1. Tutor2u
Study Notes and online tests.

2. Exam essay
Outline and evaluate Bowlby’s explanation of attachment. (Total 8 marks) 10 minutes

3. Mark scheme Ao1 AO1 Knowledge and understanding
Bowlby’s theory of attachment suggests attachment is important for survival. Infants are innately programmed to form an attachment. This is a biological process and takes place during a critical period. The role of social releasers is emphasised. The child’s relationship with a PCG provides an internal working model which influences later relationships.
AO1  Knowledge and understanding
4 marks  Accurate and reasonably detailed Accurate and reasonably detailed outline that demonstrates sound knowledge and understanding. There is appropriate selection of material to address the question.
3 marks  Less detailed but generally accurate Less detailed but generally accurate outline that demonstrates relevant knowledge and understanding. There is some evidence of selection of material to address the question.
2 marks  Basic Basic outline that demonstrates some relevant knowledge and understanding, but lacks detail and may be muddled. There is little evidence of selection of material to address the question.
1 mark  Very brief / flawed Very brief or flawed description that demonstrates very little knowledge. Selection of information is largely inappropriate.
0 marks No creditworthy material presented.

4. Mark scheme Ao2 AO2 Application of knowledge and understanding
Evaluation of Bowlby’s explanation could relate to criticism of the critical period and monotropy. Candidates might refer to imprinting and the problems of generalising from birds to humans. However, positive references to the importance of Bowlby’s work would be equally relevant.
AO2  Application of knowledge and understanding
4 marks  Effective evaluation Effective use of material to address the question and provide informed evaluation. Broad range of issues and/or evidence in reasonable depth, or a narrower range in greater depth.
3 marks  Reasonable evaluation Material is not always used effectively but produces a reasonable evaluation. A range of issues and/or evidence in limited depth, or a narrower range in greater depth.
2 marks  Basic evaluation The use of material provides only a basic evaluation. Superficial consideration of a restricted range of issues and/or evidence.
1 mark  Rudimentary evaluation The use of material provides only a rudimentary evaluation.
0 marks No creditworthy material presented.

5. The Specification!

6. Attachment Evolutionary perspective Learning Theory Perspective
The tendency to form attachments is
INNATE!
Tendency is present in both infants
and mothers
Infants have no INNATE tendency to
form attachments
They learn attachments because of food

7. Classical Conditioning

8. Result

9. Imprinting

10. Lorenz (1935)

11. Harlow’s Monkeys

12. Bowlby’s Monotropic Theory
Social releasers
Critical time period
Internal working model

13. Bowlby Vs Learning Theory
In the red corner
In the blue corner

14. Next Week …

15. Objectives By the end of the today you will be able to …
Describe the Strange Situation experiment
Classify types of behaviour into the three types of infant behaviour: secure, insecure/avoidant and insecure/resistant and understand what behaviour is associated with each.
Understand the different cultural variations in attachment

16. The Strange Situation How can we study attachment?
Mary Ainsworth
How can we study attachment?

17. The Strange Situation Ainsworth and Bell (1970)
Aimed to produce a method for assessing quality of attachment.
It places the infant in different situations to invoke comfort seeking and exploration behaviour, both indicators of the quality of attachment.
It systematically studies and measures attachment

18. The Strange Situation
100 middle-class American infants and their mothers.
Controlled observation of mother and child during a set of pre-determined activities.
Observed:
Separation anxiety : unease infant shows when left by caregiver
Infant’s willingness to explore
Stranger anxiety: the infant’s response to the presence of a stranger
Reunion behaviour: the way the caregiver was greeted on return

19. In Trios – be prepared to act out this procedure and the three different findings.

20. STAGES
1 + 2
Mom and infant go into room to get used to it before the obs. begins

21. STAGE 3
Mom is in room and stranger enters.

22. STAGE 4
Mom leaves and the stranger interacts with the infant

23. STAGE 5
Mom returns
(reunion behaviour recorded)

24. STAGE 6
Mom leaves and the infant is left alone.
Separation protest is recorded.

25. STAGE 7
Instead of mom, the stranger returns. Stranger anxiety behaviour recorded.

26. STAGE 8
Mom re-enters the room and stranger leaves. Reunion behaviour recorded.

27. This led Ainsworth to develop 3 broad types of attachment
The procedure provided Ainsworth with a means of looking at:
stranger anxiety
separation anxiety
re-union behaviour
This led Ainsworth to develop 3 broad types of attachment

28. 70% 15% 3 Types of Attachment Behaviour Type B: Secure attachment
Type C: Resistant Insecure
Type A: Avoidant Insecure
70%
15%
‘I trust you’
‘I don’t care!’
‘I don’t trust you’

29. Securely Attached (70%) Would explore the unfamiliar room
Subdued when mother left and greeted her positively when she returned
Moderate avoidance of the stranger, but friendly when mother present
Mothers were described as sensitive

30. Avoidant-Insecure (15%)
Did not orientate to their mother while investigating the room and toys
Did not seem concerned by her absence
Showed little interest when mother returned
Avoided the stranger, but not as strongly as they avoided the mother on her return
Mothers sometimes ignored their infants

31. Resistant-Insecure (15%)
Showed intense distress, particularly when their mother was absent
Rejected mother when she returned
Showed ambivalent behaviour towards the stranger, similar to the pattern of resistance and interest shown with their mother
Mothers appeared to behave ambivalently towards their infants.

