Term
| What is the main idea of the Immediate Physical Contact theory? |
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Definition
| Physical contact within the first few hours of the child's life is essential for development of attachment. |
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Term
What is the biological explanation for why Immediate Physical Contact forms attachment?
(two reasons) |
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Definition
-Physical contact stabilises the baby's respiration, increases glucose levels, warms the baby, regulates blood pressure.
-physical contact releases hormones that promote maternal attachment behaviours, such as oxytosin |
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Term
| What was the results of the Harlow monkey study into Immediate Physical Contact? |
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Definition
| Monkeys with an immobile surrogate mother had poorer brain development than monkeys with a surrogate mother that provided touch and motion. |
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Term
| What was the results of the primitive cultures study into Immediate Physical Contact? (two findings) |
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Definition
-Mothers who carried their babies on their body lived in more peaceful cultures.
-Children who breastfed for longer than 2.5 years had a lower suicide rate. |
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Term
| Studies comparing the behaviour of mothers who had more physical contact and those who only saw their child for breastfeeding showed what results? |
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Definition
| The mothers who had more physical contact were more confident around their babies, held, kissed and looked at their babies more, breastfed their babies for longer. |
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Term
| What is the main assumption of Ainsworth's caregiver sensitivity hypothesis? |
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Definition
| Caregivers who are more responsive to their baby are more likely to have strong attachments with them. |
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Term
| In Ainsworth's caregiver sensitivity hypothesis, what causes an avoidant attachment and what causes a resistant (ambivalent) attachment? |
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Definition
Avoidant- The caregiver provides a low level of sensitivity (eg they are self centred, poor at responding quickly and appropriately or act in a suffocating way)
Resistant- The caregiver is inconsistently responsive (eg they are interested but may misunderstand the baby's signals) |
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Term
| What is a limitation of Ainsworth's caregiver sensitivity hypothesis? |
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Definition
| It focuses too much on the caregiver's actions and not enough on how the child's temperament and personality influences attachment type. |
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Term
| What is the main assumption of Kegan's Temperament hypothesis? |
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Definition
| Differences in maternal behaviour may be due to the characteristics of the infant. |
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Term
| Due to their temperament, why do some babies form insecure attachments? |
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Definition
| Some babies can be withdrawn, irritable and not soothed easily. |
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Term
| What weakness does the temperament hypothesis have? |
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Definition
| The infant's temperament as assessed by the parent is not usually associated with their attachment type |
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Term
| What is the evidence that changes in circumstance can effect the development of attachment? Describe the study and the results. |
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Definition
| Thompson, Lamb and Estes studies middle class mothers. 47% changed their attachment type between 12-19 months due to changes in family circumstance. |
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Term
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Definition
| Motherese is the sing-song voice a mother uses with her child. |
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Term
| What is the function of motherese? |
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Definition
| It aids communication with the child, perhaps because it makes it more entertaining for the child. |
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Term
| What is the weakness of the motherese theory? |
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Definition
| -No scientific evidence that it influences attachment |
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Term
| What is the strength of the motherese theory? |
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Definition
| -There is cross cultural support that mothers in China and Germany use a rising tone that it's their 'turn' in the conversation. |
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Term
| What is the main idea of the Imitation theory? How does it link with the development of attachment? |
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Definition
| Young babies imitate their care giver's actions in order to communicate. This means they can form attachments immediately. |
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Term
| Which three actions were the infants presented with in the Melzoff and Moore investigation? |
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Definition
-Tongue pull
-Open mouth
-Lip protrusion |
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Term
| What was the results of the Melzoff and Moore investigation? |
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Definition
| There was a significant association between the target expression and the infant's behaviour |
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Term
What are the weaknesses of the Imitation theory?
(two things) |
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Definition
-Infants will imitate movements of inanimate objects as well as people
-There is no evidence that imitation influences attachment type or development. |
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Term
How does Interactional Synchrony help attachment?
(three ways) |
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Definition
-Encourages/rewards the parent for spending time with the infant so ensures the infant gets more interaction from the person.
-Means the quality of interaction is high since there is meaning to the interactions and the child is attempting to communicate
-Means international synchrony enables attachments by increasing quality and quantity of interaction, which lays foundation for attachment. |
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Term
| What were the results of the longitudinal study by Isabella et al? |
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Definition
| Infants who had high levels of international synchrony with their caregiver, a year later had developed a secure attachment. |
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Term
| What is the limitation of Interactional Synchrony? |
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Definition
| Critics have argued that rather than the infant playing an active role in interaction synchrony it is more likely that the parent has learnt the child's behaviour patterns and is fitting their interactions around the child. |
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Term
| What was the study and the results of that study that contradicts the limitation of Interactional Synchrony? |
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Definition
Murray and Trevarthen - 'freeze face' experiment where the mother stops responding when interacting with the child.
The child was frustrated and distressed and made an attempt to bring the mother back into the 'conversation'. |
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Term
| What cross cultural evidence opposes the theory of Interactional Synchrony? |
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Definition
| LeVine - Kenyan mothers rarely cuddle and interact closely with their babies so there is little interactional synchrony, yet the infants still develop secure attachments. |
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Term
| What is the main idea about the AAI (Adult Attachment Interview)? |
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Definition
| There is a relationship between maternal AAI before the birth of the baby and the later attachment type. |
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Term
| What would would a mother that goes on to form a secure attachment recall? |
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Definition
| An autonomous mother would recall and see the positive and negative features of experiences. |
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Term
| What would a mother that goes on to form an avoidant attachment type think? |
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Definition
| A dismissive mother would think that attachment was of little importance. |
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Term
| What are the difficulties the research psychologists might experience when working in the area of carer-infant interactions? |
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Definition
-Parents may behave differently towards the child when being observed eg demand characteristics, social desirability bias
-Parents are protective over their children so won't want to cause them distress and interfere with study eg strange situation
-Sample may be unrepresentative due to overprotective parents so omits characteristics of attachment eg suffocating caregivers of anxious avoidant infants
-Researcher bias due to interpretation of behaviour
-Children may behave differently in different states eg they are tired, bored, overexcited and their parents may react differently
- Children are of different age, stages of development so less able to generalise/compare |
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