Attachment: Development Of Attachment Flashcards
Schaffer and Emerson summary
60 Glasgow working class families
Visited at home every month for first year then at 18m. Asked mother questions about kind of protest their babies showed in everyday separations. Designed to measure the child’s attachment.
Schaffer and Emerson findings
25-32 weeks, 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards one particular adult.
By 40 weeks 80% had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments
Schaffer and Emerson conclusion
Developer the stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emerson: stage 1
Asocial attachment
0-2 months
Accepts comfort of animate or inanimate objects
No attachments
No stranger or separation anxiety
Schaffer and Emerson: stage 2
Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months
Prefers comfort off people rather than inanimate objects
No stranger or separation anxiety
Schaffer and Emerson: stage 3
Specific attachment
7+ months
Anxiety and distress when separated from specific adult
Specific attachment formed to primary attachment figure
Separation and stranger anxiety shown
Schaffer and Emerson: stage 4
Multiple attachments
Month after specific attachment
Displays attachment behaviour towards others they’re familiar with
Secondary attachments formed
Schaffer and Emerson: methodological evaluation
Longitudinal design
Same children followed up regularly
High internal validity
Limited sample
Glasgow working class families
Results can’t be generalised
Schaffer and Emerson: stages evaluations
First stage describes as ‘asocial’
Babies so young it’s hard to make judgements about them
Evidence is unreliable
Stages came from self report study
Self report data can have socially desirable responses
Undermining the validity of the stages
Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments
Dispute as to when this happens (Van Ijzendoorn: some cultures from them much earlier than S&E suggest)
S&Es research may be culturally biased
