schaffer’s stages of attachment Flashcards
stages of attachment
schaffer and emerson
asocial stage
indiscriminate stage
specific stage
multiple attachments
asocial stage
first few weeks
humans and objects same
preference for company of familiar people
indiscriminate stage
2 to 7 months
preference for humans
recognise familiar people
accept comfort from any person
no separation or stranger anxiety
specific stage
7 months
attachment towards one person
stranger anxiety
primary attachment formed
mother - 65%
multiple attachments
extend behaviour to multiple people
secondary attachments
29% of children formed within month of specific attachment
research procedure
schaffer and emerson
60 babies from glasgow w/c families
visit babies and mothers every month for first year and again at 18 months
asked questions about protests babies showed in seven everyday seperations
measure attachment and assess stranger anxiety
researching findings
schaffer and emerson
identified four distinct stages in development of infant attachment behaviours
good external validity
P - strength is good external validity
E - observations made by parents and reported
E - if researcher present then distract baby or cause anxiety
L - highly likely participants behaved naturally
P - issues with mother being observers
E - unlikely to be objective - biased in terms of what they noticed
E - eg may not notice signs of anxiety
L - even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have bee accurately recorded
poor evidence of asocial stage
P - limited as validity of measures used for asocial stage
E - young babies less co-ordinated and immbile
E - if felt anxiety hard to display, harder to observe
L - babies may actually be quite social but because of flawed method appear asocial
real-world application
P - strength as practical application in daycare
E - social and indiscriminate attachment stages - daycare is straightforward
E - starting day in specific attachment day is difficult
L - parents’ use of daycare can be planned using the stages
