Attachment

?
  • Created by: Bananna20
  • Created on: 24-02-16 21:01

Key Terms

Attachment - an enduring bond with a significant other

Stranger anxiety - distress when around unfamiliar people

Separation protest - distress when separated from significant other

Secure attachment - relationship based on trust and security

Insecure ambivalent - clingy & demanding

Insecure avoidant - child independentof caregiver

1 of 5

Core theory: Bowlby's theory

  • Monotropy - attachment formed with one person
  • Critical period - 0-3 years
  • Privation - when an attachment is not formed in the critical period
  • Deprivation - when an attachment is formed but broken later
  • Effects of deprivation - aggression, dwarfism, delinquency, depression & dependency anxiety

Criticisms

  • Doesn't explain multiple attachments - attachments to both parents
  • The critical period is too extreme - strong attachemnts can be formed after the age of 3
  • Effects of deprivation are reversible - ignore the role of nature
2 of 5

Alternative theory: Behaviourists

  • Nurture over nature
  • Attachment relies on learning and experience
  • Infants attach through reinforcement
  • Positive consequence - action, reward, repeat
  • Interacts with carer - attention - reinforces bond
  • Action - punished - won't repeat
3 of 5

Core Study: Hazen & Shaver's Love Quiz

  • Aim: to see if there is a relationship between infant attachment type and later love life
  • Method: Love quiz in newspaper
  • Sample: 620 replies used from ages 14-82
  • Results: secure attachment = confident  adult relationship, least likely to divorce. Avoidant = jealous , bipolar adult relationships. Ambivalent = obsession, extreme jealousy & lust
  • Conclusion: clear relationship between infant attachment & intimate adult relationships

Evaluation

  • Self-selecting sample - only a certian type may have responded
  • Lacks reliability - people may lie/exaggerate
  • Closed questions - not enough depth, hard to see extraneuous variables
4 of 5

Applications: Care of Children

In Hospitals

  • Quicker contact of mother and child - stronger bond

In Nurseries

  • Could children form bonds with nannies, not parents?

In Families

  • Organisations to help form early bonds - social services
5 of 5

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Psychology resources:

See all Psychology resources »See all Attachment resources »