Harlow’s study of the monkeys demonstrated attachment and the importance of attachment in relationships. The baby monkeys were removed from their mothers and offered two wire mothers instead. One was covered in soft towel and the other provided food but was hard. The...
Ainsworth went to live in Uganda to study mother-child reactions. She proposed a link between the responsiveness of the mother and the reactions of the child. Some children’s attachments were secure and comfortable while others were tense and full of conflict. She...
In Uganda Ainsworth studied 26 families, gathering information about mother-child relationships. She also interviewed and gathered data about the parent’s sensitivity. Mothers who knew a lot about their babies when interviewed were sensitive to their children’s needs...
The same procedure was used across cultures which means that it can be compared which gives the findings more reliability. Also, there seems to be consistency with the same three attachment types identified. In general, the majority of children were securely attached...
Deprivation Deprivation occurs when an infant is separated from their primary caregiver. Short Term Deprivation Examples of short term deprivation include daycare and hospitalisation (either for the child or their attachment figure). Before Bowlby’s work, hospitals...
Privation is different from deprivation in that a child will not have formed any attachment and will lack almost all types of socialisation. Rutter compared 111 Romanian orphans with 52 British children and a sub-group of Romanians who had only spent a few weeks in an...
Replacement Attachment Figure James and Joyce Robertson became involved in what was witnessed in hospitals. They filmed and followed children whose mothers were going into hospital. One child, John, was 18 months and he stayed in a residential nursery. He tried to get...
This cognitive explanation was put forward by Baren-Cohen in 1997. He believed the social problems autistic children have could be explained by the way the child perceives themselves and others in their social world. To be socially competent we need to mind read in...
Baren-Cohen et al (2005) developed this theory which is a biological theory. It identified that males and females are typically stronger at specific tasks – males tend to excel at mental rotation, targeting objects, mathematical reasoning and systemising whereas...
Difficulties in Making Friends Children often have obsessive interests which other children do not understand. They also tend to live in their own world. Their lack of empathy can lead to them coming across as uncaring and insensitive. Autistic children often struggle...
Background Genie’s mother had a stormy relationship with her husband who threatened to beat her and she lived in fear. He was violent towards her and didn’t want children. When their first child was born she cried a lot but seemed healthy. Her father locked her in the...
The case study gathered a lot of information. The data collected was rich, detailed and thorough – they had both qualitative and quantitative data. Also because they used many different methods to gather the data there is some validity. The study gave Genie a...
Case studies allow data to be gathered that is in depth and detailed and they usually study an individual or group of people who are connected in some way. Whoever is being studied becomes the focus of the case study. Case studies tend to be reliable because they use...
Aims To test the maternal deprivation hypothesis which associated early separation with a risk of behavioural disorders, especially affectionless psychopathy. Procedures The study was carried out at the London Child Guidance Clinic from 1936-1939. Bowlby gathered...
Ainsworth is known for taking a cross-cultural approach to studying child psychology. She implemented the same procedure of experiments in different cultures and then drew comparisons between the different places. There is an issue with nature-nurture when it comes to...
Daycare is any form of non-parental care, for example care provided by nurseries or childminders. The EPPE Project The EPPE project ran from 1997-2003 and was Europe’s largest longitudinal investigation into the effects of pre-school education on childhood. It aimed...
Longitudinal studies follow a particular group over a period of time. A test or observation is repeated over the study which usually lasts a long time and allows all the data to be gathered. For example, to study the effects of age a researcher might study a group of...
Bowlby was a psychoanalyst who followed the ideas of Freud and believed that an infant was strongly affected by the beginning of their life. By attachment, he meant a warm, continuous, loving relationship with one person – attachment is a two-way emotional bond where...
Naturalistic Observations Naturalistic observations are very useful in child psychology and they have been used to observe play and language development. Because they are in a natural setting they show natural behaviour which is what the researcher wants to see. They...