Attachment (the development of attachment)

Question 1

Who, when and why for stages of attachment?

Answer 1

1960’s Schaffer and Emerson, they marked findings and constructed a description of how attachment develops.

Question 2

Stage 1: Indiscriminate attachment

Answer 2

• Birth till 2 months
• Produce same response to all objects no matter what they are
  -Towards the end show a greater preference to social stimuli
  -interactional synchrony and reciprocity play a role in the future of their relationship at this time.

Question 3

Stage 2: Beginnings of attachment

Answer 3

• Around 4 months
  -Become a lot more social
  -Prefer human company to inanimate objects
  -Can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people
  -However, still relatively comforted by all familiar people
  -Don’t deal with stranger anxiety
  -They enjoy sociability

Question 4

Stage 3: Discriminate attachment

Answer 4

-7-9 months old
- Experience separation anxiety when one person put them down
-Said to have formed a specific primary attachment figure and show joy at reunion with the attachment figure (usually the biological mother).
-Also experience stranger anxiety.
-Schaffer and Emerson found that to form primary attachment figure it was the caregiver who did not spend the most time with them but the ones who responded quickly and sensitively to the child’s needs.

Question 5

Stage 4:Multiple attachments

Answer 5

-9 months
-Soon after the main attachment, multiple attachments form.
-This depends on the previous consistent relationships they had.
-Had strong emotional ties and secondary attachments
-Schaffer and Emerson found that attached infants within the first month 29% had multiple attachments to someone else, and by 6 months this had risen to 78%.

Question 6

Schaffer and Emerson Glasgow babies 1963 - procedure

Answer 6

Aim- investigation into the development of infant attachment’s
-Conducted a longitudinal study of 60 infants
-Beginning of investigation infants ranged from 5-23 weeks old
-Infants were studied until the age of 1
-Mothers were visited every 4 weeks
-During each visit the mother responded to separation in seven everyday situations and also stranger anxiety
-Mother rated all protests e.g a full blown cry

Question 7

Findings of Glasgow babies -

Answer 7

-Between 25 and 32 weeks about 50% showed separation anxiety towards a particular person
-Attachment tended to be the caregiver who did not necessarily spend the most time but the one who responded to the sensitive and interactive needs of the infant.
-By 40 weeks 80% showed a specific attachment and almost 30% showed multiple attachment.

Question 8

Conclusion of the Glasgow babies -

Answer 8

-Found with different behaviours exhibited at different stages it allowed them to construct the stages of attachment theory.

Question 9

Biased sample - limitation

Answer 9

It was observed from a working class population and may not apply to all social groups, a second reason why it may be biased is it was conducted in the 1960s and parental care over a child has changed considerably since then as more women go out to work and more men stay home to be the primary attachment figure, research showed that the number of dads staying home had quadrupled in the last 25 years, therefore if the Glasgow baby study was conducted today it may have very different findings.

Question 10

Naturalistic observation - strength

Answer 10

Due it being a naturalistic observation study, the way the infants were assessed over their interactions every 4 weeks was in their home or park, this represented high ecological validity and the study generalise to the way babies and caregivers behave in everyday lives. This means the measurement of the study was taken in a real life setting and allowed a more accurate interpretation of the way the caregiver and infant interacted.