Upgrade to remove ads
Busy. Please wait.
Log in with Clever
or

show password
Forgot Password?

Don't have an account?  Sign up 
Sign up using Clever
or

Username is available taken
show password


Make sure to remember your password. If you forget it there is no way for StudyStack to send you a reset link. You would need to create a new account.
Your email address is only used to allow you to reset your password. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.


Already a StudyStack user? Log In

Reset Password
Enter the associated with your account, and we'll email you a link to reset your password.

All key terms and key studies from Attachments - AQA

Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in each of the black spaces below before clicking on it to display the answer.
        Help!  

Term
Definition
Meltzoff & Moore   Infants as young as two weeks old were able to imitate specific facial and hand gestures by a caregiver model  
🗑
Brazelton et al   Still face experiment  
🗑
Schaffer & Emerson   Carried out a study on families in Glasgow and from their observations they developed a 4-stage model of attachment formation, such as indiscriminate and discriminate attachments  
🗑
Harlow   Found that monkeys provided with two surrogate mothers (one made of wire that provided food and one covered in a cloth) were more attached to the one that gave comfort rather than food  
🗑
Lorenz   Demonstrated 'imprinting' by being the first thing that baby geese saw. They treated him as a caregiver and followed him around until adulthood  
🗑
Bowlby   Tested his Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis by studying juvenile thieves. Found a significantly high proportion of them had been maternally deprived in early life.  
🗑
Ainsworth   Created the Strange Situation Method, from which she categorised three attachment types (secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant)  
🗑
Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg   Conducted a meta-analysis of different Strange Situation experiments from around the world and found secure attachment was always the most common, with variations between countries  
🗑
Rutter   Carried out longitudinal research of Romanian orphans and found significant differences in the recovery and progress of those adopted before and after 6 months of age  
🗑
Zeanah   Institutionalised (Romanian) orphans who had spent 90% or more of their lives in an institution were significantly more likely to show disinhibited attachment type than a 'normal' control who had not been in an institution  
🗑
Hazan & Shaver   Conducted the 'love quiz', which was a retrospective questionnaire asking participants about their earliest attachments. Found a correlation between early attachment type and later romantic relationships.  
🗑
Simpson   Conducted a longitudinal study over 25+ years and found a positive correlation between participants' earliest attachments (using Strange Situation method) and future relationships, both friendship and romantic.  
🗑
Reciprocity   Parent and infant respond to the other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other, like a sustained conversation. It is a two-way, mutual process involving turn-taking, from 3 months old  
🗑
Interactional Synchrony   Mother and infant reflect / mirror both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way. Seen from two weeks.  
🗑
Play   Quality of fathers’ play with infants (not their initial bond) is linked to quality of later attachments – therefore fathers have a different role to mothers, to be a stimulating play mate not meeting emotional needs (Grossman)  
🗑
Responsiveness   Fathers can be effective primary caregivers (PCG). Research by Field shows PCG Fathers adopt behaviours typical of PCG mothers, e.g. smile more. So key to attachment is responsiveness of adult (e.g. smiling) not gender.  
🗑
Stages of Attachment   A child's development phases with regards to attachment. Who they respond to the most and how they respond to strangers. A longitudinal study conducted by Schaffer and Emerson  
🗑
Asocial stage of attachment   In the first few weeks of life babies respond in the same way to humans and objects  
🗑
Indiscriminate attachment   After 2-6 months, babies have a preference for familiar people but show no stranger/separation anxiety  
🗑
Specific attachment   Around 7 months, babies have particular preferences for individual people and develop stranger anxiety shortly after.  
🗑
Multiple Attachments   Attachments to two or more people. This starts happening soon after specific attachment with one carer. For most babies they have multiple by 12 months.  
🗑
Animal Studies   Experiments carried out on non-humans, usually because it would be unethical to study humans experimentally in some behaviours. Influenced theories of attachment with people.  
🗑
Imprinting   Goslings follow whatever is the first large moving thing they see. Lorenz defined this.  
🗑
Sexual imprinting   The first bond (imprinting) affects mating preferences in later life. Lorenz found this with geese.  
🗑
Critical period (animal studies)   A key window of time in which the initial bond formed has long term impact on animals future. In geese if they didn't imprint in the first few hours they never would (Lorenz). In monkeys, the critical period was 90 days (Harlow).  
🗑
Contact comfort   Infant monkeys preferred cloth covered surrogate wire monkeys to wire monkeys that provided milk. Harlow said it was because they provided comfort.  
🗑
Learning Theory of attachments   An approach to explaining why we form attachments that focuses on nurture - believes that children learn to associate parents with food, which is an unconditioned stimulus  
🗑
Cupboard Love   The belief that children learn to love whoever gives them food (Dollard & Miller)  
🗑
Classical conditioning (attachment)   UCS (food) produces UCR (feeling of pleasure). Caregiver (NS) is paired with food (UCS) and is associated with UCS. NS becomes CS, and produces pleasure (CR).  
🗑
Operant conditioning (attachment)   Behaviours which bring the caregiver near (e.g. crying) are reinforced because produces caregiver response. Negative reinforcement – caregiver’s response also reinforced as crying stops.  
🗑
Primary / secondary reinforcers   The association of the mother with the food (primary reinforcer) means the mother becomes reinforcing in her own right (secondary reinforcer)  
