Attachment flashcards

Attachment is a strong, enduring emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver that provides security and shapes later development. Students must understand the key explanations for how attachments form, including learning theory (cupboard love) and Bowlby's evolutionary theory, which emphasises innate drives, monotropy, and the internal working model. The stages of attachment development, Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure and the types of attachment it identified (secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant) are essential. Cultural variations in attachment patterns must be evaluated critically. Students should also understand the effects of deprivation and privation, including Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis, and consider research into Romanian orphans. The role of early attachment in later relationships, via the internal working model, links childhood experience to adult functioning.

1. Card 1

   What is attachment in developmental psychology?

   Attachment is a strong, lasting emotional bond between an infant and caregiver that promotes proximity-seeking and provides a safe base for exploration.

2. Card 2

   What does learning theory say about why attachments form?

   Learning theory (cupboard love) argues infants attach to whoever feeds them, as food is an unconditioned stimulus producing pleasure, and the caregiver becomes associated with that pleasure.

3. Card 3

   What is Bowlby's concept of monotropy?

   Monotropy is Bowlby's idea that infants have an innate bias to form one primary attachment, usually with the mother, which is qualitatively different from all other bonds.

4. Card 4

   What is the internal working model?

   The internal working model is a mental template of relationships formed through early attachment, which shapes expectations of future relationships and the child's sense of self-worth.

5. Card 5

   What is the critical period in Bowlby's theory?

   Bowlby proposed a critical period (roughly the first two to three years) during which a primary attachment must form, or long-term social and emotional damage may result.

6. Card 6

   What procedure did Ainsworth use to measure attachment type?

   Ainsworth used the Strange Situation, a controlled observation involving brief separations and reunions with a caregiver and a stranger, to classify infant attachment behaviour.

7. Card 7

   What are the three main attachment types identified by Ainsworth?

   Secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant attachment. Secure infants explore freely and are comforted on reunion; insecure types show either indifference or extreme distress.

8. Card 8

   What did Harlow's research with rhesus monkeys suggest about attachment?

   Harlow's study showed infant monkeys preferred a cloth surrogate over a wire one providing food, suggesting attachment is based on contact comfort rather than feeding alone.

9. Card 9

   What is the difference between deprivation and privation?

   Deprivation is the loss of an existing attachment bond, whereas privation is never having formed any attachment at all; privation tends to have more severe long-term consequences.

10. Card 10

    What did Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis claim?

    Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis stated that continuous care from a mother figure is essential in early childhood, and prolonged separation causes irreversible intellectual and emotional damage.

11. Card 11

    What did Rutter's research suggest about Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis?

    Rutter argued Bowlby conflated deprivation and privation, and that outcomes depend on quality of subsequent care; damage from separation is not necessarily irreversible.

12. Card 12

    What do cross-cultural studies of attachment tell us?

    Cross-cultural studies (e.g. Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg) show secure attachment is most common worldwide, but the proportion of insecure types varies, suggesting both universal and cultural influences.

• Many students confuse deprivation with privation, incorrectly applying Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis to cases where no attachment was ever formed, which is actually privation.
• Students often state that Bowlby said the primary attachment must be with the biological mother, when his theory refers to a consistent mother-figure and does not require a biological relationship.
• A common error is treating the Strange Situation as a naturalistic observation; it is actually a controlled laboratory procedure, which limits its ecological validity and this should be acknowledged in evaluation.

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