schaffer and emerson Flashcards
when and what did schaffer and emerson decide to investigate? what was their aim?
in 19964, schaffer and emerson decided to investigate how babies develop attachments to their parents over time.
how did schaffer and emerson investigate their aim?
schaffer and emerson observed the interactions of babies with their mother’s and other family members. they observed them in their everyday life. to understand how these interactions changed over time, they follow the same babies and mothers every 4 weeks from birth.
what type of study did schaffer and emerson conduct?
schaffer and emerson conducted a naturalistic observation and longitudinal study
how many babies did schaffer and emerson observe?
60 babies together with their mothers and other family members
how did schaffer and emerson measure the strengths of attachments formed by babies with their caregivers?
by obersving the babies behaviour when separated from their caregiver and when put in the presence of strangers. in addition to the observations, schaffer and emerson conducted interviews with the families, asking them questions about the behaviour of their babies and their relationship with them
what were schaffer and emerson’s results?
87% of babies formed an attachment with at least 2 adults figures. 31% formed 5 or more.
what did schaffer and emerson’s learn from their results? ( 3 ideas)
- schaffer and emerson’s results found from their study that it supported the existence of the 4 stages of attachment. the results showed it was super common for babies to form multiple attachments.
- results also showed the babies main attachment figure wasn’t always their main caregiver and it wasn’t always their mother either.
- finally, they found that babies who formed the strongest attachments to their caregiver had caregivers who were sensitive to their needs and responded quickly when the baby tried to interact - this sensitivity to the babies is sensitive responsiveness
schaffer and emerson evaluation strength - naturalistic observation
- the study was an naturalistic observation where infant and caregivers were observed as they went about their usual daily life routine. this means the results were more likely to have ecological validity and to generalise how babies and their caregivers behaved in everyday life when the researchers weren’t present
schaffer and emerson evaluation weakness - observer bias
- may be prone to observer bias. observer bias is the tendency for researchers to see what they expect when conducting observations. this is due to the observational design emerson and schaffer chose to do
schaffer and emerson evaluation weakness —social desirability bias
- one weakness of schaffer and emerson using the interview technique is that the participants may give inaccurate answers they think are socially desirable to avoid being judged negatively —> social desirability bias. for example, the parents may have wanted to show off and seem like the best parents so provided answers that weren’t entirely accurate
