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Attachment is a strong emotional tie that develops over time between infants and caregivers. When you become attached to someone it means you have found a special bond or relationship between that person and you. Relationships and attachments are extremely important throughout our lifetimes, especially during infancy (2years old and below).
Explanations of attachment
There are 2 main explanations of attachment: Nature and Nurture. The nature approach explains that attachment is an inherited behaviour and the craving for attachment is encoded in out genes. The nurture approach states that attachment is a learning process.
(The formation of love in infant monkeys research done by Harlow and Harlow)
In this theory attachment has a long term benefit in addition to the short term benefit of ensuring food and safety. The long term benefit is that it forms the template of forming good relationships as a result of the internal working model.
Adaptive- attachments are adaptive. This means they give out species an advantage making us more likely to survive. This is because if an infant has an attachment to care givers, they are kept safe, given food and secured. Social Releasers- babies have social releasers which unlock an innate tendency for adults to care for them. The social releasers are both: - Physical- the typical baby facial features and body proportions. - Behavioural- the actions the make like crying or gooing. Critical Period- babies have to form the attachment with their caregivers during a critical period. This critical period is between birth and 2 years. If this attachment doesnt happen in this time the child would suffer: socially, psychologically, intellectually, socially and physically. Monotropy- this one intense special attachment is normally formed towards the mother. If the mother isnt present the infant could bond with another mothersubstitute. Internal Working Model- through the monotropic attachment, the infant would form an internal working model. This is a mental schema for relationships. All childrens future adult relationships are based on this.
- Avoidant children are assumed to have a primary caregiver who is rejecting, resulting in them having an internal working model of themselves as unacceptable and unworthy. - Resistant children tend to have a primary caregiver who is inconsistent and consequently the child will tend to have a negative self image and exaggerate their emotional responses in a way to obtain attention.
Against
Rutter et al (1998) studied infants who had been abandoned or orphaned and raised in institutes in Europe. These children were adopted by families in the US and UK. Rutter found that these adopted children were able to form attachment relationships after the first year of their new life. They also made notable developmental progress following their adoption. This shows that children who still fail to form attachments during the critical period, they are still able to form attachments after this period of time even if it would take longer.
Types of attachment
One way to distinguish individual infants is in terms of quality of the attachment is to look at the bond between the infant and the mother or its primary caregiver.
Stranger anxiety
They have a low stranger anxiety because they are not bothered of whos around. Separation They have a high They have low anxiety separation anxiety separation anxiety. and would not like They dont even their primary care notice when the giver to leave so primary caregiver they cry has left. uncontrollably. Behaviour on They become Nothing changes. reunion instantly calm. Caregivers Loving. Unloving.
Insecure resistant They dont even dare to explore because the inconsistent love would leave them thinking their mother might leave anytime soon. High stranger anxiety.
They have a very high separation anxiety and they become very stressed and worried. They become very distressed. Inconsistent.
behaviour Percentage
66
22
12
Willingness to explore. Secure infants are very willing to explore but they use their mum or primary caregivers as a safe base, this means they will always keep returning to her (seeking proximity). Avoidant children are willing to explore but they wont use their mum or primary caregivers as a safe base, they would hardly return to them at any point in time. Resistant children wouldnt want to explore because theyre afraid that their carers would leave them at any point. Conclusion- this shows that most children in North America are securely attached. It also shows that theres a link between the mothers or care givers behaviour and the childs attachment type. So the mothers behaviour is very important when determining the childs attachment type. We can also use the strange situation to work out an infants attachment type. Evaluation- we cannot generalize the sample to populations using this sample. This study and its findings are only restricted to the middle class citizens of America.
Bee (1999) pointed out from this Meta-analysis that there is a considerable consistency across cultures. She concludes that its likely that the same caregiverinfant interactions contribute to secure and insecure attachments in all cultures. However the universal nature of caregiver-infant interactions may be cultural rather
than innate. Van and Kroonenberg observe the similarity between countries may be influenced by the increasing effects of mass media on how to train your children. A limitation to this data is that even though it tells us the amount of studies in each country, it doesnt tell us exactly how many children were involved. We may need to be cautious on how the data may have been interpreted in these figures in case the samples were very small. When using this kind of psychological assessment its important to be cautious about attributing what is measured to the individual. It could be that there is something about the test situation that makes some of the infants appears to be insecurely attached.
Disruption of attachment
Bowlbys maternal deprivation hypothesis
The hypothesis coined by Bowlby stated that if an infant was unable to develop a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with their mother, then the child would have difficulty forming relationships with other people and would be at risk of behavioural disorders. Bowlby suggested that the development of this continuous relationship must occur during a critical period. If a child experiences separations before the age of 2 years old, they are likely to become emotionally disturbed. Bowlby stated mother-love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins are important for physical growth.
Quality of care
Quality of care can vary to different proportions: - Number ratio of staff to children - Staff turnover - Physical provisions - Training of staff - Dedication of staff - Type of children involved
Conclusion- day care can increase aggressive behaviour. Evaluation- relationships between parents and parents attitudes changed, this means that its difficult to know whether the day care itself directly caused the aggressiveness in children or at least caused by their parents.
These changes were greater seen in children attending for 5 days a week, compared to those who attended only twice a week. Conclusion- day care can increase sociability and decrease aggressive behaviour. Evaluation- the fact that aggression reduced in children attending for 5 days a week rather than 3 days a week suggests that it was the day care that caused this effect rather than just the children maturing.