KEY STUDY Schaffer and Emerson 1964

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

investigate the formation of early attachment in particular the age at which they developed at

Question 2

procedure

Answer 2

60 babies
31 male
29 female
all from Glasgow and from skilled working class families
the babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months
researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations ie adult leaving the room to measure separation anxiety
designed to measure the infants attachment , researchers also assessed stranger anxiety , the infants response to unfamiliar adults

Question 3

findings

Answer 3

between 25-33 weeks of age about 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult usually the mother (specific).
attacthement tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to the infants signals and facial expressions (ie reciprocity) not nessecarily the person he infant spent the most time with
by the age of 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment
almost 30% displayed multiple attatchments

Question 4

conclusion

Answer 4

develop four stages of attachment based off the data collected from study

Question 5

good external validity
strength

Answer 5

study was carried out in the families own homes and most of the observation was actually done by the parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later
this means the behaviours of the babies were unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers
babies = behave naturally = goof external validity

Question 6

longitudinal design
strength

Answer 6

longitudinal
mean the same children are followed up on and observed regularly
- alternative , quicker , cross sectional design observe different children at each age
longitudinal designs have higher internal validity than cross sectional designs because they do not have confounding variables of individual difference of participants . PARTICIPANT VARIABLES

Question 7

limited sample characteristics
weakness

Answer 7

sample size of 60 babies and their careers was good considering the large volume of data that was gathered on each p
however all families being from the same social class and district in the same city , over 50 years ago is a limitation
child rearing practices vary culture to culture and time period to time period .
therefore these results do not generalise well to other social and historical contexts