Schaffer & Emerson (1964)

Question 1

What was the aim?

Answer 1

To find the age at which attachments start and how intense these were?

Question 2

What was the method?

Answer 2

• 60 babies from a working class area of Glasgow were studied.
• They were observed every four weeks for the first year and then again at 18 months.
• Interviews were conducted with the mothers, including questions about who the infants smiled at, responded to and who caused them distress.

Question 3

How was the strength of an attachment measured?

Answer 3

• Seperation anxiety.
• Stranger anxiety.

Question 4

What is seperation anxiety?

Answer 4

How distressed a child becomes when seperated from the main caregiver.

Question 5

What is stranger anxiety?

Answer 5

Distress shown when the child was left alone with an unfamiliar person.

Question 6

What were the findings?

Answer 6

• The first specific attachment was formed between 25 and 32 weeks by 50% of the infants.
• Intensity peaked in the first month following the onset of the first attachment.
• Multiple attachments began soon after the first attachment had been formed.
• By 18 months 31% had five or more attachments.

Question 7

What was concluded?

Answer 7

Human attachments develop in four stages:
- Asocial.
- Indiscriminate attachment.
- Specific attachment.
- Multiple attachments.

Question 8

What is the asocial stage?

Answer 8

• Between the age of zero and six weeks.
• Attention seeking behaviour is not directed at anyone in particular.
• Suggests attachments could be made with anyone.

Question 9

What is the indiscriminate attachment stage?

Answer 9

• Between the age of six weeks and seven months.
• The child seeks attention from anyone and is happy to recieve attention from anyone.
• Preferences are shown to familiar faces and elicit a greater response from the infant.

Question 10

What is the specific attachment stage?

Answer 10

• Between the age of seven and eleven months.
• The child is primarily attached to the main caregiver.
• The child becomes distressed when seperated from the main caregiver.
• The child is wary of strangers.

Question 11

What is the multiple attachments stage?

Answer 11

• Occurs after a primary attachment to the caregiver has been formed.
• Can vary in strength.
• Tends to happen with other family members.
• Thought to not be a limit on how many attachments can be made.

Question 12

What is a strength?

Answer 12

• The babies being studied in a natural environment means that there is high ecological validity and thus can be generalised to the real world.

Question 13

What are the weaknesses?

Answer 13

• The data collected from the mothers could be prone to bias and inaccuracy.
• There were large individual differences when attachments formed, adding uncertainity to the process of attachment formation being exclusively biological.