a “critical period” for imprinting Frequent sep
To see if there were inter-cultural differences and intra-cultural differences
Harlow Czech twins:
Secure = most common, highest = GB 75% and lowest = China 50%
Procedure: 2 identical tw
West Germany = highest at Type A at 35%
8 baby rhesus monkeys, studied 165 days. 2 mothers: months and
Japan = highest type C at 27%
1. Wire mother which dispensed milk - G
Biggest variation within cultures; USA = 46% and 90% another
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