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 during which a first attachment must form
• BImprinting during a brief sensitive window
• CThe internal working model influencing later relationships✓
• DPrivation, rather than deprivation, in infancy

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 copying the infant's facial expressions and gestures, several minutes afterwards
• DThe infant showing distress when the caregiver leaves the room (separation anxiety)

Answer: Interactional synchrony, studied by Meltzoff and Moore (1977), is the temporally coordinated mirroring of actions and emotions between infant and caregiver. The back-and-forth turn-taking in which each partner responds to the other's signals is reciprocity, a separate concept; copying an expression several minutes later is delayed imitation, not synchrony, because the behaviours are not simultaneous.

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 attachment figure for most infants, with the mother becoming an attachment figure later, in the second year
• BBy 18 months the majority of infants had formed multiple attachments, and the father was a common secondary attachment figure✓
• CFathers lacked the biological capacity for attachment and featured in the data as playmates, not as caregivers
• DInfants formed attachments to whoever fed and changed them most often

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 the milk and ignored the other one, supporting learning theory's claim that it is feeding that creates the bond
• BInfants usually divided their time equally between the two surrogate mothers, showing no measurable preference for either the wire model or the cloth one
• CMonkeys reared with the surrogate mothers alone went on to show normal adult social and sexual behaviour (no lasting damage) once they were returned to the colony
• 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 which the infant can explore, satisfying a biological drive
• BIs the object of monotropy, the one special bond formed during the critical period
• CProvides an internal working model that acts as a template 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). The secure base, monotropy and the internal working model all belong to Bowlby's evolutionary theory rather than to learning theory.

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 an infant's several attachments are of roughly equal weight and emotional importance
• CThe set of innate social releasers, such as an infant's smile, that elicit adult caregiving
• DThe internal model of the self and of others that is derived from the first attachment bond

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 the variation found within any one country, with each nation showing a single dominant attachment type
• BInsecure-resistant attachment (type C) was the most common type in every country studied
• CGermany showed the highest rate of insecure-resistant attachment, of all eight countries
• 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.

What did Ainsworth's Strange Situation identify?

• AThree attachment types based upon the mother's own caregiving style
• BFour separate stages through which every attachment must develop
• CTwo attachment types determined largely by infant temperament
• DThree attachment types based on separation and reunion behaviour✓

Answer: Secure (type B), insecure-avoidant (A) and insecure-resistant (C) were distinguished by stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and especially reunion behaviour. Main and Solomon later added disorganised, type D.

What did Harlow's (1958) monkey studies demonstrate?

• AThe provision of food matters more than contact comfort
• BContact comfort matters more than the provision of food✓
• CAttachment forms equally to any object that is available
• DMonkeys reared in isolation develop entirely normally

Answer: Infant monkeys clung to the cloth mother and went to the wire one only to feed, undermining the cupboard-love explanation. The monkeys were later socially and sexually abnormal, which raises serious ethical objections.

What is meant by Bowlby's concept of monotropy?

• AOne particular attachment is more important than the others✓
• BAll of the attachments an infant forms are of equal importance
• CAttachments can only ever be formed with the biological mother
• DInfants form attachments to several caregivers at once

Answer: Bowlby argued for one primary attachment figure whose loss is most damaging, with the law of continuity and accumulated separation. Critics note it may undervalue the role of fathers and multiple attachments.

What is the internal working model?

• AA mental template of relationships based on the first attachment✓
• BA mental record of every single relationship a person has ever formed
• CAn innate set of behaviours which trigger caregiving responses in adults
• DA stage of cognitive development reached at about age two

Answer: Bowlby proposed that the first attachment forms expectations carried into later relationships and into parenting, giving continuity across generations. It explains the continuity hypothesis linking infant type to adult relationships.

What did Lorenz's work on geese establish?

• AImprinting occurs at any age at all and can readily be reversed
• BImprinting depends upon the goslings being fed by that same figure
• CImprinting occurs within a critical period and is irreversible✓
• DImprinting is unique to birds and has no wider relevance

Answer: Goslings followed the first moving object seen in the hours after hatching. Extrapolating from birds to humans is questionable, since mammalian attachment is a two-way emotional bond rather than a following response.

What did Rutter's Romanian orphan studies find about late adoption?

• ALater adoption was linked to a complete recovery by the age of eleven years
• BLater adoption was linked to lasting deficits including disinhibited attachment✓
• CAge at the point of adoption made no measurable difference to any outcome
• DChildren adopted after two years showed no attachment behaviour

Answer: Those adopted before six months had a mean IQ close to UK-adopted children, while later adoptees showed lower IQ and disinhibited attachment. Confounding variables in institutional quality make firm causal claims difficult.

What are the stages of attachment identified by Schaffer and Emerson?

• AAsocial, secure, insecure and then disorganised attachments
• BSensorimotor, preoperational, concrete and formal operational stages
• CAsocial, indiscriminate, specific and multiple attachments✓
• DTrust, autonomy, initiative and industry in that order

Answer: Their Glasgow study of 60 babies traced the shift from indiscriminate to a specific attachment at around seven months, with multiple attachments soon after. The third and fourth options belong to Piaget and Erikson.

What is a criticism of the Strange Situation as a measure?

• AIt measures attachment reliably within every culture ever studied
• BIt may be culture-bound and misclassify children reared differently✓
• CIt relies upon parental self-report rather than on direct observation
• DIt cannot be replicated because the procedure is not standardised

Answer: Japanese infants rarely experience separation, so their distress can be read as resistant, and German norms encourage independence that looks avoidant. Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg found variation within cultures exceeded that between them.

What did Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis claim?

• ASeparation in the critical period causes lasting emotional damage✓
• BSeparation at any age at all causes equally lasting emotional damage
• CSeparation has no lasting effect provided that food is still supplied
• DSeparation affects intellectual development but not emotional

Answer: Bowlby's 44 thieves study linked prolonged early separation with affectionless psychopathy. The work is criticised for confusing deprivation with privation, and for retrospective data collected by Bowlby himself.