Schaffers stage of attachment

Question 1

what did Schaffer and Emmerson aim to do ?

Answer 1

Schaffer and Emmerson aimed to investigate the formation of early attachments in particular the age at which they developed, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed.

Question 2

what was the procedure in Schaffers stages?

Answer 2

• The study involved 60 babies.
• All of them were from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working class families.
• The babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and then again at 18 months.
• The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in 7 day separations, for example, the adult leaving the room. This is a measure of separation anxiety.
• This was designed to measure the infant’s attachment.
• The researchers also assessed stranger anxiety - the infant’s response to unfamiliar adults.

Question 3

what were the findings of Schaffers stages?

Answer 3

• between 25 and 32 weeks of age = 50% of babies showed signs of seperation anxiety
  Attachment was tended to be to the caregiver who was more interactive and sensitive to infant signals

Question 4

what are the stages of attachment?

Answer 4

asocial stage , indiscriminate attachment, specific attachment and multiple attachment

Question 5

what is the asocial stage in attachment?

Answer 5

The baby is recognising and forming bonds with its carers.However, the babies behaviour towards non-human objects and humans is quite similar

Question 6

describe the indiscriminate attachment stage?

Answer 6

From 2-7 months babies display more observable social behaviour. they show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects, and recognise familiar adults.
Their attachment is said to be indiscriminate because it is not different to any one person.

Question 7

describe specific attachment ?

Answer 7

From around 7 months, the majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become more anxious when separated from one particular adult.

Question 8

describe the multiple attachment stage?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

evaluation: strength
Schaffer and emmerson study has good external validity

Answer 9

they aimed to study the type of attachments babies form and at what age, and they did this by observing them in their own houses. The mother observed their child’s behaviour and then reported this back to the researchers.
This means we can assume that their behaviour was natural and the findings can be applied beyond the research settings and to other family homes

Question 10

evaluation: strength.
longitudinal study

Answer 10

This means that individual differences dont act as a confounding variable because the same children are studied over a long period of time (instead of measuring different children of different ages).
- Therefore, the research should be an accurate measure of children’s behaviour as they move through the attachment stages and has high internal validity.

Question 11

evaluation: weakness
problem studying the asocial stage

Answer 11

The problem here is that babies that are young have poor coordination and are generally immobile. It is therefore very difficult to make any judgments about them based on observations. There isn’t much observable behaviour.
= evidence cant be relied on

Question 12

evaluation: weakness
problem with how multiple attachment is assessed

Answer 12

• Just because a baby becomes distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean that the individual is a ‘true’ attachment figure.
  Bowlby pointed out that children may get distressed when playmates leave, but this does not signify attachment.
  Schaffer and Emerson= their observations don’t leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and playmates

Question 13

evaluation: weakness
Schaffer and emmersons study lacks internal validity

Answer 13

• In the study, they used 60 babies from working class families in Glasgow. This study was also done over 50 years ago. This is not representative of class or location.
  This means that the findings cannot be generalised to people of other classes, or those who love outside of Glasgow.