A stranger enters, talks to the mother then gradually approaches infant with a toy. The mother leaves the room. The stranger leaves the infant playing unless he/she is inactive and then tries to interest the infant in toys. If the infant becomes distressed this episode is ended. Mother enters and waits to see how the infant greets her.
The stranger then enters in an attempt to comfort the child then after a short while the mother would walk in and the stranger would leave inconspicuously. There results were as followed, Ainsworth found that 22% of the infants were avoidant-insecure, 66% were classed as having a secure attachment and 12% were resistant-insecure. In conclusion the study showed that there were three significant differences between infants and their form of attachment that can be placed in three categories. Also that the mother’s behavior may be significant in determining the infants attachment type as there was an association between the mother’s behavior and the child’s. Although this research has helped many psychologists (Erickson et al, Everett waters) with their experiments this one may not be very valid, because the results may not apply to infants with different cultures and beliefs, therefore we cannot generalize the results as it was only tested on middle-class US children.
* Mother leaves the room and reappears after a short absence. * A Stranger enters the room and talks to mother. * The mother then leaves the child with the stranger. Ainsworth discovered 3 distinct attachment types : secure attachment (infants with a happy relationship with caregiver, comfortable with social interactions and greet the caregiver cheerily on their return), insecure-avoidant attachment (infants who avoid all social interaction, showing no
• The Director introduces the students to Lenina, a “pneumonic” woman who is casually dating Henry, the Director’s go-to man in the tour. Henry is a well of knowledge programmed during childhood via an advanced form of hypnosis (“hypnopaedia”). Chapter 2 • The Director leads the students to conditioning rooms in which infants are conditioned to react positively or negatively to certain stimuli according to society’s desirable traits • The students watch as a group of infants is electrocuted as a result of reaching towards books and flowers. This results in the children being conditioned to dislike nature. • They view a room of sleeping children listening to a Voice calmly repeating mantra-like phrases, an example of hypnopaedia.
In the second experiment they used priming and the carry over effect. Wilcox and Chapa primed with 7.5 month old infants to detect color change in balls in an occlusion event. They found that infants are able to detect change from green to red ball. Then the experimenters did experiments to detect an interaction violation involving heights on covering events. Height information was carried over to the physical representation of the second covering event.
The aim of Takahashiâs controlled observation was to see if the strange situation, was appropriate to use for Japanese infants and whether it was a true reflection of their attachment. It tested whether the strange situation was universal to cultures or just to the culture it was developed in (American, white, middle class). Takahashi took 60 infants from middle class backgrounds in Japan. They were all one year of age and had been raised at home. Takahashi found that 68% of infants were securely attached however 32% were insecure resistant.
Outline and evaluate into individual differences in attachment. The Strange Situation (SS) is a controlled observation, 12-18 month old infants were left in a room with their mother. Eight different scenarios occurred, including being approached by a stranger, the infant being left alone, the mother returning, etc. The infant’s reactions were constantly observed. Say about background of SS & who designed it, where it was.
John Money of John Hopkins University suggests that gender identity is easy to persuade during the first years of life, after that gender is permanent. However, this suggestion has its challenges. It is during infancy that parents create and determine the gender role by the decisions the parents make for the child. Social learning theories describe types of reinforcement in families, which places value on environmental factors and gender role. It is often that we see female babies cuddling with their mothers while the males are often seen playing with toys and balls with more aggression and with the fathers (Ghosh, 2013).
On this test the abusing mothers indicated a high current level of attachment disorder, primarily anxious attachment, but with some tendency toward detachment as well. Thus the abusing mothers in the study demonstrated their overall sensitivity to separation, especially mild separation, and their feelings of helplessness anxiety, and anger in response to significant separation experiences. DeLozier suggest that these findings support the prediction that the abusing mothers in the study have experienced difficulty in their childhood attachments and in the development of internal representations of significant others as accessible and reliable, resulting in consequent adult attachment difficulties as well as in possible difficulties in the development of appropriate care-taking behaviour. There are implications that DeLozier perceives from her research and she summarises them as
Many studies have looked at the link between maternal depression, attachment and disturbed behaviour. One study of 18 month old infants who’s mothers had suffered from post natal depression were found to be much more likely to be assessed as ‘insecurely attached’ in the ‘Strange Situation Test’ [Woodhead, M et al 2005]. The Strange Situation Test is designed to assess the child’s attachment to their caregiver. It is usually performed on infants 1 – 2 years old. The test consists of ‘a series of separations and reunions of child, caregiver and a stranger’ [Oates et al, 2005].