Quick questions on Child psychology: attachment, deprivation and day care - Edexcel A-Level Psychology

Bowlby proposed that attachment forms during a critical (sensitive) period in the first two years, through social releasers (crying, smiling) that elicit caregiving. The first attachment becomes an internal working model, a template for all later relationships (the continuity hypothesis). His maternal deprivation hypothesis held that disrupting this bond in the critical period causes lasting emotional damage.

Across eight episodes the infant is observed for proximity-seeking, exploration using the caregiver as a secure base, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and reunion behaviour. Secure infants (about 66 per cent) explore freely, are distressed at separation and easily comforted at reunion. Insecure-avoidant infants (about 22 per cent) show little distress and avoid the caregiver at reunion. Insecure-resistant infants (about 12 per cent) are very distressed and resist comfort, seeking then rejecting the caregiver.

Edexcel requires you to discuss the role of the father. Fathers are less often the primary attachment figure but contribute distinctively: they engage in more physical, stimulating play, supporting risk-taking and social development. Whether a father becomes a primary or secondary attachment figure depends on sensitivity, time spent and the family structure, so the difference may be social rather than biological.

Edexcel expects an evaluation of day care, weighing both sides:

Insecure-avoidant attachment was relatively more common in individualist Western countries (Germany) and insecure-resistant in collectivist countries (Japan), reflecting different child-rearing practices rather than worse parenting, which warns against imposing American norms cross-culturally (an imposed etic).

Autism spectrum disorder involves difficulties in social communication and interaction alongside restricted, repetitive behaviours. A leading cognitive explanation is theory of mind deficit (Baron-Cohen): difficulty attributing mental states to others, shown by performance on false-belief tasks. Interventions are typically behavioural (applied behaviour analysis) and educational rather than curative.

Describe Bowlby's concept of monotropy. [3 marks]

Explain one effect of institutionalisation on development. [3 marks]

Evaluate cross-cultural research into attachment. [6 marks]