A detailed set of AQA Psychology Attachment revision notes including description and analysis. Written for the NEW 2015 Specification. Suitable for Paper 1 AQA Psychology. These helped me achieve A/A* quality work
ATTACHMENT
Caregiver-Infant Interactions
Bond: A set of feelings that ties one person to another
Attachment: An emotional reciprocal relationship between two people shown in their
behaviour
Attachment Behaviour
SEEKING PROXIMITY: Infant may watch caregiver carefully and cry (crawl if can) if
they move too far away.
SEPARATION ANXIETY: Infant may show distress when the caregiver leaves the room
for even a short period
JOY ON REUNION: Infant may welcome back attachment figure by clinging onto them
STRANGER ANXIETY: Infant will show wariness of those not known to them
Interactional Synchrony (imitation)
Infant and caregiver imitate/mirror each other’s behaviour and emotion
at the same time
E.g. Father smiles at baby, baby imitates and smiles too
Short-Term Benefits: Survival – form bonds with adults who will
nurture/protect
Long-Term Benefits: Emotional Relationships – Acts as a template for
later relationships
Reciprocity
Two-way mutual process where each party responds to the other’s signals to sustain
interaction
E.g. Baby cries so mother picks it up
Meltzoff & Moore: Looked at interactional synchrony in 2-3 week old infants and
found that they imitated specific facial and hand gestures Association between
infant behaviour and adult behaviour
Klaus & Kennell: Investigated strength of bonds between mother and infant using
experimental group
Mothers had an hour longer skin-to-skin contact after birth & spent 5 hours longer
with babies over 3 days
Experimental group formed closer bonds with their babies which produced
noticeable differences ~1 yr
Individual Differences: Isabella et al found infant-caregiver pairs with stronger
attachments demonstrated more interactional synchrony Cannot establish cause
& effect
Lack of Consistent Evidence: Failure to replicate Meltzoff & Moore’s findings
Challenges reliability of interactional synchrony as a key aspect in securing the
attachment
Schaffer & Emerson’s Stage Theory of Attachment
Asocial:
, Specific:
Methodology was rich in detail and high in
ecological validity as babies were observed in
their homes
Low temporal validity: Reflects 1960s era (mothers don’t work & fathers don’t
nurture)
Challenged Accuracy: Infants are more social than first thought & research is
problematic (must interpret behaviour.)
Role of the Father
The father’s role is more focussed on play and stimulation rather than nurturing
Factors Affecting Father-Child Relationships
DEGREE OF SENSITIVITY - Secure attachments found in fathers who show more
sensitivity to child’s needs
ATTACHMENT WITH OWN PARENTS - Single fathers tend to form similar attachments
with their children
MARITAL INTIMACY - Degree of intimacy a father has with his partner affects
relationship with his children
SUPPORTING CO-PARENTING - Amount of support father gives to his partner in affects
attachment with child
Grossman: Looked at parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the
children’s attachment in adolescence Quality of father’s attachment was related
to adolescent attachment, not mother’s
Lamb: Found children often prefer interacting with father when in a positive
emotional state and mothers are preferred during distress (seeking comfort)
Fathers are playmates but only in certain conditions
Golombok: Found children growing up in same-sex parent families do not develop
differently Father’s role as secondary attachment figure is not important
Inconsistent findings: Researchers are interested in different research questions.
Some are interested in understanding the role fathers have as a secondary
attachment figure, whereas others are concerned with the father as a primary
attachment figure. The former find fathers behave differently to mothers whereas
the latter find that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role
Animal Studies
Animal Study: Study carried out on non-human animals rather than humans for
ethical or practical reasons
LORENZ (Imprinting)
Divided fertile goose eggs into two groups
1. Eggs placed in incubator – Lorenz was the first moving object seen
by the chicks
2. Eggs placed with mother – Mother was first moving object seen by
the chicks
Chicks in Group 1 followed him like he was their mother. In
adulthood, they displayed mating displays to him and ignored the
other geese
Chicks in Group 2 followed their mother and performed mating rituals to other
geese in adult life
The geese seemed to have a Critical Period of 12-17 hours in which they needed to
imprint (form an attachment) or else they never would
, Guiton: Found chicks that were exposed to a rubber glove for feeding during the
first few weeks became imprinted on the glove Young animals imprint during the
critical period (attachment is not innate)
Influenced Bowlby’s idea of the critical period in human babies which led to
improvements in childcare
Non-human research needs confirmation from human research before it leads to
human application as human behaviour is governed by conscious decisions and
animals are not
Suggests Attachment is Biologically Controlled: Imprinting is irreversible, and
learned behaviour can be changed by experience, therefore it must be biologically
controlled
HARLOW’S MONKEYS
8 Orphaned monkeys were presented with
1. Wire mother who feeds them
2. Cloth mother who provides comfort but no food
3. No mother
Monkeys initially went for wire mother for food but then
went straight to cloth mother afterwards
When scared, they ran to the cloth mother
Critical Period for monkeys is 90 days
Long-lasting Effects: Continued research on the
monkeys highlighted consequences of early attachment experiences. Motherless
monkeys developed abnormally and froze or fled when approached by other
monkeys and were unable to care for their own offspring
Lacks Internal Validity: Confounding Variables – Mother monkeys varied in more
ways than cloth They had different heads, so the infant may have preferred one
mother because it was more attractive
Ethical Issues: Infant monkeys experienced long lasting emotional harm (trouble
forming peer relations)
Unethical study justified: Clarified our understanding of attachment which has
led to better childcare
Explanations of Attachment
LEARNING THEORY:
Through Classical Conditioning, a baby forms an association
between the mother (NS) and the feeling of pleasure which
comes from being fed (Innate UR)
Through Operant Conditioning, when a baby cries in response
to discomfort (pain/hunger) the carer will try to comfort the child
by cuddling them or providing food. This means the baby is likely
to stop crying. This acts as negative reinforcement for the child as
the cuddling/food removes the unpleasant discomfort. The baby
learns the carer can remove the discomfort and so an attachment
is formed to them
Research Support for Classical/Operant Conditioning: Little Albert/Skinner
Dollard & Miller: Found babies are fed 2000 times in their first year, usually by the
main caregiver
Great opportunity for an association to be made (Classical Conditioning)
Schaffer & Emerson: Not always the person who fed the child who became the
primary attachment Forming an association between food and the mother is
unlikely to be the only reason for attachment
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