Attachment A03

What is a strength of research into the effects of early attachment on later relationships

research support from hazan and shavers love quiz, 620 parctipants response to a questionnaire in a newspaper- questions geared towards adult relationship type- feelings abt romance and also acssed childhood attachment type

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Findings

found that 56% could be described as secure, 25% avoidant, 19% anxious- adults relationship type is a continuation of their eary attachment type

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A03 of hazan and shavers love quiz

methodological issues relied on self report techniques- questionnaire in a newspapers, meaning that the results may have suffered from subjectivity, social desirability

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bowlby's proposed concept of the continuity hypothesis is highly deterministic

pre determined by their early attachment type most people would like to believe that they have free will in determining their later relationships, we have conscious control over a relationships success.

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Concept of IWM is untestable little researched concept

unreliable- untestable, cant be relied on.

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Strength of research into institutionalisation

Research support from Rutter ERA study- a longitude study of cogntive and social development of orphans adopted in england. Found attachment problems(disinhibited attachment) and interlectual proplems(mental retardation).

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procedure

165 romanian orphans adopted in england to investigate extent to which good care could make up for instutioanlised conditions in early childhood. 52 adopted kids from UK also followed as a control group.. acsessed phsycial/cogntive/social development

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findings

when first arrived, showed signs of delayed intellectual development- undernoruished. Showed different levels of recovery based on age of adoption-mean iq for those adopted before 6 months was higher than those adopted after 6 months

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findings on attachment problems

diffrence in attachment outcome dependengt on whether they were adopted before or after 6 months Those adopted after 6 months showed particular signs of disinhibited attachment-those adopted before, didnt

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A03 in general

Romanian orphany study wasnt typical instutioanlised conditions, as it was so bad- no active stimulation and multiple caregivers- so cant be generalised and applied to our understanding of the impacts of what makes better care- low generalisbility

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real life application

enhanced our understanding of effects of institutionalisation, meaning we can improve the way children are cared for in institutions(Langton). orphanages/care homes now avoid having multiple caregivers for children, and now have much smaller number of peo

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Long term effects not clear yet

too soon to say with certainty whether children suffered short or long term effects. It may be the case that children who spend longer in institutional care who currency lag behind may catch up in adulthood. Equally, children who were adopted may also exp

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strength of cultural variations in attachment

uses very large samples- uzendoorn combined 32 studies which used the strange situation is eight countries nearly 2k infants- increases validity

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relies on the strange situation

imposed ethic is an issue- generalsing procedures and theories to cross cultures- british theory and american researcher. assuming that lack of pleasure at reunion and lack of separation anxiety indicate insecure attachment. In germany, this may just be

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therefore

imposed ethic is an issue, takashi found that the strange situation does not work for japenese mothers- seperatiuon anxiety cannot be measured cos its unusual in japan for child to be seperated for any length of time

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stranage situation lacks validity

Kagan suggested attachment type in the strange situation is more related to tempermant rather than relationship with primary caregiver- doesnt appropiately acsess attachment- but acssses anxiety

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alternative explanation

The fact that there is broad similarity in attachment patterns in a range of cultural contexts suggests that attachment is universal, as Bowlby said.

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strength of ainsworths strange situation- types of attachment

support for validity, the identified attachment types are highly predictive of future relationships/ development

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good reliability- inter rater reliability

different observers observed the strange situation and found that they all agreed on what atttachment type to classify them with- behavioural catogrouies under controlled conditions- highly reliable

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demonstrated by:

Bick- looked at inter observer reliability and found 94% agreement on attachment type of tested babies, so doesent just depend on observer observing them

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culture bond

doesent have the same meaning for all cultures, assuming this is called imposed ethic, cultural differences and norms about childhood mean that they will inesvtiably respond to strange situation in different ways

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designed for US..

Takashi said that the strange situation doesent work with japenese mothers because they are soo rarely seperateds from infants, so seperation anxiety is high- at reununiuon they scopped them up

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more than one type of attachment

solomon proposed that there's more than 3, a 4th type called a typical attachment where behaviours that dont fit into the other three are classified- disorganised atttachment where infants display mixture of all 3.

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strength of caregiver interactions

controlled observations by meizoff and moore were highly controlled meaning they were reliable and captured a fine level of detail- internal validity high, caught from multiple angles by different researchers.

