Schaffer's stages of attachment Flashcards
What was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson (1964)?
- Observation - natural, overt
- Longitudinal - same children over 18 months (alternative = cross sectional) 60 infants
-Age between 5 weeks - 23 weeks - Observed every 4 weeks until 1 year old
- Observed at again 18 months
What was measured in this study?
Separation anxiety/stranger anxiety
What were the results of Schaffer and Emersons study?
50% showed separation anxiety between 25 and 32 weeks of age
Attachment formed with caregiver who interacts the most with the infant and is sensitive to their signals and expressions
What are the four stages of attachment
- Pre-attachment
-Indiscriminate attachment
-Discriminate attachment
-Multiple attachments
What goes on during the Pre-attachment phase?
0-6 weeks
Babies respond to inanimate objects and humans equally
No directed behaviour
What goes on during the indiscriminate attachment phase?
6 weeks to 7 months
Shows sociability
Not directed behaviour
Happy with attention - does not show preference
What goes on during the discriminate attachment phase?
7 to 11 months
Attachment to 1 person - stranger anxiety and separation protest
65% specific attachment at 7 months
What goes on during the multiple attachment stage?
After 9 months
Baby forms multiple attachments and becomes increasingly independent
Why is longitudinal and cross sectional design good?
Children followed up regularly because of longitudinal design
Longitudinal studies reduce participant variables
What are the strengths of this study?
Based on research evidence
Clearly shows the stages when attaching - longitudinal study
What are the weaknesses of the study according to Bushnell?
Bushnell conducted an experiment with 2 day old babies and found that 2/3 of them preferred their mothers face than that of a strangers - disproving Schaffer’s stages of attachment as there was an average preference to the mother even in the ‘pre-attachment’ phase
What are weaknesses of the study?
Schaffers stages of attachment do not generalise well to all babies because of cultural differences where multiple caregivers are the norm so this questions the universality of the stages.
Schaffers theory takes a nomothetic approach as it proposes a general law for child development, however, these theories are inflexible and do not apply to all children in all cultures
What is inter-observer reliability?
Where lots of individual observers all agree on one thing (over 80% for reliability)
What is over stimulation?
When a baby has too much attention which causes an overstimulation and results in negative attachment
