This document contains detailed 16 mark essay plans for every 16 mark question that could come up in the attachment section of the paper 1 AQA psychology paper. It includes AO1 and AO3 and having been marked by psychology teachers, many would be awarded 16/16 dependent on how they are written out. ...
AO1 The differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups. In
attachment, we are concerned with the differences in proportions of different attachment
types.
STUDY- Van Ljzendoorn:
- Conducted a study looking at the proportions of secure, insecure- resistant and
insecure- avoidant attachments in a range of countries as well as the differences
within a culture.
- They conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies in 8 different countries which all used
the strange situation and weighted them based on sample size.
- They found that there was a wide variation between proportions of attachment types
in different studies but there was a greater difference between attachment types
within cultures than between cultures.
- In all countries, secure was most common, insecure avoidant attachments were most
common in Germany and insecure- resistant attachments were most common in
Japan.
AO3 1. Italian study- Simonella et al conducted a study in Italy to see whether the
proportions of babies of different attachment types still matched those in previous
studies. They found lower rates of secure attachments and researchers suggested that
this was due to the increase in young mothers who had to work long hours. This
suggests that cultural changes can make a dramatic difference to patterns of
attachments.
2. Korean Study- Jin et al conducted a study and found that when the Strange Situation
was used to assess 87 Korean infants aged 6 months old, the vast majority of
insecurely attached children were actually classed as insecure resistant, as opposed to
insecure avoidant. Therefore, since this pattern is similar to that of Japan, this
suggests that similarities in child-rearing practices are influential in establishing
patterns of attachment.
3. The strange situation has been criticised for being culture bound as it was developed
by an American researcher using American participants so this questions whether this
method of assessment can be applied to other cultures. Therefore the idea that lack
of separation anxiety indicated an insecure- avoidant attachment could be an
example of imposed etic as in Germany, this is normal and viewed as independence.
4. Findings from Van Ljzendoorn are considered reliable as it used a large sample size.
This replicability also increases the validity of the conclusions as there is less chance
that results are due to chance.
5. The study may lack ecological validity i.e. it did not measure what it intended to
measure. The study attempted to measure cultural variations in attachment through
studying different countries. However, multiple different cultures can exist within the
same country, and this cultural variation was unlikely to be acknowledged. For
example, Sagi and van Izjendoorn found that rural areas had an overrepresentation of
insecure-resistant individuals, whereas urban areas had similar attachment patterns
to the Western world. This therefore suggests that van Izjendoorn and Kronenberg
did not account for such differences and so are more likely to be studying differences
between countries of attachment patterns, rather than culture.
, Attachment Essay Plans
Ainsworth’s Strange Situations
AO1 Ainsworth conducted a lab study which uses behaviours which indicate attachment to assess
the attachment type of a child using a controlled observation using a two way mirror.
Behaviours:
Stranger anxiety- does the child display anxiety and distress when approached by a stranger.
Separation anxiety- does the child display distress if the mother leaves the room.
Exploring from base- does the child use the mother as a base and feel confident to explore.
Reunion response- how the child reacts to the mother on reunion.
Attachment Types
Secure- the child will show moderate levels of stranger and separation anxiety, will be happy
on reunion with the mother and feel confident using the mother as a base but also exploring.
Insecure resistance- the child will show high levels of stranger and separation anxiety, cannot
be soothed on reunion and does not feel comfortable leaving the mother,
Insecure avoidant- low levels of stranger and separation anxiety, makes little effort to
contact the mother on reunion, does not use the mother as a base and confident exploring.
AO3 1. This lacks population validity as it only uses a sample of participants from western
cultures meaning the assessment is culture bound. The idea of secure attachment in
one culture may differ dramatically to other cultures E.g collectivist cultures so may
be given an attachment style that would be classed as insecure using the strange
situation, but in that culture, would be considered secure. Meaning the results suffer
from culture bias and lack ecological validity so they are less able to be generalised
to other cultures, limiting its practical application.
2. It has good practical application as it is a high respected diagnostic tool to measure
attachment types in children. For example, this is used in other research in
attachment.
3. This is a lab study so it has high control over extraneous and confounding variables
meaning the study has good internal validity and the study can therefore be easily
replicated, and the findings are highly reliable, increasing the confidence in the
results and showing a cause-and-effect relationship. However, as it is a lab study, it
lacks ecological validity as there is low mundane realism so this is not representative
of real life and therefore the results cannot be generalised.
4. There are ethical issues associated with this study as some of the babies became
highly distressed, meaning many experiences psychological harm which is unethical as
it could cause long term psychological harm, all for the sake of one study. Despite the
ethical issues not affecting the validity of the results, a cost- benefit analysis must be
done to assess whether the benefits of the study outweigh the costs.
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