Attachment

What Attachment covers

Attachment is the third topic of Paper 1. It covers how caregiver and infant interact, how attachment forms and how it is measured, what animal studies contributed, the effects of deprivation and institutionalisation, and how early attachment shapes later relationships.

The 9 subtopics

Each one has its own page. AQA AS Psychology students sit this topic in the first year.

• Caregiver-infant interactions: reciprocity and interactional synchronyReciprocity and interactional synchrony as the two forms of early caregiver-infant interaction, with Meltzoff and Moore's observations of imitation in very young babies.Open →
• Schaffer's stages of attachmentSchaffer and Emerson's Glasgow study and the four stages of attachment it identified, asocial, indiscriminate, specific and multiple, with who becomes the primary attachment figure and the study's strengths and limitations.Open →
• Multiple attachments and the role of the fatherMultiple attachments and the father's role: Schaffer and Emerson's figures, Grossmann's and Field's research, fathers as primary caregivers, MacCallum and Golombok's findings, and the challenge multiple attachments pose to monotropy.Open →
• Animal studies of attachmentLorenz's work on imprinting in greylag geese and Harlow's surrogate mother experiments with rhesus monkeys, including the lasting effects of early deprivation.Open →
• Explanations of attachmentLearning theory's account of attachment through classical and operant conditioning, the cupboard love explanation, and the findings that undermine it.Open →
• Ainsworth's Strange Situation and types of attachmentThe Strange Situation procedure and the attachment types it identifies: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant.Open →
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and effects of institutionalisationBowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis and the 44 Thieves study, with the effects of institutionalisation and the findings of the Romanian adoptee research.Open →
• Influence of early attachment on relationshipsThe internal working model, how secure and insecure early attachments show up in later friendships and adult romantic relationships, and Hazan and Shaver's Love Quiz.Open →
• Cultural variations in attachmentVan Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's study of attachment across cultures, the German and Japanese findings, and the limits of applying the Strange Situation outside the culture it was designed in.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Attachment further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Deprivation vs Privation

  Deprivation: the loss of an emotional bond that had already been formed. Privation: never having formed an emotional bond with anyone at all.

• Reciprocity vs Interactional synchrony

  Reciprocity: a turn-taking exchange where each partner answers the other's signal. Interactional synchrony: mirrored actions and emotions performed at the same moment.

• Insecure-avoidant attachment vs Insecure-resistant attachment

  Insecure-avoidant attachment: little distress at separation and indifference when the caregiver returns. Insecure-resistant attachment: extreme distress and angry, unsettled behaviour when the caregiver returns.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is reciprocity in caregiver-infant interactions?

   Model answer

   A two-way, mutual process in which the caregiver and infant respond to and elicit responses from each other.

2. 2

   How does reciprocity resemble a conversation?

   Model answer

   Each responds to the other's signals and takes turns to elicit a response, like a 'dance'.

3. 3

   What is interactional synchrony?

   Model answer

   When the caregiver and infant mirror each other's actions and emotions in a coordinated, simultaneous way.

4. 4

   How does interactional synchrony differ from reciprocity?

   Model answer

   Synchrony involves simultaneous, mirrored actions, whereas reciprocity involves turn-taking responses.

5. 5

   What did Meltzoff and Moore find about interactional synchrony?

   Model answer

   Infants as young as two to three weeks appeared to imitate adults' facial expressions and gestures.

6. 6

   Why are caregiver-infant interactions thought to be important?

   Model answer

   Well-coordinated interactions are believed to lay the foundation for the developing attachment bond.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Attachment revision questions

Is Attachment examined at AS in AQA Psychology?

Yes. It sits in Paper 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Attachment cover in AQA AS-Level Psychology?

9 subtopics: caregiver-infant interactions: reciprocity and interactional synchrony, schaffer's stages of attachment, multiple attachments and the role of the father, animal studies of attachment, explanations of attachment, ainsworth's strange situation and types of attachment, bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and effects of institutionalisation, influence of early attachment on relationships and cultural variations in attachment. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Attachment organised?

By the AQA 7182 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.