Day care

Today was our final lesson on attachment, and we covered the pros and cons of day care, and also implications for childcare practice of attachment research. We looked at some studies giving different outcomes for childrens' aggressive behaviour and their relationship with peers. The studies often seem to contradict each other, and we looked into some of the reasons for this (essentially the studies are not all comparing like with like).

Today's ppt is here. I also handed out revision booklets. It is your job to make sure that you can write an essay for each of the titles listed in the booklet, for each topic. Any essay that comes up on your paper will only be a variation of one of these. 

Institutionalisation

Today we looked at the effects of institutionalisation - when children are brought up in an institution like a children's home or orphanage. This often includes privation - when the child has never formed an attachment. We looked at Rutter et al, which is a big longitudinal study looking at the long term effects on children adopted into the UK from Romanian orphanages.

Today's ppt is here. The sheet on whether or not recovery from privation is possible is here.

The homework essay for today is: 'Outline and evaluate research into the effects of institutionalisation (12 marks). This is due next lesson, 22nd April.

Disruption of attachment and privation

Today we looked at what happens when children either form an attachment which is temporarily disrupted, or never form an attachment (privation). We discussed the case studies of the Robertson children, and then looked at Genie and the Koluchova twins. Finally, we looked at the Hodges & Tizard study into recovery from early privation. Today's ppt is here. 

Cultural variations in attachment

Today we looked at one study in lots of detail - the meta-analysis by Van Ijzdendoorn into cross-cultural differences in attachment. You need to know the main findings (don't forget that the main findings is that secure attachment was the most common in all cultures), and then looked at criticisms of the study.

Today's ppt is here.

The next essay is due in on 11th March. The title is 'Discuss research into cultural variations in
attachment' (12).

Individual differences in attachment

Today we looked at Ainsworth's Strange Situation - a controlled observation that aims to measure individual differences in attachment. We looked at how she defined secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachment types - and you need to be able to recite these.

Ainsworth concluded that the mother's behaviour was the cause of the attachment differences - this is the sensitivity hypothesis and is firmly on the nurture end of the nature-nurture spectrum. The alternative is the temperament hypothesis, which states that the innate differences in infant temperament are what cause the differences. We looked at research that supports both ideas.

Today's ppt is here.

The next essay is due on Feb 25th and is on the second slide of the ppt.

Bowlby's theory of attachment

Today we looked at Bowlby's evolutionary theory of attachment. He said that attachment is adaptive (necessary for survival) and that it is necessary to form a template for how future relationships work.

Today's powerpoint is here.

The powerpoint showing the model answers for the AS mock is here.

Here is the summary activity on Bowlby that I asked you to fill in at the end.

Attachment introduction

Today we looked at what an attachment is (a reciprocal, emotional bond that endures over time), and how and why children form their first attachments to their parents. We discussed the learning theory of attachment; a behavioural model that states that attachments form because of associations between food, the caregiver and pleasure. This is a rather simplistic view of attachment in human beings, and we looked at two studies that don't support the learning theory.

Schaffer & Emerson found that the babies weren't always attached to the people who fed them - responsiveness and interaction were more important. Harlow's monkeys showed us that even non-human primates prefer comfort to just purely being fed.

Today's powerpoints are here and here.

Don't forget the MOCK EXAM: Friday 16th January, P3 and P4. Questions on Memory, Stress and Research Methods.