Outline and evaluate Glasgow babies study (8) Flashcards
study
Schaffer and Emerson Glasgow babies study (1964) studied 60 infants aged 5-23 weeks and their mothers from a working-class area of Glasgow.
The child’s development was assessed in the infant’s home every 4 weeks until the child was 1 then again aged 18 months.
Naturalistic, participant and overt observations were used to determine the strength of their attachment using 2 measures: separation anxiety (distress shown by the infant when the PCG was not present) and stranger anxiety (distress shown by the infant when a stranger is present).
Structured interviews asked mothers to rate their infant’s response to various situations on a 4-point scale.
findings
The study found by 6-8 months, most infants showed signs of separation anxiety, suggesting they had formed an attachment.
Generally, stranger anxiety developed one month after the development of separation anxiety.
An attachment was formed with the parent or carer who was most responsible for the infant’s care (PCG).
The primary attachment was first formed with the mother in 65%.
In 3%, the primary attachment was with the father. In 30% of cases, infants formed attachments with the mother and father simultaneously.
Multiple attachments were formed by 18 months.
strength
A strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s study is that it has high external validity; meaning that the results of the study can be generalised to wider settings.
This is because most of the observations were made by the parents during ordinary activities.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the babies were affected by the presence of the observers and therefore, they would have shown natural behaviour, which means we can more easily generalise the findings to other real-life settings.
limit
A limitation of Schaffer and Emerson’s study is that the sample used is biased to a particular group and time, meaning that the study lacks population validity, reducing the external validity.
This is because the research focused on 60 babies and their carers from a working-class area of Glasgow over 50 years ago.
Child rearing practices vary from one culture to another and from one time to another meaning that we are unable to generalise the findings of this study to other social and historical contexts.
