Schaffer's stages of attachment Flashcards
Descibe Schaffer and Emmerson’s study into formation of attachment.
Schaffer + Emerson aimed to investigate the formation of attachments.
The study involved 60 babies all from Glasgow and many from working-class families. The babies and their mothers were visited every month for the first year and again at 18 months. The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 everyday separations and also assessed stranger anxiety.
RESULTS:
25 to 32 weeks of age about 50% babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually mother (specific attachment).
Attachment tended to be the caregiver who reciprocated the most not the one who spent the most time with.
By 40 weeks 80% of the babies had specific attachments & 30% displayed multiple attachments.
Describe Schaffer and Emerson’s research into the stages of attachment
Stage 1: Asocial stage (first few weeks)
The baby is recognising and forming bonds with its carers. However 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.
Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment
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. Usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, and don’t show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety. Their attachment behaviour is indiscriminate.
Stage 3: Specific attachment
From around 7 months the majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become anxious when separated from one particular adult (the biological mother in 65% of the cases). At this point the baby is said to have made a specific attachment. This adult is termed the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily the person the child spends the most time with but the one that responds to the baby signals with the most skill.
Stage 4: Multiple attachments
Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one adult they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults with whom they regularly spend time with. These relationships are called secondary attachments. In Schaffer + Emerson’s study 29% of the children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary attachment. By the age of one year, majority of the infants had developed multiple attachments.
Evaluate Schaffer and Emmerson’s research into the stages of attachment
Schaffer & Emmerson’s study was carried out in the families own homes and most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was conducted by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later.
Advantage: High external validty because behaviour they are observing is natural, as it is taking place in their own home which is a naturalistic environment.
Limitation: As it is a self-report, the results might be prone to bias due the potential desire to attain social desirability, so results may be subjective. Therefore results may lack internal validity.
The study was carried out longitudinally which means that the babies were followed up and observed regularly.
Advantage: Researchers were able to apply stages of attachment on the same bbaies which meant that they could observe the changes over time so it was not just a snapshot. It reduces risk of confounding variables.
Limitation: the research was time-consuming and costly, cross-sectional method could have been a better alternative.
In Schaffer & Emmerson’s research the samples from a working-class population, all from Glasgow and taken from the 1960s. So, results may lack population validity as all families involved were from the same district, city and social class and results were from 50 years ago. Child rearing practices differ from one culture to another and one historical period to another. So, these results are difficult to generalise to other social and historical contexts.
Multiple attachments are more common in collectivist cultures than individualist cultures. Sagi et al compared attachments in infants raised in communal environments with infants raised in family based sleeping arrangements. Kibbutz children spend their time in a community children’s home cared for by a metapelet; this includes night-time. Closeness of attachment was almost twice as common in family based arrangements than in communal environment. This opposes Schaffer and Emmerson’s research as supports the fact that results may differ for different cultures so it lacks generalisability and external validity because it overlooks cultural differences.
