Attachment: Schaffers Stages Of Attachment Flashcards
What was the aim of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- to investigate the formation of early attachments, the age in which they develop, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed
What was the method of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- naturalistic longitudinal study involving 60 babies
- all from Glasgow + skilled working class families
- babies and mothers were visited at their home every month for the first year + again at 18 months
- researchers asked mothers about child’s displays of separation and stranger anxiety
What were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- 25-32 weeks of age - 50% babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adult (usually mother) this is called specific attachment
- attachment was directed towards caregiver who displayed most interaction + responsiveness
- 40 weeks of age - 80% had specific attachment + some had developed Multiple attachments
What are the three evaluation points for Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- good external validity
- strength of longitudinal design
- limited sample characteristics
Outline ‘good external validity’ as an evaluation point of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- carried out in families own homes
- most observations were done by parents and later reported to researchers
- study has good external validity because behaviour of babies was unlikely to be affected by presence of observers
Outline ‘strength of longitudinal design ’ as an evaluation point of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- same children followed up and observed regularly
- longitudinal designs have better internal validity than cross sectional designs (where the researcher observes different children at each age) because they don’t have confounding variables of individual differences
Outline ‘limited sample characteristics’ as an evaluation point of Schaffer and Emerson’s study
- 60 pairs of babies and carers is a good sample size
- however, all families involved were form the same social class, same district in the same area
- difficult to generalise to other social and historical contexts
What are the 4 stages of attachment Schaffer and Emerson set out
- pre attachment - 0-6 weeks
- indiscriminate attachment stage 2-7 months
- specific attachment stage - 7-9 months
- multiple attachment stage - 9 months onwards
What is the pre attachment stage
- babies behaviour towards human and non human objects is very similar
- babies are ha[pier in presence of others and show some preference for familiar adults
What is the indiscriminate attachment stage
- babies display more observable behaviour
- show a preference for humans + familiar adults specifically
- babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult
- do not usually display stranger or separation anxiety
What is the specific attachment stage
- babies begin to display stranger and separation anxiety
- at this point baby is said to have developed a specific attachment (to mother in 65% of cases)
- this is not based on gender but relates to the caregiver displaying the most responsiveness
What is the multiple attachment stage
- occurs only after a child has formed a primary attachment
- in Schaffer and Emerson’s study 29% of babies had secondary attachments within a month of forming primary ones
What are the three evaluation points for the stages of attachment
- problems studying pre attachment stage
- conflicting evidence on multiple attachments
- problems with measuring multiple attachment
Outline ‘problems studying pre attachment stage ‘ as an evaluation point for the stages of attachment
- babies are young in this stage + have poor coordination
- for this reason it is difficult to make judgements about them based on observations of their behaviour
Outline ‘conflicting evidence on multiple attachments‘ as an evaluation point for the stages of attachment
-it is still not clear when babies are capable of forming multiplier attachments
- some psychologists (who study attachments in collectivist cultures where multiple caregivers are the norm) (van ijzenendoorn et al) believe babies form multiple attachments from the outset
Outline ‘problems with measuring multiple attachment ‘ as an evaluation point for the stages of attachment
- just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room ,does not mean they individual is a ‘true’ attachment figure
- bowlby - argued children get distressed when a playmate leaves the room, but these are not attachment figures
