EARLY SOCIALISATION
Developmental Psychology
THIS TOPIC COVERS . . .
Nature of attachment and its role in early
socialisation: behaviourist and psychoanalytic
explanations of attachment, the BowlbyAinsworth paradigm, stages and types of
attachment, multiple attachments
 The nature of separation, deprivation, privation;
evidence from studies with animals and humans,
long term implications for adjustment and
mental health
 Day Care: factors affecting cognitive and social
development of young children in day care.
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NATURE
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WHAT IS ATTACHMENT?
Bond between child and adult (Primary
Attachment Figure, PAF) responsible for its care.
 Long term emotional bond.
 Separation causes stress and sadness.
 Behavioural feature –trying to maintain close
proximity (Ainsworth and Bell, 1970).
Key Features (Maccoby, 1980):
 Wanting close proximity to avoid distress
 Using attachment figure as basis for exploring
the world (safety)
 Orienting behaviour towards figure – looking at
them, facing them (focus)
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STAGES OF ATTACHMENT (SCHAFFER, 1996)
Pre-attachment – 0-2 months – Enjoys social
contact of any kind, no focus on carer.
 Attachment in the making – 2-7 monthsStarting to recognise individuals but still content
with strangers.
 Specific Attachment – 7+ months – Separation
protest when PAF leaves and begins to become
anxious around strangers.
 Multiple Attachments –9+ months - Begins to
become attached to other figures but still has
preference for PAF. Reciprocal Relationships – 8-24 months – can
predict and influence others responses.
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SCHAFFER AND EMERSON, 1964
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60 Glasgow infants – middle class families.
M&P - Observed in their homes once every 4 weeks
for a year and then again at 18 months.
Attachment measured by asking mothers about
separation protest.
Measured levels of stranger anxiety by approaching
the infant at the start of every observation and noting
when they started to show signs of anxiety.
R - Showed first specific attachment at 6-8 months.
39% - PAF was not the person who fed and bathed
them (as Behaviourists claimed).
Little relation between strength of attachment and
time spent with person.
Strongest bonds were with mothers who reacted to
infants responsively.
BEHAVIOURIST THEORY OF ATTACHMENT
Attachment learned through conditioning
 Classical Conditioning = PAF is neutral stimulus
 Food (UCS)
Pleasure (UCR)
Feeder(CS)
 Operant Conditioning (Dollard and Miller)
 Negative reinforcement – stopping the discomfort
of the baby through feeding/being fed
 The food is the primary reinforcer while the
feeder is the secondary reinforcer.
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EVALUATION
Strong evidence support that people do learn
through reinforcement – Little Albert.
 Is food the reward? What else could be the
reward?
 Oversimplified
 Can’t explain Schaffer and Emerson’s findings.
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PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Freud’s theory of development
 0-18 months the child is in the oral stage
 At this point only the id has been developed
 Motivated by being satisfying their need for food.
 Person who satisfies this becomes object of
attachment.
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EVALUATION
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Identifies why and who they become attached to.
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Difficult to prove or disprove.
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Lack of evidence.
CUPBOARD LOVE THEORIES
Both of these theories are called Cupboard Love
theories – focus on feeding.
 Contradicted by Schaffer and Emerson.
 Harlow (1959) Rhesus Monkey Study
 This showed that rather than learning through
Classical Conditioning, infants have an innate
need for comfort – contact comfort. If the
attachments had been formed through feeding
then the monkey would have clung to the wire
figure.
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THE BOWLBY-AINSWORTH PARADIGM
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Bowlby’s Theory – The evolutionary approach
Bowlby (1969) claimed that attachment was
adaptive – born with a need to become attached
in order to survive (be cared for as an infant)
and reproduce (form relationships as adults).
Infants elicit caregiving (see next slide)
Adults respond to social releasers- attachments
form due to the interactions. Infants only form
one special relationship (monotropy) with the
person they interact best with.
Internal working model – the relationship they
have with their PAF determines what they
expect from all relationships.
RESEARCH
Imprinting – innate in animals for survival.
Sensitive period – 6 months, after which infants
find it difficult to form attachments. Supports
Bowlby’s theory of attachment being adaptive.
 Schaffer and Emerson’s study also appears to
support the idea of monotropy. Tronick et al
(1992) African tribe – one PAF despite being
breastfed by multiple women.
 Harlow’s monkeys all had trouble in adulthood –
poor relationships and poor parents. Lack of
interaction.
