Attachment - Key Concepts

Attatchment - An enduring bond formed with a significant other

The two main ways of measuring attachment are separation protest and stranger anxiety.

Separation protest measures how upset a child becomes when left by primary caregivers. If an attachment is formed, they show high levels of distress such as

• sobbing
• searching
• reaching

If no attachment is formed, little emotion is seen on separation

Stranger anxiety is how afraid a child is in the presence of a stranger. If there is an attachment, the child shows fear through

• screaming
• trying to get away
• appearing tense

If no attachment is formed, little emotion is seen.

There are three types of attachment.

1. Secure attachment - when a child and caregiver have a relationship based on trust and security, and the child wishes to interact with the caregiver
2. Insecure avoidant attachment - When a child and caregiver have a relationship in which the child is quite independent of the caregiver
3. Insecure ambivalent attachment - When a child and caregiver have a relationship in which the child can be cling and demands, yet awkward with the caregiver at the same time

Attachment - Behaviourist Theory

This theory states that attachment is not innate. Rather, it relies on learning and experience.

Reinforcement

• Learning behaviours through consequences
• If the consequence is positive, the behaviour is repeated, but if it is negative the behaviours are discouraged
• However, giving a child attention for negative behaviour will result in more negative behaviour as they relate the action to the response via classical conditioning.
• Interaction with the caregiver (eg cooing) results in rewards (eg attention). This creates and reinforces their bond, so attachment behaviors become more common

Explanation

• Attachment is a two way process, both the child and the caregiver attach to eachover.
• The caregiver is rewarded,  as a child that is interactive and happy makes them want to interact,
• They both learn to bond as they both benefit
• This explains why bonds don't form in neglect and abuse, as neither are rewarded. Thus, behaviours aren't encouraged, and the child may see relationships as a punishment and avoid them.

Experience

Attatchment depends on experience and parenting styles

Secure Attachment

• Sensitive caregivers
• Interpret child's signals well
• Cooperating, accepting and accessible

Insecure Avoidant Attachment

• Uninterested carers
• Often reject child
• Self centered or strict caregiver

Insecure Ambivalent Attachment

• Carers interested in children
• Misunderstand child's behaviour
• Child cannot rely on emotional support
• Often seen in caregivers who are substance dependent

Effects

• Effects are both short and long term
• Securely attached children are less likely to bully, insecure ambivalent attached children are more likely to be bullies and insecure avoidant are more likely to be bullied.
• There is also a relationship with attachment types and adult intimate relationships.

Attachment - Hazen &Shaver (1987)

OUTLINE

• Opportunity sample
• Questionnaire for people aged between 14 & 82
• Conducted in the USA
• Advertised as a "love quiz" in a local newspaper
• Two independent variables - the persons infant attachment type and their attitude to their most important love relationship
• Multi-choice questions
• 620 out of 1200 answers analysed 

RESULTS

• 56% had a secure infant attachment, whereas 25% had an insecure avoidant infant attachment and 19% had an insecure ambivalent infant attraction

Secure Infant Attachment

• Happy, friendly relationships
• Accepting and supportive of their partners
• Least likely to be divorced
• Average relationship length of 10 years

Insecure Avoidant Infant Attachment

• Afraid of intimacy 
• More highs and lows in their relationships
• Prone to jealousy
• Most likely to say they can get along fine
• Average relationship length of 6 years

Insecure Ambivalent Infant Attachment

• More prone to obsession
• Experience extreme sexual attraction
• Experience extreme jealousy
• Most likely to be divorced
• Average relationship length of 5 years

CRITICISMS

1 - The sampling method may have given an unrepresentative sample

• Only certain types of people may have responded
• More females in the sample caused a gender bias
• Can be class/culture biased as it was in a local newspaper

2 - The method relies too much on respondents giving honest/accurate answers

• May lie, exaggerate or cover up certain details
• May have inaccurate memories of upbringing
• May have a biased view of childhood

3 - The questionnaire used closed questions which may not have gone into depth

• Relationships are complex
• May want to elaborate on their answer, but they cannot

Attatchment - Bowlby's Theory (Evolutionary)

OUTLINE

Bowlby believed that humans and animals attached in a similar way, and that infants have an innate response to bond with one figure, typically the mother.

Monotropy

• Only occurs in Bowlby's theory
• An attachment to the primary caregiver, usually the mother.

Critical Period

• Attachment should happen in the first three years of life, although the first year is the most preferable. 
• If an attachment was not formed in this time,the infant would suffer negative psychological effects, even into adulthood. This included affectionless psychopathology

Privation

• Privation is when a child forms no attachment to a caregiver
• Unusual
• Tends to occur in children who are in care - as they cannot form a lasting bond, or in cases of extreme neglect
• Causes effects such poor social,language and motor skills, which continue into adulthood.
• Bowlby believed that these effects were irreversible 

Deprivation

• Deprivation is when a child has formed an attachment to a caregiver, but this attachment is broken through separation
• Occurs when separated for a week or more, especially if the child is younger than 5
• Causes less extreme effects than privation, but still damages the child
• This can lead to the child being demanding and clingy. This can lead to depression, aggression, and affectionless psychology.

CRITICISMS

1 - Monotropy

• Evidence shows that children may have a number of attachments
• Schaffer & Emerson (1964) showed that after 18 months, only 13% of children were still attached to only one figure
• Weisner & Gallimore (1977) showed that mothers are the exclusive caregiver in only a small percentage of countries

2 - Critical Period

• The critical period is too extreme
• There may be a sensitive period where people are able to attach better
• This period is the best time to bond, but it is not essential
• People can form healthy relationships after the age of 3

3 - Long Term Effects of Deprivation

• Effects are reversible
• For example, a pair of Czech twins were found neglected and abused at the age of 7, yet went on to form healthy relationships with foster parents.

