Attachment

conclusions about relationship with mother: famous monograph �maternal care & mental health) � stable relationship with one adult = essential for subsequent successful social development

monotropy � from 6 months, infants attached to 1 particular person � usually the mother

but the crucial factor = whether it is a good relationship

early attachment: important because it provides children with love

longer-term

Bowley monograph republished: child care and the growth of mother love

concerned with what happened if there is no successful relationship

argued: such a gap could be irreversible

with harmful effects on subsequent development

cited psychopathy as one possible long-term consequence (the affectionless psychopath)

Animal work � a later influence on Bowlby

Lorenz: imprinting

Harlow: cloth/wire mother

Bowlby accepted the idea of strong innate drives for social contacts with parents

(not like the ones in psycho-analytic theory)

Lorenz

ducks & ducklings

they get attached to a particular figure � usually the mother

showed that you can actually manipulate that by taking the mother and replacing with yourself - irreversible

Harlow

fighting against the behaviourist movement in America at the time

worked very young monkeys � separated from their mothers and gave them a choice between 2 artificial mothers

1. cloth � could be held and hugged but nothing else

2. wire + nipple � provided food but not huggable

the monkeys preferred the cloth, leaning over to the wire nipple mother if they�re: close � preferred the security, not simply the mother as source of food

cloth mother as �secure base�

Ainsworth

colleague of Bowlby � extension of his theory - experiment she devised (�strange situation)

interested in the notion of secure base/attachment

infant�s primary motivation = for security

mothers provide secure base for exploration and learning about the world

with the mother there, the babies were less fearful of things aorund them (because trusted mother to protect them)

also claimed: individ differences in this relationship: not just stable vs interrupted relatinoships, but a range of successfull/unsuccessfull relationships

pushing Bowlby away from just traumatic separation (but whole range, incl range of relats)

1970s in america: devise an objective measure (�strange situation�) of the quality of this relationship

Criteria for secure attachment

1. active play & exploration in the caregiver�s presence

2. enthusiastic greetings on reunion after separation

3. effectiveness of contact when distressed

4. absence of anger, petulance or with-holding of contact

The �strange situation�

1. Enter room

2. Mother & baby in room

3. Stranger enters

4. Mother leaves

5. First reunion without stranger

6. Baby alone

7. Stranger re-enters

8. Second-reunion

3 groups of babies

A.�� anxious-avoidant

babies do not approach mother

do not appear to prefer her to stranger

although upset when she goes

B.�� securely-attached

approach mother, secure and play well when she is there

sometimes upset when she goes, but happy when she returns

C.�� anxious-ambivalent

do approach mother

upset when she leaves

but resists her when she comes back

Further work

prediction: sroufe (see Bremner)

showed that children in group B at 18 months are more idnpednent in classrom at 4 years than the others

mothers: also evidence that the mothers ohte 3 different groups of children behave in different ways to their childfen

evidenct that it�s not just what they�re like tat the time = a senstivie meaure of the mother/child relationship

Reading

both good: Bremner, Durkin

conclusion

works 18 months or so � much after that, doesn�t work so well

Bretherton�s story-stem task

Monster in the bedroom

trying to find ways of looking at the relationship between children & parents when they�re older

story-stem task:

acts out story with concrete material (toys) � about a family of bears

then stops at a certain stage � asks children what will happen next

child is encouraged to identify with the child in the story

i.e. when being asked what would happen next, actually being asked what would happen in your family

Haley � child bear goes to room and finds a monster

this child doeesn�the answer, but shows the child bear toy immediately � to get mother, implying trust in mother to protect her

Don�t open the cupboard

1. mother goes out � tells the child not to open the cupboard

2. younger sister hurts herself � there is plaster in the cupboard

�they open the cupboard�

3. mother comes back � asks the child if she obeyed her

head sinks

but eventually admits that she disobeyed her � �yes�

the child is showing evidence of a trusting relationship

Ainsworth & the behaviourists

Ainsworth: very influential at the time (�60s) vs behaviourists

able to show that most of what the behaviourists were saying at the time about the upbringing of young children was (maliciously) wrong

behaviourists: picking children up when they cried reinforced their crying

Ainsworth: picking them up = affection �/span> make them happier children

Ainsworth & Bell - carried out observational study: how often (and for how long) mothers repsnoded to their baby crying and how much the baby cried

= a great variation between mothers (large sample) � some ignored, some picked up every time

if behavs = right: the more mothers respond to babies crying, the more babies cry

i.e. +ve correlation between:

the number of episodes responded to by the mother

and the amount of crying by the baby

at 9 months

at 12 months

mother: episodes responded to by mother

baby: frequency of babies� crying

r = -0.42

r = -0.45

pretty strong �ve correlation

Conclusion

whether right or wrong, Bowlby�s ideas about the importance of stable relationships are stimulating and important

the strange situation

= a heroic & interesting attempts at an objective measure of attachment� � although we cannot be sure that it is a measure of the nature of the relationship between child & mother

(it could be simply a measure of the child�s personality which �/span> how it reacts)