Schaffer and Emerson

Question 1

Aim?

Answer 1

To construct a description of how an attachment develops
Landmark study 1960s

Question 2

Procedures?

Answer 2

• 60 infants
• mainly working class homes, Glasgow
• infants 5-23 weeks old at the start, studied until age of 1 yr
  (- mothers visited every 4 weeks
• reported infant’s response to separation in 7 everyday situations
• described intensity of any protest by the infant
• also who the protest was directed at)
• brackets for 16 markers

Question 3

Findings: Stage 1

Answer 3

Indiscriminate attachment:
Birth -> two months, infants produce similar responses to all objects
Infants begin to show a greater preference for social stimuli (e.g. smiling faces)
Reciprocity and interactional synchrony - play a role in establishing relationships

Question 4

Findings: Stage 2

Answer 4

Beginnings of attachment:
4 months old
Infants become more social
Prefer human company to inanimate objects
Can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar objects
Do not yet show stranger anxiety
Distinctive feature; general sociability

Question 5

Findings: Stage 3

Answer 5

Discriminate attachment:
7 months old
Separation anxiety begins to show
Formed a specific attachment to their primary attachment figure
Quality not quantity matters most - intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly and sensitively and offered their child more interaction
65% of infants studied - first specific attachment was to the mother
Further 30% - mother was first joint object of attachment
3% - father was the first sole object of attachment

Question 6

Findings: Stage 4

Answer 6

Multiple attachments:
Develop a wider circle of multiple attachments
First one month of becoming attached, 29% of infants had secondary attachments
Separation anxiety displayed in these relationships
6 months, risen to 78% from 29%
1 yr old, one third of infants formed 5+ secondary attachments

Question 7

Evaluation 1: strength ✅

Answer 7

• pioneering piece of research
• allowed other researchers to carry out investigations and add to developing theories about attachment
• Sagi et al 1994; compared attachments in infants raised in communal environments

Question 8

Evaluation 2: weakness ❌

Answer 8

• sample was biased
• W/C population; findings may apply to that social group, not others
• population from Glasgow; not representative of other regions
• 1960s, parental care of children has changed considerably since -> more women have entered the workplace so many children cared for outside the home or by fathers
• Cohn et al 2014; number of fathers who choose to stay home and care for their children has quadrupled in last 25 yrs

Question 9

Evaluation 3: weakness ❌

Answer 9

• challenging monotropy
• Bowlby’s view; infant forms one special emotional relationship, subsidiary to this are other secondary attachments
• Rutter 1995; all attachment figures are equivalent, all attachments are integrated to produce an infant’s attachment type
• suggests there is no specific hierarchy of attachment