Summary AQA A Level Psychology Attachment Example Essay Plans Year 1
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Attachment
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1
Essay plans for AQA A Level Psychology, Attachment. Will help students achieve high levels following the plan, particularly with the PEE(L) structure for AO3.
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1. Caregiver-infant interactions
AO1:
- Attachment: key in infant and primary caregiver, emotional security, key interactions
in non-verbal communication between care-giver infants, form basis of future
attachment styles.
- Reciprocity: description of how two people interact. Care-giver interaction is
reciprocal in that both caregiver and babies respond to each other’s signals and get a
response out of each other.
Alert phases: From 3 months, reciprocal interactions become frequent, becoming
common through attention to verbal signals and facial expressions. Brazleton (1979)
suggested reciprocal behaviour was precursor to later communication. Signals allow
the caregiver to anticipate a child's needs and respond appropriately.
Interactional synchrony: caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of
the other in a coordinated way. Mirroring actions that become synchronized when
carrying out action simultaneously.
- Meltzoff and Moore (1977): observed infants as young as two weeks old, and found
that they imitate certain facial and hand movements. An adult displayed one of three
facial expressions/distinctive gestures - the baby's reaction was observed. Found
links between infant’s behaviour and adult role models.
AO3:
STRENGTHS: P: research strength; controlled procedures. E: caregiver-infant
interactions are filmed from multiple perspectives, capturing fine details that can later
be analysed. Babies are unaware of a study going on so behaviour does not change.
Usually an issue with demand characteristics, but not here. E: studies have high
validity, accurate measure of what is needed.
- P: Meltzoff and Moore are replicable. E: they replicated their study with infants that
are three days old, finding the same synchrony. Suggests the behaviour is innate. E:
original findings are replicable and caregiver-infant interactions are innate to build
attachment bonds.
- CP: P: other researchers have not been able to replicate the findings. E: Koepke et al
tried to replicate the study but could not get the same results. E: limitation as it
questions reliability of the study.
LIMITATIONS: P: difficult to observe and interpret a baby’s behaviour. E: babies lack
coordination, bodies are immobile. Movements being observed are small-hand
movements or subtle changes in expression. Difficult to establish feelings from a
baby's perspective; movement triggered by physiological action or by caregiver
interaction. E: cannot be certain if the babies movement can be determined as a
response to the caregiver.
- P: observation of behaviour does not tell us about developmental importance. E:
Feldman (2012) points that ideas such as interactional synchrony simply give name
to observable caregiver and infant behaviours. While they can be reliably observed,
they are not very useful in understanding child development, does not say the
purpose of behaviours. E: cannot be certain from observational research alone that
reciprocity and synchrony are important for attachment/development.
- CP: P: evidence from other research that suggests early interaction is important. E:
Isabella et al found that achievement of interactional synchrony predicts development
of good attachment. E: in moderation, care-giver infant interaction is important in
development.
, 2. Schaffer’s stages of attachment
AO1:
- Stages of attachment: developmental theories that identify a sequence of different
behaviours linked to specific ages. In this, babies go through them in the same order.
- Multiple attachment: attachments to two or more people. Babies develop these once
they have formed one strong attachment to a carer.
- Schaffer and Emmerson’s research: Procedure: mothers of 60 working glass
Glasgow babies. Monthly intervals for first year and 18 months. Asked mothers
questions on babies' response to separation (measured stranger/separation anxiety).
Findings: developed 4 stages as stage theory.
- Stage 1: Asocial stage: first few weeks of life, forming bonds but same response to
humans and objects. Show some preference to familiarity, start to form bonds that
form the basis of later attachment.
- Stage 2 - Indiscriminate attachment: 2-7 months, more observable social behaviours,
show clear preference to familiar people over objects, no separation/stranger anxiety.
- Stage 3 - Specific attachment: 7 months, show stranger anxiety, separation anxiety
to one parent (biological mother in 65% of babies). More attachment with parents that
interacts and responds to babies signals, not the one they spend the most time with.
- Stage 4 - Multiple attachment: after one attachment, are able to extend attachments
to multiple people (secondary attachment). Schaffer and Emmerson found 29% of
babies form secondary attachments one month after forming primary attachments.
AO3:
STRENGTHS: P: practical application in daycare settings. E: in asocial and
indiscriminate attachment, care is easier as the baby can be comforted by any skilled
adult. Schaffer and Emmerson show that starting daycare after a specific attachment
stage may be difficult. E: parents’ use of daycare can be controlled by using Schaffer
and Emmerson’s stages.
- P: research has good external validity. E: most observations were made by parents
during typical activities. If they used researchers to record observations, babies
would have become anxious. E: participants could behave naturally during
observations.
- CP: P: issues with mothers being observers. E: unlikely to be objective observers,
giving in to bias by over/under reporting of babies behaviour. E: even if babies
behaved normally it may not have been accurately recorded.
LIMITATIONS: P: poor evidence for asocial stage; validity of measures used to
assess. E: babies have poor coordination, immobile. At this age, signs of anxiety etc
are hard to observe due to it being subtle. Makes it difficult for mothers to observe
and report back. E: babies may be social but appear to be asocial due to flawed
methods.
3. The role of the father
AO1:
- Father: role of the main male caregiver. Not necessarily the biological father.
- Schaffer and Emmerson (1964): multiple attachments. Primary attachments for most
were the mother. In 75% of babies attachment to their father was formed by 18
months, this is when the father’s role came into play. In 27% of infants father was first
joint attachment with mother.
- Distinctive role of fathers: Grossman et al (2002) - longitudinal study, babies’
attachment was studied into teen years. Found that babies' attachment with their
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