Schaffer’s Stages of Attachment Flashcards
What was the aim of Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964)?
Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) aimed to investigate the formation of early attachments in particular the age at which they
developed their emotional intensity and who this was directed at.
What was the method for Schaffer and Emerson?
The study involved 60 babies (31 male, 29 female) from Glasgow, the majority were from skilled working-class families. The babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for a year and at 18 months.
The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their
babies showed in seven everyday separations:
Separation anxiety was measured by asking the mother about their child’s
behaviour when they left the room.
Stranger anxiety was measured by asking the mother about their child’s
anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.
What is a weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s study?
P: A weakness of Schaffer and Emerson’s study is that sample size was of 60 babies and their carers all from districts and social classes.
E: The participants recruited were all from Glasgow and were all from skilled working class families at a time over 50 years ago.
C: Child rearing practices differ from one culture to another and one historical
period to another. These results therefore do not necessarily generalise to other social and historical contexts.
What is a strength of Schaffer and Emerson’s research?
P: A strength is that Schaffer and Emerson’s research displays a high level
of external validity.
E: They conducted the observations in each child’s own home, meaning the
children’s behaviour was less likely to be affected by the observers, thus,
increasing the chances of natural behaviour.
C: Therefore, the results are likely to apply to other children from similar
demographics.
What were the results for Schaffer And Emerson?
50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards a particular adults
between 25 and 32 weeks of age. This specific primary attachment was
usually with the mother.
Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive and
sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (i.e reciprocity).
By the age of 40 weeks, 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and
almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.
What are the four stages of attachment
1) Asocial stages (first few weeks)
2) Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
3) Specific (discriminate) attachment (around 7 months)
4) Multiple attachments (1year onwards)
What is the Asocial stages of attachment?
1) Asocial stages (first few weeks)
In this stage the baby is recognising and forming bonds with its carers. However the baby’s behaviour towards non-human objects is quite similar.
Babies show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals
find it easier to calm them, but they haven’t formed a specific attachment
to anyone yet.
Babies are also happier when in the presence of other humans.
What are the Problems with the ‘asocial’ stage
P: Schaffer and Emerson describe the first few weeks of life as the ‘asocial
stage.’
E: The problem here is that babies that are young have poor co-ordination
and are generally immobile. It is therefore very difficult to make and
judgments about them based on observations, as there isn’t much behaviour
to observe!
C: This does not mean that the child’s feelings and cognitions are not highly
social, but the evidence cannot be relied on.
I&D: Schaffer’s stages of attachment takes a nomothetic approach as it
proposes a general law for child development. However, this is inflexible and
does not apply to all children in all cultures.
What is Indiscriminate attachment
2) Indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
Babies now display more observable social behaviour, with a preference
for people rather than inanimate objects.
They recognise and prefer familiar adults. They do not show stranger or
separation anxiety at this stage.
Attachment is also indiscriminate because it’s the same towards all.
What is Specific (discriminate) attachment?
3) Specific (discriminate) attachment (around 7 months)
Infants show stranger and separation anxiety when separated from one
particular adult. The baby is said to have formed a specific attachment
with the primary attachment figure.
This is in most cases the person who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s ‘signals’ with the most skill (biological mother in 65% of cases).
What is the Multiple attachments stage?
4) Multiple attachments (1year onwards)
Secondary attachments with other adults from shortly after. In Shaffer and
Emerson’s study, 29% of babies had secondary (multiple) attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment.
By the age of 1 year the majority of infants had multiple secondary attachments.
What were the results for Emerson and Schaffer in regards to the stages of attachment?
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mothers’ first primary attachment (around 7 months) and within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members including the father.
In 75% of the infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months.
This was determined by the fact that the infants protested when their fathers walked away a sign of attachment.
Weakness of attachment stages?
P: Its inevitable that children become capable of multiple attachments at
some point, but it is not clear when.
E: Some psychologists found that most babies form attachments to a single
main carer before they become capable of developing multiple attachments
(Bowlby, 1969). Others believe that babies form multiple attachments from
the very beginning (Van Ijzendoorn, 1993), such as collectivist cultures.
C: This conflict of evidence casts doubt on the overall reliability of the
study due to cultural differences displaying a difference of opinion, therefore
questioning the generalisability of the theory.
I&D: Caregiver-infant interactions (reciprocity) are present from birth and
therefore are a product of nature. However, these innate behaviours do not
act in isolation and interact with the environment (caregivers) to prompt a
response (attention). Suggesting the interaction of both nature and
nurture in interactions.
