Schaffer's stages of attachment

Question 1

Stage 1

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 1

Asocial Stage
Baby’s first few weeks - observable behaviour toward humans and inanimate objects is fairly similar
Schaffer & Emerson didn’t believe that it is entirely asocial because even at this stage babies show signs they prefer to be with other people
Babies also show preferance for familiar people and are easily comforted by them
Baby sof orming bonds with certain people

Question 2

Stage 2

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 2

Indiscriminate attachment
2-7 months babies display more obvious and observable social behaviours
Show clear preference fro humans
Recognise and prefer familiar people
Babies still accept comfort from any person
Do not show seperation anxiety or stranger anxiety

Question 3

Stage 3

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 3

Specific attachment
7 months - babies start to show signs of attachment to one person
SIgns include: stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety
Person who attachment is formed with is the primary attachment figure (PAF)
Not necessarily individual child spends most time with but one that offers most interaction and responds to signals with most skills
PAF is mother in 65% of cases

Question 4

Stage 4

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 4

Mutiple attachment
Shortly after baby shows attachment to one person they extend this behaviour to mutiple people
These are secondary attachments
Schaffer & Emerson observed that 29% of children formed 2ndary attachments within a month of primary
By 1 majority of babies have developed multiple attachments

Question 5

Good external validity

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 5

Strength
Most observations were made by parents during ordinary activites and reported to researchers
Alternative would be to have researchers present
This could have distracted baby or made them anxious
Therefore, highly likely that ppts behaved naturally whle being observed

Question 6

Counterpoint: Good external validity

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 6

Issues with asking mothers to be observers
Unlikley to be objective
Might have been biased in terms of what they noticed and what they reported
E.g. might not have noticed or misremembered baby showing anxiety
Therefore, even if babies behaved naturally their behaviour may not have been accurately recorded

Question 7

Poor evidence for asocial stage

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 7

Limitation
Young babies have poor co-ordination and are fairly immobile
Babies less than 2 months felt anxiety they might have displayed this in subtle, hard -to-observe ways
Made it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group
Therefore, babies may actually be quite social but appear asocial

Question 8

Real-world application

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 8

Strength - practical application in daycare
In asocial and indiscriminate stages day care is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult
However, S&E’s research tells us that day care, espcially starting with an unfamiliar adult, may be problematic during specific stage
Therefore, parents’ use of day care can be planned using S&E’s stages

Question 9

Schaffer & Emerson’s procedure

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Answer 9

60 babies (31m & 29f) from working-class families in Glasgow
Researchers visited babies & mothers every month for 1st year & again at 18 months
Researchers asked mothers questions about kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations
Researchers also assessed stranger anxiety