32. Conclusions
The study shows there are significant individual differences between infants
There appears to be a distinct association between the mother’s behaviour and the infant’s attachment type.
It shows that most American children are securely attached
Mothers behaviour
Infants behaviour
Sensitive/ responsive
Insensitive/ unresponsive
securely attached
Insecurely attached

33. Activity: What goes where
Activity: What goes where? Fill in table with ‘high’ ‘moderate’ or ‘low’
Secure
Insecure-Avoidant
Insecure-resistant
Proximity-seeking
Exploration / secure-base
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Response on reunion

34. Activity: What goes where? Fill in table with ‘high’ or ‘low’
Secure
Insecure-Avoidant
Insecure-resistant
Proximity-seeking
moderate
low
high
Exploration / secure-base
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Response on reunion

35. Match the evaluative points to the evaluative explanation

36. GRAVER

37. Generalisable Large sample Only in Baltimore
 Procedure replicated around the world.

38. Reliable Inter-rater reliability. Behavioural categories
(Bick found 94% agreement between researchers)

39. Application New Paradigm Importance of parental sensitivity
Predictive – attachment type linked to adult behaviours.
Focuses too much on behaviour of child and not behaviour of mother which may distort results.
Test may be culture-bound. Cultural differences in child-rearing mean children respond differently to the test – caregivers also respond differently.

40. Validity
Lacks ecological validity – Lab based with mother and stranger acting a script.
Are we measuring attachment or temperament? Kagan suggests temperament may be a confounding variable.

41. Ethics Deliberately stresses infants to see their reactions.
 Stress is no more serious than everyday anxieties – mother on hand.

42. Efficient: could measure a lot of behaviours quite quickly and easily bring in lots of participants
Easy to replicate: method has been employed in studies the world over – especially in cross- cultural research
Validity: location is different from infant’s normal environment. However, many infants experience new locations quite naturally e.g. with a babysitter, at play group, etc
Generalisations: it would be unreasonable to generalise about all infant behaviour as the findings of this study are restricted to it’s sample type (middle-class Americans)
Ethics: consider distress, infants found most of the situations distressing. What about informed consent? Prior to each study, was the mother informed of the potential distress that their baby might experience?
Issues

43. Ainsworth exam questions
Describe how Ainsworth studied types of attachment. (6 marks)
Outline what is meant by secure attachment. (2 marks)
Explain the difference between secure and insecure attachment. (3 marks)
Describe and evaluate the strange situation. (12 marks)

44. Break-time research!
We love our mobile phones. We display attachment behaviour to technology.
Ask people how the feel about their phone, knowing it is close by, what they feel when it is missing.
How might these behaviours be seen as secure, insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant.

45. Evaluation In pairs, answer the questions on each card.
Prepare to feedback

46. Cultural variations in attachment
Cultural variations in attachment- differences in child-rearing practices and attachment types between different cultural groupings
Germans child-rearing practices value independence more than the UK.
German studies record higher rates of insecure-avoidance.

47. Do you think attachment is different depending
on the culture?
If so, how?

48. Ijzendoorn (1988) Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment
The meta- analysis 32 studies in 8 countries 2000 Strange Situation classifications. Intra-cultural Vs inter-cultural variation.

49. Ijzendoon - Findings
Average findings were consistent with Ainsworth’s original research - Secure 67% - Avoidant 21% - Resistant 12%
Intra-cultural variation was nearly 15 times greater than the cross-cultural variations. Van Ijzendoorn speculated that this was linked to differences in socio-economic factors and levels of stress that varied between samples used within each country.
Type A in West – Type C more common in Japan, China & Israel revealed a higher incidence of resistant than avoidant children.
Chinese findings revealed the lowest rate of secure attachments (50%) with the remaining children falling into the other categories equally.
It was concluded that the modest cross-cultural differences reflect the effects of mass media, which portrays similar notions of parenting.

51. Imposed Etic
Use techniques which are relevant to one culture to draw conclusions about another. In USA – separation anxiety is assumed to be due to insecure attachment but it may represent something else in different cultures.

52. Other Cross-Cultural Research.
Dogon tribes.
McMahon-True
Korean families
Kyoung
German families
Grossman & Grossman
Aboriginal infants.
Malin

53. Cultural variations questions
Outline what research has shown about cultural variations in attachment (4 marks)
Explain how Van Ijzendoorn studied cultural variations. (4 marks)
Describe what research has found about cultural variation in attachment. (4 marks)
Describe and evaluate research into cultural variations in attachment. (12 marks)

54. Outline what research has shown about
Outline what research has shown about cultural variations in attachment (4 marks)

55. Extension
Complete the cross-cultural research: evaluation hand-out

56. Home learning
Anya has a 10-month-old son called Ben. Anya sometimes ignores Ben and does not respond when he cries. However, when Anya feels like playing with Ben, she wakes him up, even if he is soundly asleep.
(a)     What type of attachment is Ben likely to show? Explain your answer. (3)
(b)     Explain how a psychologist could investigate Ben’s attachment type using Ainsworth’s Strange Situation. (3)
(Total 6 marks)