IB Docs (2) Team
Attachment
Attachment is the development of a mutual and intense emotional relationship between an infant and its caregivers. According to Bowlby, a close relationship between the child and the mother is a basic biological need - an innate pattern of behaviour that has helped infants to survive. Babies demonstrate the universal behaviour of seeking proximity to the mother and reacting with anxiety to separation from her.
Bowlby argued that behaviours such as smiling, babbling, grasping, and crying are genetically-based social signals. These signals encourage parents to care for and interact with their baby so that the infant will be fed, protected from danger, and provided with the affection necessary for healthy growth.
According to Shaffer (1996), attachment develops until around the age of seven months. At this age, the baby clearly shows separation anxiety when the primary attachment figure - often the mother - leaves the child. Research has shown that the infant can discriminate between a primary attachment figure and other people from around seven months. It is believed that at this age the child has developed a mental representation of the attachment figure, which is what Piaget termed object permanence. This simply means that the child knows the mother exists, even when the child cannot see her. This could explain why the child protests when the mother leaves. The child also displays stranger anxiety, when unfamiliar people try to make contact with the child.
ATL: Thinking critically
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Freud argued that the bond between a mother and child is formed because the baby needs nourishment, which it receives from the mother. Since the mother provides this, a bond is formed. This was known as the cupboard theory.
Harry Harlow challenged this theory with a set of rather controversial experiments.
In one study, Harlow (1958) isolated a group of rhesus monkeys from their mothers after birth. The infants were then provided with a “wire mother” and a “cloth mother.” Four of them were fed by the wire mother, while four of them received milk from the cloth mother.
Harlow’s experiment showed that the monkeys spent more time with the cloth mother in both situations, despite receiving milk from the wire mother. Harlow argued that the cloth mother provided contact comfort which the wire mother did not.
Watch the following video to get a better understanding of Harlow's research.
Questions
- To what extent do Harlow's experiments disprove Freud's "Cupboard Theory" with regard to the bond formed between a human mother and child?
- What are your ethical concerns about this research?
Teacher only boxA key aspect of this activity is to get students to understand that theories evolve. In addition, it is important to consider whether animal research is valid in the study of human relationships.
To what extent do Harlow's experiments disprove Freud's "Cupboard Theory" with regard to the bond formed between a human mother and child?
The research shows that the baby monkeys seek out "comfort" from the cloth mother and not the wire mother, even though it is the wire mother that provides food for the child.
What are your ethical concerns about this research?
Most of the concerns here have to do with undue stress and harm. A cost-benefit analysis should have been done - and it is questionable whether the potential learning from the study was worth the stress that was caused to these monkeys. Students may want to discuss consent and the right to withdrawal, but this is not really relevant to animal research. Better would be to consider the three Rs - replace, reduce, and refine.
Bowlby's Internal working model
Bowlby (1973) argued that there is a continuity between attachment and adult relationships. Children create an Internal Working Model - or a schema - of oneself, the caregiver and one’s interaction with the caregiver. This internal model will then help individuals to predict what will happen in relationships as well as to decide which behaviour to engage in to resolve conflicts, disclose intimate information or evaluate their level of happiness in a relationship.
Internal Working Model
The internal working model includes three important elements:
- ideas about attachment figures and what can be expected from them
- ideas about the self
- ideas about how the self and others relate.
The internal working model will determine the child’s relationship with other people and the way the child sees himself or herself in the future. If a child experiences love and affection, he or she comes to see himself or herself as worthy of love and attention.
If the attachment figure occasionally provides less attention and sensitivity, it will not undermine the child’s confidence, but if this continues, the working model may change. Children who have experienced neglect or rejection may think that they deserve the neglect. Such a working model may eventually contribute negatively to mental health and the quality of their relationships with others.
Research in psychology: Ainsworth's Strange Situation Paradigm
One of Bowlby’s students, the US psychologist Mary Ainsworth (1970), devised an experimental procedure called the strange situation test, which resulted in a classification of attachment patterns. The strange situation is meant to measure the child’s attachment behaviour, based on how the child reacts when the mother leaves and subsequently returns.
In the strange situation test, the mother and infant are first left alone in a room together. Then a stranger enters and the mother leaves. The mother then returns and the stranger leaves. The mother then leaves the baby completely alone. Then the stranger returns. Then the mother returns and the stranger leaves.
Ainsworth started her work on attachment patterns with the so-called Ganda Project in Uganda. This was a longitudinal study using home visits, with naturalistic observations of mother-child interactions in the strange situation, and interviews with the mothers. The sample consisted of 28 children from several villages in Uganda. When the study began, the babies ranged from 15 weeks to two years old. Ainsworth observed them every two weeks, for two hours at a time, over a nine-month period. The visits took place in the family living room, so it was a natural environment. Ainsworth used an interpreter when she interviewed the mothers.
Ainsworth was particularly interested in the individual differences between mother-child pairs in terms of the quality of their attachment relationships. Based on her observations during the strange situation test, Ainsworth classified the children into three attachment groups: non-attached, insecurely attached and securely attached.
