day 2 : attachment

Question 1

Schaffer and Emerson 1964 study

what was their aim?

what was their method?

what was findings?

Answer 1

aimed to investigate formation of early attachments.

method:
- 60 babies from Glasgow

• babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for 1st year again at 18 months
• researchers asked mother questions about protest their babies showed in everyday separation e.g adult leaving room. this was designed to measure infants attachment.
• researcher also assessed stranger anxiety- infants anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.

findings
- between 25-32 weeks of age 50% of babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult usually their mother ( specific attachment )

• attachment tend to be with caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expression ( reciprocity)
• age of 40 weeks 80% of babies had specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachment

Question 2

evaluation of Schaffer and Emerson study

Answer 2

good external validity
- study was carried out in the families homes and most of the observation was done by parent during ordinary activities and reported to researcher later. this means the behaviour of the baby was unlikely to be affected by presence of observers. therefore we can say it has good external validity.

longitudinal study
- study was longitudinal meaning same children were followed up and observed regularly. quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at different ages. this is called cross sectional design. however logntiudal have better internal validity than cross sectional design because it does not have cofounding variable.

limited sample characteristics
- all families involved were from the same district and social class. child rearing practices may vary from one culture to another. therefore result do not generalise well to other social and historical contexts.

Question 3

what are 4 stages of attachment

Answer 3

stage 1 : asocial ( first few weeks)
- similar response to objects and people
- preference for faces/eyes.

stage 2: indiscriminate attachment ( 2-7 months)
- show preference for people rather than objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults
- accept cuddles and comfort from any adults and do not show separation anxiety. therefore it is said to be indiscriminate because it is not different towards any person.

stage 3 : specific attachment ( 7months)
- baby starts to display anxiety towards strangers and becomes anxious when separated from one particular adult and said to form a specific attachment

stage 4 : multiple attachments
- shortly after babies show attachment towards one adult they usually extend this attachment to multiple attachment with other adults . this relationships are called secondary attachments.

Question 4

what is evaluation of stages of attachment

Answer 4

problem studying asocial stage : in asocial stage, babies have poor co-ordination and are immobile therefore it difficult to make judgements about them based on observations of their behaviour. there isn’t just much observable behaviour.

-limited behavioural measures of attachment
were able to carry out a scientific study of attachment development because they use simple behaviours - stranger anxiety and separation anxiety to define attachment. some critics believe these are too crude as measures of attachment.

-conflicting evidence on multiple attachments
- although there is no doubt that children become capable of multiple attachment at some point but it is not entirely clear. some researchers argue most babies form attachment with to one main caregiver before and some say multiple caregivers are norm believe babies form multiple attachment from outset.