Why do Infants form attachments? Long term benefits
Our views about attachment are in part derived from research using non-human animals. Konrad Lorenz, studied the behaviour of geese who are likely to imprint on the first moving object they see. This imprint has important short-term and long-term effects.
In the short-term, the young follow their mother figure. Lorenz (1937) demonstrated this with a clutch of gosling eggs that were divided into two groups. One group was left with their natural mother; the other eggs were kept in an incubator.
When the latter group hatched, the first living (moving) thing they saw was Lorenz and they soon started following him around. Lorenz marked the two groups to distinguish them and placed them together with their mother. The goslings quickly divided themselves up, one following their natural mother and the Lorenz’s brood following him.
It is easy to see the evolutionary value of this behaviour. A young animal that follows it’s mother is more likely to be safe from predators, to be fed and to learn how to find food. In short, it s more likely to survive and reproduce with similar animals so that the genes for this behaviour are perpetuated. This is the basis of the evolutionary approach. Inherited behaviours that promote reproduction will be naturally selected.
Activity: Using the information above, answer the following questions.
1) What does the work of Lorenz tell us about the long-term benefits of making attachments?
Evolutionary value – reproduce and pass on successful genes (natural selection). Mate choice related to imprinting experience
2) How do these attachments occur?
The goslings imprint (a restricted form of learning that takes place rapidly and has both ST benefits (a following response = safety) and LT effects (choice of reproductive partner). Goslings follow 1st moving object they see on hatching, and continue to follow thereafter.
3) How are these attachments different to human attachment? Use pg72-73 to help
Human babies can’t follow/move around – LT benefits slightly different e.g. adult r’ships show a reverse imprinting – adults less likely to mate with individuals whom they were raised with (avoid incest, avoid chance of developing mutations); attachment also provides basis for emotional r’ships i.e/ infant learns how to form an emotional or love r’ship – Bowlby refers to this as an internal working model about r’ships – this model or schema represents the infants knowledge about other r’ships. This model will predict how other people will behave and react to the child, about whether to trust others, is therefore a template for all future r’ships (nb stranger in park vs stranger at bday party).
Grossmann & Grossmann – children who are securely att enjoy closer friendships later in childhood vs those who were avoidant or anxious wither having few or no friends.
R’ship found between early att experiences and later style of parenting.
Quinton et al (1984) studied women who’d spent most of their early lives in institutions (no opportunity to from att) they interacted poorly with their own children, were less sensitive, supportive and warm than group of non-institutionalised women.
Homework: Read the evaluation of early attachement on pg 73 of textbook and use it to help you to evaluate the studies mentioned above (pros and cons)
Research above suggests that early att form a basis for later r’ships ‘cus they act as a model for these r’ships. However, there are many other factors (eg experience of divorce etc) and important individual differences.
( Against Quinton and Grossmann and Grossmann to some extent)E.g. Lewis et al (1984) looked at beh probs in older children and found that there was a greater incidence of maladjustment in boys who had been classed as insecure at an earlier age but not girls. Therefore must be careful about generalisations that we make.
(Against Bowlby’s internal working model)Harris (1998) suggested concept of 1 internal working model is wrong! She claimed that the infant is well aware that the model is only of use with a particular person and will not function with, for example, an indifferent babysitter or a playful peer. So you can see that not everyone accepts that atts are the basis for later r’ships. An alternative model would be that each of us has an innate temperament which determines how well we form r’ships. If you’re good at forming r’ships this would explain why you had good early experiences and were also good at later r’ships, and vice versa.