Attachment

Attachment

Read the attachment handout and complete the activities as directed.

Attachment

• Developmental Psychology is the area of psychology that focuses on how the human mind develops and changes over time.

• The development of the mind from birth to childhood has been studied intensively by developmental psychologists.

• The type of relationships that a child has with caregivers has a significant effect on their cognitive and emotional development.

Attachment

• Psychologists call these important early relationships attachment relationships.

• One way to define attachment is:

• A strong, long-term, emotional and psychological bond that develops over time between a child and its caregivers.

Attachment

How do psychologists know a child has made an attachment to someone?• A child gets upset if separated from a particular

individual.• This is known as separation protest.• A child spends most of its time looking at and

wants to be close to a particular individual when in a group.

• This is known as proximity seeking.

Separation Protest

Proximity Seeking

Attachment

How do psychologists know a child has made an attachment to someone?

• A child will go to a particular person when frightened, hurt, or upset, to be taken care of and comforted.

• A child will go to a particular person if approached by someone they don’t know.

• This is known as stranger anxiety.

Attachment

• Attachment develops over time.

• Attachment starts with the relationship between the caregiver and the child.

• Psychologists have found that the way the caregiver responds to the child’s needs is important in the development of a secure attachment.

Attachment: caregiver – infant interactions

• One important way a secure attachment is created between a child and their caregiver is reciprocity.

• Reciprocity = the caregiver responds in a sensitive way to their child’s verbal and non-verbal signals and in turn the child responds to their caregivers signals.

Attachment: caregiver – infant interactions

• Interactional synchrony is also important for the development of a secure attachment.

• Interactional synchrony means the caregiver and child mirror each other’s actions and emotions.

Attachment

Caregiver – infant interactions: evaluation

• Reciprocity and interactional synchrony have been identified in caregiver – infant interactions in controlled studies.

• It has proven difficult to establish the motivation of the child in caregiver -infant interactions.

Caregiver – infant interactions: evaluation

• It is assumed that they are important for the child’s social and emotional development.

• Psychologists can’t say that reciprocity and interactional synchrony are the basis for the development of a secure attachment.

Caregiver – infant interactions: evaluation

• Attachment is a strong emotional bond that develops over time between a child and their caregivers.

• Schaffer & Emerson (1964): the Glasgow baby study

Schaffer & Emerson (1964)

• The aim of this study was to find out:

• How old infants are when they form an attachment.

• Who do infants make an attachment to?

• How strong the attachment is.

• Did infants display different attachment behaviours?

Schaffer & Emerson (1964)

• Schaffer & Emerson carried out a longitudinal observational study.

• They observed mothers and infants in their home.

• They measured attachment by:

• Rating separation anxiety.

• Rating stranger anxiety.

Schaffer & Emerson (1964)

• Read p.7 & 8 of the attachment booklet and complete the key study table: Schaffer & Emerson (1964)

Schaffer & Emerson: stages of attachment

• Schaffer & Emerson identified 4 stages in the development of attachment:

• Stage 1: asocial stage 0 – 2 months

• Stage 2: indiscriminate attachment 2 – 7 months

• Stage 3: specific attachment 7 months onwards

• Stage 4: multiple attachments 7 months onwards

• Schaffer & Emerson found that the first specific attachment that babies formed was with the mother.