Schafer And Emerson Stages Of Attachment Study

Question 1

How many babies?

Answer 1

60

Question 2

How many male and female babies?

Answer 2

31 male
29 female

Question 3

What did the researchers do?

Answer 3

Visited babies and mothers in their homes every month for the first year and again at 18 months

Question 4

What did researchers ask the mothers?

Answer 4

Questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in everyday situations e.g. adults leaving the room
Also assessed stranger anxiety- babs response to unfamiliar people

Question 5

What were the questions designed to measure?

Answer 5

The babies attachment

Question 6

Generalisability?

Answer 6

1960’s working class Glasgow
Individualist culture
Small sample size
Only mothers were used- no infant-father attachments

Question 7

External validity- good?

Answer 7

Most of the activities were made by parents during ordinary activities
If researchers were present, it may have distracted the babies

Question 8

External validity- bad?

Answer 8

Mothers may have been biased
Objective measurements
They may not have notices when their baby was showing signs of anxiety

Question 9

Real world application?

Answer 9

Practical application in day care
Asocial and indiscriminate stage- day care is straightforward as babies can be comforted by most people
Starting day care with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the specific attachment stage
May help parents to plan when their baby will start daycare

Question 10

AO3: validity?

Answer 10

Babies may be observed as being social, but because of flawed methods, they may actually be asocial
Young babies have poor coordination
Babies may have displayed signs of anxiety in very subtle ways