Attachment- a close two-way, enduring emotional bond to another person.
Caregiver-infant interactions-
Reciprocity- a description of how two people interact, interaction is
reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and
elect a response from the other.
Mothers typically respond to infant alertness around two-thirds of the time-
Feldman.
Communication with caregiver happens in many different ways:
Bodily contact- help to form attachment bond, especially immediately after
birth.
Mimicking- infants are able to copy caregiver which suggests its a biological
device to aid attachment
Caregiverese- adults who interact with infants use high pitched voice which
is song like which helps communication and bonds.
Klaus- compared mums who had extended physical contact with their babies
lasting several hours a day who only had contact when feeding, ones with
higher physical contact were found to cuddle their babies more which leads
to a closer bond- real life application to hospital contact.
Interactional synchrony-mother and infant reflect both the actions and
emotions of the other and do in a co-ordinated way (synchronised
swimming).
Meltzoff and Moore- found that infants between 2-3 weeks old mimic adults
facial expressions- videoed- innate tendency.
Isabella et al- infants with secure attachments demonstrated more evidence
for interactional synchrony
AO3
- real life application in Klaus research (which had been repeated with
middle-class mothers too)- place mother and infant in same room after
birth
- Moore- filmed- can analyse later
- Hard to know what is happening when observing infants as infants
perspective can’t be seen
- Interactional synchrony not found in all cultures- Kenyan mothers little
physical contact but still have a high proportion of secure attachment
, 2
Stages of attachment- Schaffer and Emerson
Method:
- 60 babies from Glasgow, majority from working-class, visited every month
for a year, observations and interviews with mothers, measured by
separation protest and and stranger anxiety
Findings:
- At 18 months 87% had multiple attachments, most showed separation
protest at 6-8 months and stranger anxiety a month later, stronger
attached infants had mother who responded to their needs quickly.
Evalaution
- external validity and mundane realism
- Longitudinal study- internal validity as do not have confounding variables
of individual differences.
- Limited sample- can’t generalise
Asocial stage (first few weeks)- behaviour towards people and objects is
similar, show some preference for familiar adults, happier in presence of
humans.
Indiscriminate stage (2-7 months)- preference for people over objects, prefer
familiar adults, don’t usually show separation/stranger anxiety, allow
strangers to handle them.
Specific attachment (from 7 months)- start to show stranger anxiety,
separation anxiety, primary attachment figure.
Multiple attachment (9 months onwards)- secondary attachments, 29% in
Schaffer’s study was within a month of forming specific attachment, stranger
anxiety weakens.
AO3-
- hard to measure true attachment, if a child cries when a adult leaves the
room doesn’t = attachment e.g. upset when playmate leaves but not
attached.
- Limited behavioural measures of attachment in Schaffer- just stranger and
separation anxiety.
- Problem studying asocial stage- babies immobile so lack of observable
behaviour.
- Difference in cultures- where multiple attachments is norm- believe babies
form multiple attachments at start.
Role of the father
- Grossman- longitudinal study- looked at both’s parents behaviour and its
relationship on children’s attachment into teens- quality of infant
attachment with mothers related to child’s attachment in teens- father
, 3
attachment less important but quality of fathers play was related to their
attachment- father has different role of play and stimulation not nurturing.
- Societal change- norm for women to have a job- 10% of males caring for
child while partner works- bigger role in parenting.
- Geiger- preferred to interact with father when in positive emotional state0
seek stimulation and negative to mothers to seek comfort.
Several factors that have been identified that affect the relationship in infant
and father:
Degree of sensitivity- more sensitivity to children’s needs.
Type of attachment with own parents- single-parent fathers tend to form
similar attachments with their children that they had with their own
parents.
Marital intimacy- the degree of intimacy with partner affects the type of
attachment he will have with his children.
Supportive co-parenting- amount of support father gives to his partner in
helping to care for his children affects the type of attachment he will have
with his children.
Animal studies- non-human species- breed faster- see effect on more than one
generation.
Lorenz
Imprinting- a form of attachment where offspring follow the first large
moving object.
Procedure- goose eggs into two batches, one hatched naturally with mother
and one hatched in incubator where the first moving object
- marked all goslings so he could determine how they were hatched
- Immediately after birth- natural followed mother and incubated followed
Lorenz- seemed to be irreversible- no bond with natural mother
- Critical period- when imprinting needs to take place- between 4 and 25
hours after hatching.
- Sexual imprinting- birds imprinted on humans displayed courtship towards
humans, case study described a peacock which was first moving object was
tortoise- courtship to tortoises.
AO3-
- supports Bowlby’s idea of critical period in human babies
- Extrapolation issues- can’t be generalised to humans- humans show more
emotions
- Observations have been questioned- research suggests imprinting isn’t
permanent- Guiton found that chickens that imprinted on yellow gloves
eventually grew out of it
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