ATTACHMENT
Attachment is an emotional bond between two people. It is a two-way process
that endures over time. The attachment that an infant forms with the primary
caregiver (usually mother) forms the basis for emotional and social
development. Infants depend on their primary attachment figures not only for
food, water, warmth and relief from pain or discomfort but also for security.
Attachment with secondary caregivers (e.g. father, grandparent, sibling) also
has some importance in the way in which an infant develops.
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS:
RECIPROCITY: The finely tuned coordination of behaviours between mother
and infant during speaking and listening. Both parties are able to generate a
response from one another almost like a conversation. Signals the infant
gives, allows the carer to anticipate the child's responses and respond
appropriately. Such interactions between the infant and carer facilitate and
strengthen the attachment bond and help development of communication in
later life. Tronick et al (1979) found that when mother who were engaging
with their babies were asked to stop moving and remain static, the babies
would remain puzzled and distressed as the babies were anticipating
reciprocal responses for their own behaviours.
INTERACTIONAL SYNCHRONY: Is the matching of actions between two people;
when a smile occurs in one person, it triggers a smile in another person. Infants
imitate specific hand and facial gestures from their carer (usually mother) and do
this in a coordinated (synchronised way).
Meltzoff and Moore (1997) carried out studies with 18 babies in their
first month of life. They found that babies aged 12 to 21 days old could
imitate both facial and manual gestures. They argued that the ability to
imitate serves as an important building block for later social and
cognitive development.
Meltzoff and Moore’s full study (research study for caregiver infant interaction): It
was a controlled observation whereby an adult displayed one of three facial
expressions or gestures. An observer watched video tapes of the infants response
in real time, slow motion and sometimes frame by frame if necessary. An
independent observer who had to identify the child’s responses, who had no
knowledge of what the infant had just seen. All observers were asked to note
instances of responses from infant using the following behavioral categories:
mouth opening, closing mouth, sticking tongue out, putting back in mouth. Each
observer scored tapes twice so that both intra-observer reliability and inter-
observer reliability could be calculated. All scores were greater than 9.2.
A03: One major issue into observing caregiver-infant interactions is testing infant
behaviour is incredibly difficult as their facial expressions are almost continuously
changing. Behaviours observed in the Meltzoff & Moore study may lack validity as
expressions involving sticking their tongue out, yawning, smiling, opening their
mouths and movements of hands occur constantly in young babies. This makes it
incredibly difficult to distinguish between general behaviour and actual
interactional synchrony. Therefore such theories may lack internal validity due to
not necessarily measuring interactional synchrony.
A03: A great strength to most observations of mother-infant interactions is
that they are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and
infant being filmed. For example, Meltzoff and Moore’s observational study
was highly controlled by making sure to record behaviours in real-time, slow
motion and even frame by frame if necessary. This ensures that we can
, capture fine detail as well as being able to have a kept record to analyse from
later. This is a strength to the research as its supportive data that displays in
fine detail how infants display interactional synchrony to increase the validity
of the explanation.
A03: Deyong et al, who observed infants when they interacted with two
objects, have also provided more research support. One simulated tongue
movements while the other simulated the opening and closing of the mouth.
They found infants within the median age of 5 to 12 weeks made little
interactional synchrony or response to the objects. This suggests infants do
display specific social responses to human interactions as reciprocity and
interactional synchrony suggests, as they do not simply imitate everything,
which increases the validity of the explanation.
A03: Research support has also been provided, which can help with real life
applications when it comes to parenting. Belsky et al found that infants
securely attached at 12 months had been involved in a middle amount of
reciprocity. Those with a low levels or high levels of reciprocity were
insecurely attached. Belsky argues that a middle level of reciprocity may
indicate a caregiver who is sensitive to the infant but doesn’t always keep
pressing the infant to interact with them whey they need to take a break from
stimulation. This suggests the importance of understanding reciprocity and
may provide a basis to support effective parenting.
MULTIPULE ATTACHMENT AND THE ROLE OF THE FATHER:
Role of secondary attachments: - Siblings: support, rivalry, advice -
Grandparents: comfort, social development – Nursery Teacher: learning of
rules – Friends: social development
THE ROLE OF THE FATHER: Schaffer and Emerson found that fathers were far
less likely to be primary attachment figures than mothers. It is possible that
most men are just not psychologically equipped to form an intense
attachment because they lack the emotional sensitivity that women offer. This
may be due to biological or social factors. For instance, female hormone
oestrogen underlies caring behaviour so women, generally, are more oriented
towards interpersonal goals than men. Gender stereotypes in some cultures
and pockets of society also continue to affect the role of the father as it is
seen as feminine to be sensitive to the needs of children and again encourage
masculine behaviour.
In some ways, fathers interact with their newborn babies in very ways to
mothers, for example, ensuring they are warm. Whilst fathers show similar
behaviours, their behavioral ‘style’ appears to be different. They are more
consistently involved in play than caretaking behaviours, and their play tends
to be more stimulating and unpredictable than mothers, who tend towards
comforting.
A03: (IMPORTANCE OF THE FATHER) Whilst the emotional development of a
child is often seen as a consequence of the attachment to the mother, the
attachment to the father appear to have specific consequences. For instance,
Varissimo found that the quality of the relationship between father and toddler
significantly correlated with the number of friends they had at preschool, and
appeared to be more important than the attachment between a toddler and
their mother in subsequent childhood relationships. The possible link here is
the fathers role may encourage social skills and connections through them
being a playmate themselves. Therefore, the father’s attachment may not be
so much inferior to the mother’s, it may simple just be different.