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weakness

other studies have FAILED TO REPLICATE MEIZOFF/ MOORE findings, he sugggests its cos they didnt use same level of detail and observerations dont tell us purpose of behaviours

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problems in testing infant behaviour,

some doubt on reliability because infants mouths are always in fairly constant motion- the expressions in the observation may have been just normal occurances- in general, not as a result of interactions

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how did they overcome this

he vidoetaped behaviours and asked other researchers to look at it.. and judge, increasing reliability to an extent, still cant be sure

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strength of the role of the father

field observed observed 4 month old infants in face to face interactions with primary caregivers mothers, secondary caregivers fathers, and primary caregiver fathers. It was found that primary caregivers, were similar to the primary mothers in that they s

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weakness- socially sensitive topic suggesting fathers cant play same role as well as mothers can

role of the mother cannot be replaced by father may lead to father feeling like he cannot fully provide infants with their needs. But research suggesting that fathers can do this, may provide confidence that fathers can fulfill primary caregiver role if t

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strength of scaufers and emerson stages of attachment research

good external validity, carried out by families in their own homes and most of observations were made by parent themselves during nomral activitues- behaviour is valid and authentic/ natural unlikely to be affected by presence of an observer,

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weakness

issues with validity, mothers are NOT trained observers so may manipulate results uninteionally- unaware of behaviour child is displaying. low reliability

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sample size was good BUT

Limited sample characterics, all from 50 years ago all people were from same district, same social class, same time- may be diffrent as they are poor

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there is conflicting evidience agaisnt multipe attachments

no doubt that infants can form multiple attachments, question is when?, bowlby said form after primary attachments- some research from collectvist cultures like china suggest multiple attachments from offset is norm

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description of a social attachment phase is contradictory

described as A-SOCIAL, but many social interactions occur during this vital stage- babies are too young, imobile, no co-ordination to judge or determine behaviours

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Strength of lorenz

research support from other studies that have also demonstrated imprinting- guiton demonstrated thast leghorn chicks exposed to rubber gloves during the critical period became imprinted upon them- long term mate prefrences towards the gloves

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counterpoint

the leghorn chicks did eventually reverse their mating habitats and started to mate with their own species- not as permant as lorenz believed.

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can they be generalised to humans- leghorn chicks

birds are very different in that the mothers show different levels of emotional behaviour towards young- humans can form attachments at any time- sensitive period rather than critical period- human studies have shown these-i.e instutionalisation

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strength of harlow practical and theoretical value

theoretical-effect on pyschologists understanding of human mother interactions, attachment does not result from being fed by mother figure, but actually from close contact comfort

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practical value

helped social workers understand how to manage risks in child abuse etc in how to manage and prevent risk

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ethical issues

money suffered harm, if they similar enough to be generalisble then this was highly unethical- torture devices, physcial and mental trauma

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too similar?

some may suggest not generalsible

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Learning theory strength

face validity- makes sense because babies cry more because they want attention and food-

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behavioruist principles

the learning theory explanation is backed up by a long history of highly respected reliable research like from pavalov and skinner

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weakness

enviromentally reductionalist, ignores other factors involved too focused on stimulus and reponse, for example ignores reciprocity and international syroncy., isabella showed importance in sensetivity

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counter evidience from harlow- showed feeding bond is not important

animals don't always attach to those who feed them, for example lorenz's research showed that geese imprinted onto first thing they saw, before they were fed. And harlows monkeys clung to mother who offered contact comfort, not food

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strength of monotropic theory

impactful practical applications, inspired later research to be carried out like ainsworths strange situation, and applied and developed into early childcare practcies, for example immediate physical contact after birth is heavily encouraged

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highly predictive of later relationships- the internal working model

attachment an infant has during their early life has been found by several controlled studies like havan and shavers love quiz, to influence their relationship styles in the future- such as their ability to stay committed to a partne

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the contunuity hypothesis is highly deterministic

assumes that we are passive and have no control over our future relationships-saying if we had bad childhood then we are doomedto have bad negative relationships- determinsitic. most believe that we have conscious choice over our relationships-the succe

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idea of a monotropy is socially sensitive

f monotropy is social sensitive – places pressure on mothers and underestimates the role of the father

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strength of maternal deprivation- research support for intelectual development

Research support for this from adoption studies. Goldfarb(1997) found that children who remained in institutions had lower IQ than those who were fostered and thus had a higher standard of emotional care.

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animal studies have provided futhr support

Animal studies have provided extra support for idea of maternal deprivation-Levy showed that separating baby rats from their mothers for as little as a day had a consequence on their social developments

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44 thecives study was biased,

bowlby himself carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathy and family interviews, knowing what he hoped to find- researcher bias

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unsupportive counter research

nhilda lewis replicated bowlby's 44 thieves study on a larger scale using 500 young people. She found that a history of prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships- other factors must be invol

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Attachment A03

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