Child psychology: attachment theory (Bowlby) and types (Ainsworth's Strange Situation), the role of the father, deprivation, privation and institutionalisation, day care, cross-cultural research into attachment, autism, and the named studies for the chosen application option.

What this dot point is asking

Edexcel's child psychology option asks you to explain how attachments form and why they matter, describe and evaluate Ainsworth's Strange Situation, distinguish deprivation from privation, assess the effects of institutionalisation and day care, compare attachment across cultures, and outline autism, using the named classic and contemporary studies. The application is developmental: it asks what early experience does to later life and how society should respond.

The answer

Attachment theory (Bowlby)

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.

Types of attachment (Ainsworth's Strange Situation, the classic study)

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.

The role of the father

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.

Deprivation, privation and institutionalisation

• Deprivation is the loss of an attachment already formed. Bowlby's 44 thieves study (1944) linked early maternal separation to affectionless psychopathy (lack of guilt or empathy).
• Privation is never forming an attachment at all, for example in severe neglect, and its effects can be more severe and lasting.
• Institutionalisation. The Romanian orphan studies (Rutter et al.) followed children adopted from neglectful institutions and found that the later the adoption, the worse the outcomes (disinhibited attachment, lower IQ), but early adoption allowed substantial recovery, showing effects are not always permanent.

Day care

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

• Social development. Some research (the NICHD study) linked long hours in day care to slightly more aggression, while other studies show day care improves peer relations and social skills, especially for secure children.
• Cognitive development. Good-quality day care can raise school readiness and language, particularly for disadvantaged children.
• The quality of care (staff-to-child ratio, consistency of carers, stimulation) matters more than day care in itself.

Cross-cultural research into attachment

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

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.

Evaluation (GRAVE)

• Generalisability. The Strange Situation was devised on American infants, so its categories may not generalise across cultures (Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg).
• Reliability. The Strange Situation is standardised with good inter-rater reliability, so classifications are consistent.
• Application. Attachment research informs adoption policy, day-care quality standards and parenting support, a strong practical payoff.
• Validity. The Strange Situation may measure a specific relationship rather than a fixed trait, and its lab setting lowers ecological validity.
• Ethics. Research with children requires extra safeguards (parental consent, protection from distress); the Strange Situation deliberately causes mild distress, which must be justified and minimised.

Examples in context

Example 1. The internal working model in adulthood. Hazan and Shaver's "love quiz" found adults' romantic attachment styles mirrored their infant attachment types (secure adults reported trusting relationships; avoidant adults feared closeness). This supports Bowlby's continuity hypothesis that the first attachment becomes a template, though as correlational data it cannot prove the early bond caused the later style.

Example 2. Why quality matters more than quantity in day care. Two children may both attend day care 30 hours a week, but one in a setting with a high staff ratio, consistent key workers and rich language input, the other in an understaffed, chaotic setting. Outcome differences between them show that the harms sometimes attributed to day care often reflect poor-quality provision, which is why Edexcel stresses quality over the fact of attendance.

Try this

Q1. Describe Bowlby's concept of monotropy. [3 marks]

• Cue. The idea that an infant forms one special, primary attachment (usually to the mother) that is more important than others and acts as the basis for later development.

Q2. Explain one effect of institutionalisation on development. [3 marks]

• Cue. Disinhibited attachment or lowered cognitive ability (IQ); the Romanian orphan studies (Rutter) showed worse outcomes the later a child was adopted, though early adoption allowed recovery.

Q3. Evaluate cross-cultural research into attachment. [6 marks]

• Cue. Use Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (secure most common everywhere; more variation within than between cultures) to argue against the Strange Situation's American norms being a universal standard (imposed etic), while noting the meta-analysis pooled varied procedures.