Attachment

Hazan and Shaver's (1987) 'love quiz' study reported a correlation between infant attachment type and the quality of adult romantic relationships. This is most often used as evidence for Bowlby's concept of:

• AThe critical period for attachment
• BImprinting in humans
• CThe internal working model influencing later relationships✓
• DPrivation rather than deprivation

Answer: Hazan and Shaver found that adults' attachment styles in love mirrored their reported childhood attachment, supporting Bowlby's internal working model: the first attachment forms a template ('schema') that shapes expectations and behaviour in later relationships. It is a correlational study, so causation cannot be assumed.

In studies of caregiver-infant interaction, the term 'interactional synchrony' is best defined as:

• AThe infant and caregiver mirroring each other's actions and emotions in a coordinated, simultaneous way✓
• BTurn-taking in which the caregiver responds to the infant's signals in a back-and-forth exchange
• CThe caregiver imitating the infant's facial expressions several minutes later
• DThe infant showing distress when the caregiver leaves the room

Answer: Interactional synchrony, studied by Meltzoff and Moore (1977), is the temporally coordinated mirroring of actions and emotions between infant and caregiver. Reciprocity, by contrast, is the back-and-forth turn-taking where each responds to the other (option B).

According to Schaffer and Emerson's (1964) stages of attachment, specific attachments (true attachment to one main figure with separation and stranger anxiety) typically first develop at around:

• ABirth to 2 weeks
• B6 weeks to 3 months
• C7 months✓
• D18 months

Answer: Schaffer and Emerson described the asocial stage (0–6 weeks), indiscriminate attachment (6 weeks–7 months), specific attachment (around 7 months), and multiple attachments (shortly after). Specific attachment, marked by separation and stranger anxiety toward one figure, emerges around 7 months.

What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find regarding the role of the father in their Glasgow study?

• AThe father was the first sole attachment figure for the majority of infants
• BBy 18 months the majority of infants had formed multiple attachments, and the father was a common secondary attachment figure✓
• CFathers were never attachment figures because they lack the necessary biological capacity
• DInfants formed attachments only to whoever fed them

Answer: Schaffer and Emerson found most infants formed multiple attachments by around 18 months; in many cases the father was an important attachment figure (about 75% were attached to the father by 18 months). Attachment was to the most responsive caregiver, not simply the one who fed them.

In Lorenz's (1935) study of geese, the gosling's tendency to form an attachment to and follow the first large moving object seen during a critical period is termed:

• AThe contact comfort response
• BThe cupboard love response
• CContinuity
• DImprinting✓

Answer: Lorenz showed goslings imprint on the first moving object they encounter during a critical period shortly after hatching, then follow it. 'Contact comfort' is from Harlow's monkey work; 'cupboard love' is a label for learning theory.

Harlow's (1958) study of infant rhesus monkeys with wire and cloth surrogate mothers concluded that:

• AInfants attached to whichever surrogate dispensed milk, supporting learning theory
• BInfants showed no preference between the two surrogate mothers
• CMaternally deprived monkeys developed entirely normal adult social behaviour
• DInfants spent most time clinging to the cloth mother and used it as a safe base, showing contact comfort matters more than food✓

Answer: The monkeys preferred the soft cloth mother for comfort and used it as a secure base when frightened, even when the wire mother provided milk. This shows contact comfort is more important than food for attachment, contradicting learning theory.

Learning theory's explanation of attachment ('cupboard love') argues that the infant becomes attached to the caregiver primarily because the caregiver:

• AProvides a secure base from an innate biological drive
• BIs the object of monotropy in a critical period
• CProvides an internal working model for future relationships
• DBecomes a conditioned stimulus associated with the primary reinforcer of food✓

Answer: Learning theory proposes attachment is learned: through classical conditioning the caregiver (a neutral stimulus) becomes associated with food (an unconditioned stimulus) and becomes a conditioned stimulus producing pleasure; feeding also acts as a primary reinforcer (operant conditioning). Options A, B and C are Bowlby's concepts.

In Bowlby's monotropic theory, the term 'monotropy' refers to:

• AThe infant's bias toward forming one primary attachment to a single particular caregiver✓
• BThe idea that all attachments are of equal importance
• CThe set of social releasers that elicit caregiving
• DThe model of self and others derived from the first attachment

Answer: Monotropy is Bowlby's claim that infants have an innate tendency to form one special, primary attachment (usually the mother), which is qualitatively different from and more important than others. Social releasers and the internal working model are separate features of his theory.

In Ainsworth's (1970) Strange Situation, an infant who explores readily, shows moderate distress on separation, is easily comforted on reunion, and is wary of strangers would most likely be classified as:

• AInsecure-avoidant (Type A)
• BSecurely attached (Type B)✓
• CInsecure-resistant (Type C)
• DDisorganised (Type D)

Answer: This profile—willing exploration using the caregiver as a secure base, moderate separation distress, easy comfort on reunion, and stranger wariness—defines secure attachment (Type B), the most common type in Ainsworth's sample. Avoidant infants show little distress; resistant infants are hard to comfort.

Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg's (1988) meta-analysis of Strange Situation studies across cultures found that:

• AVariation between countries was far greater than variation within the same country
• BInsecure-resistant attachment was the most common type worldwide
• CGermany showed the highest rate of insecure-resistant attachment
• DSecure attachment was the most common type in all the countries studied, with greater variation within countries than between them✓

Answer: Across 32 studies in 8 countries, secure attachment was the modal (most common) type everywhere, and intra-cultural (within-country) variation was about 1.5 times greater than inter-cultural variation. Germany showed relatively high avoidant rates, and Japan/Israel relatively high resistant rates.