🗑
Drive reduction   Infants are driven to reduce hunger (a primary drive). Attachment is secondary drive learned by association of caregiver with hunger satisfaction.  
🗑
Monotropic theory   The belief that we have an innate need to form attachments and that we must form a special attachment to one caregiver in particular, within a key window of time. This bond is influential in later relationships.  
🗑
Adaptive   Adaptive means when a trait gives a survival or reproductive advantage in a particular environment. In the context of monotropic theory, attachment gives a survival advantage  
🗑
Social releasers   Innate 'cute' features and behaviours, which encourage attachment behaviour from parents  
🗑
Monotropy   Special, intense bond with the mother (or ever present adult mother substitute) that is important for the development of internal working models.  
🗑
Critical Periods (Bowlby)   This refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all (2 years / 30 months in humans)  
🗑
Internal Working Models   The mental representations / schema of relationships, based of our attachment to our primary caregiver. These affect our future relationships because they become our expectations for what relationships are like  
🗑
Continuity hypothesis   The belief that your initial attachment will correlate with your future adult relationships. Furthermore, that this will affect parenting style and so attachment types will continue over generations.  
🗑
Strange Situation   A controlled observation to test attachment type devised by Ainsworth. Infants are assessed on their willingness to explore and reactions to being left alone, left with a stranger and reunion with a caregiver. Assigned as type A, B or C.  
🗑
Willingness to explore   The extent to which an infant is comfortable using their caregiver as a secure base from which to look around their environment  
🗑
Separation distress   Upset caused by a caregiver leaving the room  
🗑
Stranger anxiety   Worry caused by an unknown person entering the room  
🗑
Reunion behaviour   The actions of an infant once their caregiver returns to the room  
🗑
Secure Attachment   Moderate separation distress; moderate separation anxiety; joy at reunion; explores freely; uses mother as secure base. Positive long term outcomes.  
🗑
Insecure-Avoidant Attachment   Low separation distress; low stranger anxiety; little response to reunion ('avoidance' of the caregiver); explores freely but doesn't use mother as secure base. Negative long term outcomes.  
🗑
Insecure-Resistant Attachment   High levels of separation distress; high levels of stranger anxiety; not easily comforted and 'resists' comfort at reunion; doesn't explore much; clingy and cries a lot. Negative long term outcomes.  
🗑
Cultural Variations   The differences between nations (or groups within a nation) in relation to a particular thing, e.g. Van Ijzendoorn looked at differences in rates of attachment types  
🗑
Meta-analysis   A study which compiles all of the research using the same or similar methodology, e.g. Van Ijzendoorn analysed 32 studies to identify cultural variations in attachment type  
🗑
Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis   Bowlby's theory that loss of a primary caregiver in the critical period would have negative consequences for a child's future emotional and intellectual development  
🗑
Maternal deprivation   Loss of emotional care from mother during the critical period  
🗑
Critical period (Maternal deprivation)   A key window of time (2 years / 30 months). Disruption to bond within this will have inevitable negative effects. Bowlby said the first 5 years mattered too.  
🗑
Law of accumulated separation   Many periods of separation can add up to be deprivation with the associated negative effects.  
🗑
Affectionless psychopathy   A condition caused by maternal deprivation, according to Bowlby, which is characterised by a lack of empathy or guilt  
🗑
Institutionalisation   The effects of living in a an orphanage or children's home (e.g. orphanage, hospital) for a long time with insufficient emotional care  
🗑
Orphan studies   These concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them  
🗑
Disinhibited attachment   An effect of institutionalisation identified by Rutter et al. An attachment disorder characterised by lack of inhibition around strangers. Often seen in children who have experienced neglect and abuse.  
🗑
Disorganised attachment   An effect of institutionalisation identified by Zeanah et al. An attachment disorder where infants display behaviours of different attachment types. Often seen in children who have experienced neglect and abuse.  
🗑
Childhood relationships   Research on influence of infant bond on childhood interactions, i.e. bullying and friendships. Securely attached infants tend to have better friendships in childhood and not be involved in bullying, unlike insecure attachment.  
🗑
Adult relationships   Research on influence of infant bond on adult relationships, particularly romantic relationships and parenting. It seems secure attachment in infancy is correlated with better later relationships, unlike insecure attachment.  
🗑
Temperament hypothesis   Criticises the continuity hypothesis by suggesting that infants are born with an innate personality - which explains the correlation between initial attachment and adult relationships (Kagan)  
🗑
Socially sensitive   This means when research findings have implications for certain groups. For instance, attachment research is often socially sensitive as it puts pressure on parents, especially women to make choices such as saying at home.  
🗑


   

Review the information in the table. When you are ready to quiz yourself you can hide individual columns or the entire table. Then you can click on the empty cells to reveal the answer. Try to recall what will be displayed before clicking the empty cell.
 
To hide a column, click on the column name.
 
To hide the entire table, click on the "Hide All" button.
 
You may also shuffle the rows of the table by clicking on the "Shuffle" button.
 
Or sort by any of the columns using the down arrow next to any column heading.
If you know all the data on any row, you can temporarily remove it by tapping the trash can to the right of the row.

 
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.

  Normal Size     Small Size show me how
Created by: SBlakeley
Popular Psychology sets