Attachment - Ainsworth's Strange Situation (1960s)

OUTLINE

The mother and child (aged 12 - 18 months) were observed through a one way mirror in an a laboratory. There were different episodes they went through to determine the child's attachment.

1. Mother and their infants enter the lab
2. The infant played with some toys while the mother was there
3. A stranger enters the lab and the mother left
4. A stranger tries to comfort the infant
5. The mother returns and the stranger leaves
6. The mother comforts the infant and leaves again
7. The child is left alone for a short period of time
8. The stranger returns and tries to interact with the child
9. The mother returns and picks up the infant while the stranger leaves

This showed that 70% of the sample had a secure attachment, whereas each of the insecure attachments were present in 15% of the sample.

Secure Attachment

• Explore whilst playing, using mother as a safe base
• Show moderate distress on seperation
• Comforted by mother, and to some extent by the stranger

Insecure Avoidant Attachment

• Pay no attention to mother while playing
• Show little distress on seperation
• Easily comforted by stranger if necessary, and often ignored mother when she returned

Insecure Ambivalent Attachment

• Stay close to mother whilst playing
• Show extreme distress on separation
• Stranger cannot comfort the infant, and the mother is rejected when she returns.

Attachment - Applications

HOSPITALS

- Years ago, only physical needs were considered

• Emotional factors are now also considered
• Newborns used to be taken immediately after birth, and kept in separate wards. This was to protect the child from infection and to give the mother a chance to recover. However, this meant that contact was usually limited 
• Parents were not encouraged to vist, and the opportunites to vist were limited

- The more contact a baby has with its mother in the first few days, the stronger the attachments

• As long as there is no problems, skin to skin contact is encouraged as this is when bonding begins
• Babies are placed by the bedside to ensure continual contact

- Bowlby showed 3 stages of separation 

• 1 - Protest. The child is panic stricken and visibly upset
• 2 - Despair. The child is upset, and they become uninterested and and apathetic
• 3 - Detachment. The child rejects their caregiver

- Mothers are encouraged to stay with children

• A cot is often placed at the mother's bedside

- Hospital policies were changed

• Flexible and frequent visiting hours are in place
• Parents can sleep over when a child is in hospital to avoid seperation effects

NURSERIES

- Nurseries are controversial, as it helps people to socialise but separate children from their caregivers

- Generally, a high quality nursery requires

• Highly trained staff - to understand children's needs
• Low staff turnover - to avoid separation effects when a child attaches to a carer
• Low staff to child ratio - such as 1 carer to 3 babies

FAMILY

- Parents used to be able to bring children up as they pleased

• They now actively educate parents
• Parents are educated on things such as attachment behaviours and parenting styles that benefit the child

- Institutions are in place that can help and intervene such as the police, child services, and social services.    

The Self - Van Houtte & Jarvis (1995)

OUTLINE

Aim - To examine the part played by pets in the psychosocial development of pre-adolescent people.

Hypothesis - Pet-owning adolescents would report higher levels of autonomy and self esteem than non-pet owners

Sample - 130 pupils aged between 8-13

• 71 boys, 59 girls
• Mainly white Americans, all from Illinois
• Participiants gave informed consent and the right to withdraw

The pupils were divided into pet owners and non pet owners, and where also matched on 3 other aspects

1. Parent's marital status
2. Parent's socio-economic status
3. Number of siblings

They asked them about pet ownership, such as the kind of pet, length of ownership, age and duties.

Data was collected from questionaires on well known scales

• Autonomy - 4 point scale response to sentences such as "My parents and I agree on everything"
• Self concept - 5 point scale response to adjectives such as "I am happy"
• Self esteem - 4 point scale response to statements such as " On the whole I am satisfied with my self"
• Attachment to animal - 7 point scale response to a series of statements such as "I consider my pet to be a friend"

The students were debriefed and thanked

Letters were sent home so that the parents could confirm pet ownership

RESULTS

1. Pet owners had higher self esteem
2. For 11 year olds, pets positively influenced their self concept
3. Pet owners had higher autonomy

It was concluded

• Pets have the greatest influence as children move in adolescence
• Pets can help with low self esteem, support others in times of stress, and enhance the elderly's feelings of responsibility
• Pets can offer unconditional postive regard for their owners

CRITICISMS

1 - There is always potentially a problem with self report in questionaires

• They may not be honest
• It may be difficult for the participants to accurately know their self-esteem

2 - The study used a lot of quantitative data 

• Difficult concepts are hard to measure on a scale
• This ignores the depth of these aspects

3 - The sample wasn't very representative

• It was age biased so cannot be generalised to older people
• It was ethnocentric, as only a small number of ethnic minority pupils were used
• It was culture biased, in other cultures, pets and animals may have a different role.

Hello !

This blog and its posts are now out of date for the OCR GCSE Psychology spec - but still acts as a great start off for A-Level.

Though criticisms may need to be expanded to ensure you get higher grades, the following are still applicable for AQA A-Level Psychology

Whole topics are covered in Cognitive Development, named 'Cognition and Development' at A-Level, Attachment, and Memory

Humanistic psychology is seen in 'The Self' topic

SLT theory is seen in SST as an application, Phobias from 'Psychopathology' is almost completely covered in 'Phobias', Dispositional and Situational theories for obedience/social influence, and the Psychodynamic Psychosexual Theory of Development 

There are also useful key studies for Aggression , Social Influence, Milgram (SI again)

Good luck, and if any of you did different topics and know if anything else if helpful tip us off !