Attachments Assignments

Due dates:
Questions 1-6:
Questions 7-11:
Question 12:

Instructions:
When quoting studies, they should be clearly broken down into aim, procedure, findings and conclusions.
While there is no word limit, inadequate answers will be returned (with advice) for improvement.

  1. Define "attachment". What are the signs of attachment?
  2. Describe the stages of attachment development and the evidence to support these stages. Are the stages universal? Did you conform to this pattern?
  3. Bowlby talks of an "internal working model". What is this, and why, according to Bowlby, is it of long-lasting importance?
  4. Until the 1950s, mothers weren't encouraged to visit their children if they went into hospital. Was this sensible?
  5. How did Ainsworth investigate different types of attachment? What did she find? Are her findings universal?
  6. Attachment formation - nature or nurture? Discuss.
  7. What is the "maternal deprivation hypothesis"? What is the evidence - human and animal - to support it? What criticisms can be levelled at these studies? What criticisms can be levelled at the politics of the whole idea? What evidence is there against the maternal deprivation hypothesis, both from Scotland and from foreign countries such as England etc.?
  8. How did Rutter redefine the concept of "deprivation"? How did the conclusions drawn from his study of juvenile delinquents vary from Bowlby's when looked at from this new point of view? What support is there for this from other researchers?
  9. How can we explain the generational transmission of different attachment patterns? Might these different patterns be generalised to wider social adjustment?
  10. Are the effects of early attachment problems reversible? Discuss with reference to specific case studies.
  11. How might a baby's temperament create attachment difficulties?
  12. "My ideal society has no day nurseries....Babies and very small children each need a special and continuous person or people, and they need to have their daily lives based on somewhere they know as 'home'." (Penelope Leach, 1979)
    What is the evidence for and against this view, and what advice would you offer parents about day care?


Reading:

You'll certainly want to use your standard textbooks, but why not make it more interesting (both for you and for me) by reading some of the A2 books in the library. There are also some specialist books on developmental psychology in the library too. Maybe your parents kept a diary which will help with question 2 (otherwise, you'll have to rely on their memory, and you know the methodological problems that poses).