According to Ainsworth, secure attachment is dependent on an emotionally responsive mother. Mothers who are sensitive to the needs of their children tend to have securely attached babies, while insensitive mothers tend to have insecurely attached babies.
Ainsworth, Bell, and Stayton (1971) replicated the Uganda study in Baltimore, USA. The sample consisted of 26 mother-infant pairs, who were each visited in their homes every three to four weeks for the first year of the baby’s life. Based on her observations, she re-defined the types of attachment:
Types of attachment
Type A - Insecurely attached - avoidant (20 percent of the children) The child shows apparent indifference when the mother leaves the room, and avoids contact with her when she returns. The child is apparently not afraid of strangers. The mothers of type A children tend to be insensitive and do not seem interested in their child’s play.
Type B - Securely attached (70 percent of the children) The child is upset when the mother leaves and is happy to see her again. The child is easily comforted by the mother. The mothers of type B children are very interested in their child’s play and actively communicate with their children during play.
Type C - Insecurely attached - ambivalent (10 percent of the children) The child is very upset when the mother leaves the room, and she has difficulty soothing the child when she returns. The child seeks comfort, but at the same time rejects it. The mothers of type C children tend to be inconsistent in their reactions to the children.
You can watch a video of the Strange Situation Paradigm below.
A supplementary attachment type suggested by Main and Solomon (1986) has now been included. Type D is characterized by insecure-disorganized attachment. A child with this attachment type shows no particular reaction when the mother leaves or comes back. This attachment type has been associated with childhood abuse and chronically depressed mothers.
Evaluation of the strange situation paradigm
The strange situation paradigm is popular and still widely used. The method is a highly standardized procedure which allows for replications across time and culture. It is modeled on common, everyday experiences where mothers leave their children for brief periods of time in different settings. However, it could be argued that exposing children to stress in an experimental setting is very different from what happens in everyday life.
However, some psychologists argue that the Strange Situation test is highly artificial and extremely limited in terms of the amount of information that is gathered.
The cross-cultural validity of the Strange Situation has been challenged in that it focuses on the measurement of attachment in terms of the infant’s reaction to the separation and subsequent reunion with their mother. It does not take into account that the meaning of separation may differ according to culture. Japanese children are rarely separated from their mothers, so the separation during the Strange Situation may represent a highly unusual situation that means something different for Japanese children and their mothers than for US children and their mothers.
Additionally, in some cultures, interaction with strangers is much more common than in the US or Japan. In the South Pacific, it is very common for a baby to be tended to by any member of the community. Asking someone to hold your baby while you go into the post office would not be seen as something out of the ordinary.
Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) carried out a meta-analysis of 32 studies involving eight countries and over two thousand infants. They found that there are differences between cultures in the distribution of types A, B and C. For example, the Japanese studies showed a complete absence of type A but a high proportion of type C. There seems to be an overall pattern of cross-cultural differences, so that type B is most common, type A is relatively more common in Western European countries and type C is relatively more common in Israel and Japan. The difference has been associated with differences in child-rearing. The results of these studies indicate that if we want valid interpretations of the strange situation in a cross-cultural setting, we need to have a better understanding of parenting practices in those cultures.
ATL: Thinking critically
There are several cultural differences in the way that people raise their children. One of them is the concept is co-sleeping.
In the United States, even when a baby is still on the way, the couple starts preparing the baby's room. Usually, the child is moved to his or her own room almost immediately upon arrival home. The parents often use a baby monitor which will let them know if the baby needs anything. It seems from day 1, American parents are pushing their children to a sense of independence.
On the other hand, in countries like Japan and Sweden co-sleeping is a common phenomenon, where children sleep with their parents, sometimes as late as eight years old.
It is clear that these practices are a result of cultural norms, but psychologists have wondered whether this has an effect on the child's level of independence.
Keller and Goldberg (2004) carried out a study of 83 mothers of preschool-aged children. Some children were co-sleepers and others were solitary sleepers. The data was collected through questionnaires filled out by the mothers of the children. The hypothesis that co-sleeping could interfere with children's independence was partially supported: solitary sleepers fell asleep alone, slept through the night and weaned earlier than the co-sleepers. However, early co-sleeping children were more self-reliant (e.g. ability to dress oneself) and exhibited more social independence (e.g. make friends by oneself).
Questions
1. How valid do you think that the findings of Keller and Goldberg's study are? Would you promote co-sleeping with children in response to the findings of their research? Be able to justify your response.
2. Are there other cultural factors that you think may influence the attachment of children? What do you predict would be the effect of those factors?
Teacher only box1. How valid do you think that the findings of Keller and Goldberg's study are? Would you promote co-sleeping with children in response to the findings of their research? Be able to justify your response.
