Attachment

Question 1

What were Schaffer’s stages in attachment formation?

Answer 1

*Asocial phase - 0 to 3 months.

*Indiscriminate attachment phase - Between 6 weeks and 7 months.

*Discriminate attachment phase- 7 to 11 months

*Multiple attachment phase- From 9 months.

Question 2

Schaffer- Asocial phase

Answer 2

*0-3 months.
*Baby learns to separate people from objects but doesn’t have strong preferences about who cares for them.

Question 3

Schaffer- Indiscriminate attachment phase

Answer 3

• Between 6 weeks and 7 months.
  *Infant starts to clearly distinguish and recognise different people. But still no strong preferences.

Question 4

Schaffer- Discriminate attachment phase

Answer 4

• 7 to 11 months
  *Able to firm a strong attachment with an individual. Shown by content when person is around, distress when they leave and happiness when they return.

Question 5

Schaffer- Multiple attachment phase

Answer 5

• From around 9 months
• Infant can form attachments to many different people. Some attachments stronger than others.
  *Schaffer found around 32% if babies had at least five attachments, but the original attachment is still the strongest.

Question 6

Imitation-Meltzoff and Moore (1977)

Answer 6

Found that infants between 2 and 3 weeks of age appeared to imitate the facial expressions and hand movements of the experimenter.

Question 7

Reciprocity

Answer 7

Interaction flows back and forth between the caregiver and infant.

Question 8

Imitation

Answer 8

The infant copies the caregiver’s actions and behaviour. e.g. Meltzoff and Moore.

Question 9

Interactional synchrony

Answer 9

Infants react in time with the caregiver’s speech, resulting in a ‘conversation dance’.

Question 10

Schaffer and Emerson (1964) summary recall

Answer 10

*Method- 60 Glasgow babies, from birth to 18 months, observed for attachment every four weeks.

*Results- They found that Schaffers attachment stages occurred. At 8 months of age about 50 of the infants had more than one attachment.
20 had no attachment with mother or had stronger with someone else.

*Conclusion- Infants form attachment in stages and can eventually attach to multiple people. Quality of care is important.

Question 11

Schaffer and Emerson Evaluation

Answer 11

*Limited sample
*Biased

*Tronick et al (1992)- infants in Zaire had a strong attachment with their mother by six months of age but didn’t have a strong attachment with others, even though they had several carers.

Question 12

Schaffer and Emerson- Father plays important role too

Answer 12

Found that the attachment between caregiver and infant varied across the infants.
Their mother was the primary attachment for only half of the infants.
A third of the infants preferred their father, whilst the rest had their strongest attachment with their grandparents or siblings.