Schaffer's Stages of Attachment Flashcards
State the name and ages of the stages of attachment
- Asocial (birth to 2 months)
- Indiscriminate (2-6 months)
- Discriminate (7 -12 months)
- Multiple (1 yr. onwards)
Describe the asocial stage
An infant shows a similar response to objects and people. Baby is not predisposed to a particular caregiver.
Describe the indiscriminate attachment stage
Infant shows preference for human company over non-human company. Can distinguish between humans but comforted by anyone (no stranger anxiety)
Describe the discriminate/specific attachment stage
An infant shows a preference for one caregiver (primary attachment figure). This is the one who responds to the babies signals. Show separation and stranger anxiety. Show joy upon reunion and comforted by primary caregiver
Describe the multiple attachment stage and stats.
Attachment behaviours displayed towards several different people and referred to as secondary attachments. 29% formed secondary within one month of primary. By 1 year, the majority of babies have developed multiple attachments
State the study that showed support for the stages of attachment
Schaffer and Emmerson (1964)
Describe the procedure of Schaffer and Emmerson’s (1964) research
Observed 60 babies for 18 months. All were from Glasgow and the majority from skilled working class background.
Researchers visited babies and mothers at home every month for 1st year and again at 18 months.
They asked the mothers questions about certain everyday situations to measure stranger and separation anxiety
Describe the findings of Schaffer and Emmerson’s (1964) research
50% babies showed separation anxiety to usually the mother at 25-32 weeks
40 weeks- 80% had specific attachment, 30% had multiple attachments
2 Strengths of Schaffer and Emmerson’s study
Good external validity:
The research carried out by Schaffer and Emerson was completed in families’ own homes- behaviour was observed in an environment where it most naturally occurs. parents observed and took notes on their infant’s responses to separation and strangers and the researchers were not present at the time, so it is more likely that the infant’s behaviour would be more natural and not affected by the presence of observers. COUNTER - unlikely to be objective. They may have been biased in terms of what they noticed- e.g. they may not have noticed when their baby was showing signs of anxiety
or they may have misremembered.
Real-world application:
Practical application in day care. In the asocial and indiscriminate attachment stages day care is likely to be straight forward as babies can be comforted by any skilled adult. However, Schaffer and Emerson’s research tells us that if infants are starting day care with unfamiliar adults when they are in the specific attachments stage this
may be problematic. Allows parents to plan their use of day care.
2 Limitations of Schaffer and Emmerson’s study.
Culturally biased:
The idea that an attachment with a single caregiver needs to come before developing multiple attachments only reflects individualist cultures.
Ijzendoorn’s meta-analysis found that in some collectivist cultures, multiple attachments are the norm and are formed much earlier than Schaffer and Emerson suggested. E.G. Uganda – most infants are cared for by several adults and form multiple attachments very young.
Problems studying the asocial stage:
Young babies have poor coordination and are fairly immobile. If babies less than two months old felt anxiety in everyday situations they might have displayed this in a subtle, hard-to-observe way. This makes it difficult for mothers to observe and report back to researchers on signs of anxiety and attachment in this age group.
This means that the babies may actually be quite social but, because of flawed methods, they appear to be asocial.
