Attachment – Caregiver Infant Interactions (Human)
Attachment – Caregiver Infant Interactions (Human)
CAREGIVER-INFANT INTERACTIONS IN HUMANS
Multiple Attachments
Bowlby – believes that children have one primary attachment, and the others have minor importance
Rutter – saw all attachments of equal importance, all combined to help form a child’s internal working model. Each attachment is formed for different purposes
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) Social Attachment
Aim: – To assess whether there was a pattern of attachment formation that was common to
all infants
– To identify and describe the distinct stages why which attachment forms
Method: – A longitudinal study was conducted upon 60 new-born babies and their mothers
from a working-class area in Glasgow
– Mothers and babies were studied each month
– Observations and interviews (with the mothers) were conducted
– Questions were asked about whom the infants smiled at, whom they responded
to, who caused them distress
Attachment measured in two ways:
Separation protest
– Assessed through several everyday situations
– e.g infant being left alone in a room, or being left alone with others
Stranger anxiety
– the degree of distress shown by infants when in the presence of unfamiliar people
– assessed by the researched starting each home visit by approaching the infant to see if this distressed the child
Results: – Most infants started to show separation protest when parted from their
attachment figure between 6 – 8 month, with stranger anxiety being shown one
month later
– Strongly attached infants had mothers that responded to their needs quickly and
gave more opportunity for interaction; weakly attached infants had mothers that
didn’t respond to their needs quickly and gave very little attention to them
– Most infants went onto develop multiple attachments. At 18 months, 87% had
developed at least two attachments
– 39% of infant’s prime attachment was not their main carer
Conclusion: there is a pattern of attachment formation
Evaluation:
| STRENGTHS | WEAKNESSES |
| Generalisable to mothers & infants | Ethnocentric – only used working class mothers from Glasgow – not generalisable to a wider population |
| Longitudinal process – controlled & standardised | Mother & infants used only – neglects the role of the father – may not be generalisable to other carers |
| Mundane realism – can apply to everyday situations – high validity | Prone to bias and inaccuracy as it was taken by direct observation – hard to replicate an observation – lacks reliability |
| Theory can be applied to parenting classes and nurturing classes | Can be applied to other situations or roles |
| Internal face validity – tests what it is designed to | Babies could have experienced psychological distress (stranger anxiety) |
| No physical harm caused |
Stages of Attachment Development
- Pre-attachment phase (3 months) – from six weeks of age, infants become attracted to other human beings, preferring them to objects
- Indiscriminate attachment phase (3 to 7/8 months) – infants begin to differentiate between unfamiliar and familiar people, smiling more at familiar people. However, they will still allow strangers to handle and look after them
- Discriminate attachment phase (7/8 months onwards) – infants begin to develop specific attachments, staying close to particular people and becoming distressed when separated from them. They avoid unfamiliar people and protest if strangers handle them
- Multiple attachment stage ( 9 months onwards) – infants form strong emotional ties with other major caregivers, like grandparents and non-caregivers, like other children. The fear of strangers weakens, but attachment to the mother figure remains quite strong
Keywords
| KEYWORD | DEFINITION |
| Interactional synchrony | Adults and babies respond to sustain communication. Infants move their body in tune with the rhythm of the carers’ spoken language to create a kind of turn-taking, as seen with two-way vocal conversations. This serves to reinforce the attachment bond |
| Reciprocity | Interactions between carers and infants result in mutual behaviour, with both parties being able to produce responses from each other, which helps to strengthen the attachment bond |
| Bodily contact | Physical interactions between carers infants help to form the attachment bind, especially in the period immediately after birth |
| Mimicking | Infants seem to have an innate ability to imitate carers’ facial expressions, which suggests a biological device to aid formation of attachments |
| Caregiverese | Adults who interact with infants use a modified form of vocal language that is high pitched, song like in nature, slow and repetitive; this aids communication between carer and infant and serves to strengthen the attachment bond |
Case Studies
- Melzoff and Moore (1977): controlled observation using 6 babies (aged 12 to 27 days old) and 12 babies ages (16 to 21days old). Babies were exposed to 4 stimuli – three facial gestures and one manual gesture. Infants between 2-3 weeks tended to mimic adults’ specific facial expressions and hand movements [mimicking]
- Cordon and Sander (1974): analysed frame by frame recordings of infants’ movements to find they co-ordinated their actions in sequence with adult’s speech [interactional synchrony]
- Klaus and Kennell (1976): compared mums who had extended physical contact with their babies lasting several hours a day with mums who only had contact during feeding time in the three days after birth. One month later, they found those who had greater physical contact cuddles more and made more eye contact, than those with less. This effect was seen a year later [physical contact]
Exam Questions
Q1) Briefly outline and explain the different stages of attachment (4 marks)
Q2) Name three stages of attachment (2 marks)
Q3) Explain what is meant by interactional synchrony in the context of infant-care-giver interaction (2 marks)
Q4) Explain what is meant by reciprocity in the context of infant-care-giver interaction (2 marks)
Q5) Outline one study of infant-care-giver interaction (4 marks)
Q6) Evaluate the ways of investigating infant-care-giver interaction (4 marks)