Schaffer's Stages Of Attachment

Question 1

What are Schaffer’s stages of attachment?

Answer 1

1- asocial stage (few weeks)
2- indiscriminate attachment (2-7 months)
3- specific attachment (from around 7 months)
4- multiple attachments (by one year)

Question 2

Describe the asocial stage

Answer 2

During this stage, the baby’s behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is quite similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals find it easier to calm them- babies are also happier in the presence of other humans

Question 3

Describe the indiscriminate stage of attachment

Answer 3

• from 2-7 months babies display more observable social behaviour- they show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects and recognise and prefer familiar adults
• at this stage babies usually accept comfort from any adult and do not show stranger anxiety or separation anxiety- their attachment is said to be indiscriminate because it is not different towards any person

Question 4

Describe the specific attachment stage

Answer 4

from around 7 months, the majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and become anxious when separated from one particular adult (the mother in 65% of cases). At this point, 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

Question 5

Describe multiple attachments stage

Answer 5

Multiple attachments with other adults with whom they spend time form shorty after specific attachment- secondary attachments

• in Schaffer and Emerson’s study 29% had secondary attachments within a month of forming primary (specific) attachment. By the age of one year, the majority of infants had developed multiple attachments

Question 6

Describe the aim of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) stages of attachment, longitudinal study

Answer 6

Aim: to find the age at which attachments between infants and carers began and how intense they were

Question 7

What was the procedure of Schaffer and Emerson’s longitudinal study (1964)?

Answer 7

• 60 Glaswegian babies and their mothers (31 males and 29 females) from working-class backgrounds were visited at their home every month for a year and again at 18 months
• separation anxiety and stranger anxiety was measured
• separation anxiety measured by asking mothers about their children’s behavioural during everyday separations e.g. adult leaving the room
• stranger anxiety measured by observing the infants’ response to unfamiliar adults (the researcher)

Question 8

What were the findings of Schaffer and Emerson’s longitudinal study (1964)?

Answer 8

• between 25 and 32 weeks of age, about 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother = specific attachment
• attachment tended to be the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant’s signals and facial expressions I.e. reciprocity; this was not necessarily the person whom the infant spent the most time with

Question 9

What are the evaluation points of Schaffer’s stages of attachment?

Answer 9

✅ study was carried out longitudinally, meaning the children were followed-up and observed regularly. The quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at each age- cross-sectional design. However, longitudinal studies have much better internal validity as they don’t have he confounding variable of individual differences between participants (participant variables)

❌ study has good external validity- the study was carried out in the families’ own homes and most of the observations (other than stranger anxiety) were actually done by the parents during ordinary activities and reported to the researcher later = behaviour of babies unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers = excellent chance that the infants behaved naturally while being observed increasing the validity of the data- demand characteristics often the problem with observational studies
HOWEVER internal validity is questioned due to reliance on interview- self report of separation anxiety

❌ lacks population validity

❌ may be a problem with how multiple attachment is assessed- just because a baby becomes distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean the individual is a ‘true’ attachment figure. Bowlby (1969) pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may become distressed when a playmate leaves the room, but this doesn’t signify attachment = problem to Schaffer and Emerson’s stages because their observations does not leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and shown towards playmates

❌ problem in studying asocial year- babies that are young have poor coordination and are generally pretty immobile = very difficult to make any judgements about them purely based on observations of their behaviour. It may be that babies actually are asocial however we cannot be sure of this as the the method of measurement lacks internal validity