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AINSWORTH’S CAREGIVER SENSITIVITY
HYPOTHESIS (1967)
Expresses importance of sensitivity.
 Uganda – mothers were more sensitive if they
could recall lots of information about their
children.
 These infants tended to be securely attached.
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TYPES OF ATTACHMENT
Secure – strong and content attachment. Results
in a well developed adult. PAF responds
sensitively to their infants needs.
 Insecure – PAF is insensitive to infants needs.
Poor subsequent emotional and cognitive
development.
 Insecure/Avoidant – child avoids social
interaction.
 Insecure/resistant – Children both seek and
reject social interaction.
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AINSWORTH ET AL, 1978: THE STRANGE
SITUATION STUDY.
To observe separation and stranger anxiety as well as
to test the secure base concept.
 The infant was observed in the following situations:
(1) Parent and infant alone.
(2) Stranger joins parent and infant.
(3) Parent leaves infant and stranger alone.
(4) Parent returns and stranger leaves.
(5) Parent leaves; infant left completely alone.
(6) Stranger returns.
(7) Parent returns and stranger leaves.
 Exploring behaviour, separation anxiety, stranger
anxiety and reunion behaviour were all recorded at
15 second intervals.
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RESULTS
Secure
Insecure/Avoidant
Insecure/
Resistent
Infant shows no
Infant shows signs of
sign of distress
intense distress
when mother
when mother leaves.
leaves.
Separation
Anxiety
Distressed when
mother leaves.
Stranger
Anxiety
Infant is okay with
Avoidant of stranger
Infant avoids the
the stranger and
when alone but friendly stranger - shows fear plays normally
when mother present.
of stranger.
when stranger is
present.
Reunion
behaviour
Positive and happy
when mother returns.
Child approaches
mother but resists
contact, may even
push her away.
Other
Will use the mother as
a safe base to explore
their environment.
Infant cries more
and explores less
than the other 2
types.
Mother and
stranger are able to
comfort infant
equally well.
% of infants
70
15
15
Infant shows little
interest when
mother returns.
HARRY POTTER
Consider the 3 main characters in Harry Potter:
Harry, Hermione and Ron.
 Categorise these characters in terms of their
attachment style based on what you know from
the films/novels.
 Justify your answer.
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If you have never watched or read Harry Potter
pair up with someone who has and have them
describe each character to you.
CONTINUITY HYPOTHESIS
The effects of attachment last into adulthood
 Hazan and Shaver, 1987. ‘Love Quiz’ in a
newspaper.
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Securely attached – long lasting, trusting
relationships.
 Insecure – ambivalent (resistant) – Worried that
their partners don’t love them.
 Insecure – avoidant – Fear intimacy.
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Sroufe et al, 1999 Longitudinal study. Securely
attached grew up to be more popular and rated
higher for social competence.
TEMPERAMENT HYPOTHESIS (KAGAN,
1984)
Opposes Bowlby’s theory.
 Claims that attachment is a result of infant being
innately trusting and friendly (personality that
you are born with) which shapes the mother’s
responses.
 Belsky and Rovine, 1987 – Newborns who were
difficult babies were less likely to become
securely attached.
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DIFFERENT KINDS OF ATTACHMENT
Multiple attachments – for social learning
(interacting with peers).
 Father attachments – Bowlby, 1951 – fathers
there simply for financial and emotional support.
Schaffer and Emerson, 1964 – fathers were PAF.
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Accessibility – suggested that fathers tend not to be
PAF because they don’t spend as much time with
infant – Schaffer and Emerson, 1964 found that there
was no correlation between attachment and time
spent with infant.
 A different kind of attachment – men are more
challenging than women in their kind of play – not a
secure base but positive and challenging.
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CULTURAL SIMILARITIES
If attachment is innate – there shouldn’t be any
differences.
 Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) – 32
studies of the Strange Situation in 8 countries.
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Secure most common in every country
 This is the best attachment style for healthy
relationships .
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Tronick et al, 1992 (African tribe study) Still
showed only one PAF.
 Fox, 1997 studies infants in Israel who spent
most of their time in a children’s home. Still most
closely attached to mother.
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CULTURAL DIFFERENCES.
Grossman and Grossman, 1991. German children
tended to be insecurely attached. Childrearing
style? – Interpersonal space so would make
infants appear to be insecurely attached.
 Takahashi, 1990. Infants rarely separated from
their mother so they may ‘appear’ to be more
distressed than infants from other cultures.
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