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AQA psychology A level Attachment
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AQA psychology paper 1 essay plans for the attachment section
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Outline and evaluate caregiver infant interactions.AO1 reciprocity - Two way mutual responsiveness where the turn taking elicit a response from either
the caregiver or the infant
- E.g. smiling, occurs in the infant and triggers the smile in the caregiver and vice versa
Tronick et al
- Mothers interacting with children were asked to hold their faces impassively.
- The interaction was recorded and responses of the infants were recorded.
- Found that the infants attempted to resume interaction by smiling, and they became
increasingly distressed when their smiles did not provoke a response.
- Therefore infants expect and anticipate give-and-take responses to their signals, which
strongly suggest that reciprocity is a key feature in caregiver interactions
Interactional synchrony - the mutinous rhythmic interaction involving mutual focus and mirroring.
- This way they are able to anticipate each other’s behaviour and elicit particular responses.
Condon and sander
- infants were filmed, whilst being played recordings of adults conversing with each other
- They undertook a frame by frame analysis of films of babies movements in response to
the recordings.
- They found that babies would move in time with the rhythm of the conversation engaging
in a subtle form of time taking.
- Therefore suggesting that interactions between infant caregiver result in synchronised
interaction as the infant mirrors the caregivers behaviour
AO3 Studies into infant caregiver interactions are greatly controlled.
- As it will be very difficult to analyse in real time due to infants movements, being subtle
and frequently swiftly followed by other movements, Condon and Sanders use of micro
sequences to capture the inference behaviours is very helpful.
- This combined with the use of controlled variables has enabled investigations which
support the idea of reciprocity and interactional synchrony in caregiver infant interactions
Many of the supporting studies have very high controls to provide reliable data.
- However, this is an issue as they take place in artificial and unnatural settings.
- This lack of mundane realism can lead to the findings having low ecological validity and
therefore not representing other infants would react in real life.
- Therefore, the findings are not entirely generalisable.
Studies in this area do not show cause-and-effect
- it is ethically impossible to manipulate the amount and quality of caregiver interaction with
the infant outside the lab scenario.
- Extraneous factors such as the home environment, culture, etc may have a long-term
effect on attachment and cannot be controlled.
discuss (research into) the role of the father.
AO1 Schaffer and Emerson
- In 27% of the initial sample, second attachment formed was with the father
- At 18 months 75% had formed an attachment with their father
Traditionally, the role of the father has been limited as they would go to work to provide resources
while the mother took care of the children at home. Recently the role has changed significantly.
Bowlby suggests that the difference between the roles of mothers and fathers can be explained
through biological processes and gender roles.
- Women are expected to nurture and care for not only children, but the family as well due
to having oestrogen which creates high levels of nurturing.
- Men have a lack of oestrogen which may be why they are unable to form close
attachments.
, - Therefore, having a biological predisposition
research for the role of the father as a playmate.
- Geiger (1996) found that fathers’ play interactions were more exciting in comparison to
mothers’.
- However, the mothers’ play interactions were more affectionate and nurturing.
- This suggests that the role of the father is, in fact, as a playmate and not as a sensitive
parent who responds to the needs of their children.
- These results also confirm that the mother takes on more of a nurturing role.
AO3 Research support
Grossman (2002)
- Conducted a longitudinal study looking at how the quality of relationships between parents
and children changed from infancy to the teenage years
- It was found that the early attachment to the mother was a better predictor of what the
teenage relationship was like
- It seems the father is less important to later development than the mother in terms of
nurture
- However, Grossman found that if the father had engaged in active play with the child when
they were young, the adolescent relationship with BOTH parents is strengthened
- This supports Geiger's work
Practical applications: If the father can take the role of the mother as well, then this has
implications for society:
- Paternity/maternity leave
- Fathers are gradually being given more time off work after having children
However, there is research that suggests the fathers are able to form secure attachment with their
children
- Belsky et al found that males who reported higher levels of marital intimacy had a secure
father infant attachment.
- Males with lower levels of marital intimacy had insecure father infant attachment.
- This suggests that males can form secure attachment with the children, but this depends
on the father and mother‘s relationship.
- Therefore, suggesting that Bowlby's research is incomplete as other environmental factors
play a role too
Outline and evaluate animal studies of attachment
AO1 harlow's monkeys
- eight newborn rhesus monkeys.
- The Monkees were studied 165 days
- 4 of the Monkeys had a wire mother feeding the milk whilst the other 4 had the cloth
mother feeding the milk.
- Harlow found that all 8 monkeys spent most of the time with a cloth mother up to 17 hours
a day, whether or not this one had the feeding bottle.
- Monkeys who are fed from the wire mother only spent a short amount of time getting milk
and then returned to the cloth mothers.
- He found that the critical period = 3 months
Therefore, suggesting that attachment is due to contact comfort.
Lorenz’s imprinting theory
- Experiment using a clutch of geese.
- Half hatch, naturally with the mother, and the other half were placed in an incubator with
Lorenz, making sure he was the first moving object the goslings saw after hatching
- He found that straight after birth, the naturally hatched goslings followed the mother
Goose, whereas the incubator hatched goslings followed Lorenz.
- Therefore, suggesting that geese follow the first moving object they see
- imprinting, which suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically
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