AQA A-Level Psychology | Attachment | 16 markers revision summary notes | Full revision notes on every page of the attachment topic of Psychology, based on the AQA A-Level revision guide.
Caregiver-infant interactions 16 marker
Babies and caregivers have intense and meaningful interactions, and the quality of these
interactions is associated with how successful their development of attachment is. The two main
kinds of interaction are reciprocity and interactional synchrony.
Reciprocity is when the baby and caregiver take turns carrying out interactions and responses. The
caregiver might respond to a baby smiling by saying something, and the baby then might laugh in
response. Mothers successfully respond to babies two-thirds of the time. From three months
onwards the interactions become more intense and reciprocal. Babies have active roles in starting
reciprocal interactions. Traditionally it was thought that only caregivers could cause a response from
their baby, however, studies have shown that babies can start reciprocal interactions, causing a
response from their caregiver.
Interaction synchrony is where the baby and caregiver carry out interactions simultaneously, where
they mirror each other's actions. Meltzoff and Moore found that babies can display interactional
synchrony from as young as two weeks old. A study showed this. Mothers displayed certain facial
expressions, and the babies' facial expressions would be filmed. The babies' expressions very
commonly copy their mothers'. Isabella et al. assessed 30 mothers and their babies to see how
synchronised they were, as well as measure the strength of attachment. They found that high levels
of synchrony caused better mother-baby attachments.
A strength is that the research was filmed. Often, mother-baby interactions are filmed from multiple
angles, meaning the researchers can go back and revisit them to check they haven't missed anything.
The babies aren't aware they are being observed, so their behaviour doesn't change, which tends to
be the biggest issue with observational research. This means that the studies tend to all have good
validity and reliability.
A limitation is that it's hard to understand what the babies' hand and facial signals mean and
whether they are displaying interactional synchrony. Babies are not very coordinated, so their
movements tend to be small. This means that it's hard to interpret the movements of babies
because researchers are unsure whether a hand movement was copying their mother or just a fluke.
This means that some particular interactions might not be meaningful between the caregiver and
the baby.
Another limitation is that there might not be a connection between interactions and the attachment
of mothers and babies. Feldmann said that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are just
interactions that happen at the same time, but they don't mean anything. It might be true that they
have been observed in babies, but they might not be useful or have a purpose. This means that we
can't be sure whether they are important in development.
However, a counterpoint is that Isabella et al. found that the more babies that showed reciprocity
and interactional synchrony, the stronger the attachment was, as she found in her study. This means
that there might be evidence that the interactions cause stronger attachments.
, Schaffer's stages of attachment 16 marker
There are 4 stages of attachment. The first stage is called the pre-attachment stage, which takes
place in the first few weeks of a baby's life. This is when their behaviour towards people and
inanimate objects is similar. Babies sometimes show a preference for familiar people, and they feel
more easily calmed by them. The second stage is the indiscriminate stage, which takes place from
two to seven months. Babies display observable social behaviour, and have a preference for and
recognise familiar people. Babies don't show stranger anxiety or separation anxiety. The baby's
behaviour tends to be the same for everyone. The third stage is discriminate attachment, which is
from seven months. The baby will display stranger and separation anxiety if they are separated from
one particular person and they have formed a specific attachment with their primary attachment
figure. This figure is usually the person who interacts with the baby the most and responds to their
signals. This is the mother 65% of the time. The final stage is the multiple attachment stage. The
baby forms secondary attachments with other adults. Shaffer and Emerson's study showed that 29%
of babies formed a secondary attachment a few months after forming a primary attachment. Most
babies have formed multiple attachments by the time they are 1 year old.
Schaffer and Emerson's study of attachment took 60 babies from working-class families in Glasgow.
The researcher would visit their home every month for one year, and then again at 18 months.
Separation anxiety was measured by the researchers asking the mothers about their child's
behaviour when they were left alone. Stranger anxiety was also measured by the researchers asking
the mothers about what happened when strangers interacted with the babies. The babies developed
attachments through the stages Shaffer came up with. The discriminate attachment stage tended to
be people who interacted with the babies the most, and who were sensitive to their needs and facial
expressions. This wasn't always the person the baby spent the most time with.
A strength of Schaffer and Emerson's study was that it has external validity. Most of the observations
were made by the parents during ordinary everyday activities. The alternative would have been that
a researcher was in the home all the time, which could have made the babies feel nervous or act
differently. This means that the study has high external validity since the participants are likely to
have been behaving naturalistically.
However a counterpoint is that the mothers might have been biased when recalling their baby's
behaviours, or they might not have remembered the information properly. This means that the
babies might have been accurately recorded.
A limitation is that there isn't much evidence for the pre-attachment stage. When babies are young,
it is hard to measure what they are doing because they are immobile and they have poor
coordination. This makes it hard to see if they show signs of attachment in the early stage. This
means that babies might be social and have stronger attachments with certain people, but
researchers just don't notice it.
Another strength is a real-world application to day-care. In the pre-attachment and indiscriminate
attachment stages, the babies can be comforted by anyone. If a child starts day-care in the
discriminate attachment stage, having care from an unfamiliar adult might cause distress and long-
term problems. This means that Schaffer and Emerson's stages can help babies make day-care
decisions.
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