Attachment-develoment Of Attachment Flashcards
Schafer and Emerson (1960’s) conducted a landmark study which twig the findings constructed a description of how attachment develops.
4 stages:
Stage 1- indiscriminate attachments
Stage 2-the beginnings of attachment
Stage 3- discriminate attachment
Stage 4- multiple attachments
Stage 1-indiscriminate attachment
From birth till about 2 months infants produce similar response to all objects (animate or inanimate)
What happened during this period?
What did infants begin to prefer towards the end of this period?
Reciprocity and I S 🎭Blake a role in establishing infants relationships with others
They begin to show greater preference for social stimuli (e.g. Smiling)
Stage 2- beginnings of attachment
Around age of four infants become more social
What do they prefer and can distinguish between
What do they not shows signs of yet?
Prefer human company than inanimate objects and can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
No signs of stranger anxiety (distress when approached/picked by someone unfamiliar)
Stage 3-Discriminate attachment
By 7 months old infants begin to show signs of separation anxiety
(distress when sow rated from caregiver)
They even shows signs of joy at reunion with a particular person and most comforted by them (becomes a primary attachment figure)
Stranger anxiety displayed (sign of another formed specific attachment)
What did Schafer and Emerson find in regard to infant attachment and how it formed best?
Percentages of mothers/father and specific or joint attachment
Intensely attached infants occurred with mothers responds quickly and sensitively to signals and mothers who offered the most interaction (quality over quantity)
Mother:
- 65% first specific attachment
- 30% first joint attachment
Father:
- 3% first specific attachment
- 27% first joint attachment
Stage 4- multiple attachment
Soon after main attachment formation… Infant develops further attachment depending on how many consistent relationship he/she has
What percentage of infants did Schafer and Emerson find had multiple attachments (secondary attachments)
What did they also display in these relationships?
What happen to the percentage after 6 months after initial attachment formation
What proportion of infants had 5 or more secondary attachments?
29%
Stranger anxiety
78%
1/3 had 5 or more secondary attachments
Schafer and Emerson (1964)
How many infants of working class families studied?
What was the age range at the start?
At what age were they studied until?
How often were the mothers visited? (Cheeky answer below↙️)
What happened at every 4 weeks visit?
What were mother also asked to describe the intensity of… How was it rated… “Who was the protested D!R£CT£D towards ?
What was also measured during visits?
60
5-23 weeks
One year old
Every 4 weeks
Reported infant’s response to separation in 7 everyday situations
Intensity of any protest upon separation (rated on a 4-point scale) and asked to state who the protest was directed towards
Stranger anxiety with infants response to interviewer
Evaluation-
Unreliable data
Why was data based on mother reports considered unreliable?
What does this create and what impact does it have on validity
Some mothers may be less sensitive to infants protest hence less likely to report them
Systematic bias = less valid
Evaluation-
Biased sample:
2 ways study was biased?
What did Cohn et al (2004) discover in regard to the number of dad who steps at home to care for kids and families
1- from working class population (only apply to that social group) = not generalisable
2-from 1960’s (parental care of child ring change since then
-had quadruples in the past 25 years
Evaluation-
Are multiple attachments equivalent?
How did Bowlby oppose this idea of equal attachment?
What do secondary attachments act as?
Rutter (1995)- what did he believe about all attachments and what purpose did they serve
Bowlbys view was that an infant forms one special emotional relationship
Emotional safety nets
Beloved all attachment were equal and all attachment integrated to produce an infants attachment type
