Procedure
- Infant monkeys placed in a cage with two wire mesh cylinders, each with a face.
- One cylinder was bare and provided monkey with milk from a teat
- Second cylinder was covered with towelling.
- Monkeys were observed
Findings
- Monkeys uses towelled cylinder as a secure base and spent most time there.
- Towel mother did not provide sufficient love for psychological development.
- In later life, monkeys were abusive and had difficulty with mating and parenting.
Conclusion
- Contact comfort is preferable to food comfort, but not sufficient to healthy development.
Evaluation
+ Monkeys were used who share genes with humans and are humans closest animal relative.
+ Gives more insight into attachment theories
- Ethical Issues
- Results can't be generalised to humans
------------------------------------------------
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
Procedure
- Two measures of attachment:
-> Stranger anxiety - if baby shows distress when approached by stranger
-> Separation anxiety - if baby shows distress when caregiver leaves
- Researchers looked at 60 babies from working class Glasgow
- Visited babies every month for a year and then at 18 months
- Used observations and interviews
- Interviewed mothers about babies' reposes to 7 situations:
1) Left in pram outside house
2) Put down after being held
3) Left in pram outside shops
4) Left in cot at night
5) Left with other people
6) Ignored when passed by
7) Left alone in a room
Findings
- Lots of infants formed attachments with people other than the caregiver doing the feeding.
- Quality of interaction was most important.
- Babies go through stages of development.
- 6-8 months: babies showed separation anxiety. Fear of strangers was a month later.
- Most babies formed multiple attachments.
Evaluation
+ Gave insight into the theory of monotropy.
- Interviews trigger social desirability bias
- Low population validity
- Observer bias
- Low ecological validity
- Outdated
- Low external validity
- Ethical issues
---------------------------------------------
Lorenz (1935)
Procedure
- Divided goose eggs randomly into two groups.
- Half hatched naturally and others kept in incubator.
- Lorenz was first seen moving object of incubator group.
Findings
- Goslings formed attachment to him and followed him like he was their mother.
- Lorenz put all geese together and they separated into the two groups.
Evaluation
+ Supports the idea of a critical period
+ Developed imprinting idea
- Can't be generalised to humans
- Outdated
-----------------------------------------------
Longitudinal Study (1999)
Procedure
- Followed children from 12 months into adolescence.
- Rated by teachers, trained observers and camp counsellors.
Findings
- Children rated as securely attached later were more popular and were higher in social competence and self-esteem.
Evaluation
+ Longitudinal so studies behaviour over period of time
+ Supports Bowlby's continuity hypothesis
- Hawthorne effect
- Subjective - lacks reliability
- Observer reliability
----------------------------------------------
Zimmerman et al (2000)
Procedure
- Assessed attachments of 44 German children between 12-18 months.
- Reassessed at 16 years old with interviews
Findings
- Attachment type is not a good predictor of attachment in adolescence.
Evaluation
+ Evaluate behaviour over time
- Low population validity
- Social desirability bias
- Small sample size
- Low ecological validity
- Culture bias
- Attrition
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
Procedure
- Meta-analysis of 32 separate studies carried out in 8 countries
- Studied over 2000 babies
Findings
- Most common attachment was secure
- Lowest secure was China
- Top ambivalent were collectivist countries
- Highest avoidant was West Germany
Evaluation
+ Many countries uses - high population validity
+ The Strange Situation is controlled and has high internal validity
+ The Strange Situation is easily replicated therefore high reliability
- Westernised experiment - might not be effective in collectivist cultures
- Culture bias
- Social desirability bias - SS
- Only 5 individualistic countries used so results not representational - low population validity
- America's 'insecure' may not be insecure elsewhere
---------------------------------------------
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
Procedure
- Meta-analysis of 32 separate studies carried out in 8 countries
- Studied over 2000 babies
Findings
- Most common attachment was secure
- Lowest secure was China
- Top ambivalent were collectivist countries
- Highest avoidant was West Germany
Evaluation
+ Many countries uses - high population validity
+ The Strange Situation is controlled and has high internal validity
+ The Strange Situation is easily replicated therefore high reliability
- Westernised experiment - might not be effective in collectivist cultures
- Culture bias
- Social desirability bias - SS
- Only 5 individualistic countries used so results not representational - low population validity
- America's 'insecure' may not be insecure elsewhere
--------------------------------------------------
Takahashi (1990)
Procedure
- Strange Situation on 60 middle-class 1 year old infants in Japan. Included boys, girls and mothers. All were raised at home
Findings
- 68% securely attached
- 32% insecure-resistant
- No avoidant children
- The strange situation was not an appropriate method for studying attachment types in Japan
Evaluation
+ Demonstrated that not all cultures are the same in assessing attachment types and strange situation can't be used everywhere because of differences in child-rearing.
- Only in Japan, therefore low population validity
- There are cross-cultural variations so the procedure wasn't valid
- Protection from harm was an issue because infants were so distressed
- Low ecological validity
- Infants were so distressed that part of the experiment was ended early, reducing accuracy of results
No comments:
Post a Comment