2. Schaffer & Emerson - stages of attachment Flashcards
Schaffer and Emerson studied the attachment behaviours of babies.
PROCEDURE
The study involved 60, all were from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working-class families.
Researchers visited babies and mothers in their own homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months.
The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations, e.g. adult leaving the room.
This was designed to measure the babies’ attachment.
The researchers also assessed stranger anxiety - the babies anxiety response to unfamiliar people.
Schaffer and Emerson
Findings
65% mothers primary attachment, 27% mother-father joint primary attachment, 3% father primary attachment.
Schaffer and Emerson identified four distinct stages in the development of infant attachment behaviour.
They proposed that there were four identifiable stages of attachment, a sequence which is observed in all babies.
STAGE 1: ASOCIAL STAGE
first few weeks
behaviour towards humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar.
However, it isn’t entirely asocial because even at this stage babies show signs that they prefer to be with other people.
Babies also tend to show a preference for the company of familiar people and are more easily comforted by them.
STAGE 2: INDISCRIMINATE ATTACHMENT
From 2 to 7 months
babies start to display more obvious and observable social behaviours.
They now show a clear preference for being with other humans rather than inanimate objects.
They also recognise and prefer the company of familiar people.
However, at this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any person - hence the term ‘indiscriminate.
They do not usually show separation anxiety when caregivers leave their presence or stranger anxiety in the presence of unfamiliar people.
STAGE 3: SPECIFIC ATTACHMENT
From around 7 months
The majority of babies start to display the classic signs of attachment towards one particular person.
These signs include anxiety directed towards strangers (stranger anxiety), especially when their attachment figure is absent, and anxiety when separated from their attachment figure (separation anxiety).
This person with whom the attachment is formed is called the primary attachment figure.
This person is not necessarily the individual the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s ‘signals’ with the most skill.
This is the baby’s mother in 65% of cases.
STAGE 4: MULTIPLE ATTACHMENTS
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour (e.g. stranger anxiety and separation anxiety) towards one person they usually extend this behaviour to multiple attachments with other people with whom they regularly spend time. These relationships are called secondary attachments. Schaffer and Emerson observed that 29% of the children formed secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment. By the age of one year the majority of babies had developed multiple attachments
AO3: strength of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
good external validity
One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is that it has good external validity.
Most of the observations were made by parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researchers. The alternative would have been to have researchers present to record observations. This might have distracted the babies or made them feel more anxious.
This means it is highly likely that the participants behaved naturally while being observed.
AO3: strength of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
practical application - daycare use
Another strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is that they have practical application in day care where babies are cared for outside of their home (by a non-family adult).
In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that day care, especially starting day care with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during the specific attachment stage.
This means that parents’ use of day care can be planned using Schaffer and Emerson’s stages
AO3: limitation of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
counterpoint - issues with mothers being main observers
On the other hand, there are issues with asking the mothers to be the ‘observers’.
They were unlikely to be objective observers. They might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported, for example they might not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety or they may have misremembered it.
This means that even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded.
AO3: limitation of STAGES OF ATTACHMENT
low validity - hard to interpret behaviour
One limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s stages is the validity of the measures they used to assess attachment in the asocial stage.
Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in quite subtle, hard-to-observe ways. This made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear to be asocial.
