Lecture notes
Attachment
- Module
- Attachment
- Institution
- AQA
These notes are an introduction to attachment as a topic.
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
Content preview
-Attachment:-Attachment- an emotional bond.
-Caregiver- infant interactions:
Attachment- early in the infant's life two-way communication develops between itself and
its caregiver. This process of each responding to the other builds emotional bonds and
ultimately results in the infant showing signs of distress when separated.
Types of attachment:
Interactional synchrony- from as early as two weeks adults and babies respond in time to
sustain communication, for example when a mother makes a soothing noise and baby
moves gently in response. Emotion responses reflect each other.
Reciprocity/turn taking- interaction is continuous and reflects both ways between adult and
infant. Both respond to each other's actions and can initiate communication.
Imitation- infant mimics the adult's behaviour exactly e.g., smiling.
Sensitive responsiveness- adult pays close attention to infant’s communication and responds
in an appropriate manner e.g., changing.
Caregiverese- adult modulates their voice, slowing it down, raising the pitch and making it
song like (baby talk).
Body contact- physical contact, often skin to skin is seen as important in bonding especially
in the first few hours of life e.g., breastfeeding.
-Evaluation:
Melzoff and Moore (1977)- imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates.
Infants between 12 and 21 days had an experimenter display facial gestures such as sticking
tongue out, opening mouth in shock and manual gestures such as opening and closing the
hand. Recordings of infant's responses were recorded and rated by people blind to the
experiment. Results showed that these infants imitated the experimenter. Suggests that the
ability to observe and imitate is active very early in infants, potentially to develop an
attachment bond with the care giver.
Papusek et al (1991)- cross cultural research on caregiverese. Showed the tendency to
produce a special high pitched baby talk is common across American, Chinese and German
mothers. Suggests that aspects of caregiver infant interactions in developing attachment are
not culturally biased and potentially are innate behaviours with infants and caregivers.
Several modern studies use multiple observers providing inter-rater reliability and a system
of video cameras to document and slow down micro-sequences of interactions between
infant and caregiver.
Infants are unable to communicate their thoughts or emotions, findings depend on
inferences about internal mental states based on observations of the infant's behaviour. This
is unscientific and some studies could suffer from observer bias, an interpretation that
matches the observer's preconceptions. Also, researchers are unable to claim intentionality,
that imitation behaviour is deliberate it may be an unconscious automatic response.
Social sensitivity is a concern when investigating child rearing techniques, some women may
find their life choices criticised, such as mothers who return to the workplace shortly after
giving birth. Also, parent may blame themselves if their attachment is not strong or children
do not develop according to models.
-Attachment figures:
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller sunnydays. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for £4.79. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
80796 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy revision notes and other study material for 14 years now
