Schaffer & Emerson (1964) Flashcards
What was the aim of Schaffer & Emerson (1964)’s study and what did they do?
Aim: to investigate the formation of early attachment.
Glasgow: 60 babies (31 males/29 females). Mostly from working class families.
Longitudinal study - babies observed in own home as well as interviewing parents for approx 18 months.
Measures of attachment:
separation anxiety - measured by looking at babies protest in 7 everyday separations e.g. adult leaving room.
stranger anxiety – measured by asking mothers questions about their child’s anxiety toward unfamiliar adults
What did Schaffer & Emerson (1964) find?
50% of babies showed separation anxiety toward a particular adult between 25-32 weeks.
This shows us that the babies had developed their first specific attachments.
The more interactive/ facial expressive and sensitive to the infants needs the carer was, the more attached the child was.
30% of infants had more (multiple) attachments at 40 weeks old.
80% had specific attachments.
What are the four stages of attachment identified by Schaffer & Emerson (1964)?
Asocial (occurs in first few weeks)
Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
Specific Attachment (7+ months)
Multiple attachments (7 + months) (shortly after stage three)
What’s the asocial attachment stage?
Occurs in first few weeks
Starts to recognise & form bonds.
Responds to humans & objects in a similar way.
Some preference for familiar adults e.g. its easier for familiar adults to calm the baby.
Happier in presence of humans.
What’s the indiscriminate attachment stage?
2-7 months
Display more observable social behaviour .
Prefer humans over objects especially familiar adults.
Usually accept comfort from any adult.
Don’t usually display separation or stranger anxiety.
What’s the specific attachment stage?
7+ months
At around 7 months babies display anxiety around strangers and become anxious when separated from caregiver (usually the mother).
At this point a baby will have formed a “specific attachment” to the primary care giver. This is the person that interacts with the child the most not necessarily the person who spends the most time with the child.
What’s the multiple attachment stage?
7 + months (shortly after stage three)
Once the child’s first attachment has formed (specific) they tend to extend this to other adults forming “multiple attachments”. These are called “secondary attachments.”
29% of secondary attachments form within a month of the specific/primary attachment forming.
1 year + the majority of children have multiple attachments.
What are the strengths of Schaffer & Emerson (1964)’s research?
It was a longitudinal study; observing the children for over a year. This means that the researchers were able to gather much more insight and understanding regarding the children and how their attachments changed over time. This is a strength because the results are high in internal validity.
Research conducted by Schaffer & Emerson took place in the families home via natural observation. Demand characteristics may be reduced if you observe someone in their own home because you’re in their natural environment. This is a strength because we can generalise the findings to real life and the findings are high in validity.
What are the limitations of Schaffer & Emerson (1964)’s research?
Sample used - 60 babies (31 males/29 females). Mostly from working class families.
This means we can describe the sample as being ethnocentric: when a sample is made up of people from one culture e.g. a Individualistic/western culture. This is a limitation as it means that we cannot generalise our findings to other cultures, as differences in cultures may have an effect on how our attachments develop. As a result we can say that Schaffer & Emerson’s study is culturally biased.
Conflicting evidence found elsewhere. Van Ijzendoorn 1993 says babies form multiple attachments from a much younger age! Collectivist cultures were studied where families come together and share responsibility for things like cooking and raising children. Whereas Schaffer and Emerson said it was later in the child’s life. This is a weakness as it means the findings are not generalisable to other cultures particularly collectivist cultures as we cannot say that attachment formation would be similar elsewhere, therefore reducing the applicability of S+E’s research to attachment formation.
