SSC Psychology: Attachment

Showing posts with label Attachment. Show all posts

This area of the specification focusses on the impact the day care can have on a child's behaviour, basically whether day care has a positive or negative impact on the child.

Social development is looked at specifically - Social development refers to aggressive behaviour and sociability (peer relations)

Be aware that there are 3 potential essay questions for this topic - the essay plans are at the end of the presentation.

Memory revision booklet

Attachment revision booklet

Following from the research into short-term separation (AKA disruption) researchers becase interested in what the consequences were if a child never formed an attachment, this is typically as a result of early institutionalisation.

It was suggested that children would never be able to recover from privation, the presentation and note sheet below will tell you whether that's true...

Effects of Institutionalisation

This part of the specification refers to finding out the long-term effects if a child has not experienced an emotional bond in their early years.

Make sure that you know a definition of Institutional Care (first slide on the presenation) as the exam board can ask you to define it and remember that 2 marks can equate to half a grade!

Cross-cultural variations in attachment type

This part of the specification looks at how different cultures might vary in terms of their child rearing techniques and whether or not this results in a different % of each attachment type.

Look at the presentation and complete the note sheet to find out...

Disruption of attachment (short-term separation)

At this point in the specification we begin to look at what happens if attachments don't form or if they are broken, temporarily or for the long-term.

Disruption of attachment refers to when an attachment has been formed but the child suffers short-term separation (meaning that the parent/s leave but return soon after). An example of when disruption can occur would be if the child or a parent had been hospitalised.

Below is the presentation and note sheet to work through, enjoy!

Individual differences in attachment

As you will have gathered, not all children attached to their caregivers in the same way, meaning that there is clearly more than one attachment type.

On noticing this Ainsworth and Bell devised "The Strange Situation" which was a controlled observation to see how children responded to a set of scenarios consisting of their mother and a stanger, these scenarios involved leaving the child with the stranger, leaving the child on their own etc...

Ainsworth and Bell were interested in the 4 of the child's behaviours
1. Separation anxiety
2. Stranger anxiety
3. Reunion behaviour
4. Willingness to explore.

Use the presentation below to complete the note sheet below that

Types of attachment

Information regarding the types of attachment came from the findings of Ainsworth's research into individual differences in attachment.

You must be really clear on which attachment type is which and be aware that there are 4 factors on which you can draw comparisons between the different types.

Make sure you learn and know the table below.

Attachment type

Separation Anxiety

Stranger Anxiety

Reunion Behaviour

Willingness to Explore



Securely

   Attached

Moderate distress

Wary of stranger

Enthusiastic



High (use mother as

secure base)

    Insecure-

   Avoidant

None

No anxiety shown

Indifferent

High

    Insecure-

   Resistant

Very high

Very high

Seek & reject

Limited

A few little hints to help you remember which insecure attachment type is which...

Insecure-avoidant = avoid contact and so are independent (e.g. indifferent on separation etc)

Insecure-resistant = are resistant to being separated (e.g. distress on separation, confused reuinion behaviour)

Bowlby's theory

The specification requires that you know 2 explanations of attachment, the first of which is Bowlby's Theory (AKA the evolutionary theory)

It's important that you know both the main features of Bowlby's Theory and how it differs from the Learning Theory.

The main one is that Bowlby's Theory focusses on nature

Use the powerpoint below to fill out the note sheet below that.

Sneaky video treats are at the bottom of the page!

The learning theory

The specification requires that you know 2 explanations of attachment, the first of which is the Learning Theory (AKA the behavioural theory)

It's important that you know both the main features of the Learning Theory and how it differs from Bowlby's Theory.

The main one is that the Learning Theory focusses on nurture