Schaffer's Stages of Attachment Flashcards
What are the Stages of Attachment?
1) Asocial Attachments
2) Indiscriminate Attachments
3) Discriminate (specific) Attachments
4) Multiple Attachments
What ages do Asocial Attachments apply to?
From birth to 2 months.
What are Asocial Attachments?
When an infant shows similar responses to objects and people. Although towards the end of this stage, they do display a preference for faces/eyes.
What ages do Indiscriminate Attachments apply to?
From 2-6 months.
What are Indiscriminate Attachments?
When an infant shows a preference for human company over non-human company. They can distinguish between different people, but are comforted indiscriminately (by anyone) and do not show stranger anxiety yet.
What ages do Discriminate (specific) Attachments apply to?
From 7-12 months.
What are Discriminate (specific) Attachments?
When an infant shows a preference for one caregiver, displaying separation and stranger anxiety. The infant looks to a particular person for security and protection. The infant shows joy upon reunion and are comforted by their primary caregiver.
What ages do Multiple Attachments apply to?
One year onwards.
What are Multiple Attachments?
When attachment behaviours are now displayed towards several different people, e.g. siblings, grandparents, etc. and are sometimes referred to as secondary attachments. They typically form in the first month after the primary attachment is formed and the number of multiple attachments which develop depends on the social circle to whom the infant is exposed.
Key study: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - Aim
To examine the formation of early attachments.
Key study: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - Method
- Sample consisted of 60 babies (31 males and 29 females) from working class families in Glasgow aged between 5-23 weeks at the start of the investigation.
- The researchers visited the babies in their homes, every month for the first 12 months and then once again at 18 months.
- The researchers interviewed the mothers and observed the children in relation to separation and stranger anxiety in a range of everyday activities.
Key study: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - Findings
The results provided some support for the different stages of developing attachments. At around 25-32 weeks, 50% of the children showed separation anxiety towards their mothers as expected of the discriminate attachment stage and 30% had started to form multiple attachments.
Key study: Schaffer and Emerson (1964) - Conclusion
The findings provide some support for Schaffer’s stages of attachment and suggest that attachments develop through a series of stages across the first year of life.
Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment - Strength
point: A strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research into the stages of attachment is that they have practical applications.
evidence: This study is particularly useful when it comes to day care. In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages, daycare is likely to be straightforward as babies can be comforted by any adult. However, Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that daycare, especially starting daycare with an unfamiliar adult may be problematic during the discriminate attachment stage as the infant tends to have a preference for one caregiver and also suffers separation and stranger anxiety during this stage.
justification: This means that parents’ use of daycare can be attentively planned for, using Schaffer and Emerson’s findings. This therefore increases the ecological validity of the study as findings are relevant to real-life situations.
Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment - Strength
point: One strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research is its highly applicable nature to real-life scenarios.
evidence: Schaffer and Emerson conducted the observations in each child’s own home which means that the children and parents were more likely to act naturally.
justification: This reduces the possibility of any unrealistic behaviour from occurring.
implication: This therefore increases the external validity of Schaffer and Emerson’s research into the stages of attachment as findings are likely to apply to other children from a similar demographic in their own homes.
Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment - Weakness
point: Schaffer and Emerson’s research has been criticised for its sample.
evidence: The sample consisted of 60 mothers and babies (31 males and 29 females) from working class families in Glasgow.
justification: One of the reasons this is an issue is because of the fact that they are all from working class families who may typically form different attachments with their infants when compared to a wealthier, upper class family or a lower class family. Another reason this sample is an issue is due to the fact that all these families were from Glasgow. This is a problem as it doesn’t take into consideration the cultural differences that may be present in forming attachments with children.
implication: As a result, this lowers the population validity of this study as findings are not generalisable to families of other social status’ and cultural backgrounds.
Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment - Weakness
point: Schaffer and Emerson’s research has been criticised due to the possibility of social desirability bias.
evidence: Schaffer and Emerson interviewed the mothers about their children and some of them may not have reported accurate details about their children, to appear like better mothers with secure attachments.
implication: This could cause a bias in the data that would reduce the internal validity of the findings since natural behaviour about the stages of attachment will not have been recorded.