The research is questionable with regard to its sample. How were these families selected? And the children were not randomly allocated to conditions, so the differences in the family dynamics and why a family chose one option or the other may have an effect on the results of the study. It could be that parents that encourage co-sleeping also encourage other behaviours - e.g. the forms of play, the amount of time alone during the day, response time to crying - and this may be the reason for the other behaviours that are observed.
The second question about promoting the practice of co-sleeping is based on the students' own opinions and their ability to justify those opinions.
2. Are there other cultural factors that you think may influence the attachment of children? What do you predict would be the effect of those factors?
There are several potential factors students may think of. For example, eating behaviours (whether children choose what they want to eat for dinner or they have to eat what the whole family is eating; whether there is "adult food" and "children's food"); cultural attitudes toward gender normed behaviours; who actually spends time with the children - e.g. societies where parents work and children have nannies or daycare).
The role of early attachment on behaviour
Attachment theory assumes that internal working models continue throughout the lifespan. Longitudinal research indicates that the models are relatively stable, although they can be changed over the lifespan. Research shows that there may be some relationship between the experience of attachment in childhood and adult love relationships, as predicted by Bowlby.
Research in psychology: Hazan and Shaver (1987)
Hazan & Shaver (1987) assumed that adult attachment behaviour is a reflection of the expectations and beliefs that people have formed about themselves and their close relationships, as a result of their experiences with early attachment figures - that is, their internal working models.
The researchers reworked Ainsworth’s three attachment styles to describe adult relationships. They then devised a “love quiz,” which they put into a local newspaper, asking readers to indicate which of the three patterns best described their feelings about romantic relationships. The participants had to read the three statements shown and indicate which paragraph best described their attitude to close relationships.
A self-selected sample of 620 people, aged 14–82 years, responded to the love quiz. The mean age was 36 years. There were 205 males and 415 females. The researchers found that about 56 percent of respondents showed a secure attachment style, 25 percent showed the avoidant pattern, and 19 percent showed the ambivalent pattern. The researchers also asked participants to describe their parents’ parenting style, using a simple adjective checklist. People who were securely attached said their parents had been readily available, attentive, and responsive. People who were avoidant said their parents were unresponsive, rejecting, and inattentive. People who were ambivalent said their parents were anxious, only sometimes responsive, and generally out of step with their needs.
When asked to describe their feelings about romantic relationships, they found the following trends.
- Secure lovers: Love relationships were discussed in terms of trust, happiness, and friendship.
- Avoidant lovers: Characterized relationships with fear of intimacy, emotional highs and lows, and jealousy.
- Ambivalent lovers: Characterized by obsession, emotional highs and lows, extreme sexual attraction, and jealousy.
Although the researchers found some correlation between parenting style and adult attachment patterns, they warned against drawing too many conclusions about the continuity between early childhood experience and adult relationships. It would be overly deterministic to say that insecurely attached children would end up in insecure adult relationship patterns.
The Hazan and Shaver study raises some interesting questions about the effect of early attachment patterns on subsequent behaviour. However, there are some things to consider when evaluating the study. First, the study was based on a self-selected sample, which may not be representative. There was also a sampling bias in that more females than males participated in the study. Furthermore, data about one's own attachment, as well as their perception of their own relationships, was self-reported.
In spite of the limitations of Hazan and Shaver's study, a strength is that it is supported by other research. For example, Simpson et al. (1996) tested the role of attachment style on adult relationships by observing how a sensitive topic was discussed by a dating couple. First, he administered questionnaires to identify an individual’s attachment style. Then the dating couples discussed a problem in their relationship. These observations were videotaped and a team of researchers coded the couples' behaviours. Insecurely attached individuals tended to be anxious and to employ negative strategies during the discussion - resulting in negative feelings during the discussion and potential harm to the relationship. The results indicate that attachment styles have an influence on how couples go about resolving conflict.
Fonagy et al. (1991) carried out a prospective longitudinal study to determine if a mother's attachment style would have an influence on her child's attachment style. Researchers interviewed 96 mothers from London before childbirth in order to determine their attachment style. One year after the birth of the child, the mother-child relationship was assessed using the strange situation test. The researchers who judged the strange situation did not know the result of the initial interview - that is, they did not know the attachment style of the mother. This was a single-blind study. The researchers found that the match between the mother’s attachment style and the child’s security of attachment was 75%.
Fonagy's findings may be explained in terms of Bowlby’s idea of attachment patterns as internal working models that are based on our memories and beliefs from our own childhood experiences; these are continued into adult life where they play an active role in guiding perceptions and behaviour.
Checking for understanding
According to Freud, the bond between a mother and child is formed because the mother provides
Which of the following is not a component of Bowlby's Internal Working Model?
The attachment style in which the child seeks comfort, but at the same time pushes mom away when she returns in the strange situation test.
The attachment style that has been associated with abuse or neglect is
Which of the following is not a limitation of the strange situation test?
The procedure is highly standardized, making it relatively easy to replicate the results of Ainsworth's research.
Hazan and Shaver's study indicated that
Which of the following is true about Fonagy et al's study of the effect of a mother's attachment style on her relationship with her own child?
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