Edexcel Psychology for A Level Yr 2 Revision Guide

Attachment, deprivation and privation: Bowlby’s work on attachment Check it 1. Describe Bowlby’s work on attachment. (5) 2. Explain one concept from Bowlby’s work that demonstrates the role of nature in attachment. (3) 3. Standard essay: Evaluate Bowlby’s work on attachment. (8) or (16) 4. I&D/Synoptic essay: Assess the issues presented by socially sensitive research with reference to your chosen application (criminological, child or health) and clinical psychology. (20) Revision booster The specification does not use any of the specific terms introduced for this topic, such as critical period, monotropy, sensitivity, internal working model, continuity hypothesis or temperament hypothesis. This means that such terms will not appear in examination questions. Nevertheless, it is important that you understand them well and can use them effectively, as they will be central to providing a detailed answer about Bowlby’s work. Oh dear, someone’s not happy… Some children are just born (not made) bad-tempered (according to Kagan). A strength is research support for the importance of sensitivity. Isabella (1993) observed mothers and babies at one, four and nine months, assessing quality of attachment at one year. He found that the most strongly-attached babies had mothers who were more sensitively responsive. This supports the importance of sensitivity in the formation of a close attachment. A weakness is that the temperament hypothesis is an alternative explanation. Kagan’s (1984) temperament hypothesis says that a baby’s innate temperament (personality) has an important influence on the attachment relationship. Some babies are emotionally ‘difficult’ from birth and this affects the mother’s ability to form a close relationship. This means that how attachments form depends on more than just the sensitivity of the mother/caregiver (both nature and nurture matter). Another strength is support for the idea of a critical period. According to Bowlby it should not be possible to form attachments beyond the age of six months. Rutter et al . (2011) agree that it is less likely attachments form after this period. But they believe it is not impossible (a sensitive period rather than a critical period ). This means that children are most receptive to forming certain behaviours at a particular time, but such developments can still occur outside this period. Application: Bowlby’s theory has had a major impact on working mothers. Bowlby’s theory has had a considerable impact on attitudes towards mothers going out to work. It implies that mothers should stay at home to care for children because separation is harmful to emotional development. Therefore, some feminists criticised Bowlby for discouraging women from being a mother and a career woman. CA But this argument missed a key part of attachment theory – attachment is related to the quality of time spent with a baby, not the amount. Fox (1977) tested babies raised on an Israeli kibbutz (a metapelet looks after all the children during the day). The babies spent less time with their mothers, but the attachment bond was almost as strong to the mother as it was to the metapelet. I&D extra: We can compare different ways of explaining attachment. The behaviourist view is that attachment is about food (unconditioned stimulus) which creates pleasure (unconditioned response). The ‘feeder’ is associated with this pleasure and becomes a conditioned stimulus. Harlow’s (1959) research with monkeys showed that attachment was about contact comfort not food, and paved the way for alternative theories of attachment such as Bowlby’s. This view continues as a commonly held attitude – that feeding a baby establishes an important bond. However, Bowlby’s theory challenges this. ‘CA’ stands for ‘competing argument’. 127 AO3 Evaluation