Schaffer and Emerson: formation of early attachments

Question 1

what was the aim of the experiment?

Answer 1

to investigate the formation of early attachments; in particular the age at which the develop, their emotional intensity and whom they are directed towards

Question 2

What was the sample?

Answer 2

60 babies, (31 male and 29 female) form Glasgow skilled working class families

Question 3

what was the procedure?

Answer 3

babies and mothers were visited at home every month for the first year then again at 18 months and mothers were asked about the protest babies showed in everyday separations as they also assessed stranger anxiety, (observations and self-report)

Question 4

what happened at 25-32 weeks old?

Answer 4

50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards a specific adult , usually the mother

Question 5

What happened by 40 weeks old?

Answer 5

80% of infants had a specific attachment and 30% displayed multiple attachments

Question 6

what conclusion did the draw from their findings?

Answer 6

that attachment happens in four stages: the asocial stage, in-discriminant attachment, specific attachment and multiple attachments

Question 7

when does the asocial stage take place?

Answer 7

the first few weeks

Question 8

what is the asocial stages?

Answer 8

when the babies behavior towards objects and humans is similar but may show preference towards familiar humans and is happier in the presence of humans

Question 9

when does the indiscriminant attachment stage take place?

Answer 9

2-7 months old

Question 10

what is the indiscriminant attachment stage?

Answer 10

when the baby show preference towards humans rather then objects and recognize and prefers familiar adults, although they do not yet show separation or stranger anxiety

Question 11

When does the specific attachement stage take place?

Answer 11

7-12 months old

Question 12

what is the specific attachment stage?

Answer 12

when babies start to show stranger and seperation anxiety, and form a primary attachment

Question 13

when is the multiple attachment stage?

Answer 13

around 3 months after stage 3 at around 1 year old

Question 14

what is the multiple attachment stage?

Answer 14

when a baby forms multiple attachments to adults they frequently spend time with, secondary attachments

Question 15

How was the validity?

Answer 15

good as it used a natural environment so demand characteristics were less likely, however its argues that stranger and separation anxiety are to simple to explain attachment

Question 16

what experimental design did they used and what was its advantage?

Answer 16

they used a longitudinal design which cancels our participant variables

Question 17

can we genralise the findings?

Answer 17

maybe as the sample size was okay due to the large amount of data collected, however all families were from the same social class, culture and area and the experiment was conducted around 50 years ago.

Question 18

What are the problems with studying the asocial stage?

Answer 18

babies have poor co-ordinations and are mostly immobile so it is difficult to make judgments about behaviors

Question 19

How does Bowlby’s work support the Multiple attachment stage?

Answer 19

he demonstrates that most babies form a specific attachment before forming multiple attachments

Question 20

what conflicting evidence does Ijzendoorn provide against stage 3 & 4?

Answer 20

in collectivist culture some babies formed multiple attachments before forming specific attachments