Explain what is meant by the terms attachment and insecure attachment.

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Attachments Essay

1a) Explain what is meant by the terms attachment and insecure attachment. (3marks + 3marks)

Attachment- is an emotional bond between two people. It is a two way process that endures over time. It leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximity-seeking, and serves the function of protecting an infant.

Secure attachment- This is a strong and contented attachment of an infant to his/her caregiver, which develops as a result of sensitive responding by the care giver to the infant’s needs. Secure attachment is related to healthy subsequent cognitive and emotional development

Insecure attachment- This is a form of attachment between infant and caregiver that develops as a result of the caregiver’s lack of sensitive responding to the infants needs. It may be associated with poor subsequent cognitive and emotional development.

b) Outline the findings and conclusions of one study in which the long-term effects of deprivation have been investigated and give one criticism of the study. (3marks + 3marks)

Hodges & Tizard 1989                                                                                                                                         Findings-                                                                                                                                                                                  At age 4: The institutional caretakers reported that the children did not have any deep relationships. The children, in general, were more attention-seeking and more indiscriminately affectionate than non-institutional children.

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At age 8: Most of the ex-institutional children had formed close attachments with their parents or adopted parents. The children’s teachers reported that the ex-institutional children still tended to be more attention-seeking and also more ‘over-friendly’ than ‘normal’ peers. They also tended to be unpopular, but did not lag cognitively when compared to ‘normal’ peers.

At age 16 two important findings emerged:

1.        Relationships within the family: in general the adopted children were about as closely attached to their parents as the control group, whereas the ‘restored’ group were less likely to be closely attached.

2.        Peer relationships: All the ex-institutional adolescents were less ...

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